Ingapirca Inca Trail

Ingapirca Inca Trail

The Ingapirca Inca Trail is over 1000 years old and takes you over Ecuador’s beautiful paramo region surrounded by lagoons and lakes to the Incan ruins of Ingapirca

The Ingapirca Inca Trail Ecuador is over 1,000 years old and was used by messengers to communicate between outposts in the Incan Empire. This trek follows the ancient trail for 3 days past many lakes and lagoons through the beautiful Andean Paramo until we arrive at the Incan Ruins of Inga Pirca. This is a challenging trek with the highest point being 4,800 meters (15,748 ft) on the peak of a mountain overlooking three lagoons.

While the Ingapirka Inca Trail in Ecuador is not as famous as its southern cousin, the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, it was actually more important when it was constructed 1,000 years ago.

The Ecuadorian Inca Trail once connected the Incan empire’s northern capital Quito with the city at its heart, Cuzco in Peru. It was used to move trade and messengers as well as large marching armies during the civil war that broke out between the two Incan princes, Huáscar in Quito and Atahualpa in Cuzco.

Later, the Spanish called it the Camino Real (Royal Road) during their conquest of the Incan empire in the years after the Incan civil war. Centuries later still, Commander Sucre, the Ecuadorian independence leader, led his troops over this Incan highway to fight the Spanish royalists, and the giant mounds of stones on the mountain pass mark the cemetery where hundreds of Commander Sucre’s troops were buried.

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