During the past couple of weeks I've mostly been busy with my classes and preparing these, without doing so much traveling, which made me feel kind of discomfortable. Being in Ecuador without seeing anything frequently just isn't good for anu traveler and I felt like being off-track. So this week I decided to pick up my traveling spirit from my backpack where I left it and head for Ingapirca. These ancient Inca ruins are located just a 2-hour bustrip from Cuenca in the province of Cañar

My daytrip starts at 8:45 am at the Cuenca tourist office where I need a helping hand, because I'm not sure where my bus will leave from. There are actually several bus terminals in this city. The lady in the office is really helpful and gives me a straight answer: 'Your bus is leaving in 15 minutes from the Terminal Terrestre. Next one will leave at 1 p.m.' This is what makes me jump into a taxi and rush straight towards the land terminal. I arrive at the terminal at 8:55, from where my bus to Ingapirca will leave. Now the challenge is to find the right bus, as this terminal is of considerable size and consists of several gates. After asking several people I make it to gate 2. 8:56. However, to open the doors to the platform you need to put a dime (dubbeltje) into a machine. 8:57. Of course I don't have a dime in my pocket and rush towards a different door where a nice old man is sitting and can get me some change. At 8:59 I enter my bus, which leaves at 9:00 straight (this is certainly not according to Ecuadorean standards!).

The bus is full of local people, probably not heading for the ruins but using the bus as their daily means of transportation. I'm able to identify a few foreigners, one of them is from Germany and two of them seem to be from northern Europe. The bus ride, although fully packed, is a pleasant one and shows me the diverse landscape of Azuay and Cañar provinces. The land is very green, covered with grass and the cattle mainly consists of -as I tend to call them- Dutch 'melkunie' cows. The landscape doesn't really change when the bus is getting to higher elevations but the fog is definitely becoming more dense. After a two-hour bus ride I get off the bus at Ingapirca which is the final destination of the bus. We're on the top of a hill. Due to the fog, the scenery looks a bit mysterious. Having arrived here, I purchase an entrance ticket. With my Ecuadorian ID I pay only $3 instead of the $6 that they charge foreigners. Yes, I feel like a local now!

I enter the archaeological site, which at my first sight looks like a kind of a deception. They often call Ingapirca Ecuador's Macchu Picchu (the most famous Inca ruins down in Peru), which definitely sounds promising, doesn't it? But although I haven't been to Macchu Picchu yet, I can promise you: Ingapirca doesn't come even close to it. Nevertheless the scenery is very wonderful, being high in the mountains with a dense fog 360 degrees around. I decide to walk through the ruins. Most of the walls are truncated only two feet above the ground so what you basically see is the pattern of what used to be an old Inca-city. At the far end of the ruins is a much taller building on a small hill, which was used for warships. It's called the solar castle. Between the loads of local students that are more enjoying to play with their cellphones than the actual trip itself, I can identify only a couple of other tourists.

I know there must be more when I see some groups of students walking a trail downhill and I decide to explore this route. It's quite a steep pathway leading through trees, past Inca rocks and a small river. The view here is magnificent. Halfway this route a huge stone formation appears to me, clearly resembling a human face. I decide this was worth the $3 entrance fee and consider Ingapirca as a nice daytrip. Before my bus is leaving I walk into a restaurant to have a quick almuerzo. Back in the bus, rain is starting to pour down and Cuenca's streets seem almost flooding when I return into town. Having enjoyed some parts of the Ecuadorean Incatrail and the magnificent view I happily follow the track towards my house.