Bonus adventure: The North, the Central and the South
Bonus adventure:
The North, the Central, and the South
When vacation involves work, sickness, and near-death experiences, it's time for a vacation from the vacation. Back home to Denver, that is. And of course we couldn't sit still, so we packed up the freshly converted camper van and took it down to Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta and family visits. You can call that a triple whammy!
While we traveled to ABQ to spend time with family and marvel at hundreds of balloons, we were disappointed when the balloons stayed grounded during our stay. Either way, we enjoyed time catching up with family and hearing tales of the balloon fiestas of years past. We then made our way back north, stopping in Santa Fe, Great Sand Dunes National Park, and Taos before returning home to Denver.
The Great Sand Dunes National Park
Reuniting and rejuvenating with Morgan nourished the soul and provided an opportunity to center ourselves. Don't forget, she has been through tremendous amounts of stress by herself during my captivity. At times I was wondering if she was more scared than myself. Thank you for being strong with me!
Hanging out with the chickens and with friends at BBQs made the time fly by like I was still sitting in the saddle.
But every good-bye involves another hello, and as the first flight south dropped me off in Puerto Vallarta, it was time to prepare for my buddy Aldo's wedding at the pacific beach. He and I first ran into each other in Belfast in 2014 while both solo-traveling greater Ireland, and we’ve stayed in touch ever since. One of the perks of taking every opportunity to leave home is the friends abroad that stick around and slowly make the whole world feel like your home.
A beautiful place to get married. Big compliments to the married couple organizing the party and entertaining the crazy group.
Next stop, CDMX, Mexico city. And as if it was planned perfectly, just in time for Dias de los Muertes. The most anticipated and celebrated festival in all of Mexico starts on October 9th with sporadic parades on weekends and colorful decorations all over the city. A city of approximately 22 million people, celebrating together. Every store, every restaurant, every hotel and hostel takes advantage of the festive mood.
Four days at the beach, four days in the city, eight days of all-out-fun and exhaustion. Time to get back to the first circle of vacation - rejuvenation in the Ecuadorian jungle.
I've been living in great anticipation for a long time for what's planned next. The Ayahuasca ceremony, an ancient ritual based on the slight toxicity and hallucinogenic nature of a very rare jungle vine, only growing in specific parts of the world.
It started with a casual chat with my canyoning tour guide weeks before that then quickly turned into the realization that I found the right people to do this with. Am I going to be safe? Will someone free me of my kidneys to make a quick chinese buck? I mean, I've heard the stories, they exist and it's terrible, but again I'm not letting the fears of my past dictate the decisions of the present. Acknowledge them and grow from it, but oh lawd will I do my best to resist the fear creeping into my rational mind. Already having to accommodate the wicked thoughts rent-free in the subconscious world of dreams and nightmares is more than enough. ENOUGH!!!
So here we go, with a 6-hour ride ahead towards Macas, back into the Amazon basin, far away from civilization, little infrastructure and no cell service, ready to trust a shaman with my everything. Would you do it?
Consider the ayahuasca experience like "a day in the life” of all-inclusive immersion into the traditional go-abouts of Shaman Bolivar Ayuy, a humble guy fully connected with the ancient ways of Shuar culture.
On the first morning, I was introduced to pottery, wood carving, and the art of playing the "kena," a bamboo flute.
We then packed up some basic necessities and embarked on the multi-faceted journey to the ancient ritual grounds. The shaman, his sister, and his daughter all cared for me in different ways for the entire procedure. The sister introduced me to uncountable plants—edible, medicinal, and just plain pretty or useful. The daughter helped identify different fruits and shed light on day-to-day life in the jungle.
The canoe was sitting ready for us in a crystal-clear part of the river, big enough to carry all of us, the luggage, and the three dogs—Blanca, Blanca, and Oso. Keep it simple, right?
As we reached the ceremonial grounds the jungle was pure, unpolluted, and filled with noise from all its inhabitants.
As it was common that day, the shaman would go about his ways and the sister would explain to me what I needed or wanted to know. First, it was time to un-demon the hut I would be resting in.
As per Shuar manual, the shaman shall use a specifically prepared alcohol and bless the inside of the hut - and by blessing I mean putting the liquid in his mouth and spraying it all over the place.
Now that the demons are tamed, we're ready to take up the fight against the mosquitos - with wet grasses, moss, and fire. This will keep smoldering throughout the day.
The day got progressively more active and fun. Swimming and bathing in the river, playing around with naturally sourced mineral color pigments, fishing, building walls for the cabanas, scavenging for the Ayahuasca, preparing it, and making dinner that I wasn't allowed to eat.
We started putting some walls together for the hut the Ayahuasca is prepared in. Natural string and bamboo can achieve pretty solid construction - at least temporarily. But unfortunately can't claim that we nailed it - ha!
We then moved on to the first actual preparatory ritual directly connected to the Ayahuasca ceremony. Snorting a specially prepared tobacco tea! If you think none of this makes sense, we're on the same page. For this step, everyone took part and everyone found themselves at one point leaning over something, coughing and sneezing and shooting snot rockets all over the inside of the cabanas. The benefit? Opening the senses to allow yourself to get into the right headspace.
In the dim light of campfire and candles, we exchanged stories about traveling, culture, and foods, and we laughed about nobody being able to remember my name, which in turn gave me permission to call the Shaman all kinds of names, actual names that is! Great fun.
Zooming out from the situation, imagine the pitch-black jungle filled with little flickering dots of lights (fireflies) and a deep noise that can be compared to looking up into space in an unpolluted place, the more you focus and the better your eyes adapt to the light, the more stars you see. In this example, the better your hearing, the deeper your experience trying to dissect the different sounds coming from the ancient forest. Frogs, toads, birds, and crickets can be distinguished as the undisputed champions of gossip in the jungle. A level deeper you may be able to hear monkeys and some other types of birds. Everything more subtle than this is a challenge, the slight whistling of the leaves, leaves dropping to the ground and into the rivers, snakes crawling through the underbrush, and little rodents scavenging around the trees. The stories of the shaman involved sightings and hearings of the roars of jaguars and the squealing sounds of hungry anacondas, one of the most sacred animals in the rainforest. We paddled by the breeding grounds of the anaconda that lived nearby, a truly chilling experience to imagine a 25ft/8m ancient monster as thick as a tree trunk and with the capacity to crawl on land, swim, or follow you up a tree, leaving no options for escape.
The shaman, now presenting himself in full-on Shuar gear, directed me to guide my brain to a place of either joy or pain. Joy is the answer when given the choice between the two. And almost in a philosophical manner he then went on to provoke thoughts of purpose, as in remember why you're doing anything that you're doing in the first place. Or in a nietzschean sense, he who knows "why" can endure almost any "how."
Introspectively, I'm trying to get the words assembled:
Be the best you can be for your loved ones and those close to you. Excellence and love are the goal, wisdom and a sense of perfection shall be my tools.
An alcoholic and proteinogenic liquid of unknown origin is given to me, not to ingest, but to swirl around in my mouth to then spit into my hands and rub the volatile grossness into my arms and legs. This signifies that we're ready. I’m directed to touch the tree post of the hut, to understand the strength this tree has provided for his people for centuries, both symbolically and physically through actual tools of war, like spears and arrows. I am handed the bamboo shot glass and down goes the sticky, light brown, extremely viscous liquid. Years of anticipation are rushing down the throat in one sip, leaving behind a bitter taste that makes me want to reverse the process immediately and spray that same anticipation right back into the jungle soil where it came from. But whatever, when a German pays for something, it shall be used up, to the last drop, then run the pinky through the inside of the glass to get the rest too.
He gets up, I'm sitting on his chair now, getting slapped in the face and upper body with wet leaves while he is mumbling a series of words in his own language. Meanwhile, I'm trying to swirl my tongue around in a failing attempt to get that stuff detached from the inside of my mouth and flushed down the hatch.
The waiting game begins. As a reference, I received the greenhorn dose, about half of what a more experienced person would take, to make sure they don't have to clean up gringo guts and brain from the bamboo walls of the cabanita.
So now I'm sitting and waiting, all eyes on me to keep close watch. I'm sure they've seen all kinds of reactions to the potion. Have they seen anyone not react at all though? Because excuse me Mr. Shaman, but I think I need my money back. I can't feel a ...
*BAAAAAAAAARGGGHHHH*!!!
Six times... at least, if I remember right.
I don't throw up usually, maybe a handful of times in my life, on a good day (a good day?). Incredible how much strength the stomach muscles can wrestle up. If that was an arm muscle, I could do one-handed pull ups. Ok focus now Sebas, this stuff is about make confetti out of your cabeza and you’re thinking of the gym?
The rest of the night was vivid, in and out of strange thoughts like fever dreams, sometimes hard-hitting, sometimes engulfing the soul in a honey-basted symphony of love and happiness.
This goes on for a long time, sleep wasn't really part of that night, but I'm alive and not just alive, I’m living! Did I learn anything about myself? Probably not, but wisdom is nothing you cough up overnight.
Usually Ayahuasca is administered for several doses, over several days, as the experiences are building upon each other with each further ceremony increasing the individual dose and allegedly decreasing the urge to purge and enhancing the beneficial mental experience.
Hold on, we're not quite done yet. The next morning we all hop in the canoe and with a couple stops along the way we arrive at an ancient and sacred waterfall about an hour away from the shaman's spiritual grounds.
Before entering the waterfall, another round of snorting tobacco tea was required, followed by group howling at the waterfall to call on it and ask permission to enter the sacred grounds.
During the final bath in the pond of the sacred waterfall, it felt like the ancient gods had heard us and responded by sending a rainbow across my face.
With this, I am concluding the first third of the trip. Actually, when I looked at the route, a healthy dose of respect and trepidation overcame me as I realized that since getting to Bogota August 1st, I have only ridden the bike through two countries, Colombia and Ecuador, by November 17th. Of the total planned trip, this distance makes for about 1/15th. So how on earth will I be able to make it Buenos Aires by early February? Well, how about I roll up my sleeves and don't get kidnapped? For starters, that should work.
My gratitude goes out to all the family and friends connecting to the adventure through this journal. Thank you for reading and reaching out along the way. Allow me to leave you with this: we all start life with a full pot of luck and an empty pot of experience. The objective is to fill the pot of experience before we empty the pot of luck.
Hasta luego!
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