So i was minding my own business reading the other day, on the roof top of a reataurant, enjoying the atmosphere.
And just then, a guy came up to ´check out the vibe´, the guy opposite me said
Sorry man, there´s no Wi-Fi
So we get talking and thats how i found out about Huchuy Qosqo, since i have been here for a week, i havent done any tourist stuff, today was the day, i had the directions, i had oven baked bread fresh out of the oven, cheese and tomatoes, so off i went
I paid 10 Soles, maybe i looked like a student?
Going up the hill
Inca terraces, read all about these terraces, here
If i did a little bit more research, i could have walked an Inca path to Cusco, it´s 15km, yeah i know a bit too far!!
So we were at the starters lights, the lights went green and we were off!! No we weren't racing on the street, I was in Torongos temple with a Shaman. We played a little bit of music first, to get things going.
Opening of the Ceremony
My Shaman played the Didgeridoo, yep an Australian instrument to bring down the spirits, among other things. I had a bongo, i wanted in on the fun too.
An account of the cactus by a shaman is in radical contrast to this rather contemptuous view:
the drug first ... produces ... drowsiness or a dreamy state and a
feeling of lethargy ... a slight dizziness ... then a great 'vision', a
clearing of all the faculties ... it produces a light numbness in the
body and afterward a tranquillity. And then comes detachment, a type of
visual force ... inclusive of all the senses ... including the sixth
sense, the telepathic sense of transmitting oneself across time and
matter ... like a kind of removal of one's thought to a distant
dimension
The entheogenic status of the cactus remains as strong today as
it always was. Not only do its uses in shamanic trances and healing
sessions continue but it is also used to combat more recent problems
such as alcoholism. The peyote cactus used widely by the North American
Indians is also considered a medicine against alcoholism and this
parallel is all the more striking as both cacti contain mescaline.
Something Australian
It took a while, or felt like a while for things to get going and it all happened when the lights went off (like the back row in a cinema) and lots of spirits came when the lights went off
Before long, the lessons i learned were:
I need to go at my own pace
I can be around crazy people partying, but i need to remember what i am about
Stay on track and keep doing positive stuff
As one of my favourite DJ´s King Unique said ´You need to remember why you fucking started´
Do things in moderation
Everything is ok, just get back on track
Calling the spirits
All this was early on, the night was yet a puppy. For the first two hours I could see Nelson Muntz in the smoke stains from around the fire
We played music music until the Shaman ´Teer-Eyea´ passed out and i was all by myself with what seemed like lots of people and situations, in the morning it was hard to believe i was the only person in the room (awake) in the morning!
The last time i did San Pedro, I held a crystal and i could feel it pulsing, the pulse of the world, I bought that crystal too, the world was mine, not this time i´m afraid
A nice night in by the fire?
A nice night in by the fire 2?
Dont drink too much
Be true to yourself
Space invaders outside, up in the sky
Others are at the party and they want to meet me too
Everything counts, dont waste your time
The art we create will save us in the end
Some of the scenes:
Asian girls, online:
I´d be in a room and some Asian chicks would come storming in and when enough of them were in the same location, they would be buzzing like a beehive. That and checking some white iPod devices, constantly online and they would be putting on tons of makeup, over and over. I couldn't believe it
Make up or breakup?
There was some Dutch people, I helped them gt a tram on its tracks and he was on stop from where he needed to be, but he didn't have any money in San Pedro land, neither did I, but we figured it out in the end.
Towards the end, there were tons of strippers, it felt like the Pacha Mamma was trying to tease me with strippers the whole damn place turned into a strip bar, i was having none of it. I had to tell myself ´this is not real´, over and over
Strippers, no i am Jesus!!
And of course there were tons of gorilla juice monkeys and their bimbo girlfriends
There was some ATM´s on the border of some countries, Brazil was one of them. Security wanted me to take out money from one, and if money went from one, the others would all be panicking like it was going to cause a financial collapse.
ATM
I went out to look at the stars at one point, it was something out of space invaders, there was light shooting from stars to other stars, which was interesting because i heard about this before from somewhere, it looked like UFO´s than anything else.
The famous Inca 12 corner stone in Cusco, ´You rock, rock!!!´
So after 6 months in South America, I make it back to where i want to be. I am in Pisac Peru, the whole trip was pretty much about coming back here, and here i am.
Basically, the best thing about Arequipa is Go-Karting, this was my karting crew
Karting after party
Today's the day, maybe too, for the Guinea Pigs i saw in the restaurant? The woman told me they were delicious, no carbs, no thanks! I told here they were a kids pet, you cant eat them.
Feeling hungry?
So, i got the bus here from Cusco, i don't know if its me, but everything was pissing me off, from blowing lots of $$ in the Wild Rover in Arequipa, not the experience i want, but of course you make your choices, i made mine.
Meet the Devil i met when i woke after a 14 hour sleep
Did i tell you met Turongo? Yep, i met him after being back two minutes. I{m staying with him and we are doing a San Pedro ceremony tonight, with his Mystro. I heard him on the phone yesterday, he was saying ´Make it strong´
The Temple at Torongos
I don't know what it is about Cusco, but you can feel the energy, of Course these places, your not supposed to stay long. It is the Ibiza of Peru, it can be heaven or hell, lots of tours, the next time i will skip the party hostel and go to a normal one.
Back to Torongo, i was telling them about my finger last night, his kid put on gloves (i hope they were Ansell, i am a shareholder) to take a look, too funny!!
His kid wanted to know about my family, Turongo told him
´He doesn't have a family here, we are his family´
Turongo seems like a much nice guy now too, since he has has an extra two kids since the last time i met him, his guru is Prem Rawat
So i´m back in Peru, i´ve been here before, i´m back, like a bad penny.
One of my favourite photos from April 2009
Rory Gallagher sang about it...
So, i was looking at my blog and i found a story i did with some people i met here before, of course we are all good friends still, we poke each other regulery on Facebook, its better than having Aliens poke you, or your Doctor poke you, i´m not even 40 yet, that party starts from 40, maybe it will be a game changer?
How does a little Bolivian guy get his boat into the lake?
So, i am back, in every way, a little bit more sensible and blogging again, i have gotten back into blogging, since reading books, as a Portuguese dude Antonio told me in Rio
´I like it the old fashioned way´
And the thing is he wasn´t talking about books either, it was from about this time and also here
I remember crying laughing out the balcony as Jen was getting beers as Antonio, i think his name was was telling me some of his lady conquests, but that's another story...
Isla del Sol
So now i am doing the rounds again, and its funny, i am going to places i have been before, of course, getting a bit more sleep, and the thing is, i am facebook friends still with the people from before, this means i can send them links with...
Do you remember this?
I remember - Kaskade
And the cool thing about blogging is the stories are stories for a rainy day, now its pissing rain outside, i can look back on the stuff i wrote and get a laugh.
If you don't put your memories into stories, you will forget them, oh the stories i have forgotten, a lot of the places i went to before, i cant remember, even looking at the blog posts, photos and videos, my brain is like a scene out of Star Trek
SCOTT: Coming, sir. If I push these impulse engines too hard in the condition they're in, they'll blow apart.
--The Doomsday Machine KIRK: Full power to the shields, Mister Scott.
SCOTT: Giving them all we got. --The Changeling
So there you have it, i´m glad i blog, you get the full story, warts and all.
And if its any consolation, i wont be running for Prime minister, the tabloids wouldn't need to dig up any dirt, its mostly all here
So I was in La Paz, last Monday still not in the best shape from Saturdays party in Loki hostel,
The party
I had a few things to do, and i was doing them, i had a list, which could only mean i meant business!
My list looked like this
I was going to get the noon bus to Runebacka, so i googled it, i found some blog about the experience, about his time two years ago, it sounded like hell, you really do have to fly in and out, like a miner in the outback in Australia. I tried looking again for the blog i read and found a page on knife fighting, cool?
I have already been on a bus in Bolivia that took 25 hours from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz, so i have already had my bus adventure, not doing that again in a hurry
How you do it?
I told one of the owners of Loki hostel from Tramore Waterford, if i wanted to see
lions and tigers and monkeys i will go to Fota in Cork, i was there with
two wildlife experts of the age 4 and 5, last year.
They said the best thing about Fota was the Giraffe slide, there was so much activity on the slide, it was like looking at a pack of wild animals, just like a zoo!!
They probably don't a giraffe slide in Runebacka, so it doesn't sound much like fun, why go?
Come to Fota bitches...
Since i did not have an airline ticket to Runebacka and had no intention of getting one, i did the only sensible thing i could do and made like a tree and leave, and it was to Cochabamba i went.
I met a Shaman called Tulassi on the Island del Sol the last time, we met some other interesting people also, i went top where he lived after some people working in the fields told me he was there, alas he was not there. People here will tell you anything, you have to ask very open questions (dont mention swinger clubs!!)
Where the Sun was born, according to Inca legend
So after spending 4 nights on the island of sun, i can tell you how it went, it went like this.
It rained, it rained so much, pissed rained, when didn´t it rain? To be fair, i didn't really care about the weather, i was there to read novels, all the people i met because of the rain seemed to care.
Here comes the sun
One guy John from Montreal wanted to walk over to the south on day two, we were going, it was arranged the night before, but for the rain I couldn´t do more than flip pages in the novel i was reading, it was like that, i was content, he went off on a trek over the island, in the rain
Lost, in Together...ness?
So the rain brought people together, only because there was hardly any shelter, if there was a bit of shelter, it was the Tokyo subway, since we were in a restaurant and the people didn't want to cook anything or even have people there, it was quite hard to believe, a full restaurant and the people didn't want to cook anything, they told everyone to go away.
My German friend Johan wanted to charge his device, i asked the people if he could do it, he would pay them, No, No, no came the answer. He wanted eggs, No, No, No came the answer
Everyone was looking at each other saying...
¨Can you believe this place?¨
And of course we all become best friends, a beautiful love story.
I had enough of the North by day 2, i had to make a break for the south side, i made it as far as the next village, which had a hostel, a friendly owner, his daughter, a donkey called ´Pepe´ and a plastic Zebra called ´Pepe´, things were picking up
Meet Pepe
The saviours of the island were very upbeat 4 year olds, the new
generation, there was another girl on the North side whose parents ran
the restaurant, i´ll bet people went to the restaurant because of her,
it was too funny!
They need to bring back the Incas to fix the footpaths!!
The Incas left about 500 years ago, you´d think the locals would be smart enough to maintain the paths, instead of walking through muck every day, after all the Incas were masters in making them? But no charge the tourists to maintain them, its probably spent on beer, the pigs love it as you can see!
What i will say about being on an island, sometimes without electricity is you get great sleeps, it´s pretty peaceful, i slept early, about 9pm, so there is something to be said for abstaining from nightlife, but i don't know what, i love the music?
Donkeys island
Day 3 I made for the south side and made it to a restaurant, and then it rained, my timing was impeccable i thought as i looked out the window with a coffee, reminds me of when i did a pub crawl on the Aran Islands, between down pours, i would have enough time to get to the next pub, good fun and it kept me dry, so of course it was the right thing to do!
I thought of a guest post i did a while back, it was this one
I met a guy on the boat on the way back that does wallpaper art for Starbucks, its pretty amazing stuff, check it out, not the coffee!!!
So, in a mad effort to keep the positive energy going, i signed up for the 5 day Yunga Cruz trek, which was actually 3 days of walking.
Starting point
Day one, getting there, four hours in a taxi
Day 2, nine hours of walking, we got to a camp site that was pretty bad after over seven hours of walking, so we decided to go to the next place where we could possibly have a fire
Day 3, we walked 6 hours into jungle
Day 4, we walked another 5 odd hours down and around mountains to Chulumani Village
We could have camped next to some monastery, but a bed to sleep in, no mosquitos and the prospect of beer drew me (us) to go to the village
Where we started the Trek, at 4500 meters
Day 5, we came back to La Paz, amidst landslides, no problem, the diggers and earth movers were out to clear the way, it was pretty much the same road coming back from the Tekesi trek, awesome views, they might want to get serious about the road.
Camp day 1
On Day 3, we met some guys from Bolivia, their Day 1 was my second day, so you can do it a lot faster than we did it, but sometimes its nice to stop and smell the roses, we did Trek from an altitude of 4.500m to 1.500 meters, i was glad to not do very much the first day, the altitude does take a bit of getting used to.
You do need to be as nimble as a mountain goat for this trek, if we had any problems with sprained legs, we were royally screwed, not that it would have mattered when i paid, if i had one leg, one eye and a Dublin accent, my money would have been as good as any ones.
We walked ovr mountains, jungle, paths that looked like drains, with lots of rocks, very wet, now very hot, sand flies, oh the joys of tropicality.
When we camped on day 3, the Bolivian crew came past our tent, they didn't trust the water source next to our tent, sop they kept going to finish the trek in two days, so they had another 5 ours of walking, some going!!
