Maka, is it a trick or a magic trick? Top-height reversal, experience the Andean alpine region, and restore the real Maca.

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

There are two crops, which represent the legend of this country. One is a potato and the other is a maca. Let's talk about maca first in this issue, and potatoes will be discussed next time. Of course, its potatoes are not ordinary potatoes and yam eggs in our concept.

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

August is winter in the southern hemisphere. Driving from the capital Lima, it takes about one day to reach the Andes. When crossing the mountains into Shanghai-Nanjing, I met a traffic jam on the mountain road and stayed at an altitude of four or five kilometers for five hours. Many people take drugs.

This is the Andes taken on the plane.

The Andes mountains photographed on the way to climb.

There was a traffic jam on the mountain road. For five hours, many people got off and chatted.

At night, we stayed in the best restaurants and hotels in the mountains ... there was no heating, and the blanket built five floors, which still made us feel sad and sleepy under the oppression of stones. Dinner is also quite free. Look at the picture.

This is the hotel where I stayed:

This is the hotel restaurant.

The mutton soup is served like this, not because I drink it like this ... [Tears streaming down my face] No. ...

This is cheese and the like, and bread is the staple food.

The general restaurants in Peru are basically like this.

Put it neatly, and you can also swipe your card.

Early the next morning, after a night's sleep, altitude sickness is more likely to occur. Headache, vomiting, palpitation. Fortunately, I just have a splitting headache. Drive on, enter the hinterland of the mountain area, and find that the environment here is extremely bad, the wind is strong, the temperature is low, the temperature difference between day and night is 50 degrees Celsius, the altitude is 5000 meters, and the oxygen is extremely thin. There are almost no plants along the way, the hillside is bare, and occasionally a few wild alpacas run by. How did Maca grow up in such a harsh environment?

After climbing the mountain, we finally found a group of local people on a sunny slope. They lined up, pulled up ropes to divide the land on the hillside, and dug up things with different colors in their respective areas, which looked like radishes. Is this the legend we are looking for?

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

Local people are digging and collecting maca:

Maca with different colors looks like radish.

Suddenly I saw two children taking pictures together.

"Maca" means "mother" in ancient Inca. In Peru, the Incas regarded Maca as the "Queen of the Andes". They firmly believe that because of Maka, men can shine like the sun and women can stay bright and beautiful like the moon. What magic made the Incas worship Maca as "mother" and "queen"?

In this extremely harsh ecological environment, there is no sign of life here except Maca. It is precisely because of this harsh environment that Maca is not only vigorous, but also has a strong ability to "absorb" soil nutrients. Every harvest season, the land needs to be fallow for seven years before planting maca again. This makes maca extremely rare, but it also creates maca with extremely rich and balanced nutrition.

According to local historians, the harsh environment in the plateau area is not conducive to population reproduction. The Inca people in the Andes, relying on the magical utility and great energy of Maca, made the plateau people with low fertility strong and live longer, and finally conquered all the plains people.

The local people told us that they were descendants of the Inca tribe on the plateau, and their ancestors created the Inca Empire, the only great plateau empire in the world. And the maca under these feet played the most important role in the powerful conquest of ancestors.

August is the mature season of maca every year. A large number of picked fruits can only be stored after a long period of drying. In the village at the foot of the mountain, every family basks in the newly picked maca fruit in the yard.

The only small village that grows high-quality maca is also lively because of the fiery heat of maca.

In the village square, Maka is drying.

Busy at home, a child caught my attention.

I couldn't help taking more pictures.

How do locals eat this dried fruit? Following a farmer, we walked into their village to see how the descendants of this powerful tribe ate Maca.

This is maca porridge, dark. Taste is a strange sweetness.

Entertain our little host warmly.

There is a whole maca dried fruit in the porridge.

Maca, Peru's national treasure, turned out to be a common occurrence of local people. Maca and potatoes have made great contributions to the glory and continuation of Inca civilization. Maca provides good nutrition for the strength of this tribe, and potatoes provide basic supplies for the continuation of this tribe.

This is a fact.