Date of Entry: October 14th 2016
Date of Writing: December 20th 2016
Machu Picchu ticked off the list we wake up fairly late and exhausted and enjoy a delicious breakfast from our hosts at Tumy House Bnb. It turns out the owner was a chef all over the world before moving back home to open his charming little hotel.
It’s raining outside so I don’t take my camera while Ben Azi and I take a walk through town to look at some of the ruins surrounding this tiny mountain hamlet. We also stop in some art galleries and a woman tells us she and her uncle paint everything there. Once we leave I suggest there’s a chance she may have been exaggerating the truth which upsets ben no end. He feels lied to and Azi and I have to hold him back to keep him from returning to the shop in a fiery rage. (I’m somewhat joking)
At any rate our host at Tumy house organizes a taxi for us around noon to take us back to cusco though it’s not a straight shot back, on the way we’ll be stopping at Moray ruins (going in the secret back way to avoid paying for the sacred valley ticket which costs about 130 soles for access to 10 sights) as well as Salinas de Maras. We pay a little more booking it through our hotel, but we’re guaranteed a comfortable and reliable car which is worth it when we have so little time here in the land of the Incas. I believe we paid about 200 Soles for the day of our friendly driver.
After a slightly nerve wracking drive up into the mountains on a muddy dirt road to avoid paying the sacred valley ticket (though we end up having to pay our driver about one entry ticket cost to supposedly bribe the officials) we arrive at Moray, an ancient Incan agricultural laboratory where they used terraces to change the temperatures and see which plants could grow in different temperature zones. It’s fascinating and beyond beautiful though it has been partially restored to improve the look of it and it is my second time here.
One other thing it is in the light mist that keeps falling is incredibly slippery, and as we descend into the endless rings I fall twice quite dramitcaly and feel lucky to ave a change of clothes as I am quite covered in a slick mud. Azi helps me up, ben just laughs, because I guess that’s the kind of person he is. (I love you Ben)
After a little under an hour at the Moray site we carry on our way,me in fresh changed clothes and the scenery only grows more beautiful, the mountains in this part of Peru more impressive than I remembered them being.
Before long we’ve made our way through the small pueblo of Maras where everyone who owns these salt pools must live, to keep it from being taken over by big corporations and soon enough we’ve descended a winding road to the main attraction and income source of this tiny town, Salinas de Maras, a place I have been three times before.
Our friendly driver pulls over at a view point above the strange collection of natural salt pools to let us take some pictures from above and marvel at the cascading field of white travertine like things below us. It’s strange otherworldly and very beautiful.
After a few minutes up above we hop back in the car and head down to the salinas having paid our entrance fee of 10 soles on our way in. Our driver’s in a bit of a rush so we hurry down through the countless shops selling specialty salt and various other souvenirs and head straight out into the salt pools.
We head out as far as we can on the salt before regretfully heading back out of the strange white hillside. I love showing people this place because it’s guaranteed to be something unique and strange to their experience. But still our time is up so we head back to our driver stopping briefly to buy some salt to bring back for people as well as some Incan sex sculpture playing cards because of course I need those.
We hop back in the car and carry on our merry way towards Cusco where we’ve booked an apartment for the night. We’re exhausted but the clouds have started to clear and the scenery is utterly beautiful to help keep us entertained and busy taking po
A little over an hour later we’re pulling back into Cusco, Ben and Azi sound asleep cuddling in the backseat and heading down towards the centre of town. Our house is a ways outside that and our driver doesn’t know the area so he instead drops us off in a major plaza and gets us a local taxi who knows where to take us.
The apartment named Casa Riso Cusco which cost about 40 CAD dollars a night is beyond amazing. Even if it’s not super central it’s huge, 2 levels, 2 bedrooms and very beautiful and 5 soles (2 dollars) in a taxi gets you to the centr.
