Maras Salt Mine

 So after Naupa Iglesia, Carlos drove us somewhere else, and he took a crazy road through the middle of nowhere that was definitely not on my map and I wondered if we'd ever get where we intended to get.

But the views and landscape were pretty amazing.

Everyone else slept for a while, but for some reason I was chipper.

I love this silhouette.

I think Carlos even checked with some people on the roadside to be sure he was going the right way. It's funny because they address all ladies as "mami," even little toddlers. But yeah, he would say, "Mami, is this the road that goes to such-and-such?" (but in Spanish, obviously). 

Finally we got to our destination, which was Mara. We stopped and had lunch at the main square. We had just brought sandwiches and carrots and apples, but we got icecreams from this lady.

And then we had this gigantic explosion! It was soooo loud!! Some people were having a celebration. I think it was someone's anniversary. But they had this little parade, and confetti, and singing, and a small band, and the fireworks.  They know how to celebrate!

Then Carlos drove us to Maras Salt Mines, which was far bigger than I had anticipated, when I had seen pictures. They went on soooo far! 

Talmage wasn't feeling great still, so he stayed and waited while the rest of us walked in and around as far as you can (which isn't actually too far).

Pretty fascinating.  We saw guys shoveling the piles of salt. The pools fill with the salty water, and then they just let it evaporate, and gather the salt.

Then we drove home. We stopped at a pretty mirador, overlooking the Sacred Valley.

When we were going through Cusco, we saw tons of people dressed up and dancing, so a few of us jumped out to see what was up, while Brett and the rest went back to the apartment. Sadly, we got there about the time most things were ending and people were packing up and leaving. But we wandered around for a bit, and Navy joined in a little kid activity which was basically a candy cannon.

We stopped and got some knickknacks and some bread and cheese from the San Pedro market. Hazel helped me make chicken quesadillas for dinner which were delicious because they also had avocados and mangoes.