Flashback Fridays: Trying to stay away from Malaria (2012). Amazon River some where in between Santarem and Belem.
The Maloka at Nihue Rao. Ricardo Amaringo is a Shipibo shaman based out of Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual. This Shipibo spiritual center is set in the jungle about 90 minutes outside of the city of Iquitos, Peru. I made it to this place after traveling around the Ecuadorian coast and the beautiful Cajas National Park. After relaxing in Montañita and dipping into the hot springs of Baños de Cuenca, I took a 24 hour bus ride down the northern Peruvian coast to the giant capital city of Peru—Lima. After taking less than a day's worth of rest from bus life, I immediately hopped back on a bus for another 24 hours to the perfectly placed high stoned city of Cusco. Cusco was enchanting and magnificent from an architectural, culinary, cultural, historical and Mother Nature point of view. After exploring the city for a few days I coordinated a five-day expedition to Machu Picchu, trekking through the much lesser traveled Salkantay Mountain. Hoards of crunched up groups of people take up the Inca Trail every day, but the Salkantay trek is a liberatingly expansive and much less crowded trek up the backside of the Salkantay Mountain towards the sacred Incan city. This beautiful alternative route is so quiet at times you can hear the notorious goblins howling at night.
Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu.
After experiencing Machu Picchu on the 2011 Winter Solstice I decided to make my way south to explore the islands of Lake Titicaca for a few days before making my way back up to the north eastern jungle island city of Iquitos. Sure, Iquitos might get a bad wrap because of the rampant Ayahuasca tourism happening in the motorized bicycle and tricycle city, but that's a blunted way of looking at any city. Iquitos proved to be one of my favorite cities in the world, largely due to the psychedelic nature of the city itself. Monkey meat, exotic fruit, infinite smiles, colorful hammocks, psychedelically embroidered tapestries, visionary and Shipibo art, illegal armadillo shells for foot massages, Tucan-feathered earrings, never-before-heard-of jungle medicines and juices, San Pedro, deep jungle tours and Ayhuasca are all freely sold on the market everyday. What a bizarre trip everyday life has the potential of being! Boats, airplanes and motorcycles are the only forms of motorized travel. It's difficult to spot a truck or car in this city, I don't think I ever did. Women comfortably hop on their motorbikes with high heels and all. It must be the diet of the Amazonian cities because I find the women of Iquitos and Manaus to be the most beautiful of all. I feel that the adjective "exotic" is solely meant for them.
When I embarked on this South American journey, my only two goals were to make it to Machu Picchu on the solstice and drink ayahuasca for the 2012 New Year. On December 31st, 2011 I hired a motor-tricyclist to take me to a Shipibo center outside of the noisy city in order to satisfy my South American mission. After making several calls he discovered that there would be no such thing. I was out of luck as none of the centers were drinking the jungle sacrament on New Year's eve. He made one more call and picked up an affable man in a long, red, patterned bandana. The man was clearly in the know and offered to take me to a recently opened Shipibo healing center. He mentioned the head shaman there was named Ricardo Amaringo, and included his terrifying ayahuasca experience as part of the road-trip story.
When I embarked on this South American journey, my only two goals were to make it to Machu Picchu on the solstice and drink ayahuasca for the 2012 New Year. On December 31st, 2011 I hired a motor-tricyclist to take me to a Shipibo center outside of the noisy city in order to satisfy my South American mission. After making several calls he discovered that there would be no such thing. I was out of luck as none of the centers were drinking the jungle sacrament on New Year's eve. He made one more call and picked up an affable man in a long, red, patterned bandana. The man was clearly in the know and offered to take me to a recently opened Shipibo healing center. He mentioned the head shaman there was named Ricardo Amaringo, and included his terrifying ayahuasca experience as part of the road-trip story.
Iquitos, Peru.
As the later part of the evening was quickly approaching, and dark, ominous clouds overtook the oncoming night. About 60 minutes into the trip the heaviest clouds in the world broke, and we were immediately stopped on the motor-tricycle. Torrents of rain befell upon us and we needed to push the mini-vehicle through swamps of mud covering the dirt road. We finally made it to some sort of shelter by a small village named Zungarococha. We parked the motor-tricycle, and took out a flashlight in order to walk the last two miles that were needed to make it to Nihue Rao. At this point it was pitch black and still raining outside. We were all so soaked that the rain no longer effected us. The red bandana man cautioned me and the driver to be careful not to step in puddles because that is where your chances of stepping on snakes are doubled and tripled. Sure enough, black snakes were slithering in and out of puddles. Looking back, I have realized that the road to ayahuasca for me has always been tough. The first time I drank Ayahuasca was in the Netherlands, back in November 2009, and the train station I was supposed to be picked up at originally was completely on fire, causing a similar sense of ominous chaos. Anyway, about a mile in, we heard chattering as indigenous people walked right by us, barefoot in the dark with no flashlights whatsoever. The red bandana man explained that their eyes are accustomed to the dark, and they can easily see their surroundings like leopards walking around in midnight.
We finally made it to Nihue Rao. The rain went from a drizzle to nothing as we stepped in the small hut community. Cvita, a Canadian artist who is the co-founder of the healing center explained to me that they would not be drinking Ayahuasca that night. I immediately felt defeated and explained to her I came all this way to this particular place because I was told they would be drinking Ayahuasca that night. I've been fasting over 24 hours at that point with the intention of bringing in the New Year with Ayahuasca streaming around my system. Cvita attempted to help me understand my situation with the overly-used Grateful Dead saying, "you don't always get what you want, you get what you need." I cringed when I heard that because it was such a typical thing to say, and it was the last thing I wanted to hear at that point in time. After saying that, and probably observing my reaction to what she told me, Cvita offered to give me the medicine, but explained to me that there will be no shaman present. I could drink a dose of Ayahuasca alone in the Maloka, while everybody else soberly celebrated the New Year. I understood what she was getting at, and accepted the fact that I would not be drinking the magical brew that night. Instead, I met a couple of the people who have been staying there along with the Shipibo families who work with the center. We shared stories and I stubbornly refused to eat or drink the New Year's wine they were offering since I already decided to begin following the diet the day before (no salt, oils, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, etc.) 2012 was approaching, and Cvita recommended that I take a flower shower to wash away the old year along with the negative energies I might have accumulated along the way. So I grabbed a bucket of flowers soaked in water and proceeded to shower myself with the flower water. I ended up going to sleep before the stroke of midnight.
Two nights later we gathered in the space-ship sized Maloka and drank Ayahuasca. Let's talk about a cleanse on the triple level (physically, psychologically, and spiritually). I've drank ayahuasca before, but have never purged the way I purged during three ceremonies at Nihue Rao. I feel the week I spent at Nihue Rao changed me forever, both subtly and immediately. My understanding of the world around me, changed. I let go of a lot of unnecessary baggage. My diet changed. My breathing changed. My lifestyle changed. I felt lighter, more jovial, ecstatic upon leaving the place. Took my yoga to another level of meaning. I picked up Tai-Chi. I travelled much more. My experiences in Nihue Rao altered the course of my remaining months in South America. I had no intention of following the Amazon River from start to finish, but that's exactly what I sporadically decided to do. When I reached Leticia in the Amazon basin tip of Colombia, I decided to renew my Brazilian visa and do just that. I took several boats down the Amazon River, sleeping on hammocks, stopping at major Amazonian ports, including: Iquitos, Leticia, Tabatinga, Manaus, Alter do Chão, Santarem and Belem. I travelled down the Brazilian coast, stopping in Sao Luis, Fortaleza, Canoa Quebrada and made it to Salvador just in time for the 2012 Carnival.
Below is a video of the places I visited in my South American trip of 2012. Accompanying the ancient Droid Pro cellphone pictures are the Icaros of Ricardo Amaringo. The Medicine Hunter, Chris Kilham, calls him the hardest working shaman in the Amazons. Ricardo has been drinking ayahuasca 3-4 times a week for well over twenty years. During a ceremony it seemed like he was performing "open heart surgery" on me. But I will save these Ayahuasca trip reports for another post. Enjoy the medicinal Shipibo Icaros from the lush jungle itself. Let these Ayahuasca songs wash over your soul.
We finally made it to Nihue Rao. The rain went from a drizzle to nothing as we stepped in the small hut community. Cvita, a Canadian artist who is the co-founder of the healing center explained to me that they would not be drinking Ayahuasca that night. I immediately felt defeated and explained to her I came all this way to this particular place because I was told they would be drinking Ayahuasca that night. I've been fasting over 24 hours at that point with the intention of bringing in the New Year with Ayahuasca streaming around my system. Cvita attempted to help me understand my situation with the overly-used Grateful Dead saying, "you don't always get what you want, you get what you need." I cringed when I heard that because it was such a typical thing to say, and it was the last thing I wanted to hear at that point in time. After saying that, and probably observing my reaction to what she told me, Cvita offered to give me the medicine, but explained to me that there will be no shaman present. I could drink a dose of Ayahuasca alone in the Maloka, while everybody else soberly celebrated the New Year. I understood what she was getting at, and accepted the fact that I would not be drinking the magical brew that night. Instead, I met a couple of the people who have been staying there along with the Shipibo families who work with the center. We shared stories and I stubbornly refused to eat or drink the New Year's wine they were offering since I already decided to begin following the diet the day before (no salt, oils, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, etc.) 2012 was approaching, and Cvita recommended that I take a flower shower to wash away the old year along with the negative energies I might have accumulated along the way. So I grabbed a bucket of flowers soaked in water and proceeded to shower myself with the flower water. I ended up going to sleep before the stroke of midnight.
Two nights later we gathered in the space-ship sized Maloka and drank Ayahuasca. Let's talk about a cleanse on the triple level (physically, psychologically, and spiritually). I've drank ayahuasca before, but have never purged the way I purged during three ceremonies at Nihue Rao. I feel the week I spent at Nihue Rao changed me forever, both subtly and immediately. My understanding of the world around me, changed. I let go of a lot of unnecessary baggage. My diet changed. My breathing changed. My lifestyle changed. I felt lighter, more jovial, ecstatic upon leaving the place. Took my yoga to another level of meaning. I picked up Tai-Chi. I travelled much more. My experiences in Nihue Rao altered the course of my remaining months in South America. I had no intention of following the Amazon River from start to finish, but that's exactly what I sporadically decided to do. When I reached Leticia in the Amazon basin tip of Colombia, I decided to renew my Brazilian visa and do just that. I took several boats down the Amazon River, sleeping on hammocks, stopping at major Amazonian ports, including: Iquitos, Leticia, Tabatinga, Manaus, Alter do Chão, Santarem and Belem. I travelled down the Brazilian coast, stopping in Sao Luis, Fortaleza, Canoa Quebrada and made it to Salvador just in time for the 2012 Carnival.
Below is a video of the places I visited in my South American trip of 2012. Accompanying the ancient Droid Pro cellphone pictures are the Icaros of Ricardo Amaringo. The Medicine Hunter, Chris Kilham, calls him the hardest working shaman in the Amazons. Ricardo has been drinking ayahuasca 3-4 times a week for well over twenty years. During a ceremony it seemed like he was performing "open heart surgery" on me. But I will save these Ayahuasca trip reports for another post. Enjoy the medicinal Shipibo Icaros from the lush jungle itself. Let these Ayahuasca songs wash over your soul.
Peace.
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