Day -1: Getting sorted
I got an early start to the day in order to be able to head off to the local market, located in the Belen district, to stock up for my trip
into the amazon.
I went with two canadiands who are doing a work exchange program at a spiritual retreat cventre based around ayahuasca, called the temple of the way of light. Really nice guys and very helpful as they had been to the market before.
We hopped into a mototaxi and then shortly afterwards hopped back out, straight into the bustle of the entrance to Belen. Backpack on backwards and shopping list out, in order to be able to buy as many supplies as quickly as possible.
The market was a cramped flow of people form all firections, with hands being shoved into your pockets every few steps. it was for this reason that i did not have my wallet in my pockets, but rather in my backpack and my money was stashed ina secret pocket.Thatg said I only had fifty nuevos soles (around 20 US) with me and that was all I was going to spend for my 6 dasy of supplies.
I managed to get all my dry foods ( 3kgs of rice and three packets of spaghuetti) all together plus some of my fruits. BONUS!
But then came the wondering around the maze like alleyways and pasages. There was everything from fish(all types, both endangered and those not), grilled suri worms, chicken, beef, pork, endangered turtle and humungous chunks of crocodile or rather black cayman tail! Ana mazing mix of smells and people.
After I had managed to cross almost everyhting off of my list. A deep and vibrant hunger grabbed hold of me, we decided on the cheapest plate of rice and fried banana possible. about U$S 75cents. a heaped plate of rice, some fried banana and a fried egg. SCORE!
I was now ferying around 10 kgs of supplies on my back and another few kgs in a packet, I was wet, sweaty and surrounded by people, my patience was starting to wear thin. To top it off we unsuccessfully tried to locate a all vegetarian rstaurant where the guys were meeting up with some people. A wastd 30 min of walking around lugging all of my shit!
I headed back to the hostel and had a lttle lie in.
Earlyish in the evening a mate from the plane gave me a call and asked if i wanted to go out for a beer, I was about to decline due to the fact that I was in fior an early start the following morning, but I thought to myself what the heck, a nice cold one wont do any harm. Oh how wrong I was, about the one. After finshing off the first I decided on a second and so on the night went until I reached the point where i felt quite light headed and a decidedly strong aroma of beer was wafting off of my sticky and sweaty body.
I was caught up in the excitement of my impending departure for the wild and untamed jungle of the amazons. It was a kin to that feeling the night beofre christmas when you are a young child.
At around 1 I called it a night and headed back to the hostel, diving into bed as soon as I crossed the threshold of my jungle hut. Making one of the worst decisions possible: Packing and organizing my jungle necesities in the morning. I NEVER LEARN!
Day 1: Up the not-so-little- river we go.
Beep-Beep-Beep. Beep-Beep-Beep.( or something like that).
SHUT UP! OH SHIT! that is my alarm. UP, Get Up, you Still have to pack!FUCK!
These were the first thoughts that crossed my mind as I drifted into the consciousness of the waking world. I was soon to head off to the amazon!
I rummaged around and after a few more beeps managed to locate my phone and turn the damn thing off. I proceeded to roll out of bed and started unpacking to pack. Yes I still had to get stuf fout of my big backpack, in order to organise my pack for the trip! I told you, IDIOT!
All in all, my clothes for the week all fit into a ziplock bag - contents: one long sleeve shirt, 2 pairs of underwear, 2 pairs of socks and one pair of quantec shorts. This just proves how little clothing you actually need!( I arrived back in Iquitos with all the socks clean and having only used one pair of underwear!)
I had to carry my own hammock, mosquito net, 20l of filtered water and food supplies.( definitely over calculated on the last one)
After an hour, a cold shower included, I made my way downstairs to meet up with Kit - my guide for the trip, he was just coming along to make the proper introductions as the family didnt yet know that I was going to stay with them.
As we wandered out the door I caught sight of Jimmy, the owner, having a good laugh to himself. Whether it was to what I was carrying or the pure amusement of whether or not I would survive m little trip I am not sure.
We flagged down one of the hundreds of mototaxis that plague the streets of Iquitos and hopped in, now I use hte term hopped rather liberally as this action was quite impossible due to the extra 30 kgs of shit i was carrying between my pck and 20l of water. We inidcated that our destination was the Producers Port to cath ´El Rapido´ to mazan, on the amazon River. El rapido is a water colectivo or bus which people use as a means of public transport along the river. We squeezed into our child sized seats and waited until the boat filled up. Once we were ready to go some shouting ocurred and the driver appeared. I could have sworn id just seen him enjoying a nice cold one at the bar in front of the boat...The driver was an overly large, piggish like man with the typical large neck and scrunched up ears of a prop. Just before leaving an assistant scurried his way through the boat shouting ¨pasajes¨, ¨PASAJES¨ - this means tickets or fare.
El rapido took us along the amazon river for around 45 minutes until reaching a tiny, smelly and dirty cargo loading cement slipway, we once again ´hopped´ off into calf high river water and then waded onto shore. Even this far away from the city we were offered at least 50 mototaxis( I was wondering if these werent cockroach like transformers, there were just so many of them).
We did a land crossing of about 20 minutes and then arrived a the district of Mazan. Once again i found myself in the hustel and bustel of a market, this was a primary market where peole would come and buy in bulk in order to sell in the market of Belen, which I had visited the day before. A strong smell of fish and fruit invaded my nostrils, as well as an unfamiliar smell that I couldnt quite identify.
After waiting for Kit to try and locate his ´tio´ - uncle, who normally made his way to the market to sell his wares on sundays. the uncle unfortunately was nowhere to be found.
El tio was to be my unkowing host for the next few days. I guess they would just have to wait for the knock on the door(or the piece of wood that acts as a door, as i would later see).
We eventually managed to find a boat that was heading up river and that would drop us off at the tios place. Now when I say boat, you imagine a boat right? Wrong, it was an oversized canoe that was barely afloat and was highly unstable! In order to reach said boat i had to ask for permission to cross about five other canoes, the owners of which jsut grumbled something which I took for consent. I managed make my way onto the canoe imitating a tight rope walker avoiding the dirty river below.
During the beautiful 3 hour journey upriver I repeatedly had to ladle water out of the canoe using a plastic bowl...thank god for the jungle styled gum boots that the hostel had lent me! The only constants on the trip were the position of my very very cramped legs and the buzz of the tiny honda engine that was latched onto the back of the canoe, not quite sure how they pulled that one off.
Everynow and again the noise of the engine would be overshadowed by the natural orchestra that emanated from the jungle surrounding us on all sides, the trees, the leaves and the insects added to that of the movement of the water. A beautifully calming and natural sound.
As each meter of river passed my smile grew a little bit wider, I was finally venturing into the amazon. WHAT A THOUGHT!
We reached Kits tios house only to find that his tios boat was not there and that hte house was empty. Uh - oh. we would just have to wait. This did not seem to bother Kit in the slightest. We very carefully crawled off of the canoe with all our gear and trudged up to the waist high barrier that acted as the door.
As luck would have it we only had to wait for a few mintues until the Abuleo showed up at the house and let us in. Kit introduced me to the abuelo and asked him if he would allow me to partake in teh ayahuasca ceremonies with him as my guide. The abuelo = grandfather and he also happens to be the shaman for the local area. In response he just grunted - not a very promising sign.
Soon after we heard the chug-chug-chug of a littel honda engine, which gladly turned out to be the tio and the rest of the family returning from their day trip.
They shuffled off of the boat with their supplies and food stuffs. AS they entered the house Kit introduced my and explained that I would be staying in the house for a week or so. They all greeted me as a long lost family member or some new interesting thing to look at. Im still quite not sure. But as i think about it I tend to lean more towards the second option.
As we sat around enjoying some small talk I was presented with a bowl of a mango coloured liquied: MASATO. A cooked fruit drink which once left for a day becomes quite a potent drink, and affects you in a similar way to alchohol. One was enough for me. two and a half for Kit. The afternoon was looking like a lazy one.
After a little lazing around, the effect of the masato having worn off, kit and I decided that it was time for some lunch. We grabbed two fishing poles and headed off to the river banks. For quite a while there was nothign happening and then all of a sudden we caught a few edible fish an lunch was soon to be under way. We finsihed off with a fish per person and a good smile on our faces.
Lunch was ready at about four, unbeknown to me this was also dinner as everyone heads off to bed at around 7 or 8 as it gets completely dark by 7 each evening.
After ´lunch´ I decided to have a siesta, just a tiny one. When i eventually woke up it was with a start as it was pitch black, and as i said before i was not aware of the fact that it got soo dark soo early. I thought id slept most of the night away...haha.. it was only just before seven.
I decided to have a little read and then chatted for a while beofre clambering back into my awkward hammock and mosquito net and falling into a deep deep slumber.
Day 2: Paddling, collecting and wood chopping.
¨Esto es cumbia amigos,y son las 04:30 am¨, this was the sound that woke me up. It was the Abuelos radio going off at 04:30 with a radio station that played really shit music. but i mean really shit!
I think that the rooster felt insignificant and forgotten as he belted out his cockle doodle doo with enough force to blow your bloody eardrums. Both of the above mentioned noises making it completely impossible to carry on sleeping.
I awkwardly slipped out of my hammock and into my boots, and then wondered on down to r}the river to join f}Kit in the fishing for breakfast. Due to the rain from the previous night and the level of the river rising there were no damn fish tio be caught.
After a short while Abuelo wondered down and hopped into his canoe and pushed off, Kit shouted something to him an dhe waited. he was off to collect the ayahuasca vines for the ceremonies. And both Kit and i wanted to jopin him. We rushed around like headless chickens fing}ding peaddles and a canoe and then we set off to follow el Abuelo through the Quebrada - a break off from the main river, which is usually quite small and low in teh dry season, but very high and actually joined to the main river bu}y a tawampa - an area absent of water in the dry season but compeltely flooded with between a foot and a meter of water during the wet.
The tawampero or very small canoe took even more getting used to thatn the larger one from the day before and had even less water clearance than the other one. I could slide one finger along the edge and it would still get wet. any abrupt movemnts casue water to enter the canoe and take us a little closer to sinking.
After navigating our way through a maze of underwater tree trunks and low hanging branches for around half an hour we arrived at one of the abbuleos yuca plantations ( yuca is a potato like root that is part of the staple diet in peru). It was here that we began our hour long search for a decent sized ayahuasca vine in order to prepare the concotion for the nights ceremony.
We followed el Abuelo around as he seemingly turned this way and macheted that way randomly, but he was following the call of the plant. We eventually found some ayahuasca vines and thenw e followed these until finding the mother trunk down to its roots. When we found good sized roots el abuelo started to look for a place to remove some wihtout killing off the whole vine.
Once we had harvested enough ayahuasca vine, my arms were full of the root, we headed back to the yuca plantation adn started looking for firewood. We had forgottent o bring the axe and so we had to machete our way through the wood in order to obtain decent sized pieces. After sopme sweaty chopping we loaded the canoue until it was sitting right on the water line and gracefully hopped in. We had to be even more careful on the way back as we were even closer to sinking with all the wood loaded.
We made it back to the hut just in time for breakfast as well as to avoid the jungle downpour that started!
We were greeted with a deliscious plate of rice and maduros ( small green bananas) which had bean boiled. After the mornings exertions and the early wake up call I treated myself to a succulent mango as it would be the last food that I would be permitted during the day as el Abuelo had decided that i could participate in the ayahuasca ceremony.
After breakfast I watched as el Abuelo cleaned, adn then smashed the vines in order to boil them in a big pot and reduce the liquid to a concentrated drink form. From everything we picked we got around half a litre of potent ayahuasca. There were obviously some other leaves and bits and bobs added to the mixture, im still not sure what those were...
After watching the preparations and having let breakfast settle i decided to treat myself to a little midmorning siesta in m hammock.
Upon waking I decided to sort my head out and get ready for the nights events. I was preparing my soul for the ayahuasca drinking. This was helped by the noise of the river flowing a few metres away, by the noise that the jungle itself makes and just by the natural surrounding I found myself in. I could already feel the flow of the enrgy that connects all of us to each other and to all things.
It is now completely dark and we are just waiting for the rest of the family to head off ot bed and for the children to quieten down.
Ayahuasca 1:
The awaited time was fast approaching and the family was still wide awake, the young children still full of energy, I was starting to wonder if this was going to be the ideal surrounding for my spiritual journey. I just wasnt sure if I was going to be able to find any peace with all the ruccus that hte kids were making.
And then just like that, with one word from el Abuelo they scurried off ot bed and were told to keep quiet. We could still hear them for a little while, but they soon drifted off to sleep.
Those of us who were preparing ourselves for the ceremony were organized in a circle around the ayahuasca and the tobacco. El Abuelo started breathing his icaros into the air all around us as well as into his rock which helped him to concentrate his energies, he added his icaros to the ayahuasca.
Once he felt enough energy in the room he poured a small glass of the liquid and passed his icaros to the cup and then he held it out for me to drink. I said thank you and in my mind envisoned the knowledge or concepts that I wanted to further understand. I drank teh foul tating liquid in one gulp and sat back. he repeated this proces with t}each of the other two participants. We then sat around and idly chatted until the dizzyness started to take each of us. As the first person succumbed to teh dizzyness el Abuelo started his rythym with theleaves and breathing and then he started chanting, placing us into a sort of trance which made it easier for the visions to come to us.
It took a while for my body to start to feel the effects of the drink, but then I could slowly feel my heart rate rise, my body heat up, my head become light and I satrted to percieve the shadows differently. It was at this point that I decided to lie down and close my eyes. opening myself up to the dizzyness and hte journey.
As I lay there my heart started to beat even faster ansd i could feel my whole body begin to vibrate in tune with nature and the chanting, I was generating an immense sense of heat, comfort and positive energy.
As the vibrations became stronger and stronger the dizzyness really set in and I felt like daVincis machiavellian man spinning through a black and white tunnel and then I was just spinning in space, with no reference points. It was as if I had left my heavy body down on the earth and i could go anywhere i wanted. Up, down or into the cosmos.
My body became gradually larger and cumbersome whilst spirit me stayed the same size and was easily able to slip out and into the universe of energy. I started to drift away and as i looked don i could se emy body with the biggest smile on its face. I felt absolutely sensational.
After a while the dizzyness overpowered me and I felt the need to purge myself(vomit). I very slowly got up and sort of zif}g zgged my way to the side of the house and proceeded to clean my body. Once i was finished and wanted to get back to my spot, I found that my body was extremely uncoordinated and that walking had become difficult. After nearly falling over the table i decided to crawl back to my spot and lie down again.
AS i regained a little bit of coordination I sat up and it was then that I was confronted by a monstrously large black pantehr that was climbing into the house. It looked straight at me, but I felt no fear as i felt that it was there to protecct and guide me through the journey to come.
When el Abuelo focused all of his energy of me it was as if a palpable stream of tangible mass was flowing from where he was to me. I could feel a very positive sensation overwhelming my body and all of the negative being pushed out. it started in teh feet and continued out through the head. Afterwards i felt like i could feel the beat of mother earth and the energy that we all possess. it was a wow moment.
Even though it was a simple and intimate ceremony it was a very strong one for me. It allowed me to see and comprehend things that I had only glimpsed on my first journey as well as giving me the sense that what i was doing now and my plans for the near future were good for me and my spiritual health. That this was my happiness and that i would be content with this path.
Day 3: George of the jungle
I woke up feeling rather tired after the ayahuasca ceremony and the accompanying dizziness. I had also not had a very comfortable nights sleep due to my mind repeatedly going over what i had seen during the ayahuasca.
At around nine we were treated to an interesting breakfast of yellow rice soup with wild boar meat meat. The meat had been hunted and killed roughly ten days ago, they use a tradition method of salting the meat to keep it edible for as long as possible.
Just after Breakfast we kitted up, long pants, shirts and boots:check. Ooh and the machete...I felt all jungle-like. We hopped into the tawamperos, this was a slightly larger one but it had a very bad tilt to the left which made balancing in the bloody thing extremely difficult.
We decided to cut right through the tawampa, moving overhanging branches were possible and hacking at them with our machetes when the passage was blocked. I was in front of the boat and in charge of paddling as well as keeping an eye out for barely covered roots and fish nets that could get caught in the under fin of the canoe. Needless to say that I was fascinated.
At one point we arrived at a fallen tree that was blocking our passage and we had to hop out of the canoe and onto the tree, pulling the canoe up and over the tree in order to hop back in on the other side and carry on our little adventure. Shortly after this we arrived at another point where the vegetation was to thick to paddle and we had to continue on foot. The water was lapping at the top of my boots and very nearly pouring in. Throughout the few minutes of walking in the calf high water my eyes were peeled for the slightest indication of movement below the surface of the water - all I could think about was a friendly anaconda grabbing hold of me.
Both Kit and mario, his cousin, just laughed at me.
After pushing our way through and emerging into the quebrada on the other side we carried on for a little while longer and proceeded to beach the canoes and then start our 3 hour stroll.
We crossed through various types of terrain from yuca plantations, to sugar cane and thick jungle vegetation. The further we went the more we had to rely on our machetes to clear a path as well as keeping our eyes open for any hidden dangers: spiders, snakes, thorns, etc.
Kit commented on which plants were edible, which ones would kill me, cause diarrhea, fever, etc. as well as explaining which roots contained drinkable water and which ones imitated those that did but there water was toxic.
I felt like bear grills would have been proud of our survival savvy.
Our adventure included making our way across spots of sinking mud using fallen logs and cutting support poles, walking through water up to our calfs without being able to see through the foliage that floated on the surface. Unfortunately we reached a small river that was no crossable without getting completely wet and we decided to head back and get some water and hidration.
On the return trip we took another path and encountered even thicker jungle which imposed upon us a snails crawl, but what an adventure.
After what seemed like forever we made it back to the house and I decided to enjoy a damn refreshing lemonade and then a good old fashioned river swim.
I just chilled out for the rest of the day reading and relaxing. Excepting the mosquitos I was in paradise.
Day 4:
Today has been a very relaxed day, proceeded by another restless nights sleep. Breakfast consisted of noodles and garlic. light and tasteless as I was going to be drinking ayahuasca again tonight. I am on the verge of going down and kicking the shit out of the bleating kid goat as it will not stop its goddamn wining. Wining which managed to keep me up most of the night.
I have just returned from my very refreshing daily shower and am going to immerse myself in my book and then try and clear my head of all of its clutter.
The day has pretty much been dominated by the fact that we were having an ayahuasca ceremony in the night.
Ayahuasca 2:
The minutes tick away ever so slowly as we wait for the time of the ceremony.
Once again at around 8 el Abuelo starts to get ready, sending everyone off to bed.
He blows his icaros over all of us and around the house. Filling it up with his good energies.
We sat down in a semi circle facing el Abuelo this time and we watched as he repeated much the same process as the first night. I asked for a slightly larger dose this time as I wanted to continue deeper on my voyage of self.
I had decided to try and remain seated for the duration of the ceremony. I managed to keep to this, or so I thought. I started to feel my heart race, my body getting warmer and warmer, my head getting lighter and lighter. I could feel the dizziness coming and going in waves - I just smiled.
All of a sudden a wave of euphoria overcame me and I was looking at scene through a robocop visor like looking glass.
It started off with a huge tree, with coloured branches sprouting from it - I can only assume that it was the tree of life. During the vision it just kept growing and growing.
I then saw myself in a tux and having a very nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. this soon turned into me looking at a very old and large house form the outside and the lights going out one by one.
My old friend the black panther returned.
I had a very interesting experience whilst el Abuelo was concentrating his energy on me: Something inside of my mind convinced me to try and severe the connection and close out the link. I envisioned a guillotine closing down on the link, but then at the last moment in my mind I had a rational thought: His was good energy trying to help me. I stopped the guillotine and opened myself up to the link. I felt a flare of light and a pulse of energy course through me. All of a sudden a vey strong sense of nausea overcame me and I slowly made my way to the railings and repeated the purge. This time I really felt like I was getting rid of something.
As I was trying to get up I realised that I was no longer sitting but I was flat on my back. I had obviously lain down during one of the visions.
After vomiting I returned to my spot and lay down again.
i soon drifted off and saw my body lying in the snow and I was slowly floating away from it. It all of a sudden changed into my brother who was being swallowed by the ground. It was not a vision that I enjoyed.
Im not quite sure how much time passed or what I had seen but I was lying on my side and everyone else was snoring. I stood up and made my way to my hammock. Which for future reference is not the best place to lie down when one is feeling slightly dizzy.
i was overcome by another dizzy spell as I drifted off into sleep. I cannot remember my dreams but i feel that they were good ones.
Day 5:
My wake up call today consisted in the radio, the goats bleating and the cock roosting - once again I feel that the rooster has lost all sense of time as it was way before dawn.
I am still a little unstable from last nights ayahuasca - it was pretty damn strong.
I presumed that breakfast today was going to be the same as every other day: something with rice in it. I decided to change it up and cook myself some quinoa with garlic and lemon. Nom nom.
It was an extremely warm and suffocating day, accompanied by hordes of mosquitos, this just made the decision to head back to my hammock and read a very easy one.
I have just enjoyed my last shower in the river and am about to pack up what little I have brought with me.
The family has just killed a chicken in order for us to make a big soup and this way they are showing me a good send off. An ordinary and mundane occurrence in our every day lives was transformed into a very deep gesture. I could not thank my hosts enough for the delicious chicken.
I am off to bed early tonight as its up at four to begin the return journey.
I hopped into a slightly larger boat this time and we set off. it was still pitch dark and the chug-chug of the engine was the only discernible noise. As the sun began to cast its golden shine over the river the jungle seemed to come alive with it choir of insects and trees. I felt as if the jungle itself was giving me my very own send off.
I found it to be a very humbling experience, making me realise how little we really need to be truly happy and just how many of the things that we consider to be important and necessary are absolutely dispensable and just consume us instead of helping us maintain our balance and good vibes.
