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Published: January 2nd 2016
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PERU...Soaring with Condors. Shooting the breeze, carried by the wind, catching a cloud...soaring...up, up, up.
Then gently like a feather...floating.
The mountain air crisp and clean...the massive valleys parting like the Red Sea before us...the condors soaring around us.
So my spirit lifts to join them.
Gliding, swooping, banking, hovering.
Then like a leaf...spinning back to earth.
To rest.
Then like a butterfly...I'm off again.
******
Daniel met us at Casa de Wow and offered to take us through the Inca ruins...to weave tapestries...to meet a shaman in the mountains...to taste cavy and sup corn beer.
But I've let my figure go to pot...once buff bod long gone...so no dancing naked 'round a fire searching through peyote haze for my inner spirit this trip.
No Sirree...not this trip.
So we take Option Two...searching for Pachamama.
******
Pachamama is the Andean goddess of fertility...Mother Earth in simple terms.
Daniel is a Quecha man...an indigenous Andean who speaks the local language Quecha as well as English.
Unwittingly or otherwise, he introduced us to the spiritual world of the Andes.
As we
travelled further...it was like building blocks...or a jigsaw coming together when we didn't know we were in a jigsaw...that my Western mind went tick, tick, tick.
And then in Cusco it hit me...hit me hard.
The evidence was in front of us.
Solid hard evidence that put a new face to Christianity as taught in the West.
Everywhere we travelled after that, I put the pieces together until in Bolivia I could say
"I not only get it. I can now prove it."
And that new face was Pachamama.
I will present my findings when I blog Bolivia.
Meanwhile let me take you on a roadtrip with Daniel...into the mountains...into his World...the home of the Quecha.
******
He took us to an indigenous family home in Ollantaytambo with an altar with Incan artefacts, human skulls, wizened shrunken llamas, alpacas, condors, sheafs of corn and deities on the wall.
Up the mountain among the Incan ruins...his hands gesturing heavenwards as he spoke.
Then persuaded us to do a car thing into the mountains to check out sites I'd seen on Travelblog...getting there the easy way...bring it on!
I thought we'd travel the main roads...but no.
We crossed the Incan Bridge and pretty soon it was clear we were going the back way.
Up, up, up we climbed into the mountains on a dirt road wet with the sweat of the mountains lubricating the wheels.
Stopping here and there to go wow, wow, wow.
Then we stopped overlooking the valleys that went on forever...wind in our hair...condors soaring above us.
And here we decided to practice our Tai Chi.
Having travelled extensively in China we had been attending Tai Chi classes in Oz.
There are some places you go where you know this is it.
So we started with Quigong and then into Tai Chi.
Daniel joined us for the Quigong exercises to limber up...following our leads.
Then when we entered Tai Chi he knew the moves and the three of us moved in unison.
A surreal experience indeed...an Andean man...two Aussies...and Chinese Tai Chi.
Surreal...yep...surreal.
Breaking down cultural barriers.
No longer guide and clients.
More like three friends on an adventure together.
Spirits carried in the breeze...then like falling leaves...spinning to Earth...to rest.
******
Moray We arrived in Moray, 74 kms from Cusco, near the town of Maras, high in the mountains surrounded by vivid green fields.
Ollantaytambo represents the llama.
Moray represents the condor.
Four amphitheatres of concentric circles of terraces with elaborate drainage systems.
Were they built around craters?
Were they places of worship or for viewing performances or ceremonies...seating for 260,000?
Or were they agricultural research stations?
As the temperature varies as each terrace descends, many think it is the latter.
Thus were the Andeans able to test climatic effect on many grain and crop types?
Reputed to date from 2,500 B.C. to Incan times (10th to 15th Centuries), the amphitheatres of Moray are truly a marvel to behold.
When we entered the oldest one...Daniel began to conjure the Quecha way.
His spirit spiraling up and up.
The way the ancients do it...soaring with the condors.
******
Salineras de Maras Down a precipitous gorge to a village with the famous salt pans.
Operated by a collective of farmers, their pay and conditions have made World news.
Are they so underpaid that they
are exploited because they are helpless to press for better remuneration? Apparently so.
Yet we were told life is becoming better for them due to public exposure of their plight. Let's hope so.
From ancient times a stream of hot salty water has flowed from a single mountain.
The locals channel it carefully into hundreds of terraced shallow pools.
The evaporated product is the salt famous from this area.
And who provides this abundant source of nature's providence?
The answer is unreservedly given.
No doubt about it.
There can be only one source of this hot spring of prosperity.
It's Earth Mother...Pachamama...of course.
Relax & Enjoy,
Dancing Dave
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Finding the meaning
Dangerous Dave here.....looks like you both found something special whilst in a most beautiful and diverse nation....cheers to you both!!