In Cusco, MIL was one of the restaurants we had to try. It is run by chef Virgilio Martinez, husband to our Lima favourite Kjolle chef Pia Leon and has been featured prominently in the press as an “audacious culinary, biological and socio-cultural experiment”. On the way, we stopped by the Maras salt mines – ancient salt pans, known as Salineras de Maras. Strategically dug into the mountainside, thousands of shallow pools filled with salt water eventually evaporate and leave behind the crystallized salt, a process that has been practiced for more than 500 years. The salt pans themselves are man-made, but the water that is channeled through them comes from a natural spring, which is mixed with salt deposits from prehistoric salt lakes. This water bubbles up in a natural spring near the town of Maras. Historians say these salt pans were originally constructed by the Wari civilization, which predates the Inca but that the Inca saw the economic opportunity and expanded the salt pans further up the mountainside. Today there are over 6,000 salt pans near Maras, and each pan is owned and mined by a local family of the Maras community. The view really is stunning and we stop to take a few pictures with Popcorn, our llama. He, unfortunately, decides to take a nosedive into a saltpan below, access to which, of course, is strictly forbidden for hygiene reasons. Anjali heads down in desperation though, but is quickly called back. She manages to convince a local lady to rescue her beloved llama though and that is how Popcorn got his salt spa treatment.
Popcorn rescue mission 
Next stop MIL, our much anticipated gastronomic event. The restaurant is built just above the ancient Inca site Moray, the view is stunning. We are warmly received by a staff member who gives us a full tour of the mission behind MIL including the different eco-systems, plants, crops, and methods used to rediscover and celebrate the local produce. The tour finishes with a small degustation of their own chocolate – at 50%, 70%, and 100%. Needless to say that by this time, even the kids are excited about the meal to come.
In short: the overall experience was a bit of a let down. Possibly because our expectations were too high, but mostly because we missed flavour. We took the High Altitude Eco-systems degustation menu (see below) . The food was all beautifully presented, and of course there were some fun new sensations such as Kushuro, the “Andean seaweed” that likes high altitudes and low temperatures but between all the dishes we do not keep a major souvenir of any one dish. We do, however, remember our delicious APU Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon grown at 2850msnm. A true discovery that in itself was already worth the trip!
