quito loma
The fortress on top of Quitoloma




















 





July 15, 2002

Conquer the Pucarae

    I couldn’t get in a good night of sleep.  Tim, a guy in the group who looked like Ernest Hemingway, kept walking through our hall to go to the bathroom.  Each footstep of his was accompanied by the imminent groan of the floor.  He must have walked that floor five times last night.  Along with the creaky floor, the  howling wind, the barking dogs, the
and perky roosters at night, the honking buses in the morning attributed to my sleep deprivation.  I was either awoke by the noise or the unbearable smell of this place.  The mixture of kerosene, motor oil, wood stain scents invaded my nostril.  I tried to evade it with a blanket but this move left me suffocated after couple seconds. 

   Around 6:00am, people began to roll out of bed.  One by one we marched down the stair for a morning wash and breakfast.  After breakfast, we loaded into a bus and headed for Quitoloma.  This pucarae (fortress) is a major Incas stronghold in their quest of Quito.  Shaped like a layered cake atop the hill, this fortress has several surrounding walls made of cut stones.  In a 16th century chronicle, it was told that the layout of a fortress in this region was designed by Inca King Atahualpa and his cousin Cuxi Yupanque.  Could it be  the same site? Suspicions from the project led them to think that perhaps it was built before the Incas came.  And the Incas claimed it as they built ontop.  

   For certain, it was the project’s targeted area.  In the morning, the bus frolicked up to the foot of the hill on the cobblestone road.  From there we made our trek on foot up the hill.  The zigzag trail, tattooed on the side of the hill, was our path to the fortress.  But after the first two legs, I was left breathless.  It felt like someone was choking me.  My heart beat in an alarming rate and sucking for air seemed to be the sport. 

   The view was breathtaking however.  From above, little tiny houses, dotted among the defined plots of land, integrated well into the rolling plain of the paramo (highland).  The drifting clumps of clouds floated against the deep blue sky, painted a perfect picture.  Miles of rolling highland and the sierra could be seen by our own naked eyes.  This place yielded one of the most magnificent view I’d ever seen.  However, there was a price for all this.  The wind was unforgiving and the sun was merciless.  Since we were almost on the Equator, our proximity to the sun couldn’t get any closer, but the wind tried its damnest to knock us off. 









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