Inca vs. Cañari

Sunday, July 18th
Nope...my "genius" master plan of sweating out the flu didn't work out as planned. Still sick. :( 
Today, Padraic and I had booked a trip to go see the Inca and Cañari ruins of Ingapirca. Our tour company never showed up to the hostel so we said "fuck it...let's go anyways" and so we did. It's almost a blessing in disguise because the tour would have cost $45 per person and on our own we spent $11 per person for everything (including transport, lunch, and park entrance fee). The ruins were originally built in the 15th century by the Cañari Indians and about 500 years later inhabited by the Inca's. The site was solely built for a place of worship and ceremonial purposes. The site is not very large (nowhere as big as Machu Picchu) and most of the stone buildings have been dismantled by the early Spanish colonists for the purpose of using the large stones to build churches. As soon as we walked into the ruins, a guide approached us and asked us if we wanted a tour of the grounds. We said "clarrro!" Our guide (name unknown) was absolutely fantastic. He was such a story teller. The way he described how the ruins were built and what they were used for was as if he was saying a Shakespearean monolouge. Padraic and I walked around the ruins for a few hours and took it all in. After the ruins, we had a great lunch at a lil mom n' pop shop. Hoppe back on the bus and just chilled for the remainder of the day. Tomorrow I will head north (alone) to a mountain town called Baños. I've heard loads of great things about this town so I'm totally looking forward to it.