The Amaru of the Andes

The Quechua-speaking Amaru Community lives in the Andes. Choosing to live away from the cities they reconnected with ancestral knowledge and traditional Inca techniques of agriculture and production of textiles. By spending time with them, we get chance to reconnect to this ancient wisdom and with ‘pachamama’, ourselves too.

At first instant, you might feel like you are floating, dream like. Well, sure just being there evokes it, but it’s probably more because you’re about 11 thousand plus feet high! But again, yes, the region around is gorgeous with all its lush landscapes. Tucked away in the Andes, a little way away from Pisaq, this Quechua-speaking community is still using techniques and traditions that can be traced back for thousands of years. You won’t be just passing through though. You’ll be warmly welcomed into their homes to spend a night while you get the privilege to delve under the surface and into their day-to-day ways, their customs, their traditions. If you have ever wondered about ancient ways of working, successfully, this is where you will see it. And every bit of it is done with the utmost passion and love, as though those emotions too, were passed down through the generations. From learning about how they derive some of the most vivid colours from plants and other natural elements to getting the inside story to the secret properties of medicinal plants, from how they weave belts, blankets and such to how they grow and harvest their crops, how they cook them and their delicious meals… In everything they do we can see the ways of their ancestors. We can see the respect they have for all that Pachamama (Mother Earth) and the Apus (mountain Gods ) give them. And in return they make their offerings, their pilgrimages and give their thanks. When was the last time we thanked someone for something simple from our day-to-day comings and goings? When was the last time we thanked a tree for its shade?

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AYNI : Reciprocity, solidarity and humanity in all.

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