HALLUCINOGENS VS SPIRITUAL HEALING.

The profound impact of hallucinogens on the brain has been laid bare by the modern brain scans of people high on the consumption of them. The images of the alteration in the connectivity of the neurotransmitter systems that are involved in the regulation of a wide range of psychological, emotional, and cognitive processes, have given an insight into the neural effects produced by the use without any inhibition of the most known hallucinogens compounds of today in the world market.
The hallucinogens unleash a wave of changes that alters the activity and connectivity across the brain creating visual hallucinations and a false sense of oneness with the waves that comes from regions that are segregated and never speak to one another. The usual connections in the brain called the visual cortex at the back of the head that forms a network of information that normally processes the visual information become more separated in a change that accompany the users feelings of oneness but in this case the oneness with the network that controls the world in a dangerous and at the same time an unseen reality. The user senses a profound effect of loss of personal identity becoming a wanderer in a process called "ego dissolution".
In the Spiritual way of healing the concept of using hallucinogens is in a totally different scenario.
First it is derived from spiritual and religious practices that are bound by laws that are fundamental in the dealings with the aspects of human nature and consciousness.
Second, the engagements in psychological and mental changes as a result of fasting, overnight dancing, extensive singing, drumming, the use of beverages, etc., help people in their process of understanding and respecting mutual laws. The whole process give us an insight of the profound change that people are going to experience. The person in charge of it is with enough authority to represent us in a world that is unseen to us, and our souls and identities are protected in every angle without the risk to become a wanderer in a world that we do not know.
Third, the effect underlies numerous mechanisms that provoke alterations of consciousness in an elicit way integrating all the waves produced by the mechanism of operation in an  integrative mode of consciousness that enhances processes of ancient brain systems.
Fourth, the responses obtained in this way provide adaptive effects in moderating emotions and enhancing integration in the pursuit of the normal unconscious brain processes.

THE MEANING OF THE NAZCA LINES.

The Nazca lines are ancient geoglyphs located in the Ica region, in the Palpa and Nazca valleys, 280 miles South of Lima. They are drawn across the deserts and hills along the Eastern coast of Peru at the edge of the Western Andes at 2,000 feet above sea level. To reach them by road, travelers can take inter-provincial buses from the cities of Lima, Arequipa and Cuzco. There are no scheduled commercial flights to Ica.
The interesting figures of different designs on the surface of the desert, made over several centuries, are been related to an astronomical map that deals with an agricultural calendar that indicates sacred routes between Nazca religious sites. The weather was essentially important in their religious beliefs and vital to successful agriculture in their arid plains. They were very aware of the forces that were active in the universe and the required balance needed between them in order to preserve the force of life through the proper established time to harvest crops and the arrival of the rainy season. The only way of communication that the astronomers of the ancient Nazca people found available was through the performance of rituals over the sacred shapes that took the form of animals, plants or geometric patterns.
The lines were made remarkable easily by removing the oxidized surface rocks which lay closely scattered across the lighter colored desert pampa floor. They can easily be made by a single individual in a few days. One experiment illustrated that a small team could clear 16,000 square meters of desert in a week. The aridity of the desert has preserved them and many can still be seen today. The lines appear in great number closer to settlements and river courses. Most designs are only visible from the air but some were made on hillsides that are able to radiate and so made them visible from the ground (62 such points have been identified).  They were made with the purpose of directing travelers to the proper religious paths that needed to be walked repeatedly during their religious rituals, specially the trapezoids shapes that usually point in the direction of sacred water sources.
The creation of such large and impressive figures that are between 165 and 985 feet long, is made possible by carefully increasing the proportions taken from a small scale model. The mystery of these geoglyphs  lies in the complexity of the process used to create them on the ground; they are very stylized and each is drawn with a single unbroken line. In total, more than 300 examples of geometric, animal and human figures have been identified and collectively cover over 640 square kilometers of desert land. The shaped lines never cross each other and usually have a different starting and ending point. Many of the designs also appear on Nazca textiles and pottery decoration.
The hummingbird figure is the most well known of all the geoglyphs, due to its harmonic dimensions. The wingspan of the hummingbird is around 216 feet.
The first researcher to study the Nazca lines was Julio Cesar Tello, a Peruvian archaeologist, who in 1929 described them as "sacred highways." Maria Reiche, a German archaeologist, interpreted the Nazca lines and geoglyphs as a gigantic solar and lunar calendar for ancient Peruvian astronomers.

THE KERO AND ITS REMOTE HABITAT.

The Andean people comprise a large number of ethnic groups who inhabit the Andean Mountains in present-day Peru. The Andean cultures developed here for thousands of years before the invasion of the Europeans in 1532.
The Kero are the Andean people of Quechua ethnicity who live in one of the most remote places in the Peruvian Andes in the province of Paucar'Tambo, one of the 13 provinces in the Cuzco Region in the Southern highlands.
The Kero live in an area that stretches over several climates, with elevations from under 1800 meters to over 4500 meters. Their one-room houses are not larger than 20 square meters, and they are made of clay and natural stone with roofs of hard grass. Depending on the climatic zone, corn and potatoes may be grown, while the only means of transportation, the llamas, are kept in the high areas. The fields are plowed with a type of foot-plow tool named "chaqui taclla."
According to the 10-year census, there are six major villages, which are home for 600 Kero people and approximately 6,000 llamas and alpacas. The travel-time on the mountain trails between villages ranges from only an hour to a full three-days journey. The lower areas of the community are inhabited seasonally, in order to till the fields; accordingly the housing there consists of temporary huts made of clay and branches.
The Kero people practice an active tradition of oral literature, with stories passed down from generation to generation. According to Kero mythology, their ancestors defended themselves from the invaders with the aid of the spirits of the local mountains that devastated the European army near the pampa of Viracocha by creating an earthquake and subsequent rock-slide that buried the invaders.
The Kero people do not practice any particular religion, though they are highly spiritual. Their beliefs are not dogmatic. There are no shamans among them, as they are more mystical than shamanic level.
They call their spiritual leaders 'paqos," a term that may be translated as "priest" or "practitioner."
A major distinction between mystic and shamans is that shamans need to enter a trance state which is induced by either a medicinal plant, dancing, drumming, meditation, or some other type of transformational activity that allows the practitioner to transcend into a trance-like state in order to heal or diagnose disease.
According to Kero's myth, until now there were two great ages that replaced each other by big turning points in history (Pacha'cutec) while a new age is still approaching. During the first age, the time of the first men, only the moon (Quilla) existed. Within the first big turning point of history the sun (Inti) made its appeareance and dried out the time of the first men. The Inca was the son of the sun (Inti) and father of the Inca and therefore ancestor of the Kero people. When the Inca founded the city of Cuzco by throwing a golden rod, a new civilization arose. The current age was initiated by the arrival of the Europeans and the violent death of the Inca. This age will end with another turning point when the Inca returns converting the souls of everything into gold and silver. The sun will burn the world with bad people while good people will ascend to the sky.
The Kero people live in complete balance and respect for all living things (reciprocity). It is based on the idea of always giving and knowing that in the end you yourself will receive. Reciprocity (ayni) is also practiced with the spirit world and this puts one into the right relationship and harmony with all living things. The spirit of life around them is what they respect and honor. They understand deeply the balance of nature, its power and beauty, otherwise they could not exist in such a harsh and difficult environment in which they are enclosed like a walled spiritual city.

THE ANDEAN SACRED PLANT: COCA.

The Coca plant is native to the Andean Mountains of South America. It plays an important role in the Andean societies who live on the Eastern slopes of the Andes in Peru and Bolivia that chew the leaves as a way of life in the high altitude in which their communities are placed.
The knowledge of the sacred Coca plant's virtues has been passed on from generation to generation by way of mouth without any formal knowledge of chemistry. The plant has been used by the Andean people since ancient times.
The leaves are selected or chosen by their high concentration of sweet, aromatic compounds which give a better flavor in the mouth when the chewing process is on. It is still a common practice for a mother to introduce her young to the consumption of the coca leaves by preparing a wad of leaves in her mouth and then transferring it to the mouth of her child. First by chewing the coca leaves they are moistened by the saliva and easily broken facilitating the removal of the stalks and strings. Then a pinch of lime prepared from calcinated seashells, plant ashes or bicarbonate of soda is added pinch by pinch, until the proper mixture is achieved. The amount of lime is critical to the taste and to the concentration of alkaloid released. The wad of leaves is then kept relatively still between the teeth and the cheek; it is sucked on rather than chewed. When the mother transfer the wad from her mouth to the mouth of he child, the proper amount of lime will be presented in the first wad of leaves the child uses, which ensures that the first experience with the coca leaves will leave a positive introduction. Since lime is caustic, an excess will burn the mouth. The process itself involve the extraction of alkaloids from the leaves making them alkaline. The lime is the mechanism by which absorption of the alkaloids could be controlled. Thus, if while chewing the leaves a little too many alkaloids were released, one had only to easy up on the lime and let the saliva wash out some excess lime into the stomach. The lower concentration of lime would result in a slower absorption of alkaloids.
The same cautious and selective procedures are taken when the Coca plant is used in conjunction with other medicinal plants as a natural health enhancer and in the strict context of religious rituals for their various psychoactive effects that target certain neuronal receptors that alter perception, emotion and cognition.
The Coca plant began to be used for negative purposes at the beginning of the 20th century. Since then, the leaves with high concentration of the alkaloid used as the raw material for cocaine production were selected. The ones with the very low content are the sweet and flavored ones used for chewing.
The sweet and aromatic leaves help to maintain the teeth and gums in a good state of health; they also keep the teeth white. They are rich in vitamins, particularly thiamine, riboflavin, and vitamin C.
Coca tea has a beneficial influence on respiration and is said to effect rapid cure of altitude sickness. It also rids the blood of toxic metabolites, especially uric acid.

SACRED BURIAL SITE OF THE ANDES.

The ancient Andean people and after them the Incas looked after their ancestors in their afterlives and sought their guidance for their living descendants. The use of elaborate tombs and mummification rituals shows the high degree of interaction with the process of passing away or the cross over to the spiritual world. The philosophy behind the scene is that the living world was less important for them comparing it to the acquisition of powers in the unseen world.
As woven bridges braided over raging waters, defined the ancient Andean people as the ones who loved to connect the spectacular andean geography, so their healers were able to create bridges to connect the vast unseen world.
Ancestor reverence for the ancient Andean people then were not the same as the worship of deities. They were seeing as being able to intercede on behalf of the living. As spirits who were once human themselves, they were seeing as messengers, being better able to understand the human affairs than would a divine being. The act of reverence also taught the way to respect, honor, and loyalty.
The contrast between the ritual attention given to the fathers of the culture and the lack of attention received by the mother at childbirth were explained by the different responsibilities each of them had in the generation of the soul and body of the new-born individual. In other words, greater ritual attention was given to the fathers of the culture because the soul of a child was entrusted to them as a cultural realm, while the lack of attention given to the mother was linked with the body as a natural realm with which she was entrusted. It is important to understand this institution in relation to kinship and alliance system.
One of the most important burial grounds on the Andean Plateau, that contains cultural traditions, is located in the Pichacani district in the province of Puno. It belonged to the Lupaca and Colla cultures . The rock art is about 8,000 years old. There are also remains from the age of the Incas. Chullpas (Aymara language) are found there.
Chullpas are ancient Aymara large funerary towers made of stones and placed in a way that they dominate the landscape across the Andean Plateau (Altiplano) in Peru and Bolivia. The tallest are about 12 meters/39 feet high.
The tombs at Sillustani, built above the ground in tower-like structures, are the most famous, on the shores of Umayo Lake in Atun'Colla of the Puno region. The lake is located at an alevation of 3,844 meters/12,612 feet and is about 8 kms/5 mi long and 3 kms/1.9 mi wide. The structures housed the remains of complete family groups.
The tombs, although mute remains, provide the most tangible evidence of the kind of beliefs rooted in the Andean population from very ancient times. It can also act as a linkage to the establishment of the line of continuity like an umbilical cord between the past and the present time.

THE ANDEAN GHOSTS.

The place of the Andean ghosts goes by many names and is referred to the sculpted stones that stand on the very edge of an arched sandstone outcrop, near to the shore of Titicaca Lake, and is known as "the stone forest."
At some time in the distant past, sediments from an very ancient sea bed were compressed forming the sandstone. Then they probably were up-ended by tectonic forces shifting in the Earth's crust giving them the right to stand upright, as the Andes rose  above the South American Plate. Later, the glaciers rasped at their surfaces, making the first icy cuts to create what became these curious formations. Then time continue the art work by sculpting the stones into a variety of phantasmagoria forms that excels in embellishment and creates an unusual and unique acoustic resonance in the place. You can stand several hundreds of meters away and hear the words spoken softly by those who stand immediately in front of the stony figures.
The Andean people belief the sculptures were once gigantic living beings with enormous power that angered their creator and he turned them into stones dominating the skyline. Some stones can be visualized forming a natural bridge with the appearance of a mammoth's struggling under a heavy burden. Other rocks appear to waddle like obese giants lumbering down the steep inclination towards the bed of the Lake. The terrain then flattens out into a hollow so shallow that is barely perceptible until the waters of Titicaca Lake became noticeable by glistening in the mountain sunlight more that 1.6 km / 1 mile away.
The waters of the Titicaca Lake once were an inland sea, formed from the dregs of the much larger stretches of water that covered the High Plateau (Altiplano). The waters used to lap against the very foot of present day sculpted stones. The Lake has grown steadily smaller since the time it was formed.
The stones now stands at least 15 meters/45feet above Titicaca's present water level.
The threshold of the place of Spirits points towards the Island of the Sun on Lake Titicaca, nearly 9.6 km / 6 mi long. The place also points to the most important sacred place in the whole of the Andes: the Foundation Stone, or Sacred Rock, known as Titi Q'ala. The sacred rock lies at the North end of the Island of the Sun. It is the point (Pacarina) from which the whole Andean civilization unfolded. This is the place where the creator god Viracocha is said to have created the Sun and the Moon after the frozen age of Darkness. The Titi Q'ala was also the place where the progenitors of the Incas, Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, arose from the waters of the Titicaca Lake to restore the Andean civilization that had been reduced to its lowest level. The sacred rock was also known as the Lion Cliff, because it is said that it was once the site of a statue of a puma. The rock's natural morphology is associated with the form of a feline as seen from a very specific angle.
It is interesting to observe that in the centre of the peninsula that divides the Titicaca Lake into Great lake and Little lake, sits an enormous volcano called Khapia. The volcano's plateau is constantly visited by the Andean healers and is home to a number of huacas and sacred objects, such as the representation  of a toad sculptured naturally in stone formations.
The volcano together with the sacred rock Titi Q'ala and the City of Spirits form a equilateral triangle of sacred power. This is not the only example of triangles that can be observed between sacred places in the Andes. An equilateral triangle also joins the peaks of the volcanoes Illimani, Illampu with the site of Tiahuanaco in Bolivia. The ancient Andean people possessed the ability to recognize these geometries which included an innate appreciation of spherical and at the same time triangular sacred forms.
The interaction between the sacred and the natural forms of energies seemed to have been of great importance to the ancient Andean people. The relationship between the physical and the unseen world was in such extent that it empowered the human will to exercise control over the negative input of forces that attacked the weak wall made by human emotions. .

THE NEW CHILDREN OF THE SUN.

The Inca education during the time of their empire was divided into two principal spheres: education for the governing class and education for the general population.
Inca sages known as Amautas and haravicus were very well trained men who kept a record of historical events and preserved the literary works and traditions of their people. Some scholars have made a distinction between the two terms, defining "haravicus" as wise men who recorded in their memory  and recited ceremonial poems and ritual songs, and "amautas" as wise men who recorded all kinds of cosmological, technological, and religious information.
The Amautas and haravicus were considered special and the most respected class. They were highly knowledgeable and included illustrious philosophers, poets, astrologers and priests who kept the histories of the Incas alive by imparting the knowledge of their culture, and sacred traditions throughout the kingdom. The teachers did ensure that the general population learned the official and sacred language of the Empire and its laws.
The Amautas and haravicus were in charge of the "Yachay'Huasi," the Inca House of Knowledge. They were responsible for the education of Inca princes and the children of the the high nobility (the royal blood), as well as other young members of conquered cultures specially chosen to administer the regions.
The education of young novices about Inca religion, rites, sacred ceremonies, history and government, and moral laws, began at the age of 13 in the House of Knowledge (Yachay'Huasi) in Cuzco. They also ensured a thorough understanding of the Quipu, the Incas' unique logical-numerical system which used knotted strings of different colors to keep accurate records of different cosmological matters. In addition, the young men were given careful training in physical education and military techniques of power assimilation to be applied in new expansions of their territory.
Most Inca novices finished their education at the age of 19. After passing their rigorous examination, the young men would receive their "wara"(a special type of underwear) as proof of their maturity and virility. Their sacred education ended with a special ceremony, attended by the Empire's oldest and most illustrious Incas and teachers, at which the new young nobles, as future rulers, demonstrated their physical and spiritual prowess and warrior skills that proved their masculinity force. The candidates were also presented to the Inca sovereign, who pierced their ears with large pendants and congratulated the young aspirants on the proficiency they had shown, reminding them of the responsibilities attached to their station and calling them the new "Children of the Sun."
Although the Amautas' activities are registered by all chroniclers, their specific and sacred functions have not been clearly established. Amautas were also usually considered Quipu'Camayocs, individuals who had the capacity to record accurate information and the transmission of it upon request.
Today, the term "Amauta" could be translated "maestro," signifying a teacher, with emphasis on the person's wisdom and achievement.

THE POWER OF THE INCA LAW.

The Inca Empire was the largest South Americas had ever known and one of the largest empires in the world prior the arrival of the Europeans settlers. Their complex and multicultural society stretched across the Andes' mountain tops and down to the shoreline, incorporating lands from today's Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Peru -all connected by a very vast highway system whose complexity rivaled any in the Old World. Rich in food, textiles, gold, herbs, and more, the Incas were masters of city building, land planners, sophisticated mountain agriculture, with no marketplaces at all, no class of traders and no commerce of any kind within its boundaries. Their empire was divided into four quarters or "suyos," whose corners met at the sacred capital, Cuzco, in modern-day Peru.
In the Tahuantinsuyo (The Four United Regions) there was a moral code that regulated the human coexistence and allowed, in the cities as in the ayllus, harmonious relations between each other. These were based on mutual aid and cooperation. The development of individual wealth was not possible under these common philosophy and that is the reason why commerce never got the chance to be born.
The Incas never promulgated Laws to frighten their vassals, nor to deride them, because they were not barbarians or cruel to each other. Rather they were a well organized state that used most of the time peaceful assimilations as a method of conquest and governed their coexistence by a spirit of cooperation and collective work.
The ones who did not want to accept the practice of authentic human values, harsh and severe set of 3 Laws, were applied on them: "Ama Sua, Ama Llulla, Ama Quella" meaning "Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not be lazy."
Ama Sua, Do not steal, this law promoted "respect"showing regard and appreciation for the worth of someone or something including respect for self, respect for the rights and dignity of all persons  as parts of the whole universal creation and respect for the environment that sustain life.
Ama Llulla, Do not lie, this law promoted integrity emphasized by the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.
Ama Quella, Do not be lazy, this law promoted fairness giving all people an equal treatment. They were all bound by the rules that take turns and share. Be committed to your work was another teaching associated with this law.
Along with these 3 Laws, there were other ordinances of great importance, such as:
-Be honest, -Be clean, -Be vivacious, -Be worthy, -Respect life, -Be gentle, -Be sensitive.
The Laws promoted peace among its people. Crime was an unusual thing, but when a crime was committed the punishment was ruthless. The purpose of the Laws was to teach a lesson to the offender and prevent re-occurrence by any member of the society. The transgression was considered an action against the power of their divinities.
There was no system of imprisonment and offenders were punished severely so that the penalty was exemplary to the rest of the population. Those who were able to survive the punishment were forced to tell their stories for the rest of their lives, those interested in listening would give them food so basically their survival was based on how engaging and compelling their stories were.
Penalties were categorized in two groups -personal or -collective, according to the crime, from simple mass repression to the isolation of entire villages. Mutilation and the death penalty were frequently applied. Rebellions, homicide, adultery, 2nd offenses in drunkenness, theft and laziness, breaking state possessions, were all punished to death by stoning, hanging or pushing the person off a cliff. Mutilation were common for theft. Punishment such as public scolding was administered for minor crimes and 1st time offenders.
When a new territory was annexed to the Inca Empire the local laws and rules to their deities continued to be applied unless they were in conflict with the 3 Laws imposed by the Inca. If the leader of the newly annexed territory opposed to follow the 3 mandatory Laws, he would be executed and a new loyal leader would oversee and secure loyalty among the population. This new leader was usually transferred from another territory along with his family and entourage.
Regional leaders were authorized to decide in several different matters of Law but not all. Only a higher and ceremonial authority could decide in cases in which the mutilation or death penalty was enforced.
The great wealth of the Inca Empire was based on a high code of behavior and mutual cooperation to sustain life in an environment challenged by so many difficulties. They as one body developed so many methods to prevent starvation and that was the common goal rather than to foster trade and individual wealth.

THE SACRED RIVER OF THE ANDES.

Water is the source of life, energy and absolution to many communities around the Andean mountains.
The natural history of the Inca Sacred Valley is a tale of mighty glacial rivers carving through solid earth to shape one of the most environmentally diverse basin in the Peruvian highlands.
Cutting through the steep walls of the fertile Sacred Valley, 20 km to the North of Cuzco, surrounded by foothills and snowy peaks that climb higher and higher, the Uru'Bamba River, known in Quechua as Willcamayu, was, for the Incas, a direct reflection of the celestial river known to them as "Mayu" (Milky Way). Its flow was thought to mimic the shape of Mayu.
The Uru'Bamba Sacred Valley stretches around 100 km East to West along the Sacred Uru'Bamba River, from Pisac to Maccu Picchu, and is fed by tributaries cascading down the surrounded valleys and gorges.
The Milky Way, our own galaxy containing the solar system, is a barred spiral galaxy with roughly 400 billion stars. The stars, along with gas and dust, appear like a band of light in the sky from Earth. The galaxy stretches between 100,000 to 120,000 light-years in diameter.
For the Incas, whose empire was the largest in the Americas, the Milky way (Mayu) was a life-giver River in the heavens with its earthly counterpart -the sacred Uru'Bamba River, in the Sacred Valley. The Incas took control of the highlands region and the Sacred Valley along the Uru'Bamba River that was favored for its low elevations compared to other nearby areas, and warmer temperatures. Then they chose the Valley as their religious center and an agrarian laboratory. The growth of the unique corn that was used to make their fermented chicha for their religious festivals and ceremonial feasts, nestled there on the steep sides of the Valley's hills, and extensive irrigation systems were built transforming the region into an agricultural breadbasket. Besides the sacred corn, potatoes, quinoa, amaranth, etc. grew in the fields using the methods that the Inca developed through the knowledge of Mayu, and the dual forces of the universe acting in it that were reflected in the River's flow.
The Incas grouped the constellations into 2 different types: -luminous made up of sparkling stars that depicted geometric forms in the sky and were seen as inanimate, and -dark cloudy ones, contained within the dark blotches of the Milky Way, were seen as living forms, representing the silhouettes of animals that came to drink from the waters of the celestial River, obscuring the heavenly glow of Mayu.
In our present days, the sacred reflection of the heavenly River on earth, passes important ruins like Machu Picchu and the Raqch'i (Vira'Cocha) temple. The Incas observed  that the earthly manifestation of the sacred river was a collection point of the sacred water, that would then feed into the sky.
Today, the mountains with its crispy and thin air and the massive sky tumbling into the exceptional landscapes, Quechua-speaking farmers still work in the sacred fields  with methods unchanged since the ancient Inca era. But while the Sacred Valley is still deeply rooted in its history, the landscape is now a blend of the ancient and the modern world.
The Urubamba River is now best known for its great rafting and kayaking options. In some places, the sacred river passes marvelous stretches of jungle and thrilling rapids. As such, it offers travelers an exciting way to experience the outdoors from within the Sacred Valley. The river flow is at its fullest  between December and May -this is also when the rapids are best. When the water level drops from June through November, rafting is typically done along the lower section of the river between Ollanta-y-Tambo and Chilca.
The Uru'Bamba River originates on the slopes of the Cunu'Rana in the Puno Region, Melgar Province, near La Raya mountain range pass. The length of the River is 724 km. The Cunu'Rana (name comes from potatoes that belongs to the Quini group) is about 5,420m/17,782ft high, and lies South East of La Raya mountain pass near the road and railway that connects Cuzco and Juliaca.
The altitude at La Raya mountain pass, which makes the border between the regions of Cuzco and Puno, the Quechua and the Aymara speaking communities , is 4,335 meters
The Pongo of Mainique, a water gap 45m/50yd wide and 3km/2mi long, with 900m (3,000ft) to 300m(1,00ft)high cliffs, is the only break in the entire Vilcabamba mountain range that divides the Urubamba River between Upper and Lower Urubamba. The pongo is considered the most dangerous and turbulent whitewater pass on the Urubamba, however many boats traverse it, depending on seasonal river conditions. It is crossed by the Inca bridge, ancient secret entrance to Machu Picchu. The pongo is also a global biodiversity hotspot; 6 sq mi of rain-forest around the canyon contains more species of life than any other similar-sized area on Earth.

ANCIENT ANDEAN TEMPLE OF THE CROSSING HANDS.

A series of ritual buildings were constructed in the Andean mountains drainages by the ancient settlers of the Andes between 3,000 and 1,200 BC, that preceded the introduction of ceramics.
A number of these ritual centers has been unearthed in the highland zones that are lower than the Puna, considerable distances separates them, and their architectural designs are remarkable similar.
The ancient culture of Kotosh Waira-Jirca existed approximately from 1800BC to 1300BC. The settlement was concentrated in the Huanuco River basin, only 6 km West of today Huanuco along the La Union road. Huanuco is known for its rough topography comprising parts of the Sierra (the Andes shelter in which the very last variety of climates exists) and the High Jungle regions, and for the richness of its soil.
The culture of Kotosh predates the Chavin culture  by more than a thousand years, then it continued throughout the Inca occupation, right up to the arrival of the Europeans settlers to South America.
The archaeological site contains a series of overlapping buildings with 6 periods of continuous occupation. The 3 overlapping temples are: -Nichitos (Niches), -Blanco (White), -Manos Cruzadas (Crossed Hands). The site gave birth to the term Kotosh Religious Tradition and the term is used by archaeologists to refer to the ritual buildings that were constructed in the mountains drainages of the Andes between 3,000BC and 1,800 BC.
Today, more than 4,000 years old, the "Temple of the Crossed Hands" (Templo de Las Manos Cruzadas) is considered one of the oldest temples in Peru and America. It lies in ruins and its most unique feature is the crossed-hands symbol carved prominently in stone on the Temple walls. The sculpture of the Crossed Hands can be seen next to the main Niche. On one of the sculptures, the Right Hand rests on the Left, and on the other, the Left Hand rests on the Right. It is believed that this correspond to the earliest notion of the universal duality, a central theme which was the core in the Andean ideology through the time of the Incas.
The first evidence of massive stone constructions from about 2,000 BC suggests that complicated building work of human enterprise began in this area before anyone else on the American continent.
Their settlers cultivated crops, used marine resources, built permanent settlements and multi-layered ceremonial buildings. Artifacts of later origin, mostly belonging to Chavin culture were also unearthed. The culture stratum was situated directly beneath the Chavin culture stratum. At this stage, unique Andean maize cultivation appeared, followed by beans, squash, cassava, potatoes, etc.

THE ANCIENT SETTLERS OF COLOMBIAN ANDES.

The history of human habitation in the Andean region of South America stretches from 15,000BC to the present day. The habitation of the region has been challenged by its unique geography and climate, leading to the development of unique cultural and societal organization.
Colombia is named after Christopher Columbus, even though he never set foot on the soil. It was Alonso de Ojeda, one of Columbus' companions on his 2nd voyage, who was the 1st European to set foot on the land in 1499. He briefly explored the Sierra Nevada of St. Martha and was astonished by the wealth of the local people. Their gold and their stories about fabulous treasures inland gave birth to the myth of "El Dorado," a mysterious kingdom abundant in gold. In its most extreme interpretation, "El Dorado was believed to be a land of gold mountains littered with emeralds and the people of the land threw gold offerings into its sacred waters. From the moment the Europeans arrived in 1509, their obsession with EL Dorado became the principal force driving them into the interior. The population at that time numbered between 1.5 and 2 million spread out across the Andean mountains.
Attracted by the presumed riches of the land, the shores became the target of numerous expeditions, and several short-lived settlements were founded along the coast. In 1525 the first stones of St Martha were laid and in 1533 Cartagena was found and soon became the principal center of trade.
Colombia is considered the only overland gateway to South America and the route pioneered by the first ancient settlers, who migrated from other lands. The territory of the Andean mountains that form the core of the land, was the location of the most significant earliest settlements.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the ancient Colombian Andes had well-established hunter-gatherer cultures, with the earliest human habitants concentrated along the Caribbean coast and the Andean mountains.
The Cave system of 'El Abra' site, located just North of Bogota, is considered among the very first human settlements in the Americas. In 1960 ancient petro-glyphs and mastodon bones were uncovered and carbon dated around 11,500BC.
In 3,000BC, two civilizations lived in the adjacent River Valleys of the Magdalena and the Cauca. Divided by impossible-to-cross peaks, the Rivers were the highways, and near St. Agustin lie the headwaters of both rivers. Both civilizations met at this point to trade, to worship and to bury their dead. 500 statues (the largest 7m high) are found scattered over a wide area surrounding St. Agustin. Many of them are anthropomorphic figures, some realistic, others resembling masked monsters. There are also sculptures depicting sacred animals such as the condor, jaguar, and frog. A great deal of pottery was also uncovered around the area. They did not have a written language and the people disappeared many centuries before the European arrival, but their mystical legacy is one of the most important archaeological sites on the continent.
After St. Agustin, Tierra-Adentro (Under-the-ground) is another remarkable and awe-inspiring site. While St. Agustin is noted for its statuary, Tierra-Adentro is noted for its elaborate underground tombs. So far, 100 of this unusual funeral temples have been unearthed surrounded by the Andean mountain scenery. Their art reveals a high degree of skill in gold and pottery.
Most of the ancient population evolved from 3 main streams: -Quimbayas, who inhabited the Western slopes of the Central Cordillera; -Chibchas, who were skilled in farming, mining, and metal work; -Caribes, a type of warlike people who ultimately migrated to Eastern South America and the Caribbean islands.
The tribal cultures that still continue to thrive today are:
-Ar'Huaco, with a population of 27,000, concentrate in Northern Colombia. They believe the Sierra Nevada of St. Martha is the heart of the world and that the planet's well being depends on it.
-Awa, with a population of 32,000, inhabits the forests of Northern Ecuador and Souther Colombia. Their habitat is considered the most bio-diverse places on the planet. Traditionally hunter-gatherers, today they also farm livestock and grow a broad variety of vegetables.
-Kogi, with a population of 20,000, still live in much the same way their ancestors did (Tairona). They live in stone and thatch huts, worshiping 'Mother Nature'(Aluna) and viewing the Earth as a living being and humanity as its children. They have lived in the Sierra Nevada of St Martha since the pre-European era.
-Muisca, number approximately 10,000 now. As a civilization they occupied around 18,000 sq mi in Colombia's Eastern Range before the European arrival. They remain as an active defenders of the region's natural resources as well as the rights of its Andean communities.
-Nukak, with a population of 500 nomadic hunter-gatherers from the fringe of the Amazon basin, this tribe became famous as an "un-contacted people" discovered in the early '80s. They are expert hunters using blowguns and darts coated with a poison (curare manyi) made from various plants. Endangered by disease and other political encounters, they are now a focus of indigenous rights campaigns by the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia.
-Wayuu, the largest tribe with a population of around 450,000. Nearly a third of them are based in Northern Colombia, the rest live in North West Venezuela. Inhabiting in the arid the Guajira Peninsula, the matriarchal Wayuu were among the few tribes never successfully subjugated by the European settlers, even though the Europeans tried harder, but they never won the cause. Their language is related to the Arawak family of language predominant in the Caribbean, and remains in regular usage today.

THE ANCIENT ANDEAN MOUNTAIN SETTLERS.

The Andes or Andean Mountains (Cordillera de los Andes) are the longest continental mountain range in the world and the highest mountain range outside Asia. They form a continuous highland along the Western edge of South America. This range is about 7,000km / 4,300mi long, about 200 to 700km /120 to 430mi wide, and of an average height of about 4,000m / 13,000ft.
The bounds of the former Inca realm of the Tahuantinsuyo, centered in the Andean Mountains and the largest in the world in the early 16th century, stretched throughout the Andes from North to South. Its area incorporates now 7 South American countries: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. Its political and administrative structure was the most sophisticated found among the ancient America, especially for its location and ways of survival. It was predominantly agricultural.
The Andes also are the place in which several high plains (tablelands) raise significantly above the surrounding area with steep slopes -some of which host major cities such as Quito, Bogota, Arequipa, Medellin, Sucre, Merida and La Paz. The Peruvian-Bolivian Plateau in West-Central South America is the world's second highest plateau on Earth outside the Tibet. The bulk of it lies now in Bolivia, but its Northern parts lies in Peru.
The Andean model of accessing and distributing resources, particularly in the arid North West Coast of Peru and in the highland plateaus along the Andean Mountains was unique. It is important to mention that only about 2% of the land in the Andes is arable. The Inca agriculture was the culmination of thousands of years of farming and herding in the high mountains, the coastal deserts, and the rain-forest of the Amazon basin. This 3 radically different environments were all part of their land and required different technologies for agriculture. They did not have many features that helped many civilizations to grow in the Old World. They did not use the wheel. They did not have animals to ride on and draft animals that could pull wagons and plows. The did not use iron or steel. And above all they did not use money and did not have a writing system.
The need to access the proper land for specific crops or animals were far more important tasks in direct relation to survival techniques that meant a totally different perspective of settling and develop a type of lifestyle. Potatoes of different kind (400 varieties), corn (jumbo size without the sweet flavor exists in a great variety of flavors), and quinoa were among the unique crops and camelids (llamas and alpacas) and guinea pigs were the unique domesticated animals.
A line-ages miniature colonies were created to overcome the adversities of the terrain and weather. The adaptation and agricultural technologies of ancient settlers allowed them to organize production of a diverse range of crops from the arid coast, the high and cold mountains, and the humid jungle regions, which they redistribute to villages that did not have access to other regions. Despite of all these barriers, the Incas were still able to construct one of the greatest imperial states in human history based on a concept of reciprocity.
The Inca empire functioned largely without marketplaces. Instead, exchange of goods and services governed by the spirit of reciprocity between individuals and among individuals, groups, and Inca rulers was the base of their philosophy of life. '
Taxes' consisted of labour obligation of a person to the Empire in building government related projects for the sake of their own community. The reciprocal action from the government was granting access to new lands and goods and provide food and drink in all celebratory feasts, that were quite a lot. This period of employment represented a third of a normal year period. This concept is still applied in the remote areas in which the influence of modern lifestyle is still unable to reach.
The Ayllu, as the word itself means, refers to a network of families in a given area. It is and ancient Andean system of governing councils and it still is the traditional form especially among Quechuas and Aymaras. The supreme leader has the responsibility of overseen the vast network of the ayllus. Ayllus are distinguished by their self-sustainability, commonly held territory and relations of reciprocity. Members engage in shared collective labor (Quechua: Minga) and in reciprocal exchanges of assistance (Quechua: Ayni).

THE ANCIENT ANDEAN CONCEPT OF CALENDAR.

The old cultures of the Andes thrust upward through some of the world's most forbidding terrain: the towering mountains and desert coast of the Andes. The empire of the Inca, which crowned them, ruled from a capital 11,000 feet in the clouds.
The ancient people of the Andes kept track of time with calendars which had ritual and religious meaning. While the Julian calendar came to the Andean territory in the 16th century, and Gregorian calendar in now in general use, only in a few communities now located in the Andean Highlands still use the ancient count of days and nights.
So little is know about the calendar used by the Inca, since no written language was used at the time, but it is widely believed that the "quipus" of the Inca contains calendrical notations based on the observation of both Sun and Moon and their relationship to the stars.
The Inca were sometimes said to be people of the sun, whereas the Aymara were sometimes said to be people of the moon.
The Constellation of the Southern Cross is a strong symbol of the ancient Andean cultures and is considered the most complete, holy and geometric design of the center of the universe, as they believe it was. It is to be seen on the Southern hemisphere and it is easy to find in a clear sky at night. The symbol is often found in old places and holy centers in the Andes of Peru and Bolivia.
The Andean people defined their territories and  recorded astronomical cycles with long-distance alignments which were measured out between the highest sacred mountains, lakes and lagoons. Localized alignments between cairns of stones were known as "saywas" which translates to "marker."
The Incas created 41 long-distance alignments called "ceque lines" which were oriented to significant solar, lunar and stellar occurrences, integrating astronomy and cosmology with their sociopolitical structure. These 41 energy lines were perceived as being imbued with sacred creation forces of energy that were aligned from the source and being channelled and emanated from the Coricancha, Temple of the Sun religious complex, in Cuzco.
The sun god Inti was worshiped most intensely at the winter solstice and still is today, every June 24, the Festival of the Inti Raymi. The hills surrounding the Inca's capital city Cuzco and the arrangement of massive pillars are a visible link to Inti, the sun god, who was thought to sit of the "saywas" at winter and summer solstices marking the sunrises and the sets.
Ancient Andean reality was and still is very different from western cosmology. The Andean universal outlook is based in the understanding that all forms possess male and female energies which flow along natural roads marked along the landscape of the Andean Mountains. It forms a superimposition of inner space on to the outer landscape. The Incas devised this natural and sacred language of opposite forces to design a great systematical organization, based on an superb and ordered study of astronomy aligned with a very detailed calendar.

THE ANDEAN CONNECTION WITH THE STARS.

The Inca civilization controlled the largest territory in the history of the New World. The Inca Empire spanned the Andes, from Chile to Ecuador. They placed a great importance on astronomy and their religion was closely linked to it. Astronomy was important because it was used for agricultural purposes. Cuzco  for example lies on a radial plan mimicking the sky and pointing to specific astronomical events on the horizon. They built pillars carefully placed on mountains and hills overlooking Cuzco, so when the sun rose or set between these pillars, they knew they had to plant at a very specific altitude. Machu Picchu was considered a sacred ceremonial site, an agricultural experimentation center and an astronomical observatory.
The Incas were the only culture in the world that not only studied individual stars, but also grouped stars into constellations of both light and darkness, and assigned each of them a purpose, under the belief that everything in and around the world was connected. The universe according to their beliefs was not composed of discrete phenomena and events, but rather it was believed to be made of a powerful principle underlying the perception and ordering of objects and events in the physical environment. The snake in the sky for example has the same cycle as snakes on earth, and both live in harmony, alongside other celestial animals.
To the Inca civilization, the Milky Way (Mayu) was, and still is, referred to as a river flowing through the sky. Its counterpart is said to be terrestrial, the run off of the Vilcanota River, which runs SouthEast
/ NorthWest through the heart of Peru. The Vilcanota and the Milky Way are said to be mirror images of one another and for this reason the primary orientation of the Milky Way is said to be running SouthEast / NorthWest. During the twilight periods of the solstices the Milky Way forms a cross in the sky. This cross touches the 4 points on the horizon in which the sun rises and sets during the equinoxes.
Further, it divides the stars into 4 separate directional quarters.
In general, the sky was very important to the Incas in in relation to the agricultural cycle. It gave them the tools for survival in the highlands of the Andean mountains.  Both the moon and the sun were seen as powerful forces acting together and because of this interaction the building of  pillars and temples were made with great precision along their empire so that these heavenly bodies would pass over the structures or through the windows on specific days, like the summer solstice. The most crucial events for the Inca involved the rising and setting of the sun, moon, and stars.
The Milky Way was believed to be the path to the otherworld, connecting heaven and earth,  traveled by spirits, deities and shamans in trance. In the Inca creation myth, Vira'Cocha, the Creator, follows the primary axis of the Milky Way (SouthEast to NorthEast) on His journey from earth to the Upper-world after the time of creation had been completed. The "huacas," considered places containing sacred energies, whom the Inca prayed for a prosperous life, abided in the Upper-World. The Milky Way was the channel through which they communicated and the shrines were the portals.
Just after the June solstice the Inca himself presided over the most sacred ceremony of the year. It was called the Inti Raymi, "the solemn Feast of the Sun." Absolutely every noble from all over the Inca Empire was required to come to Cuzco for this ceremony and all people, nobles and commoners alike, were encouraged to participate. The ceremony was a "centering of the universe' around the Inca in the temple of the Sun at Cuzco. The timing of the Inti Raymi in the ritual calendar coordinated with the time in which the Milky Way aligned with the Vilcanota River. It was this time, when heaven and earth came together, and the sun rose and set in the Milky Way, and the people came together with their king to pay homage to the sun.
The king was the center of the Inca world and Cuzco was the center of the kingdom. As the Milky Way did to the night sky, the Inca partitioned the realm into 4 sections. As the Milky Way lends order to the universe, so did the Inca king to the empire. The cross created by the Milky Way at zenith was an Inca symbol of office. In the palace at Cuzco, an inner shrine was located, in which only those of  royal blood could enter. The purest divine blood on earth coursing in a symbolic way through the veins of the Inca made him most able to perform these tasks, and he did just like that.

THE ANDEAN HUAYNAPUTINA.

Huayna'Putina volcano is a small volcano, with a maximum elevation of 4,800m, and a edifice height of no more than 500m, in a volcanic upland located in Southern Peru, Moquegua region, 80 km (50 mi) South East of Arequipa (capital and largest city of the Arequipa region and the seat of the Constitutional Court of Peru).
This volcano has been variously known as Omate, Quinistaquillas, Chuiquimote, and Ceque'Puquina.
Hayna'Putina's name came from "Misti" a volcano in Arequipa, which was called "Putina" at the time. In Quechua language "Pu"is the root word of "Blow" and "i" indicate the first person, so its name refers to its prolific fumaroles. The other part relates to Huayna Capac, the mighty one. He was the emperor under whom the Inca empire reached its peak, just time before the European explorers arrived in the area. He died because of the invasion he had not yet seen, in the smallpox epidemic which preceded the arrival of many europeans with the sole purpose of taking over the land. A century later, when the eruption occurred, the whole area was deeply Spanish.
The mountain resides within a horseshoe shaped crater (2.5 km /2 mi in width) older explosive caldera that was deepened by glacial erosion, 26 km South of Ubinas volcano. The volcano is part of the Central Volcanic Zone, the segment of the Andes through Peru and Chile, that is unusually thick and the volcanoes that occur inside differ from the rest of the Andean edifices.
Hayna'Putina is remarkably situated on the Western rim of the canyon on the Tambo River, which is more than 2 km deep immediately below the volcano. To the West, a roughly rectangular plateau of ash has buried the local pre-eruption topography over an area of about 50 km2.
The volcano's Eastern edge's caldera has been excavated along centuries by the Tambo on the Andean slopes and tapers off into a gorge, flowing through Moquegua and the High Plateau) of Puno, crashing through the deep canyon in South Arequipa. The Tambo enters the vertical canyon with a right wall formed by the Huayna'Putina (4,806 m) and a left wall formed by Aromayo mountain (4,000m) forming a 6-meter falls. The river is able to increase its volume by 50 times or more when heavy rains falls in the region. The name refers to a relatively short section, about 159 km/ 99 mi long in which three separated fluvial ecosystems runs in its valley: fresh water in the upper course, saline water in the middle and the area of mixed saline and fresh water.
The knowledge of the variable thickness of the basins is fundamental to deciphering their implications in the structural architecture of the evolution of the Sub-Andean zone deformation. Subduction of the Eastern edge of the Nazca Plate under the Western edge of the South American Plate takes place about 160 km (99mi) West of Peru and Chile, at a rate of 9 to 11 cm (4 in) per year. The process produced the formation of Peru-Chile Trench, an oceanic trench in the Pacific Ocean (the largest and deepest of Earth's oceanic division). It also produced the Andean Volcanic Belt along Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina, and the rest of the Andes. The mountains Ticsani, Ubinas and Huayna'Putina in Moquegua, sit on a volcanic lineament slightly oblique to the main volcanic front.
Huayna'Putina does have an identifiable mountain profile (does not form a prominent topographic elevation) despite its listed elevation of 4,800 meters (15,750 ft).
Hayna'Putina was the site of a single catastrophic eruption in 1600, which was remarkable not only for its size and as the only major explosive eruption in historic times in the Central Andes, but also for its impact on global climate.  The eruption lasted from February 19 to March 6, and consisted of a plinian eruption, dome building, and collapse. The eruption destroyed the pre-1600 edifice which then was described as "a low ridge in the centre of the sierra." The powerful eruption was fed by fissures and produced pyroclastic flows and surges that traveled 13 km to the East and South East. Hot mud flows (lahars) reached the Pacific Ocean, 120 km away. It erupted an estimated 30 cubic km of dacitic tephra (12 km3 of magma), including ash fall and pyroclastic flow deposits.
The eruption was preceded by 4 days of intense seismic activity, then it started on February with a none violent phase and lasted until March 6. The main and most violent phase was on February 19 and announced itself by 2 large earthquakes. This phase was sustained at least 13 hours, but likely lasted until February 20. The sky became dark and white and the noise was compared to artillery fire. The plume decreased and ash-fall continued until February 22 when the sun was briefly visible. The area was in darkness for about 40 hours. Intermittent ash-fall continued until March 6, but dust in the air made the sun appear hazy until April 2. Ash was widespread much of the surrounding countryside as far as Arequipa, 80 km away.
After the eruption four vents have been identified near the crater and on the flanks of the edifice and also three overlapping ash cones with craters up to 100 meters deep were constructed during the explosion on the floor of the ancestral crater, whose outer flanks are heavily mantled by ash deposits  covering an area of 360,000 km2.
The eruption caused a large number of fatalities and substantial damage to the villages and the nearby cities of Arequipa and Moquegua. Regional economies took 150 years to fully recover.
On a global scale, the following summers were some of the coldest in the last 500 years. Sulfur aerosols erupted from the volcano entered the Earth's atmosphere and reflected sunlight, resulting in this global temperature drop.

ANDEAN MAPUCHE PEOPLE AND ITS SPIRITUAL WORLD.

The Mapuche are the inhabitants of South Central Andean mountains of today Chilean territory and South Western mountains of today Argentina, including parts of present-day Patagonia. Their influence once extended from the natural boundary that the Aconcagua River makes between the Andean Mountains of Peru and the Chile and Argentina ones, to the Chiloe Archipelago (group of islands off the coast of Chile) and spread later to the East towards the Argentine pampa.
Central to Mapuche cosmology is the idea of a Creator (N'gene'chen) embodied in 4 components: an older man (fu'cha/ fu'tra/ chau'chau), an older woman (kude/ kuse), a young man and a young woman.
Also, Mapuche cosmology is informed by complex notions of spirits that coexist with humans and animals in the natural world, and daily circumstances can dictate spiritual practices.
The most well-known major communal event of extreme spiritual and social importance is the ritual ceremony known as "general prayer (N'gill'atun)." Many other ceremonies are practiced, and not all are for public or communal participation but are sometimes limited to family.
The main group of deities/ spirits are the ancestral spirits (Pillan and Wangulen), nature's spirits (N'gen) and the evil spirits (We'kufe).
The Pillan is a powerful and respected male spirit. It can cause disasters since the good spirit punishes (allowing evil spirits to punish) with drought or flood, earthquake, or diseases. The principal Pillan is the Antu who governs the other Pillans. Antu represents the Sun, as well as light, wisdom and spirit, and is opposite to darkness and the physical world and is married to the spirit who represent the Moon. When she was picked as wife, as she was the most luminous, great unrest started between the stars. the red spirit of fire Peri'Pillan was behind this, as he felt envious at Antu. Antu himself resented Peri'Pillan as the fire was brighter than the gold. peace ceased and darkness came into perspective. The two Pillan fought in battle, and the spirits took sides in battle. Many Pillan and all the stars (Wangulen) supported Peri'Pillan. The battle was long and very violent, the land moved, as well as the Underworld (Minche Mapu) and the Upper World (Anka'Wenu). As the fight extended, the sons of the elder spirits had grown and in desire to take their parents' place, fought against them. Both Antu and Peri'Pillan, angered by this, grabbed their giant sons by their long hair and threw them down, they fell on the rocky ground. As they fell their hard bodies marked the land, forming the tall mountains as they were broken into pieces and sunk into the depth of the land.
Finally Antu topped Peri'Pillan and came out as the victor. Antu's blindness because of his rage made him threw the defeated Pillan that fought against him to the land and sunk them to its depths, then he put rocks, hills and mountains over them, forming more mountain ranges and to the most powerful one who was Peri'Pillan, he buried him and put the tallest mountains covering him up. This action proved to be not enough to put off his Fire's light, and as Peri'Pillan and his allies try to free themselves the land itself shakes and tremors happen. Sometimes their fire is able to briefly escape their mountain prisons, as the smoke and fire columns come out from volcanoes.
Meanwhile the stars (Wangulen) fearing retribution cried as they pleaded for mercy, and their tears fell between and on top of the newly risen mountains, forming lakes or freezing into snow in the mountain
tops. Seeing this, Antu decided to be merciful and only weakened their light so it was slight and pale so none of them could rival Kueyen (his wife, the moon).
Between the body of the fallen were the sons of Antu and Peri'Pillan, and their respective wives cried in sorrow at their lose, so Antu felt for them and decided to bring them back to life, but in new forms, as giant snakes. Peri'Pillan's son was to be known as Coi Coi-Vilu, while Antu's own son was to be known as Ten Ten-Vilu, as these were to be rivals as their fathers, and to do as the elder spirits willed. As a result of the fight, the Earth moved so strongly, that the imprisoned malignant spirits (We'kufe) were freed from it and began roaming the land. All the universe was left with no harmony.
The word "We'kufe" can be attribute to any spirit that came from Minchen'Mapu, which is located to the West beyond the land (Mapu). These beings originated from the forces or energies that disturb and/or destroy the world's natural order, or the perfect harmony of the world of goodness (Wenu'Mapu). Unlike other living beings or spirits that possess their own soul, We'kufes are soulless.
We'kufes have the ability to to change into solid material form and can governs a body, a person or an agent. Also they can have evanescent ghost-like bodies or be extra-corporeal spirit-like entities. They project from or originate in the We'kufe's energy frequency, which is characterized by its propensity to disturb and/or destroy the balance of the world's natural order. In this way cause illness, destruction, death, and other calamities. Many of the We'kufes allow themselves to be manipulated by sorcerers who work with black magic and use them as mystic mediums for obtaining power. The sorcerers must voluntarily become the servant of the We'kufes and then cause illness or death of certain chosen people.
In order to use a malignant spirit to make someone ill, the sorcerer must introduce the evil spirit into the body of the victim. This is generally achieved by using a small fragment of anything connected to the symbolic representation of the frequencies of wood's world (pleasurable feelings of any kind), or to the frequencies of the world of the drinkers symbolized by 'the straw,' or to the frequencies in which part of the lizard's body works, or directly to an attack by ghost-like forms or disembodied spirits that direct the disruptive We'kufe energy towards the victim.
We'kufes also have the power to capture and slave the spirit of the recently deceased (Pillu) that is reluctant to leave its body before it transforms into a more mature spirit (alwe). A sorcerer can also take advantage of this power by using a malignant spirit (Wa'kufe) as a means for trapping a Pillu. Once it is trapped a Pillu can also be used to hurt other people.
We'kufes can also be controlled by the Pillan and N'gen spirits of goodness, or at least these light spirits will allow the malignant spirits to harm the individual or community if they have broken one of the spirit's rules by: behaving badly, not carrying out the prayer thanking the spirits (Guill'Atun ritual) for their beneficence, asking for well being etc., mocking or disbelieving a healer, eating food that was caught or harvested without previously asking for permission from the N'gen of the animal, vegetable, or mineral that was consumed, or most importantly by not respecting the Laws of symbols, customs, and beliefs of the community (Ad'Mapu).
As long as the people of the community obey the laws and perform the sacred prayer ceremony, then the N'gen and Pillan spirits will continue to keep the We'kufes under control.

EUROPEAN BLACK PLAGUE BEFORE DISCOVERING AMERICA.

The Black Plague (1347-1352) is one of the worst pandemic catastrophes in human history -a deadly plague that ravaged Europe, resulting in the death of an estimated 75 to 200 million people (about one-third of Europe 's population on average), changing forever their social and economic fabric.  In the early 14th century, the world population was only about 500 million as a whole before the Black Plague struck. About two-thirds of the victims died within three to four days of developing symptoms. Most of the rest lingered about two weeks and then died. The world population as a whole did not recover to pre-plague levels until the 17th century.
A small number of people were naturally resistant to the plague due to unusual protein structures. The bacteria's enzymes couldn't interact with these proteins easily. This protein structure seemed to be tied to a specific gene. The 0.2% of people who were immune back in the 1300s survived the genetic bottleneck and then passed on this immunity to a significant number of their modern descendants.
The pandemic Black Plague lasted until 1352, but smaller outbreaks continued off-and-on for decades.
For instance, Paris and Rouen had epidemics in 1421, 1432, 1433, and an especially bad outbreak in 1437-39. Between 1453-1504, outbreaks died down dramatically across Europe when food from the New World (Andean Highland products) came into their hands. The last major outbreaks were in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, such as the London outbreaks in 1665 and 1722. After that, cholera, typhoid fever, and tuberculosis were much more significant causes of death, but small outbreaks in Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and Greece have been reported as late as 1845; in Russia as late as 1879; and in Indonesia in 1959.
Some places (like certain islands off the Western coast of Scotland) were completely unaffected. The cities of Genoa and Dublin are more typical cases in which 35% of the population died. In Paris (which was already suffering from an earlier famine), the population fell by 42%. The mortality was even higher in other regions, such as 66% in Caux, Normandy, and 90% in Florence, Italy. In the worst cases, mortality was absolute (100%). For example, over 3,000 villages in France were completely emptied, with the entire population dead or fled. Similar numbers of "ghost towns" were left as shells in other parts of Europe and Britain. In these places, every single person died,and forest grew over the streets. De-populated Europe forgot they ever existed. Many of them not re-discovered until the rise of aerial photographic surveys in the years after World War I (1918).
Most scholars think the Black Plague was a bacterial strain however a minority group of them think that it was actually a mutation of cattle murrain. It is also possible the Black Plague might not have been a single disease but rather a combination of several at once or a series of different ones over many decades.
Today, the Plague is best known as the Bubonic Plague. The name "bubonic"comes from the Latin word "bubo" meaning "a pustule, growth, or swelling." The "bubonic bacteria," carried by a separate species of fleas, can survive indefinitely in its normal host, the European black rat. However, a desperate flea would mistakenly bite a human. Once the human is infected, the plague bacterium can spread for a few weeks by human fleas hopping from person to person and biting them. Once the bacteria have built up in the human body, it evolves into an airborne version "the pneumatic strain" that infiltrates the blood vessels in the lungs, and can be transmitted by airborne water particles from coughs and sneezes. this strain is the one that is truly lethal. In Florence, archaeologists exhuming 15th-century mass graves found a mutant version of the plague. Examining the molecular structure of the strain it shows that the plague strains extant in the 1400s had twice as many protein receptor sites as any known modern strain. It must have been wickedly contagious. In South West of Edin'Burg, exhumed bodies from another mass grave for plague, spores for anthrax were found in the victims' bodies, so a mixture of anthrax and plague might have been running concurrently. That is even worse because anthrax can be transmitted by bodily fluids (saliva, sweat, tears) and by skin contact generally.
Fever, trembling, weakness, and profuse sweating are the initial symptoms of the "Bubonic" version. In the "Pneumatic" version, coughing and parched throats are additional symptoms. In advanced cases, the most distinctive sign is the agonizing rise of dark "buboes"-sensitive black-blue swellings under the armpit and near the groin-spots where dead blood and pus builds up in the lymph nodes. Untreated, the person will died from the buildup of dead blood in these buboes.
The first historical record of the Black Plague is in the dry plains of Central Asia (from Caspian Sea in the West to China in the East and from Afghanistan in the South to Russia in the North) in 1338/39.  It reached China and India in 1346, and then it travelled along the Silk Road (network of trade routes that connected the East and West). It infected the Black Sea port of Kaffa by 1347. One legend says that the Mongols infected the city of Kaffa by shooting infected corpses over the walls with catapults. Fleeing ships then carried infected rats to Constantinople, Italy, and Marseilles during the year 1347. In 1348, the disease appeared in England. In 1349, it spread to Scotland. In 1350, it stalked Scandinavia. In 1351, it arrived in Kiev, Ukraine.
The disease hit rural farm workers so labor became scarce, accelerating the demise of the feudal system of government. This ultimately encouraged the rise of the middle class. Trade was affected considerably  far worse than the Great Depression in America. Paradoxically, the psychologically effects on the mind of the survivors led them to the desire of social stability in general, even as it gnawed away at the feudal network and at the stability of the church the Plague caused long-term damage to the religious institutions of the time. The Pope declared a worldwide indulgence, allowing the laity to perform funerals. Good priests, who would stick around to administer last rites were likely to contract the disease and thus die themselves. Bad priests would simply run off and hide. A serious shortage of quality priests came along and the religious instruction lowered its standards of theological training and literacy.
Europe did not regain a sense of optimism and hope until the Renaissance of the late 1500s.

THE EUROPEAN 100 YEARS OF WAR PRIOR THE INVASION OF AMERICA.

The 100 Years War (1337-1453) inflicted so much misery on France. Farmlands were laid waste, the population was decimated by war, famine, and the Black Death. Marauders terrorized the countryside. Civil wars (Jacquerie; Cabochiens; Armagnacs; and Burgundians) and local wars (War of the Breton Succession) increased the destruction and social disintegration.
The 100 Years War was fought between France and England and lasted 116 years. The war started because Charles IV of France died in 1328 without a son. Edward III of England then believed he had the right to become the new king of France through his mother, Isabella, daughter of Philip IV of France.
Edward was the eldest son Edward II and Isabella. She married Edward II in 1308. Neglected and mistreated by Edward, Isabella nourished hatred for the royal favorites, the Despensers, who were responsible (1324) for the confiscation of her states. Their son, Edward III was made Earl of Chester in 1320 and duke of Aquitaine in 1325. In 1325 she was sent to France with her son Edward, the future Edward III, to negotiate with her brother Charles IV over Gascony. Once there, she ignored royal orders to return to England with her son. Becoming the mistress of Roger de Mortimer, late 1st Earl of March, English noblemen, she plotted with him to invade England. Their invasion (1326) was successful.  Mortimer inherited (1304) vast estates and the title of his father, Edmund, 7th baron of Wigmore. Appointed lieutenant of Ireland (1336), he was instrumental in securing the defeat of Edward Bruce, Scottish king of Ireland (1316-1318), brother of Robert I of Scotland,  and thus was able to consolidate his own holdings in Ireland. After Edward II was forced to abdicate by Isabella and Mortimer, Edward III was enthroned as king early in 1327, although the real power was in fact exercised by Isabella and Mortimer. They caused the murder of Edward II and began a corrupt rule in England and at the same time acquired a great wealth. In 1328 Edward married Philippa of Hainaut, and in 1330 his first son, Edward the Black Prince, was born.  
In 1327,  Edward, who had gone to Scotland on an unsuccessful expedition, resented the terms of the treaty of North-Hampton (1328), by which he had renounced the Scottish throne, and decided to support Edward de Baliol's claim to the Scottish throne  against the young Scottish king David II. Baliol invaded Scotland in 1332 and was crowned at Scone. He was soon driven out.
In 1330, Edward seized power over the English crown and had Mortimer executed and forced Isabella, to retire. In 1334, Edward III, came to Scotland again to support Baliol and together defeated the forces of the young David II at Halidon Hill. Then Edward de Baliol as king ceded several Southern counties to Edward III. Baliol was driven out again and David II, who had been in France, returned in 1341 as king. In 1356 Baliol retired surrendering his title as king to Edward III.
Then the basic cause of the 100 Years War was a dynastic quarrel that originated when the conquest of England by William of Normandy created a state lying on both sides (France and England) in the English Channel, also known as The Arm of the Atlantic and La Manche (the sleeve).
In the 14th century the English kings held the duchy of Guienne, in South West France which had no geographic unity and included part of the Aquitaine basin and part of the Central Highlands in South Central France. The highlands cover almost a 6th of the surface of France. They English resented paying homage to the French kings and they feared the increasing control exerted by the French crown over its great feudal vassals.
Then the immediate causes of the 100 Years War were the dissatisfaction of Edward III of England with the nonfulfillment by Philip VI of France of his pledges to restore a part of Guienne taken by Charles IV; the English attempt to control Flanders, an important market for English wool and a source of cloth; and Philip's support of Scotland against England.
Guienne was synonymous with Aquitaine until the 100 Years War. It passed to England through the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry II in 1152. Bordeaux is the historical capital, the chief port, and the center of the wine industry.
The birth of the lyric poetry of the troubadours (aristocratic poet-musicians) occurred in Guienne from the end of the 11th century through the 13 century. Many of them were noblemen and crusader knights and some were kings, e.g., Richard I, Coeur de Lion; Thibaut IV, king of Navarre; and Alfonso X, king of Castile and Leon. Of the more than 400 known troubadours living between 1090 and 1292 the most famous are -Jaufre Rudel de Blaia, -Bernart de Ventadorn, -Peire Vidal (1180-1206, of Toulouse, traveled widely in Italy, Cyprus, Hungary, Spain and Malta. Richard I Coeur de Lion was one of his patrons. He involved himself in numerous escapades and he was notable for his strong personal feelings and simple style), -Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, -Folquet de Marseille (archibishop of Toulouse, -Bertrand de Born, -Arnaut Daniel, -Gaucelm Faidit, -Raimon de Mirabal, -and Guiraut Riquier. Their lyrics were sung and accompanied by instruments that duplicated the melody (all music preserved is monophonic). The poems were written in the Southern dialect called 'langue d'oc.' The most common forms were political poems, morning songs, pastorals, and disputes. The favorite subjects were courtly love, war, and nature. Their influence spread to central and North France, where their counterparts were the trouveres. In Germany they were imitated by the minnesingers. The tradition was also carried to Spain and Italy.
The war is dated from 1337, when Edward III of England assumed the title of king of France, a title held by Philip IV. Edward first invaded France from the Low Countries (1339-40) North West of Europe comprising the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, with small success on land but defeating (1340) a French fleet at the Battle of Sluis. In 1346 Edward won the Battle of Crecy and besieged Calais, which surrendered in 1347. In 1356 he won the Battle of Poitiers, capturing King John II of France. After prolonged negotiations, the Treaty of Bretigny was signed (1360); England received Calais and all of Aquitaine, as well as a large ransom for the captive king.
The Gascon nobles, oppressively taxed by Edward the Black Prince, appealed (1369) to King Charles V. The war was renewed and by 1373, Bertrand Du Guesclin, greatest French soldier of his time, and very knowledgeable of the tactics used by both parties, won back most of the lost French territories.
In 1415, Henry V of England renewed the English claims, took Harfleur and defeated France's knights at Agincourt. By1419 he had subdued Normandy. Philip the Good mediated between Henry V and Charles VI of France and Charles recognized Henry as heir to the crown of France.
By 1429 the English and their Burgundian allies were masters of all France North of the Loire, but in that year Joan of Arc raised the siege of Orleans and saw Charles VII crowned king of France. Her capture by the Burgundians and her judicial murder did not stop the renewal of French successes.
In 1435, Charles obtained the alliance of Burgundy. By 1450 the French re-conquered Normandy and by 1451 all Guienne but Bordeaux was taken. After the fall of Bordeaux (1453), England retained only Calais, which was not conquered by France until 1558. England, torn by the War of the Roses, made no further attempt to conquer France.
The successor of Charles VII, Louis XI benefited from all the chaos that the 100 Years of War brought to France. He began his reign dismissing many of his father's best advisers, and also deserted his former allies and began the task of centralizing authority in the crown. A model that later was followed by all the crowns of Europe. A born diplomat, Louis skillfully checked his foreign and domestic enemies and set up an efficient central administration. He used commissions to give his acts the appearance of popular approval. He diminished the power and the prestige of the courts. He intervened freely in church affairs. he imposed heavy taxes, using much of the revenue to purchase support. he encouraged industry and expanded domestic and foreign trade. He preferred men of humble origin using them as his personal advisors to lecturing himself how to move the popular mass with false hope. Fearing assassination, he spent his last years in virtual self-imprisonment near Tours, capital of Touraine in West central France. This city was a center of medieval Christian learning and favored by many kings. It was there that Charles Martel halted (732) the Moorish conquest of Europe. The city has produced painters, sculptors, goldsmiths, and tapestry weavers.

THE VALLEY OF THE ANDEAN MANTARO RIVER.

The Mantaro Valley is renowned as an area containing many archaeological sites. It was inhabited by a self-governing nation, the Huancas, a self-governing nation with a reputation for producing strong warriors and whose spiritual practices placed an emphasis on remembering their ancestors' role in the mystique of the Mantaro River. The Huanca people were eventually subdued during the reign of the Inca Pacha-Cutec, and some of them, in revenge for their lost of freedom, took sides with the Spanish people who planned the take over the land by capturing and execute the last Inca, Atahualpa.
Archaeologists have focused on the Inca storage silos (qullqas) in the Mantaro Valley which was one of the largest and most fertile areas of the Inca empire. The Incas placed great emphasis on storing their agricultural products and other goods and the Valley has more storage silos than any other region in Peru. Half of the storage silos were placed in the center of this maize and potato producing area and the other half were scattered among 48 compounds along the course of the River. In total, the Valley had a storage area that supplied and equipped an army of 35,000 Andean warriors during the time of the European invasion, probably the largest storage facilities in the Inca empire and pre-Columbian America.
The North- South inter-Andean Mantaro Valley located in the Junin region, is about 60 km (37 mi) long between the cities of Jauja and Huancayo, 200 km (120 mi) East of Lima, Peru.
The Valley's weather is divided into 3 distinct seasons -the rainy season from November to April, -the winter season from May to July, -and the dry season, with strong winds from August to October.
To the average Andean people, both landscape weather play a crucial marriage role for health and prosperity, and abundance from year to year determine how the interrelation was achieved. One legend in particular reflects this interrelationship. This is the story of a warrior who courts a mermaid in Lake Paca (4 km (2.5 mi) North of the historic Jauja, which was once the first capital of Peru). The lake is one of the 3 lakes is the Mantaro River Valley in the central highlands formed by high Cordillera ranges and the only lake in the Paca Valley that has water throughout the year. The warrior courted the mermaid every night. She cried and moaned for him to join her then as usual she disappeared beneath the surface. One night, she disappeared into the water, and the warrior jumped in after her. He looked around under the water until he ran out of air and gave up his breath. His body was lost, but soon after a mountain range appeared in the shape of a man's body. The story of this warrior explains the deep connection that the local people of the Paca town have with the Mantaro Valley.
The River bisects the valley, emerging from a steep gorge at the Northern end of the Valley and entering another steep gorge at its Southern end, flowing through the fertile valley which produce different kind of potatoes, maize, and vegetables among other Andean crops. The Valley's floor averages about 10 km (6.2 mi) wide at elevations ranging from 3,150 m (10,330 ft) to 3,500 m (11,500 ft). The highest mountain in the area is Huayta-Pallana, 15 m (9.3 mi) North East of Huancayo, which has an alevation of 5,567 m (18,264 ft). The land on either side rises to mountain ranges of more than 4,500 m (14,800 ft) elevation, and consists of beautiful landscapes and many trails linking the small Andean villages that are rich in culture,  traditional food, music, dances, and handcrafts.
Each Andean village has its own handcraft specialty. You can simply watch them work. Also the market place has its dedicated day for each one of them:
-Sunday:   Dominical Festival of Huancayo, Conception, Jauja, and Mito.
-Monday:  Huayu-Cachi, San Agustin of Cajas.
-Tuesday:  Pucara, Hualhuas.
-Wednesday:  San Jeronimo of Tunan, Jauja and Viquez.
-Thursday: The Tambo, Huancan and Sapa-Llanga.
-Friday:     Ahuac, Chongos Bajo and Cochas Chico.
Saturday:  Chupaca, Matahuasi, Lloclla-Pampa and Jauja.
The Hualhuas' specialty is -tapestry weaving looms. The San Jeronimo of Tunan's specialty is -silver filigree jewelry. The Cochas' specialty is -Gourd carvings. The San Agustin of Cajas' specialty is -hats of sheep wool. The Aco's specialty is -ceramics. The Mito's specialty is -wooden masks. The Viquez' s specialty is -colorful belts and blankets made of back strap looms. The Molino's specialty is -wood carving. The Ingenio's specialty is -trout farming.

THE PEOPLE OF PATAGONIA.

Patagonia is the name given to a sparsely populated region located at the Southernmost end of South America, shared by Argentina and Chile. The surface of the land is very varied. Trackless plains rise in gently graded terraces to the lofty ranges of the Andes, between which there is a mighty network of lakes and lagoons.
The name Patagonia comes from the word "Patagon" used to describe the ancient people of the region who tended to be taller than the ancient Europeans. They were suppose to have exceeded at least double the normal human height.
There are no written records about their ancient legends and myths since their religious beliefs were passed down orally. Central to their cosmological beliefs was the idea of a Creator, who was embodied in four components: an older man, an older woman, a young man and a young woman. They also had a very complex knowledge of the spiritual world and how it coexisted with humans and animals in the natural world, and daily circumstances dictated the spiritual practices to be followed. The most well known ritual ceremony was "the general praying" done in extreme spiritual and social circumstances.
The existence of these Patagonian people were brought to light for the first time in the 1520s when Ferdinand Magellan and his crew saw them while exploring the coastline of South America en route to their circumnavigation.
Human habitation of the region dates back thousands of years, with some early archaeological findings in the area dated to at least the 13th millennium BC. Hearths, stone scrapers, animal remains have been found East of the Andes. The Cave of the Hands is a famous site in Santa Cruz, Argentina. The cave at the foot of a cliff is covered in wall paintings, particularly the negative images of hundreds of hands.
The hunting of guanaco (camelid native to the region) was the primary source of food for these fierce people which were hunter-gatherers living as nomads, which means living with limited possessions, as they had to move across long distances. Everything from the guanaco was used: the meat and blood were used for food, the fat to grease their bodies during winter, and the hide to make clothing and canopies. They also hunted whales, sea mammals, small rodents and sea birds and gathered fruits that grew during the regional summer. Those fruits were the only sweet foods in their diet.
Their rock tools were made of obsidian, a naturally occurring volcanic glass, found in only certain parts of the region, so these people had to make long journeys to renew their supplies.
The people of the Patagonia region of today are called Tehuelche that is in fact a collective name for all the communities that live in there. The newly-established ranches in the land led the communities to break down into smaller groups. The invasion of the Patagonia territory by foreign forces in the 1870s led to a devastating killing of a massive number of native people, as well as driving thousands from their homeland.

THE ANDEAN PEOPLE AND THEIR HARVEST.

The Incas, and the civilizations before them, were masters of their harsh climate as they build on knowledge developed over about 11,000 years of farming in the highlands of the Andes.
The daytime calendar was very important to them, since they depended on it to fix the days of planting. The night time calendar or lunar calendar marked the days of all festivals.
The Andes are some of the tallest mountains in the world. Yet the ancient Andean people obtained harvests from the sharp slopes and its intermittent waterways.
The Andean civilization is one of the five pristine civilizations worldwide which were not derivative from other civilizations. Most Andean crops were likewise pristine and not known to other civilizations.
The Andean people employed stones of different heights, widths and angles to create the best structures of water retention and drainage systems. The stone retaining walls absorbed the heat during the day and slowly released it to the soil as temperatures plunged at night, keeping sensitive plant roots warm during the frosty nights and expanding the growing season.
The Andean people also built cisterns and irrigation canals that snaked and angled down and around the mountains. They cut terraces into the hillsides and filled them with dirt, gravel and sand, and made them progressively steeper, from the valleys up the slopes. The terraces were extremely efficient at conserving scarce water from rain. In this way the whole hill was brought under cultivation.
During the Inca civilization, the system of terraces covered about a million hectares throughout the Peruvian highlands that fed the vast empire. The Inca terraces are even today the most sophisticated in the world.
Staple crops from about 1000 meters to 3900 meters were the different varieties of potatoes. Quinoa was grown from about 2300 meters to 3900 meters. Maize was the principal crop grown up to an elevation of 3200 meters in favorable locations. Cassava (yuca) was a major crop of the lowlands.
In addition to these staple crops the andean people of the Inca empire cultivated a great variety of exotic fruits, vegetables, spices and medicinal plants. Passion fruit (maracuya) can be grown from 2000 to 3200 meters, mountain papaya from 500 to 2700 meters, naranjilla or lulo from 500 to 2300 meters, and  the golden berry or ciruela from 500 to 2800 meters.
The Andean people of today are rebuilding the terraces and irrigation systems and reclaiming traditional crops and methods of planting. Ancient agricultural techniques are more productive and more efficient in terms of water use and offer simple solutions to help protect communities' food supply in the face of climate change. Glacial melt and the seasonal rains are already affected by it.

THE ANDEAN NEUROSURGEONS.

The act of drilling a hole into one's skull, has its roots in the mystical/therapeutic practices of ancient civilizations. Archaeologists have unearthed trepanned bone fragments in every continent except Antarctica, with some samples dating as far back as 10,000 BC.
Neurosurgeons emerged in the Andean Mountains by about 3,500 years ago in small communities near the eventual Inca heartland in the Peruvian Andes mountains.
The Andean surgeons in ancient Peru commonly and successfully removed small portions of the skull in mostly male patients to treat head injuries. A similar procedure is  performed today to relieve pressure caused by fluid buildup after suffering a severe head trauma.
The Incas that basically covered the land of today Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Northern Chile, and Northern Argentina (the largest empire of the World geographically in the highlands of the Andes), surprisingly widespread the practice of drilling a hole into one's skull, and it was done all over their territory.
The Inca surgeons mastered certain highly skilled methods that were very successful, performing them safely and frequently. They avoided cutting cranial muscles and vulnerable parts of the skull. They also managed not to severe internal blood vessels or the membrane encasing the brain. Never before has a scientist ever seen a part of a bone extracted with such precision.
Later studies of many other skulls unearthed in the Andean soil led to the discovery of a whole range of different surgical techniques. Peru has more skulls with trepanation than everywhere else in the World combined. The operations were conducted without the modern antibiotics or the use of anesthesia, instead medicinal plants were used.
Surgical instruments for trepanation were made of obsidian, gold, silver and copper. Surgeons used four different techniques of surgery: they either drilled a hole in the cranium, or scraped a hole, or sawed out a rectangular bone fragment, or cut out a rounded piece of bone that could be reinserted after the operation was completed.
The first Inca skulls with more than five holes were found in a sacred burial cave near the road to Machu Picchu. A couple of skulls were laced with surgical holes which were perfectly circular and consistent in size. Other skulls showed that on top of the cranium a rectangular piece of bone had been removed.
In burial caves excavated in the South-Central Andean Province of Andahuaylas in Peru, were unearthed the remains of 32 individuals. Among them, 45 separate trepanation procedures were in evidence. In many cases, both the original wound and the trepanation healed. The findings also showed that the surgeons possessed a detailed knowledge of cranial anatomy.
Despite the studies carried out, the trepanation of the skull in the time of the Incas remains as one of the greatest mysteries of the history of medicine. The Incas by far surpassed the Europeans in the art of opening skulls for medical purposes. The nature of numerous wounds to the head and the fact that human body had to endure its survival at high altitude levels made the Incas look for ways to treat precisely such injuries. The Incas learned to perform trepanation of the skull in order to save the life of wounded peasants and even return them to their active life.