Watana wandering

Inti Watana Calendario Solar

You know, a lot of people don’t understand that the Incas existed outside of Peru, in fact, they were all up in Ecuador too. Many people might not understand that the folks who came to be known as the Quichua/Quechua people are actually offshoots of the Incas. Peru has a huge offering of Inca history, but I found another good source can be found in Ecuador’s Imbabura province, in Otavalo. There is a term in Ecuador’s Quichua language, “Inti Watana” is believed to be derived from Peru’s Inca language known as “Intihuatana”. Intihuatana is seen in Peru’s Machu Picchu, it’s a ritualistic stone that has been determined to be a solar calendar or clock used by the ancient Incas, dating back to the year 1450.  Well, Inti Watana must be Intihuatana, not only because it sounds the same, but because Ecuador’s  Inti Watana is indeed a SOLAR CALENDAR too.

This solar calendar is located in Otavalo at the Peguche Waterfall, and the history goes that the Incas/Quichua people celebrated “Inti Raymi” which is the word for the month of JUNE, off of that calendar. Incas celebrated the ceremony of the Sun, which was arguably the most important time of the Incas. The highest Inca emperor would preside over the festival, as the sun was believed to be hosting the celebration for all attendees. This existed in Ecuador too, in this particular area of Peguche Waterfall, where they would utilize the waterfall. Many locals still do a celebration dedicated to the traditions of the ancestors, all around Ecuador, with the same joys people in the United States would put towards the values of Thanksgiving.

In the ancient times, the Quichua would gather by the waterfalls, as they were considered sacred, so that made Peguche Waterfall a great location for the Inti Raymi when practiced in this region. Nowadays, June 21st would be the day picked to celebrate. Ancient stories say that if one washed in the upper falls, he would purify his soul of all evils, which if you go there, stand on the bridge there (today), you will get sprayed with great volumes of mist from the powerful waterfall. On a killer sunny day in June, with really high temperatures, I could see how one would feel that their souls would be cleansed, as those droplets of water would feel angelic in that hottest weather. You had to do that bath nude for it to count. If one went to the lower portion of the waterfall, under the waterfall, one would wash away all illnesses and bad luck in your life, but you had to do that in your underwear. People would come from miles to bath under this Peguche Waterfall and get right with the universe, and that calendar was used to calculate when that should be, back in the days.

The Waterfall is also known as the “Forest Protector” or “Bosque Protector”, and scientifically it is because all of the trees get their water from the waterfall’s gusts of water flowing from the mists.