Cuenca Updates: Friday-Saturday April 13-14, 2012

Friday Apr 13/12 update

So, who is superstitious? Certainly not us!

Today meant a quick trip to Coopera to change our monthly Certificate Of Deposit. Then we headed over to Bettye & Chris’ apartment in the Palermo on Ordonez Lasso to play cards for the afternoon. Chris is another trivia buff so we quite enjoyed their company.

Then we all went out for a delightful supper at the California Kitchen. The meal was an absolute treat, accompanied by dos cervezas, and a wonderful trio singing mostly show tunes.

That was today’s excitement. Hugs to all.

Saturday April 14/12 update

My language buddy, Juan Matute, picked me up at 8am and we headed off to the Ingapirca Inca ruins. Bella begged off going because of the cost for both of us to go. I do think she would have enjoyed it though.

I asked Juan if I could drive, because he is a new, and nervous, driver and he did not even hesitate to accept my offer. However we had to run to the Banco Pichincha for him to get cash, because he had lost his bank card, so that delayed our departure by 1.5 hours.

The road we take is the PanAmerican highway to Quito which is mostly concrete and not bad at all, but in places it is narrow and criss-crossing up mountainsides so if you get behind a loaded gasoline truck, as we always seem to do, it is a long while until you can get by him.

Juan’s car concerned me right away because the torque-steer was most dramatic and unusual so I urged him to get it checked out before he ever goes on the highway with it again. I actually got out to shake the wheels and fully expected the wheel to come off in my hands but they shocked me when they felt rock solid. I have driven hundreds of cars over 50 years and have never felt anything like it, heavily steering left on acceleration and overcorrecting to the right when decelerating. I was glad we made it home in one piece and I was doubly glad that I was driving.

Very early in our drive Juan pointed out the statue of the Virgin Mary on a mountaintop overlooking a town.

We saw many folks plowing fields with oxen and a rudimentary single wooden plow. I got photos of two sets of them and wondered what my Dad would say if he saw that. Dad may have done something similar 85-90 years ago,

The last 15 kms was pothole heaven and very slow driving but we got there thanks to Juan asking for directions in Spanish and navigating for me while I skillfully avoided having his little Chevy swallowed in some monster holes. I was actually shocked that we arrived there so quickly and was so thrilled to see the beauty of the layout. It was a $6 entry fee for foreigners and $2 for locals. Here are some videos of the place.

http://youtu.be/9QBG-2-B0I8

http://youtu.be/_LwqnhW32kg

http://youtu.be/fK0thMU7bb8

http://youtu.be/WbOtFYHZQQQ

The site is the high spot of a large valley surrounded by the Andes mountains and is the only elliptical shaped temple made by the Incas.

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Here is what Wikipedia has to say:

Ingapirca (Kichwa: Inkapirka, "Inca wall") is a town in Cañar Province, Ecuador and the name of an Incan archeological site just outside the town. The town was named after the Inca palace and temple site.

These are the largest known Inca ruins in Ecuador. The most significant building is the temple of the sun, an elliptically shaped building constructed around a large rock. The building is constructed in the Incan way without mortar in most of the complex. The stones were carefully chiseled and fashioned to fit together perfectly. The temple of the sun was positioned so that on the solstices, at exactly the right time of day, sunlight would fall through the center of the doorway of the small chamber at the top of the temple. Most of this chamber has fallen down.

The Incas were not the first inhabitants of Ingapirca. It had long been settled by the Cañari indigenous people, who called it Hatun Cañar.

The castle-complex presents a Inca-Cañari origin. The objective of its construction is uncertain. The complex played an important role on military strategies as a fortress and provisions to troops on north Ecuador. A common criteria of archeologists states that the main objective for its construction was linked to cult of sun.

It is said that the Inca Túpac Yupanqui during the expansion's campaigns of the Inca-Empire trough south Ecuador, met the Cañari "Hatun Cañar" tribe, battled them and then strategically married the Cañari princess Paccha, giving on birth to the future Inca Huayna Capac in the city of Pumapungo (nowadays Cuenca).

In this way, the Inca dominated the Cañari and they decided to settle their differences and live together peacefully. The Canari people built this complex for the Inca Huayna Capac. They renamed the city and kept most of their individual customs separate. Although the Inca were more numerous, they did not demand that the Cañari give up their autonomy.

At Incapirca they developed a complex underground aqueduct system to provide water to the entire compound.

As a cult edification, people had numerous ritual celebrations on the complex. Gallons of a local fermented drink were used in these festivals. As sun and moon worshippers, they tried to be as close to their gods as possible. The weather changes there are usually within minutes of each other, calm and sunny one minute and within fifteen minutes rainy, windy and cold. This climate volatility is typical year round. The people felt strongly that this was the place where the gods had led them, regardless of the climate.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ingapirca

To visit Ingapirca, travelers can take a day tour up from the city of Cuenca or spend the night in the towns of El Tambo or Cañar.

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The front side has the ½ sun-shaped courtyard, the bases of the former buildings, and remnants of the moon temple of the Canaris and the sun temple of the Incas. They have a huge rock sundial and a rock with 28 beveled holes representing the days of each month, and they have another with 13 holes representing the 13 months in their calendar. The extra day was their big party day where they had drunken parties and sacrifices to the Gods.

The back side drops off like a cliff into a fertile valley. Across this valley is a path that leads to the “Inca face” on the side of a mountain. The features are incredible and plants growing even look like eyebrows and eyelashes. It is totally uncanny.

We were also dearly entertained by the antics of the llama herd that has the run of the place. One female seemed to be the object of attention for all the eligible males and one dominant male was working hard to keep them at bay.

http://youtu.be/32eZBP_hJos I thought this was neat the way they lined themselves up here.

http://youtu.be/slt63XST1Aw Battle #1

http://youtu.be/1NPYjDcTubY Battle #2

http://youtu.be/K5uUNY137tU Battle #3

http://youtu.be/vGgA3jV-rsc Battle #4

http://youtu.be/2IpnDL1Xf8o Battle #5

http://youtu.be/EiyYDpfQqi8 Battle #6

I took over 120 photos and 15 videos and they take a lot of time to process so I apologize for the lateness of this offering.

Enjoy the videos and pics. That was today’s excitement. Hugs to all.