crowned with cumulus

crowned with cumulus

clouds Amantani rises

above the deep lake

Amantani Island looks small beneath the towering cumulus clouds and the vast expanse of Lake Titicaca. Small it may be in diameter, 9.82 km (6.1 miles), but its highest peak, Pachatata, is 300 m (984 feet) high. Lake Titicaca at its deepest is 135 m (443 feet deep), so the entire volcanic land mass rising from the bottom of the lake could be as high as 435 m (1,427 feet), and its highest peak stands at 4,050 m (13,287 feet). With no motor vehicles on the island and only a little electricity from solar panels, the population of about 800 families live by manual labor, tilling small plots of wheat, potatoes and quinoa, tending alpaca and sheep, fishing, gathering medicinal plants, carting rocks for a paved walkway up the steep slopes, spinning and weaving and knitting. It's a quiet life and the people seem content with their ancient ways, a rare sight in this modern world. 

Pachatata sunrise

Pachatata sunrise –

a yachac offers Inti

red and yellow flowers

On the twin peaks of Amantani Isla in Titicaca Cocha, there are two temples, one to Pachamama, Earth Mother, and one to Pachatata, Earth Father. We begin our climb to Pachatata temple at 4:30 am in order to arrive before dawn. At the ancient stone temple, our Inka medicine men prepare for the sunrise ceremony. They have brought their flutes, yachac headdresses, and bags of coca leaves and kutata blossoms. They gather petals from a yellow wildflower growing on the hillside, thanking each flower for its offering. With the flowers they create a beautiful pattern on the ground in front of the temple gate, forming a double circle with the yellow petals to represent Inti, the Sun god, and a double heart with the tubular red blossoms for Pachamama, Inti's wife. As the rays of the sun stream out between the sapphire lake and the blue-gray clouds, Amaru leads us in a ceremony to greet the life-giving light.

Pachatata temple

Pachatata temple –

Amaru, Cosmic Serpent,

hails the rising sun

When I wake up in the middle of the night, it is raining. My first thought is one of relief. Rain means we won't be getting up at 4:00 to climb five hundred feet in the dark to Pachatata temple at the top of the island in order to witness sunrise. My clock battery died so I have no idea what time it is, but I need to make a necessary visit to one of the two toilets that serve the entire hostel. I grope for my headlamp and pull on my alpaca sweater, cross the courtyard, climb several slick stone steps and pass the communal sink. The toilets are lit by one candle placed on the divider between the two. The hospedaje perches halfway up Amantani Island, which rises a thousand feet above the lake. At 12,500 feet, Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world. It seems like only moments after I crawl back in bed before I hear a knock at the door. It has stopped raining and Amaru and Qoa, our Inka guides and medicine men, are ready to lead the way to the temple. I think about sleeping in, but when will I ever get a chance like this again? Fortunately, the path to the peak is paved with large flagstones. Last night we watched the locals, women and men, hauling these forty pound stones carried in bright square cloths on their backs up to the top in order to extend the path. The rest of the group takes off, leaving me alone with Qoa, who stays behind me, patiently waiting while I stop every few paces to catch my breath. We pass through several stone archways, each portal representing a chakra and a stage of initiation. When we finally reach the summit, we walk around a large square stone wall set with simple wooden gates. Pachatata, Earth Father, presides over this temple, while Pachamama, Earth Mother, has her own temple on an adjoining peak. Qoa asks us to stop, close our eyes and then walk forward, without fear, then stop again while he does a ceremony to allow us to enter the sacred space. At the eastern gate Amaru ties on his beaded yachac headdress, then sets about creating a beautiful mandala with red flowers forming a double heart and a solid circle of yellow flowers in the center for the sun. He leads us in several ceremonies, ending by playing his flute as the sun rises. Amaru means Cosmic Serpent and Qoa means Cosmic Puma. Malku, another of our Inka yachac friends, is named for the Cosmic Condor. These three animals form the triumvirate in the Inka spiritual realm. Their forms appear to me as I sit in meditation. Amaru says they are the guardians of these sacred sites.