Inca ruins around Cusco

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

For the first time in forever, I actually felt quite well today, so Chris & I decided to explore a bit further afield and take a look at some of the Inca ruins that are close to Cusco.
We walked to get a bus but were stopped by some collectivo people before we got there, so took that instead. It's a weird way to travel though, you have to sit and wait in the taxi until there are 5 passengers, making it quite cosy on the backseat. The taxi dropped us at Tambo Machay, a spring shrine with ceremonial water fountains. It was quite pretty, with some nice arches.

After there we walked across the road to Puka Pukara (The Red Fort). This ruin was probably a kind of post house where travellers stayed temporarily. It was pretty cool, with lots of levels to explore and the odd alpaca wandering around.
The next site was a 6km walk across country. We could have taken a bus or walked along the road, but as I was feeling quite well we thought it would be nice to have a walk. It wasn't very clear where to go, but we did a good job of following horse hoof prints. We passed through some nice fields containing cows and pigs and sheep, jumped over a few streams and eventually found our way to Q'enqo.

Q'enqo is a weird carved rock. The Incas used to sacrifice llamas there to predict the next year's fortune at the Winter solstice. From Q'enqo we walked along to the Cristo Blanco (The Jesus). You can see him from in town and the views from him were really good. He had mad starring eyes though, which were a bit scary. There was a nice alpaca hanging around near him that we managed to get a photo of before a little girl in traditional costume came to get him and ask the tourists for money for photographs.

Our final ruin was Sacsayhuaman. We had just arrived at the site and climbed over a ditch as the rain started. It got heavier and heavier, and turned to hail so we took shelter under a rock and waited for it to stop. But it didn't, so we decided not to look around and to get a taxi back down to Cusco instead of walking.

We warmed up in a nice cafe where we had some late lunch and then went back to the hostal.