Page 184 - Dark Matter:Women Witnessing Issue #3 - December 2015

Though I had not been in the Andes long, I was beginning to understand that the culture was rooted in

duality, reciprocity and the pervasive power of offerings. Andeans often use the word pago instead of

the more formal ofrenda. Pago means “payment,” but the concept goes beyond our idea of a payment

as part of a simple transaction. To many Andeans, even today and no matter how Catholic or non-

traditional they are, leaving a pago is a gesture that is simply part of life. It is a thanks and a praise, a

query and a prayer, a wish and a plea. It is a way of marking a moment. From the simple drop of

alcohol spilled on the ground to Pachamama, to a quintu of coca leaves at a crossroads, to a complex

offering given in a high place in the company of fellow devotees, leaving a pago is a way that Andeans

assert over and over again their part of an ongoing relationship of reciprocity with the powerful forces of

nature that surround them.

A quintu, trio of coca leaves, as a pago to an Apu, Peru

We go to Cusco, once the Inca capital, navel of one of the world’s great empires. I fall in love with the

city, and it reciprocates with a horrible bout of traveler’s illness. As I float on waves of fever and nausea,

Mara stays beside me.