The Agricultural Terraces of Moray

There is a 7:15 am public bus, fare 2 soles, which runs everyday as far as we can tell, from the Urubamba Terminal directly to the plaza in Maras and then continues to Cusco. We are on it. Saves having to change to a taxi at the main road.



Seems like everyone in Urubamba is waiting for transport.


The bus is almost in Maras. Great view back to the mountains.


Monument in the center of the Plaza in Maras.


AFter inquiring about the return bus to Urubamba at 14:00 we set off walking WEST to the Moray Archaeological Site about 5.5 kms away. Traveler's tip: We took Yupanqui, one block south of the plaza on the way out of Maras, but Espinar/ Via A Moray may be a better choice. We came back into Maras that way. In either case, follow the white arrows if you're walking from Maras to Moray.


Looking back to El Templo Mayor San Francisco de Asis in Maras.


There are white arrows that keep you on the trail to Moray.


Looking south through irrigate corn fields to the Mountains.


Is this the small irrigation pond mentioned in the guidebooks?


Yes! Time for a break. Even though it's a gentle uphill walk, the sun is very strong.




Almost there.




The guy walking towards us in the distance is carrying a plow on his shoulder. When we pass him he tells us we are not on the main path to Moray and should make a minor adjustment. Whoops. Gracias, señor.


The Moray terraces are a spectacular as advertised. Wow! There are 4 sets of concentric circles. This one, called Q'ECHUYCOQ MUYU, with 15 levels is the largest. It's also just 20 meters from the ticket booth and vehicle drop off. You don't have to walk 5.5 kms to get there like we did. ;-)




From this angle you can see the so-called "flying steps" that serve as stairs between the levels.


KHU CHIMUYU with 2 or 3 levels, is the smallest.


SIMA MUYU is adjacent (left below) to Q'ECHUYCOQ.




And NITIWATANA is near the vehicle pickup parking. Lots of white tourist vans lined up today.


There is a high walking route around the terraces and a low route. After completing the high route, we walked the lower route. Map of the site with walking routes.


Lunch break.




We retraced our route back to Maras; however, several ATV tours made it quite dusty and noisy for the first kilometer.


Video.


Modern tractor at work.


A gentle downhill on the way back.


This guy is probably cycling to the ruins.


Beautiful blue doors in Maras.




Here's the GPS track of our route. I forgot to turn off tracking when we got on the van from Maras back to Urubamba so there's an extra 3 kms or so to the EAST of Maras.


Back in Urubamba, SL buys an avocado from a lady stationed just outside the Mercado.


Urubamba has a small section of Inca Walls, a former palace.


Getting money out of the ATM was more difficult than usual as the street was torn up for improvements.