The Ingenuity of the Incas: Moray and Maras Journey.

Today is my birthday, I turned 12. We are going on a day trip to our worldschooling hub today! We have been able to explore many Inca sites in Cusco, today we are exploring the site of Moray, and the salt pools of Maracas

The Inca site of Moray is a series of terraces used for agricultural purposes high up in the mountains. It was used like an agricultural laboratory for engineering and developing potatoes and other crops.The Inca may have used Moray to experiment with crops and what microclimates they thrive in. Did you know the Inca developed over 4,000 types of potatoes? The Inca may have seemed to you like way behind modern, or even the Spaniards inventions and standards, for example the invention of the wheel, and firearms, and writing. But they were great scientists in agriculture, and astronomy. They were even able to predict droughts and changes in rainfall and weather patterns. Like the El Nino year. An effect happening approximately every 5 years that can bring drought and weather changes to Peru. They could figure this out  by just measuring the brightness of the stars. The site felt so special. It felt like hundreds of years of ancient, but advanced agricultural science way ahead of its time was built up right where I was standing.

Maras: The Salt Pools

The salt pools of Maras are an ancient salt farm, used by the Incas, and now owned by local families today! The salt pools of Maras harvest salt from a nearby underground saltwater stream 3 times saltier than the sea. They use mini trenches to make the salt water flow from the stream to the pools. The trenches can be closed off from the salty stream when the pools have been filled with the salty water. Then the water will sit in the pools for weeks and all the salt would be left behind while the water evaporates. Then the people working at the pools would scrape up the salt with tools.

This system could be less sistanable if the stream dries up, or if a big rain resets the process of the salt evaporating, by dissolving the salt. Although this system is an environmentally friendly system they harvest the salt without destroying the earth.

Out of the 5,000 salt pools they are owned by 625 families. The salt that is not sold in the gift shop is taken to other markets to be sold. The tourism industry also helps the business with entry fees and visiting the gift shop. The value of salt to the people living in peru has greatly dropped over time. Believe it or not, salt was more valuable than gold to the Incas. It was used to preserve food, so it must have been really important without a freezer!

I think in the future we should all try to be a bit more like the Incas …in some ways, not including child sacrifice please!. We should try planting different varieties of plants so a blight doesn’t destroy a farmer’s life savings. Hopefully we can learn to get by without harming the earth like the incas. 

I have never been so interested in school. In public school, history was ok… at least, not the worst subject.  But, now I get to actually experience what I’m learning! I am comparing real life to what I am reading and learning about each day. It makes the class so much more engaging! Same with geology and science I will be studying about geothermal activity, and then the next day we will visit a geothermal energy farm.