Las Apachetas!

 While we were hiking through Rainbow Mountain, we came across an open space, filled with small towers of rocks, that Carlos, our guide, jokingly called “El Valle de Apachetas”. According to Carlos, these were used as a sort of connection to the earth. The word Apacheta comes from the Quechua “Apachita”, which roughly means “source where the flow begins”. They are often found along hiking trails or even the sides of the road. Travelers would build these Apachetas as a way of asking Mother Earth, or Pachamama, for her protection throughout their travels. They would even often leave offerings such as coca leaves under the Apachetas, asking her to remove obstacles from their paths. These creations can be very small (see mine on the left), or very large (see a previously built one on the right). It is thought that these originally come from the incas, and there are some people who say they used Apachetas as some sort of representation of order. These people say Apachetas were used to divide and mark sectors throughout the inca empire, however there is not necessarily evidence for this. 

Today, Apachetas are not only found in Peru but across all the Andes as travelers ask for their journeys to be calm and unimpeded. Once again, our adventures show us how integrated incan culture is in Peru. Although the incas and their religion no longer exist/are practiced, somehow their culture and traditions are still preserved and respected. In “El Valle de Apachetas”, each of us took a moment to build our own, asking La Pachamama for a safe rest of our hike, and simply appreciating the beauty and history of the location we were in.