Salts Flats of Maras and The Moray Terraces-Half Day

Maras:

Maras is small town located on the occident of Cusco at 3300 meters (aprox 10,000 feet), from there you can see the Urubamba Mountain range containing the snowy peaks of La Verónica (5682 M) and El Chikón (5530 M). These small towns such as Maras became very important to the Incans when noble Cusqueños (people from Cusco) were expelled from their palaces in Cusco and were forced to establish small towns in the mountainous surroundings. There we will visit a small adobe church called the Posee, this church is a strong representation of religious architecture in small towns, and the interior of this church is filled with paintings of The Cusqueña School.

Moray:

This town is only 7km to the southwest of Maras, it is archeological site that carries its own uniqueness to the other sites in the region. This archeological site was built in what seems like a massive crater or hole in the ground, and the Incans used the perimeter of the large depression to build circular agricultural terraces. The terraces were each built with their own respective irrigational systems, in its era this type of agricultural innovation was highly advanced for any civilization in the world. This type of irrigational system helped people throughout the Incan Empire to increase their harvests by up to 60%, for the Andean populations relied on and consumed over 1000 verities of potatoes, 100 different kinds of corn and many other types of vegetables.

Salt Flats:

Located to the northeast of the town of Maras, there are over 3000 small wells with an average size of 5sq meters. During the dry season each well is filled every 3 days with salt water that flows from a natural well at the top of the salt flats. In the wells the water evaporates and leaves large “plates” of salt at the bottom of the wells. The “plates” are then broken up and granulated in small pieces of salt. The salt is then bagged up in plastic bags and dispersed to the markets all around Peru, today the salt is iodized, therefore it is not harmful to consume. After the salt flats we will return back to Cusco at approximately 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Duration: 6 hours.

Price of Tour Per Person

Tour Included:

• Pick up from hotel to begin tour.
• Tourist Bus for transportation.
• Bilingual and professional guide (English/Spanish).
• Box Lunch.

Tour does NOT include:

• Extra food and water.
• Entrance into Moray: 70/S (22 USD)
• Entrance in Salt Flats: 10/S (3 USD)

Recommended you bring:

• Camera or video camera
• Sunglasses, sunscreen and a hat
• Light clothing
• Warm clothing
• Snack