Full Day Horse Back Riding Sacred Valley
(Paso Fino Horses)
Code: Hbr-1Val/09
Level: Soft adventure, no need experience
Duration: 8 hours from Cusco. (5-6 hours riding approx.)
Location: Sacred Valley (Pachar bridge, Moray , Maras)
Location: Sacred Valley of the Incas. Cusco
Description: Unique horse back ride visiting villages and agriculture crops on the Sacred Valley of the Incas.
Departure: Every day. All year round
Itinerary
We pick you up from your hotel and transfer to Paucarbamba Bridge (2900 mts), where we meet our horses. We'll cross the Urubamba River and start the uphill for almost 400 meters to the altiplano of the Andes, this climb takes about 3 hours. We can enjoy the beautiful altiplano of the Andes that surrounds us.
We will arrive to Moray, this site is not the ruin of a city or a fortress, It is an earthwork. The ancient peoples of the region took four enormous natural depressions in the landscape and sculpted them into several levels of agricultural terraces that served, hundreds of years ago, as an experimental agricultural station for the development of different strain of crops. This was possible due to the discovery of a fascinating phenomenon: the climates of many different ecological zones were present at a single site. In the thirty or so meters of altitude between the bottom and top levels of Moray's main depression, one scientist, John Earls, has recorded a full 15 degrees Celsius difference in temperature. That is equal to the difference between the mean annual temperatures of London and Bombay. Conceivably it was Moray itself that played the key role in the original transformation of maize into a high-altitude crop.
After our visit of Moray we will continue our ride to Maras Town (3400 mts) for approximately one hour. Maras is a typical Andean village that boasts a beautiful 400 year colonial old church; we will enjoy our picnic lunch in Maras.
After our lunch we will continue hour ride to Maras Salt mines (3000 mts) for aprox 1 hour to once we arrive to this place, we will be impressed by the sight of the snow-capped mountains of Chicon, Veronica, Salcantay. The Maras "salt works" to which some people call "salt mines" are constituted by about 3000 small pools with an average area of 5 m² (53.8 ft²), constructed in a slope of the "Qaqawiñay" mountain. People fill up or "irrigate" the pools during the dry season every 3 days, with salty water emanating from a natural spring located on the top of the complex, so that when water evaporates the salt contained in it will slowly solidify. That process will be carried out approximately during one month until a considerable volume of solid salt is obtained
Return to Cusco, End of the services
- Actual riding time: 6 hours
- Rider’s weight: Max. 100 kg. (220 lbs.)
Private service: Upon request
Included:
- Transportation round trip
- Expert guide and muleteer
- One horse per client.
- Lunch in the Sacred Valley
Not Included: Entrance Fee