Urubamba, Peru: Self-Hiking the Moray ruins and Salineras salt mines

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We were staying outside Urubamba in the Sacred Valley to acclimatize before our Machu Picchu trek. We wanted to do some hiking to get used to the altitude, see Incan ruins, and not walk all day (since we were about to walk for 5 days/70km!). Oh, and of course, avoid the buses of tourists going from ruin to ruin. Our hotel was not helpful in giving this information although they were happy to book a three hour driving tour for Maras, Moray, and Salineras for 130 soles (~$39USD). 😑

So, here's how to self-hike around Urubamba in mostly lazy fashion!
1) Download the Maps.me app and the map of the area. It has the hiking paths in the area, otherwise known as walking paths for farmers, hooray!

2) Hire a taxi to take you up to the Moray ruins (60 soles/~$18USD, about 1 hour). Because starting from the top of the mountain is the way to go 😁 Our taxi driver helpfully pointed out the paths that we'd be taking on the way down and where we would come out at the end of the hike.


Visit Moray - it took us ~30 minutes to leisurely walk the 'Circuito Mediano' - I'm not sure why they say it takes 1.5 hours. Go up and down the steps and be glad that you didn't hike up from town (or badass if you did)! Note that you'll need the Cusco Tourist Ticket to get in to Moray (70/130 soles); you can't just buy a single ticket.


3) Follow Maps.me to walk from Moray to Salineras, stopping for lunch at Inkasal in Maras along the way (2 hours not including lunch). When you exit Moray, walk past the souvenir stalls on your left (who were also selling fried chicken, if it's lunch time) towards the bathrooms. Once you get to the bathrooms, follow the narrow path to the right of it. From there, it's pretty easy to follow the path! Enjoy the beautiful scenery; we encountered a few farmers and lots of farm animals along the way. 

After an hour of hiking, we stopped for lunch at Inkasal and shared a reasonably good 3 course set menu (30 soles/$9USD) since we didn't want to be too full for the rest of our hike. Peruvian lunches have really big portions...time to continue on to Salineras (10 soles entry)!


4) Hike from Salineras to Urubamba (30 minutes). You'll come out on the main road by the Tunuba Restaurant. This is also a colectivo stop, so you can also catch a colectivo to wherever you're going next for 1-2 soles. 

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