On the west coast of South America, there is a long and narrow country, Peru. It is known as "the granary of the world".

Among them are two crops that represent the legend of this country. One is potato and the other is maca. In this issue, I will talk about maca first, and potatoes next time. Of course, its potatoes are not the ordinary potatoes and yam eggs in our concept.

The indigenous people of Peru are descendants of the ancient Incas. It is said that the strongest ancient Incas were not in the Amazon basin, but lived in the high cold areas of the Andes.

August is winter in the southern hemisphere. It took about a day to drive from the capital Lima to the Andes Mountains. When we crossed the mountains and entered the Juning area, we encountered a huge traffic jam on the mountain road and were stranded for 5 hours at an altitude of 4,000 to 5,000 meters. Many people suffered from high fever.

This is the Andes Mountains taken from a plane

The Andes Mountains taken while climbing

Encountered a traffic jam on a mountain road. After 5 hours, many people got out of the car to chat.

At night, we checked into the best hotel and inn in the mountains... there was no heating, and there were five layers of blankets covering us. It was still uncomfortable, and it felt like sleeping under stones all night. Dinner was also quite extravagant, just look at the picture.

This is the hotel we stayed at:

This is the hotel restaurant

This is how the mutton soup tastes when served. It’s not like I drank it... Tears running] Bold and unrestrained...

This is cheese, and is eaten with bread as a staple food.

General restaurants in Peru basically look like this.

It is neatly arranged and you can also swipe your card.

Early the next morning, after a night of sleep, altitude sickness is more likely to occur. Headache, vomiting, palpitation. Fortunately I just had a bloating headache. Continuing to drive forward and entering the hinterland of the mountainous area, I found that the environment here is extremely harsh, with strong winds, low temperatures, a temperature difference of 50 degrees Celsius between day and night, and an altitude of 5,000 meters. Oxygen is extremely thin. Along the way, there were almost no plants, bare hillsides, and a few wild alpacas occasionally ran across. How did maca grow in such a harsh environment?

After climbing over the mountains one after another, we finally found a group of locals on a sunny slope. They lined up in a row, pulled up ropes to divide the land on the hillside, and dug some different colors in their respective areas. Something shaped like a radish, could this be the legend we are looking for?

What is being harvested here is the mysterious plant, maca. It is a national treasure plant called Peruvian ginseng. Many international health experts believe that its nutritional value and efficacy are higher than Cordyceps sinensis. It is a natural food that regulates human endocrine and immunity.

Local people are digging and collecting maca:

Maca of different colors, shaped like a radish.

Suddenly I saw two children taking a photo together.

"Maca" is the ancient Inca word for "mother". In Peru, the Incas regarded maca as the "Queen of the Andes". They firmly believed that because of maca, men could shine like the sun and women could remain as bright and beautiful as the moon. What is the magic that makes the Incas worship maca as "mother" and "queen"?

In this extremely harsh ecological environment, except for maca, there are no signs of life here. It is precisely because of this harsh environment that maca not only has tenacious vitality, but also has a strong "absorption capacity" for soil nutrients. After each harvest, the land needs to rest for seven years before maca can grow again. This makes maca extremely rare, but it also makes maca extremely rich and balanced in nutrition.

According to local historians, the harsh environment in the plateau area is not conducive to population reproduction. But the Inca people in the Andes relied on the magical effect and huge energy of maca to make the originally low-fertility plateau people strong and long-lived, and eventually conquered all the plain peoples.

The locals told us that they are the descendants of the Inca tribe on the plateau. Their ancestors created the only great plateau empire in the world - the Inca Empire. And these maca underfoot played the most important role in the powerful conquest process of our ancestors.

August every year is the ripening season for maca. Fruits picked in large quantities need to be dried for a long time before they can be stored. In the village at the foot of the mountain, every household is drying the newly picked maca fruits in the yard.

The only small village that grows high-quality maca has become lively because of the popularity of maca.

Maca being dried in the village square

A family was busy, and a child caught my attention.

I couldn’t help but take a few more photos

How do the locals eat this sun-dried fruit? We followed a farm family into their village to see how the descendants of this powerful tribe consume maca.

This is maca porridge, dark. The taste is a weird sweet taste.

Warmly entertain our little master.

There are whole dried maca fruits in the porridge.

Maca, the national treasure of Peru, turned out to be a common food for the locals. Both maca and potatoes made great contributions to the glory and continuation of the Inca civilization. Maca provides good nutrition for the tribe's strength, while potatoes provide basic supplies for the tribe's continuation.

This is the truth.