It's still Sunday - now to Ingapirca!
We were done with the train ride a lot faster than I think we'd expected, and we got back in the car and headed south again to the Incan and Cañari Indian ruins called Ingapirca. But first we stopped for lunch. Lunch was included in the price of this tour, and we turned down a dirt road and came upon some sort of hostel or resort or public park sort of area with an indoor swimming pool (the first pool I'd seen in Ecuador, actually) and a lot of families in the pool. The lunch area had a table reserved for us and we had yet another great meal starting with soup, then our choice of entree (pollo for both me and Maya), rice, etc. We looked out the back window at people's laundry lines and the vivid green fields of grass and corn, and then it started to rain. During lunch, Eddie opened up a bit after some questions and shared his political views with us.
Seems that Eddie isn't a big fan of the new president, Rafael Correa. I had read the news before leaving the states that Correa had fired a lot of congress-people because they were obstructing his plan to revise the Constitution. The fighting about whether he could really do that, or whether they were really fired, was going on while we were there, but I couldn't understand any of the news stories on the tv about it so I asked Eddie to explain. He basically said that Correa wants to become the dictator of Ecuador and is trying to rewrite the Constitution to give him ultimate power. Now, that's pretty contrary to what I'd heard from just about everybody else who seem to think Correa is more of a socialist or Robin Hood kind of guy (limit corporations and the rich, share the wealth with the poor). It was the most political discussion I had while in the country.
On to Ingapirca-
The Cañari people were the first indigenous folks to build in this location, settling here over 3000 years ago, according to Eddie. The Incas came and conquered them around the end of the 15th century, and only lasted here a short while until the Spanish came and Conquistador-ed them out of existence less than 100 years later. We got quite a history lesson about the Inca, particularly biased toward how proud Ecuadorians are to have had this Inca stronghold and how much better and important it was than Peruvian Inca cities, etc. An Ecuadorian patriot right down to his bones, that Eddie! He told us about astronomical and astrological uses for the temple, the convent for young virgins and wives for the Inca king/emperor, and more. Here are the photos (and luckily it had stopped raining!):
This one, we were told, is the original Cañari building. They built with many rocks forming a circle around one middle rock, with mud and other gunk filling in the gaps. The window type areas used to be lined with gold, but the Spanish conquerors stole it:
This one is from the Incans, who carved the rock into very straight edges and built them all upon one another with no space inbetween, no need for mud or gunk. Apparently a lot of the stones from this area were carted away to form the foundations of buildings, especially churches, in the surrounding area.
Where the guards would stand so no one but the king got the virgins:
The Incan road to Cuzco:
After Ingapirca, Eddie took us on a real back road of Ecuador. This one really was a dirt road through farm land and rolling hills and splendor. There were many small lakes, or more like ponds or reservoirs, that appeared man made. Everything was so rich in color, the fields, the sky, the birds, the children, the farm animals. After about 15 or 20 minutes of driving, and being a little freaked out that this guy was maybe, like, kidnapping us into some nether-region of the Andes, we ended up back on the good old Panamerican Highway and cruised back to Cuenca.
But wait! Our day of events was still not over. Next up - dinner with Maya's other host family!
Seems that Eddie isn't a big fan of the new president, Rafael Correa. I had read the news before leaving the states that Correa had fired a lot of congress-people because they were obstructing his plan to revise the Constitution. The fighting about whether he could really do that, or whether they were really fired, was going on while we were there, but I couldn't understand any of the news stories on the tv about it so I asked Eddie to explain. He basically said that Correa wants to become the dictator of Ecuador and is trying to rewrite the Constitution to give him ultimate power. Now, that's pretty contrary to what I'd heard from just about everybody else who seem to think Correa is more of a socialist or Robin Hood kind of guy (limit corporations and the rich, share the wealth with the poor). It was the most political discussion I had while in the country.
On to Ingapirca-
The Cañari people were the first indigenous folks to build in this location, settling here over 3000 years ago, according to Eddie. The Incas came and conquered them around the end of the 15th century, and only lasted here a short while until the Spanish came and Conquistador-ed them out of existence less than 100 years later. We got quite a history lesson about the Inca, particularly biased toward how proud Ecuadorians are to have had this Inca stronghold and how much better and important it was than Peruvian Inca cities, etc. An Ecuadorian patriot right down to his bones, that Eddie! He told us about astronomical and astrological uses for the temple, the convent for young virgins and wives for the Inca king/emperor, and more. Here are the photos (and luckily it had stopped raining!):
This one, we were told, is the original Cañari building. They built with many rocks forming a circle around one middle rock, with mud and other gunk filling in the gaps. The window type areas used to be lined with gold, but the Spanish conquerors stole it:
This one is from the Incans, who carved the rock into very straight edges and built them all upon one another with no space inbetween, no need for mud or gunk. Apparently a lot of the stones from this area were carted away to form the foundations of buildings, especially churches, in the surrounding area.
Where the guards would stand so no one but the king got the virgins:
The Incan road to Cuzco:
After Ingapirca, Eddie took us on a real back road of Ecuador. This one really was a dirt road through farm land and rolling hills and splendor. There were many small lakes, or more like ponds or reservoirs, that appeared man made. Everything was so rich in color, the fields, the sky, the birds, the children, the farm animals. After about 15 or 20 minutes of driving, and being a little freaked out that this guy was maybe, like, kidnapping us into some nether-region of the Andes, we ended up back on the good old Panamerican Highway and cruised back to Cuenca.
But wait! Our day of events was still not over. Next up - dinner with Maya's other host family!