Ingapirca Day Trip (Oct. 24)

Hey Everyone!

Sorry that I haven’t posted anything new in awhile.  My internet access has been very limited and the rental lap top that I brought to Ecuador is currently not working.  Yes, I know…I need to stay away from lap tops because often something goes wrong when I am using them.  I am thankful though because the other girls have been very generous with allowing me to use their computers when they are not using them.  Right now my lap top is being looked at by a tech guy that works at CEDEI International School, where we take classes.  I guess we will see what happens!  I’ll be sure to keep you all updated!

Anyways, I know that this trip was a few weekends ago but I still thought I would tell you all about it.  On this specific weekend we didn’t have anything scheduled for us on Saturday so we ended up going to the market to go shopping…surprise, surprise!  Each time that I go I seem to find something new!  After shopping we all headed back to our houses for a pretty relaxing night.  On Sunday there was a day trip planned for us to Ingapirca, which is where many of the Incan Ruins are located.

On our way to Ingapirca we stopped at a beautiful church that was located on the very top of a huge hill.  There are a few other churches that we have seen on tours and I have found that the majority of the churches are of the Catholic religion and seem to have a lot of history within them.  In order to get inside of this church we had to walk up a bunch of stairs.  I didn’t count how many stairs there were on the way up because I was out of breath.  On the way down though I counted and there were about 135 stairs.  This doesn’t sound like a lot until you’re walking up and down them in a high altitude.  From the top of the hill, where the church was located, there was an amazing view…ahhh so pretty!

~The church at a distance~

~Inside of the church~

~The dreaded stairs!~

Our next stop was Ingapirca…or so I thought.  At this point I was feeling pretty car sick because of all of the driving throughout the mountains that we had been doing.  We ended up stopping at a small food market on the side of the road.  Throughout Ecuador there are numerous street vendors that sell cultural food.  We have experienced food vendors similar to this one, but stopping at this specific vendor was part of our day trip.  As we pulled up I saw a man blow torching an entire pig.  I chose to stay in the car because of the way my tummy was feeling, but my friend Jenny was sweet enough to take some pictures for me.  One of our professors, Bill, bought some of the food and then shared with everyone else…he’s such a nice guy!  I didn’t end up eating any of the food, but I had tried some of it at previous markets so I was fine with not eating any of it.

~Poor piggy...uck~

~The rest of the food that was at the food vendor~

We finally arrived at Ingapirca and had a picnic lunch before going on our tour.  The tour we went on was about an hour long and our guide did a great job of explaining all of the history behind the Incan Ruins.  I took a lot of pictures, but I feel like I need to start carrying a notebook with me so that I can remember what everything is when we go on any type of tour.  Although this would be nice…it would be tough to actually do. 

~Quick picture before we started the tour~

~Incan Ruins~

Oh my goodness!  I almost forgot to mention the llamas and I know how much you all want to hear about them!  We had seen llamas at El Cajas National Park, but they were at a distance.  While we were on our tour they were just hanging out among the ruins.  There was even a cute little baby one with its mom.  Well, here is a story for you.  These so called “friendly creatures” decided to act out in such a ridiculous way.  As we were walking…all of a sudden all of the llamas grouped together and started making these crazy noises.  I thought that I was going to get spit on for sure so I was ducking and hiding behind other people…haha I was scared.  After allowing the llamas some time to chill out we figured out that they were probably being protective over the baby llama because there had been two dogs running around the ruins.  Haha, sorry I had to share that story….don’t worry I took a video on my camera!

~All of the llamas grouped together...craziness~

~Mama llama with her baby!~

After the tour of the Incan Ruins was finished the tour guide gave us the option of heading on an hour hike to see the Incan face that is carved into the side of the mountain.  Whenever we have an extra opportunity we usually say yes because none of us know when we will ever be back to Ecuador…so might as well see everything that we can see!  In the end, the hike was well worth it.  The Incan face was really neat to see!  Here are some pictures of it!
 

~ Incredible Incan face in the side of a mountain~

Even though this wasn’t a trip that I would have chosen to do on my own, I still found it to be very interesting and I learned a lot!  I hope that everything back in the states is going well!  I miss you all very much!

Love,

Aim