Ingapirca and other matters (including a couple of alpacas)

 

A week or two ago we went for a day trip with some other brothers and sisters to a place called Ingapirca. It is Inca ruins and is around 2 hours north (by bus) from Cuenca.

We got an Ecuadorean breakfast start to the day, as one of the sisters is Quechan (an indigenous people) (I think that’s how it’s spelled) and had brought plantain balls she had made (not sure what they are actually called). You boil or steam the plantain (looks like a banana, but tougher) and mash it and make it into balls, with a little bit of cheese in the middle. And some hot sauce with it. And strong coffee. So we ate these in the bus as we headed out into the country – it was a good way to get us into the mood for a little history.

We find bus travel in the country here fascinating – there are people hopping on and off the whole trip by the side of the road, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We found that there is a definite advantage to catching the bus at the bus terminal – you get a seat! At the busiest parts of the trip it was standing room only and sit wherever you can find a space. Not terribly comfy.

This could be Tasmania, but it’s Ecuador!  On the way to Ingapirca

It seems that if you want to get from A to B, you stand at the side of the road going to your destination, wait for a bus to go past displaying a sign indicating the town or place you want to go to, and flag the bus down. Then you make haste to the door, carrying any small children or groceries, etc, you may have, as the buses don’t wait!

We bought tickets at the terminal, but if you hop on along the way, every so often the bus driver’s assistant squeezes past all the people standing in the middle aisle of the bus, and collects coins for the unpaid fares.

The bus driver just does the driving and his assistant does everything else; he definitely has to be on the ball. For starters, he has to remember who has or hasn’t paid and collect the fares. When the bus stops, he jumps off and assists people on or off, and passes any small children, baskets, etc and gets any luggage out from under the bus or on the roof. He has to do this pretty quickly, as the bus driver is on a mission, and isn’t about to waste any time. When the bus stopped in towns, the assistant jumps off and encourages people to get on the bus by calling out the destination, eg “Cuenca Cuenca Cuenca”, and then helps them onto the bus. At times he jumps off at certain stops, and collects letters or packages (rather like a courier service, it seemed), or runs into a depot or other place to swipe the bus’ time card. There is a lot of running involved, especially at times when the bus driver started off when he hadn’t quite got on yet.

Between watching the antics of the assistant, and checking out the variations in local indigenous dress and hats (I would have loved to take photos or video, but I don’t suppose that would have gone down well with the subjects of those photos – more on that later), and watching the scenery, it was an enjoyable trip. And then there was Ingapirca. See below

 

Circles appear to be the go here at Ingapirca

Precision stone-cutting – no mortar in between the stones

Ingapirca–panorama

If I remember correctly, Ingapirca was a settlement, and the stone ruins (maybe about knee-height) included such things as housing, storage for crops, irrigation, religious ceremonies, and strange stones for which no-one seems to have worked out a reason. Except maybe for holding beer bottles and other important things.  (see below)

There was a reconstructed mud hut, on a stone foundation, so I imagine that may have been how some of the buildings were made. Others were made more completely of stone. Unfortunately the signage there wasn’t as clear or informative as it could have been, so that is why I appear a little unclear and uninformed as to what it was all about.

The wind was quite cold, and one of the brothers with us said that last time he came it actually snowed briefly. Not what one would expect on the equator. Although we are quite a few thousand feet above sea level.

We actually saw some alpacas there – we suspect they brought them in especially for the site, as they were the only ones we saw all day. I’m told they are not common anymore and possibly are endangered.

While at Ingapirca we saw an old man walking towards us along a track and carrying an enormous bundle on his back. Brendan took a photo of him, and when he came up to us held out his hand and said something in Spanish which we didn’t catch, but we figured it was along the lines of “that photo will cost you a dollar, thanks”, so Brendan gave him a dollar. We had heard that people don’t always take kindly to having photos taken; that you either need to ask permission or contribute something for the privilege. So we did. Some people here live pretty hard lives. From statistics I looked at, it appears that large amounts of the population live in poverty, particularly those in the country.

Old man carrying a very big load

– from the back it appears it might be grass or some kind of animal feed (Brendan here. I took a photo as he was leaving as I wanted my money’s worth! I figured this way it was $.50 per side)

And Now to Other Matters.

I’m pleased to have found a use for our vegie scraps, other than putting them into landfill – in Tassie we would put them in the compost heap, but seeing as a compost heap is not really feasible here due to gardens (if you are fortunate enough to have one) being about the size of a pocket handkerchief, I have been donating them to the chickens at the end of the road. They seem to be most grateful and cluck appreciatively. And the lady who looks after them says “muchas gracias”, as well. It’s nice to be getting to know one’s neighbours, even if it is just a few words while passing over vegie scraps. It’s also nice to have chickens in one’s road – it seems less like we are living in a city. We have also seen a variety of animals keeping the grass down in some of the empty blocks of land – such as horses, donkeys, alpacas, cows and goats. But generally not all at the same time. That’s rather fun, too. There are not too many cities where you still have that touch of nature.

If you look closely, there are some chickens

“Cuencanos”, as people who live in Cuenca are known, are renowned for being reserved until they get to know you, so we generally aim to say “Buenas dias” (good day) to people we meet. Normally we have to make the first greeting, but hopefully after a while when they get used to seeing us around, we will be accepted. The man across the road from us, who fixes stoves and fridges etc, welcomed us when we moved in, and sometimes people we meet on the street greet us first, and that’s nice.

Recently a young couple in our congregation got married, but not without a bit of drama. He is an Ecuadorian national, and she is a foreigner (U.S.A).  In Ecuador only civil marriages are recognised by law, so they couldn't just go down to their local Kingdom Hall and tie the knot.  And because she was not an Ecuadorian national, they couldn't just go down to the local Cuenca registry office to make it official.  No, they had to go down to Guayaquil, the only place where nationals can marry foreigners.  So, they decided that while they were all down there for the District Assembly, they would save time and travel etc, and do the legal marriage then, well in time for their Kingdom Hall ceremony a few weeks later. 

Some who had lived here for a while were not convinced that all would go smoothly and that the legal ceremony would take place on the Monday following the District Convention, as planned.  They felt that there were bound to be complications, and that the young lady’s paperwork would somehow be found lacking, and that the ceremony would be postponed.  That was, in fact, what occurred.  But, after a false start, another attempt was made within the week to unite them in wedlock, only this time it was found that he was actually already married!!! (Aghast!)  Upon the Department of Happy Couples examining their computers it was found that he had actually got married at the mature age of 17, which his wife-to-be found rather amusing, but left him slightly stunned.  Upon him denying that said marriage had ever taken place, he was shown the indisputable facts of his nuptials on the computer screen. This was complicated by the fact that his Cedula (an identity card everyone who resides in Ecuador is required to have) showed he was single.  To make matters even more interesting, the computer further disclosed that this wife had since married someone else.   After investigation, it turned out that a wrong i.d. number had been entered into the computer.

Easy to fix, you might think?  Alas, no.  This sort of error can only be fixed by one man, in one Department, in Quito (a bus trip of a mere 8 or so hours from Cuenca).  Unfortunately, this rather indispensable man happened to be away for a few days, delaying further resolution of the issue.  But, fortunately for our young couple, the matter was resolved before long and they were legally married, with a week or so to spare.

And the moral of the story?  If you happen to be in Ecuador and have any dealings with government departments, take a change of clothes and a toothbrush - you're going to need them!

A building in progress (maybe, as it seems they often leave thing half built here) – on the way to Ingapirca

 

P.S. Brendan here with my 2 cents worth. Just an experience (not a nice one, but felt I needed to share the good and the not so good of Ecuador) I had while out witnessing the other day. While going from door-to-door in town I heard a squeal from across the road. I looked over to see a Cuy (Sarah says it is Cuye - both, it seems, are correct, but mine is more so) (Guinea Pig) being taken out of a bag and then promptly strangled out there in the open on the side of a suburban street. Not a sight I expected to see or want to see again. It was good Sarah was on the other side of the block and didn’t see it. The moral is: if you want to try Guinea Pig in Ecuador make sure it is bled.

Guayaquil District Convention

 

We’ve just come back from our District Convention at Guayaquil. We hired a little bus with some other Aussies from the congregation which took us straight to our hotel in the city. In the three and a half hours it took us to get there, we went from winter to summer, although winter in Cuenca is not as cold as it would be in Tasmania or Victoria.

This was on the way down – we were above the clouds at this point. The mountain in the distance is Chimborazo, an extinct volcano, around 104 km from where we were. It’s not very often you can see this mountain from the road, as it is usually covered in cloud.

 

View of the Andes from above the clouds

It was actually winter in Guayaquil – apparently 3 or 4 degrees cooler than in summer, and not so humid. And around 26 degrees at night, as opposed to the 30 degrees overnight that you’d have in summer. It was rather pleasant to be able to wear summer clothes for a change.

Our hotel seemed to be mostly full of Witnesses, and there was a bus organised to go from the hotel to the convention and back, which had some of the Witnesses from our hotel and some from nearby hotels. And in the evenings, a block or two away is McDonalds and a few other food shops, so after the convention, again there were Witnesses everywhere! It was rather fun.

The convention had attendance of around 900 on Friday to 1,155 by Sunday. It’s the smallest convention we’ve ever been to, and unique in various ways. There are not too many conventions you can go to where you can get distracted by the occasional iguana wandering along near the platform!

Click on pictures to enlarge

iguana directly above the pink flower, up on the concrete edge

(the brother with the pink flower in his hair is Dom’s Dad)

The convention is held at the permanent assembly hall on the Bethel grounds about 23 kms out of the city. Due to the heat, it’s an open-sided venue, with a high curved roof over the top. It probably holds around 2,000 to 3,000 people.  It’s a beautiful and tranquil setting surrounded by lawns, gardens and trees.  You can hear birds and see iguanas.

Assembly hall in foreground with Bethel home in the background up on the hill

I think since we’ve been in Ecuador I’ve probably met more Gilead graduates and missionaries and people serving where the need is great than in all the time I’ve been in the Truth. It’s probably fairly safe to assume that there are around 1,000 native-English-speaking Witnesses serving in Ecuador at the moment (the vast majority of these serve in Spanish-speaking congregations), going by the attendance at the convention, although there were some visiting from the States and at least one couple we met were currently in one of the other South American countries. I believe the convention in Ecuador may be the only English-language one in South America – not positive about that, though. It was a very friendly convention – when everyone is serving in a foreign land so far from home, I think it gives you a connectedness that you don’t normally have in your homeland.

A few of those in the photo on the right are from our congregation in Cuenca and are Aussies

The inside of the Assembly Hall

 

Panorama of the inside of the Assembly Hall

We got to know a few different ones – ones we met on the buses, or at meals or in the coffee queue at the convention. One brother and sister we met and had a meal with was mentioned in the July 15 Watchtower “They offered themselves willingly” page 4, picture 3 – Beau, from Canada. Some have been in Ecuador for 10, 15 or more years, and some for only a year or two. It was really enjoyable.

(To Clay – we met a brother you know, Ian Hamilton serving in Tabacundo – he said to say “hello”. He is engaged to an Ecuadorean sister, getting married soon.)

Here are Brendan and me in front of some bougainvillea growing at the assembly hall - it grows really well here. And reminded me of Aus.

There were tables outside under the trees you could eat your lunch at and at one stage a few people were evacuating as there was an iguana in the tree above. Which would be fine except for the fact that iguanas also eat lunch, and then it comes out the other end and you don’t want to be there when that happens!!

Look out below!

One night at the hotel we heard quite loud jaunty music outside (a combination of ice-cream truck, fair-ground music, etc) which went on for quite a while, so after a bit, my curiosity got the better of me and I went to the balcony to have a look – it was a garbage truck!! I didn’t know there were such things as musical garbage trucks, but if you have nothing better to do and Google “musical garbage trucks” or similar, you’ll find they have them all over the world!!

View from our hotel early in the morning before all the traffic begins

After the convention, we headed off Monday morning in our little bus again. We were all a bit quiet this time; probably worn out from the convention and from all the laughing and talking the rest of the time.

On the way out of Guayaquil before you get to the mountains there are some little villages along the main road – some have roadside markets with lots of tropical fruits, and there are also rice paddies with little houses on stilts in the middle of them. We assume people live in them – they seem to live in some quite small and rough places.

 

Going through a little town (not marked on the map) just after the town of Jesus Maria on the way home

Typical of Ecuador – somehow the rest didn’t get finished

Managed to catch a photo of a wild alpaca standing majestically on the rocks

(top right hand side)

Moving house (again)

 

Well, we finally have our own place. You can see it in the photo below.

Oops. This is actually an abandoned house we saw while out witnessing near a river a few weeks ago. Just across the (dirt) road from it are new houses. We still can’t get over the mix of old and new in the one area.

Below are photos of people washing clothes etc. in the river.

The photo below was taken a little further along the river from the mud brick house.

From what we could see and were told, large quantities of garlic are soaked in tubs of river water and then people tread in the tubs of water and garlic, and the garlic skins loosen. Then as you can see from the photo, women skin the garlic cloves and pick out reject cloves and discard them. Apparently the skinned garlic cloves are sold to restaurants and markets. You can also buy them in the supermarket, skinned, in little plastic bags. But they don’t keep as long as if you buy them dry as a whole bulb.

The woman in the photo with one child on her back and one nearby is pretty typical here of women who work in such jobs or in the markets. There are child care centres here in Cuenca but I suspect they are for the wealthy. You often see women who work in menial jobs with their children on their backs or sitting or playing nearby. Apparently, the minimum wage here is $1.50 per hour, which is pretty mind-boggling. Even though things cost less here than in Aus, (someone worked out that on average things here cost around one-third to one-quarter of what they would in Aus), being able to survive on that sort of wage is still pretty hard to comprehend. But there are those university educated people at the other end of the scale (doctors, lawyers, etc.) who apparently earn around $20-$30 per hour, which is rather a lot compared to $1.50 per hour. There is a vast difference between the wealthy and the poor – I think it’s more noticeable here than in Aus. Possibly one reason is that the wealthy and the poor here just about live and work side by side, whereas due to zoning restrictions etc. in Aus, there is likely to be more difference geographically in where people can afford or choose to live.

Even though on average things work out to around one-third to one-quarter of their cost in Aus, to break things down: housing (renting) is probably a quarter of the cost in Aus, vegies etc. would be around a quarter, “gringo” groceries (e.g. condensed milk, Marie biscuits, tin foil, paper towel, tissues) are probably about the same as Aus, clothes probably similar to Aus, plastic goods and kitchen wares (e.g. cutlery, plates, plastic chairs) similar to Aus (we know, we just bought a heap of it). Cars: Petrol is cheaper here than Aus ($1.49 a gallon or $0.39 a litre), although not having car, I haven’t taken much notice. Tyres are around $80 each. But you can go on a bus right across town for 25c. Some things are a lot cheaper, but other things are the same as Aus. I guess the more you can live like a local, the cheaper it will be.

A few weeks ago I mentioned to a sister in the congregation that we were starting to house-hunt, and that all I wanted was a place with some grass and a tree. Now, as Cuenca is a city of joined-together houses and lots of concrete, and very little in the way of private green space, she said “good luck with that!” It took them a year or so of searching to find their place, which does actually have a reasonable yard (by Cuenca standards) with grass.

Often, in order to get a little bit of private green space (unless you have a ton of money to be able to afford one of the pricier areas of Cuenca where there are medium-sized gardens and some trees), you end up on the outskirts of town. Which is fine if you have a car, but if you rely on buses or taxis, it’s not so convenient. The further out you go, the less choice of buses you have and the taxis are less likely to prowl around there. But I guess it all depends on what matters most to you, and where you are prepared to compromise.

We have ended up with a quite new house (only a couple of years old – on Google Earth there is a paddock where our house is now), which is lovely and light and sunny and all the windows (except one bathroom) look out onto the great outdoors. Which is quite an achievement here, where light-wells and skylights are common ways to get light into a house. I actually got my grass and tree – we have a little grassy backyard which is 2.5 metres deep by about 7 metres long (I wanted to run a few head of guinea pigs to keep the grass down, then we can eat them when they get fat!! No not really, although guinea pigs “cuyes” are considered a delicacy here. But Brendy is not keen on the idea). And we have two little lemon trees in the front yard, which is all tiled, except for a 1.5metre square of real dirt where the lemon trees are. The front yard is big enough to park a couple of cars, but that’s it. It’s big enough for bbqs and to sit outside in the sun, so that’s nice. And we have an upstairs terrace and can see all around us. So, we think we are in a pretty good spot, really.

This is looking down our road – our house is on the left further along

This is our place – the sides of the houses here don’t tend to be finished neatly as it is assumed that at some future time someone else will build right up next to it (but the shapes of the houses don’t generally match so it can still look untidy)

 

The house is on a dirt road, and we have a giant mud puddle out the front. And chooks run up and down the road. Again, it’s a mix of newish well-finished houses along with paddocks and half-finished roughly built houses. But we have good bus access within a 10 minute walk and all the small shops you could want as well as a very big market nearby. We catch a bus now to get to the supermarket (we could walk there from our previous place), but I guess you can’t be close to everything.

This is the pretty view of our house!

Looking from entrance (lounge room on right) towards dining room and kitchen. 

Strangely enough here, the prices of items in the small shops is less than you’d pay in the supermarkets. I guess the supermarkets here don’t hold the monopoly over suppliers like they do in Aus. So if you run out of something, from where we are, there are about five small shops within a couple of minutes’ walk. And then I get to practice my bad Spanish on them and make them panic when I come in!! But then they practice their bad English on me and make me panic! So, I guess it works out even in the end.

Panoramic view from upstairs

View of the Cajas (mountains) – they are higher in real life than they look in the photo – going up to 4,000 metres.  Cuenca is at 2,500 metres

View over our back wall – shows the socio-economic mix (big word supplied by Brendy)

 

180 degree view over Cuenca from our third-story patio

We have our District Convention next week, so are catching a little bus with some others from our congregation down to Guayaquil. It’s at sea level, so will be quite a bit warmer than here, although it’s supposed to be less humid at this time of year (the dry season).

So, until next time, Adios.