A hot salty water flows out of the mountains, one can tases the salty water with a finger. After ollantaytambo, we headed back to urubamba, the largest town in the sacred valley. The hike enters las salineras through the back of the valley and is the. Maras is a town in the sacred valley of the incas, 40 kilometers north of cusco, in the cusco region of peru.
The town is well known for its salt evaporation ponds, located towards urubamba from the town center, which have been in use since inca times. The saltevaporation ponds are four kilometers north of the town, down a canyon that descends to the rio vilcanota and the sacred valley of the. Hike down into the canyon from maras or up from the road connecting urubamba to ollantaytambo. The trail is primarily used for hiking, walking, and nature trips and is best used from september until october. The sun had just dipped behind the mountains that tower over the urubamba valley and the town of the same name. So with no plans to come back to urubamba any time soon, it was worth a shot to reach them. This was our first daytrip in peru after spending a night in lima and landing in cusco the following morning. It is the same minibus that takes people to and from cusco.
Maras salt ponds amazing terraced pans inherited from. The salt pans outside the town of maras, some way above urubamba, were just within a reasonable distance to travel. While the highlight of chinchero is its colorful outdoor market, maras salineras is an awestruck site of thousands of years of salt fields, and moray terrace displays the. Entre sus atractivos mas visitados, destacan sus salineras, ubicadas a 10 km. Admission is s10, and is not covered by the cusco boleto tuistico.
Our driver dropped us off at the urubamba bus station. The tour begins with a visit to the colonial city of maras and its church. Chinchero, maras salineras, and moray in peru journey. These small villages are not so touristy but has magnificent incan sites. The town of maras lies approximately 40km 25 miles northwest of cusco just off the cuscochincherourubamba road. The town of maras itself is pretty uneventful but does have. Its hard to believe that these thousands of salt pools cascading down a valley are being used until today for salt extraction.
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