Cuzco, Peru: 13th Feb 10

This morning we drove into the hills on the outskirts of the city and walked back into town, visiting 4 Inca sites on the way.

All of the sites had amazing views across hills and valleys, or the city itself.

We visited Tombomachay, which used to be baths; Pukapukara, which scholars think was used as a hunting lodge and Q’enqo, which was a sacrificial temple.


The last place we visited was a huge complex called Saqsaywaman (humorously pronounced ‘Sexy Woman’).

It was a defensive part of the capital city, consisting of temples, store rooms, an amphitheatre and many other structures. There are even some creepy tunnels that we walked through in total darkness.

It was here that the Spanish had one of their major victories over the Incas, resulting in a huge massacre.

The views from the complex are amazing as it’s right next to the city, high up on a hill. Infact, Cusco was originally planned to take the shape of a puma, when viewed from above, and ‘Sexy Woman’ was intended to be the Puma’s head. Some huge walls are in a zig-zag shape and were meant to represent the Puma’s teeth!

We were joined on our walk around by 2 gorgeous dogs (there are many dogs without owners in Cusco) that stayed with us for an hour and a half and walked with us all the way into town afterwards – cute!

In the evening we went to one of Cuzco’s top restaurants called ‘Fallen Angel’ where we ate our dinner off a glass-topped bath-tub with fish swimming in it –cool!