We are headed through the Sacred Valley of the Incas…
and up the side of the mountain to the Chinchero Plateau.
Our first stop was a viewpoint overlooking the Maras Salt Mines.
There is a nearby saltwater spring whose water flows down this mountainside.
The salt water moves down through the terraces through many small water channels.
The salt has been harvested here since the time of the Incas.
The drying terraces and the salt operation is owned by farming families in the area. Apparently early in the salt making cycle the “first crop” is pretty white. As the year goes on it gets more impurities (or, more healthy minerals) and turns a light brown. The browner salt is used for animals.
We could see piles and bags of salt in various areas and buildings around the terraces.
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More Salineras de Maras
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The Andes Mountains around the Chinchero Plateau
where really spectacular.
Our next stop was the Moray Archaeological Site. This site is set in a very secluded and protected valley. It is a series of terraces that were a farming laboratory. The nature of the area is such that there are many microclimates. This allowed the Incas to experiment with growing crops in these various climates. There are four of the circular terrace areas.
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| Large Circle |
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| Medium Circle |
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| Medium Circle |
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| Medium Circle |
One is a very large and pretty much restored set of terraces. It looks pretty amazing.
The smallest was around the corner and out of site. The two others are medium in size and are
only partly restored.
Our last stop of the day is at the home of the Chinchero weavers.
We first ate our box lunches and were given a very interesting presentation on how they prepare the sheep wool (picking, washing with a soap, rinsing) and drying,
spinning it into yarn (Mary tried her hand at it),
And dying.
All of the dyes are natural dyes and they had a display with the colored balls of yard and the materials they used to achieve the colors.
They had a surprising wide array of colors available to them and could get rather intense colors.
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Weavers video
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The weavers also had guinea pigs (today, cute little animals, tomorrow dinner),
a display of some of the native foods, including some very interesting shaped potatoes (Peru has between 3,500 and 4,000 varieties of potatoes) and a rainbow of corn (they also have over 55 varieties of corn). Peru has more varieties of corn and potatoes than any other country in the wordl.
There was also a llama and some alpacas in an enclosure.
All in all it was a varied and very interesting day.
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