En route to Machu Picchu, we made a stop at the Salt Mines of Maras. Unlike the salt flats of Bolivia, which make up the flatest place on earth, this is a collection of more than 3,000 natural salt wells carved into the Andean mountainside. They are fed by an underground saline spring that is thought to have originated with the formation of the Andes. They are owned and actively mined by 400 local families.