Sangria and Inca Walls.

A few days ago we ascended slowly, slowly up the mountains to arrive at the city of Cuenca, Ecuador´s third largest. It´s a really charming and interesting place, definitely up there in terms of altitude (as evidenced by our rocking headaches on the bus), and full of cobblestone streets, universities, live music, big churches, and restaurants. We were greeted really warmly by our hosts at El Cafecito, the hostal...they were in the middle of a staff party, so they barely showed us our room before ladling out cups of sangria for us from a bucket. Yes, a big, red, festive bucket. The whole place is really lively, with all the rooms centered around a popular restaurant/bar, which makes for good eating and hanging out. We spent nearly all day yesterday seeing the sights and markets and walking all over the city, some intentional walking, some not so much...

Today we took a bus ride (with many others, including an amazing Frenchman with sweatpants tucked into his short, pointy, maroon boots) to the ruins of Ingapirca, even higher in the mountains. A great guide told us about how it first belonged to the Cañari, a matriarchal society who lived there 1100 years ago and worshipped the moon as their main goddess. Then the Inca took it over and made it all about the sun, their main deity (those Inca...soooo predictable!). There is evidence of both cultures there, including a tomb with a dead princess and her 10 drugged, buried-alive gal pals, circular foundations, rectangular foundations, aqueducts and water systems, and stones and temples that are placed so specifically that during the solstice and equinox, the sun shines directly into tiny little niches.

Here it is:

Tomorrow, on to Baños! And no, that doesn´t mean bathrooms...