Community of Qutapampa

The community of Qutapampa is located at an altitude of 4450 metres in the snow-capped Andes.

The local people say that for a long time the main occupation in this extreme area was raising camelids, especially alpacas.

The elders of the community like to talk about the olden days when only a few families lived in the area and they all tended these animals, which were essential for the production of wool and textiles. The alpacas provided another unique product, dried meat. Dehydration allowed this important foodstuff to be preserved in the Andes mountains. Little by little, these families began to barter trade these precious commodities for products from other communities.

Today, alpaca breeding is still a mainstay of the community, which processes the wool to make handicrafts and clothing for the Kallawaya.

This community is associated with the Pacha Trek community tourism venture, set up by the Kallawaya healers. The participants in the project consider tourism as an opportunity to diversify their income and enhance the local culture and way of life, sharing with travellers the extraordinary heritage of the centuries-old wisdom inherited from their ancestors.

Community of Chacarapi

Chacarapi, set in the midst of humid mountains and enchanted landscapes, is a community dedicated to agriculture and natural medicine.

The members of the community of Chacarapi have built facilities for accommodating travellers and sharing their culture with them, as part of the Pacha Trek community tourism project.

The Pacha Trek route crosses this community where the Kallawyas, the wandering healers of the Andean mountains, have erected greenhouses for growing the different medicinal plants they use to prepare their traditional herbal remedies.

The Kallawayas tell us that this important medicinal knowledge has been handed down to them from their ancestors. The ancient Kallawayas, in fact, used to travel through the different regions and ecosystems of the pre-Hispanic empire in search of the medicinal plants they needed to create the most effective natural preparations for fighting ailments and diseases. Even today, the process of becoming a healer is slow and laborious and begins in childhood with teachings passed down from fathers to sons. The girls, on the other hand, specialise in making clothes for rituals, with decorations of animals or images symbolising the different regions. In this craft too knowledge is passed down from generation to generation and the young women of the community begin to master the art of Kallawaya weaving from an early age.