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This half day tour experience to Chincheros, Moray & Salt Mines, will take you off the beaten track to enjoy the stunning scenery of snow-capped mountains of the Andes in Sacred Valley, Chincheros with its colonial church & Inca ruins, the incredible “Green Houses” of the Incas in Moray and the impressive pre-inca salt mine – Salineras.
We pick you up at 8:00am or 1:00pm in our private van and you begin your trip to the village of Chinchero, where you will see in the plaza an adobe colonial church, dating from the early seventeenth century, has been built upon the foundations of an Inca temple or palace. The ceiling and walls are covered in beautiful floral and religious designs. Also you’ll discover Inca archeological ruins and agricultural terraces which are attributed to Inca Tupac Yupanqui who possibly used Chinchero as a kind of country resort.
We continue on to the village of Maras, where its colonial architectural beauty is still preserved. You’ll see the building are made of thin stone, and images of lintels with sculptures in bas-relief. Then we move on to Salineras, the salt mine consists of 3,000 small pools roughly 5 square metres (53.8 ft²) in size. Every three days, during the dry season, workers fill the pools with salt water that comes from a natural hot spring at the top of the Maras complex. When the water evaporates from the pool, the salt is left for collection. This process is carried out over a one month period until the pools reach an approximate volume of solid salt that is 10 centimetres (4 inches) in height. The salt is ground up, treated with iodine packaged and sent to various markets in the region.
Then we are on our way to the Moray ruins, located at (3,450m/11,318ft), where we find the agricultural terraces of Moray with their complex system of irrigation and terraces. Different levels of terraces are carved into a huge bowl, part of which was further excavated by the Incas. The terraces have varied microclimates depending on how deep into the bowl they are located. It is thought they were used by the Incas to discover the optimal growing conditions for their crops. These terraces served as a natural green house to grow an extraordinary variety of crops at an altitude normally not conducive for the crops. It has also been suggested that the terraces had a cosmological meaning. The Incas were very advanced in the knowledge of creating specific sub-climates. Then we return to your hotel in Cusco.
Please Note: This special private tour and price is only for our clients who have booked any 2, 3, 4, 5 days or more tour or trek with SAM Travel.
SAM (initials of Saul Alvarez Montalvo) Travel Peru is a family owned travel agency and direct local tour operator based in Cusco with personal experience over many years of trekking. SAM Travel Peru is a 1oo% Cusquenian Company without any shareholders.
My dream as the owner was to create small personalized tours & treks strictly and only operated by local professional staff catering in PERSONALIZED and HIGH QUALITY SERVICE.
We take pride in having a reputation as being a RESPONSIBLE & SUSTAINABLE tour operator. My staff are my extended family. I ensure they are supported financially by paying them a good wage. I am proud of my team without them I couldn’t give the best service and lifetime experiences to our clients.
In an effort to provide a more personalised service to our passengers, we, in SAM Travel Peru have a policy to keep our groups small. With private tours we do 1 to 6 person and a larger group of 7 to 12 if requested. By keeping our groups small, this sets us apart from other companies that operate departures with much larger groups.
I am very proud of my guides! Highly professional, speaking fluent English, very knowledgeable, passionate for the Inca heritage/ history, dedicated to a steady personal development, learning to ensure that you receive accurate and recognised theories about the Inca Andean culture. Fun loving, great sportsmen and well educated crew as well as having a degree in Archaeology, Botany, History or Anthropology. Some of them are great entertainers and the best “Salsa Dancers” on this side of Machu Picchu.
SAM Travel Peru has always believed that we should “give back” to the communities we pass through when on our treks. Therefore, as part of our commitment to responsible tourism, we always do many social projects and hire locally.
Have a look our recent social work: “We, (the students from Patachancha Community) got to go to Machu Picchu for the first time”
SAM Travel Peru is so proud to be able to support these beautiful people, not only employing them work but also to keep things at grassroots, to share in their homes and with their families. This makes us happy to have this holistic approach with our highland employees and their families!
A beautiful reflection of our attitude in everything we do, is making life richer and more meaningful for all involved.
The partial ticket, or 1 Day ticketcosts 70 soles (US $22) and is valid for 1 day. You can visit a many sites as you like in one day with no further charge. There are no discounts with this ticket.
Both tourist tickets, of 1 day or 10 day, allows the access to different archeological sites around Cusco, and Sacred Valley. This is the best way to visit all the archeological sites of the region and the Sacred Valley. Most of the main archeological sites are not accessible for free.
The general ticket allows you over the next 10 days to enter16 archeological and cultural sites in Cusco, the south valley and the Sacred Valley. The price of this ticket is 130 soles (about US $40) and is valid for 10 days. This is the cheapest and most convenient way to plan to see different sites in a few days. The cost for students under 25 (with the presentation of a valid ISIC card) and for teenagers under 18 (with the presentation of an identity card) is 70 soles (US $20). Children under 11 are free.
Here is a list of sites where you can use your Boleto Touristico:
Note : The entrance ticket to the main archeological sites like Sacsaywaman, Pisac, Ollantaytambo,Chinchero,Tipón and Moray cannot be sold individually; you must buy the Boleto turístico to visit them. You can get it in Avenida el Sol nearby Peru office or at the time you enter the first site that you are visiting. YOU MUST PAY IN SOLES, NO CREDIT CARD OR US DOLLARS ARE ACCEPTED.
Important: These entrances are not included in the Boleto Touristico.
