Europeans have smaller hearts and lungs than Bolivians. Bolivians have the largest hearts in the whole of South America, that is why they can run, fish, swim, and work for dozens of hours in the oxygen starved air. Juan had no doubt at all it was why my lungs were burning and my head was spinning as we made our ascent towards our lunch which would be served at 4,000 metres.
He told me not to worry, I was doing well, most people he brought to the Island did not follow him on the track they simply ate by the port. If I in my near asphyxiated state could have recalled the Spanish words for knowledge and choice I would have used them.
Juan was contented at the summit. Relaxed as he ate his free lunch of quinoa broth and lake trout. We had passed an archaeological site, but perhaps as compensation for my suffering he wandered a little away from his guided tour script, beyond the boundaries of the palace built by the subjugated Aymara at the direction of the Incas to tell me the difference between Aymara and Europeans.
It is simple he said, Europeans want to see everything and yet they see nothing at all. They do not see the earth. They do not give thanks. The Aymara believe the world has three levels, sky, which contains the stars and the sun and the moon. The world of the present , the world in which we live , and the world beneath us, the world of Mother Earth.
Europeans do not see spirits he told me. They do not know that every mountain, tree and flower has a spirit that must be blessed. Every village has a spirit protector. His own village Huatajata was protected by the spirit within a mountain. The spirit was Incan Pata and the village was blessed because every man woman and child within the village took offerings to the spirit every August. The offerings were purchased by the people of the village from the Mercado de Hechiceria, the market of sorcery and witches in La Paz. The offerings which could be figurines of llamas, pumas, fish, or condors, ( the four elements in Aymaran culture, earth, fire, water and air), were purchased, presented, and burned on the mountain. Without offerings life would not carry on, the blessings of the spirit would be withdrawn.
I presume I was looking suitably amazed at this point when he went on to astound me. We combine all this with Catholicism, he casually said. Catholicism in Bolivia is very different to Catholicism in Europe. We worship God and Wirajocha. We have effectively two religions. At school we are taught the bible and taught about God. At home it is the duty of our father to teach us about the natural law. We as catholics are permitted to worship Wirajocha, the God, whereas protestants, they are not permitted to do this, their church does not allow it, he concluded matter of factly.
Juan was an educated man. His father was a teacher. Juan could speak English perfectly and had studied for five years in the University of La Paz. His faith in Wirajocha and in God was absolute. I did not consider him naive or misguided. The opposite, in his presence I felt like a lesser being.
The feeling of intruding on other lives continued as Juan marched me around the Island. The people here were just too far removed from modern life. I took photographs, but do not be fooled by the images. The life presented seems one of husbandry and simpleness, when in reality I am persuaded it has a strength and profundity within it most of us never achieve.
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