ingapirca-a blog for marni

people, i take requests. you want a personalized blog, you got it. but the deal is you have to read my blog. get it? read. my. blog. also, if you do read it, and you post a comment, it will make me feel good and happy and loved and i will be apt to do nice things, like buy you textiles that i will later throw away because i cant fit them into my bag and dont yet know enough spanish to have them shipped to you (plus, it is highly likely that in this electronic era, i dont know your address. sad.) so i guess it doesnt really behoove you to post a comment, but, hey! - post a comment. so this blog is for marni, my wine drunk, bi coastal friend.

yesterday we went to ingapirca. this is ecuadors only incan ruin, and it has, i suppose, been likened to machu piccu. getting there in and of itself was an adventure. we went with this nice couple from our spanish school. we met up early and got to the bus station, where we couldnt find any bus going to ingapirca. some guy came up to us and asked us where we were going, then told us we had to go to this town called canar instead, then herded us onto the bus. once on the bus, it somehow became apparant that we were probably not going where we wanted to. we rather passively shrugged our shoulders and settled back into our comfy seats to enjoy the scenery (yes, busses in ecuador are comfortable, quite a suprise. no chicken busses here. not yet anyway). about an hour and a half later the bus driven yelled "los pasanjeros quien van a ingapirca!" which was us. the bus barely stopped and we jumped out onto the side of the road. a desolate road. with cornfields and nothing else but a discouraging sign that said "ingapirca - 16 km". it was freezing and the roads were windy and wind-y, at a high altitude. it was tough to breathe. there was no way in hell we were walking. oddly enough, after 15 minutes a cab came out of nowhere (remember, we werent even in a town, or near a highway, or anything. i really dont know why he was there). he told us that there was really no way to get there without waiting for hours for some mythical bus. it was a hard sell, but it worked. we hopped in a paid a searing 10 dollars for the ride. turns out he was a very nice man who has an aunt in astoria. small world. and when we got to the site he tried to tell the people we were ecuadorians, not foregners, so we could get in for one third of the price. didnt work. maybe my seattle baseball cap gave it away???

anyway, we were at a rather high altitude, and the rain was falling and the wind was blowing and i know, dear friends, that you arent going to beleive this but it was fucking freezing. anthony put on his poncho and was making faces and looked like a sad (unjolly) green giant. still there were alpacas and the beautiful scenery and good stone work and it was worth it. i petted an alpaca and we took a tour of the ruins. then we went on a mini hike to find a stone in the shape of a face and saw a few cow-horses. so it was worth it.

then last night it was salsa night yet again. there was this incredible band in a bar and the men and women were throwing each other around. we were wearing hiking shoes and did not dance, but it was entertaining enough just to watch. then we went home and went to sleep and were awakened at 3 am by a parade going past our window. i leaned way out and looked up the street and saw that it was just a 9 man marching band. why they were parading at 3 am is beyond me. this, folks, is legal here in cuenca. this, in conjunction with the fact that thursday seems to be cotton candy day and people here eat ice cream for breakfast, illustrates just how quirky cuenca is. it is adorable, silly, and grey. i love it here.