Side Trips

Salineras de Maras

58km (36 miles) NW of Cusco

About 6km (3 3/4 miles) down the main road toward Ollantaytambo (northwest of Urubamba) is the amazing sight of the Salineras de Maras, thousands of individual ancient salt pans that form unique terraces in a hillside. The mines, small pools thickly coated with crystallized salt like dirty snow, have existed in the same spot since Inca days and are still operable. Families pass them down like deeds and continue the backbreaking and poorly remunerated tradition of salt extraction (crystallizing salt from subterranean spring water). Although I found it truly memorable and almost surreal to watch workers standing ankle-deep and mining salt from one of many hundreds of pools cascading down the hillside, I can imagine some travelers being somewhat less taken with the sight of salt pans.

Getting There -- To get to the salt pans, take a taxi (S/5 or $1.40) from Urubamba to a point near the village of Tarabamba (next to the restaurant Tunupa); you can either have the taxi wait for you or hail a combi on the main road for your return. From there, it's a lovely 4km (2 1/2-mile), or 1-hour, walk under a huge sky and along a footpath next to the river. There are no signs; cross the footbridge and bend right along the far side of the river and up through the mountains toward the salt pans. As you begin the gentle climb up the mountain, stick to the right path to avoid the cliff-hugging and only inches-wide trail that forks to the left. One could also walk the 10km (6 1/4 miles) from the village of Maras, as most of the salt-pan workers do; allow a couple of hours.

Moray

9km (5 1/2 miles) NW of Maras

Among the wilder Inca sites you'll come across are the enigmatic concentric ring terraces found in Moray. Unique in the Inca oeuvre, the site is not the ruins of a palace or fortress or typical temple, but what almost appears to be a large-scale environmental art installation. Three main sets of rings, like bowls, are set deep into the earth, forming strange sculpted terraces. The largest of the three has 15 levels. Viewed from the air, I'm pretty certain they would prompt a sense of intrigue much like the Nasca Lines, but they're just as cool to walk around while you contemplate their ancient functions (something you can't do at Nasca). Most likely, the site was an agricultural development station where masterful and relentlessly curious farmers among the Incas tested experimental crops and conditions. The depressions in the earth (caused by erosion) produced intense microclimates, with remarkable differences in temperature from top to bottom, that the Incas were evidently studying. Given the rings' peculiar forms, however, it's difficult to discount other, more spiritually inclined purposes.

Getting There -- Unfortunately, Moray is not easy to get to because it's removed from the main road that travels from Urubamba to Chinchero, with no public transportation of any kind, so it tends to draw only very committed travelers and Inca completists. The most convenient option is to take a taxi from either Urubamba or Chinchero; the driver will have to wait for you because there's nothing nearby, so the trip is sure to set you back at least S/175 ($50). Another option is to take a colectivo or bus that climbs up to Chinchero from Urubamba (or vice versa), getting off on the road to the village of Maras. (Make sure you ask the driver for the desvío a Maras.) From that point, you'll need to hike along the road about 4km (2 1/2 miles) to Maras and then walk along an 8km (5-mile) trail to the site, for a total of at least 3 hours. Occasionally, a car or taxi will pass, but don't count on it. If you do go to Moray, it's possible to add on to your hike by walking another 7km (4 1/3 miles) along a trail down to the Salineras de Maras. The only people you'll likely see along the trail are workers from the salt pans; many of them walk back and forth from Moray to work (as if their work weren't grueling enough).

Chinchero

28km (17 miles) NW of Cusco

Popular among tour groups for its bustling Sunday market that begins promptly at 8am, Chinchero is spectacularly sited and much higher than the rest of the valley and even Cusco; at 3,800m (12,500 ft.) and far removed from the river, technically Chinchero doesn't belong to the Urubamba Valley. The sleepy village has gorgeous views of the snowy peak of Salcantay and the Vilcabamba and Urubamba mountain ranges in the distance. Sunset turns the fields next to the church -- where child shepherds herd their flocks and grown men play soccer without goal posts -- gold against the deepening blue sky.

It might once have been a great Inca city, but except on the main market day, Chinchero remains a graceful, traditional Andean Indian village. Its 15,000 inhabitants represent as many as 12 different indigenous communities. The town's main points of interest, in addition to the fine market, are the expansive main square, with a handsome colonial church made of adobe and built on Inca foundations, and some Inca ruins, mostly terraces that aren't quite as awe-inspiring today as their counterparts in Ollantaytambo and Pisac.

In the main plaza is a formidable and famous Inca wall composed of huge stones and 10 trapezoidal niches. The foundations once formed the palace of the late-15th-century Inca Tupac Yupanqui. The early-17th-century iglesia (church) has some very interesting, if faded, frescoes outside under the porticoes and mural paintings that cover the entire ceiling. The church is open Monday through Saturday from 9am to 5pm and Sunday from 9am to 6pm. Across the plaza is a Museo de Sitio, the rather spare municipal museum that holds a few Inca ceramics and instruments; it's open Tuesday through Sunday from 8am to 5pm, and admission is free.

The market comprises two marketplaces: one focusing on handicrafts and the other consisting mainly of produce. Chinchero's market is one of the best places in the entire valley for Andean textiles and common goods such as hats, gloves, and shawls. Even on Sunday, it feels more authentic than the one at Pisac (although some visitors might find Pisac more lively and fun). Chinchero's sellers of artesanía -- who are more often than not also the craftspeople, unlike the mere agents you'll find in Pisac and other places -- dress in traditional garb, and even the kids seem less manipulative in pleading for your attention and soles. Midweek (especially Tues and Thurs) there are usually fewer sellers who set their wares on blankets around the main square, and you'll have a better chance of bargaining then.

Through the terraces to the left of the church is a path leading toward a stream and to some finely sculpted Inca masonry, including stone steps, water canals, and huge stones with animal figures.

Getting There -- Colectivos leave every half-hour or so from Tullumayo in Cusco for Chinchero (a 90-min. journey). Buses also leave every 20 minutes or so from the Terminal Terrestre in Urubamba (a 50-min. trip). Entrance to Chinchero -- officially to just the market and church, but, in practice, to the whole town, it seems -- is by Cusco boleto turístico. If you try to visit the church and main square without a boleto, you will be asked to purchase one. Nearly everyone visits Chinchero on a half-day visit from either Cusco or Urubamba; there's not much else in the way of infrastructure to detain you, although there are a handful of inexpensive restaurants on the main road where the bus drops you off for lunch. One serving pretty good Andean specialties is Abarrotes Bar Restaurant, Av. Mateo Pumacahua 143 (tel. 084/306-052). There are a just a couple of spots in town to spend the night (the better of the two is the small and inexpensive Hostal Los Incas), unless you want to camp in the fields just beyond the plaza where the market is held. You're much better off visiting during the day and staying elsewhere in the Sacred Valley, where there are considerably more services.