We got to sleep in today. For the first time during this trip we didn't have to be up before 5:30 am. The hikers were leaving for their 3 or 4 day hikes in the mountains and we will be going back to Cusco to learn more about that beautiful city. 

We left our beautiful villa nestled between the mountains and headed to the Maras salt mines which are located at an altitude of 3,380 meters in a small village, famous for its salt mines. It is made up of about 3000 small wells with an average size of about 5 meters². These have been used as a means of economic exchange and securities since pre-Incan times. It was very interesting to see how the salt is recovered from these mines and the quality of life for those who work here.  Basically the water comes from the mountain which is rich in salt. It flows into the wells through troughs. Then, as the water evaporates the salt crystals appear.  Only the top white 30 cm is good enough for human consumption. Then it becomes yellow and under the yellow it's brown. The yellow and brown crystals are used for exfoliation and other medicinal purposes. Each well is owned by a family who makes and harvests the salt. 

In the beautiful snowcapped Chicon and Veronica mountains with the Cordillera Vilcanota as a backdrop we continued through to Moray. In Moray we visited the Inca agricultural greenhouse or laboratory, at an altitude of 3,500 meters, consisting of four platforms, amphitheater style, at a depth of 150 meters. The overlapping concentric circular stone rings widen as they rise. It was an experimental place to study the adaptation of plants to new ecosystems. Each platform has several terraces which have a different micro system. There is actually a 2 degree Celsius difference between each terrace.  The Incan population was exploding and they needed to introduce different types of crops so they experimented with seeds on each terrace to see which climate produced the best crop.  Pretty ingenious if you think about it.  To get to this laboratory we drove through the village of Moray.  In the main square is a statue of a man, woman and donkey. The significance of this is that the Spanish introduced the donkey to South America. The llamas could only carry 25 kg loads which was hardly enough to carry the Spaniards plunders of gold and silver. 
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We then carried on to Cusco where we get to stay for 2 nights. We arrived around 3:00 and went out to a restaurant for lunch called The Fallen Angel. We had a great lunch. 
 
In the main square there was a festival celebrating the 24 departments or regions of Peru.  Within these departments are provinces. Within the provinces are districts. Each of the departments was represented in a parade with their traditional clothing and dancers were dancing the traditional dance of the region. It was very colourful and interesting. The locals were out enjoying the festivities. They strike me as very family oriented and happy.