Half-Day Tour – Maras & Moray on ATVs

Day 1: Arrival

Pickup from your hotel and into the Sacred Valley of the Inca, where you’ll appreciate the Vilcanota Mountain range and the snowcapped peaks on your way to our checkpoint for training & preparation to ride your personal ATV. Once trained and hydrated, take the backroads though the Sacred Valley through to our two destinations, Maras & Moray.

Maras Salineras is located on the outskirts of a picturesque farmtown where you can see preserved architecture and traditions from the pre-hispanic, colonial, and republican eras of Peru. We pass through the town en route to the Salineras, aka salt pools, where a warm, salty rivlet emerges from the mountain to produce a stream that the local communities use to harvest organic salt in a series of approx 2000 hand-made and maintained mud pools that terrace one of the hillsides. The water is routed into the pools and allowed to evaporate for periods of either 2 weeks or 30 days, depending on the purity of salt they intend to harvest once the water evaporates.

Next, we proceed to the archaeological complex of Moray, composed of a series of circular terraces that descend into a valley, creating micro-climates at each terrace level that the Incas used to test their ability to cross-breed different types of plants to survive at different altitudes – an ancient agricultural laboratory that today is only used for research purposes.

After Moray, we return to our checkpoint to return the ATVs & helmets, drink water to hydrate, and board the van to take you back to your hotel.