Day 2 Maras and Moray
When we travel I try to pack in as much as I can. My plan for this trip was to take it a little easier since we needed to prepare for the big hike but of course I still made plans for us.
On our first full day in Cusco we got up and enjoyed the beautiful breakfast buffet at the hotel. Of course we had our morning cup of coca tea. The buffet consisted of all the typical breakfast items but a few stood out – fresh avocado, olives, super fresh yogurt, popped quinoa, and an amazing spinach loaf. It was a great way to start the day. Our guide was picking us up at 8 AM to do a half day tour of Maras and Moray.
The concierge came in to tell us that our car was here so Jeff and I loaded up and introduced ourselves. Unfortunately our driver did not speak English. We were told by hotel staff that our guide would be joining us. The driver started heading down the street and we see someone chasing our car. I will say it was always pleasant to hear a local breathing hard after exertion. It made us feel a little bit better. Our guide Saul Palma, with Alpaca Expeditions (alpacaexpeditions.com), proved to be a very interesting and educational guide. He was clearly passionate about the local history and passionate about preserving it. He served as a representative for his home town and also participates in an organization that lobbies for porter welfare. He shared that he had started as a porter when he was 14 years old. At some point he met an American tourist that he credits as his angel. She offered him sponsorship and helped him go to college and become a tour guide. Throughout our day if Saul saw areas where damage was occurring to a site we were visiting he was documenting it and trying to discover ways to help the community lessen the damage.
We started the morning with a visit to a local weaving cooperative in Chinchero. Here we were given a cup of muna tea and a demonstration of how wool was cleaned, spun, dyed, and woven. The process was started by grating a root called saqta that was referred to as “Inca Shampoo.” It was amazing how little it took to foam up the water and how quickly it cleaned the sheep wool. Our daughter is raising six lambs for FFA so I would have loved to have brought some back to help bathe our lambs! Of course the claim all the tourists like is that theis shampoo is credited with preventing grey hair. When I thought about it I didn’t remember seeing any indigenous people with grey hair. Unfortunately we were told you had to start the shampoo before you had any grey hair! Several plants were shown with the colors that are created by them. The most interesting was the red made by a parasite that lives on a prickly pear cactus.
It can be altered to a different tint by diluting with lemon juice, salt, and volcanic stone. It is used in lipstick as well. Each color made is processed for a different amount of time and possibly even with the addition of children’s urine. After showing us the dying process they then proceed to spin and weave with the wool. They were very proud that they are able to make such intricate designs without the aid of patterns. They said children start working and learning the process at 5 years of age. Speaking of children we saw most Peruvian women carrying their children on their back. The lady doing our demonstration had a large well behaved toddler on her back throughout the whole presentation.
Now we were off to Moray. It is an amazing site with three sets of elaborate terraces. When they were first discovered it was believed they had been an amphitheater similar to what might be seen in Rome. But continued studies and excavation revealed that this elaborate set of terraces was actually an agricultural experiment.
Each layer represented a different microclimate and allowed the Incans to experiment with different plants. Pollen studies showed various plants that live on the coast or in the jungle had been grown here. With a 27 degree temperature difference between the lowest and highest levels it became easy to envision the microclimates that could be experimented with. Soil samples from different areas of the country were discovered showing that the Incas imported soils along with the plants. The coca plant is so very important to the Andean people. In its natural habitat it is a tall tree. In these microclimates they were able to grow it as s bush. We were told that coca has been found to contain 27 positive nutrients and only one negative alkaloid but this alkaloid is deactivated when it comes in contact with saliva. This plant was very important to the Incas and I will say is still very important to the people of the Andes today. We had our first experience with Inca steps.
These small single steps are spread around the terraces and allowed the farmers to access the crops. I am glad there were only a few feet to fall if you did not remain on the step. It is believed these terraces were built in a depression created by a meteor. The Incas were masters at building in a way that incorporated what the natural environment gave them to work with. Several people had made comments about aliens to us when they heard we were going to Peru. I asked our guide if he gets tired of the alien questions. He quickly told us there is no reason to believe aliens had anything to do with this. No evidence has ever been found and in fact fingerprints have been discovered from the 13th century. I sensed that aliens were a tiresome and somewhat insulting topic for several of the Andean people that we met. Who can blame them? Their ancestors created majesty and people would prefer to believe in the supernatural.
At Moray we received out first lesson in Incan history. We were told that the first Inca came from the south to Qosco (Cusco) where he met the pre Incans. He taught them many things and was elected to be their first king (Inca) as he came from the sun. From 1200-1532 Incans reigned with 12 kings in 400 years. Depending on who was telling the history it was possible to hear there were more kings but many did not count the last kings as they were not elected. When 200 Spaniards arrived they were going to be welcomed but the Incas kept them locked in a room and the Spaniards thought they were going to be killed. So when the king arrived they proceeded to kill the Incas and capture their king. He offered them three rooms that he would fill with gold and silver and they accepted offering to spare his life. After he delivered the treasures he was given a large Bible and told to hear the word of God. He refused to convert and they killed him. The Spanish continue to kill the Incas and attempted to destroy their culture. Twenty million Incas were killed, 1.5 million survived, all children. The children were saved to help with the agriculture but unfortunately so much of the knowledge and history of the Incas was lost. The Spaniards had also tried to destroy the Quechua language but they did fail in that. Saul shared with us that when he attended university in Lima many people would laugh at him and say he must only speak Quecha and ride llamas. Now Quecha is taught at the university as well as some universities overseas.
Next we were off to Maras. The first view of the salt mines was awe inspiring.
Hundreds of pools dot the mountainside. These pools have been farmed since pre Incan times. A salty spring comes from the mountain and is channeled into the many pools which are owned and worked by families in the town of Maras.
Water is allowed to fill the pools and when the pool is full the farmer closes off the channel and allows the water to evaporate. In about 3 days time the salt is ready to be harvested. The top layer is white table salt, the middle layer is the premium pink salt, and the bottom layer is used for animal feed. We were encouraged to taste the water in the spring. It was definitely warm and salty.
The shops above the salt ponds offer numerous salty snacks and bags of salt. As you pass by you will be offered an appetizer of dried corn or beans that can be passed through the salt. We had to bring some home. Saul stopped at a chicha stand. Chicha is the fermented corn beer that shoudl be the national drink of Peru. He knew the lady who made it and felt it was clean enough for us to have a sip. It was tasty but unfortunately one sip was all our American bodies could handle.
We bid farewell to Saul and asked to be taken back to Chinchero. We wanted to pick up a few more gifts from the weavers then we headed back to Cusco.
We were dropped off at La Cusquenita, a restaurant that had been recommended to us by several Peruvians. We had asked for a restaurant that was not just tourist food. This restaurant served very traditional Peruvian dishes and there were few English speaking customers so we were excited to try it. I started with Chicha morada, a drink made from purple corn. I had read about the health benefits and was excited to have some. I was not expecting the size glass I was brought. It had to be a half a liter of drink! Fortunately it was tasty so I didn’t have any problems getting it down. I was told ceviche would be safe for me to eat here so I decided to give that a try and it was good. Jeff was determined to try cuy (guinea pig) so this was his time to do it. He ordered a mixed plate in case he didn’t like it. I think it may have been the best thing on his plate. He just felt it was a lot of work for not much meat.
There was entertainment occurring on a stage all during our meal. Traditional Peruvian dances were being performed by very energetic dancers who frequently changed costumes.
We had finished our meal and were sitting and visiting when a young man came up to our table dressed in costume. We initially thought he was asking for a tip when he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the stage to dance. As he pulled me along I saw the stage full of customers and dancers and I knew I was doomed! He started dancing with me and let me just say this was a quick dance step. Then he started spinning me. If possible the dance got faster. I thought my heart was going to explode or I might throw up. Yes, I was feeling the altitude! And this song just didn’t stop! I think it may be the longest Peruvian song in existence! When the song ended my young dancing partner returned me to my table where I attempted to recover my breath for our long walk back to the hotel. I decided that since I did not die from this exertion perhaps I would be ok n Dead Woman’s Pass. Time would tell!
One thing about Cusco and what we saw of Peru is that dogs are everywhere. Some have collars and sweaters on and for the most part they all appeared well taken care of. It seemed being a dog in Cusco would be a good thing. You leave in the morning, spend the day with friends, and go home at night. Of course I had to take a picture when I saw a veterinary clinic. Our next guide would tell me it has just been recently that people have started taking hurt cats and dogs to a veterinarian. He laughed that I have done surgery on guinea pigs and provide medical care to them.
We had purchased the boleto turistico (tourist ticket) at Moray. This ticket would allow us entrance to multiple museums and archaeological sites over a 10 day period. We were told that it covered entrance to a museum that had a dance performance and thought we might see that in the evening. I felt that since I had just been part of a dance performance that maybe we should do something else. There was a stamp on that part of our ticket and we learned that the new mayor of Cusco had decided to not include that museum on the tourist ticket starting in June of this year. With that being said we opted to go to Saksaywaman instead.
We had the hotel call a cab for us and what a ride it turned out to be! On the way to the site we found ourselves on a narrow congested street a couple of cars behind a tourist van with bicycles on the roof. As traffic stalled waiting for the van to go uphill Jeff said “Bike!” Suddenly wires were ripped down from between the buildings. These lines were hitting pedestrians on the sidewalk and one landed with a resounding thump on the windshield in front of Jeff. We all prayed they weren’t live wires. They must have been telephone or cable wires as no one was hurt. A young man jumped out of the van, grabbed a ladder, and climbed on top and lifted the wires off the bikes. He then ran down, put up the ladder, and got back in the van which started to slowly proceed back uphill. A few minutes later the bikes became entangled in wires again and once again the young man jumped out to remove them. This time however a man a couple of cars back jumped out of his vehicle and ran to the van and took the ladder! The look of panic on the boy’s face as he realized he was now expected to hang on to the top of the van and keep the wires off the bikes was priceless. It was very slow going. The man on the ground with the ladder continued to follow behind the van and shout out instructions or encouragement. Eventually we came to a place where the van could pull off and the young man was freed from the roof. I feel several homes were without phone and cable that night. I didn’t see the name of the tour company but we couldn’t help but notice that the back of the van promised “quality guaranteed!” 
Now we were zooming. The site closed at 6 so we were hoping to have about an hour there. An older man and woman in traditional Peruvian clothing were making their way down the street. All of a sudden we heard a THUD as the taxi hit the woman! We were trying desperately to see if she was ok but our driver continued on. Jeff’s window was rolled down and the mirror now hung upside down. He looked at the driver and said,”Do you want me to fix that for you?” “Oh yes,” the driver replied. After that we arrived at the site and were told he would wait for us for one hour.
We didn’t have a guide for Saksaywaman but we found it inspiring. We would later learn its importance as we visited the sacred valley and hiked the trail. We also found ourselves trying some very steep steps and wondering if that is what we had to look forward to on the trail. We found one area that looked like it showed a slide on a sign. As we came around the rock we saw several people testing the skills on a very high rock slide. Tires were at the base to help “break your fall.”
The park ranger told us it was time to leave and we made our way back to our taxi. Several cabs tried to pick us up to take us back. When we got back into the car it was like we had a different driver. He offered to take us to the Cristo Blanco (or large white Jesus statue) that was just down the road from Saksaywaman. When we arrived he got out and told us some information about the statue being a gift from Brazil (though an internet search says it was a gift from Arabic Palestinians who sought refuge in Cusco after World War II). Normally the statue is lit at night but unfortunately the lights were not on for us. Our driver shared several bits of information on the very calm ride back to our hotel. When we stopped we thanked him and he gave us his card for tour services should we be interested.
We then headed out for an evening walk and a bite to eat. We stopped at beautiful restaurant that served tapas. I had portabellas balsamic and langostinos wasabi with a glass of Peruvian wine. It was the perfect way to end a busy day.