Making a Female Apu: The Story of Mama Simona
In May of 2014, I received an excited phone call from Fredy, my intrepid Peruvian guide and best-in-the-world Quechua to English translator. He told me he was on Mama Simona mountain when the team excavating the archaeological site found a completely intact 400-year-old Mesa with all its khuyas. Mama Simona– the only female Apu of the twelve sacred mountains system of the Cuzco Valley and the only one from which you can see all the other apus – had opened her mesa to the worl
