Salineras de Maras – Peru

Another PERU collage!  The same day we visited Moray, we stopped at Salineras de Maras, the ancient salt mines. Many families have different pans in this large salt mine, and they are passed down from generation to generation.  There is a salt water spring at the top of the mine that is left over from when the mountains rose from the sea (again, this is from our cab driver – so some info might have been lost in translation :-) ).  The stream from the spring is routed to the different pans to fill them up.  Individual pans are then blocked off from the stream so the water can evaporate leaving the salt behind to be harvested (do you harvest salt? collect it? hmmm).  It is a fascinating site and they have been getting salt from the pans this way since pre-Inca times.