Chewing it Over

I was prepared for the bitter temperatures of the Peruvian Andes, but my thermal layers didn’t satisfy my companions. Diminutive ladies fussed over the sole gringa in their midst and laboriously wrapped me in an inconceivably heavy blanket, brushing aside my protests with weathered hands and clucking Quechua tongues.
We were gathered to make a seasonal offering to la Pachamama. In a candlelit ceremony led by a local shaman we had crafted a bundle of coca leaves, soil and lard which we were to take to the top of a nearby hill to be burned at midnight. As the 10 of us trudged up that hill I kept tripping over the wretched blanket. Unable to lift it, I began to lag behind. All assumed I was suffering from the altitude and suggested I wait for them but, cursing the blanket, I followed their voices in the dark and found them huddled a few metres from our burning bundle. Rum was passed around to fend off the cold and after a few shots the rhythms of whispered Quechua washed over me. I contemplated the starry sky, breathed in the crisp night air, and closed my eyes.
The voices grew louder, excited, until my friend prodded me and explained, “You mustn’t fall asleep here. The mountain spirits will take your soul.” All eyes were on me and heads nodded affirmatively, and then a cluster of dry coca leaves were pressed into my palm and I was instructed to chew. I was stunned. It was almost 2 hours since they had told me to wait alone on the hillside. I would have certainly fallen asleep, and what then of my poor soul? But I didn’t ask; I chewed.
Chewing coca leaves served the dual purpose of keeping us awake whilst also bringing us closer to the spirit world. As we sat huddled together, chewing frantically, I felt the force of the spirits pulsating in the air around us and instantly understood my place in the world, my insignificance in the face of la Pachamama. How very liberating and terrifying! What to do in such alarming circumstances? Why, laugh and have another rum.