Jungle Chill

After all the travelling, hiking boots and clothes it is always such a pleasure to simply BE in the jungle.  Stillness, hammocks, flip flops and the songs of the Amazon whether they are coming from birds and creatures or from our beautiful Medicalista, Edinson Panduro.

We were met with clear starry skies and hot bright days interspersed with lightening displays and the occasional rain shower.  My group were newbies to Ayahuasca and all engaged with it beautifully, asking intelligent questions and really understanding the process.  For me, since healing my relationship with her last year, it was the easiest process yet, beautiful and with a profound feeling of love and so much confirmation about where I am with myself, my energy and with all that has passed and what is to come.  It was like total alignment, really amazing.

I had met the owner of the lodge Juan, a few years ago once at the office in Cusco, but he was in the jungle this time so I was finally able to connect with him properly.  They are all so nice to me there, I love the connectivity and having a kind of jungle family.

Before the first nuances of dawn capture the sky, the jungle echoes with a creepy sounding rasping/roaring/grunting sound sweeping through the lushness and you lay there wondering what in the world is that sound?  I already knew it was packs of howler monkeys swinging through the jungle!  Miguel is a four month old resident howler monkey.  He has two less personable brothers who also live there.  Their mother was shot and they were taken as pets.  Rodolfo, the wonderful manager of the lodge who is a biologist, stole them from their “owners” so they could be released back into their natural habitat.  Eco Amazonia own Monkey Island where they rescue injured and sick monkeys and release them back into their natural surroundings.  Miguel will have to be taken deep into the jungle with his brothers when he is a little older to start their own pack as howler monkey’s start to get aggressive when they are older.  Miguel was very entertaining, charming and as cheeky as they get!

The day after any ayahuasca ceremony you are not feeling up for much action so one day we took a little boat ride up to the Gamitano river and luxuriated in head to toe mud baths, good for your skin, hair and mosquito bites!  It had rained the entire day before so there was plenty of water this time so we could swim with the piranha’s, once the mud had dried.

 

Another day was an educational walk to Lago Apu Victor.  Victor is the head guide and he has been there since the lodge opened about 17 years ago.  On a jungle ‘walk-about’ one day he discovered a beautiful caiman filled lake so they named it after him.  This time we were so honoured to see an amazing 18 foot anaconda curled up sleeping in the sun!  We didn’t get too close in the boat because they can easily leap out and snatch their prey in one easy stretch.  I have only experienced being anaconda dinner three times in aya visions and it is not an event I would ever like to become a real life adventure!

In the jungle it is rare to know what day it is.  The river flows, nature sings and hammocks beckon. One night on the way to the Aya Hut we crossed paths with a giant tarantula moseying along, hanging out with the frogs.  Ceremony ends around midnight and I was safely back in my hut, still feeling the affects and heard something gnawing on my hut.  I looked out the window shining my torch to see what I could see, but it was pitch black.  I was aware I did not have any food in my hut, but my vivd imagination was creating a jaguar of course!  Eventually I had to open the door, cautiously to see what was making so much noise.  There, right ON my door was a little mouse.  I closed it quickly because I did not want to share my room with a mouse, and soon I heard him scurry away very quickly which made me wonder what else was out there?  

We visited a native family and for the first time in years I finally was able to actually shoot the arrow off of the bow!  I still missed the target, a papaya, but I was close.  That was our last full day in the jungle when I began to come down with what is known as “El Gripe,” a 48 hour intense jungle flu with extreme fever and chills, a killer headache, body aches and well, the ayahuasca was already pouring through my system...

By the time we arrived in Cusco the next day after the nearly two hour boat ride up the river, the bus ride to the airport, the flight and taxi to the hotel, I was nearly delirious.  In bed with all my clothes on under tons of blankets on my knees, holding my head and shivering ferociously, Roberto came in to help me spitting a lot of Florida water on me, praying over me and pulling off all that “gripe” energy.

Dawn and Paivi had returned to Cusco with me, extending their trip as long as they could.  I absolutely welcomed that because they are both such wonderfully evolved spiritual soul sisters.  They caught up with emails while I laid in bed doing tons of Theta Healing on myself and really praying for insight into my process.

The next day I was vertical, just, and we had a day of getting organised, laundry, copying music and photos and discussing our jungle process with Roberto.  Plus, he took us to introduce me to the woman who sells the sweetest and most perfect coca leaves for offerings.  He reminded me that when your vibration is elevating you are often in crisis and physically my body has been cleaned out from it’s roots.  Understanding this has helped me through it much more easily.  Emotionally I am in a very good space but my body is digesting so much new information.

Today he took us to the Temple of the Monkey at Sacsaywaman, a part I had never been to before.  Wow.  Away from the tourist trail, with reverence and barefoot we entered offering coca leaves.  It is the Temple of Equilibrium.  Monkeys fly through the jungle leaping from vine to vine with absolute confidence that they will catch the next one and that it will hold them.  They have supreme balance, no limitations.  No limitations, no limitations, No Limitations!!  Whatever part of ourselves we are not allowing to be free, this is where we come to put things in balance.

Roberto speaks with such passion about his path of service, and his commitment and connection to our beautiful Pachamama is so pure.  He has taught me a lot about giving everything without attachment.  He is totally present in every moment and gives completely of himself in that moment and then, whatever it is, he lets it go.  The practice is simple.  He is not abandoning his homeland or his people like so many shamans and Peruvians are in search of a better quality of life.  He invites his people to come to ceremony and into the mountains and to the temples so he can help them remember their connection to the earth.  We were sitting on a hillside with the mountains all around us as he spoke of the beauty and abundance of our Mother Earth, that the closest thing we have to God is right here and we have to respect her, nourish and cherish her and take joy in all that she offers.  It is hard to translate when tears of sublime joy and understanding are flowing down my face.  

It is easy to connect to our beautiful Pachamama here in Peru in the sacred temples and away from all the distractions, and allow the huaca’s (power places) to do their work and transmit healing energy into all of our cells.  All three of us were deeply moved at this Monkey temple and I have found a new most favourite place on earth.  I received a deep healing there today, something released from me and the constant abdominal pain I have been experiencing for the past three and half days simply disappeared.

Afterwards we hiked up to the Temple of the Moon which has been hugely excavated since the last time I was there.  First we sat at an altar on the top sharing our feelings about our travels and having an in depth discussion about basic limitations like time and food.  People rule their entire lives by their next meal.  People eat often not just for nourishment but because of boredom or to fill a void or escape.  It is part of the reason why mountain people chew on coca leaves here because it not only gives you energy but it also reduces hunger. We all agreed that it was much more important to complete a process or experience than to cut it short to have lunch.

Later in the Temple of the Moon while we were inside meditating Roberto heard a group on the outside about to come in and he politely asked them to wait for five minutes.  The guide was not willing to give us five simple minutes!  Time is a sickness of the modern world and it causes no end of stress.  Twelve years ago when I first returned to Peru since childhood I took off my watch and have never worn one since.  Shaman time.  The time is now.  Go find a hammock, see what it is like to just be in that space with yourself, for now.

This has been the most profoundly enlightening trip yet which I am sure will affect all the rest to come in perfect abundant flow.

Going with the Flow

The day after visiting the Islands of the Sun and Moon we were supposed to travel on to Tiawanaco, the actual spot of the birthplace of humanity on Lake Titicaca.  The original plan was to continue driving around the Lake with a stop in La Paz but the Bolivian boarder guards would not give Raul a permit for the car to go any further than Copacabana. They said we could drive out of Bolivia and a short distance to the other Lake boarder and re-enter there to get to Tiawanaco, avoiding La Paz.

All seemed just fine until we got to the other boarder, a chaotic, dusty town with the unfortunate unavoidable urine and exhaust fumes permeating our senses.  Ah, the joys of travelling!  Once again there were major issues with the car and Raul was not given a permit to re-enter so we all piled into tricycles and were pedalled across the boarder where we re-packed ourselves into another van, with a Bolivian driver and his wife who would take us to Tiawanaco....we thought.

Next thing I know Cristian is asking me to come with him and explain to the guards that he was our guide as they were detaining him.  In the police office with Roberto and Cristian my childhood days in Argentina came flooding back to me.  Men in uniform, armed, with no sense of humour and wanting my passport which I was clutching onto for my life.  My mother had drummed it into me, “Never ever hand over your passport when in a third world country!”  Apparently, we had left Bolivia illegally (and re-entered it!) because we had not handed in our little green slips of paper. No one at the boarder had ever asked for anything, but apparently it was up to us to know that we had to do that.  They were about to charge each one of us 300 Boliviano’s and were very serious about the huge illegal mess we were in.  There is no such thing as a simple “misunderstanding”.  Roberto was being as charming as he usually is, but he was met only with extreme defensiveness and threats.

I don’t know how many times I said, “Tranquilo, tranquilo...” (be calm) and finally we were told we could drive back to the other boarder and hand in our green slips and then come back and re-enter Bolivia, officially.  This was a big favour from the boarder guards I think.  So I calmly informed everyone that as much fun as we had tricycling in and re-packing everything we were going to do it all again!  We had a discussion and felt that Tiawanaco was simply not flowing for us and as it was already midday we decided we had had enough of Bolivia’s boarder issues and decided to return to Puno.

But first we had to go back to the boarder from whence we came.  It became clear immediately that we were making the right decision as we looked up to find a double rainbow completely circling the sun!  It was amazing!  Most of us had never seen this before.  It uplifted our spirits greatly and we drove on until finding a place for lunch, more trout and fried cheese with ridiculous amounts of rice and potatoes.

Finally we made it back to Puno first stopping in a little town with four huge churches, one of which we entered to find a group of grieving widows praying at the altar.  Then we continued on to the Temple of Fertility.  There in the middle of a playing field sat an ancient walled structure with giant phalluses outside of it and within the walls 45 - 50 penis statues either pointing up or pointing down into the earth.  Pointing up to fertilise the people and pointing into the Pachamama to fertilise the earth.  There was also a church next to the field that maintained a penis on the very top instead of a cross, knowing that this was a fertility temple and even the Spaniards understood that!

After a very childish photo session and expected laughter in such an abundantly alive place, we each chose a phallus to sit on and feel the energy and manifest what each of us want to fertilise or birth in our lives.  It was quite fascinating sitting on a giant stone penis because all the energy was coming up and into me in the usual swirling fashion I often experience. 

I am always manifesting for Lucid Insight’s growth and best way forward as I know I act as a bridge for others illumination into another way of being, but there is a bigger Divine Plan for my business.  After that I sat on one of the phalluses pointing into the earth and that too was so interesting because all of the energy was flowing down into our beautiful Mother.  My manifestation was the same because as it is above, it is below, and in helping people discover their truth and their path in this life, will also help our beloved Pachamama.

Finally we went back to our hotel and had a wonderful group jacuzzi session and a swim in the perfectly heated pool that was the right depth for more watsu floating in the water.  All of us like children “oohing and ahhing” at the coloured lights changing and reflecting through the bubbling water.  Roberto had never been in a jacuzzi and he found the whole experience brilliant.

Later that evening Dawn and I ventured out to the labyrinth on the grounds and with intention ran through it to the centre crystal and then ran out of it again, giggling and panting with the altitude.  What a great meditation.  We had to really focus to not trip over the stones in the multi-directional maze within the circle.  Excellent.  Maintaining our child-like state we snuck back into the jacuzzi and were busted immediately, but permitted to stay anyway.  Children are in flow, they don’t worry about the “should’s and shouldn’t’s”. They just do what seems natural in the moment.

The next day we intended to go back out on the Lake to Amantani but the boats are so slow and it would have been too long of a journey so we reverted to sacred retail therapy instead!  The markets in Puno by the Lake are absolutely wonderful and we were joyfully distracted for hours!  Lunch followed before finally making our way back to the hotel for a closing ceremony in the labyrinth.  

With intention we walked through it all the way to the center and sat in a small circle sharing our feelings about the trip.  It was very emotional and everyone was crying at some point.  We have had such a profound journey together and everyone’s lives have changed so deeply. We have all connected at a soul level with such love and understanding it has been absolutely beautiful.  Roberto and I have formed a powerful teaching connection and everyone has held space for everyone else.

Our farewell slideshow courtesy of Cristian followed, then dinner and our gift giving ceremony which was very lovely.  We had plans to set off early in the morning to catch our flight to Juliaca but we discovered over dinner that there was another PARO (strike) and it would be a strong one so we set off for the airport at 11:30 that night and upon arriving in Juliaca and not being allowed to enter the airport, Carlos found a hostel nearby and we all dropped into bed by 1:30 am only to be out the door again by 6am.  

The consistent flexibility, good humour and no drama of this group never ceases to amaze me.  They are all patient, loving, sweet, funny and really really get this beautiful philosophy and practice of AYNI, reciprocity. 

We are finally back in Cusco for one night and tomorrow we will be going with the Ayahuasca flow in the jungle, and I’ll be out of touch for a week as going with the flow of the jungle means no internet and serious hammock time.  I think I can flow with that!

Love and Gratitude

Copacabana is only a “two hour” drive from Puno, which in reality means about 3 - 4 hours.  Everyone says everything is two hours from Puno.  We naturally made a day of it and stopped for a two hour ceremony at Amaru Muru, the last of the gifts from Lemuria.  It is an ancient wall with a portal and the energy there is sublime. 

We entered with reverence, removing our shoes and socks and Roberto and I asked for permission to enter.  I brought my poncho this time to act as some padding for our knees.  After breathing in the violet flame on either side of the portal we knelt in the centre and put our third eye into the “plate” (or what used to be a gold plate) and journeyed.  It is interesting to see how far one can travel into parallel dimensions.  For me it was a light show of gold and purple swirling with a kind of magnetic pull and energy pulsing up through my body.

After connecting with Roberto who was guiding this ceremony we each found a place to lie down and wait for the others to have their own journey.  It was a brilliantly sunny day and we were all happy to lay there absorbing the earth’s energy and catching some rays.  I kept the rattle going until everyone had had a go.  Group hugs followed.

The Lake was so incredibly blue and beautiful we had to stop just to take pictures of the brilliant diamond like sparkles shining in the sun. 

We fed a random donkey what we had left of our snacks from the car.  Finally we stopped for lunch and had wonderful “trucha” which technically means trout, but Susie thinks it is a generic name for fish.  Whatever it was, it was very tasty.  Our plates were filled with an abundant of a variety of potatoes including black ones, that were even black inside, and tasted more like beans to me.

A van with a bunch of sheep tied to the roof and even more inside of it pulled up.  We were all moaning thinking they were dead, but soon realised they were alive!  They bought the sheep and were simply relocating them to raise them.  How many sheep can you get into a van?

We continued on the road until reaching the boarder of Bolivia.  This was a bizarre experience, walking back and forth across the road from one office to another getting random stamps on papers until finally getting to the main office where they charged me $135 just for the privilege of being American.  Thank you Great Britain for not giving me a British passport even though I’ve lived here longer than in the states!  Nobody else had to pay.  At least it is good for five years.  The whole boarder control event took a couple of hours and we had to walk across even though Raul had the car.  

We drove around Copacabana lost in search of our hotel but that was rather interesting too as there was so much happening in the market filled streets.  Finally we found our hotel, a beautiful eco lodge that is all solar powered right on the edge of the Lake.  We each had individual little houses, the girls and I were in a kind of hobbit house made of adobe mud bricks with a thatched roof.  

Across the street was a beautiful stone laden beach.  The waves lapped gently at the shore, while stars glistened above.  I thought, “Wow, I am laying with people I love, watching the stars appear after a brilliant red sunset.  We are all together on Lake Titicaca in Bolivia!  How cool is that??  I am so filled with love and gratitude for my friends and my wonderful life.”  How many people take time to lay and star gaze with their friends, sharing silence yet so united?  Be in the moment, that is living.

We had an extremely festive dinner and Carlos informed us that if we wanted to invite all of them for drinks now was the time to do it because the exchange rate for Bolivianos is very good like $6.70 to 1 Boliviano.  So we bought a case of 12 bottles of beer and had a bit of a party.  Once back at the hotel we put the music on in the car and all of us danced together with all of the spirits in the high altitude until midnight or later.  

The next morning we took a slow boat to the Island of The Moon and then to The Island of The Sun.  We all sat on top but wished we hadn’t because it was freezing!  The only ladder down was precariously on the side. The Temple of the Moon was very beautiful and had soft feminine energy, yet with a deep strength and the stone I received from there has very fiery energy to it. Later still, and back on the boat only inside this time, we arrived at the The Island of the Sun.

There in the Temple of the Sun Carlos led a very moving meditation for all of us to go back in time when we were all there together, building these temples leaving symbols to help us remember why we have come back this time.  I found another kuya (mesa stone) that was also in the shape of the Southern Cross like the one I had from the Temple of the Moon.  Different energy, it felt much more subtle.

Another evening of watching the sun set and the stars emerge, while breathing in love and gratitude and breathing out connection and integration.