Peru 2005: Day 3 — Moray, Maras
DAY 3: Moray, Maras
Another early morning wake up in the chilly Pakaritampu Hotel. It had rained through the night and was still raining when we woke up (and would continue raining for 3 more days without a break). The clothes I washed the night before had not dried a lick, and the shower had no water pressure (but it was warm).
Oh, and I felt like crud. I had the start of a chest cold (perhaps due to the smokey fireplace the night before) and the inklings of a fever. Great….lets go hiking at 12,000 feet!
More coffee sludge for breakfast, and then some coca tea (lots of sugar) in a foolhearted attempt at keeping the fever at bay. We then boarded a bus and drove up the Urubamba River Valley. At some point, we passed a bull fighting ring and then crossed a bridge over the Urubamba River and started climbing the steep side of the valley (gaining approximately 3,000 feet ) to a high altitude and fairly flat and expansive plateau.
Our first stop for that morning was the wind-swept (and rainy) terraces of Moray. Viewed from above, the terraces are tucked 100+ feet below the ranger station. There are actually 3 sets of terraces filling 3 adjacent low points. The drainage for each terraces was provided by an Inca-enlarged sinkhole and is evidently stone-lined and quite large. Those in the know think that this site was used to acclimate seeds and plants to the succesfully colder environments. Because of it’s low-lying protection, the inner terraces are several degrees warmer than the outer rings. Early genetic engineering by the Incas! This same site also has Inca flying stairs leading from one level to another. In this photo you can get a sense of scale. The people at the far end are archealogists working on renovating the site. The site had sufferred much wear and tear as the former home to the Moray city market.
We practically ran up the hill towards the bus in an attempt to get out of the blasting cold wind. While waiting for everybody to finish up their body break, I was able to make change for a couple of trekkers. The trekkers then asked (and we agreed) for a lift down to Maras. They proved quite an interesting pair and had been wandering around Peru for quite some time. Back on the bus, we drove back through the city of Moray and stopped to take pictures of a chicha shop (signaled by bright plastic bags wrapped around the end of a stick and hanging out the doorway). Our short-bus barely made it through the tight city streets and had to pull a 270 degree right hand turn in the city plaza. Go with it.
Then came the hightlight of the day, the salt “mines” of Maras. As shown in this detailed map, the mines are an expanse of plots. Individuals buy rights to several of the plots and simply “mine” salt. The salt is provided, courtesy of mother nature, from a salty-spring found further up the narrow valley. With Peruvian low-tech ingenuity, this salt is routed down hundreds of small channels (aqueducts) to the various plots. As upstream plots fill with clay and become unusable, more level plots are constructed further downstream.
Just past the ranger station is a vist point where this photo, this one of me, and this one of the salt mines was taken.
After a few donkey traffic jams, we drove down to the church (located just above the salt mines) and tourist station. We unloaded our bus and prepared for the 800 foot downhill hike to the Urubamba River. At this point, my fever was coming on strong and my legs burned from the touch of my pants….oh bother.
Hiking down through the salt mines was amazing and definitely recommended! Of course, seeing as Peru has yet to be overrun by stupid lawyers, there were no guard rails or trail warning signs blocking the amazing view. Instead, there was a 10 inch wide foot path down amongst the plots. We got to see men and women harvesting the salt by hand. Steph captured this amazing photo showing the dramatic elevation changes between plots and the numerous small channels that are used to fill the plots up with salt-laden water. This guy was carrying a 100 pound bag of salt on his back while walking barefoot at 10,000 feet. He’s got my respect. The woman in the photo is a Quechuan wearing a traditional lime-covered hat.
Well, we reached the bottom (nearly last….I wasn’t doing so well and felt like passing out) and re-boarded the bus (that met us down there) back to the Pakaritampu hotel. At this point we had a little over an hour to grab lunch and change for our upcoming shake-down hike on the Inca Trail that afternoon. One more chance to re-pack all of our necessities for the next several days into a 22lb(max) duffel. This was also my opportunity to ingest some Coke-light and a DayQuil (it helped) to reduce the fever (>101F).
