Maras - Moray & the Salt Pans of the Sacred Valley

On the 22th of August I got up early, I went to get a collectivo that goes towards Urubamba for 4 soles. About 45 minutes later I would get out at the crossroads that leads to Maras. When I got out of the bus, two other travelers were getting out at the same place to also go visit the Moray terraces and the salt pans. They were a couple from France and we decided to get a cab together for the trip around these Sacred Valley sites. We negotiated the cab for 60 soles (20 each). The driver brought us to the Moray site first and gave us one hour to walk around and waited for us. 

Landscape of the Sacred Valley

The moray site was very nice indeed, it is thought that it was used as an experimental crop terraces. The site can easily be visited in an hour and is pretty impressive once you are down in the middle of the circles you realize how big the circles actually are. We walked around and had time to take many pictures on the way down and then walked back up to get back to the cab and head to our next stop, the village of Maras. 

Moray

Moray

Moray

Click on picture to see the whole album

Moray

Moray

Before we went to Maras, the driver told us that he needed to go put gas in the car because he was afraid to run out. He says that there was no gas in Maras and took an even smaller dirt road to another village close by, I cannot remember the name he told me and I looked onto maps and google and can't even find it. I was a bit suspicious when he said that, but he indeed stop at a small store and put gas in the car and then we drove off to Maras.

The other village

The other village 

Maras is a quite small town with not a whole lot to see, but it is typical Peruvian small town which gives you a pretty good idea of what small villages can look like around Peru. After a quick 20 minutes stop for us to walk around, we got back in the cab heading to the Salt Pans.

 

Maras

 

Maras

 

Maras

When we got on top of the hill going down to the Salt Pans, we realized how big the site actually was. I had an idea of what is was like from pictures I had seen, but pictures never can represent the exactness of the size of a place like this. Hundreds upon hundreds of basins were the water of a small source from the mountain is collected. Once full the block the water from coming in and leaves to evaporate in the sun. Once the water is gone there is only salt left in the basins. They still use this site to this date. You can buy salt from the site and it is distributed in Peru for sale in many markets. I had to be curious and stuck my finger in one of the basins and licked it, it was the saltiest water I will ever taste (I guess), and hour later and many drinks of water, my lips still tasted salty. It was a very nice walk in between the pans here and there and a must see site.

Short video of the salt Pans

The cab was not waiting for us this time because we had asked to be dropped there and we would walk down the valley heading to Tarabamba (not visible on the maps either) that is on the road between Urubamba and Ollantaytambo. The walk down was very nice and once we got down we walked some until we got to a bridge that crossed the Urubamba River to the village. Right across the bridge was a restaurant/hotel where there were tables outside and we decided to stay there for lunch since it was the beginning of the afternoon.

On the way to Tarabamba

On the way to Tarabamba 

On the way to Tarabamba 

Hotel-Restaurant where we had lunch

 

Hotel-Restaurant where we had lunch

We walked up to the main road after lunch and split up on the road. I was going towards Ollantaytambo and they had to go back to Chinchero. I then made it to visit the ruins of Ollantaytambo the same day taking a collectivo from there for 2 soles, but this will be in another post because I have yet to go back in Ollantaytambo for a few days.