One of the nice things about our slow-travel lifestyle is that we have lots of time to plan our own day trips. And this can save us a lot of money! For example, we finished a day trip from Cuenca to the Ingapircaruins, the most significant Inca archaeological site in all of Ecuador. Paid guided tours to Ingapirca from Cuenca can cost $100 USD or more for a couple, but we did it ourselves for only $20!
Let us show you what we did and how we did it, so you can visit the Ingapirca ruins yourself for cheap!
HOW TO VISIT THE INGAPIRCA RUINS FOR CHEAP – A TTT GUIDE
Simply put, it is a rarity among Inca archaeological sites.
Located in the province of Cañar, Ingapirca (which means “wall of the Inca” in Kichwa) is the most important and best-preserved pre-Columbian Inca archaeological site in Ecuador. Located at an altitude of 3,160 meters, this complex was an important ceremonial site that united cultural groups in the area. After the Inca conquered the region, Ingapirca became an important religious, political, scientific, military, and administrative center.
The heart of Ingapirca was the Temple of the Sun, a building made of green andesite and volcanic stone. Located on an oval-shaped embankment whose main axis is oriented almost exactly in an east-west direction. The building has an astronomical function, where sunlight illuminates the building interior during the Summer solstice (June 20 – 21). This signaled the beginning of theInti Raymi, a ceremony honoring the god Inti, the most venerated deity in theInca religion.
This site is significant in that only a few Temples of the Sun were built in the entire Inca empire. The others are located in Machu Picchu (near Aguas Calientes, Peru) and Corichancha (in Cusco, Peru).
How to Visit the Ingapirca Ruins
Despite being 2-hours north of Cuenca, Ecuador, the Ingapirca ruins are extremely easy to visit on your own if you know what to do.
Unless you are extremely nervous about traveling on your own in Ecuador, save yourself some money and do what we did! The journey itself was a lot of fun.
STEP 1 – Get to Cuenca, Ecuador
This should be a given, but all of our instructions assume you are already in Cuenca, Ecuador. So get here by whatever means necessary.
STEP 2 – Getting to the Ingapirca Archaeological Complex
This is half of the fun of the entire day trip. And it is extremely easy to do.
Just go to the Cuenca Terminal Terrestre (bus station) and buy bus tickets to Ingapirca.
Specifically, go to the Transportes Cañar (Ingapirca) ticket booth to purchase your bus tickets ($8 USD each, round trip).
Buses depart at 9 am every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and deliver you directly to the Ingapirca Archaeological Complex.
We purchased our tickets on Thursday, for a Friday morning departure. But when the bus departed on Friday, there were plenty of available seats, so purchasing the tickets the day before may not have been necessary.
The ride to Ingapirca took about 2.5 hours and made multiple stops along the way. The very last stop on the route is Ingapirca, so don’t panic when the bus pulls into different bus stations along the way. Just stay in your seat and you’ll get to the ruins eventually.
Besides, the ride to the ruins is really pretty! Sit back and enjoy the ride.
When the bus arrived at the Ingapirca Archaeological Complex (at around ~11:30 am) we were instructed to meet the bus by ~1:30 pm for the return trip to Cuenca. Honestly, this is plenty of time to see the best the Ingapirca Archaeological Complex has to offer.
STEP 3 – Admission to the Ingapirca Archaeological Complex
When we entered the Ingapirca Archaeological Complex, we were directed to go to the ticket office to purchase our admission tickets.
Tickets are very affordable at $2 USD each and include a guided tour.
Groups are let into the actual ruins site only at specific time intervals, and we were told to meet at the ruins entrance at 12:20 pm for our entry.
This left us with about 45 minutes to kill. As an aside, there are free restrooms in the Ingapirca Archaeological Complex office area, which you’ll likely appreciate after your bus ride!
STEP 4 – Exploring the Ingapirca Archaeological Complex
We couldn’t enter the ruins until 12:20 pm, but this wasn’t a problem. The person that sold us our tickets suggested that we first orient ourselves at the Museo de Ingaprica across the street. So we did!
Museo de Ingapirca
The museum was small but informative, only taking about 30 minutes to explore. The museum exhibits describe what is known about the local Cañari civilization before the Inca arrived, and how the culture was assimilated by the Inca post-conquest.
Descriptions were all in Spanish, but if you’ve built up your vocabulary (or have Google Translate at hand), you can get the gist of the history.
And admission to the museum is included in the ticket price, which was pretty cool.
The Ingapirca Ruins
At 12:20 pm sharp, the security guard at the entrance gate let us in, along with a large group of local school kids and a few tourists.
The guard was a little concerned about whether or not we needed an English tour guide! But our Spanish has advanced to the point where we can understand most tour guides if they don’t speak too quickly, so we weren’t concerned.
The Ingapirca ruins were fascinating!
Our guide took our group from location to location describing how different areas were used. And we later found out that she could speak English, although she seemed to appreciate that we could follow along in Spanish. It really does help out tour guides when they don’t have to switch languages!
Here are some photos of our favorite photos of the Ingapirca ruins. Enjoy!
Storage area foundations, with the Temple of the Sun in the distance.
Llamas had a free run of the ruins site. They make willing lawnmowers, apparently.
Ceremonial area foundations with the Cañari collective tomb in the center. The Temple of the Sun is off to the right.
Cañari collective tomb.
The modern pueblo of Ingapirca, as seen from the ruins site.
The aqueduct and road systems were very evident on site, a testament to its importance.
At the base of the Temple of the Sun.
Temple of the Sun, under restorative construction. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go inside!
It only took us about 30 minutes to tour Ingapirca, after which we were escorted to the exit gate. We were then encouraged to take a short hike of the surrounding area through sites of cultural importance to the Cañari and Inca civilizations.
Side Hike – Path of Intihuayco or Sun Valley
The hike followed a defined loop and only took us about 30 minutes to complete. It went through some really pretty countryside, introducing us to areas of local importance to the civilizations that resided here.
The route we took. The map suggests that the trail is hard but it really isn’t.
Here are some of our favorite photos from the hike!
The Ingachuganga lookout point, near the beginning of the loop.
The views were lovely!
The path went briefly through some woods…
And past the La Tortuga, a limestone outcrop that resembles a tortoise.
The path continued through farm fields.
The cows had a nice view!
From here we could see the cliff face, where we were standing earlier.
The path continued past the Intinahui (Sun Face), a naturally occurring rock depression with a circular portion representing the sun.
The path continued and started to loop back up the hill from which we came.
Walking upward back toward the ruins, we saw the Inganahui (Inca’s Face) in the cliff face.
As the trail loop reconnected with the starting point, we had a great view of the Temple of the Sun!
It was a really nice, albeit short, trail which you should absolutely do when you visit Ingapirca!
Touristy Stuff
We would be remiss if we didn’t mention that there were several small shops owned by locals selling different Inca/Cañari souvenirs. And there were also cafes where you could purchase food, drinks, or snacks if you were getting hungry.
From what we could see the prices were pretty reasonable. We brought our own lunch and drinks, but we would have had no problem buying what we needed here if we came unprepared.
And really, this is the perfect way to spend your time if you aren’t able to complete the Path of Intihuayco hike!
Closing Thoughts
By the time we were done with the Ingapirca Archaeological Site, we only had about 10 minutes left to get back to our bus. But really, there wasn’t much concern about us missing our ride. The drivers had a sense of who they dropped off earlier in the day, and whether or not they bought round-trip tickets.
We had a wonderful time visiting the Ingapirca ruins! We got back to Cuenca at about 4 pm and had plenty of time to relax and make plans for dinner.
Making the day trip is absolutely worth it, especially if you set it up yourself! It is SO MUCH CHEAPER than buying a prepackaged tour, once you know what to do.
A $20 total cost for a 6-hour experience is a pretty sweet deal!
And honestly, half of the fun was experiencing everything for ourselves.
Although having a local “handler” helping you out can have its place, you really learn how to operate in new cultures by doing things for yourself. And you’d be surprised how helpful the locals are! You gain some serious street cred when they see you are trying to do what the locals do.
We hope that you found our experiences interesting and helpful. Hopefully, it will inspire you to visit the Ingapirca ruins too!
And if you’d like to read more about how to visit potentially expensive locations for pennies on the dollar, check out our guide series of posts!
Until next time…
Thanks for reading!
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