The Southern Provinces of Ecuador

We spent the next two days in a truck, driving around southern Ecuador. I just found a map: I think this day we traversed the provinces of Azuay, Loja, and El Oro. In a big green truck. 

 This 1978 Ford pickup was big. It was very high off the ground, which was a bit of a challenge for some. It also had a massive gearshift which took up a lot of space in the front seat. So, imagine if you will, my colleague and I sharing the passenger side of the truck. Oh, and no seatbelts either, and you all can imagine how happy that made me. Good times, as they say.

 We started off in Turi, a suburb of Cuenca, and a place we had been five years before. Our purpose now was to meet a priest who was compiling a Quechua dictionary.

 Looking down on Cuenca. The city has grown quite a bit in recent memory. Can you imagine? 300,000 American have moved here in the last decade. I was stunned at how many I saw on the streets and how much English I heard. Needless to say, when they tried to speak with me, I basically ignored them. Not nice, I know, but I really wasn't excited to meet or hang with Americans.

 A plant similar to agave called puya raimundi. Cool, huh?

I had thought that our plans for the days in Cuenca were to visit Ingapirca (which I was excited about because I'd missed it five years before), speak with some Cañari about their recollections of the Inka take-over and its current effects, and do some research work in Cuenca itself, formerly known as Tomebamba and a second capital of the Inka Empire. Our local guide was a wonderful man, but had his own plans of what we should see. We thus headed out on the road to Vilcabamba.

We went through Turi and Tarqui, then on to Cumbe. We saw many wakas, or marker rocks, along the roadside, some of which marked space, some sacred areas, some astronomical items. We saw lots of segments of the Inka Road, some paved over (we drove over some of them) and some not.

We had a lovely seafood lunch in Yunguilla, and saw a stunning bird called a chilalo. It's chest was bright orange. It lives in regions similar to the rainforest. 

Eventually, along the road to Machala, we reached the Río Jubones and the huascachaka we sought. Although it wasn't on our plans for the day, we agreed that it was a great thing to have seen.

 Yes, that's part of the road heading up from the river bank.

 The current bridge. I'm not very confident about it.

 Only the stone abutments remain from this bridge. Here's one.....

 and here's the other.

And now you have to imagine the bridge. A huascachaka was made of rope/grass. It was a single large cable. You traveled underneath it, suspended by another rope, and sometimes in a basket. Like the q'eswachaka, not for me.

And that did it for our day. Although very interesting, especially the bridge, it left a long list for the next day, as we only had these two full days in Cuenca.