Life with the Shaman

Various and sundry observations about being a shaman, traveling to study and work with shamans, learning and sharing new healing techniques, all there is to know about shamanism!

Thursday, May 04, 2006

A trip to the jungle


I'm very excited to be going back to the Peru and to the Amazon again this summer! I've been there many times, and except for Lima, I love Peru! The Amazon is amazing! It is truly like being surrounded by Mother Earth, all lush and nurturing.

In the past I've been downriver, which always confuses me, because as you look at in on the map, you're actually going up. But that's just how the Amazon River flows before it exits out of Brazil in the Northeast.

This summer I'll be closer to where the Amazon actually begins, which will be very interesting. My recollections of the jungle are heat, heat, more heat, and heat. Fortunately at Don Agustin's place (one hour walking inland after a 3-hour boat trip downriver), there is a beautiful convergence of two very cold streams in which we bathed and hung out every day. Not too deep, just enough to keep the incredible humidity at bay. Don't know what it will be like this summer.

I do know that I am going armed with my trusty homemade essential oils bug repellant. In 2001 when I was there, I was the only person NOT bitten by mosquitoes, even those who had used DEET were bitten. I'll prepare my little remedy again and hopefully be just as lucky.

These pictures are of me and Don Agustin Rivas, world reknown jungle medicine man and ayahuasquero. Speaking Spanish really helps, as he doesn't speak english really well, though he does seem to understand a fair bit. He and I got along famously, and could crack all sorts of jokes in Spanish. He's a witty man, and incredibly knowledgeable about the jungle.