Cusco is a very interesting city, but when there’s an opportunity to get into the countryside you just have to take it. We opted for a mountain bike tour around Moray and Maras.
We used the same agent as our Sacred Valley trip and she managed to get us onto a group tour for the next day. We were met at our hotel at 9am and we walked down to the Plaza de Armas where we met the guide, Jonathan, and the rest of the group, and got kitted up with bike, helmet and gloves.
The bikes looked a little tired and were heavy, but they had front suspension and most of the gears worked. The brakes were European style, which I was happy with because my own mountain bike is from France, but Pete was worried he’d lock the brakes up until he got used to them. He had the opportunity to test them as we set off along the roads to the bus station. I hadn’t expected that and I was more than a little nervous on the road knowing how crazy the city drivers are, but we all made it in one piece.
We were taking a public bus so the first task was to get the bikes on the roof. Pete took control.
The bus was packed, but we at least had a seat. An interesting hour later, we arrived at our starting point, so we all jumped off and the bikes were unloaded. We’d climbed high and we were somewhere near Chinchero. We got ourselves ready and we set off at a very nice steady pace along a dirt road.
The first part of the route was super easy, pretty flat with only a small hill to climb. It was lovely passing through fields of barley, potatoes and maize. The soil was very red, and very dry. We had a wonderful view of the the Andes with the Sacred Valley on our right as we traveled and we could see some very heavy rain, but thankfully it never came our way.
At the midway point we reached the Inca ruins at Moray. Moray is at about 3500m and has several enormous terraced circular depressions with very impressive irrigation systems. It’s believed that this area was used as an agricultural experimentation site due to the varying temperatures from top to bottom. Anyway, it looks pretty impressive. Only Pete and I went in to the site, with the guide. We had already purchased the Tourist Ticket that gives you access to this site. The rest of the group, from Israel, weren’t interested. Their loss.
After Moray we retraced our tracks a little and then headed down a technical descent. Pete was the only one who made it without walking at least part of the way. He’d obviously gotten used to the bike and the brakes. But then there was a more serious up hill. We all walked that.
We continued along the track and made our way to Maras, where we had another opportunity to sample the local Chicha. Still not really very nice, but it would be a bit rude to say no. The Chicha house was full of guinea pigs running around. So cute, it’s hard to believe they pick one at random and cook it.
After the Chicha came another technical descent. We were now going down hill all the way. The Chicha must have given me confidence because I handled it very well. We made or way down to the Salinas de Maras. These are salt ponds which have been going since before the Incas. The highly salty water comes from a spring, and is directed into an intricate system of tiny channels constructed so that the water runs gradually down onto the several hundred ancient terraced ponds. When the water evaporates the salt is harvested and sold on.
After the salt mines we continued down along the most technical part of the decent. Even Pete had to walk around some of the gnarly corners. But it was amazing, and we looked good negotiating the rocky descent as we passed a group of walkers, and eventually we made it to the bottom of the valley.
On the valley bottom we had to cycle along the road, again the most scary part of the trip, to Urubamba where we were able to pick up a minibus rather than take the public bus. This meant a very comfortable ride back through the district of Chinchero and back to Cusco.
It was an excellent day out in the most beautiful scenery. We’d cycled about 35km, with some lovely flat ground, a few up hills, and lots of descent.
(Pete’s phone failed to track the first 10 or 15 kilometers of the route, doh!)
Series - Cusco
- The Sacred Valley
- Mountain Biking – Moray and Maras
- Salkantay to Aguas Calientes – Solpayki
- Machu Picchu