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Located approximately 30 minutes away from Ollantaytambo and/or 40 kilometers from Cusco, you will find Maras. The town is well known for its nearby salt evaporation ponds, in use since Inca times. The salt-evaporation ponds are up-slope, less than a kilometer west of the town.
The salt mines traditionally have been available to any person wishing to harvest salt. Maras nowadays is privately owned and run by a small cooperative, a group of approx. 200 families, who live and work the salt mines day after day. The use is for local consumption, feeding animals and exporting overseas.
Salt is obtained in Maras by evaporating salty water from a local subterranean stream. The highly salty water emerges at a spring, a natural outlet of the underground stream. The flow is directed into an intricate system of tiny channels constructed so that the water runs gradually down onto the several hundred ancient terraced ponds.
The road to Maras is very pretty, allowing stunning panoramic views of the salt terraces, but you better not be scared since there are a few steep drops on the road.
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