Moray is the name of the Inca site at 3,500 metres with these amazing concentric circles that descend downwards into the bowl of the valley. The site isn’t the ruins of a palace or temple, but appears to be a large-scale agricultural experimentation centre. There are three main bowls that descend in rings. Each level has its own micro-climate, and given the variations in the Andes, the Incas used this to experiment with different plants and soil types at different levels that had their own temperature and humidity. There are no crops being grown today, which seems a shame as it would be so instructive to today’s generation about the value of growing crops organically in their ideal environment.
We then drove by Maras for a quick stop. Again at 3,500 meters, it is a giant salt harvesting operation that has been active for over 1,300 years. Over 6,000 salt pans are allocated annually to farmers on a rotational basis, and the pans are fed by a 17% saline river that courses over a large underground reservoir of salt. It’s backbreaking work, but all the plots are allocated each year to provide a bit of supplemental income to the farmers.
Machu Picchu tomorrow!