Pachamama Day swept in on August 1st with clouds of smoke, amidst soaring temperatures and a hot wind from the mountains.
In the northern border area where I live, so close to predominantly-indigenous Bolivia, Pachamama is strongly venerated, as you’ll know from a previous blog of mine; and August 1st heralds a whole month of religious ceremonies.
It’s when believers give thanks to Mother Earth and cleanse their homes of evil spirits with a sahumerio made up from a concoction of herbs and grasses, then carry out a corpachada (literally “feeding of Pachamama”) by depositing wine, cigarettes and coca leaves into a hole in the garden.
By doing so, we are symbolically and literally returning to Pachamama, who is Mother Earth, everything she has given us over the past year.
In addition to the smoke emanating from Pachamama celebrations, this year there were scattered forest fires in parts of Salta and Jujuy provinces.
At the end of June I returned from a heatwave in the UK to a cold snap in Argentina where temperatures were below freezing.
A month later, on the evening of July 31st, I went out for a meal with the family, and when we emerged from the restaurant around 11pm there was a hot tropical wind, which by the following morning had whipped up dust and debris, and brought branches and palms fronds down into the road.
Temperatures were up to 33C, and wildfires, whether brought on by over-enthusiastic Pachamama celebrations or a careless cigarette end, were whipped up by the hot wind both in Salta and Jujuy.
This is the viento zonda, or “zonda wind”; zonda meaning “high sky” in the language of the Huarpe, the bellicose tribe who populated San Juan (and drove the more pacific Diaguitas north to populate the Valles Calchaquies wine region of Salta).
Appropriately enough, legend has it that the fierce wind was sent as punishment for over-hunting by an arrogant member of the tribe who didn’t follow Pachamama’s command to respect the balance of nature. (Some may view the California wildfires as similar castigation.)
On Pachamama day, San Juan province was on yellow alert, with winds of 70mph forecast, while the day before neighbouring Mendoza was also swept by freak hot weather and wind, and people were warned to stay indoors.
Our Argentina wine tours from Salta to Mendoza normally go through Calingasta, but we sometimes visit the Zonda valley in San Juan where there are excellent and under-rated wineries like Merced del Estero and Finca Sierras Azules.
The name of the area comes from the same indigenous word: the Zonda valley is separated from Calingasta by the Sierra de Tontal mountain range, while Calingasta abuts the Andes proper.
The Zonda wind comes from the Andes, and happens when a mass of warm air from the Pacific hits the mountain range, losing moisture in the form of rain or snow, then descends on the eastern side, warming and drying as it goes.
Not coincidentally, on the night of July 30th, the Paso de Jama crossing from the Chilean Atacama to northern Argentina was cut off by heavy snowfall (and remained closed for a week, only reopening yesterday, on August 5th).
The Zonda is often confused (not least by me!) with a similar wind, the Viento Norte which comes from the drier, lower altitude plains of the Chaco.
It’s also warm but can be a bit more humid, and though less destructive and powerful, it can last for days, while the Zonda is normally over in a few hours.
The wind died down during the course of August 1st, but the Pachamama festival will continue all month, so guests on our private tours have a good chance of witnessing this centuries-old indigenous tradition.
The photo accompanying this piece shows a “Pachamama kit” which I bought on the street in Salta, available for 2,000 pesos if you want to conduct your own Pachamama ceremony!
It contains a mixture of cleansing herbs, commonly rosemary, rue, lavender, eucalyptus, laurel, sage, basil and the all-important coca leaf, which combine to drive out evil forces and negative energy. It also includes a miniature 100 dollar bill, a piece of pasta, and those coloured tablets feature a car and something else I fail to identify.
There is also a cigarette which you are supposed to smoke as part of the ritual, before despatching it into the hole with all the other offerings.
I only smoke once a year, during Pachamama month, as you’ll see from a video on our You Tube channel from 15 years ago!
