Maras and Moray: The Generosity of the Land

Salt Bed of Maras By Martin Harbaum

Between Cusco and Urubamba are two of the best known attractions concerning to agricultural experimentation which transformed the hills and valleys.

From a bird’s eye view Maras seems a white spot between green multicolor Sacred Valley and Urubamba mountain ranges. Since the earth is shining and people work in silence. You walk across the edges, surrounded by small streams, on a slope almost vertical. They are about 600 ponds of salt, about five square meters each, which are extracted by evaporation three types of salt:  according to the purity, they have  first, second and third class.

Since the days of the Inca Empire, families of Maras and Pichingoto extract the salt, as if they were small farms, which then are sold in the markets of Urubamba, Cusco and Izcuchaca. They claim to have medicinal properties and, increasingly, are found and used in Bio-Fairs , Supermarkets, Restaurantd and Hotels, sometimes at prices that multiply several times the amount originally paid to the collector – farmer.

The Salt Beds of Maras are in a narrow canyon near the cereal plains surrounding the town of the same name. In it, houses preserved stone lintels decorated with sixteenth-century religious inscriptions , coats of arms and Andean symbols. Also, through the canyon, you can reach by bicycle ,horseback or on foot the  Urubamba Valley on a beautifull  route surrounded by vegetation that crosses the River.  Activities are offered by tour operators.

The light reflected on these fields, the mountain range that rises imposingly in front, white salt seems to be dripping on the hill, and the dryness of everything that surrounds us, makes Maras a magical place to be!

GIANT GREENHOUSE

About six miles from Maras is a masterpiece of agricultural engineering. From the air, enormous eyes with oriental feature of the Pachamama seem to look at you. During the agricultural Moray Raymi festival, held every year in September, dancers, musicians and sororities, as Lilliputians, are placed along the terraces with flags and colorful costumes. This engineered circular terraces with underground channels, were used for agricultural  purposes.

These ovals and concentric rings located at different levels, were the greenhouse and field experiments in agriculture of the Incas. These differences in height, where the platforms are located, creating changes in temperature and humidity, according to archaeologists, generating up to 20 different life zones. In them, the Incas could domesticate and cultivate wild plants species, which naturally do not grow in Cusco.

Mother Nature, who in many ways,  care and feeds us!