0142 Ingapirca to Podocarpus NP

 9^th Nov

Woke up at 6 am to a clear and cold, but beautiful morning, overlooking the ruins, and llamas feeding in the field opposite.  How much more Ecuadorian can you get ?

I was outside fiddling when a chap came down the hill and said good morning – Got chatting and it turned out his name was Richard, and he was an American from Washington DC who worked for the Organisation of American States (I think), and used to live in Ecuador.  He was in Quito on a conference and decided to hire a car for a week or two and drive round some of his favourite places.  While we were chatting a local blind man came through with his pole he used for touch, and we were worried he might bump into my car so Richard took his arm and guided him around – And it turned out Richard was fluent in Spanish and was chatting away to him to find out where the guy was from and where he was going.  After we had put him on the right path, he got totally confused and it took Richard several minutes before he could explain which direction was the right one !  Anyway, a fascinating talk with Richard for half an hour, with a lot of local insights.

During the night Janet realised she had lost her phone.  In the morning we searched the car, and when we couldn’t find it, we tried to work out where she had lost it.   We pinned it down to the pig shop in Zhud where we knew she had used it to translate some words into Spanish, and when I zoomed in on one photo, I could just see the green of her camera case on the counter !!  So once we had had our breakfast and packed up, we drove down through the village of Canar and then headed the 30 kms back to Zhud, hoping the lady would be there and the shop open at 10 am on a Sunday morning.  Sure enough she was open, and when Janet walked over she smiled and held up the phone !  So there was much smiling and happiness all round, and we gave the girls some of our remaining koalas to thank them, which they loved.  Then it was off back down the road for a 3^rd time, heading south towards Cuenca.

We got up to 3559 m before dropping into a town called Biblian, and perched up on the hill over the town we could see this amazing building – Like something out of Europe – But surprisingly nothing in any of the guide books about it.  We went on through the busy town (Sunday morning so all the country folk from the surrounding hills were in town) and then on the other side of town saw another incredible building – Again like a church but with considerable building around it and also like armed walls down below it.  Once again, nothing in the books, so we are still at a loss, but they were most impressive anyway.

Heading down towards Cuenca we again climbed back up to nearly 3500 metres, and the scenery along the way was, as usual, unbelievable.  In Cuenca we stopped and called Mesias from yesterday as promised, but apparently he was out so unfortunately we missed him as we had to keep going – It is a LONG way down to Lima and then on to Machu Pichu, so we just can’t spend too long in any one place, r stop to see everything that interests us.  We have to be in Santiago by the 19^th December so Janet can catch her flight back to Aus, so we have to keep moving……

By 3 pm we were in need of a break, so we took the turn of to a little town called Saraguro and went looking for a suitable coffee shop.  It was market day there, and the town was full of people from the surrounding area in their national dress – The men wear black hats, black shirts, and black ¾ length trousers, and the women wear black pleated skirts  but just hear they wear white broad brimmed hats, different to anywhere else.  The  Saraguro people are similar to the Canares people from Ingapirca in that they go back for centuries, and also had battles and eventual treaties with the Inca people.  Fascinating part of the world.

After a very nice coffee in a little shop, and a wander through town, watching all the locals getting into their buses and pickups with their day’s purchases to head home to the hills, we had a quick chat with a guy Michael from Hong Kong who we met on a street corner.  He is bussing it by himself from Lima north, and had already had a couple of unfortunate experiences, but luckily was still enjoying himself.  We were heading towards Loja, near where we had found (on the internet) a possible campsite in a National Park not too far off the road.  It was almost dusk when we came across the gates to the Podocarpus National Park, and the wardens at the gate could not have been nicer.  As usual, being “of a certain age” we got in for free, so once they had taken our passport and car details, they told us to drive up the dirt track for 8.5 kms and we would reach the Lodge, where we could camp in the car park and there were some spectacular walks in the hills that we could do in the morning, if we felt like it.  You need to understand that camping is not very common in S America, so there are few if any “camp sites” per se.  There are just “places where you can park for the night” – Like restaurants, gas stations, National Parks, etc.  So not only is it a big relief at the end of the day when we learn of somewhere suitable, but with the vagaries of Garmin and maps here, it is also pretty amazing when we actually find the place !  Anyway, off up this dirt track we went in the increasing darkness, happy that we were somewhere we could camp, and the road got steeper, and narrower, and more murky – And there are places where the cliff has washed away and there was just yellow tape between us and a 2000 ft drop down the mountain side !  Luckily Janet was on the inside so she couldn’t see the drops, but they were certainly in the league of the infamous Bolivian Death Road !  Negotiated these successfully, and eventually came into the car park at 2850 meters, much to the surprise of a number of people who were just leaving after a day hiking.  The ranger showed us where the toilets were, and then he set off home while we set up camp high in the clouds at the top of some Andean mountain.  Cool clear water was from a spring coming out of the side of the mountain that the ranger said was fine to drink.    Oh, did I mention that they frequently get pumas up here in this forest…………………..

Once we had eaten, we were off to bed, but by now we were in thick cloud, and it had started raining – And it was cold !  But we were snug and dry, and thankful we had got everything done by the time the rain started, and ended up having a good nights sleep.  We really are finding some amazing places to camp on this trip, and thoroughly enjoying them. Podocarpus is apparently quite a well known and popular national park, so we were lucky not only to have found it, but to have it all to ourselves.  Well, almost to ourselves – I swear that I saw several pairs of yellow eyes peering at me out of the jungle as I cleaned my teeth……………….

Photos here https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0136IngapircaToLoja?authkey=Gv1sRgCL7k3KzCvdKipgE#