Cuenca: Bounty, Beauty, Blood and Bureaucracy - Part II (The Andean Face-Off)

Viracocha - The Incan Creation God

So ¿how had the secondary capital of the mighty Inca empire been reduced to rubble in less than a century?

Well, as is often the case when nothing but a crumbling ruin is left behind, it all comes down to a bit of good old sibling rivalry.  It was Túpaq Inka Yupanki's grandsons who got into this little fratricidal to-do and thereby eased the Spanish conquistadors' takeover of South America. 

We left off our tale with Túpaq Inka Yupanki having entered the Cañari city of Guanpondoleg, renamed it Tumepampa and built the grand palace complex of Pumepunku.   He liked his newly renamed city so much that he spent a good deal of time there and his son Tito Husi Hualpa was born in the city around about 1485 to his principal wife Mama Ocllo Coya.

Another of his wives, Chuqui Ocllo, convinced him that their son, Huari Cápac, should be named his successor.  However, at the last minute, Túpaq Inka Yupanki had a change of heart and decided that Tito Husi Hualpa was his legitimate heir after all.

Huayna Capac (née Tiso Husi Hualpa)
What a dashing looking fellow.

Chuqui Ocllo didn't take this so well.  By way of a gentle rebuff to Yupanki for his capriciousness, she poisoned him to death.  

It was 1493 and little Tito Husi Hualpa was still at rather too fragile an age to be defending himself from conspirators. 

Fortunately. the general Huamán Achachi, loyal to the true heir (and also, coincidentally, his uncle) captured Chuqui Ocllo and Huari Cápac and had them executed for their bad behaviour (although some sources say Huari Capac was just banished for life.  Chuqui Ocllo definitely carked it though)..

Having narrowly avoided death, Tiso Husi Hualpa became the 11th Sapa Inca, taking the name Huayna Capac.  He grew up to be a real chip of the old block, carrying on his ol' dad's tradition of empire expansion, and it was during his reign that the Inca Empire reached its apex, stretching over a thousand miles north to south, with 12,000,000 subjects at a conservative estimate. 

The extent of the Inca Empire (Quechua: Tawantinsuyu) under Huayna Capac

In 1527, Huayna heard tell of some strange, hairyfaced, metal-skinned demigods arriving from the north in “houses of wood”.   This all sounded rather irregular, so he headed north to find out what on earth was going on.  He didn't find them (they would eventually turn out to be the conniving bastard Francisco Pizarro and his motley band of conquistadors), but they had left a present for him: and that present was smallpox.

The people of the Americas has no immunity to this peculiar, foreign disease and it not only did for Huayna, but killed off around 200,000 others as well.   Unfortunately for the Inca Empire, Huayna's eldest son and heir, Ninan Cuyochi, also died of smallpox on the same trip.  This left a great big power vacuum at the centre of the Inca Empire. 

Now, nature abhors a vacuum, so it was quickly filled by two contenders for the throne. 
Huáscar was in control of the south from his base in Cuzco and had the support of the clergy and the old nobility, and his half-brother Atahualpa set up shop in the north with the support of Huayna's top generals. 

Now I don't know about you, but in the event of a civil war, and I lay emphasis here on the word 'war', I know who I'd rather have the support of.

The scene was set for a grand Andean face-off.

When the war arrived at the doors of Tumepampa in 1531, despite being in the Atahualpa-held territory of the north, the people of the city chose to side with Huáscar.

As Atahualpa controlled the area, had the support of the generals and a far larger army, this would seem like a somewhat politically inexpedient move on the part of the Tumepampans, 

So ¿why did the Cañari decide to back Huascar?   ¿What did the Cañari have against Atahualpa?

Well, it turns out that he just wasn't quite inbred enough for their liking.  To understand why this is, we need to take a quick detour through the Inca creation myth. 

¿Is everyone sitting comfortably?  Then I'll begin:

n the time of darkness, the great god Viracocha
rose from the depths of Lake Titicaca to bring forth light. 

He made Inti the sun, Mama Killa the moon and all the stars.

He breathed life into stones to create the first humans, but they were stupid, brainless giants who displeased him (perhaps precursors of the gringos), so he swept them away and made better ones from smaller stones. 

He wandered the world disguised as a beggar, teaching civilization to people, as well as working the odd miracle or two.

Job done, he wandered away across the ocean, never to return until the time of greatest need.

Inti - the great sun-god of the Inca

His son (and sun) Inti took up the slack, providing warmth and light unto Pachamama; the earth.  He and his wife Mama Killa,  had two children, Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo.   Inti sent his children down unto the Earth to found a great city to be the Inca capital. 

They emerged from the cave of Pacaritambo carrying a divine golden staff, called tapac-yauri, with orders to build the city wherever the staff, when thrust into the ground, would be swallowed by the earth. 

They traveled far and wide, thrusting the staff into the ground here and there to no avail.  

At last they came upon the most beautiful valley they ever had seen, the valley of Haunacuari, Manco thrust the staff into the ground, and lo. it was swallowed by the earth as Inti had foretold. 

Here they settled and built the city of Cuzco with their own hands.   Manco became the first Sapa Inca, married Mama Ocllo and founded the Inca dynasty.  

From then onwards. each Sapa Inca married his sister in order to maintain the purity of the blood of Inti.  Not just his sister of course, he was a Sapa Inca after all, what use is being a Sapa Inca if you can't have a fair old harem of wives.  But the most important child, and heir to the throne, was the most-worthy child of the Sapa Inca and his sister-wife.

Huáscar's mother was Rahua Ocllo, Huayna Capac's sister-wife, in whom flowed the blood of the Incas.   Atahualpa's mother, on the other hand, was Paccha Duchicela, a princess of the puruhá people of Quito. 

To be the Sapa Inca is to be the embodiment of the sun, you can't just be throwing a bit of northern princess in the mix.  You need to be genuine, 100'%, undiluted sun-god. 

So, the people of Tumepampa lent their support to the reassuringly inbred Huáscar.   As reward for their loyalty to Huáscar, Atahualpa and his generals sacked the city, tore the hearts out of Tumepampa's warriors and left behind nothing but ruins.  Huáscar's armies were utterly defeated and Huáscar was taken captive.  

The ruins of Pumapungo - located in the Central Bank Musum, Cuenca, Eduacor.

What remains today of Pumapunku is, however, even less than what was left after Huáscar and Atahualpa's little inter-sibling tantrum had taken its toll. 

To understand where the rest of it went, we must look to the Spanish conquistadors who founded a new city, rising like a phoenix from the ashes of Tumepampa.  And it is to these bearded-ones that we will turn in the next part of our story...

                                                   ...Tune in for the next thrilling instalment...

Cuenca: Bounty, Beauty, Blood and Bureaucracy - Part I (Let's Start at the very Beginning)

At the end of my previous blog post I promised to share with you my initial impressions of my new city of residence, Cuenca, and over the next four blog entries that is exactly what I intend to do. 

Along the way, we shall encounter a cast of sexy crazy things, toothless Spanish conquistadors, squabbling Inca princelings and pencil-pushing Latin-Ametican bureaucrats.  I shall introduce you to 'The Doctor' and regale you with tales of warfare, incest, lunar astronomy, incipient colonies and quantum anomalies.   You shall witness great cities rise before you and crumble into dust and everything will be signed off in triplicate.

But first, ladies and gentleman, I give you...drum-roll please...

...the typical guidebook intro:

Santa Ana de los Cuatro Ríos de Cuenca (Saint Ann of the Four Rivers of Cuenca) is the third largest city in Ecuador with a current population in its metropolitan area of around 500,000.  Nestled in the Central Andes mountains in a basin (the Spanish word for which is 'Cuenca') formed by the confluence of four rivers (hence the name).  It is sometimes known as the Athens of Ecuador.  The reason for this is that people are incredibly lazy and have a tendency to bang an 'Athens of the x' label on more or less any city which combines beauty, age and culture.

What it actually is, is the Santa Ana de los Cuatro Rios de Cuenca of Ecuador; with its cobbled streets, 16th century cathedral and well-preserved colonial architecture, it was striking enough for UNESCO to get its purple plumed quill pen out and declare Cuenca's historic centre, with its formal orthogonal layout and system of parks, squares, atria, churches and other public spaces, a World Heritage Site in 1999.

The four rivers that have given the city its name are the ríos Tomebamba, Machángara, Yanuncay and Tarqui, which converge together to form the río Cuenca, which joins with the
río Santa Bárbara to become the río Paute. which is a tributary of the río Namangoza, which in its turn is a tributary of the río Santiago, which joins with the río Marañon, which flows into the río Amazonas (that's the River Amazon to me and you) which finally discharges itself into the Atlantic Ocean; which is all very: 'and unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech'.

Located between 2,350 to 2,550 metres above sea level, at this height you receive 75% of the oxygen you would receive at sea level, which can take some adapting to, as your genes are getting round to switching on the 'produce more red blood cells' button; headaches, dizzy-spells and shortness of breath are common complaints to emerge wheezily from the as-yet-unadapted.

The area's stable climate (ranging from you-might-want-to-pop-a-jumper-on average lows of 8-11°C [47-51°F] to rolling-up-the-shirtsleaves-and-having-a-few-minutes-bask-on-a-parkbench-over-lunch average highs of 18-22°C [64-70°F] year round), fertile soil and abundant water have made it an attractive place to live for thousands of years. 

The earliest record of habitation dates back to 8060 b.c.; consisting of pieces of obsidian chisel, scrapers and other tool fragments, along with the bones of porcupines, rabbits, deers, bears, and partridges discovered in the cave of Chopsi not far from the (aforementioned) río Santa Bárbara.  These finds, along with other obsidian tools, spearheads and arrowheads found throughout the area, point to a hunter-gatherer society.

A host of tribes came and went over the millennia until, around about the year 500 b.c. we find a group known as the snake/macaws or Cañari (kan = snake, ara = mackaw) setting up shop.  

This name came from the fact that the primeval Cañari forefathers were hatched from a pair of snake's eggs, got a but uppity with the world they encountered. fought and killed everything, then fought the snake which bore them, who responded by spitthng water at them; giving growth and plenty to the world, after which the two surviving brothers tramped up a mountain where they encountered a sexy pair of lady mackaws.  An energetic burst of mythical, trans-species hanky-panky later and the rest of the Cañari people were born (or perhaps begotten).  Any suggestions of euphemism or phallic imagery in this myth is entirely the result of your own filthy imaginations.  Go wash your smutty minds out with soap and water! 
 
The Cañari were a loose confederation of matriarchal, lunar-calender following tribes whose territory covered much of what is now Southern Ecuador.

They built a city called Guanpondoleg, which means 'land as big as heaven', filling it with many circular and moon-shaped temples and other buildings of great beauty.  The farms of Guanpondoleg spread throughout the valley, there was plenty and prosperity and all was well.

Tupaq Inka Yupanki

All was well, that is, until around the year 1480, when the tenth Sapa Inca, Túpaq Inka Yupanki, found time out of his busy schedule of initiating the first general census of the Inca Empire, having major roads and palaces built, promulgating the cult of the sun and rebuilding the city of Quito to fit his Incaic whim, to give Guanpondoleg a good solid conquering.

He faced fierce resistance however; the Cañari held a great gathering at Guanpondoleg in which they declared Cacique Duma, a chief from the town of Sigisg, as their war-chief.  By all accounts Cacique Duma was an astute fellow and a brave warrior.   He gathered a considerable army together and set them to work guarding the important passes on the approaches into their territory.  

A statue of Cacique Duma in a park
in his hometown of Sigsig.

Now, their creation myth has already given us a good indication that the Cañari weren't shy of a fight.  When Túpaq Inka Yupanki's army arrived, fresh from giving the nearby Paltas a good kicking and subjugating them to his mighty will, they found themselves with a real enemy to contend with and, after a short but intense battle, the Inca army beat a hasty retreat back towards already conquered territory.  For the first time Túpaq Inka Yupanki had tasted the bitterness of defeat.  

He clearly didn't much like the taste, as his response was to send for reinforcements from across the not-inconsiderable  expanses of the Inca empire and, to keep himself occupied while he was waiting for them to arrive, construct a great fortification along the border between the Paltas and the Cañari. 

When Cacique Duma saw the vastness of the assembled Inca army, he clearly decided that discretion was the better part of valour and proceeded to sue for peace.   Túpaq Inka Yupanki didn't buy it and demanded, as proof of their fealty, that the Cañari chiefs send their own children as hostages.  When they did so, he relented and deigned to enter Guanpondoleg, casually renaming it Tumepamba (from whence the río Tomebamba) and allowing the Cañari a certain amount of autonomy as a reward for their fidelity and bravery.

He was impressed with what he saw there though; it was an architectural gem and well located on the way between Quito and Cuzco.  So impressed was he with the architecture that he decided to build some more of his own.   He ordered the construction of a palace complex and administrative centre to be known as Pumapunku or 'the door of the puma'

As the Cañari were a matriarchal culture and the Inca a patriarchal one, the best way to seal the new relationship was with a wedding and so Túpaq Inka Yupanki married with a Cañari queen.

Thus, what was initially intended to be a mere fort to keep the Cañari under control became the secondary capital of the Inca Empire, a spectacular city designed to impress upon his subjects the sheer awe and might of the Inca. 

But by the time the Spanish arrived there, less than a hundred years later, nothing was left of the great city but ruins.  ¿What had happened?

To be continued....