area is a blooming parish of southern Ecuador located in Cañar province. It sports 240 square kilometers and a population of approximately 14,000 inhabitants, out of whom 2,000 are living in the parish center (3,180 meters or 10,000 feet above sea level), and the other populace is spread all around the countryside. The town's name of Ingapirca was taken after the archeological complex which stands forth as an important evidence of Cañari and Inca presence. This area, like other areas of Ecuador (provinces of Cañar, Azuay, and Loja), are characterized by a variety of soils, dioritic and porfidic igneous rocks, and volcanic groups which did not form tobas or layers of cangagua, such as what appears in northern Ecuador.

Ingapirca was part of a large "hacienda" or piece of land owned by one Spanish/Ecuadorian family. In fact, people were living atop the Temple platform in a primitive makeshift house. The ruins were not cared for and decimated when building blocks of stone were needed to construct other buildings for the hacienda. Ingapirca rose like parish from its province of Cañar May, 1919 after having been managed by its inhabitants under the initiative and direction from Presbítero Don Luis Sarmiento. Until then Ingapirca had been just one of many farming communities of the rural parish El Tambo.

The convincing argument that was used for liberating Ingapirca was the administrative necessity to solve the multiple conflicts and confrontations which often were provoked between landowners and comuneros which coexisted in that extensive agricultural and cattle area. Today Ingapirca continues being one of the more flourishing areas and it surpasses most areas in productivity.

Cañar province occupies a high basin surrounded by mountains which are the base for neighboring Azuay province's peaks and are the highest chain of mountains of the area, which also serves as the natural division of two different regions. The north region is the result of recent volcano formation, while the south region has older soils as a result of much earlier volcanic activity.

Geographically, Cañar boundaries are Azuay's highest peaks to the north, Curiquingue and Bueran tundras to the south and east, and the steep sides of the western mountains (Cordillera Occidental) to the west. Drainage of this basin is done by the Cañar River with its main tributaries , the Silante and the Huayrapungo Rivers. There is also the Pircay River which later enters near the coast and takes the name of Bulubulu and then finally called the Taura River once it reaches the Pacific Ocean.

These hydrographic characteristics and the presence of different climatic steps or terraces which go from 4,650 meters to 5,000 meters above sea level allowed the inhabitants of this region to enjoy of natural diversity of weather conditions and ecology. Obviously the area's different hydrographic characteristics have been extraordinary in trading products from Andean, Inter-Andean, sub-tropical, and tropical regions as happens to this day.

Ecuador has several ruins left by the Incas or other Amerindians. The principal Inca site is Ingapirca. Others include Rumicucho, near Quito; La Tolita, near Esmeraldas; and Tomebamba in Cuenca (most of the ruins in this old provincial capital have been built over, but some can be seen at Avenida Todos Santos). The ancient Valdivia culture (dating from 3200 BC) left remains at Real Alto, San Isidro (excavated mounds) and Santa Elena—all of which are located in the coastal area northwest of Guayaquil. Santa Elena is notable for having the world's oldest known cemetery (dating from 5000 BC). Inside Machalilla National Park is the Agua Blanca site. (Artifacts from most of these places are best seen in museums in Guayaquil and Quito.

Tours provided by Erich Lehenbauer, an Austrian-born Canadian, residing in Quito has various tourist related businesses. Erich has a Bed & Breakfast in Quito. Inclusive of his small travel agency, he personally can be your tour guide.

By Erich "I present you all of my personal travel related experience and knowledge, which you hopefully find useful in your trip planning. Once you decide to visit our country, please take our various travel services into consideration to get to know the many natural and cultural attractions, Ecuador has to offer you.