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Published: April 20th 2009
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THe whole reason for going on such a mission to Huancabamba was to go to see a shaman in the mountains. I wanted to have my future told, where as scott wanted to curse his best friend just for a laugh (dont ask, i didnt get it either!). But when we arrived it was at the beginning of this 2 day holiday which meant most places were closed, and if they were open it was at the most random times. We also discovered that the banks were closed, which we later found out didnt make much difference as we couldnt take out money from either! When the 2 days of holiday were over we made an attempt to get our hands on some money, which took a whole morning of very slow internet, phone calls to america, going in and out of the banks, with no result in the end. Feeling pretty defeated at the thought of having come all this way to see a shaman and not having enough cash to go and do it, we decided to buy our bus tickets out of there, only to realise that the bus ticket office took credit cards and we could potentially
tempt them with a small fee to giving us some money....all of a sudden things were looking up again. SO we trotted into the tourist office (conveniently 10 yards away) and told them we had no money and needed the cheapest deal going, which i think we got....Im pretty grateful at scotts ability to speak spanish as I never would have managed without it!
That evening we took a taxi into the mountains and met our shaman. Firstly he took us into his ritual room (really creepy) with photos of people all over the walls - did make me wonder....and basically explained the procedure; which consisted of rituals in the evening and into the early morning, then rising early to head to the lakes where further rituals and bathing commensed. We arrived around 7.30pm and had to wait 2 hours for the Shaman to prepare the halucinigenic cactus "San Pedro" so we sat in his kitchen (more a room with a table and a fire) and ate some rice, potato and plantain (fairly standard in the mountains) before getting comfortable on our straw beds for an hour before our rituals started. There was also a man from lima visiting
the shaman with us, who was a computer engineer. Scott is also a computer engineer and so they both chatted computer geek stuff to each other over dinner while I watched the chickens wonder by and smilled every so often at the lady who cooked for us. Too many times ive has to listen to scott chat computer stuff 😊 as Steve was also a computer engineer and they had many conversations in cajamarca, which I found a little dull to say the least 😊
Once the evening began, firstly we all sat on a straw matress outside with rugs wrapped around us to stay warm. We were then given the san pedro to drink (only a little). Then the shaman began chanting, spraying a number of perfumes and potions over us. Wishing us luck with money, job finding and love. Some bits were a bit freakie, like when he brought out swords from his ritual room and rubbed it all over us...interesting to say the least. Then there was the snorting of the tobacco juices. Now this was discusting! The tobacco leaves were crushed up and possibly soaks in some kind of whisky or rum, and we were
given a small amount of juices to snort. It stung, made your eyes water, and when it hit the back of your throat it was horrid, but still quite an experience....We only did it twice with very small amounts, the shaman himself did it 3 times (once for each of us) snorting about half a cup each time...nice! This resulting in him reching quite alot, I can only imagine how horrible it was. Anyway, this went on till about 4 in the morning, no hallucinations took place, sadly, and I didnt get to see my future, but it was quite fun. We then were allowed to sleep for 3 hours before waking, eating some fried bread, then getting onto horses to get to the lakes. The horses were really quite funny. Scotts was constantly trying to trott and get ahead, where as mine was completely the opposite and totally insistant on going at it own (very slow) pace, despite constant encouragement from the shaman haha. I also never really appreciated how uncomfortable it is to ride a horse for 2 hours up and down very steep tracks...my knees killed when we arrived!
When we got to the lakes it
was pretty beatiful. Again a number of potions were sprayed over us, and more snorting of the tobacco juices. Then we were told to undress and bath in the lake. Bearing in mind the lake was at 3300m above sea level, it wasnt very warm! Not only did we have to bath, we were expected to go fully under the water, and drink it 3 times. Then freezing our little butts off, yet more chanting and potion spraying commensed. By the end, both scott and I stank of a very cheap date haha! Then that was it, we were done and all there was left to do, was to get dressed and head back. WHat a comotion. Im slightly sceptical of the ritual, it seemed very generic as opposed to an insightful, personal experience (kind of what I was hoping for..some kind of enlightenment). However, it was good fun, and one to tick off the list.
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