Amanito

When a curandero (shaman) dies, it hits you, it hits the whole town, it hits the people, it hits the animals, the insects, the plants and even the weather. I am in my chakra (hut) with a few members of the family I am staying with in San Francisco: The biggest Shipibo village in Peru (2.500 inhabitants). We were resting to be a bit more fit for the ayahuasca ceremony this evening. But there wouldn't be a ceremony, not tonight .... It started when they were spreading messages in the megaphone (that is how they spread news in sucha villages). Since it was in Shipibo I had no idead what was going on until Flora called me in the dark and asked me to come to her. She and Darwin had a very serious face and ... read more

And mine is eating fish, Three days before I went into the hospital after one day and a night of horrible pain (I never visited a toilet so much in sucha short time ...) after eating fish with a local in the fishmarket here in Iquitos (Biggest city in the jungle, only reachable by boat and plane). I started to get fever and when I checked I saw I had more than 41 degrees. Oh, boy, that's dangerous, I almost roled downstairs in the hotel, mumbled what was going on and a friendly mototaxidriver drove me to the hospital and waited the whole time with me there to give me courage. I got two baxters and I was hallucinating from fever, it was terrible, vomiting ..... Argh. After midnight they let me go back to my ... read more

Sorry for the text and images getting mixed up, frustrating ... Next time no text, just pix. ... read more

Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, Before I'm writing my next entry I'll place some pictures here regarding my last entry. I am in a fast cybert in Iquitos, the biggest city in the jungle, BUT that story is for later. Now, picture town. Pucallpa, crazy monkey town: The harbor, some pix and some images of the river Ucayali: In Puerto Nuevo, the ayahuasca, ready to brew, takes up to 24 hours for a good preparation:img=http://i115.photobucket... read more

Well, It's crazyness in crazy monkey town with like a billion of mototaxis driving around, so I know I won't be able to sleep, so I'll give this a try. No pictures though ... my cam is still in my room, so I need to upload that tomorrow. So Sunday morning we took off to Pto Nuevo with a 12 hour boat ride, we arrived way too late in the dark, awaited by some kids and girls from the Shipibo tribe. Pto Nuevo is a little village with about 100 inhabitants, near a river in the Amazon. They have some solar energy which they use for a microphone, a few lamps and a few radios. Besides that, there is no luxury, no ipods, no playstations, no internet, so ... a very nice, relaxing, quiet place. So ... read more

And hup, Here I am in Pucallpa, having fun on the carrousel, I always wanted to sit on that, and the security here is bogus, so ... Pucallpa, crazy monkey town, the only place in the world where u are scared a drunk monkey will stab you and steal your money. It is full with mototaxis, bums, crazy markets, chickens and .... churches. Those bastards even infiltrated the jungle, trying to gain a few souls here, buy religion and destroy the indigenous culture. I quit here, before I go into a rant about the church ... So we arrived very late, had a few drinks, really nice juices from fruits, I swear they have so many crazy fruits here, mmmm. It is sooooooooo hot here, I mean, soooooo hot, even hotter than in the Black Rock ... read more

I got a very strange look this morning when I entered the lobby with two girls coming downstairs, but I didn't understand why. I didn't pay too much attention to it and we took place at the table to order breakfast and a bit later the others arrived. We had our breakfast and were talking about what we were going to do today. After that I went to the lobby to ask some stuff and the girl again gave me a very weird look and asked me why I sneaked in four people in my room and that I can't just bring in people in the hotel to have sex, that I need to pay for that. I was stunned!!! Whaaaat, lady, you got it all wrong, I just got a nice evening out yesterday and ... read more

Hi folks! This entry is merely an attempt to see how this site works. Within less than 24 hours I'll depart from Brussels to New York and from there out I'll fly to Lima, Peru. I'll be staying in Lima from Tuesday the second until Saturday 5th of July and will fly from Lima to Pucallpa. I'll join a group of fellow adventurers to go deep into the jungle to stay in a Shipibo village. During our stay we'll learn about shamanism, we'll have a look into medicinal and psychoactive plants and we'll have the oportunity to join in an ayahuasca ritual. My friend Julio who'm I've been in contact with trough e-mail and msn for several years will lead the trip. If you want to have an idea about what the trip is going to ... read more