The Final Ceremony

One last time at breakfast we met with the swiss and an Austrian couple who live in Chile and Paris. We discussed politics, economics, education, science, healthcare and finally our experiences with diving, which the Austrian guy had a great deal of, having dived nearly everywhere. He had some interesting ship wreck dive storied tell as well. The Swiss gave me their contact information before leaving back to Iquitos with the Austrians, now I have a place to stay in Zurich.The boat that took them away brought a young Canadian dance couple who were trying to enter the US with 01 visas, which are applicable only to "Artists with extraordinary ability." The pair were also looking to do ayahuasca and were pretty cool to talk to. Their guide wasn't able to get them a ceremony while they were here, but he did find them some plants with high leves of DMT and smoke the leaves. They told us it was like smoking marijuana but much much better.It was decided that our last ceremony would be held in one of the rooms at camp, because our hut was "full of bad energy." The room Christian chose was at the farthest point away from our hut in the woods, it was an enclosed space, with blinds on the windows, making it very dark. At 8pm we entered the room and prepared to make the most of our last shot at visions with the ayahuasca medicine.Christian first prepared the room with the proper incantations, blowing smoke at each wall with a large hissing exhale, even the floor and ceiling were cleansed. Next he did the same with our bodies and after sang a prayer with our names repeated often, asking the spirits to grant us good visions. Because the acoustics were much better in the room than that of our hut, the songs were way more intense and seemed entirely different than before.Blake drank a dose and a half of the medicine, but Ricky told Christian to give me almost 3 times the normal dose, easily more than Id ever drank. Which wasn't a walk in the park let me tell you! An hour and a half later I was really starting to trip hard, sadly it wasn't to last, for I spent the next 10 minutes vomiting painfully hard. Another 10 minutes passed and I still felt pretty bad, so I forced myself to vomit yet again. After which I was much better, and thankfully, still feeling the effects of the medicine, having good visions. Well, better than the last 4-5 ceremonies at any rate.For the next two hours Blake and I laughed like crazy, each of us triggering the other with impersonations of various characters in our lives we know and love. His laugh making me laugh and vice versa, as it's always been between Blake and those he's around, having the very loud, and very infectious laugh that he does. In the end Blake made himself vomit as well, signaling the end of our final ceremony. With one last prayer, we lit the candles and sat in the room talking about the experience.Ricky hadn't drank, but in the middle of the ceremony, while we were all smoking mopatcho*pure tobacco cigarettes, even me because it supposedly helps with visions, I saw Ricky in the corner swaying side to side in a trance, breathing erratically. It only lasted 5 minutes, but he said he was having some kind of flashback, the contents of which he wouldn't elaborate on.We exited the room, swaying on weak legs, and returned to our hut, saying good night to Ricky and the young Shamans. Blake and I were struck by the beauty of the night, the stars were barely visible and mostly shrouded by the clouds, but seemed to be right in front of our eyes, shimmering in the darkness that pulsated with every breath.The moon was low in the sky, illuminating the jungle behind Wilders hut, which we were still using.Blake was still in the trip and wasn't yet ready to sleep, so he got his head lamp and we walked down to the water. This would not last long however, because his light attracted every mosquito in the area, swarming around him in a ball so dense it seemed he would be totally consumed. We returned to the room, escaping the swarm, but not the lasting effects of the ayahuasca, which kept us almost entirely awake till the dawn..

Enough!

It was a sad rainy morning, neither of us were happy, and our greatest comfort was mocking Wilder and laughing about the crummy situation we've paid to be in. Our list of concerns included but were not limited to, There being no running water in our hut for the last 6 days, having little to no fresh drinking water or food or to eat besides rice and potatoes, our hut being a mosquito death trap, and Wilder being a vicious lying scumbag. On the bright side of things I finished reading The Morningstar and was quite pleased with it as a whole.Lunch took till 1:30 to be served because they were waiting for Wilder and a new guest to arrive. It would seem they prefer everyone to mingle during meals instead of having them served on time. Regardless of how many times we've made clear to the cooks, guides and management that we want the food on time. After four weeks of the ayahuasca diet, the last thing you want to do is waste time waiting at the table for your bland food to arrive.Before the food came Wilder arrived and with him a self described Canadian red neck named Arthur. Right after telling us that he sat down and told us he was here because he was crazy, tried to kill himself by sitting in a car with the engine running, windows and garage door all duck taped shut too. But it was a hybrid car and barely used enough gasoline to put him down so he lived. He assured us however that he would not fail the next time.He went on to say that he was looking for a month long ayahuasca retreat like we were doing and wanted to know what we thought of it. We happily vented our misgivings of our Renaco lodge experience and he thanked us for it, leaving within minutes of arriving on the same boat he came with, back to Iquitos. The last thing we said to each other was that neither of us was leaving Peru until we had our minds exploded and spirits healed, and with that we bumped fists in the universal new age sign of brotherhood.Ricky, Christian & his apprentice (whose name I never got), a guide, Blake and I took a boat into the swampland forrest and gathered the bark from several trees found there. We returned, soaked them in water, waited several hours and then drank before dinner. It tasted like the pruno alcohol they make from fruits in jail, which one of our childhood friends got a taste for after a couple of extended vacations inside the joint.A swiss couple came the next morning, the women was originally from Bosnia and after getting to know us a little better told us of the horrors she survived during the Bosnian war. Although every war is hell, it always hits me hardest hearing it from the people who lived it.We had our ceremony at 8:30 till just before midnight. When Victor didn't show up with everyone else, as I had made clear we wanted him to be, I lost my temper and yelled at Ricky and Christian. They either didn't understand our request, didn't care, or couldn't make it happen. either way my show of anger tainted the entire ceremony. During which we drank twice the usual dose, I felt a little drunk but otherwise nothing special. Blake said he had pretty good visions though.The next morning while still laying in bed we had a chat about which people in our lives bring out the best in us, and what we needed to do to bring out the best in ourselves and others.At breakfast the first thing I did was check the "special cereal" that supposedly Caesar had made apart of our diet. It was a type of wheat and oats Kellogg's cereal id never seen before, and just as I suspected, packed with sugar. Ricky saw me frowning and shaking my head as I put down the box and said, "don't worry the water is working now." "No.." I said, "its not." He looked at me surprised saying, "Dennis told me he fixed it yesterday."I wanted to say that Dennis was a liar but Ricky already knew that, and Dennis was just walking in behind me. Trying not to loose my cool I just walked back to the table were Blake was peeling an orange and staring aimlessly into space. Ricky came in, I apologized for my angry outburst last night, he said it was alright and that he understood.Then he and a few other guys spent the next hour or so checking our huts source of water, a half inch plastic tube that went from camp to our hut hung on sticks 20 feet apart all the way there and duck taped together in several places it leaked from. I hoped they could fix it, but they gave up and Ricky apologized.Long before exploding I exhibit anger and frustration, but Blake's anger builds over a long period and you may not know your in the way of hells wrath before he's ready to explode. And if theres one thing that triggers him more than anything else is his food. Before lunch was served, all Blake said to me or anyone else was, "it better be on time.."When it finally came, late as feared, but as expected, I preempted the fury in Blake's near future and got up and went into the kitchen, telling Ricky, who was sitting at the kitchen table with all the workers, that we would be leaving tomorrow with the Swiss back to Iquitos, and walked promptly out. Ricky came out a few minutes later with Christian and said he felt very bad about everything, asking us to stay one more day to finish our last ceremony. We agreed, but only because we didn't want to leave on such a sour note and we wanted another shot at visions.

Caesars Son

After breakfast Ricky and I took a canoe and paddled several hundred yards up river. Blake was invited too but he chose to remain behind. One of the things I noticed right away was how much more wildlife there was around while paddling as opposed to when using the noisy motor. It was also nice to get some exercise. We didn't keep paddling for long though.Ricky started the motor when we reached the big bend and we went up a part of the river I've never been to, where the water is still black instead of brown, which actually means its cleaner. Wilder told us it was because the sap from all the trees and decaying organic matter purified the water and also turned it black. The brown water is whats just been washed downstream by the rains and contains all kinds of filth from everywhere in the Amazon.We pulled up beside some camu-camu bushes that were mostly submerged in the river and started picking. When we gathered enough, Ricky asked if it was time to go swimming? I didn't say anything I just jumped in. The water there was colder than our part of the river at camp, it was really nice and refreshing as well.Ricky positioned the boat in the middle of the river, lifted the motor out of the water and jumped in as well. With both of us holding on to the canoe from opposite sides, keeping it centered and clear from shore as we drifted downstream.We talked more about his life, how the terrorists had tried to recruit him after he left the military, threatening his family if he didn't join them, and how he had escaped their custody at the border by playing dumb with the guards. Miraculously his military unit came through the check point and rescued him, convincing the guards he wasn't with the terrorists and beating senseless the officer who had beaten up and tortured Ricky to get him to talk. An amazing tale to be sure but it was hardly the last or most intense of which he shared.As we returned to camp, Wilder arrived in another boat with Caesars son, Christian, who we learned was only 26 years old. He also had an apprentice with him who was 24. In my mind a Shaman should be an old man, full of wisdom and experience. But I suppose they have to start sometime don't they? Christian, we learned, had started drinking ayahuasca at eight years old with his grandfather, and became a shaman when he turned 18. Ten years of study.. Fair enough, I thought, we'll see how it goes.At 8pm, Ricky, Christian, his apprentice, Blake and I all went to the hut and started the ceremony. I felt no affect from the ayahuasca but Christian was full of energy and sang beautifully, calming me down and allowing me to enjoy it none the less.During the night I had a nightmare of a black scorpion crawling in my hands, it turned to face me, curled back it's tail, yellow eyes shimmering and lept at my face. It was very very real, and I woke up in a fright. Checking around the room, realizing the illusion, I feel back asleep warily, hoping the dark creature would not return.

The Don Is Gone

Blake left the hut this morning before me. When I put on my gum boots as usual for the mud ridden walk to camp, I felt something squishy under my right heel. I wasn't about to walk to camp with shit in my shoes, so I took it off and looked inside to see what it was. I jumped as I saw a big ass brown spider looking ready to leap out of my boot straight at my face.As I did my boot fell from the stairs landing in the mud, and the spider raced across the ground hiding under the fire wood we used to cook the ayahuasca. I got my boot on and walked over to checked him out. He was obviously wounded by my weight coming down on him, perhaps even mortally so. I felt bad, he just wanted a warm and dry place to sleep. Needless to say, from then on out I always checked my boots before putting them on.The rest of the day was entirely uneventful. I can basically qualify the second ceremony with Don Romano as a non event as well. He was so weak that it lasted less than an hour and we felt nothing yet again from drinking his ayahuasca, which Blake is convinced is nothing but 100% vine of the dead. From what we saw in the pot, he's probably right.The next morning I had the shits and although breakfast was good I was feeling worse and worse. I had to make myself vomit just so I could eat lunch. Which was probably a mistake because of how horrible the dish was. Some kind of rice and prehistoric catfish goulash, "muck n stuff" I called it.We informed Ricky that there would be no more ceremonies with Don Romano and that we wanted Victor or Caesar as our Shamans, no one else. We communicated this in the nicest possible way of course, and Ricky was sympathetic and agreed that Romano had very low energy. He called Wilder on the phone and told him the news. Wilder then talked to me and said that Caesars son would come instead of him because Caesar was in the hospital for his wife. I tried to tell him we were fine with Victor but he was insistent and assured me, if such a thing was possible..., that his son would be fine, then the line went dead. We called back, he repeated his assurances and again the line cut out.Ricky could see we were loosing what was left of our patience and suggested a boat ride to Liberta to search for Victor. The daily rains have begun to raise the water level of the river, opening passages that were previously too shallow to navigate, we would use such a passage. Blake strapped his mini boom box around his waist and blared rap and trance music as we slowly rode through the beautiful narrow river, seeing large families of monkeys, iguanas and rare birds.When we made it to Liberta Ricky requested more rap music and then got his groove on to the beets. He's actually damn good. As he busted out some skillful moves he told us about his youth, "Back when I was young, I was really crazy. Many times my friends and I were thrown out of the club, we got so crazy dancing and drinking, you don't know, so so crazy man. Oh my god!"He danced for 40 yards straight across the main walkway of the village until we reached the Scorpion house of Starch, where we hoped to find Victor, but he wasn't there so we returned to camp and decided to sleep in same hut that Wilder usually does when guests aren't using it. We quickly noticed It was the nicest room in camp, practically no mosquitos got inside, it had big windows with great airflow and low and behold a great working shower!It made me remember the first few days we were here, when Wilder showed us the hut and told us it was the best one in camp, "you'll like it here, there are too many mosquitos in our hut, you got a nice bathroom and it's quite, your lucky." Everything That man says just adds fuel to the fire and were the only ones getting burned.We were supposed to drink again tonight, but Victor it seemed had had his dancing shoes on as well and came back drunk from a party somewhere, thus no ceremony took place. The four of us did however play Casino and Blackjack by candle light. Victor won almost every game of Blackjack, but Ricky and I destroyed Blake and Victor at Casino. Victor told us some crazy storied about being in the Peruvian military 60 years ago, and of some wild horny women needing a Shamans special touch, which of course he was obligated to provide. He was definitely drunk..

Water Mission

At 6am I started writing down my dreams, didn't think I had slept very well but there was no fatigue in my body to speak of and my thoughts were clear. We read in the morning and arrived right on time for breakfast to be served. We scarfed that down and played a quick game of criminal punch before going right back to the hut to read.Don Romano, his son and Ricky were already there preparing a new batch of ayahuasca in a 1 and a half-foot wide black cooking pot. All we could see inside was the vine of the dead, the MAO inhibitor containing element of ayahuasca that allows the DMT to be used orally, which is normally not possible because our stomachs contain an acid that breaks down DMT before it can be used by the body, and that's a good thing because nearly everything contains DMT. Otherwise everyone would be tripping everyday and never be normal enough to function.We were supposedly going to be taught how to make the ayahuasca brew and how it all works, but all that they did was sit there and talk among themselves, occasionally stirring the brew. This was all happening under our hut while constantly fighting off mosquitos, and meanwhile Ricky, who was not needed as an interpretor, was laying down in the hut safe and sound.The Argentinians came to visit us then and we talked for a while about their country and what places were best to visit, they gave me their contact information and even offered us a place to stay while we were there. We shared lunch with them at a small table looking out over the water, which was moved there because the workers were fixing the holes in the dinning hall roof, of which there were many.Victor was clearing the entire camp of unwanted brush and helping the workers with moving lumber, as he did everyday before we woke up and until just before dinner. He and Ricky came up to us, smiled and asked if we wanted to go to another camp to get drinking water. "Drinking water?" I asked Ricky. "Yes we are out." I laughed, and we accepted the mission.Ricky stayed behind to manage the camp, since Wilder wasnt there he was next in command. We picked up the cross-eyed soccer kid at the first camp we went too, which was able to give us 4 gallons or so of water. Next we went to Liberta village and were given mixed fruit lemonade. While Victor talked to the owner of the establishment a guide came in and showed us the scorpion he had just caught. He let it out of its bottle cage on the table and the soccer kid was putting his face up to it and pushing the guide into it while he tried to capture it again. Victor had no patience for such things and asked us to take the boy outside.We took the kid out of the village and he showed us a pathway into the jungle where many different trees and crops wed not seen before were growing. The path was full of sharp sticks mud and spiny plants, im glad we had our gum boots, but the boy went barefoot totally unphased. When we reached the village the boy ran off into a house and we rejoined Victor, who was drinking KR cherry soda and watching the local girls play Bingo. We joined in on the game and only once got close to winning. We might have had better luck if we had anymore than a 3 year olds understanding of the spanish number system.We then returned to camp, having succeeded in our mission for water, a mere 4 gallons. We had noodle soup for dinner, of which I ate far too much, and played a few great games of criminal punch with Ricky, who loves card games and shows a whole new personality while playing it, just like Wilder does. New people come tomorrow, I can't wait to meet them!

Cards & Conversation

This morning we went to camp and had or usual pre-breakfast ritual of cards and conversation. Laura was already there and joined in. We taught her criminal punch and got into a very deep conversation with her about each of our childhoods, our reasons for being here in Peru seeking ayahuasca, and what we wanted to bring back home with us to our family and friends.Ricky came in when breakfast was over and invited everyone to join him on a mission to the other villages, only Blake accepted. David and Yuka went on a wildlife tour with a different guide, leaving Laura and I alone at the table to continue the conversation.We talked about our early years and the lovers in our lives that changed us, for better or worse. How each new love was a shadow of our first, who we hoped could replace them, or a hopeless opposite that taught us exactly the kind of person we couldn't be with. We talked about our dreams for the future and what we were doing to see them come true.Whoever had the cards would shuffle them endlessly while they talked for a long period of time, it served almost as a mediation, giving each of us something to do with our hands, allowing the mind to concentrate on remembering the past or considering the future.Before I knew it, two hours had gone by and I looked past Laura to see that everyone was returning from their journeys away from camp. "They're back..." I said, rather disappointed. Laura looked, then turned back to me and said, "I think the they're shuffled enough," referring to the cards, and perhaps our thoughts and emotions as well.We talked about meeting up in California where she might visit in January - february or Europe, a possibility I admitted was very likely, considering my plans of returning to Europe for the first time in 5 years, when Blake and I were there last in 2009. That's a whole other blog that I never got around to finishing...Laura and David were leaving in less than 30 minutes and had to pack up so we ended the conversation there.Wilder came back from Iquitos with Don Romano and his son, who as we were surprised to find out, would be replacing Caesar as our new shaman. We were told this was because Caesar had to tend to his wife who was in the hospital. Don Romano was younger than both Victor and Caesar, but he looked like he already had a foot solidly planted in the grave. Anyways, we didn't understand why Wilder surprised us with this instead of letting us keep using Victor who we really enjoyed.At this point it was obvious that two more months of this experience would be far more detrimental to our health and wellbeing than it would do any good, so we sat down with Wilder and informed him we would only be staying a month. As We did, the blood in his face could easily be seen draining away, and his eyes stared through me blankly as if towards some terrible fate that awaited either him or us in the near future, I couldn't tell which.After that he got up and went into the kitchen to call Moisess informing him of our decision, walking away with his head slumped as though wounded by a sudden stomach pain. Ricky came in from outside with a big smile and a ready joke, his usual self when he isn't relating the darkest moments of his life. "Want to learn a new card game? It's called casino!" Having reached the limits of fun playing 13 and thirsty for new games to play, we easily accepted.As he was laying out the cards and explaining the game to us Wilder returned from the kitchen and spotted us playing. He walked over to us and instantaneously changed his mood as he recognized the game. "Casino?" He asked Ricky. Ricky looked up at him as though he'd just been challenged by an old rival and smiled. "Yes.. Im teaching them how to play." Ricky replied. Wilder slapped his hands together and rubbed them vigorously with a genuine smile beaming from him that I hadn't thought possible, "we will teach them together!" He announced, and sat down beside Blake looking at his cards. Ricky looked at me, winked, and nodded his head at Wilder with a laugh.Ricky played against Blake, explaining the best options to me as he went, and Wilder basically made Blake's moves for him, explaining things precisely but too quickly to be of any use. Blake, I mean Wilder, ended up winning. The next game was just him and Ricky while we watched. I've never seen Wilder so happy and animated before, he's obviously very good at cards.We skipped dinner and sat down for ceremony with Don Romano, his son, who helped him with all but handing the cups to us, and Ricky who translated. We drank and I asked for the true spirit of ayahuasca to flow through me. I was very happy through the whole ceremony, but otherwise was totally normal. The ceremony, if you could call it that, was only an hour-long as opposed to the normal three and Don Romano barely chanted or did any rituals for us. All he did the whole time was smoke heinous amounts of tobacco and cough. Blake denies it but I swear I saw him fall asleep 30 minutes into the ritual. Neither of us vomited and we both went right to sleep.

Ricky Ricardo

Its a real pain to get up, turn on the light and start writing down my dreams with half asleep eyes. Back home I usually just voice record them on my phone, but since I don't want to wake up Blake, either with my horse morning voice or the light above our heads, I just write them down on my phone.In the morning we joined our new friends for breakfast in camp. We played some great games of 13 with David, Laura and Yuka. When breakfast was concluded and everyone either returned to the rooms or went off on a tour with their guides, Blake and I walked back to our hut through the jungle pathway, a stroll i've very much come to enjoy the last few days. It grows on you, being in the midst of constant danger and beauty. Just so long as it remains as a reminder of your mortality and not a harsh lesson of it that is.While in our hut we only ever do 3 things, kill mosquitos, read while killing Mosquitos, or sleep/rest in our beds to escape the Mosquitos... Id say we are attacked by an average of 2 mosquitos every minute, for at least 8 hours of the day. The worst times being right after a rain, which is nearly all the time being the rainforest and all, and just before going to sleep at around 7pm.Every time we fix a hole in the defenses of the house we notice another somewhere else. A few days ago Dennis nailed boards under every crack between the floorboards under the hut, some of which were an inch in diameter, more than enough to get in, not only for mosquitos but countless other creepy crawlers, winged menaces and slime secreting organisms. The names of which I could only guess at and the descriptions for which would no doubt, and have no doubt inspired any number of science fiction writers throughout the ages. No matter how many we killed, or how many patches we made, there was no reprieve, and out of this, but in addition to many other things, our frustration grew..Blakes reading "The Morningstar" a medieval fantasy tale, and Im reading "The 6th Man" a murder mystery involving the smartest man alive. We read until lunch time when we returned to camp and once again arrived too early and were left with our usual set of choices, sit and wait patiently (the least favored by far) or play cards. We went with the latter choice. The food appeared after everyone else had arrived and we were already halfway through a game, which we set aside to commence the sustainment of our Earthy vessels.During and after the meal we all got to talking more about ourselves. I talked about my interests in travel, writing, the arts and of course my long history of gaming. We discussed our favorite directors, I usually only talk about favorite movies or actors when discussing film, but I didn't have to think much about it, James Cameron for the win!We also talked about what musical instruments we played, currently or in school, I don't often look back at the 2 and a half years I spent in elementary and middle school fiddling about with the trombone, it was an interesting recollection to be sure.After lunch Laura, David and Yuka went camping and we continued to read.Ricky Ricardo was Antoine and Marilou's guide before they left. He was now assigned to us, and came to visit while we were reading in the living room. He knocked and entered through our front door, which had no door knob, is closed by a wedging a string between the door and the jam, and must be kept shut at all times, which it rarely was with so many people coming and going, lest the mosquitos have it any easier than they already did in getting in.Ricky found a place to sit on a mat against the wall and gave us a wide smile that was colored by the grief in his eyes. I knew this because Ricky had sat down with the us and the Canadians at dinner two nights passed and told us about his experiences as a Peruvian army commando. Fighting against drug cartels and political guerrillas in the jungles of South America back in the 80's.It had begun when he overheard us talking about ghosts and spirits in relation to ayahuasca. Thats when he came to the table and asked us if we believed in paranormal activity. He started out telling us the story of tracking guerrillas in the jungle and having to spend the night in a cemetery where he fell into a kind of trance in a collapsed grave while on watch.He told us he heard footsteps coming behind him, he wanted to open his eyes and look to see who it was but he was frozen in place, the foot steps got closer, Ricky was breathing heavily, trying as hard as he could to fight the paralysis or whatever it was and fulfill his duty as watchman and protect the other men sleeping in his unit, but he couldn't, and every step added another chill down his spine.As the steps reached his side he heard a hallow and yet sharp voice speak, "why are you here?" It said, and suddenly Ricky was smacked hard in the side of the head and he rolled out of the grave getting to his feet and yelling to the other men, who woke up and came over to see what was the matter. Ricky said there was a huge red mark on his face and everyone looked around to find whoever has hit him for over an hour. But found no one. After that it was Ricky's turn to sleep with the rest of the unit in the little abandoned hut on the hill just under the cemetery.When he finally closed his eyes and slept he was woken up immediately in the same place by another soldier, "no, let me sleep he said" but the soldier tucked hard at his collar, pulling him close to his face. It was then that Ricky noticed  he could not make out who the man was. Ricky was afraid he might be a guerrilla and screamed, "who are you!?"  no light shone upon him and Ricky grabbed his flash light from his gear and shined it at him. But it didn't do any good, for Ricky saw that the soldiers face was missing, blown away by a grenade or close range large-caliber gun shot. "Who are you!?" He said again. The dark and twisted remnants of the mans face moved and a clear voice could be heard, "I'm your friend." As he said this Ricky lost all patience and attacked the gloomy figure.This is where the other men of the unit are woken up by him screaming and throwing punches in his sleep. No matter how hard they shook him he wouldn't wake up, until the captain threw water in his face and Ricky sprung to his feet pulling his combat knife from his holster, sweating like a  frozen water bottle in Death Valley. "Where is he!?" Ricky screamed, "I'll kill him!" "It was just a dream Ricky," said the captain. "No! He's here! I was just with him!"The captain asked for the sergeants water bottle, which was always filled with liquor, and gave it to Ricky, he took a couple swigs and finally came to his senses. It was nearly dawn by then and the squad packed up and left. A few days later they found the guerrillas and pursued them further into the mountains.Ricky told us this the night Antoine and Marilou took ayahuasca. The next day we saw him teary eyed standing alone looking out into the jungle, and now he was in our hut, telling us more commando stories of which I wont get into. After he shared the next stories with us Ricky changed the subject and told us of his christmas plans to buy fruit cake and toys and make hot chocolate, giving it all out to the children of his village back in Iquitos. He invited us to participate and we whole heartedly accepted the offer. Ricky then told us of his past business experiences building a resort in the jungle, and that his partner was a drunk and very mean, eventually running it into the ground. Ricky then thanked us for everything and left.At dinner it was just us and Ricky, who in addition to being our Guide was also our cook, a very good one too. He taught us two new card games, one of which he calls criminal punch, but I'm pretty sure its just Jin rummy with a Peruvian flare. He continued telling us ever more gruesome and terrifying commando stories while we played criminal punch by candle light, adding a wonderful ambiance to the whole scene.The Argentinians, who had gone camping a day before and were supposed to be gone two more days, came back while we were about to go to bed, apparently it had been far to rainy and mosquito ridden for them. From some of the things Ricky told us, it seems almost childish to complain about such things, something I would have to remind myself of more than once in the days to come..

Starch Wars

Blake finished Psychology of the Transference in the morning, a great book for us to have read while on this journey, especially since were both dealing with our psyches in our dreams and in the psychedelic realms.We shared lunch with the Canadian God cousins, played 13 and spoke more about the New World Order and about our lives at home. When 4pm rolled around everyone in the camp was given the choice to either visit liberta village, the one with the paved roads and working street lights, to watch the soccer game, or effectively to stay in camp alone, naturally we all decided to go.When we arrived Blake was already hungry again and walked off into the village looking for fruit to score from a tree or generous mind reading local. I joined him and on the walk we found Victor rummaging through the bushes gathering plants, we told him we wanted some fruit and his keen eyes instantly bounced back and forth between the houses, trees and bushes surrounding us, then he walked off without a word.A moment later he had returned with a bundle of bananas, of which Blakes share was gone as soon as it landed in his hands. Victor grinned his two tooth grin and asked if we wanted more. We told him we did and he waved his fingers toward him indicating that we should follow. We got one each from one house and some more from another, but at that house they asked Victor to ask us if we wanted to "see their work" we didn't know what that meant and weren't really interested but they had given us free food so we went in the hut to see none the less.The women started pulling out necklaces and bracelets from a bag and we understood. I found nothing that fancied me but Blake got 3 protection bracelets for 10 soles, giving one to me, for which I was thankful. They are made up of little oval nuts painted half red and half black and are used to protect babies from evil spirits and the jealous negative emotions of others. We thanked them and left the house.We had already eaten a few bananas each but Blakes hunger was insatiable, so when we joined the others who were watching the game and eating salt slathered Chinese rice and chicken, we ordered the only thing we could from the kitchen, saltless rice, 2 boiled eggs and yucca, dry as the desert and plain as day. I asked the lady for a lemon, she nodded as if she understood and disappeared behind the counter, a moment later reappearing on the deck where she sat down to watch the game. Wilder told me later that lemons all had to be brought from Iquitos and were something of a specialty item here. In the end we didn't even eat half the rice on our plates. Our stomachs hurt after as well, so even the fact that the food was dirt cheap didn't smooth things over much.Music was playing then and Blake broke out into a funky dance alone in the middle of the room, with me joining in soon after. I only danced a few minutes and then stopped, but Blake went wild, doing the inch worm body roll, moon walk, saturday night fever twist and more, he was off the hook! When he finished we gathered in the corner where Marilou and Antoine were eating.Marilou was having a hard time with her chicken because sitting on the ledge above them was a hen staring murderously at her as she half heartedly picked at her meal. Their guide was not tall enough to get rid of the hen so he enlisted Blake to do the job for him, which he did with a cold and calculated smack to its face, which amazing it rebounded from, but not so with the second strike, which knocked it off the ledge and down the outside wall of the establishment. Everyone thought this was real funny, but in spite of it all Marilou was no longer in the mood for poultry.Afterward Blake, Wilder, Nick(Moisess son) and   I played soccer with a wild cross-eyed local boy, probably no older than 7. When that was done we all piled on to the canoe and headed back to camp. On the way home a pod of dolphins surrounded our boat and jumped all around us, there wasnt much light in the sky then, but it was a beautiful sight all the same. For dinner we had noodle soup and after that we took plant baths that Victor had prepared for us before we left. Sadly, we didn't sleep well at all, too much damn starch!