Salinas de Maras : Salt Terraces
The second stop on the tour, Salinas de Maras, was the only reason I signed up for the tour in the first place. Moray just so happened to be a pleasant surprise, but I was dying to see the salt flats of Maras. I had investigated how to get there on my own, but it seemed a bit to tricky and expensive.
The tour drove us an hour towards the salt terraces. Imagine driving through the green mountains and suddenly seeing a deep gash of white below you in a gorge. We descended into the gorge and the salt terraces came into focus. I hadn't even gotten out of the van yet, and I was mesmerized!
We were given a short introduction to the terraces. Basically, they have been cultivating three types of salt since the Incan times in a natural evaporation process. They produce white salt, pink salt, and medicinal salt. The ponds are shaped into polygons and almost all are less than 4 meters squared in area, and none are more than 30cm deep. Interestingly, the ponds are manned by individual families from the community. Apparently there are several unused ponds, and one could actually become part of the collective and start harvesting salt! Future job? Perhaps not this year :)
I really enjoyed wandering through the terraces for a brief amount of time. You have to walk carefully, as you could easily slip on the narrow paths and go foot deep into the pond! It was exactly like a rice terrace...but salt! There were many tourists, but there were also a few people working in the ponds. I enjoyed seeing their work, as it appeared somewhat difficult and very physical. In other words, I was impressed.
On the way out, I made sure to stop at the gift stores that lined the path and buy a few bags of salt to take home with me. What an unusual souvenir!
The tour drove us an hour towards the salt terraces. Imagine driving through the green mountains and suddenly seeing a deep gash of white below you in a gorge. We descended into the gorge and the salt terraces came into focus. I hadn't even gotten out of the van yet, and I was mesmerized!We were given a short introduction to the terraces. Basically, they have been cultivating three types of salt since the Incan times in a natural evaporation process. They produce white salt, pink salt, and medicinal salt. The ponds are shaped into polygons and almost all are less than 4 meters squared in area, and none are more than 30cm deep. Interestingly, the ponds are manned by individual families from the community. Apparently there are several unused ponds, and one could actually become part of the collective and start harvesting salt! Future job? Perhaps not this year :)
I really enjoyed wandering through the terraces for a brief amount of time. You have to walk carefully, as you could easily slip on the narrow paths and go foot deep into the pond! It was exactly like a rice terrace...but salt! There were many tourists, but there were also a few people working in the ponds. I enjoyed seeing their work, as it appeared somewhat difficult and very physical. In other words, I was impressed.
On the way out, I made sure to stop at the gift stores that lined the path and buy a few bags of salt to take home with me. What an unusual souvenir!
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