Maras & Moray

Visit the Moray Laboratory and the Maras Salt Mines

08:00 am – 08:30 am | Pickup at your hotel in Cusco
Your day with Machupicchu Glory begins at a comfortable morning hour. Your guide picks you up at your downtown Cusco hotel and heads out along the northwest road, passing Andean villages and farmland as we climb toward the Chinchero plateau.

08:45 am – 09:15 am | Sacred Valley Viewpoint (Chinchero, 3,800 masl)
After 45 to 50 minutes on the road, we stop for 15 to 20 minutes at a panoramic viewpoint. From here the Sacred Valley of the Urubamba unfolds before you, along with the peaks of the Vilcanota range and the towering Verónica snow-capped mountain, a first glimpse of the landscape that shaped the Andean worldview.

09:30 am | Arrival at Moray (3,500 masl)
Crossing the Maras plateau, with its reddish soil and fields of wheat and potatoes, we reach the Moray complex. This Inca agricultural laboratory gathers concentric circular terraces that descend like an amphitheater some 30 meters, in up to seven stepped rings. Each level has its own microclimate, with differences of up to 15 °C between the top ring and the bottom, the equivalent of traveling from the coast down to 1,000 meters. Taking advantage of the walls' solar absorption, the wind protection of the circular shape, and an ingenious underground drainage system, the Incas recreated different ecological tiers to experiment with seeds of maize, potato, quinoa, and kiwicha: a masterful example of Inca engineering. We spend around 60 minutes exploring its terraces.

11:00 am | The Maras Salt Mines (3,300 masl)
Fifteen minutes away, passing through the village of Maras, we reach the famous Salt Mines. From the upper viewpoint you take in a mosaic of more than 3,000 stepped salt pools —as many as 4,500— in shades of white, ochre, and pink. This uninterrupted pre-Inca operation is managed by around 480 families, each owning their own pools. The underground Qoripujio spring, the "golden eye of water," rises from above, and earthen channels feed the salty water pool by pool; in the dry season, evaporation by sun and wind crystallizes the salt, which is scraped by hand over a cycle of three weeks to a month. You will have 75 to 90 minutes to walk the paths between the pools, watch the harvest, take photographs, and buy pink salt, flor de sal, and flavored salts from the producers (cash, in soles).

02:30 pm – 03:30 pm | Return to Cusco
At midday we head back (60 to 70 minutes) and drop you off at your hotel or at the Plaza de Armas. We recommend bringing snacks and water, as lunch is not included.