post-cuenca, pre-baños

So we are officially chilling out in Baños (thermal hot springs town between parque sangay and the oriente and in the mountains), although we´ve been super active so far here- but first let me back up and explain how i got here. After our day exploring Cuenca, we spent two days visiting the alrededores (surroundings). The first day we took a bus out to a little valley town called San Juan, which has a large indigenous farming population, and rarely sees tourists (all of the children stopped what they were doing and stared at us when we walked by).

We were excited to do one of the day hikes that my guide had described, and when we got there, we realized that the “minister of tourism” of the town (an extremely friendly older woman who owns a small kiosk-cart in the town´s tiny center) was actually three rows in front of us on the bus over. She helped us as best she could with directions of how to climb up the surrounding “hills” (and here we thought they were mountains!) and where to descend. The first part of our trip was extremely scenic, and at each little farm we passed, the people came out to greet us and ask us what we were doing there and where we were from (many people here think we are from south america now, so i guess our spanish has gotten pretty good, yay!)

As we started climbing, however, we realized that we were extremely weak and not used to the altitude, so we took it easy, and ate the lunch we packed at the top of the first “hill.” After gaining energy and taking in the amazing vistas of the sierra and pueblitos all around us, we wound our way up to the top of the actual mountain next to us (they call it a pregnant mother, because of the way it is shaped), where beautiful spiky yellow-orange plants sprouted out along the cliff. Thoroughly hot and sweaty, we somehow found our way past the curious villagers´(they were very confused about what we were doing there) fincas and back to the small road that led us back to the town. We talked a bit to the woman who´d helped us and her family and then hopped a bus back to cuenca, where we happily relaxed, ate dinner, and packed up our stuff for the next day’s trip to Ingapirca, the Incan ruins on the way to Riobamba.

And wow, was Ingapirca a trip. What should have been a relatively straightforward daytrip turned into one adventure after another, (first we realized how much junk was weighing down our bags and making us look ridiculous as we trekked across the town of Tambo to leave our bags before heading to the site, then we heard that a roadblock (completely random, without any cause or warning) on the way to las ruinas meant that we would have to bus through another town before hopping a bus there. In any case, after chatting up a few young people in the town, we were told to hop in the back of a camioneta that was heading toward the roadblock, from which we were told we could do a short 2km walk to the ancient site.

The ride to the roadblock was a bit of a clown car- at first it was just us and a few locals, indigenous women with their sacks of goods to sell and an older man who was explaining to us where to go once we arrived. Well, as soon as we got to the next stop, about 15 more people got into the small truck (imagine one of those old covered wagons mixed with a truck), old women sitting on the floor, crammed between our legs with children, and young boys (about 7 across) hanging off the back. The whole group was speaking Quichua (native language of many peoples in Ecuador) and stealing glances at the ridiculous gringos (us). We had a lot of fun talking to them and sharing stories (they cracked up when vicente told them about his nickname on san cristobal- microphone head). When we finally arrived, we dutifully paid our 25 cents and began the walk over the roadblock (a few logs on the road) to where the ruins were supposed to be.

And we walked. And we walked. no ruinas. after about an hour in the crisp andean air (no, i did not bring my fleece, of course), on the winding uphill slopes, we finally arrived at Ingapirca. And it was closed. two hours before my guidebook said it would be closing. so there would be no more busses coming or going. so, we had no guide to explain to us the significance of the winding ancient walls and the remaining structure that supposedly is perfectly aligned with something during the solstice but we wouldn´t know because the museum was closed too so the only thing to do was walk around and take pictures like the tourists we were and watch the three llamas dancing around the “templo del sol” in the foggy, misting distance. And then we climbed up the structure, glanced over the impressively high precipice, took some more pictures, and watched in awe as a German girl we had met in san cristobal a few weeks before came bounding up the steps toward us...

Al fin, we were able to get a ride back with her and her extremely amigable amigo, (instead of paying for an 8 dollar taxi ride back to el Cañar and then a bus to el Tambo), and they were amazingly able to help us get the bus from Tambo to Riobamba to wait in front of our hostel while we raced up and grabbed our things and threw them under the bus and hopped back on. And the friend of our friend chatted us up most of the way there, so we were too interested to think about the crazy freezing ride back from Ingapirca (through the mountains, in the back of a pickup), or the lack of guide or explanation of the Incan ruins we´d gone so far out of the way to see. All in all, it was amazing that they helped us out and got us to our destination (we were going to waste a day sleeping in a very dumpy hostel alongside the highway in order to take the bus the next day). we celebrated with a pizza and the next day explored the parks of Riobamba before leaving for Baños, where we happily are relaxing in our hostel (with a free half hour of internet!) at the moment.