Cuenca

We were up early and took a two hour bus and then switched onto a four hour bus. There was lots of room so I grabbed a seat to myself to sleep on but a man ended up joining me. As soon as I stirred a little bit he was chatting away, his name was Ali and he was very kind and we spent the rest of his portion of the ride chatting-him teaching me Spanish and telling him all about himself- he even gave me a bunch of jewellery that he sells, so sweet. Eventually we made it to Il Tambo, where we grabbed some 'cabs' to Ingapirca. The cabs were just trucks and a few of us piled in the back with the bags, it was a nice fresh air scenic little drive from back there :) Ingapirca is a ruin- it was started by the local Cañari tribe but then taken over by the Incas and expanded on. The whole area included burial sites, old storage buildings, some homes for the servants/farmers, original aquaducts still there, and the main sun/moon temple. We wandered around and it's still quite fascinating even though its only been a protected site for 50 years so a lot of it is ruined. Of course the Spaniards looted everything when they conquered and even up until fifty years ago locals could just come take the perfectly carved stones to build their homes with so there's not a ton left there. We also saw a mountain with a big face on it (think like a more natural Mt. Rushmore) that the Inca's cherished.
After another wind blown trip in the back of a truck down the mountain we were on our last bus, finally arriving in Cuenca. All we were feeling up to that night was finding dinner and then hitting the hay.

Next day (Oct 9th) a bunch of us and our guide went out to the Panama hat factory. Cuenca exports these hats all over the world and you're only getting the really deal it's its stamped with HO (Homero Ortega is the founder), then you know its made by the master weavers here. We took a tour of the factory which was interesting, it's quite a talent to make the hats high quality. The best part was the gift shop, we all tried on all the hats ranging from $25-$2000! A couple girls got hats but I opted for the easier to pack (and cheaper) head band with flowers on it that were weaved in the same fashion.
After we got dropped off in the old town portion of the city (the old town and new town are divided by a river) the old town is all colonial architecture and quite pretty. This city is quite large. Luis, our guide, estimated 500,000 ppl or so- it's the third largest in Ecuador. We first went in a "Museo de las Cultures Aborigenes" which was a collection of 5000 historical pieces that one family collected from all over Ecuador! We then walked along the river which was surrounded by big old buildings and then headed to a food market for our highly recommended roasted pig lunch. A bunch of booths just have giant whole pigs sitting there and for $2 we to a plateful of delicioussss pork, some mashed potato patties and a bit of salad. Yummy. Next we headed to see the two big churches which are basically side by side, ones the new church which is active and the old church next door is a museum that unfortunately we couldn't check out. They were both grand impressive buildings. We all stopped for some ice cream at a little bakery and then Lisa and I made our way back browsing through the vendors as we went. We then sat on the grass by the river and caught up on some journaling in the sun before heading back for dinner. We went out with everyone for traditional guinea pig which is a delicacy here. It was a bit scary since it comes with claws and teeth and everything still intact and you basically just have to pick it up and bite into it. It tasted pretty good though- quite salty and tender. Definitely interesting. Now just getting ready for yet another full day of busing tomorrow, and we're crossing the border to Peru which should be interesting considering we all threw out an apparently important document! Ah well, it's all an adventure :)
-Court <3