This beautiful bicycle tour will allow you to discover the high part of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. This tour combines magnificent views of the Sacred Valley and the snow-clad mountains overlooking us, the discovery of archaeological sites, and the freedom that comes with the practice of mountain biking on small roads, and also having a view of the traditional agricultural life.
Maras: Maras is a district in the Urubamba province, it's possible to reach there through a paved road from km. 50 on the road Cusco-Chinchero-Urubamba. It is located west of Cusco at an altitude of 3,300 m. (10,824 ft); over a plain that in prehistoric times was a huge plateau, from which it is possible to see the Urubamba range, including the snowcapped mountains of Waqay Willka (today
"Veronica" at 5,682 m./ 18,641 ft.) and Chikon (5,530 m./ 18,143 ft).
Moray: About 7 km. (4,3 m) away southwest from Maras is Moray, a very unique archaeological site in the region. It is possible to reach it by car through a dusty road and a path departing from the town. Those are enormous natural depressions or hollows in the ground surface that the Inkas used for constructing irrigated farming terraces around them. What is surprising is that the difference of average annual temperature between the top and the bottom reaches even about 15°C (59°F) in the main depression that is about 30 m (100 ft.) deeper.
Towards the northwest of Maras are the famous Salt Works, which are possible to reach walking by the trail or by car through a dusty road that is almost useless in the rainy season. The Maras salt works to which some people call salt mines are constituted by about 3,000 small pools with an average area of 5m² (53,8 ft²) constructed in a slope of the "Qaqawiñay" mountain. People fill up or "irrigate" the pools during the dry season every 3 days, with salty water emanating from a natural spring located on the top of the complex, so that when water evaporates the salt contained in it will slowly solidify.
Maras-Moray Biking itinerary:
We leave at 9:00 in the morning and get back at 4:00 in the afternoon. We get to Chinchero by bus, which takes 30 minutes. This is a big climb by bike, and the bus leaves us fresh for roaming the tablelands. We visit Lake Huaypo, Maras-Moray, Las Salineras, and finally enjoy a downhill to Urubamba in the Sacred Valley.