5 May: While Abby worked on her research, the two of us went on a tour to Chinchero, Moray, and the salineras (salt works) of Maras. The ride in the tour company’s van seemed to us to be an “adventure tour” in itself—very fast on curvy and narrow roads, often near cliff edges (that’s pretty normal for Peru, as we would find out on later van, bus, and taxi rides). The village of Chinchero has a reputation for some of the finest traditional Andean weaving; we stopped there to see a demonstration. Moray was the site of Incan agricultural experimentation. They constructed terraces in three large pits (built in limestone sinkholes) that differed substantially in temperature at the various levels, so they could determine which crops grew best at which altitudes. In Maras, the Incas produced salt by diverting a small stream containing highly saline water through a large complex of settling pools, where the water was evaporated so they could collect the salt crystals. The stream water is 5% salt, compared to 3.5% for seawater, because the stream flows through underground salt deposits. Back in Cusco after the tour, we went through the regional historical museum, where we saw exhibits on both the pre-contact period and the early colonial period after the Spanish conquest. Abby took us to dinner at a restaurant specializing in traditional Peruvian food, accompanied by Andean music and traditional folk dancing. We sampled from their buffet and thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment.
