I was woken before dawn to the sound of roosters. I'm thinking there aren't nearly enough roosters back home. They could render the alarm clock industry irrelevent overnight (literally). I managed to half doze until the sun came up, around 6:30, then I got dressed and read for a bit. At 7:00, after washing up and brushing my teeth in the communal bathroom, I decided it was time to go and explore Cañar as it woke up before heading up to Ingapirca. As it turned out, that was impossible seeing as I was locked inside the hotel. It seemed I would have to wait for the proprietor to wake up and let me out. So, I sat and read and thought about the potential fire hazard of locking down a hotel in it's entirety. It took another half hour before I was released. The guy helpfully instructed me on where I could catch a bus to Ingapirca (right outside the hotel), and thus my day began.

I barely had to wait for a bus. It was about a half hour ride to the village outside the site and I wandered around for a bit looking for an open restaurant. So hungry. I found nothing and decided to walk up to the site (about 1km) on the off chance something would be open.

I was in luck. Sitting before me, as I write this, is a huge breakfast of beef, egg, rice, fries, salad (altogether, it's called churrascos) and coffee. Excuse me while I devour it.

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I just realized that I'm the only person here, with the obvious exceptions of those who work here (although, I see many of them trickling in as I eat).

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Breakfast was fantastic. Seeing as I hadn't eaten anything since early yesterday afternoon, I think I would have eaten a rotting shoe, but the food was significantly better than that. I think I need another cup of coffee, though, before I go exploring.

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High altitde mountains are really cold first thing in the morning, even at the equator.

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I'm writng this from a sheltered alcove atop the Sun Temple of the Inca at Ingapirca. the weather isn't so nice (as the rain splotches on my notebook, which you can't see because this is a typed blog, show), but my alcove is keeping me out of the wind and most of the rain. It's pretty spectacular up here. I like that this site is not a complete reconstruction (I'm looking at you, Teotihuacan). The base of the temple is still intact from when the Inca first built it. The engineering required to fit all those irregularly shaped stones together so tightly is truly impressive.

There's a nice little hike around the area, too. Luckily, the weather was tolerable when I went on it. Towards the end, a nice little old lady invited me into her tiny store to show me some "Cañari" artifacts she had for sale (the Cañari are the indigenous people who live here and did so before the Inca arrived). I don't know how authentic they are (that said, if she or her friends made them, they probably are real Cañari artifacts...), but they looked pretty cool. A little expensive for my miniscule budget, though.

I've now been here for 3.5 hours. I think it's time to peruse the gift shops and museums, perhaps get some lunch and then decide what to do with the rest my day. Do I explore Cañari or El Tambo or the village of Ingapirca and spend another night? Do I just go to the highway and catch a bus back to Riobamba? I'm really not sure.

As a side note, since this morning I think two or three tour buses full of high school girls have come through, plus some apparently on duty police officers have decided to be tourists for a bit. Thus, I am no longer alone. And to prove it, I just got booted from my alcove by a tour group.

***

Well, I've just done the whole gift shop and museum thing. I got some good stuff and am now sitting in the parking lot observing the chaos of reloading high school kids (now co-ed) back onto tour buses. I still don't know what I'm going to do next. I'm not hungry yet (that breakfast was huge). It still seems too early to head back. Perhaps I'll wander the area a bit more. Cañar actually seemed like a rather pretty town last night. However, it was dark and my judgement may have been off due to the bus ride, the hunger, and the fear of not finding a place to sleep. It's really quite pretty up here at the ruins and the weather is clearing up. Maybe I'll just sit here for a while longer and admire the view.

***

A bus driver asked if I was going to Cuenca. I said no, but realized that if I wanted to go to Cañar, this bus would probably take me there, so I got on. They asked me a few times where I was going, seemingly incredulous that the gringo would want to go to as small a place as Cañar. But that's where I'm going, whether they approve or not.

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Well, I got a different hotel room in Cañar this time. It's quite a bit smaller (only one bed), but it has a private bathroom. It costs the same ($8) and I'm willing to give up space (and two superfluous beds) for a private bathroom. It's not a nice bathroom by any means, but neither was the shared one at the other place.

As the paragraph above indicates, I have decided to stay in Cañar for another night.

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Nothing really compares to watching soccer in Spanish. It's so much more intense. Even this blowout of Kuwait by Brazil, clearly not one of the most heated rivalries in sports, is called with passion.

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I think every restaurant in Cañar serves chicken, exclusively. They must really like it here.

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In regards to my previous statement about Cañar being a rather pretty town, well, it's somewhat less charming in the daylight. The central square is nice and the narrow, winding, cobbled streets add some character, but over all, it's not much to look at. No wonder there's not much of an entry for it in my travel guide.

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So, it's chicken and beer for lunch (a rather larger bottle of beer than I wanted, but oh well). Then it's off to the internet. After that, umm... I'm not really sure there's much more to do in Cañar. I think I may try to seek out something other than chicken for dinner, just to see if it can be done.

***

Holy crap, small towns close way to early. I just got booted out of the internet café at 6:00 and had to hurry from shop to shop to obtain food before everything shut down for the night. It's Saturday! Stay open until at least 9:00! Oh well, I won't be having chicken for dinner. Nope, just water, cheese buns and Doritos. At least it's better than the big sack of nothing I had for dinner last night. Riobamba is seeming more and more like a thriving metropolis right now.

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I just turned on the TV and flipped through the channels. I was extremely startled to see the SFU campus (the courtyard area with the pond and the pyramid in the middle of the AQ). It seems that episode of Battlestar Galactica that was filmed there was on. Sci-Fi is alive and well in Latin America (I'm sure you are very relieved, Jon and Kim). Who'd have thought I'd see my school on Ecuadorian TV? Home is never really that far away, is it?