Exciting start to the day. 6 of our 8 are doing an optional excursion to the Salt mines in Maras and an archeological site at Maray. Surprisingly there is a ‘festival’ on today, I guess because it’s Monday so the traffic police are out in force. Our bus pulls up to pick us up and is straight away whistled to move on. Marcial talks to the officer while we all bundle into the van but up ahead is another officious officer who demands the license from the driver and it looks like he could cop a fine until Marcial explains that is passengers are seniors and we unable to walk too far ! I suggested that he would go to the municipal office and report the office for not respecting the rights of seniors.
We drive away laughing.
I have attempted to write this days story 3 times and each time some of it goes missing so now this is the abridged version.
The drive to the Salt mines takes us through the countryside and small villages where the people are going about their daily lives. It’s a hard but simple life. The backdrop of the region is the glaciers and mountains that surrounds it. We stop to take some pictures of Veronica mountain which stands at 5750m absl.
The salt pans are interesting. It’s run by a co-op of around 400 families and they each manage their lots. We able to walk around among the pans and watch the work but in a few days time that won’t be possible. Due to pollution they are stopping the tourist from walking down there. We are fortunate but I can understand why. The highest quality salt is the pink salt which is exported around the world.
Next we visit the archaeological site at Moray. It’s a series of circular terraces dating back to ore Incan times. There are many theories about why they are like this but whatever the reason they are really neat. The biggest one has been restored and there are others that are still as they were found.
On the way back we stop at a textile village Chinchero where the ladies are weavers. We hear about the way they get the natural colours in the alpaca and Llama wool using plants and seeds etc.
Back in Cuzco we have a late lunch at the Caffe Museo then spend the remainder of the day wandering around the streets enjoying the music and dancing and the festival atmosphere. Early night to prepare for an early morning. The weather has been perfect warm sunny days and very cold nights.