God and Her Milky NipplesOn the northern shore of the flat could be seen the cone of Thunupa, wandering mountain goddess of Aymara mythology who was blessed with beauty and magic, finding a home here in the middle of the Altiplano after being impregnated by Huayna Potosi. It was on the northern shore of the present day salt lake that she spilt her motherly milk and inundated the land around her, creating the Uyuni and Coipasa Salt Lakes. Agapito and Pimiento were walking on Goddess Milk, wondering if remnants of this same milk hadn’t been swept up into the Milky Way creating that mystical lactic wisp.
They were shaken awake that night – after drifting off to sleep with dreams of goddess nipples and swimming in bowls of maternal milk, lapping as they liked – by dampness in their sleeping bags and a sloshing all around them. The ground beneath them became liquid s they were lifted above the lake on the back of something great. The object began to take shape and they realized it was a reed-boat like those used on Lake Titicaca. A solitary man was at the helm. He commanded the two groggy-gringos to help him raise the sail. Their sleeping bags were soaked, smelling of raw milk and they realized now that the boat had risen from the lake and was floating on the very stuff they were only minutes before sleeping on. They were flustered.
The man stopped what he was doing and stomped over to them infuriated by their paralysis. Did they not know who he was? As the man approached, Agapito hurriedly dug around inside his bag for the fetus, the rigid, sparsely furred little fetus that the woman had handed him two days before. The man grabbed the emaciated leg of the thing and accepted the offering before him. Without hesitation he laughed as he snatched the fetus and began to dance around the boat. He even set the fetus down, jumped overboard and began to flop in the milky lake. Agapito swore he heard the same laugh from the sun a few days earlier.
As he crawled aboard he said in perfect English, extending his hand for a shake, “I am Viracocha. You’ve met my brother, Quetzalcoatl? Perhaps you’ve heard of me?”
“Oh shit,” Agapito and Pimiento replied simultaneously.
“Oh no, please don’t fear. Yes I am a God, well, actually THE God around these parts. Many people are afraid of me but my way is peace I assure you. And, I guess you may be afraid of the fact that my very being here precedes the End Of The World. I am here now, waiting for the waters to rise so I may set sail again. Years are running short, you know? The world should be prepared for it now. We left them plenty of wisdom and prophecies. Humans have gained the wisdom, right? Say, that reminds me of one time when I was in Giza and I said to this guy Ra . . .”
In pre-Incan mythology Viracocha had played the same role that Quetzalcoatl played in Mayan and Aztec: a wise civilizer, a stonemason and a healer. He too was chased off by an evil God after building Macchu Picchu and Tihuanaco with the prophecy he would return. He spoke with a convincing boom.
Agapito and Pimiento looked at each other, let out a scream and jumped overboard, swimming frantically toward the shore of the lake. Agapito heard that same booming laugh and this time Pimiento heard it too. They saw the ship sailing off toward Thunupa and they swam panicked in the opposite direction.
In the next instant they found themselves flopping about on the hard surface of the salt lake in the middle of their camp with their donkeys nowhere to be seen. The moon was full and their hair and clothes were drenched and white, but the ground was solid.
They stayed awake the remainder of the night and packed up their camp in the morning, fitting what they could into their backpacks. Leaving much of the food and climbing gear, they walked toward Thunupa but veered far west. After two weeks of journeying they landed on the northwestern shore of the Coipasa salt lake in the town of Pisiga. Pimiento left the next day for Colorado.
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