Last year, when Laura, my co-trip leader for WEAVING WORDS & WOMEN, told me about Peru's beautiful Sacred Valley and Paz y Luz (our lodge just outside of the village of Pisac along the Urubamba River), I was still not prepared for the majesty of the landscape--for the mountains rising protectively in each direction, for the ancient Inca gardening terraces, for the stone ruins marking the walls of the Inca homes, nor for our gracious Quechua guide Dario--intelligent, well educated, committed to his family's organic farming business, and passionate about his culture.

Dario told me that he and his family have a farm and animals. They raise a few hundred guinea pigs, and sheep and pigs. "Our family business is also essential oils," he said.  "We gather plants and flowers and have a distillery where we use cool water to create condensation.  This process helps create the essential oils. Our business is Kausay Punku," he said, writing the name in my journal.  "You can Google it."   

 

I shared with him stories of the small family ranch in Wyoming where my son and daughter grew up, told him that we had horses and pigs and sheep and cattle, but no llamas.  He smiled.  As we were walking the gentle trail from the ruins back to our waiting van, I asked him what the wonderful scent was.  "Mint," he said, and then he detoured off the path and down the hill, returning with fresh springs of flowering purple mint for each of us.  I don't know if Dario will be able to guide our journey through the Pisac ruins this April, but I send him warm wishes now, from the mountains of Colorado.