Last Saturday we were anxious to leave the noise and chaos of Cusco to explore the Andes mountains and Sacred Valley (Valle Sagrado) 15 miles outside of the city. The Urubamba River runs through the fertile Sacred Valley which made it an ideal agricultural area for the Incas. While it is a major tourist area because it is filled with Incan ruins, Spanish colonial villages, fertile farmland, and colorful local markets it is not filled with tourists.

While in Peru we have visited Inca museums, Inca ruins, churches built on former Inca sites and studied Inca building methods, plants, and medicine. We are immersed in all things Inca. If you are not interested in the Inca influence on modern Peru, don’t feel compelled to read further.

In the Sacred Valley we visited three different pueblos with different Incan archeological complexes; an archeological palace/ruin in Chincero, an agricultural research site in Moray and the Salt Mines of Mara in Pichingoto.

Chinchero

Chinchero is located 20 miles northwest of Cusco and sits at 12,300 ft. above sea level, slightly higher than Cusco. The Vilcabamba range and the snowcapped peak of Salcantay tower over the quaint little town.

Chinchero is known as the Rainbow city and site of the palace of Inca prince Tupac Yupanqui. It is thought that Yupanqui, son of Pachacutec, used the site as a vacation resort to escape Cusco. At his palace, he ordered the construction of aqueducts and terraces for farming, some are still in use today. He farmed here to take advantage of the soil in Chinchero which is the most fertile soil in the Sacred Valley.

The colonial church, Our Lady of Monserrat, built by the Spanish in 1607, stands on the site of the Inca palace. As in other places throughout the former Inca empire, the Spanish destroyed much of the palace and built their church on top of the remains, reusing the stone.

Today, Chinchero is home to traditional Peruvian weaving and a colorful artisan market. The people of Chinchero still wear the typical ancestral dress at the market.

We visited the market where weavers demonstrated how alpaca wool is harvested, spun into yarn and dyed using natural materials.

Later, we hiked up a steep cobblestone road to the church and the Inca site when a wedding procession and musicians passed us leading the groom to the church. In the plaza outside of the church, we saw many local artisans selling their crafts and the wedding party waiting to enter the church. We browsed the colorful baby alpaca sweaters, leathercrafts, woven bags, and musical instruments. Then, we peeked into the old stone church, which was filled with white flowers, to see the wedding and afterward, waited to congratulate the bride.

Moray

Twenty miles from Chinchero is Moray, home to an Incan agricultural center. These pre-Colombian terraces were discovered in 1911 and archeologists believed that the circular terraces were an Incan amphitheater.

However, in 1932 the area was recognized as an agricultural site. The 6 central terraces, 100 feet deep, lead to a circular basin so well-drained that it never floods no matter the amount of rain. Scientists don’t know whether this is due to geologic conditions or Incan-made tunnels under the Moray soil.

Six more terraces, in connected ellipses rather than perfect circles, surround the six concentric terraces of Moray, and eight terraced steps overlook the site. In total, Moray has 20 levels of terraces upon which the Incans grew corn, potatoes, and medicinal plants.

Aqueduct channels irrigate the terraces and the temperature variation between the terraces is 27 degrees F. (trust me, I did the math based on the temperature variation for each level) with the warmest terrace at the bottom. It is believed the Incans experimented with vegetables on different terraces to simulate altitude changes and to determine the best planting conditions, soil and natural fertilizer to support crops throughout the Incan Empire which ranged from southern Colombia to Santiago, Chile. The Incan culture had the organizational skills and the knowledge to determine the most productive crops for each successive climate belt of the steep Andean fields.

 

Salineras de Maras

Salineras de Maras (Salt Mines of Maras) are located in the small town of Pichingoto and are comprised of over 4,000 small salt wells. The salt mines have provided salt for residents of Peru’s Sacred Valley since the Inca Empire.

Since pre-Inca times, salt has been obtained in Maras by evaporating salty water from a subterranean stream. The salty water emerges from the underground stream which is directed into a system of channels constructed so that the water runs gradually down onto the terraced salt ponds. Almost all the ponds are less than four meters square and less than thirty centimeters in depth. At the time of the Inca Empire, only a fraction of these salt ponds existed; however, in current times the salt ponds have been expanded to support the families in Maras.

We tasted the water that comes directly from the mountain spring and the concentrated salt. It is pretty what how you’d expect — very salty.

The Mara Salt Mine is a cooperative and available to any community member wishing to harvest salt. The size of the salt pond assigned to a family depends on the family’s size. A prospective salt farmer is invited to locate an empty unmaintained pond, consult with the cooperative, learn how to keep a pond properly within the communal system and start working.

So how does it work? Saltwater fills each of the ponds and over time, the salt crystallizes as the water evaporates due to the warm Andean sun and wind. Workers then harvest the salt with sieves and shovels – pilling up little salt pyramids and draining the pond in the process. The harvested salt has three grades. The salt at the top is traditional “White” salt. The salt in the middle of the pond is premium “Pink” salt. The salt at the bottom is “Brown” salt and is not used for human consumption but for medicinal or animal purposes. Iodine is added to the harvested salt before it is packaged and shipped.

We bought a Cusqueño brand Maras salted quinoa chocolate bar and a bag of pink salt so that we could taste the salt and Peruvian chocolate. Delicious!

The Sacred Valley is beautiful, and we enjoyed getting out of Cusco and visiting some of the other, lesser-known Inca sites. We always find pueblos to be charming and look forward to exploring the markets and practicing our Spanish by talking to the artisans. People in these towns embrace their heritage and it is amazing that customs and crafts from pre-colonial times are still practiced and passed down from generation to generation.