Maras, Peru Travel Guide: Salt Pans, Moray & Sacred Valley

High on a windswept plateau above Peru’s Sacred Valley, the village of Maras sits at roughly 3,300 metres in the Urubamba province of the Cusco region, about 40 kilometres northwest of Cusco. Snow-capped peaks of the Cordillera Urubamba, including Chicón and Veronica, line the horizon, and fields of quinoa, barley and potatoes roll out on every side. Most visitors know the name for one extraordinary sight: thousands of shimmering salt pools spilling down a ravine toward the Urubamba River.

Maras has been a place of salt for well over five hundred years. Long before the Incas, local communities channelled a naturally salty spring into terraced evaporation ponds, and the Incas expanded the system as part of their highly organised economy. After the Spanish conquest the village grew into a colonial town, and many of its adobe houses still carry carved stone doorways bearing old family crests. Today the salt pans are still harvested by hand by local families, making Maras one of the most authentic living-heritage stops on any journey through the Sacred Valley toward Machu Picchu.

What to see in Maras

• Salineras de Maras (the Maras salt pans) – Around three thousand small pools cascade down the hillside, fed by a single warm saline spring. Depending on the light and the stage of evaporation, the pans glow white, cream, ochre and pale pink.
• The salt-harvesting cooperative – Each pool is worked by a member family of the local community, who scrape and bag the salt by hand. Watching harvesters move along the narrow walls is a rare look at a tradition passed down for generations.
• Moray agricultural terraces – Just a few kilometres from the village, these huge concentric circular terraces sink deep into the earth like an amphitheatre. Many researchers believe the Incas used the varied microclimates of each level to experiment with crops.
• Maras village and its colonial doorways – Stroll the quiet streets to spot carved stone lintels and portals above adobe homes, a legacy of the town’s colonial importance as a salt-producing centre.
• Church of San Francisco de Asis – The village’s colonial church, built of adobe and stone, overlooks the main square and gives a glimpse of rural Andean religious life.
• The trail down to the Urubamba River – A footpath winds from the salt pans down through the ravine to the valley floor near Pichingote, offering spectacular views back over the pools and across the Sacred Valley.
• Chinchero – A short drive away on the plateau, this weaving town is known for its Inca walls, colonial church and cooperatives where women demonstrate natural dyeing and backstrap-loom weaving.
• Plateau viewpoints – The road between Maras, Moray and Chinchero offers wide panoramas of patchwork fields set against the glaciated peaks of the Cordillera Urubamba, especially beautiful in late-afternoon light.

What to eat in Maras

Cooking on the plateau is hearty Andean fare built around the crops grown right here. Look for steaming bowls of quinoa soup, choclo con queso (giant-kernel Andean corn with fresh farmhouse cheese), dishes made with dozens of native potato varieties, and trucha, trout from the cold rivers of the Sacred Valley, often simply fried or grilled. For a special occasion, families still serve cuy al horno, oven-roasted guinea pig, a traditional delicacy across the Cusco region.

To drink, try chicha morada, a sweet purple-corn beverage spiced with cinnamon and clove, or chicha de jora, the fermented corn drink that has been brewed in the Andes since Inca times. Coca or muña tea is offered almost everywhere and helps visitors adjust to the altitude. Do not leave without tasting the local salt itself: finished on grilled meats, it has a gentle mineral flavour that chefs in Cusco and Lima prize.

Shopping & crafts

Small stalls at the entrance to the salt pans sell Maras salt in every form: fine table salt, coarse cooking salt, salt flavoured with Andean herbs or chilli, bath salts and salt-studded chocolate. It makes a light, inexpensive and genuinely local souvenir. In nearby Chinchero you can buy hand-woven textiles, alpaca scarves and naturally dyed wool directly from the weavers who make them.

Best time to visit

The dry season, roughly May through September, brings clear skies, sharp mountain views and the main salt harvest, when the pools are at their brightest white. Days are sunny and pleasant, but nights on the plateau can be cold. The rainy season, from about November to March, turns the hills lush and green, though rain dilutes the pools and production slows. April and October are quieter shoulder months with a good balance of weather and fewer visitors.

Good to know

• Maras sits at around 3,300 metres. Spend a day or two acclimatising in the lower Sacred Valley or Cusco, drink plenty of water and take it slowly.
• The salt pans charge their own small entrance fee, separate from the regional tourist ticket that covers Moray, so carry some Peruvian soles in cash.
• Paths along the pools are narrow and can be slippery and salty; wear closed shoes with good grip and avoid stepping into the pans.
• The high-altitude sun is intense even on cool days, so bring a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen.
• Maras, Moray and Chinchero combine naturally into a single scenic day from Cusco or the Sacred Valley, before continuing by luxury train to Machu Picchu.