Morayanahuaylla (4200 masl) Chumpe Peasant Community – Lamay – Calca

The Andean man observed the behavior of nature, animals, and plants. He learned from the sun, the wind, the frost, the rain, the cold, the apu, and turned them into his allies. He treated them as his neighbors, knowing when they would arrive, relying on the signals from birds, insects, and some plants.  He lived and lives in harmony with nature, speaks with it, lives in symbiosis with it. He shares his harvest with it, builds his house, his nest, and his life within it.

After much trial and error, he learned each technique and preserved each gift from nature.  Wild herbs, fruits, meats, and wisdom. He turned unique and special flavors through techniques to later share them in times of scarcity. This wisdom, still shared and practiced less and less, comes alive when you taste some of these preserved products; the memory invades the soul, is very familiar, has the flavor of home, the flavor of history.

It's the first days of July, and I am on my way to meet Juan Turpo; to get to where he is, it takes an hour and a half from the Chumpe Peasant Community, a community that belongs to the province of Calca. The wind feels very cold and dry, it is eight in the morning, and the first rays of the sun thaw some ichus that had frozen during the night. This place is called Morayanahuaylla and is located at 4,200 masl; its Quechua name comes from Morayana, which means black chuño and huaylla, humid ichu. When we arrived, it was inevitable to perceive the strong smell of tocosh (fermented potato) and the water wells.

Juan Turpo – Moraya Process

The moraya process begins on a cold night when the bitter potatoes are exposed on the slopes at this altitude. The next day, the potatoes are crushed to remove the water and then placed in wells containing water from a nearby lagoon. Ichu is placed around and on top of the potatoes, forming a kind of pouch, to avoid the presence of sunlight; afterwards, the potatoes are covered with ichu and left there for a week while the cold water flows very slowly.

Juan has been making moraya for 10 years in this very place; in one well, there are three varieties of potatoes, all varieties separated by ichu, like in a kind of nests.  The moraya he obtains is used for the daily meal of his family, boiled and in a traditional soup, which is very consumed in the high Andean communities.

Juan is the father of Fabiana; she and her husband collect medicinal herbs that they sell in the Urubamba market, and then we use them in the pairing of Mil Centro.

It's already noon; I check my backpack and take out the coca I had brought to share. He opens his liclla and takes out some cooked morayas that he has preserved since last year and a soup in a small pot.

Sharing – lunch and coca leaves

The soup is called chuño saqta, made up of chuño, moraya, and dried alpaca intestines. To season it, they add cjuñu muña leaves (Satureja brevicalyx Epling), which resemble oregano and grow underneath ichuales to protect themselves from frost and intense sunlight.  Normally, this soup is transported in very warm clay pots wrapped in licllas to retain temperature. Feeling something hot here is the best, and if it's this soup, even more so; it reminds me of the surroundings, the freshness of walking at this altitude, the smell of humid ichu, and the flavor of preservation.

Juan removes the llanquis, rolls up his pants, and enters the small wells; I accompany him. The water is very cold, and my feet go numb; we step out into the sun for a while to warm up and then go back in. Juan carries the sun-dried morayas in a liclla; they are ready to be dehydrated, so he places them on the ichu he has arranged like a kind of bed. They will stay there for about a week before being taken to a nearby hut. Juan stays there while he is preparing this process. The hut is made of stones, alder branches (Alnus acuminata Kunth), and ichu on the roof, making a kind of qolqa or storage.

Moraya in the dehydration process, then to be stored

Meanwhile, Mateo Callisaya, at 3810 masl, in the Patacancha Peasant Community, is salting alpaca meat that he obtained from his father-in-law's livestock. He cuts the meat into thin layers, then adds plenty of Maras salt, places the salted meat in a raqui (large ceramic pot where chicha de jora is fermented), and leaves it there for one day; afterward, he spreads the meat on a cord of cabuya (vegetable fiber) tied to a chachacomo tree (Escallonia resinosa R. & P.). The last rays of sunlight signal him to collect the meat, which he again exposes to the sun the next day after taking care of his alpacas. The same process will be repeated for 15 days.

Alpaca meat and Maras salt, ready to begin the charqui process

Charqui ready to be stored

The following week, Hilda Tejada from the Huama Peasant Community, which is in front of where Juan Turpo lives, collects herbs and medicinal roots. On the way, we find many llulluchas (Nostoc commune) naturally dehydrated, we collect them one by one and place them in a dish that Hilda had brought; we take them to her house, they are hydrated, and we use them in a salad like a type of cochayuyo (seaweed).

Hilda Tejada, from the Huama Peasant Community – collecting dehydrated llulluchas at 4200 masl

Llulluchas naturally dehydrated

In the Maras district, the Uscamayta family is in the process of sara tipy (corn husking); this process consists of extracting k’ampas from corn ears, which they then select and dry separated by races. The strongest k’ampas of different colors are separated to use in their textiles; this group is called “Maras K’ampa” and consists of 12 women, among their leaders is Juana Vargas, who accompanies me in this process and is currently developing work with Mater.  The rest of the k’ampas are separated to later use them as wrappers for tamales and humintas, with the remainder for feeding their livestock and guinea pigs. The selection of k’ampas is only done once a year after the harvest; it is stored and used later. They take advantage of this season to dehydrate their husks 100 percent and also their harvest for the year.

Sara tipy (corn husking) Uscamayta Family – Maras District

The white maíces paraqay are used to make mote, tamales, or humintas, while the yellow maíces (qello cossni) are used to make chicha de jora, which we serve in pairing with alcohol. This chicha has a slow fermentation of seven months and accompanies the moment of maize diversity in Mil Centro.

Purple maíces (ch´uspis) are toasted and are part of breakfast along with traditional soups.

Drying varieties of maize – Uscamayta Family – Maras District

The coca leaves and some wincos (a type of ladle made from a kind of gourd) from chicha de jora are witnesses to these great moments. They are part of all processes; they are the energy that has sustained the Andean man for hundreds of years and continues to do so without losing importance.