Well as usual plans have to change and we went to the Salt mines instead of the 5 lagoons.
A relaxing morning followed by a hike down from 3400 m to 2600m to see the salt mines. Firstly on leaving the hotel we see nearby a statue of a man holding a corn on the cob. This is in the town of Huayllabamba where every year there is a Festival about the harvest of the corn and who has grown the biggest cob. Some are over 6 inches across and nearly 2 feet long
We then went on to the town of Maras and walked down to the salt mines (Moray Maras) where there are over 5,000 salt ponds owned by the villagers and passed down to generation after generation. It is run like a co-operative but each owner has to tend his own salt ponds. This co-operative has been around for over 500 years.
The walk to the mines went through some of the most beautiful countryside
From this photo you can see the terraces where crops have been grown for many hundreds of years.
Tomorrow we hope to go by bus and train to the Sun Gate and then hike up to Machu Picchu. A long day starting at 6.30 and finishing some 12 hours later.