Cuenca, in addition to being an exceedingly pleasant town to wile away a few days, is an excellent base for visiting the ruins at Ingapirca and the paramo-and-lake park of Cajas.

Ingapirca
For Ingapirca, I took the bus marked "Ingapirca" from Cuenca's main terminal. The company charged $5 for a round-trip ride, which takes about 2 hours in each direction and allowed about 2 hours at the site. About 2.5 to 3 hours would have been better, but the bus schedules only give options of 2 or 5.

Ingapirca cost $6 to enter, and it seemed compared to other Incan ruins, it probably wasn't really worth it. However, it was my first Incan ruins site, so I was happy to be there.

The site isn't extensive, the walls are low, and I had to use my imagination for much of it. Supposedly the reason for the lack of impressive structures is that the site was never hidden as Machu Pichu, and locals may have used its blocks for building materials before the site was officially protected.

The man who sold tickets was very friendly, and when it turned out I didn't have enough money (because of course, I misread my guidebook) he let me in for $3 - that was about the correct value of the site. Still, it makes for a pleasant daytrip.

The best part was the adorable llamas that roamed the site freely. A few seemed to be fighting or mating...very strange.

Cajas
As lovely as Cajas was, getting there and back was annoying as hell.

My day started with THREE local buses to the main terminal...somehow I got confused, but the drivers were really not helping! I ended up going to all sorts of random areas when I should have been able to get one direct bus to the terminal. 75 FREAKING CENTS to go not very far. But I got a little amusement out of seeing a neighborhood called "Jesus del Gran Poder".

Parque Nacional de Cajas should cost about $2 to reach by bus, but the bus was not actually marked "Cajas." I took a bus for Guayaquil, and confirmed with the driver we would be going via Cajas. Both the driver or his assistant knew I wanted to be dropped off, and the assistant was very friendly and eager to point out beautiful features of Ecuador, asking me what I had already visited. The road is a ways from the visitors center, and the entrance fee for the park is $10.

Laguna Toreador, Parque Nacional de Cajas

The park is beautiful, best described as Scotland-esque. It is green, hilly, and studded with lovely, small lakes. Most of the park is made of paramo, the Andean grasslands.

The trails are not well-marked, which seems to be the standard for most of my Ecuadorian hikes. The visitors center provides a beautiful glossy map (which I felt awful for losing during a sudden windstorm), but what was clear on the map wasn't clear in real life. Still, the place was lovely for a few hours' wander.

On the way back, neither of the guards could tell me when the bus was coming. I ended up waiting on the road for over an hour, having no idea when I'd return to Cuenca. It was frustrating beyond belief. Suddenly I saw the older guard running up the long driveway from the visitor's centre, and turned to see the bus coming. So...he did know when it was coming but neglected to tell me!

For some reason the bus did not return to the main terminal. Eventually after driving through various neighborhoods, the driver stopped and asked me why I was still there. I didn't know! I had a loooong walk back to town. Cajas made for a confusing day, but it was nice seeing a bit of the countryside around Cuenca.

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