Tour Sacred Valley, Maras and Moray full day

TOUR SACRED VALLEY OF THE INCAS, MARAS AND MORAY FULL DAY

The Sacred Valley of the Incas and Maras Moray full day tour is a 1 day tourist circuit, leads you on a tour full of history and magnificent views of the Sacred Valley of the Incas at 2800 meters above sea level. Starting with a visit to Chinchero, a mystical place with a lot of traditional history and a connection with the agricultural terraces of Moray, and then go to the magnificent salt ponds in Maras where there are more than 5000 ponds and a tour of urban, military and religious centers such as Pisaq, Ollantaytambo that are part of the natural and cultural beauty of the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

Ready to Travel Peru recommends you to opt for this tour of the Sacred Valley + Maras Moray because it is a complete tour and includes a visit to all the archaeological sites that are located within the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

DURATION: 12 -13 HOURS (full day)

SCHEDULE: FROM 07:00 – 19:00 HRS.

ITINERARY

      To start the tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas + Maras Moray, we will pick you up from your hotel starting at 06:30 hrs. (Valid for hotels located within the historic center of Cusco).

• Already located in the tourist bus our first point of visit will be in the viewpoint of Taray, to appreciate the scenic beauty of the Sacred Valley of the Incas.
• We will continue our tour to the Sacred Valley of the Incas, a magnificent view and the starting point of this great tour to the Sacred Valley where you can take the famous postcard photos.
• We will continue our tour to the archaeological site of Pisaq, located 32 kilometers northeast of Cusco, a place where the great Sacred Valley of the Incas is born, located on a condor-shaped mountain that expresses the progress of religious and agricultural architecture by the presence of squares and Inca neighborhoods, of which the most important thing to highlight is the famous solar observatory “Intihuatana” and pre-Hispanic cemetery “Tantana Marka” the largest found in South America. Also Pisaq was an administrative center dedicated to the control of agricultural production in addition to this Pisaq is characterized by its craft market and the very pelicular form of negotiation “barter” (exchange of products) ancient custom that today is losing its practice performed on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
• After having visited these two wonderful places we will have a stop to recover our energies and have a delicious lunch in a tourist restaurant in Urubamba.
• We continue our tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas with our next point of visit the archaeological site of Ollantaytambo known as the “Living Inca City” built on two mountains, strategic point within the Sacred Valley of the Incas for having agricultural, military, religious and administrative complexes in Ollantaytambo, In Ollantaytambo we can highlight the great temple of the sun that consists of 6 pink granite monoliths that are joined by engravings that make up the ceremonial platform, the town of Ollantaytambo is also well known for maintaining the Inca urban planning since ancient times.
• Inside the tourist bus we will go to our stop which is the town of Maras, an important point of passage to reach the “Salineras de Maras” characterized by the presence of more than 5 thousand wells of pink salt and its warm water springs whose flow is conducted by thousands of small ponds of little depth, In Inca times, this archaeological site was used for purification rituals which were consumed with special unction and used in festivities associated with the summer solstice on December 21st. Nowadays, the consumption of this salt is the economic activity to which the population of Maras is dedicated.
• After the visit of the salt mines of Maras we will leave towards the archaeological site of Moray that extends between the more than 3200 meters of altitude, the same that is irrigated by some springs, Moray is very characteristic for its terraces in circular form where the natural depression was taken advantage of which is believed that it was a center of agricultural experimentation of crops used by the Incas obtaining diverse microclimates, It also has ceremonial fountains and concentric terraces in whose agricultural surfaces have been found average temperature variations of up to 5 ° C and which allowed the cultivation of products from different regions of Peru.
• Our last point of visit will be Chinchero, whose name derives from Quechua meaning “brave man”, built on top of a hill surrounded by terraces, which has shrines, an urban center where was the residence of the Inca Tupac Inca Yupanqui, a place moderately cold and dependent on rainfall for agricultural production also in turn is characterized by maintaining the urban style and its textile art that are made with alpaca fibers made by locals.
• We finish the tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas + Maras Moray with the return to Cusco after a wonderful day.