Ride In A Limousine

Not exactly how you would imagine it but I finally got to ride in a Limo.

Working on a film as continuity/script supervisor I spent three hours sitting up front next to the driver as we drove in a circuit around Inner West Sydney taking notes as we filmed actors in the back but also checking out the Friday night revellers as they stared and pointed at this big beautiful old stretch Rolls Royce.

Bagan

Like most of the things on my list it started with a photo. I can’t remember exactly when but the image of that beautiful landscape at sunrise was something I had to see for myself.

After a few days of traveling - a day in the air from Sydney, two days sightseeing in Yangon and an overnight bus - arriving at 5am December 30th 2017 exhausted, after a quick coffee, at 6am we were perched atop a temple waiting for the sun to reveal the terrain spread out in front of us. 

There was ceremonial chanting emanating across the landscape coming from a lit up temple in the distance and various pagoda tops reaching up in the darkness spread to the horizon. 

A fire was burning to one side that sent gentle plumes of smoke floating across the trees and temples starting to appear with the daylight. 

It was not the clearest horizon but once the sun rose above the clouds it was a truly beautiful breathtaking moment as the hot air balloons floated across the emerging daylight.

                                                     

After breakfast a full day was spent exploring a few of the more special of the two thousand plus temples that is Bagan.

Eventually settling at another lookout to watch the sun set over this spectacular countryside, a complete day fulfilling this item on the Life List.

                                                        

Iguazzu Falls

There are waterfalls and then there are waterfalls, these are the second type. 

Victoria falls are the tallest but Iguazzu falls are the largest at 2.7km long and a million litres per second. 

The border of Argentina and Brazil runs along the middle of the river with 80% of the falls on the Argentinian side. 

We arrived around midday and after checking in to our Argentinian side hotel, drove across the Brazilian border to spend three hours strolling and staring at these marvelous waterfalls.

                            Getting drenched on the walking platform at the Devils Throat. 

The following day we spent six hours on the Argentinian side looking out over the falls from various viewpoints and finished with a boat ride up to and under the falls. 

Ayahuasca Ceremony

A traditional Peruvian shaman method of cleansing the body and mind with medicine made from jungle plants. 

In recent years a growing commercialized western tourist industry. 

This has produced a wide variety of retreats that offer this service from authentic through to total scams. It is of the utmost importance to find a good one that works for you to achieve what you are looking for. 

The universe and internet led my good friend Nick and I here:

http://www.arutamcusco.com/programme.html

DISCLAIMER : Results may vary. As individuals the medicine will be different for everyone, some in our group had a better experience than me and some had worse. It is impossible to entirely capture this experience in words. This is purely my description of what I experienced with many details simply unable to be written. 

RORY - the guide

When Rory picked us up from our hotel I instantly liked him. A short ex army Yorkshire man, 50, with no salesman gimmickry about him, pleasant and up front. He would be our guide for the next week.  

THE RETREAT

We drove to the outskirts of Cusco and up into the hills, last house on the street where Rory lives with his beautiful wife Anna, baby girl Dara, two gatekeeper dogs and shaman cat. 

                                                                   My Shaman family 

Also on the walled property is a garden between the main house and a large four bedroom guesthouse behind which is a tiered garden with a Maloka (ceremony room) that has a much needed toilet. At the top is a gate that leads to a mountain through a forest of mainly Australian eucalyptus trees. 

                                                      The property from the top gate. 

THE GROUP

On arrival we met Justin and Natalia, Jonathan and Hanna, 30s, American. We are the six that will go through this experience, thankfully a good mix of respect and space. 

TOBACCO PURGE

On this first day we went into the Maloka, a round room, and settled on a mat each facing the centre. Like a large cup of warm thick coffee that tastes like cigarette butts we begin by consuming this gross liquid and wait for the purge to cleanse our bodies. 

PURGING

This is the price of entry. 

An integral part of the process, the medicines will cleanse our bodies with nausea followed by vomiting anywhere from ten minutes to an hour after ingesting them. Your vomit bowl is your best friend and does not leave your side. Purging can also come out the other end.....

It sounds gross but very cleansing and liberating. 

                                                               The Maloka

SAN PEDRO

Otherwise known as mescaline, on day two we wake and consume two litres of water by 9am then drink the San Pedro powder mixed in with passion fruit juice and wait. 

After 45 minutes I feel a little buzz and nausea but have had no result. Rory points to a tree and tells me to stand next to it and touch it. I purge instantly. 

Trees are very important. 

Now the 12hr journey begins. I put "Dark Side of the Moon" on my MP3 player and walk out the top gate and follow a mountain track into nature. I have heard this album a million times but it has never meant so much to me as right now. The highlight being sitting amongst the trees looking out over Cusco and the valley as "The Great Gig in the Sky" comes on and I purge for a second time to the angelic sounds of those women, pure magic. 

San Pedro heightens the senses and in particular colour and shapes. Natures colours are majestically enhanced to incredible levels and I spend most of the afternoon into the evening laying in the garden watching the clouds and listening to more Floyd until the half moon came out as if the universe was letting me know I was in sync with everything, staring at the dark side. 

AYAHUASCA 

Day three is spent between the kitchen and bed resting and recovering. The last meal is at 1pm as we wait for sundown, with anxious anticipation. 

We have the first ayahuasca ceremony in the Maloka. Rory hands the bowl of thick dark fluid around to us one by one followed by a piece of dark chocolate to cover the taste, particularly on the way out, and we wait in silence and relative darkness once the candle goes out. 

At first I felt a warmness. Then I closed my eyes and saw a million eyes looking back. 

Then I purged. Then it really began.

Phase One - Psychedelica

My breathing shallows, heart rate rises and I feel tired but alert. Each time I close my eyes there is a world of a million animals, plants, faces, machines and shapes all moving fluidly in vivid colours and criss cross patterns of sparks and flashes and.....well......everything all at once. Sounds come and go in much the same way, echoing and ascending or descending. I've seen some pretty accurate hallucinatory scenes in The Simpsons. 

When this becomes too overwhelming I open my eyes for a moment, readjust and close my eyes again to find the exact same thing but in an entirely different world. That's the best I can describe it. 

After a while thoughts and feelings start rushing at me. 

This is where it is important to be in the right ceremony with the right guide and the right crowd. 

The best preparation for something like this is to come with specific goals in mind. 

In this first ceremony the word "forgiveness" kept appearing amongst the crazy psychedelica and I felt myself letting go of past events that have been holding me back in order to move forward, I had tears and a smile.

Phase Two - Geometry

After a point I open my eyes and see everything around me in the subtle light as if it were a 3D holographic picture with out of focus rectangular lines running through everything. Contemplation becomes deeper and the Psychedelica lessens as I come to accept my revelations.

Phase Three - Restless

I feel the urge to move so I whisper to Rory I'm going to sit outside. He giggles and says "don't talk to strangers", perfectly timed humour. 

I stand slowly with body drunkenness and walk outside to sit under a tree and take in everything from the twig at my feet all the way to the stars, relief and reflection. 

Somewhere between three to five hours some semblance of "normality" returns but the medicine remains into sleep.

Phase Four- A cup of tea and bed. 

REST DAY

Day four we caught a taxi down to Cusco and had a massage followed by a big burger and a beer and got some laundry done before heading back up for a feast, a scotch and an early night. 

SAPO

Before breakfast day five we go to the Maloka for Sapo, a jungle frog venom. 

Rory puts some on a stick and mixes it with my saliva until it becomes a paste. With a flaming stick he burns three marks into my arm then scrapes the skin off gently with a knife revealing the capillaries and applies the paste, again we wait. 

We were warned beforehand that we would wish we were dead for 10-20 minutes. Some did. I didn't. 

It does purge deeply and again, heightens the senses. I spent the afternoon with nausea resting in bed, I could've done without it. 

Day five is not over yet though. 

With the Sapo still in our systems and after a cup of cacao to deepen and prolong tonight's ceremony, we drink the ahayusca medicine after sunset and decide to do it in the guesthouse tonight so that everyone is free to go to their room and experience it in their own space. 

Tonight was much like the first ceremony except more intense. I went in with the keyword "happiness" tonight and spent nearly four hours of revelations and epiphanies with gentle tears of joy running down my face and an all encompassing feeling of euphoria.

Ayahuasca is like a thousand therapy sessions without needing a single word. 

CLOSURE

Day six is another day of rest as we have our third ayahuasca session after sunset. 

Much like the first two times, an exhilarating experience two hours of which are spent laying in the garden watching the nearly full moon dance with the clouds. 

My body purged and brain fresh I feel recharged and enlightened, I have completed my work with this medicine. 

DAY OFF

Day seven is another day in Cusco with burgers, beer a massage and a lot of processing. 

GRAND FAREWELL

Day eight is our last day at Casa De La Serenidad and a grand send off after a week of on again - off again cloud, perfect blue sky. 

Music is a great way to enter the medicine. With my MP3 player I started walking up the mountain behind the property after an hour with no purge. Again nature was splendid and I made it to about 4000m before my lungs told me to go back down. 

The afternoon was spent, after a thorough toilet purge, putting together everything I had learnt over the last week and processing it as I lay in the glorious sun. 

But today is no ordinary day, the universe loves me. 

As the full moon rose at the end of the day we had a feast and finished just in time to go outside, lay by a campfire and watch the blood moon eclipse......an incredible end to an incredible week. 

SECOND DISCLAIMER

I realise this may all sound like hippy dippy propaganda and maybe some of it is but the toxicity that came out of my body and brain is indisputable and there is no denying the positive and profound way the medicine has affected and changed me in ways that cannot be found in western culture. 

Machu Picchu

You know the postcard. For me, many years of wishing became planning about three years ago and after a couple of hiccups, this year it finally happened. 

When you arrive at this end of the Sacred Valley of the Incas you can hike one to nine days. 

You can hike from 5am from Aguas Calientes, the base town to be there for the gate opening at 6am or....

Day One. 

We met our tour group to be herded onto a bus and arrived at 9am amongst thousands of people and took a four hour tour. Arriving amongst the chattering throngs of people my first view of this majestic place was sadly underwhelming. Wearing an ear piece I stepped away from the group a few times but still did not feel the special way I had hoped. 

Day Two. 

We woke at 4am and made it to the line up for the bus by 4:45am for the first bus at 5:30am but 100 people had woken earlier than us.

Not to worry we were on the fourth bus and arrived at the view point with a very small number of people by 6:10 - beautiful. 

It was unfortunately a cloudy morning so the sun was hidden as was part of the ruins but this also had a special beauty. 

We hiked for an hour or so around the back of the mountain to the Inca Bridge. It was closed but the walk through the clouds on the narrow path in the silence was beautiful. 

We arrived back at a view point at 7:50 just in time for the clouds to roll away and the sun to hit the lost city....a moment of beauty I cannot put into words. The universe gave us this view for about five minutes before rolling clouds back over it making the experience one of the grandest connections with Mother Earth I have had. Truly blessed. 

My brief history. 

Built in the 1400s, populated thereafter by 400-500 people. The Spanish arrived in 1573 and enslaved the Incan empire which covered most of South America at that time. However the Spanish never found Machu Picchu and it disappeared off the radar until being rediscovered by western explorers in 1911.