BLOG 6

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BIG THANKS and lots of love to Graeme, Roxanna and Reid for getting the messages out to Jessica and Melody! You guys are just the best here is. xxxxx

No word yet from them, but I have no doubt they will be at the hotel pick up point when the time comes. There was no way on the Earth that Jessica was going to miss going to the Temple and judging by how Melody ploughed through the human congestion with 200 pounds of gear in the cart last night, I have no doubt she is a force of Nature too. I suspect they are in the air as I write.

I cannot tell you how glad I am to be back in the jungle. There was more than a tear in my eye as I headed down the ramp from the plane and felt again the massiveness of those leafy arms surround me, pull me close and plant that big wet jungle kiss that I have so longed for. Head to toe wet lovin is what you get in the jungle. The air was full of dirt and smoke, dying and being born in the same instant. I cannot get enough of it.

On the way in, I was joined by none other than Dennis McKenna, an ethnobotanist and friend of Wade Davis who did his dissertation on ayahuasca in the 80s and has worked here for decades. We had a wonderful conversation about ayahuasca tourism and its impacts on local culture and those who take it. He is here working with the local university in partnership with UBC to catalogue their immense herbarium electronically. He was scouting out the Fitzcaraldo for a pack of botany students that he plans to bring down here this summer. We exchanged emails and agreed we may some day be neighbors on Salt Spring as he is soon to move to BC. We also agreed that there are no coincidences, so the previous sentence was not idle chit chat. He told me that there is a good shaman doing aya on Bowen Island - will explore further upon return.

my night was a fitful one, as the first night covered in sweat often is for those who inhabit the dry world. The familiar unidentifiable night creatures were serenading - squawks, loud clicks, cricket like rubbings, chirps, shrieks, screams and rumbles (those two wheeled creatures i could identify). I felt a bit of fear for the first time - remembering how the night sounds feel on the night of an aya ceremony - almost ominous.

I am off to the pick up point here in about an hour and will be off the blog until the 14th. Know that i am in my happy place and sending you all my love.

I am off to the jungle, not the heart of darkness, but the heart in light....xxxxxxx

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Photos

Girls in Lima
Fabulous break by the sea. We had coca tea (yes, they make cocaine from that) and granzanilla, an amazing fruit like no other. like eating crunchy sweet frog eyes in snot.