a thing or two about coca

The coca leaf is no more white cocain than grapes are wine.

All you need to know about Coca

There are several types of coca rees but only 4 contain the alkalai cocain. The trees usually grow to 6 meters but are trimmed t only grow to 2 meters for producing the best leaves. An average tree has a producing age of 26 years and matures after 4 years. Signs of chewing coca has been around since 20,000BC, but only in its current form since 3000BC. Scientific conrolled studies have proven that coca (not cocain) can cure over 50 ailments, respitory, muscular, digestive, sexual, and cadiovascular systems are all affected by coca. Coca is used in religous practices much like bread and wine is used in the catholicism.

There is an argument that the Catholic Kings are the first drug trafficers because they forced the incans to build the cathedrals (as slaves) and encouraged them to chew coca (even though the Spanish King made chewing coca illegal) because it allowed the incan slaves to work harder and longer. These Incan slaves were building Catholic fortresses on the foundations of their own sacred temples. They hated the Spanish, and in a silent non-violent retaliation the Incan slaves carved numerous images of the coca leaf, serpents, pumas and condors in the stonework of the cathedrals. It seems in nearly every city in Peru there is a cathedral that was built by incan slaves on the foundations of formal temples. Nearly everytime there is a large earthquake here the churches crumble while the incan stones and foundations remain in place.

Everywhere Catholic oppression is visible. Only people who are free of sin are allowed to take communion in the churchs, for example, a man and women live together and have children, but are not married because a marriage here is expensive (and the marriage must be lavish to show your place in society, so the punishment for being poor is no body of christ for you. It really irks me seeing this beautiful landscape with a peaple that have a firm connection with the earth, being forced into catholic culture. (they were forced, from scalping to smoke and mirrors) What I don´t understand is why do people need to look to the sky for the heavens above, when there is a a heaven so big there is no need to look up? (from Josh Ritter)

A fun fact about Coca-Cola
In the late 1800´s a chemist from Georgia invented a drink called "French Wine" using the coca leaf(not cocain but containing the alkali). Then prohibition hit the US and he changed his formula from an alcholic beverage to include Coca(after the cocain was extracted) African cola nuts and caffeine. He then renamed the drink Coca-Cola.

Some images of Mother Earth, between Puno and Cusco.

A mountain pass 4319M high (from where I took the picture) I do not know how high the mountain top is (yes thats a glacier!)