Oct 23, 2005 - Ingapirca day trip

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Church altar, notice rock wall		Shows carved mountainside and church wall		Virgen del Rocio "cemetary"

For this week's free trip, I once again travelled on Sunday and went visited Ecuador's largest and most famous Inca ruins at Ingapirca.

As it turned out, Javier was my guide again, which was very nice. I signed up for the trip alone, but there was a different American Cedei student with me this time, a much older Cedei student from Montreal, and a US Peace Corp volunteer who is living in Ecuador a few hours south of Quito, but who was in Cuenca with his parents on vacation.

Ingapirca is about 1 1/2 hours northeast of Cuenca, but we made 2 stops along the way. The first was to a town called Biblian. Of interest in this town is its Virgen del Rocio Iglesia (Church), which translates to Virgin of the Dew, but Rocio is also a common woman's name. The church was constructed using "natural architechture", which means that it incorporates the natural surrounding into its structure. This little tidbit becomes much more of an amazing feat when you realize that the church sits carved into a nearly vertical mountainside. In one of my pictures you can see the handiwork, which shows how much of the mountainside they had to carve away. The story goes that Biblian was a very poor town back whenever this church was built (can't remember). So the local catholic church decided to give the people a project to simply take their minds off of their problems. Unexpectedly, the entire church was constructed in just 40 years. Again, this is more impressive considering the Basilica church which I have photos of in Quito was started in the 1800's, and is still under construction. We drove from the town up to the church, and enjoyed the amazing view of Biblian you get from the Chruches terraces. The inside of the church is beautiful, despite the comical neon lights above the altar. The entire back wall with the altar is actually just the exposed rock from the mountainside. We then went below the main church hall to the cemetaries. The best way to imagine these cemetaries is to just picture a morgue, but the doors of all the compartments are brightly decorated to serve as a tombstone. When a person dies their remains are left to decompose in a holding area for as many weeks as it takes. They are then more or less stuffed into a sac or container of some sort, and put in the little alcoves of each tomb. Just to be "buried" here is quite expensive, and the amoung of years your remains remain there depends on how much and how often your family makes payments. A lot of the locals want to be buried here, and there is not a lot of space, so the turnover is actually quite appreciated. As Javier said, if you think your bills end when you die...

From Beilan we drove to the town of Cañar. While Cuenca is in the province of Azuay (and its the capital), Cañar is in the province of Cañar (the capital of which is Azogues). The province ad the town are both named after the Cañari people, who were the regions inhabitants before the Incas arrived. Sunday in Cañar means a large market of fruits, vegetables, meats, and all the crafts you can imagine. We had about 30 minutes to walk around the market, and then moved on.

Ok, so there was one more stop along the way. Javier wanted to show us the main way that pork is prepared here, so we pulled over at a small eating stop. First, they take a blowtorch and completely char the skin of the pig until is hard and dark black. As the blowtorcher is progressing down the pig's side, another person follows behind and scrapes black ash off so that the pig is somewhat back to a normal color. This allows them to cut even pieces of meat off of the pig much easier, and actually makes the skin a more edible and tasty snack, so they don't have to waste anything. One more thing, they do not drain any of the blood from the pig before cooking it, since this is where most of the flavor comes from. They also take out the intestines, manually empty them into a bucket, wash them out, and use the skin to make sausage. And we also got to see this happen. No I didn't take a picture, no I didn't eat any of it, and no I am not going to describe any more of this.

Along the way, especially at the highest points of the road, we had lots of rain. Despite this, the countryside was gorgeous, with rolling green fields framed by jagged peaks fighting to be seen through the clouds. Luckily, by the time we got to Ingapirca the weather had lifted, and despite being cloudy it did not rain in the 3 hours we spent there.

So, Ingapirca. Not gonna try to explain the Incas right now. There main capital was obviously Machu Picchu in Cuzco, but as they developed Cuenca (then called Tomebamba), it became there second most important city and sort of the northern capital. As the Incas conquered the Cañaris, they actually incorporated the two cultures and religions into one. Ingapirca was simple an Incan town, which had a palace for the Inca King to stay in while travelling. The same location also had a Temple of the Moon (Cañari influence, they worshipped the moon), and a Temple of the Sun (Inca influence, they worshipped the sun). The remains of this place is what makes up the ruins of Ingapirca. The lines of stone that you see on the ground are what is left of the large walls that used to be there, and in some places you can still see the framing of certain rooms of the palace. The most intact ruins and glory shot of Ingapirca is what is left of the Temple of the Sun. The walls of this temple are somewhat of an anomoly, since they are made of perfectly straight stones, without using any sort of mud, mortar, or paste in between. It is still debated how exactly this was achieved back then. What happened to this place? The Incas and the Cañaris were a very proud and stubborn people, and so legend says that as the Spanish were attacking, conquering, and rapidly approaching, the authorities gave orders to destory all the temples, flee the area, and committ suicide if you were so inclined. I'm not saying this is fact, just what I've heard.

One cool fact about the Incas though. They had these developed trails linking all their villages and cities, which had runners stationed every mile or so to pass messages along the way. This was said to be so effective that a message could be passed from Cuenca to Quito (about 300 miles, 10 hours by road, though they cut through the mountains) in a single day. Similarly, one of the heads of Tomebamba (Cuenca) was said to really have a tate for a fish. Using these trails, he was able to get fresh fish from the ocean delivered to him daily, allegedly.

The other site at Ingapirca is a slight walk away, and is said to be the face of an Inca made out of the rock on a cliffside. Apparently this was used as further proof of the holiness of the Ingapirca site, and mother nature's preference for the Incas. It looks to me like it must have had some help from carvers.

And that was my day! We left Ingapirca at 3:00, drove about 30 minutes, and finally had some lunch. My first meal of the day except for my 2 rolls in the morning and a chocolate bar I bought along the way. Also, my friend Jack Harari was apparently at Ingapirca on the exact same day, but as we had no means of communicating or coordinating, we did not meet up. All in all it was a interesting day, and a good way to spend a Sunday for free. About as thrilling as archaeological ruins can ever be for me. I definitely prefer the natural beauty of Cajas if I had to compare the two. Of course, Machu Picchu is supposed to contain the best of both worlds, so look out for that entry.

(I decided to just put all my photos from the day in this one entry. Sorry if they get redundant. I am still getting used to a digital camera and the fact that I can take as many shots as I want without wasting anything)

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