"THE WEEPING OF AYAR CACHI"

There is an ancient legend that tells the story of the four Ayar brothers who, after a heavy rainfall, left a sacred mountain with the mission to reach the beautiful valley of Cusco and found the Empire of the Incas. When they reached the peak of the Huequey Willca mountain, Ayar Cachi, Ayar Auco and Ayar Ucho knew that the only one who should establish the empire was to be Ayar Manco and his wife Mama Ocllo.

Ayar Cachi began to weep with sorrow, and was turned into a mountain of stone and out of the huge quantity of dry tears were created the most beautiful salt flats in the Empire of the Incas, the same ones that give us the purple or lilac rock salt, the color of the Andean gods.

Ayar Cachi, before he died, asked his wife to give each indian a piece of his body converted into salt; his wife took his body to a plateau called Maran where she scattered the salt all over the Tahuantinsuyo. This plateau now has the name Maras. Maras is a district in the province of Urubamba, where one of the best salts of the world is produced. It has a purple colour and the indians say it is the tears of Ayar Cachi.

Rodolfo “Locrito” TAFUR Zevallos.