Advertisement
Published: August 30th 2007
Edit Blog Post
santiago city centre
This was in a square/plaza where artists sell their work and poeple sit and people watch over a beer or coffee Dear all, Well we have arrived safe and well in santiago, chile!! Its just turning autumn here so the weather is changeable, its been hot some days and cloudy on others, its really chilly at night though! Its my birthday today and what a place to be, its bloody great. I started my birthday off last night when we took part in a traditional ceremony with an lady who had been flown in from Equador, she has been learning the ancient rituals since she was 4 and she's pretty old now, so at a guess i'd say she knows rather a lot!
The ceremony is based on ancient ,natural medicaine and is based on giving thanks to the 4 elements , earth, fire, water and air and is supposed to mimic the mothers womb and allow rebirth, sounds rather cosmic doesn't it!!!!!
Some special sacred stones had been burning in a fire for many hours for the ceremony and were within a sacred circle that we could not enter and had to walk around to enter the dome for the ceremony.
It started by us standing around a fire in our swimming cossies on top of a mountain
where she gave us "el medicina" no not any hallucigens, but liquid tobacco..... the administration of which was a little unconventional.......we had to snort it up our noses!! I thought this sounded a little harsh, we were told to snort it; swallow and then cough, we were half way around the circle of 20 people (we were the only foreigners there) and my eyes nearly popped out of my head, when i saw people coughing and it was not voluntary, a few people were sick and everyones eyes were streaming! It came to my turn and i braced myself as she squirted (rather forcefully) a syringe of the liquid up my nose, i sniffed it up and swallowed a little, it was gross, i coughed and spluttered for about 3 minutes; eyes streaming, but managed to compose myself, only to turn and face the circle again and she came back to me and squirted it up the other nostril!!! Well i didn't manage to sniff this quite as much and managed to blow some of it onto the ground!!!! It was supposed to clear the nasal pasages in preperation for the ceremony, i think it created a permanent passage for
anything that ever wants to go up my nose again!!!!
After we'd all taken this we were blessed with the smoke of some herbs and got onto our hands and knees and crawled into a small dome, purpose built for the ceremony, we crawled round until we found a small place, barley enough room to sit cross legged. They then bought in the red hot stones which were glowing and sparkling, they were beautiful! They placed them in the middle of the dome and closed the door, they poured water on them whilst singing traditional and "Earthy" songs giving thanks to the elements, celebrating different races etc It was basically pitch black, musical and really hot sauna!! We were in there for 2 hours or so and they opened the door 3 times to bring in more hot rocks and water, and they burnt special herbs which smelt amazing.
The songs were almost hypnotic at times and it is supposed to give you time to reflect on your family and those you love. It may sound wierd, but i got very emotional during the ceremony, especially as i had discussed with someone that as it was my birthday
From the plane, The Andes, Chile
On our way from Madrid to Santiago, Chile, we looked out of the window and got our first glimpse of the Andes. WOW was all i can manage i think!! the next day and the ceremony ended at midnight that it was a powerful time as I would have been born that day,28 years earlier, so my "rebirth" was very special! During the ceremony i felt as if my mum was there and that she was telling me that she loved me and was always with me and that what i was doing was very special and she was proud of me, i was even crying during the ceremony, but not because i was sad!! It was a really wierd experience and when i told some of the people afterward they said that this kind of experience meant that the ceremony had worked well for me and that was the outcome that people hoped for; in orderto open ones mind!!
We came out soaking wet, filthy and shivering in the cold air and were very peaceful and relaxed, it was truly one of the wierdest experiences i've ever had, i loved it (except the snorting liquid tobacco thing!!) what a start to our trip this was on day 3!!!!
We are going out tonight to get very drunk and to dance the night away, there are loads of
really nice people at the hostel, so we are all going out together!! Anyway i've rambled on enough now. Thankyou to all those who sent me a birthday email and cards which i've bought with me and have up in my room!! And thankyou to auntie gill for the ecard amd sarah for the pictures of my beautiful nieces holding a happy birthday banner, it bought a tear to my eye, it was lovely thankyou!!!!! Love to you all and i'll keep in touch with all of my adventures, hopefully i'll have something just as wierd to tell you next time!!!! Love to you all
Lots of love
Claire and Tommy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.201s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 62; dbt: 0.0913s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Elvis
non-member comment
COOL!!!!!
You look like you're having the best time ever!!!!!!! I'm totally jealous, and the weather here's shite, lol. Take care you 2 x x x x x