The sexywoman of Peru

In between gourmet meals and fine wines we did manage to sneak in the odd bit of sight-seeing too. Many tourists come to Cusco for a couple of reasons. The main one is the ancient Inka site of Macchu Picchu. It's close by, sort of. The other is because there's many an Inka site a lot nearer the city. On the outskirts of town there are 4 Inka sites to visit. We got dropped off at the farthest one and walked the 8km back to town taking in the other 3 on the way.
The first was at Tambomachay. This is basically a ceremonial bathing site for the Inkas. The Inkas actually only reigned for about 200 years but what they did leave behind was quite substantial and has definitley left it's mark on the landscape and villages of Peru. Excellent stonework here also and an expert water channelling system for freshwater baths straight from the mountains. It's a shame Peruvian tap water isn't as fresh nowadays.
Nearby was another site, Q'engo. This is speculated to have been a fortress but others have said it was a rest stop for weary travellers. Either way it gives great views looking back over Cusco. Not much to it other than numurous small unroofed rooms.
It was quite a distance to the next 2 sites and not using suncream was a great error, I never seem to learn. I got absolutely frazzled. Typically.
After about 45 minutes of tramping down a hill past tourists on horseback going the other way we arrive at the 3rd and slightly more impressive site. This is largely a huge rock that has been cut into and under, producing many carved steps, altars and pitch black networks of tunnels. There's also a large round ceremonial area. It's said that many a sacrifice to the gods took place here. I was also in a photo with more Peruvians here. Another tourist sacrifice.
Last and by far the best site is Sacsayhuman, known to many tourists as 'sexywoman' as the pronunciation is quite similar. This is a huge site overlooking Cusco and is also the spot where a huge battle between the Spanish and the Inkas took place. Mammoth stones are placed and carved here forming a large jagged effect that is supposed to represent the teeth of a puma. Some of the rocks are 3 times the height of me so it must've taken some serious shifting to get them here. Without the aid of any modern machinery this is extremely impressive. There's also a large round terraced area that possibly could've been a fortress. The Inkas terraced lots of steep land areas to improve irrigation for crop growing also. Although Sacsayhuman is a massive site now it's only 20% of it's original size, the Spanish destroyed the rest. Cusco was clearly a very important place for the Inkas and therefore the Spanish needed to clearly make their mark here too. Which is probably why there's a large Christ figure right by the Inka site.
We walk back down to the city along the steep cobbled streets looking forward to the big one. These Inka sites are merely a warm up to the most famous of them all, as well as one of the most famous sights of the whole continent of South America and the world, Macchu Picchu.
But getting there isn't straight forward.