Inca Pilgrimage with my daughter Susie, Part II

Susie and I just completed our Ecuador portion of our 4 country pilgrimage in South America.
After stopping at the border town (between Colombia and Ecuador) called Ipiales, where we saw the fantastic Santuary of the Lady of Las Lajas where the iglesia seems to rise out of the rocky mountainside, we continued on into Ecuador. Our first city was Quito -- the capital -- where we visited the famous basilica in the plaza and the Museo Nacional. Susie really wanted to visit the Museo Capilla de Hombre Guayasamin, the world-famous artist from Ecuador. It was worth the visit to see the artist´s work. I would have to say that my most memorable moment in Quito was going up the gondola to the top of a volcanic area where we could see the entire city. We went toward evening, so we were able to see the city with the night scenery.
Near Quito is an interesting ancient archaeological site named Cochasqui, where the Caras Civilization thrived before the Incas arrived. We spent half a day exploring the pyramids there. The highlight there was when our guide Virgilio took us to a guinea pig hut where we saw where they raised those lovely little creatures for food.
Susie told me that she was ¨ruined-out¨ after Cochasqui. So we decided to do something that her heart was set on -- to see the Amazon Basin. She figured out how to bus it to Tena, where we met a guide named Gabriel, who gave us a full day of fun on the river Napo, a tour of the jungle, tubing in the river, visiting a reserve, and even handling his famous boa constrictors. It was a visit we will not forget. The Napo River, after all, is a major tributary of the Amazon River.
After the Amazon Basin, which we reached by traveling across the Andes Mountain Range, we continued south to Cuenca through a great portion of the Andes Mountains. There we enjoyed the colonial buildings, the walk along the river, and an excursion to the nearby ruins of Ingapirca. That´s where the Canari Civilization had its moment in the sun. Of course, that´s also where we saw a temple to the Sun, which basically was an observatory to study the solar cycle -- including the equinoxes and solstices.
After Cuenca, we were going to end our time in Ecuador by following the famous ¨Gringo Trail¨ right down to the Valley of the Immortals in Vilcabamba (the Sacred Valley), where people live to be 100 years and older. We stayed at a beautiful nature reserve in a cabin beside a river. That´s where Susie and I felt like we could have stayed a week and practiced the art of longevity by breathing in the energized air, drinking the pure water, and eating organic food. But alas, our time was limited. My highlight in Vilcabamba was when I asked the taxi driver if we could see the centenarians in the town, and he took us to see a most wonderful woman named Lucila Guerrera, who was 104 years old. She loved visitors, and for a small tip she talked for over half an hour with us. That alone is worth a chapter in my upcoming book on the Inca Pilgrimage. So now we have left Ecuador, and are staying in Trujillo, Peru. We made a short stop in the northern desert in a town named Chiclayo, where we visited the famous tomb of the Lord of Sipan. Tomorrow, we will visit the places where the ancient civilizations of the Moche and Chimu people took place. They also are pre-Inca.
Hope to write more when I can after we fly out of Lima to Bolivia, where we will have our adventures at Lake Titicaca.
Of course, our main goal (and exciting conclusion that we are looking forward to) is still Machu Picchu in June 4-8.
Sorry about not being able to publish the beautiful pictures that I´ve been taking. There are few computers available with picture uploading capabilities. And the other computers take too long to load the pictures. So I promise to have pictures in an album on my Multiply page when I get back to the USA.
Adios for now, Hasta la Vista -
Paul and Susie