The Maras salt is a village in the mountains, located 48 kilometers from Cusco and 12 kilometers from Urubamba, has a temperature that fluctuates between 1 to 21 ° c, Maras is more an important town during the viceroyalty, this because even so the church and the houses that still preserve the shields of indigenous nobility on its facade, the houses are made of adobe, white, blue roofs and windows and their streets are made of stone and mud and something peculiar in each house, it has in the linteles a stone where the date on which said home was built is inscribed.
The salt mines of Maras, as they are called are salt mines, is an old farm, the salt mines are in the form of terraces or platforms, which is crossed by a stream that passes through and nourishes the salt water, which are more or about 5,000 pools of about 5 m2 each, the water is filtered in the pools and then evaporated by the action of the sun, causing crystals of coarse salt to sprout, after at least 1 month, the salt reaches 10cm high and ready to harvest, all these salt-encrusted ponds, resemble snow that covers the slope of the Qoripujio mountain, if you see it from a distance it is a spectacular sight, the salt of Maras has been collected since times pre-Inca, salt is recommended for human consumption, and they are exported to several countries as a gourmet product, it also contains calcium, iron and zinc, and even people suffering from hypertension can consume it since it has low levels of sodium chloride, which if recommended for use is to rosé the food with this salt because when it boils it loses its properties, you will wonder about where Maras salt comes from, is that it comes from an underground flow of salt water that bubbles from a source that comes from the Qoripujio mountain and that goes to each of the wells and as we mentioned at the end it evaporates with the sun and salt is left, this is carefully extracted with shovels and wooden rakes, now if you want to buy this product you can do it in the same place and at an economical price, since when leaving the market prices tend to triple, when you want to visit the salt mines of Maras will make a payment of 5 soles to the local community, then you can go through the narrow paths that cross the slopes so that you can observe this wonder up close, you can hire a g A tourist guide so that you can better explain the salt manufacturing process, and you are satisfied with any questions you have, we also recommend visiting this place in the months of April to October since in this region it is a dry season and You can be on one of those sunny days and enjoy the day and the tour will be pleasant, this place includes an area of 5 square kilometers, so that you arrive at this place take the departure buses to the province of Urubamba, before Arriving, you can see a landscape of a grayish, almost white hue that then going down a stony path in the form of a ladder, faces this marvel of the landscape of salt mines of Maras.
