On the high plateaus of Bolivia, where the air is thin and cold as glass, a young woman named Chaska lived with her family of herders. Every morning she took her alpacas to graze, singing to them softly.
One day, as she rested beside a lake, she saw a man in fine clothes appear out of the sky. He was handsome, tall, and strange. His eyes gleamed like obsidian, and his cloak shimmered with feathers.
“Beautiful maiden,” he said, “I have watched you from the clouds. Come with me, and I will make you queen of the skies.”
Chaska blushed. “Who are you?”
“I am Kuntur, the king of the condors.”
Before she could answer, his cloak spread wide, and she saw that it was not fabric but wings. He took her hand, and together they rose into the air. The earth fell away, and the cold bit her cheeks.
He carried her to his nest on a cliff higher than clouds. There were jewels and bones, sunlight and shadow. “You will live here,” he said. “You will never hunger or fear.”
At first, Chaska marveled at the view. The whole world lay beneath her feet. But when night fell, the air turned icy. She looked down and saw her village — the glow of fires, her mother’s smoke, the faint sound of a flute.
“I am lonely,” she said. “Let me go home.”
Kuntur frowned. “The sky is your home now. You are my bride.”
When she tried to leave, he spread his wings like walls. “If you step off this nest, you will fall.”
But Chaska was no coward. She waited until he flew away to hunt, then plucked one of his feathers and whispered a prayer to Pachamama, the Mother Earth. “Guide me safely down.”
The feather shimmered, turning into a wind that lifted her gently from the cliff. She drifted downward like a leaf until her feet touched grass.
When Kuntur returned and found her gone, he screamed so loud that thunder answered. He flew over the valley for seven nights, searching. But the earth hid her — and the gods, pleased with her courage, turned the cliff into a mountain shaped like a condor’s folded wings.
To this day, the Aymara say when a condor circles above, it is Kuntur still searching, and when the wind rises gently through the canyons, it is Chaska’s spirit, whispering, freedom has a home too.
Moral of the Story
Love without freedom becomes a cage. The heart must belong to both sky and earth.
Knowledge Check
- Who was Chaska?
An Aymara herder taken by a condor spirit. - Who was Kuntur?
The king of the condors, a sky spirit in human form. - Why did he take her?
Because he desired her beauty and wanted a bride in the sky. - How did Chaska escape?
She used one of Kuntur’s feathers and prayed to Pachamama for help. - What became of the mountain?
It turned into stone shaped like a condor’s wings. - What lesson does the story teach?
That love must allow freedom or it turns to prison.
Origin: Aymara Folklore (Bolivia)
