This purification process is mainly for women and uses salvia, yerba buena, mint and other elements. It is only available between the 28th and 31st of May.
Offering to the Earth.
It is the appreciation of nature for varying benefits that families receive such as: a new Andean year, the birth of a child, the construction of a house, harvest time, the birth of animals, the beginning of the rainy season etc.
In the Andean world the pre-Colombian religion lives on through ancestral rituals which perpetuate the bonds between man and nature, as a result the earth has great symbolic significance.
Pachamama or Mother Earth, fertility Goddess, lives in Urkhupacha or the interior world and offers her fruits to nourish mankind.
Because of this, within the Andean logic of reciprocation, the people make offerings to the earth. They offerings include coca leaves, un-worked silver, chichi, wine and certain seeds from the jungle with symbolic and magical powers known as Huayruros.
The same offerings are also made to the Apus, the ancestral spirits that dwell within the mountains. Coca leaves, considered sacred, are always used in the offerings as they are a mediator between the inside world (that of Apus and Pachamama) and the outside world (that of mankind). The leaves are spread over a colorful cloth and can also be read to predict the future.
The ceremony is accompanied by music and a traditional dance (arrascasca) in which the people join hands and circle around the ritual space. Everyone chews coca and makes a toast in appreciation of the products that the earth has provided; they also ask that the earth gives better fruits the following year.
This Inca ritual, which many Andean communities still continue, consists of offering gifts to Mother Erth in thanks for all that she provides for the people and animals.
Temascal is an ancient indigenous tradition in the Americas. It involves a small chamber made from wooden poles and covered with cloth so that its circular interior is totally sealed apart from the door which can also be covered.
Situated 35 kilometers from Puno and very close to Lake Titicaca, amidst green fields, we find what is considered one of the wonders of the region: The door of Aramu Muru, a stone construction seven meters wide and seven meters tall.
