Chinchero, Maras & Moray and Ollantaytambo

We depart early from your Hotel to the Sacred Valley of the Incas where we will visit Chinchero village and market, which are former agricultural center, composed of 12 ayllus (tribes) or indigenous communities. Its inhabitants are dedicated to agriculture. On Sunday there is a fair where local people meet to sell their products. From the Chinchero plateau we begin our descent into the Sacred Valley, with beautiful landscapes and the backdrop of snow-capped peaks. Then we will continue to Maras. About 7 Km (4.3 mi) away southwest from Maras is Moray, a very unique archaeological site, where enormous natural depressions or hollows in the ground surface where used for constructing irrigated farming terraces. What is surprising is that the difference of average annual temperature between the top and the bottom reaches even about 15˚C (59˚F) in the main depression that is about 30 m (100 ft.) deep. In these natural formations, nature has created an environment or microclimates that in modern times people create in greenhouses or hothouses.
Towards the northwest of the Maras Village are the famous “salt pans”, where considerable volume of solid salt is obtained; about 10 cm (4 inches) high from the floor. That solid salt is beaten granulated, then packed in sacks and sent to the region’s markets. Today that salt is being treated with iodine, thus its consumption is benign. In the neighborhood of these sites, we will have lunch with beautiful views if the surrounding landscapes.
In the afternoon, we’ll visit the impressive Ollantaytambo fortress, one of the few places where the Spanish were defeated in a battle during their conquest and on route we will visit a traditional house (Chicheria). At Ollantaytambo we can see Inca canchas, enclosures of multi-family living quarters that share just one exit to the street, ingenious stonework, cobbled streets and an extensive communal water system that survives to this day. We will visit the Inca site known as a fortress due to its hilltop domination of the surrounding valley and magnificent shore-world. Return to your Hotel in Cusco.