The legend of Sajama

By Ramiro:

La Paz counts several mountains surrounding the city. One says that, the mount Illimani was the daughter of Inti, the sun. Inti loved his daughter and kissed her every morning and every night. But another mountain much higher than Illimani, called Mururata, was stealing her goodnight kiss every day. Illimani was crying every night…

On day, Inti had enough. He entered in rage and cut off the top of Mururata yelling “¡Sajam!” (“enough now”). The top of the mountain rolled down all the way to Oruro and settled there with the name of Sajama.

It became a majestic mountain, with strong personality and was very successful with feminine mountains. Eventually Sajama met Thunupa and they had a child together. Unfortunately their love didn’t last long and Sajama rejected Thunupa and his son.

Thunupa fled to the south. Her sadness was so immense that she cried for a long time. The legend says that, all the tears she cried and the milk of her breast formed the Uyuni Salar.