Those who have been at the largest Latin-American indigenous market of Otavalo must have realized that a world completely different from the one we are used to exists. They must have had a taste of that indigenous world, a world full of joy, art, history and pride. You can go further in the discovery of this mythical indigenous culture continuing on the main road to the north, where the village of Peguche is found: a community of proud craftsmen full of wonderful traditions and achievements, settled by a famous ritual waterfall. Peguche is a living testimony of an ancient society surviving in the modern world.
Peguche is only 20 minutes by car from Otavalo. There, inhabitants greet each other with a “ñanda mañachi”, which means “let me use your path” and is used as a sign of respect. Peguche is a village of unassuming people whose life goes around music and traditional handcrafts. From this mixture of occupations, great musicians have come out with a unique ability to create their own instruments. With the passing of time, these instruments have been improved to be perfect in quality and sound. Nowadays, the village produces both Andean and contemporary instruments with a sound so pure that people from all around the world travel all the way to that place just to purchase one of them.
Following by foot a rustic path that goes through corn and guava plantations is found the entrance to the track leading to Peguche’s ritual waterfall. Among legends and real stories, its secrets are hidden behind eucalyptus and other ancient plants, across a long river. The deafening sound shows that you are close to the sacred waters: a magnificent white water veil of 20m (65ft) high.
The Peguche waterfall is a place worth admiring from the viewpoint located on the opposite side of it, but the spiritual experience is even greater if you let the waterfall’s cool, relaxing waters fall over you, just as the indigenous people do. It is said that taking a bath at the Peguche waterfall renews your spirit, getting rid of all negative energies and welcoming all the good ones. On the night before the Inti Raymi Festival, the waterfall is a meeting point for indigenes and shamans who have rituals before the festivities.
A sign written at the entrance to the waterfall’s path may roughly describe the Peguche experience: “Come into my world and discover the beauty of my ethnic group, my art, my culture, my history and my ecology”. Peguche is a village in which there is much more than pure nature. This place, once ruled by the colonizers and currently completely managed by its own indigenous community, represents its people’s struggle for having a fresh start, overcoming the dark history of the past by recovering their traditions and old ways of life, and constructing a new society based on them.
Photo: colleen_taugher
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