(Urubamba, Peru)

For the first time ever, I celebrated Canada Day in Moray, Peru.  I don’t think this will be a regular thing…but who knows?

We spent the night in Urubamba and headed out to the Moray archaeological ruins.  Unlike some of the other Inca sites I’ll be seeing in Peru, these ones are exclusively agricultural. The Inca (I’ll use this term even though it may not be strictly accurate) made extensive use of terraces for their agriculture.  Not only did this maximize the use of the mountainous land, it also allowed them to slowly acclimatize crops to different altitudes so that they could be planted elsewhere.  Using the position of the land relative to the sun, this technique created a series of microclimates where you would expect to find only one.

The Moray site consists of one very large and two smaller-but-still-large concentric and terraced crop areas.  It was fun to wander around the terraces; I had no problem descending down to the bottom but it was still a challenge to climb back up.  I don’t think I have completely adjusted to the altitude yet.

From the Moray archaeological site, it was a short ride to the Maras salt pans (see overhead view at the top of this post).  It doesn’t sound like a riveting tourist destination but it was a lot more fun than I expected.  Once we got there, that is.  The road to the salt pans was a single lane, gravel road that hugged a cliff edge and had absolutely no guard rail.  I’ve been on some crazy roads this year but this one was the scariest from a structural perspective.  Our driver was more or less prudent here, although he showed some “video game” tendencies the day before when we left Pisac.

The salt pans are located just below an underground spring that generates salt water.  As the water flows down to the bottom of the valley, a series of “pans” traps the salt and it is then harvested by hand.  The scale is vast and the collection of salt has been ongoing for hundreds of years.  We were allowed to walk all over the salt pans even though harvesting was taking place.  As a very practical souvenir, I picked up a couple of varieties of Maras salt to take home.  I was able to sample some before buying and it tasted very good on dried plantain.

By now, we were quite hungry and it was time for another traditional Andean feast.  This time, we were having pachamanca, which is traditionally made by burying the food in the earth along with some extremely hot stones.  However, as this was in a restaurant, a substitute method of simmering all foods together in large clay pots (like a tagine pot on steroids) was used instead.

We had some interesting appetizers before the main course, including alpaca carpaccio.   The pachamanca itself contained various unusual potatoes (including oca), tamales, chicken, lamb, pineapple, lima beans (in the pod) and plantain.  There were also a couple of misleading sauces.  One looked like liquid mustard but was actually a mild sauce made from yellow peppers.  Another looked almost like liquid pesto but was made from local herbs (and no garlic).  I cleaned up all of my plates:  it was very heavy food but also delicious.  I’ll be looking for the purple/red flesh potatoes when I get home.

The rest of the day was enjoyed at a more leisurely pace.  We knew that we had to be up very early on July 2 for our trip to Aguas Calientes, so it wasn’t a late night either.  We are slowly getting closer to Machu Picchu!