Keeper of the Sacred Waters ofthe Holy Mountain,Asangate, and member of a Smithsonian Indigenous Peruvian Delegation visiting Washington DC.
Apaqo is the person who has learned how to converse with the apus, the forcesstirring in the mountains and valleys, dominating everyday life. Nazario couldread the sacred geography that is always impinging decisively on the familiarhuman landscape. Being a paqo is a gift, a calling that very few receive.
Nazario was slow in taking to his father's path asa paqo. It happened only after he had turned 40, when a bolt of lightning lefthim unconscious on an Andean trail. Such an extraordinary event is interpretedas a favorable sign from the apus, and Nazario's life changed. His father,Mariano, took him high in the mountains for a week after that and began therituals of purification and training that would gradually transform Nazariointo a paqo.