Day 1,046
Maras Salt Pans
What to do after the awesome Inca sights of Cusco, Machu Picchu and Ollantaytambo? Difficult, but we decided on a very short bike ride to Salineras Ranch, and a hike to the Maras Salt pans, with no Inca remains in sight, we were feeling somewhat Inca-ed out!
So we set off from Ollantaytambo, re-tracing our route and I fully expected a tail wind as we had battled an awful headwind to get there. Did I get one? Nope! I'm seriously getting somewhat peeved with Mother Nature. We went south from Puno, headwind, then turned north, into a headwind. Onwards north from Cusco, headwind, so when we turned south I naturally fully expected a wonderful tail wind. Well I'm glad I only had to suffer for 10 or so miles. We were cycling through the Sacred Valley, a stunning route, so it wasn't all bad.
When we arrived at the ranch we were greeted by the owner, and then shown around by manager Iriana. This place is a gem, an oasis of calm and tranquillity after the tourist bustle of the last few weeks. We were given a really private area to camp in, for a small fee we could join the owners and staff for home-cooked meals. We opted just to join for breakfast as we had our new stove to try out, and it worked! No Concorde jet sounds, no spluttering out after a few precious seconds of flame, just quick, adjustable heat, bliss!
Before that though we had a hike up into the hills, all the horses from the ranch were already out on a trek so it was shank’s pony for us. After about 20 minutes’ climb we arrived at the Salt pans. There are about 4,500 salt pans, set out in terraces on the side of Quaqawiñay Hill. The pans are family owned and the production and harvesting of the salt is a real community effort. The pans are fed by a nearby spring into a series of canals, then gravity and man does the rest. Salt is harvested on a monthly basis during the dry season. The layers produce different quality, first, kitchen salt, what we pop on our meals each day, then bulk salt, for our baths etc., and finally industrial salt for agriculture and animal use. It is clearly back-breaking labour intensive work, everything carried in and out by hand. A real insight to a way of life many centuries old.
Rather than retrace our steps Tom had done some research and planned us a ‘nice’ hike around the other side of the valley before returning to the ranch. The walk up was pretty easy, on tarmac, but then the descent. I nearly turned around, but he persuaded me that although it looked like a sheer drop it wasn't really, well not all the way down. To be fair I realised that with my now repaired vision I could cope a lot better, and we soon made our way down the mountain side. Later, when I pointed out to Iriana our route, she clearly thought we were mad!
