Salinas de Maras, Peru

From cliffs high above.

As spring water flows through the mountain, salt deposits are dissolved into a brine solution and directly collected into shallow ponds, tended by an old man who knows his salt. After 1 year of evaporation, salt is deposited in sufficient quantity to be harvested by hand and brought to market.

The profit margin is low having to compete with the competition of underground salt domes harvested  by mechanical means, but the old man is efficient.

I hired a cab for the day to take my wife and I to Maras and several other places of interest which I thought we could do before dark. The salt pits were not high on my list, as they were out of the way on a log dirt mountain road, but I vividly remember more than once, that where I least expected I found jewels that out shined the main attraction, so I don't pass anything up. As beautiful a drive through mountains and farms I've ever seen was on this long, rickety, dirt, mountain, road I thought of passing up. The view from the car alone describes the meaning of color and form in grand scale. I thought it as beautiful as countryside can get.