Experiences· 5 min read·16 September 2026
The Ceremony No One Else Will See
An offering to the earth made for two people, not for a group — and why that difference is everything.
By Kada Travel Editorial
It is worth starting with what it is not. It is not a symbolic wedding with borrowed costumes and a photographer telling you where to stand. It is not a thirty-minute performance in a hotel garden while other guests walk past on their way to the pool. That version exists, it is easy to arrange, and it is not what we are discussing.
An offering to the earth — a despacho — is an act of reciprocity. In Andean logic, you do not ask the mountain for something: you give something back. On a sheet of paper the officiant builds an object that will later be burned: coca leaves chosen in threes, seeds, fat, coloured wool, a little wine, sugar, tiny figures representing whatever is being asked for. It takes an hour and a half, and most of it passes in a silence that feels long at first.
Why doing it for two changes what it is
In a group, the officiant speaks outward: he explains, translates, performs a little so everyone follows. With a single couple, he stops explaining. He asks you things. He asks you to choose the leaves yourselves, to breathe on them yourselves, to say quietly — in your own language, whichever it is — what you are asking the mountain for. At some point it stops being a cultural demonstration and becomes something happening to you.
How to recognise the genuine version
Three signs. First: the officiant does not charge per camera or offer a "photo package". Second: the ceremony depends on the day and the weather, not on the hotel's schedule — there are dates in the Andean calendar when it simply is not performed. Third, and clearest: when it ends, nobody applauds.
Afterwards you walk back without saying much. You do not need to believe in anything for something to remain: the gesture of having asked, out loud, beside another person, in front of a mountain that was there long before, holds up on its own.
Written by Kada Travel Editorial
Frequently Asked
No. The ceremony is offered with respect and demands no adherence. Travellers of every belief — and of none — experience it as an act of gratitude rather than faith.
Yes, and it is one of the most frequent reasons it is requested. It does not replace a civil or religious act: it is a separate thing, running alongside.
With the officiant's prior agreement, and always from a distance. Our recommendation is to begin without a camera: what you lose in record you gain in presence.
Outdoors and at altitude, in view of an apu — a tutelary mountain. The exact spot is chosen according to the date and that day's weather, not the other way around.
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