Peru’s Salt Ponds Will Leave You Drooling

14 Aug Peru’s Salt Ponds Will Leave You Drooling

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There are some places on this magical planet that leave your jaw on the ground, whilst you drag it along like an old car dragging a broken bumper. The Maras Salt Ponds, located in the ancient Inca Sacred Valley in Peru (we are happy to say) is one of these such places.

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Maras // Peru If you've been following our InstaStories this past week, you would've seen the BTS of the #DestinationDiscoveries Creator Camp in Peru w/ @theluxurycollection & @beautifuldestinations. Loads of Peruvian hotspots and memorable experiences (such as this sunrise shoot at the #Maras Salt Ponds) will be shared right here over the coming weeks, for all your wanderlustful pleasure 🌞💛 Let us know in the comments if you've ever been to #Peru 🇵🇪👇🏼 —————————————————- P.s. Some of you may remember (a few months back) @chanelcartell getting a dress made in Vietnam? Well, it was finally warm enough to wear it 😄 so here it is – what'd you think?! Of course not meant for pairing with sneakers, but hey #whenhikinginperu 👟👟 —————————————————- #howfarfromhome #hffhinperu #beautifuldestinations #sp

A post shared by CHANEL + STEVO – TRAVEL STORY (@howfarfromhome) on Jul 25, 2017 at 5:40am PDT

As our regular readers know, we have traveled to 41 countries over the past two and a half years, and we’ve been fortunate enough to pick up our jaws off the floor, at least a few times. Our trip to Namibia comes to mind, the waterfalls of Iceland had us drooling too, and the Benagil cave in Portugal was beyond anything we could imagine. This time, however, we did not expect to see such a unique landscape appear in front of us, as we drove along the main road from the modern town of Cusco in Peru.

Your first impression of the ponds is from a high vantage point, so you get to see the 3,000+ ponds in all their glory. We were soon told that each one of these pools is owned by a different family. How they tell each of them apart from the others, well, we can only guess!

As you drive down the valley and get closer, you begin to see the detail of the structures, that are essentially fed by one subterranean stream, which, as you guessed, is very, very salty. The process of creating the salt is really simple of course – the sacred water runs into these pools (which are not deep at all), and then evaporates to leave a thin crust of what has become some of the world’s most desirable salt.

We spent a good few hours navigating our way through the maze of pathways, and it will certainly go down as one of our favorite places to get lost.

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If you enjoyed this blog post, you may want to follow our journey on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, browse our online photography shop, or get yourself a copy of our TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD eBook.