North of Cusco

So Cusco has this silly system where you have to buy a Boleto Turístico, or tourist ticket, that gets you into 15 or 16 sites in and around the city, but it is only good for 10 days. Monday was the last day I could use mine, so after lunch my new friend Timo and I embarked on a marathon tour of four archaelogical sites just north of Cusco.

This is Tambomachay. It was some sort of ceremonial bath used by the Incas, but I prefer Timo's on-the-fly translation from his Dutch tour guide: "here the Inca man came to the holy spring".
This is Pukapukara, quechua for "red fort". Its original use(s) seem to be uncertain: my Lonely Planet guide says something about it maybe being a hunting lodge, while the guide we met at the site told us it was a check point along the Inca trail leading to Cusco city, as well as a sort of meditation center and playground. That's right, the youth would sit on the terrace on top and absorb the magnetic energy which supposedly emanates from this spot, and when they got bored with that, they would go downstairs and toss rocks into a hole in the wall. The guide was very insistent in explaining that it was not a drainage pipe, but very clearly used for sport. Hmm.
Pukapukara also boasts a scale model of Machu Picchu. Who needs the real thing, anyway?