We’ve just published our latest South America travel video about the diversity of the Sacred Valley of the Inca’s, that was created in corporation with Richard from The View South. To gather all the necessary footage, Richard spent a couple of days in the Sacred Valley area. The diversity of this Inca Valley is so impressive that he came back with a lot more material than expected.
Enjoy this photo diary of Richard’s visit to the Sacred Valley:
All of Encounter Latin America’s travelers will enjoy the Sacred Valley from one of the boutique lodges located in this area and in the midst of the farming lands. The Valley was an essential region for the Inca Empire, providing them with excellent farming land which is very rare in the Andes region. Most of the guides in the Valley have parents and grandparents who worked in the farming areas and will be able to tell you every little detail about this lifestyle. Richard was impressed by Melvin’s (his guide during that day) story about her childhood in villages and about how she grew up with her family in the farming areas.
We’ve said many times that the Sacred Valley is so diverse that it’s definitely worth stopping in this area before continuing your way to Machu Picchu. Another sign of this diversity are the ancient agricultural terraces of Moray, that can also be called extreme Inca landscaping. These three enormous terraces were built by the Incas and used to test and produce seeds for the empire’s maize and potato. Note that these seed experiments did take place in the different levels of these circles. The temperatures between the top and the bottom layers can differ a lot and that made this sight the ideal place for experiments.
Another image of the Moray circled ruins, now from further away.
Ride through the Sacred Valley to Maras and Moray… Maras was the afternoon stop on this day full of various landscapes and ruins. It’s a typical Peruvian Andean village near to the Maras salt mines, the views on the way were spectacular, you can even see the Vilaconta mountains! Maras is famous for its salt mines, and for it was Richard the first time to get so close to actual salt mines. There is salt everywhere and you can even hike along the edges of the salt ponds and catch a view of locals working at the mines, panning the salt. The Maras salt mines have been here for thousands of years and are very different to the other Sacred Valley landscapes and as well to one of World’s biggest salt deserts, Salar de Uyuni.
Richard visited Maras y Moray on a unique adventure on a native Paso horse through the Sacred Valley. This is an spectacular way of enjoying the surrounding landscapes while riding along the farming lands around Cusco. He really enjoyed his day with a local guide and native horses which made the climbs in the Valley so much easier and gave him all the time he needed to enjoy the stunning scenery during this Sacred Valley visit, from the snow-capped mountains, Andean villages, ancient ruins to the impressive Moray salt ponds.
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