Salt Mines and Inca Ruins with a dinner surprise

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Today began a little on the rainy side. We are relatively high in the mountains so it was clod, foggy and a constant but light drizzle. Glad I brought my Walmart rain suit! I enjoyed a light breakfast of some fresh fruits, breads, coffee and, of course, cocoa tea. I learned to chew the leaves after you make the tea. They are much easier to make a proper mush and they taste far better when boiled, rather than stuffed dry in your mouth.



Today we began with an optional tour of a local salt production collective that had been operating since the days of the Inca rulers. We drove high into the mountains and entered the salt mine area called Maras. We learned this was a collective with 400 families participating in the process. The process was labor intensive and had not changed much since the days of the Inca



Millions of years ago this area was a salty sea. Over the millennia the mountains rose and the sea was drained into the underground caverns due to tectonic movement and cracks in the earth swallowing up the sea. Over still more millennia the water dried up leaving the salt buried far inside the mountain. Tectonic plates moved and opened fissures to allow water from far under ground to enter the region. This water dissolved the salt and brought it up to the surface.



The Inca developed a canal system to send the water into a series of very shallow pools, each about 15 - 30 centimeters deep. The water was diverted into these pools and allowed to settle. First the dirt fell to the bottom of the pool. They added bamboo over the dirt, now they use plastic, to keep the dirt from mixing in with the salt. The shallow pool is subject to intense sunlight due to the high altitude evaporating the water and leaving the salt behind. Depending on several factors of cleanliness there are several grades of salt from fine gourmet salt, to medicinal salts, to cooking salts and finally to animal feed quality. The salt is rich in Calcium, Iron, Manganese, and Zinc.There are pink versions, some with added herbs and flavors and some designed for soaking your feet and body. Of course at the end of the tour you can buy some salt. My lovely daughters in law Lily and Alla have some salt coming to them straight from Peru.

From here we went to the amazing small city of Moray and the agricultural collective, a historic site that has been growing crops since the Inca ruled the area. The agricultural collective was a series of five deep circular bowl like depressions in the middle of a mountain range. They looked like they did not belong and they did not. The five depressions were actually 5 meteor strikes, the largest of which weight many tons. The meteor entered our atmosphere and split into 5 parts which struck the ground and created the five distinct depressions in the mountain range essentially shearing off the tops of the mountains and creating the bowls of rich earth.

The Inca collected the meteoric metals, iron mostly and fashioned tools and the like. The rich soil was developed into 7 layers of circular terraces designed to make the most of the limited water in the mountain. The area was a sight to behold, but we did more than look, we hiked down, through and around the crater to get a first hand look. From below the mountains towered all around while the system of irrigation was clearly visible. The entire trek was 1.7 miles at an altitude of nearly 12,000 feet. It was a hard trek but well worth it.

We climbed out and headed back to the bus for a brown bag lunch and the next part of our day, the Ollantayambo Fortress an ancient complex of temples and terraces towering high above the valley. This was the last stand of the Inca in their fight against the invading Spanish. This is a very well preserved area which stands at an altitude of 9500 feet. The complex is surrounded by a unique small town with much shopping, many restaurants and a view of the local culture.

We walked through the town and visited a local home where we learned about how the locals lived and what they ate. In one room was several dozen guinea pigs of various shapes and sizes just running around the room! They lived in very simple homes, one or two rooms, with a courtyard and storage facilities. They also sold items to the tourists such as blankets, clothes and of course water and Inca Cola.

We followed winding path after winding path. Saw the ancient water management system that brought the water down from the mountains and into the fort and lower down into the town. It was very interesting.

We soon headed to the fort, which was massive. This was the last stand for the Inca and they were in a do or die situation. The fort was close to 10,000 feet high and we climbed up and up, followed switch backs, negotiated uneven stone steps until we reach the summit and the last remaining walls of the temple of the sun. The views were spectacular, the air thin and the work tough but rewarding. We walked from one end of the fort to the other and returned to the lower level along the sacred Inca trail. It was good preparation for Machu Picchu.

It was getting late and it was soon time to go back to the bus. Bob and I wanted to stay so we negotiated with Raul who told us we could stay as long as we wanted just be careful. Since this was a highly populated tourist town we assumed it would be easy to get a cab back to the hotel. Raul and the bus left and Bob and I stayed behind in the company of Augusto, Raul's tour partner. Augusto helped find us a nice local restaurant and also a cab driver willing to wait for us to eat dinner and take us back to the hotel.

We ordered our meal and told the restaurant owner we would be back in 20 minutes, we wanted to walk around the town some more. Since it would take at least that to cook our meals, he said OK and we headed out with Augusto in tow.

Back to the outside tables we sat sown to a few beers, and chatted with Augusto while we waited for our meal. Bob and I decided to go local, very local. We started out with a quinoa soup, followed by a serving of Alpaca finished off with a full sized roasted Guinea Pig! It was delicious. The soup was very tasty with many vegetables, the Alpaca was tender, juicy and very pleasant. The Guinea Pig, basically a large rat like creature, was served whole resting on a plate of tomato and cucumbers. It may have looked odd but it was again tender, tasty and something you had to try at least once.

Our meal completed our cab drive just pulled up to the restaurant. How he knew we were done we will never know, but there he was and 20 minutes later we were back at the hotel. The entire experience was 222 soles or about $68 total.

It was a wonderful day, a great experience and now, tomorrow, we head to the highlight of the trip, Machu Picchu

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