The first member of the Kogi people of Colombia ever to visit Britain is wearing traditional rough cotton clothes and has a cloth bag slung over each shoulder as he chews toasted coca leaves.
The Spanish conquistadors declared coca a tool of the devil, until they saw how it improved the work rate of the Indians they sent down the mines.
Andean peoples have chewed coca leaves for centuries to induce a mild stimulant effect, and they also use the plants to make products such as tea and baking flour.
This includes even the traditional use of coca leaves (from which cocaine is extracted) by Andean Indians for chewing and tea.
Traditional USES of coca are not addictive and are as much part of Andean culture as a cuppa is in Britain or beer in Texas.
An official announced that it would halt eradication of coca (the raw material for cocaine), which is increasingly being cultivated, only for Mr Humala to countermand him days later.
As a result, growers have moved back: in the past decade, the area used for coca rose by 55% in Peru and 42% in Bolivia.
For centuries, people who live in the high Andes have chewed coca leaves, whose alkaloids act as a mild stimulant and help to ward off cold and hunger.
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