the mountaineera
The morning following the wedding became a mad dash back to Madrigal to hike up to the llama and alpaca ranch.
This is about a 12 hour hike straight up that concludes at about 5,300 meters altitude.
Bitter cold, but less dry, once we arrived we spent the days either being shepherds or offering "tingachi" or "payment to mother earth".
Part of the ceremony is cutting the ears of the young alpacas with the family's mark and taking the year's birth count. I was placed as the official counter (probably because I was the most sober and reliable). My host father treated me like a daughter, and gave me the responsibilities associated with that position. As exciting as it all was for me, it was kind of 'everyday' for them.
Doña Juana's brother, the owner of all those alpacas and llamas.
my host dad, elvis, his drunk father, and an aunt.
The other part of tingachi involves placing coca leaves, llama droppings and dried body parts carefully in a circle of stones, then doing a burning while shaking cow bells. I have to admit, when they perform these ceremonies after days of continued drunkenness, it loses it's rapture. At moments, it almost felt as special as being given the chore of putting up the christmas tree with the drunk uncle you don't get along with.
One particular day will hold a special place in my heart. This is Elvis' family that we were staying with up at the ranch. I was told that because Roxana couldn't come up, I needed to take her place with Elvis herding the alpacas. Elvis said something about "animalitos" or "little animals". I didn't understand. We rode the donkeys out with the alpacas to a river. He then took a handful of half frozen clay from the riverbed and suddenly I understood. We molded little animals out of clay as the big animals grazed...
None-the-less, it was amazing to sit back and just look at where I was, who I was with, and what I was taking part in...
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