do you know what i love? living things: people, animals, cities, nature. do you know what i don't love? dead things. things that have been dead for centuries. welcome to ingapirca, the most important pre-colombian historical site in ecuador, and a place that is simply beyond boredom.
after 90 minutes' sleep secondary to a pretty wild night out, i hauled myself to the bus station last sunday morning for a trip to the ruins of this pre-incan town, about 2 hours from cuenca. alarm bells should have gone off when i found that i was the only gringo under the age of 60 on the bus, but in my torpor i was just barely able to crash-land in one of the seats and hibernate until we arrived.
-i don't have much to say about ingapirca. i stayed for an hour, and that was about 55 minutes too long. dont go there. trust me: don't go there. i will admit that perhaps for people who are really into this sort of thing, a visit to ingapirca may well be a revelation. to me, looking at the remaining rocks (the few which hadn't been carted off by the spanish centuries ago to build their cities - damn spanish stuffed up everything in this part of the world), i found myself feeling terribly unexcited. it failed my litmus test: can you get the same experience from looking at pictures of the destination in question on the internet. if yes, don't go. otherwise you may be putting yourself at risk of catatonic boredom.
the highlight of the day was a little town called cañar, at which is stopped off on the way home. there is an indigenous market there every sunday, and i was keen to take some photos of the market-goers. there were an inordinate number of very indigenous looking people with crystal blue eyes there. none of them allowed me to take a photo of them - they probably didn't appreciate me gawking at them in the first place - but i couldn't help myself: i was transfixed.
i love looking at people and love taking their photos even more. but it takes a lot of energy to take a secret photo and even more to be constantly rejected, so in my fatigued state, after about 25 rejections, i clambered back on a bus, tail between my legs, and headed home.
after a bit of sleep, i'd recommend the cañar market to anyone. ingapirca, however: two thumbs down.
4 comments:
Yes, Ondrej, humans are fascinating animals. The number of times I've just wished I could be invisible and photograph them my attention altering their behaviour...I've done it but not as often and as successfully as you.
My best night in those Sth American ruins was camping illegally...a little creepy knowing how many generations had been there before you...but wonderful.
Stephen
did you walk the inca trail s?
Walked it in 1988 when you could rent hiking gear in Cuzco and do it on your own. I was with 3 other guys. We camped at Intipincu illegally overlooking Machu Picchu. Four of us petrified that lights coming up the hill were either brigands or park officials...only to realise after about 10 minutes of strategy planning that the lights were fireflies!
Stephen
sounds awesome!!!
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