- Hi, I'm Les Stroud, host and director of the series Beyond Survival.

Within the scope of filming this series, I circled the globe eight times in 10 months.

I was never not in a state of sleep deprivation and jet lag.

I was there to embed myself with cultures who experienced life close to the earth, or who engage in practices and activities meant to keep their connection to the earth strong.

Often, it was a strange and wonderful journey, and never more so than in the case of the Caddos, the descendants of the Incan high priests.

I travel across the mountain tops with them and experienced more ceremonies in one week than I probably thought I was going to in a lifetime.

These are the Caddos, the descendants of the Incan high priests.

This is Beyond Survival.

(wind blowing) (intense drumming) - My way to the Caretti festival.

I look around and there's, there's huts made out of stone.

Little tiny places on the tops of hills.

There is no wild animals.

Survival here, in a word is tough.

And I got to keep climbing.

- [Les] I'm Les Straus and I'm in the high Andes of Peru.

Seeking out the Inca masters of survival.

- [Narrator] Before they're gone.

(intense music) Before the past is lost.

Before their world vanishes.

I can learn their ways.

(intense rock and tribal music) - A South American country, that is ecologically diverse.

Peru has both the Amazon jungle and the largest mountain range in the world known as the Andes Cordillera.

I'm about to begin one of the most arduous Andean pilgrimages known to man, but before I do, I need to seek permission from mother earth to prepare me for the intense experiences to come.

The first ceremony is called Huachuma.

(chanting in a foreign language) This is Cujo, an Incan priest.

The plant medicine he gives me is gathered from the hills surrounding Machu Picchu, and it's meant to open a conversation with Pachamama, known in North America, as Mother Earth.

(native music) In a metaphysical sense, my mind never leaves.

I'm not journeying anywhere.

I'm not seeing crazy visions, or flying above the ground.

But what I do feel is a very strong and very palpable connection to the earth energy, like I have never felt before.

For six long hours, Cujo continues to chant, never ceasing.

(native music) It overcomes me and my consciousness.

That's the only way I can describe this six hour long journey.

(eerie music) - Shaman called that very gentle medicine, and it was when it was very powerful too.

And the message, has yet to come.

- [Les] I leave the foothills of the Andes to meet with the high priests of the Caddos nation.

These priests will lead me on a journey to earn the right, to become an Okoko.

The Okokos are the and spiritual warriors charged with keeping the peace and performing the highest ceremony at the mysterious once a year, gathering called Keritu.

But to become and Okoko, I've got to climb the ancient passage 90 miles through the high Andes mountains.

I'm making my way into the heart of the Caddos nation.

Not exactly the lost city of the Inca, but the Caddos people are a true.

Ancestral lineage to an ancient Inca priesthood.

And they're here and the Andes mountains for 500 years, they were under the rule of the Spanish.

Yet still, they maintain their belief system, their culture, their traditions.

Perhaps it's because of their isolation here, in the Andes mountains.

That they've been able to hold onto those traditions and their belief system and their culture.

They're cut off from a lot of society.

There's no roads here.

It's just a long trek in.

It's very important, always to be asking for permission, Here, permission is, is asked of the spirit of the land.

Permission is asked a mother earth, here called Pachamama and it's with your own silent prayer and your own silent requests for permission to travel through the area safely.

Here, it's done with the Coca leaf.

The first blow comes from your mind, second from your heart and, the third, from the strength of your body.

- [Les] The Caddos secure their physical and spiritual survival by praying to stay in harmony with the nature that surrounds them.

The mountains, lakes, clouds, and the sun.

My journey is about asking permission, of the mountain spirits to become an Okoko.

If I succeed, I'll be the first outsider in history to ever become one.

I've made it my own pilgrimage challenge to walk the entire 90 miles to Keriti of which 85 are uphill.

My guides name is Don Humberto.

He's the most revered Ican and high priest.

And it's through his ceremonies that the mountain spirits will test me.

Tonight, I'll sleep in his home village.

- These Andes mountains are powerful and beautiful, you can feel the energy of them.

When you walk through, you see the Inca call these mountains, 'apus'.

Each one has its own name.

The flow of power.

The flow of energy, is reciprocal.

It's not only from the mountains and the water and Pachamama to the Ican people, but it's also them back.

And a lot of their ceremonies, they first have to release their own power to the Apus, to the mountains, before the power can be released back to them.

It truly is a symbiotic relationship between the great mountain spirits, the earth, Pachamama, the water and, the Inca people.

They need each other for survival.

- The Andes mountain range is the largest mountain range in the world.

Trekking like this is all about battling the altitude.

Even in the lowest stretches, We're still hiking above 12,000 feet.

And altitude sickness is a very real threat.

- All right, that's it.

That's a good half day of hooking up these mountains with the, with the horses.

I mean, you can't get a bad view here.

It's absolutely breathtaking.

And I set up camp here and let the horses rest.

The biggest issue here, the biggest issue of my entire journey is going to be acclimatizing to the altitude.

Altitude sickness itself is extremely debilitating.

We've got to take our time, pretty slow, walk, slow, and make our way up these magnificent mountains.

I'm already sweating.

I've been layering down, whereas the horsemen are bundled up backpacks on their back, hats on, and they're not even breaking a sweat.

And I am.

I think I heard someone say, once: you sweat, you die.

- I'm on a 90 mile pilgrimage with Incan and high priests through the Andean mountains.

How these people survive up here is staring to become evident in their own High Andes version of animal farming: alpacas, and the vicuñas.

- In the olden days, the Inca would do a special ceremony and the community would come out, capture the vicuñas.

They wouldn't kill them though.

They would simply sheer them, get the fibers.

From that, they would make special robes for the Incan kings.

It's still a very protected animal.

They were not killed for meat.

They were protected then and, they are protected now.

Fortunately, they're actually increasing in population, which is good.

- [Les] A scarf made from vicuña hair can cost $800.

This journey is going to take five days with some treacherous climate.

Thousands of indigenous Andeans across Peru are also making the pilgrimage towards Keriti, but not this ancient way.

They're going by road and trail on the other side.

I've been given special access by the high priest to join them on this trek and to become an Okoko in the process.

Even these areas are not as benign as they look.

These little mud moth bogs can trap an alpaca, trap a horse and, if no one's around to pull them out, they get bogged down in it.

They get stuck in it and it's the last day they see.

Its a sad story for the horse or the alpaca, no doubt.

This is actually the dry season.

When the wet season is here, this is very boggy and the mud is very deep.

Once a horse is dead, a wild cat called a Puma and the Condors, move in for the feast.

When the Andean man calls on the Apus, they're calling on the great spirits that inhabit each mountain top.

The testing by these Apus has begun.

Snow, sleet, and icy rain hit our convoy, and make the climbing very rough.

The horses are getting agitated and it's not long before one of them get spooked.

We've got a major blow out with one of the horses.

Because actually, that horse had all of my camera equipment on it and, must have slipped down on his belly.

The horse just started freaking out kicking, jumping, getting everything free off itself.

And then it took off running into the hills.

One of the horseman's gone after it, to catch him.

Hypothermia is always a risk at these altitudes.

So making it to our destination in the clouds by nightfall, is vital.

The Spanish couldn't find a way up here.

It was too far to make the journey worth their while.

So the Caddo existed up here as legend for nearly 500 years until an anthropologist found them in the 1950s.

It's wondered if he found them or if they let themselves be found.

This, is Cupla Cujo.

They don't really know how old it is.

It could be anywhere from 600 to a thousand years old.

It's one of the original Caddos villages.

In fact, this stuff you're behind me here, Don Humberto is one of the most experienced, most knowledgeable and most skilled of the high level priests of these people.

And, he was born and lived in those ruins right up there.

And this is where I'm staying tonight.

Cupla Cujo.

- A few stone buildings and a herd of alpaca, is all the ancient village of, Culpa Cujo consists of.

- Interesting little stove set up here, and a few very small fires going.

Wood all of above it to stay dry.

What they do is they head down, the Amazon jungle is only four hours away.

So they'll head down there.

And I don't know, I assume they either trade for wood or they gather wood.

Bring it back up here and they can have their fires up here.

There's just nothing.

There's no trees.

They just got grass to burn.

- The biggest threat to the Caddo are the puma who stalk their alpaca herds under the cover of nightfall.

We know them in north America, as the mountain lion.

- All the llamas are being and brought in now to protect them from the puma.

These alpaca know better, they stay out there on their own, an easy meal for them.

This is place is spectacular Rosa, is basically cooking dinner and her whole kitchen is a rock hole in the ground here, which keeps the fire going.

We're not in the kitchen here tonight, but it's all beautiful stone wall encased in mud.

And just all of their belongings hanging all around this place really is as primitive as it was the day it was built.

Anyway, I don't want to bother her too much because a stranger coming to here to stay and she's busy doing her thing.

And I'm talking to the camera.

It's gotta be weird.

It's gonna crawl into my alpaca fur a bed and, call it a night.

- [Les] Night passes over the Andes mountains.

And I awake to another day in the ancient Inca village of Culpa Cujo.

- It's about 4:30 in the morning, and he's already been up chopping wood and, getting breakfast going.

It's ridiculously smokey in here, and the dogs have been up all night long barking.

I guess they're protecting everybody from a puma, but I think they just bark at anything that moves out there.

- The Caddo built these stone villages when they fled from their Spanish conquistadors, in the 17th century.

They brought the alpaca herds with them.

If they hadn't, they'd be very few of alpaca left today.

The Spanish slaughtered, most of them.

So that was quick.

Corral them all into this whole rock section here and, singled one out, and they'd caught him, and are bringing him down.

There he goes.

There he goes.

They got one.

- To be Andean is to respect all things who live on the earth, and to consider the planet as a mother.

So even when killing an alpaca, they make an offering of Coca leaves to the Apus, to the spirit of the beast itself.

- Very important that permission is asked and granted for everything they do.

Every major activity that goes on, they ask permission for it.

When they pick out the leaves for asking permission, they've got to pick leaves that are not broken, that are perfect.

In this way, they're not only seeking permission, but they're offering back their energy, their life force to Pachamama.

So that Pachamama can continue to provide it back to them.

Forcing Coca leaves into the alpaca's mouth.

Same style of kill as with all animals in this manner.

Quick cut of a spinal column at the back of the neck and the animal's dead very quickly.

In this case, they're going to gather and keep the blood.

The survival of the Caju people is very much tied into the alpaca.

This is everything to them.

It's their economy.

It's their culture.

It's their livelihood.

It's their survival tied up in this animal right here.

So now begins the chase.

We just got to chase these guys up out of the crown and, they'll make their way out into the hill.

And away they go, they'll make their way up into the hills.

Puma generally hunt at night, so they're off into their little caves or little holes.

And these guys are safe again.

- With the alpaca herds out for the day I'll journey with Don Humberto to perform the first of two glacial water ceremonies.

All right, well, I'm leaving this tiny village now just for the day I'm heading up with Don Humberto.

We've got a four-hour hike straight up the mountains.

And as you can see, the sun has finally come out enough that it's hot enough that I can have my shirt off, with my trusty steed.

I've named him Snow.

Because he's the only white one in the whole bunch.

Look at this place!

Words can't describe a place like this.

It's truly unreal.

This village down in the city of Cusco is known as one of the very mystical places.

They talk about it.

Oh, you know, up in the mountains, a group of descendants from the Inca still live and still carry out the mystical and traditional ways.

And this is it right here.

This is the mystical village, or one of them.

These are the Caddos people.

Here, the air is so thin.

I mean, we're at 15,000 feet, and altitude sickness is a very real ever-present danger for someone like myself comes from, from an, from lower altitudes.

Here, they've grown and adapted to it.

They're used to it.

It's kind of like, imagine yourself, working out, working out, jogging, running around really hard and having a straw taped to your mouth.

That's what it's like trying to get oxygen up here.

Add to it, the fact that I have a stubborn horse and I'm pulling him half the way up the hill.

It doesn't help.

They tell me in order to become an Okoko, I have to take part in two different water ceremonies: lakes, and the pools and these mountains are formed from sacred glacier ice.

- I was walking through the mist in the alpaca fields here.

It's all boggy deep holes.

Maybe that's why they call it mystical because the mist seems to hide everything obvious and, you have to focus.

Mostly on yourself.

You can see from the man playing a flute, the ceremony starts long before you you make it to the final destination.

For the Caddo people, survival is linked to either the alpaca physically or being in harmony with the earth spiritually.

And these ceremonies I'm to perform are meant to not only bring me into harmony with the earth, but to enable me to bring that harmony to others.

- [Les] I'm on a high Andes trek on a journey to become an Incan spiritual warrior known as an Okoko and the mountain spirits are testing me for physical and spiritual survival.

Well, here comes the rain again.

Weather changes every hour here, it's a steep climb.

This is not going to be easy.

Pachumama doesn't necessarily make everything easy.

This whole area here, you can see the white rock.

This is the temple of Womanlipa.

This temple is where most of the greatest Incan priests have come for their own initiation.

I think the term cave is maybe lost in translation here.

It's not exactly a deep cut of cave.

It's more of a rock overhang, but either way, it's a very sacred place.

Here, at the power comes from the mountain through the priests, to the initiate so that then it can be carried to the world.

(tribal music) (loud horn) (man speaking foreign language) - For my first test, Don Humberto praised to the glacial pond, calling mother earth, along with the spirits of the mountains to infuse me with their power.

The fact that it's raining is actually a good sign because it means that so far the mountain spirits like who they see.

And Don Humberto is carefully watching the signs of nature for acceptance or refusal.

The signs for the priests are ever-present quick flashes of sunshine at exactly the moment the priest is asking for followed by driving sleet and biting wind.

It said that the Caddos can talk to the elements, converse with them at will and move the clouds when they need to just as simply as talking to another human.

- It's time to go.

Now, the ceremony was meant to infuse all the power.

The energy of the Apus, the mountains around the world, through the priests, who did it to me.

Now, they've asked that I leave, take my cameras with me.

They need to finish the ceremony on their own.

- Making my way back to the village of Culpa Cujo.

My body is still freezing cold, and I know I have yet another water ceremony to prepare for the test to become an Okoko are tough both physically and mentally.

- That's a hard trek.

The strength to do such a trek is here, here in these mountains.

That what keeps you going.

- After four long hours of walking, I make it back to Don Humberto's home village.

There isn't a lot of food available up here and dinner tonight will be boiled potatoes and alpaca meat.

- Just sharing some Coca tea.

I think, I think some foods as well.

Alpaca.

It's been raining all day and beautiful be in here because we've all these bodies it's nice and warm and dry in here.

So, great way to end the day.

Full moon up there.

Look at that!

Unbelievable.

Right now, difficult to see what the cameras, but the whole valley is lit up wit, with the full moon.

Another beautiful rock home, rock hut built probably five, 600 years ago.

That's pretty much my dwelling for the night.

I think I'm sleeping in the, the food pantry with all potatoes and seeds and nuts.

And it's a bit of straw on the floor.

That's a nice big high roof and it's dry and it rains a lot here.

So, that's important.

(intense music)