+1- 786-9083701
CALL US 51 - 7086810
| Price | From US$ 20.00 per person |
|---|---|
| Length | De 08:30 hrs. a 14:00 hrs |
| Departs | Every day |
This touristic circuit is a half day trip. We’ll pick you up at your hotel at 8:20am to visit: Maras.
Salineras: These natural Salt fields have been harvested since Incan times, throughout the colonial period, and even today. They are composed of a large number of pools where the pink “Maras Salt” is produced, one of the few salts in the world that has its own flavor. Today the Pink Maras Salt is among the four most outstanding gourmet salts in the world.
Salinas de Maras in Cusco, Maras or as they are also called, are sa l mines whose exploitation is as old as the Tahuantinsuyo. Located on the hillside, the salt in the form of terraces or platforms is crossed by a stream that feeds the pools of salt water. Using Maras Salt dates back thousands of years and is inherited in each family, but is managed communally.
The name of the salt in Quechua is kachi Raqay and is composed of about five thousand pools of about 5 square meters each, the water seeps into the ponds and evaporates per share of sunshine, making sprout crystals of salt, after 1 month, the salt reaches 10 cm. high and it has to be harvested.
The view is spectacular set of pools. The villagers show visitors their ancestral techniques allowing them to participate in the collection, as well as festivals and Andean rituals.
The place is highly recommended for lovers of photography. The area is ideal for trekking and mountain biking.
Moray: Is an imposing archeological site, made up of an impressive system of terraces laid out in the form of a giant amphitheater. These terraces functioned as a gigantic agricultural lab, where ancient Peruvians experimented and obtained improved crops.
Moray is located 62 km from Cusco and 7 km west of Maras . This at an altitude of 3500 meters. This is a route often used by cyclists. Nearby is the town of Maras with its salt mines of Maras .
Discovered in 1932, it presents enigmatic Moray for whom the visit, impressive circular platforms that seem gigantic fingerprints, suggests a gigantic agricultural laboratory, although many interpretations are on the side of an astronomical observatory or worship as primordial sense.
Moray thought that was used for adapting plants to new climatic environments, it is a proof of the high level of agricultural knowledge reached by the Incas.
According to anthropologist John Earls Moray was an agricultural laboratory built by the Incas to recreate a series of microclimates in which to plant a variety of crops improved experimentally.
The soil temperature of each platform determined that the Incas succeed in developing twenty miniature ecological zones where produce grains like quinoa and amaranth and pumpkin and squash and clear multiple varieties of potatoes.
Moray platforms were an experimental station formed by huge conical depressions 47-84 m, cut into the limestone, where different climates agreement was achieved with the depth of the platforms.
The terraces of Moray resembling a sunken amphitheater, as an artificial crater, were built on retaining walls filled with fertile earth and watered by complex irrigation systems. Thus, the existing thermal variation between the surface and the bottom of these natural holes was exploited so that each terrace different varieties of plants (more than 250 plant species) were adapted. It is speculated that, from his experience in this kind of hothouse, the Incas organized agricultural production throughout the Tahuantinsuyo.
These terraces also hold religious importance in the Andean spirituality, as they inspire great mysticism, and are still preserved as a site to give ritual offerings to the Pachamama, or Mother Earth.
MARAS
Maras is a village located 48 km. northwest of the city of Cusco, 12 km from Urubamba and about 3028 meters. The temperature fluctuates between 1-21 degrees Celsius.
This picturesque town, contains beautifully preserved colonial architecture against a delightful backdrop of nature’s colorful caprices.
Maras was an important town during the colonial period (was the main supplier of salt in the southern highlands), as demonstrated by the church and mansions that still have the shields of indigenous nobility in their facades. The houses are made of adobe, white walls with blue roofs and windows, the streets are made of stone and mud. In the lintels you can be read inscribed in stone the date on which they were built, their own or a shield or ornament.
Maras was founded by the Spanish in 1556, and was in charge of encomendero Pedro Ortiz de Orue, whose house is located one block from the main square, where his chamber door data owner read, it was he who I restore this custom, which to this day continues. It is recommended to see the house belonging to the Tupac Inca Sinchi Roc at (249 Jerusalem), the Jesuit cover (Jerusalem 233), the cover of Sancho Usca Paucar (Jerusalem 245) that surprises with its work and ornamentation.
The San Francisco Church of Assisi built by Orue, has four baroque altarpieces of the seventeenth century with beautiful carved and covered with gold leaf. It has paintings on the walls of the painter from the Cusco School Antonio Sinchi Roca, with scenes of the Gospel and portraits of saints.
At present the main economic activity is agriculture Maras. Among its most popular attractions are its salt mines, located 10 km. the village. Nearby is the Andenes Moray