Maras Moray by Bicycle

We'll pick you up from your hotel in Cusco shortly before 9:00am and depart by bus to the quaint town of Chinchero, where we'll disembark in Chinchero and mount our bikes to begin our journey. Along the route we will make some brief stops to appreciate the small subsistence farms with indigenous crops like oca and natural sights such as Huaypo Lagoon.

Our first major stop will be the circular concentric terraces of Moray, an agricultural laboratory which allowed the Incas to acclimatize products, with each terrace representing an altitude difference of about 1000m under normal farming conditions. We'll spend about an hour learning about the site's design, construction, and use and enjoy a box lunch before continuing on.

From Moray we will continue our journey to the Maras Salt Mines. About halfway to the town of Maras, the route becomes purely downhill, allowing for an exhilarating ride down cliff curves. As we approach the Maras Salt Mines you'll be treated to a sight unlike any you've ever seen before- the sunlight playing off the bright white salt surfaces of thousands of pools carved into rock and staggered in terraces down the slope of Mt Qaqawiñay. The Incas diverted a small saltwater stream from the interior of Qaqawiñay and through the pools for the harvesting of salt, and these mines are still in use today by the families of the Maras community, which collectively manages the site.

After our visit to the salt mines we'll cruise downhill to Urubamba, from where we will catch a bus that will return us to Cusco at approximately 5:00pm.