It is the morning after our first ceremony in Iquitos. We skip breakfast and are met by Wilder, the man who brought us to the Shaman and told us about the opportunity his company offers in the first place. He got us a Tuk Tuk and rode behind us on his motorbike. We lost track of him along the way but thankfully I recognized the alley of the Shaman and instructed the driver to turn off on to it. We even managed to recognize the Shamans house, even though it was all very dark when we arrived there the previous night. We went inside and waited for Wilder to arrive. After 20 minutes of waiting I communicated as best I could with the Shaman that I thought he had lost track of us and driven ahead thinking our driver would keep going passed the alley, which indeed he would have, had we not told him otherwise. The Shaman called Wilder and he joined us soon after confirming my suspicions.Together with the Shaman and Wilder as our interpreter, we talked about our experiences with the Ayuhuasca the previous night. Then they discussed how long we should spend in the jungle. Wilder wanted to know how much time we had to spend and foolishly I think we said, ¨As long as it takes¨ something you just don't say to tourist companies before making a deal with them. Always know how long you´ll commit to. We had talked about doing 2 months before even arriving in Peru but I wasn't really serious about it. Blake however said flatly that 2 months would do to start. Wilder looked at us intensely for a moment, confirmed what we said, turned and told the Shaman. With a few exchanges, which I took to a rescheduling of his life calendar for the next 8 weeks, everything on their side of the conversation ended. We thanked the Shaman and returned to the main part of the city and had lunch at Texas Rose with Carolina. Then we went home and slept in our bunk beds until 5pm. Wilder came at that time and took us the offices of the company;You can find the lodge details here: http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/HotelReview-g294315-d3514228-Reviews-RenacoLodge-IquitosLoretoRegion.htmlWe walked inside the office and he asked us to have a seat. He went into detail about everything we would see, showed us on a map where we would be going in the Amazon and then showed us some pictures of the lodge and some animals. Salesmanship tactics differ slightly everywhere in the world but well and truly Wilder is good at selling ideas to people, and we were eager to be sold, a truly dangerous combination. After a little more posturing he hit us with the price. $750 a week, we laughed a little and told him it simply wasn't possible, at that price each of us would have to commit to $6,000 dollars for the 2 month duration, in a place we had never been, under circumstances we did not know, something I was not going to do no matter what Blake wanted.I made a flat offer of 1500 a month, which comes out to $375 a week. Wilder looked less than happy with this amount but I knew how things here go, the price a Peruvian would pay for something like this would still be even lower than that, and were now in the slowest part of the tourist season, deals can be made. Blake however wasn't ready to give in so easily and offered them $1750 a month for the experience. I didn't like it, but accepted it because I was ready to fulfill our purpose here, even at extra cost, which Blake made clear to me was the least of his concerns if it meant healing himself, a notion I agree with in and of itself, but cannot fully endorse without proper assurance of success, I've always been a stickler for money its true, but because of this, I've always been able to buy what I needed and travel when I wanted. Blake's counter offer seemed to turn the tide in Wilder's mind and he excused himself from the table to "speak with the boss" A classic sales tactic that anyone buying a car will know all too well.Wilder came back and said that because we were friends with the boss's daughter he would accept our offer. $3500 a month for 2 people, it's more than I wanted to pay, but like Blake said, "It's a once and a lifetime experience, and for something like that, its not that much money." Blake tried to get money out of the Bank but it would only give him $200 at a time and in soles not dollars, so he asked his parents to Western Union him some money. In the meantime I would front him the money to pay for the trip. We had dinner with Carolina and returned to the hostel to think about what we had just signed ourselves up for...
Choquequrio - The Guidance of Guides
Setting out for the ruins at 6am and leaving Blake's large pack in the dutch's tent, with only the detachable fanny pack to carry, we quickly ascended up the mountain. It was still a challenge for me, I wasn´t exactly tip-top shape after the nights festivities, but still I progressed much more fluidly than before. After a couple of hours we made it to a stream running down from the high mountains and decided it was likely safe enough to fill our now empty water bottles with, better this we thought than pay the 14 or 16 soles for a new bottle at the next camp.A short distance later we passed a wooden gate with old flip-flops nailed into it for hinges and began walking on a dirt path passing land that had recently been cleared for growing food of various types. Then we came upon another wooden fence, where there was a
nother old woman walking between mud brick buildings. She spotted us and came to the gate, opening it with a noticeable glimmer in her smile. ¨Where are you from?¨ she asked in spanish. California we replied, ¨ahh the United States!¨ again in spanish. Welcoming us to the table she asked what we would like and we ordered soup, Blake with an egg and mine without.Seeing all the wild chickens about, happy and free, Blake sighed audibly and said in a condescending manner, ¨danny you know if there was ever a time to eat eggs it would be here and now¨ Seeing the truth in his words and in the situation, knowing how badly my muscles needed rich proteins to rebuild themselves, I agreed and joined the lady in the hut to increase our order of eggs. After all, I´m mostly a vegetarian because of my disgust with the corporate farming done in the States, and these chickens look like they've never seen the inside of a cage in their entire lives.The soup was angel hair pasta with carrots and potatoes, totally delicious, and the eggs were just as great, opening them up they were a dark and rich orange, even more so than those I remember from Germany, but that's probably just my 3 year absentee biased showing through the cracks of my memory. We thanked the lady very much for the meal and continued on up the mountain. Very shortly after that we made it to the guides house were we paid the 37 soles each to get in. I left my water there, but we still had 2 bottles left. The ruins could be seen from this part of the mountain, but we still had to hike another 20 minutes to reach the first of the terraces lining the hills.Deciding to go to the very top of the lookout first we made it to the rounded turret that looked out over the entire valley. At the end of the circle there was a sign that read, Casa do sacridol or something like that, I thought it was the house of sacrifice but that's not the translation so I can't really say. Anyways, we went down the hill to the house and got on top of the wall where the roof used to be, setting up his speakers, Blake bumped the music and we danced along the edges to the beat. At this time we were the only people in the ruins.Upon returning to the main part we met up with the dutch couple and shared travel stories. They had already been traveling for 7 months and were set to go for another 7, going next to California, Hawaii and then Japan. We asked them if they had heard about Ayahuasca and they asked if it was another hike in Peru, we explained that it was a Shamanistic plant and they quickly dismissed the idea, stating that they were tired of everyone assuming they were into drugs because they were from the Netherlands. Then they told us a story about their relative who thought he could fly on drugs and jumped off a building, becoming extremely sensitive to all stimulus in his legs, even the wind on his legs could cause extreme pain. "If that happened to me I'd just have the doctors chop my leg off and attach a bionic one." said Blake, I mostly concurred..We wished them well and headed back to the hut for more soup, and more eggs. The ruins were nice after all, but we were more interested in the pain in our bodies and the promise of returning home to our warm, dry beds in Cusco. My water bottle was just where I left it, I grabbed it and shortly after we were back at the house. This time there were two Peruvians also sitting down at the table. We joined them and introduced ourselves. The older one spoke English well and explained that he and his friend were guides for the Choquequrio ruins. Both of them were drinking some murky liquid that filled a pitcher on the table. "you want to try?" they asked. It has alcohol? I questioned after smelling the stuff. "no, no, it is all natural!" Blake and I both partook and turned to each other with a knowing glance, "it may not have alcohol but drinking it will get you drunk," Blake said aloud.Blake ordered 2 more pitchers and we very quickly got to know our new friends. They explained that what we were drinking was chicha, an ancient maze beer drank by the Incans in their own time. A pitcher was 4 soles or $1.33 it was incredibly smooth and barely tasted of alcohol, but it was most definitely getting us all drunk. The two had already had 3 or 4 pitchers before we arrived and were very open and relaxed. The younger one would interrupt whatever conversation we were having every so often and apologize for his lack of English skills, the more we drank the more frequent the apologeze became, eventually to the point of his elder taking him aside and making clear we understood his lack of communication skills, whether in English or any other form and that he should complete the experience in a slumped state of silent bliss.The elder guide suggested we descend slowly and reach the camp above the river on the other side leading back to cochora, where there would be much fewer miquitos and it would be cooler. We thanked them for the advice and for sharing the experience and descended slowly as he suggested, which was a little difficult for how loose we were in our steps, which is precisely why he suggested it. By the time we made it to the bottom it was already getting dark, but we pressed on, hoping to meet his suggestion and make it to the next camp.We had to use a headlamp in the final stretch of the climb, and when we made it to the camp there was no one there to meet us, only a dim light hanging from the inside of the hut, we called inside to greet whoever was there, but no reply was given. We went around the hut and on to one of the terraces and set up our tent, it immediately began to rain. By this time I was already showing signs of a cough, I tried my best to drink plenty of water and unfortunately did not cover myself well enough, leaving my feet and arms exposed to the many insects I allowed to enter our leaking, REI garage sale tent..