Perhaps in a parallel universe there’s a version of me that’s a prolific writer who updates his blog at least every couple of days with good doses of wit and wisdom and has a huge audience hanging on to his every word. I’m kinda envious of that guy!

As it is, I’m sat here struggling, as usual, to make my brain connect with interesting words and sentences that people might enjoy reading, oh and when was the last time I updated this blog? October 2010! Jeeez, I’m living in the wrong parallel universe that’s for sure.

Well whatever, I am where I am, and that happens to still be Iquitos in the middle of the jungle, towards the end of 2011, somewhere in this apparent infinite universe! No doubt in another parallel universe there’s a version of me wishing he was having adventures in hot and interesting places. So I’m not complaining

So, it’s been over a year since I updated this blog! What’s happened since? Quite a lot actually. It’s been a crazy, fun and ultimately enjoyable year, but with several road blocks, challenges and serious frustrations thrown in for good measure. But that’s how you grow and learn right?

Anyway, here are a few highlights that stand out in my mind from 2011. I’ll start with the good stuff!

Starting an Ayahuasca Retreat Company

About a year ago I visited my good friend Alex at his lodge in Huaraz to further discuss our ideas and come up with a concrete plan for setting up an Ayahuasca retreat company. That quickly evolved into Ayahuasca Odyssey and we hosted our first retreat just 6 months later in June 2011. It was a pretty small affair, just 3 people attended which perhaps wasn’t bad considering we only launched the website about 2 months before that retreat which didn’t give us much time to promote it!

I remember being pretty nervous about that first retreat, mainly from having doubts as to whether I could be an effective facilitator or not. An Ayahuasca experience is undoubtedly one of the most powerful, life changing and paradigm shattering experiences that most people will ever have. Almost nothing else comes close and it can also bring up a whole lot of shit (such as deep fears, painful emotions and old wounds) that people then may need help to process and heal. I don’t have any formal training in counselling or psychotherapy and I think those kind of skills might turn out of essential in certain circumstances. However, I’m pleased to report that so far things have gone pretty well and I’ve received some very positive feedback on my facilitating skills, so that’s something I feel much more confident about now.

The following retreats were also pretty small affairs, and then in September Alex met an American guy called Zach who had also just started his own retreat company called La Familiar Medicina. Alex was incredibly impressed Zach and the main shaman he was working with, a relatively young guy (35 I think) called Gumercindo, and for the sake of brevity let’s just say that we’ve now joined forces with Zach and Gumercindo and now we’ve become Ayahuasca Satsangha. Our last retreat was fully booked and the next two retreats are fully booked with 12 people, so this can undoubtedly be labelled a success!

I’ll attempt to follow-up with more thoughts about my experiences with Ayahuasca Odyssey and Ayahuasca Satsangha in a future post, but for now this experience has definitely been the highlight of 2011 and has resulted in lots of conscious growth for me.

Encounters with Brujeria

Not everything related to Ayahuasca shamanism is infused with love and light. There’s a dark side too and sadly many shamans fall into its grip, after perhaps starting out with good intentions in some cases. Here in the Amazon the bad shamans are usually refered to as brujos (pronounced bru-ho’s) and what they engage in is referred to as brujeria which is what we would call black magic or witchcraft. And whether you believe in it or not, its effects are definitely very real.

Usually they do what they do for money. Someone might get really upset or pissed off with someone, and as a form of revenge they pay a brujo to cast a spell on the person they’re unhappy with. Some spells can cause misfortune, or accidents, while others can cause serious illness and even death. You certainly have to be very careful about who you piss off in the jungle, because the wrong person can do a lot more harm than simply shout at you or punch you in the face!

So what happened to me? Well, I’m still getting to the bottom of it all to tell you the truth. What I can say is that about a year ago (Nov 2010), after a ceremomy near Cusco, I stopped getting visions or useful insights from drinking Ayahuasca. I would usually get some kind of experience, but it was always a little weird and almost never interesting or useful. In the first half of 2011 I was regularly taking tourists out to Kapitari to one of my favourite shaman Don Lucho, and as a result I would always take part in the ceremonies, but I was never getting a good experience. Among the Ayahuasca community you regularly hear the mantra “Ayahuasca doesn’t give you what you want, but it always gives you what you need!” There’s certainly a lot of truth to that, but in my case something really weird was going on – month after month after month,  and I never felt for a moment I was getting anything I needed (or wanted) from the ceremonies.

I had 3 theories as to why I was having these problems and brujeria was one of them, but it wasn’t until early August that I got confirmation that brujeria was indeed the source of my troubles, and I’ve had several more confirmations since then. I don’t know how it works exactly, but somehow the brujeria has blocked me from connecting with the spirit of Ayahuasca. And as a sidenote, this to me is further proof that Ayahuasca is almost entirely a spiritual experience. If for some reason you can’t connect with the spirit of the plant, then almost nothing is going to happen, no matter how much you drink!

In future I will write a follow-up post with the full story – or at least when the story is finally over, because I’m still not out of the woods yet. Just last weekend I did a ceremony and drank 3 cups of super-strength ayahuasca and got almost nothing out of it.

I’m supposedly clear of the brujeria now. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been working with an amazing healer who’s staying in Iquitos for awhile. This guy uses a combination of intuition, prayer and experimental kinesiology to do what he does, and he’s been getting some remarkable results around here. All the tests say I’m now clean, but as the last weekend demonstrated, there’s still some work left to be done.

It’s been baffling as well as frustrating, but many lessons have been learned.

Dealing with more rejection (the cycle continues)

In the very early days of this blog, when I was living in Cusco, I wrote some extremely personal stuff about my lack of success in love and relationships – even though I only scratched the surface to be honest. Two and a half years later I can’t say things have got a whole lot better for me, although I’ve certainly gotten much better at dealing with it emotionally so I guess progress is always being made on many levels.

It seems that one of the recurring themes of my life so far has always been rejection (at least in terms of love and relationships). Now, I’m very aware that EVERYBODY has to deal with rejection at least sometimes in their life, it’s good, it’s normal and in some ways it’s very healthy because it’s the difficult and gutwrenching experiences that help us grow and become better and more conscious human beings. But sometimes I can’t help but want to scream at the universe “COME ON NOW, ARE YOU SERIOUS? GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK WILL YOU!?”.

It’s happened to me too many times to even remember and surely I’m now way beyond having my fair share of this type of experience. Well apparently not it seems, because they just keep on coming. Clearly I must be missing some important part of the lesson, which is odd because usually I’m a pretty fast learner!

I began 2011 being rejected by someone I really thought I connected well with, and now I’ve just ended the year being rejected by someone I know I have connected really well with over the last 12 months, so much so that many people actually thought she already was my girlfriend! But as usual I’ve gotten deeply stuck in the ‘friend zone’ and as I’ve come to realise it’s a very hard place to escape from!

Anyway, I don’t want to seem like I’m complaining about life, it is what it is, and thankfully I’m not someone who dwells on the negatives for very long. I may feel sad and perhaps even a little angry for a few days, maybe a week or so, after it happens, but if nothing else, I’ve learned to process my feelings pretty quickly and come out of the other side feeling as happy and optimistic about life as always. I seem to be incapable of feeling depression and any feelings of self-pity I may occasionally indulge in are quickly put aside. So at least I’ve got that ability to be thankful for. But I can easily understand how some people can become very bitter and angry as they get older, and if I didn’t have a strong connection with spirit sustaining me through difficult times, I think in a different parallel universe that could easily be me by now!

This seemingly continuous cycle does leave me feeling bewildered though. It surely has to end eventually (or does it?), but I’ve been saying that for over 10 years now. Finding a girlfriend has never been something I’ve obsessed over. I’ve always been happy and extremely comfortable on my own, and will continue to be, no doubt. But I do feel like I’m done with all the lessons of being single, and that I’m beginning to stagnate in this area of my life. I definitely don’t see having a relationship as being some kind of holy grail, and nor do I believe that a relationship will necessarily make me any happier, but what it undoubtedly will bring is new lessons, new experiences and hopefully a lot of conscious growth, and for those reasons more than anything, it’s something that I desire to happen in my life.

Financial Struggles

Love is not the only thing I’ve often struggled with over the course of my life, the other is money, and it seems that I’ve had more than my fair share of bad luck in this area of my life as well. But it has to be said that 2011 (or at least the first 8 months of 2011) saw me going through one of the roughest financial periods of my life. As you may know I make most of my living as a freelance web designer, and although I’ve never made a lot of money from it, I’ve almost always made enough to support myself and it seems that the universe has always sent me work when I’ve needed it. So I’ve gotten by ok, but can hardly say I’ve experienced much financial abundance.

My financial problems started about the same time as the brujeria did, and I suspect there may be a connection but it could of course just be a coincidence. I’ve always found that work has come to me when I need it, but that just didn’t happen during the first half of 2011. I’ve rarely done any self promotion and have generally relied on word of mouth or people finding me through serendipity. That failed me big time this year, and for the first time in my life I started doing  self promotion only to find that it didn’t bring me anything but more frustration (and very little money). There were a few times this year when I had to rely on my family and my business partner Alex to send me a bit of money just so that I could live and pay the rent and there’s almost nothing I hate more than having to ask for financial help from people. It makes me feel utterly powerless and useless and not in control of my life. But sometimes there are no other options, and thankfully I’m blessed with a few people who are willing (and able) to support me in tough times.

Anyway, since about August (about the same time I started working to cleanse myself of the brujeria – coincidence?), things started picking up again and I’ve finished the year doing ok for myself. And I’m also very optimistic about the year ahead (presuming major financial crashes don’t happen around the world just yet). I’m in the process of launching a new internet business venture with a couple of friends that I expect will be pretty successful next year, but more on that another time perhaps.

Let’s end this review on a slightly more positive note!

Giving up the Booze

This year I stopped drinking alcohol for almost 5 months. I realise to some, that may not seem like a great deal of time, but it’s undoubtedly the longest period of time I’ve gone without having a drink since before I started drinking when I was about 17 years old. It may even be the longest time since I was about 13 because even when I was about 14 or 15 I was allowed the occasional glass of wine or beer with my parents.

Now before I gave it up, I don’t think it would be true to say that I had a problem with drinking, but let’s just say I never needed much of an excuse to go out and drink a beer – much like most of the British population in fact! Drinking is such a huge part of our culture and for most people in Britain, the pub is like a second home. Drinking was certainly a huge part of my adult life for all the time I lived in the UK and although I’ve generally drunk a lot less while I’ve been living in Peru, it’s perhaps something I’ve still indulged in a little too often to be good for me.

I decided to stop drinking because I thought it might help with my problems I was having with Ayahuasca that I just wrote about. Initially I made a decision to quit for 3 months, but then I decided to keep on going, although I confess I did have my first beer again a couple of weeks ago (and yeah it tasted pretty good!).

The first couple of months without drinking were hard work, and I frequently found myself desiring a beer  (particularly if I was anywhere near a bar!), although I never did give in to temptation – I can be pretty strong willed when I really want to be. But then it started getting easier and easier, and after about 3 months I found, for probably the first time in my adult life, my desire to drink beer had almost vanished. Wow! What a change!!

For the first time in my adult life I now find it easy to say ‘no’ if someone suggests going out for a beer. That’s not to say I always will say no. I haven’t gone off the taste just yet, so it’s something I can, and probably will enjoy sometimes, but for the first time in my life I feel almost completely in control of it – and I’m very pleased about that.

Now I just have to remain in control. I don’t want to blow my trumpet too hard just yet because I know it probably wouldn’t take much to slip back into comfortable old habits – if I’m not careful – and these last couple of weeks have certainly been extremely testing for me. Rejection in the past has usually led me to drinking copious amount of booze for a week or two to help numb the pain, but so far I’ve avoided falling into that trap and I’m feeling pretty good about it. However, I do confess to still missing some of the all night benders I used to enjoy with some of my close friends in Iquitos. I realise they were not good for me, but boy were they sometimes crazy fun!

Looking ahead

So that was my year in a nutshell. It probably doesn’t sound like a great year overall when you consider the main ‘highlights’ were mostly pretty negative. But I’d be lying if I said I thought it was a bad year. Despite all the challenges and setbacks I enjoyed it immensely, and as they say, what doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger. I definitely feel stronger than ever and I’m really looking forward to 2012 and everything it will bring. I think I need to write a separate post about that so hopefully I can get back into the habit of blogging once again! There’s a definitely a lot of things I can write about.

So, here’s me toasting (with a glass of water) to 2012 being an awesome year! Given the current global economic/political climate, it’s likely to be a very challenging year to be sure, but I feel the conscious growth potential is going to be immense! Have a great one everybody.

So, it’s been exactly a year since I last updated this blog. The title of this post might have you thinking it’s because I disappeared into the jungle for a year and didn’t have internet access, but that’s not true. I’ve just spent nearly a year living in the middle of a city in the middle of the jungle. The city of Iquitos to be precise.

I’ve said before I’ve never been a prolific writer and can easily lose the motivation for it although I’ve been telling myself almost every week for a year “I must update my blog again soon!”. So why now? Hard to say, I guess I’ve finally become inspired to write again, and I’ve also got a much better work life balance sorted out that is affording me a lot more free time than ever before.

So where were we?

Well I finished my last post by stating:

“Now I’m starting to feel like I might be about to take another leap into the unknown. In just over a weeks time I’m going to start travelling to Iquitos, a city in the middle of the Amazon jungle in northern Peru. At this moment I don’t have any plans to stay there for more than a few weeks; however, I’m starting to get a strong intuition that I will stay there a lot longer than a few weeks. I get this weird feeling that universal cogs are turning and that my life is about to take a whole new direction.”

Prophetic words indeed!

So what’s happened since?

Well I don’t think I can accurately sum up a year in a single blog post, but needless to say that I did end up staying in Iquitos for more than a few weeks, although it’s not really a year because I returned back to the UK for 3 months over the summer to catch up with friends and family who I hadn’t seen for over 18 months.

Nothing really dramatic has happened. I started a relationship with a local girl which lasted about 6 months. Lovely girl (sometimes!) but a little too crazy for me I think, but we’re still good friends although she’s living in Lima now so I haven’t seen her for awhile.

I’ve met quite a few shaman and taken ayahuasca a bunch of times and I’ll say more about that in a future post. I’ve been into the jungle a few times and stayed at a couple of villages with the locals.

I’ve made some great new friends.

I’ve taken part in the world longest raft race down the Amazon River!

It’s been a great adventure and I’ve had a blast.

Iquitos is hot and sweaty and dirty and noisy and completely unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been. And I love it! It’s the largest city in the world that can’t be reached by road. There are only two ways to arrive in Iquitos – by river or by air, but despite that it’s somehow grown into a jungle metropolis with a population of well over 350,000 people! I will definitely write more about Iquitos in a future post with some photos.

So do I miss Cusco? Definitely! Cusco has a lot more variety than Iquitos and a lot more things to do. Cusco generally has much better restaurants, bars,clubs,  shops and more places to visit in the surrounding area. And it has mountains, oh how I miss those beautiful mountains! I’m hoping to revisit Cusco soon for a few weeks, for the first time since I left, and I’m really excited about that, I just need to get a bit more money together to afford the airfares.

Anyway, I’m so relieved I’ve finally updated you again, and I really regret letting this blog slide into the abyss for so long! Once I start writing I actually enjoy it.

Expect more blogging soon – I promise!

“I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.” – Frank Lloyd Wright

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in. “ -George Washington Carver

One of the many great tragedies of our so-called ‘civilised’ Western society is how most of us have lost our connection with nature. It didn’t always used to be that way, and for most of the remaining indigenous peoples on the planet, working in harmony with nature is still a way of life. But sadly for most of us Westerners nature has become almost a foreign concept, which is weird when you consider how absolutely vital it is.

For example, You should be aware that our very survival is entirely dependant on nature. If it wasn’t for all the plants and forests there would be little or no oxygen on this planet, and instead Earth would have an atmosphere of poisonous CO2 gas.

You should also aware that a healthy diet involves eating lots of fresh vegetables and fruit. Plants and fruit are where all our most important nutrition comes from.

Perhaps you can recognise and name several common plants and trees, and maybe once in awhile you feel like getting out of town for a short hike into the countryside or wilderness. Then of course it’s back home to plonk yourself back in front of the TV, where thanks to the likes of David Attenborough you’ve probably come to obtain almost all your current knowledge of plants and nature.

Perhaps you’re vaguely aware that many illnesses can be cured using plant medicines, although you most likely still visit your GP, and not your local herbalist if you have a problem. It’s interesting to note that most pharmaceutical drugs are ultimately derived from chemical compounds found in plants.

The Western mindset generally sees nature as something to control, dominate and do what the heck we like with regardless of the consequences. If that means killing millions of species then so be it. It’s only nature after all, we’re far more important aren’t we?

Indigenous peoples all around the world have a totally different view of nature. They understand that they are not separate from nature, they know that trying to control and dominate nature is pure insanity, and for hundreds of thousands of years they have peacefully co-existed with nature.

They also have another different perspective of the world which is that everything contains spirit and consciousness. Even the plants and the trees.

The idea of plants having consciousness is alien to most westerners. Isn’t consciousness generated by the brain? and plants don’t have brains, right? Wrong, consciousness is ultimately the ground of all being, but that’s a subject for a future blog post.

Indigenous shamans, often through many years of training, can obtain the knowledge and ability to tune into this consciousness, to learn and be guided by it. This is not something they believe, it’s something they do.

Different plants and trees can impart different types of knowledge, some more profoundly than others.

Some plants, when ingested, have the affect of profoundly altering your state of consciousness for several hours, or more, putting you in meditative state where you often receive profound visions and lessons that are almost always very relevant to your personal life.

These plants are always considered to be sacred plants and are often referred to as plant teachers. Some of these plant teachers include Peyote, a small cactus that grows in Mexico and parts of south western USA, various mushroom species that grow in many locations around the world. San Pedro, a cactus that grows in several South American countries including Peru, and of course Ayahuasca which is a brew made from a combination of boiling two plants that grow in the Amazon basin.

These plant medicines have been used by indigenous peoples for many thousands of years (and probably much longer than that) as a way to obtain spiritual knowledge and healing, as well as many other insights relating to their personal lives and their communities.

Ayahuasca in particularly is a master healer and there are countless stories of ‘miracle’ healings from people who have ingested this amazing brew. I will write much more about Ayahuasca in a future post because it really has had a profound affect on my life.

Now to many westerners who don’t have much knowledge about these plants and how they work, ingesting these plants is nothing more than ‘taking drugs’. However this is a very small-minded opinion which displays a complete lack of knowledge on what they’re talking about.

Certainly on a very basic level you can argue it’s a drug experience. These plants do contain certain chemicals which have psychoactive properties; In Ayahuasca these chemicals are DMT and harmaline, in most mushrooms it’s psilocybin, and in Peyote & San Pedro it’s mescaline.

However, as almost everyone who has ever experienced these plant teachers has come to realise for themselves, there is something far more amazing and profound happening than just a ‘drug experience’.

Almost all recreational drugs are taken for fun, or to get high and take your mind off any problems you might be experiencing. Taking many of these plant medicines is rarely fun (with perhaps the exception of fairly mild doses of ‘magic’ mushrooms). And you certainly don’t take these plant medicines to avoid your problems, you take them to face your problems head-on. The experiences, particularly with Ayahuasca, can often be very intense and not for the faint of heart. You have to be willing and able to face and accept all aspects of yourself, particularly the bad and the ugly. People can get away for years believing they’re good people, when really they’re quite rotten. If you have a rotten side then one of the first things Ayahuasca will do is to bring it to your attention and show you just how your rottenness is hurting other people. That can be quite a nasty shock for many people.

Another thing is that almost all western recreational drugs are ultimately quite damaging to the body, particularly if used for a regular and prolonged period of time. Virtually all shamanic plant medicines have no harmful side effects, however, it’s quite common to feel a bit sick and even throw up (usually referred to as purging) during a sacred plant medicine ceremony; however, that’s just a sign that the medicine is healing you and removing many toxins and negative energies from your body. Usually by the end of the ceremony, and certainly the next day, you feel quite incredible, almost like you’ve just done a 6 month detox in one evening. I’ve heard it said that western drugs make you feel good first and bad later; shamanic medicine makes you feel bad first and good later. There’s a great deal of truth in that.

I’ve been working with plant teachers, on and off, for about 6 years now, and I never cease to be amazed by what they show me,  the lessons they give me, and the incredible healing and sense of wellbeing they bring to my life. Many times on Ayahuasca I’ve experienced the intense and profound love that I now know is ultimately behind the force that brings all things into being. When you experience that for the first time it changes your perspective on virtually everything. You can’t be quite the same person ever again.

I strongly believe that if everyone worked with these plant teachers, even if just a couple of times in their life, then the world would be an infinitely more loving and peaceful place, and much greater numbers of people would seek to live in harmony with nature and continue to learn from nature as do the indigenous tribes that still exist today.

It’s time for all Westerners (not just a minority out on the fringes of society) to wake up and realise that nature is not separate from us. There are no real boundaries between us and nature, and if we don’t stop destroying nature then our actions will surely end up destroying us. The survival of our Earth depends on the continued functioning of a great many complex eco-systems and if just one of them should breakdown it can affect all the others. That’s something that’s starting to happen and the consequences could be horrific.

The only way we can change our understanding of nature, and the way we interact with nature, is to learn from nature and I believe the best way to do that is to go straight to the source, and I believe that plant teachers are a good place to start.

“You will find something more in woods than in books.  Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters.” – St. Bernard

Well, I’ve been in Peru just over a week now and so far everything has gone as well as I could ever have expected! I apologise for the lack of updates for the few people who are following this blog.

So what have I been up to so far?

Well, after arriving in Cusco last Tuesday I found my way to Casa de la Gringa, a really nice little travellers hostel. I spent 6 nights there in total and really enjoyed my stay there.

My first few days were spent mostly exploring Cusco and getting used to the high altitude (over 11,000ft!!) . I suffered mild altitude sickness for the first 48 hours which resulted in me feeling a little light headed and some very mild flu-like symptoms. Or perhaps I caught swine-flu on the way!? Either way, I got over it in a few days.

Cusco is a wonderful city to explore. It’s a huge labyrinth of small cobbled-stoned streets, alley-ways and squares, with hundreds of little stores that sell some of the most incredible Peruvian art and clothing. I’m sure the novelty will wear off after awhile, but even after a week here I still love to walk around browsing the stores and making new discoveries.

There’s also a huge amount of restaurants and cafes, offering a wide variety of food, most of which are very reasonably priced – at least to someone with an average western sized income. You can eat well for about £5 and eat like a king for about £20.

A street in the San Blas area of Cusco

A street in Cusco

Last Thursday I visited the main market for the first time. In fact there are two main markets. One is predominantly for food and the other for electrical, clothing and household goods. Fruit and veg is amazingly cheap and you can probably buy almost all the fruit and veg you can eat in a week for about £5 (and that assumes that, like me, you eat quite a lot of fruit and veg!).

Entrance to Cusco's main market

On friday night I participated in my first Ayahuasca ceremony here in Peru. The friday ceremony was unplanned and fairly spur of the moment and I have to be honest definitely wasn’t one of the best ceremonies I’ve experienced. I’ll write a lot more about ayahuasca in future posts.

The friday ceremony took place in Lesley’s house who is the owner of the hostel I was staying in. About 15 people took part in the ceremony and it was conducted by a young female shaman from the sacred valley.

Leyley's house

A couple of days previous I had made plans to go to Pisac, a small town in the sacred valley to do an ayahuasca ceremony with Javier at a small healing resort called Paz Y Luz (Peace & Light). I hardly slept on friday night after the ceremony and almost decided not to go to Pisac, but an intuition told me I should go. So after we walked back down to Cusco from Leyley’s house I got on the bus to Pisac because I knew Javier wanted me there by around midday.

Walking back down to Cusco

View over Cusco

The bus was an interesting experience. It was just leaving the bus station when I got there but I flagged it down and got on board just in the nick of time. However the small bus was completely full with even two passengers in the front passenger seat. I was going to try and stand (not easy on these kinds of roads) but the bus driver insisted I sat on this small makeshift seat right in the middle between him and the two front passengers. It wasn’t the comfiest seat in the world but way better than trying to stand and I got a fantastic view of the journey ahead.

The bus journey was about 45 minutes. The first half is mostly uphill as the bus ascends up the mountainous terrain, and then the second half is all downhill as the road descends into the sacred valley towards Pisac.

View from the front of the bus to Pisac

Upon arriving at Pisac I went straight to Paz y Luz where I met and spoke to Javier for awhile. Then I booked myself into a room and got myself some much needed sleep before we met for the ceremony at 5.30pm.

The ceremony with Javier was awesome. He’s created a really safe and sacred space in his ceremony room at the back of his house. I don’t want to write too much about my experience but I felt tremendous love and energy for the full length of the ceremony. As stated above I will write more about ayahuasca in future posts because it’s played an important role in my spiritual journey so far.

View from the sacred valley

On the Sunday morning I caught the bus back to Cusco and got some much needed rest and begin the process of integrating what I had learnt the previous two nights.

On the Sunday evening I went to see a guy who had a spare room in a house he managed. The room was perfect and I moved in the following morning. It’s costing me 600 soles a month (about £135) and as I write this I’ve spent two nights there. It feels like one of the most perfect houses I could have found. In fact I didn’t really find it – it found me – just like I knew it would. More information and pictures coming soon.

Anyway, that’s my summary of my first week so far. It’s been a wonderful week and I’m feeling really high on life right now. If every other week is as good as this then I’m going to have an amazing experience here.

Click here for more photos