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Jungle Medicine 1 – Ecuador

Tena, Ecuador Javier – Apprentice Shaman (Jungle Tour) Our first attempt at meeting a shaman and partaking in an Ayahuasca ceremony wasn’t a particularly successful […]

Tena, Ecuador

Javier – Apprentice Shaman (Jungle Tour)

Our first attempt at meeting a shaman and partaking in an Ayahuasca ceremony wasn’t a particularly successful one. With some strong intel that Tena, a jungle frontier town some 5 or 6 hours from Quito in Ecuador, was a key hub for shaman we arrived to find the place completely shutdown for the weekend. The guides and shaman contacts we had contact details and introductions for turned out not to be answering phones or responding to emails and we were reduced to tackling things the old fashioned way. Hanging around for a few days and walking the town, we talked to a number of travel and tour companies, scraping together their recommendations on jungle / shaman adventures. Not an ideal way to do things but several seemed to have some options that they could put together – it was definitely low season. This was not the first, well-researched, beautiful introduction to the Ayahuasca medicine we were seeking, but we were here and working through the options decided on one anyway.

Our funky Jungle Hut.

Steering clear of foreign options, a local company said they would take us on a 3 day tour into the jungle near their traditional village, as part of which we would take Ayahuasca with a local shaman from the village or that was what we gleamed through our limited, heavily dialected Spanish conversation. It sounded quite authentic and was locally run so appealed – anyway it was cheap, we were here, why not?

As you would expect though, the reality didn’t quite match the expectations of our fervid imaginings. The village turned out to be located only some 20 minutes outside Tena, where we were dropped off on the side of the road outside town, each given gumboots and introduced to our guide / cook / shaman, Javier. Young, maybe mid-20’s, Javier was a cool looking guy with tattoo’s and a long plait of hair down his back, but little command of English. Not quite what we had in mind when it comes to our image of a shaman, but it looked like we could connect with him pretty well and we were kind of past the point of turning back.

We then set of on an hour walk through the jungle wading over numerous small streams in our gumboots and eventually arriving at a funkily crafted cabin in a well maintained clearing. The plan was to take Ayahuasca that night, so given the need to fast for the day beforehand we had little energy and nothing much to do except relax and rest. Relaxing in hammocks for most of the morning, we then walked went on a brief walk for a few hours while Javier introduced us to various medicinal plants, clays and their traditional uses. We were pretty impressed with ourselves simply in being able to follow most of what he said in Spanish.

Preparing the vine

Upon return we set about preparing the Ayahuasca brew. Under instructions and occasional intervention from Javier we cut down 2 x 2 foot lengths of a 12 year old Ayahuasca vine growing near the hut and chopped these into 4 x 15cm lengths each. We then stripped the vine of its thin covering of outer bark – the white inner wood of the vine reacting with the air, quickly turned a reddish brown. Apparently this is the strongest concentration of Ayahuasca in the vine. These pieces we then crushed into smaller, thinner strips and loaded into a large pot, covering with water. Javier then added several handfuls of Charipunga leaves to the pot and set it to boil for 3 or 4 hours, reducing the liquid to a couple of bowlfuls.

Around 8pm, with the moon lightening up the jungle night sky, Javier did a simple ceremony, blew some smoke over the broth and served us up a bowlful each. The taste was very earthy and bitter, but not nearly as vile as I was expecting. While we waited for it to take effect, he explained that his father was a shaman and that he had been taking Ayahuasca for 7 years studying under the 2 shaman of his village. At one point drinking Ayahuasca 20 days straight. Young as he was, it was re-assuring, we had had our doubts about the whole experience up until this point. Javier then began to softly sing icaro’s (sacred songs), play a flute and shake a fan made of leaves used for purifying energy and we settled back and waited for things to take effect.

Getting initiated by Javier

Megumi started throwing up right on schedule 30 minutes in, but I didn’t have the same compulsion. After 45 minutes I drank a little more – still no visions or nausea. After a little while though, I became dizzy, disorientated and unbalanced as though drunk. My thoughts quickened and started jumping around. I felt euphoric and perceived things in kind of an earie half-light, shadows and shapes appeared to move out of the corner of my eye. This continued for some 4 or 5 hours, it was all quite unusual, but not the visions and experience I was expecting. Javier later explained that it was not uncommon the first time, it took him several times before he experienced the visions.

Next day I tried eating and found myself throwing up as I should have the night before. Some delayed metabolistic reaction I guess, I was also still feeling a little weird and offbalance from the experience. But we headed off on a 6 hour jungle hike to a distant cave where we would spend the night By evening, following a big meal things were back to normal and we trekked back to the village and returned to Tena the next day.

In all it was a pleasant, if not really compelling experience. But the intimacy of cutting the vine and creating the brew ourselves, just us, the moon and the jungle for a first time seemed a beautiful orientation to the Ayahuasca experience. Even if the results had belied our expectations.

Tena, Ecuador

Shaman Don Luis / Kuyaloma

Returning to civilization we heard back from our original contacts, they had been caught up in a 10 day retreat during our previous visit, but had scheduled a ceremony for the following week that we could attend. It meant delaying our planned stay in Ecuador by another week, but it offered a more authentic experience and was too tempting to pass up, so we looped back around to Tena for another go. We have learnt many times on this trip that there is no point having regrets.

Our guide Feather Crown / Jan

At a meeting point by the river in central Tena, we met a group of 6 other ceremony participants (1 German, an older American guy, an older Austrian / American couple plus 2 local Ecuadorians) along with Jan, the guide and organizer of the experience. Jan who goes by the name “Feather Crown” is a Czech national that had been living in Ecuador for the past few years. In that time he had worked and studied with many of the shaman in the Tena area and occasionally put together guided experiences with some of them, such as the one we had signed up for.

Kuyaloma is located about 20 minutes from Tena towards Michualli, the other side of Tena to our previous adventure. It is a small community, presided over by the shaman Don Luis and his apprentice son Juan Andi. Don Luis is VP of the regional shaman council and considered one of the most respected and powerful shaman in the area. Jan had explained that there are more than 200 hundred shaman in the area, most villages and extended families have one, but many are alcoholics. There are few foreign Ayahuasca tourists here unlike in Peru, a large part of the reason we have sought out an experience here, thinking it would be more authentic. Jan has developed a relationship with Don Luis, partly because of the quality of his ceremonies and skills, but also because he is alcohol free and that the proceeds from the foreigners he brings here, are tangibly plowed back into the infrastructure. Located behind a large tin covered basketball court, which acts as the community refuge centre, Don Lui’s property is located on a hill, with the river and township below. Despite the proximity it still feels peaceful and somewhat isolated, surrounded by plants and jungle. He has recently built a 2 story block for simple sleeping accommodations, 2 stand alone tambo’s (huts) and a large circular ceremony hut. Recently covered pipelines and open dirt gutters show where sewerage for bathrooms had only just been completed.

The Ceremony hut - Malocca

Guided and translated into English by Jan, the ceremony starts around 8pm with an introduction by Don Luis who we had not seen in daylight. In the twilight, backlit only by glowing coals of the ceremonial huts fireplace, Don Luis castes an impressive figure – shirtless, wearing a grass skirt and a crown of feathers. He talks of how he came to his profession. A shamanic tradition handed down to him from his grandfather and fathers before him. Initially he was trained through stories from the spiritworld, until a visit to a sacred waterfall nearby led to a sacred experience and revelation of the spirits.

The ceremony space was a big, round, thatch-roofed hut, with a recessed fireplace built into the floor, and several fireplaces arranged outside with bench seating amongst the tree’s. We were all seated around the edge of the hut, cushioned benchseats, with foam mattresses behind on the wall so that you could lean back at a 60 degree angle comfortably. The Ayahuasca had been brewed that day from a Negro (black) vine and combined with Challipunga leaves, similar sounding to the brew we had made ourselves previously. When Don Luis had finished speaking, he began the ceremony itself , blessing the Ayahuasca brew by blowing tobacco smoke through the liquid and chanting some sacred songs (or icaro’s). We then each went forward, sat on a small wooden stool before him and after another blessing, drank a small shotfull of the Ayahuasca. The experience of this itself, castes a large mystical shadow – the feathers, grass, tobacco smoke and bare chest of the shaman in the dim light was transformative in and of itself. The Ayahuasca tasted much stronger than our first experience, though we are drinking considerably smaller quantities. After drinking, we are given Awasca, a plant stimulant to rinse our mouth and help rid some of the after taste, as well as some ginger to chew, also helping with digestion and nausea.

After a few minutes, everyone was leaning back meditating, relaxing and waiting for the brew to take hold. Don Luis started playing a small twangy instrument, a harmonica and singing songs, walking around purifying the space and the energy. The presence and atmosphere this created was captivating and magical all in itself. Within 15 minutes, several people fell heavily under the Ayahuasca spell, groaning and writhing on the ground, throwing up and grappling with all sorts of demons it seemed. It was intense and immensely distracting. Jan and some of the other family acting as assistants helped take these people outside, fanning them with leaves and feathers trying to calm them and remove negative energies. After an hour or so, I felt a sudden shift in the space, the twilight changed to a half-light, taking on an almost mystical aspect with slight visual inconsistencies appearing out of the corners of the eye, tinged with occasional flashes of blue fire – very subtle nothing strong or intense.

Preparing the Ayahuasca

After a while, with violent groans and purging still occurring outside I was called forward by the shaman for an energy cleansing. This is traditionally what shaman do for community members in Ecuador, whether or not you have even drunk Ayahuasca its really the key focus of the ceremony. Shirtless I sat before him on the small wooden stool while he set about balancing my energies. He started the cleansing by spit-spraying “agua de florida”, a perfumed alcohol over my body, front and back of my hands. He then placed his lips to the crown of my head and blew his energy into my being, sharing his knowledge and energetic strength, a process he later repeated at the end of the cleansing and by putting his lips to the palms of my hands. What followed next was a hypnotic, beautiful ceremony of sacred songs, instruments and ritualized fanning using dry leaves that were performed as an intense, energetic dance all over and around my body. The energy and intensity of the performance was both surreal and immense, it must have lasted a full half hour, during which I felt numbness and tingles over different parts of my body. When he finished I tried to stand and almost fell over, dizzy with the energetic transfer effect.

Cooking the brew

After relaxing for a few moments, I could stand and realized I felt totally euphoric, lighter and completely clear. Whatever had taken place during the cleansing had created a state of absolute clarity and bliss within me. I basked in it for a while and explored outside, even sensing the dark energies of the other participants still purging by the fire did not dampen my new found state. Not really feeling the effects of the Ayahuasca though I decided to take some more. Most people were outside now, groans, purging and bodies in different states littered the seats and fire areas. The shaman himself was by the fire, his wife and son hitting him with leaves, chanting songs and feeding him lemonwater. He was in very deep, as he later explained and they were trying to keep him in this world, to bring him back from the edge. Throat cleansing and purging echoed all around me in the night.

I still felt the twilight edge, but again the Ayahuasca seemed to have little effect – my new energy clarity seemed to have super-ceded the brews effects. I settled back around the fire as the evening started to calm down again, the shaman’s cleansing rituals, songs resuming as part of the others cleansing rituals, creating a harmonic and soothing background. About 4m we went to bed.

Breaking the fast the next day

The next day we shared a fantastic, Ayahuasca diet friendly breakfast cooked by Jan’s Slovakian partner. Then we sat down and shared experiences, everyone had a completely different perspective and story to tell it seemed, although myself and Megumi seemed quite aligned. No-one could believe I had taken 3 doses of Ayahuasca. Several people had lost all control and gone as close to the edge as they believed possible on the first. One American had done more than 40 ceremonies in Peru and rated this amongst the strongest he had ever had. Others had encountered spirits or purged deep personal issues. It’s a little disconcerting, I feel fantastic and clear – quite amazing really the energy cleansing must have really removed some significant burdens from me, but it was still not the deep, visionary, spirit world experience I was expecting. There is a sensitivity or attunement required with this particularly brew we are told from Jan – be patient. Deciding to ride the momentum, we agree to return the following day and sit in ceremony again.

Ceremony 2

Wow – what a difference a day makes. One of those total, revelatory, life changing experiences that you want to scream from the highest mountain tops with joy and new awareness!

Tobacco curing in the Malocca

The ceremony was almost identical in format, there were 9 of us, 6 returning from the first night, but all of us had a completely different experience. Don Luis started with a story again, telling us of a time when he was very young and had taken a journey 17 dys down the river into the Amazon somewhere in Peru. He had been given Ayahuasca and encountered a giant Anaconda which he rode and was taken on a journey that featured several outer world encounters. It was beautiful and mesmerising, even if I couldn’t really conceive yet some of the spaces he was sharing.

After blessing the brew, we imbibed. This time after 15 minutes, reality shifted completely. It started with a cold shiver that crawled up my body closing in like a veil, every core of my being vibrating. In front of me the light shifted and slowly everything transformed into a moving mosaic of organic fractals, a pulsing and shifting display of chemical structures before me. I was frozen and unable to move as the world started to kaleidoscope – buzzing with the intensity of this wave of transition. After a while I started to feel a wave of nausea and managed to find my way outside. Everything pulsed and moved visually, but as I made my way to the tree’s, I found them glowing with a bright purple energy field. Each emitted a discernable energy life force that I could see, sense and feel, it was totally Avatar like for want of a better description – a connection of the purest quality. Purging heavily I sensed spirits moving around me, one rose out of the ground right in front of me and beckoned me on. Of the earth, a weirdly shapeless form, dark brown, its arms like mittens waving my purging on, encouraging me to purge whatever negative energy or blocks I was trying to remove from my body. All over, I had a sense of dejavu of familiarity with this realm or space. But the sudden awareness, speed and intensity of the experience I was processing also created a sense of panic. I felt myself freaking out at the waves and intensity of the revelations. I found myself trying to analyse what I was seeing, experiencing, wanting to describe it, to document it, think about what it mean’t and in doing so I felt the experience begin to recede a little. I spent a lot of time trying to divorce the rational side of my brain – to free myself, to let myself flow fully and go with this new realm and experience, but felt firmly held back. In hindsight now there is a lot more work I realize I needed to do here to empty my mind and open myself up further to this experience (similar I guess to some of the meditations I have studied). At the time though, this was a big barrier, I kept finding myself in the face of this realm and these possibilities, being pulled back by my own rationality. There was a driving need to get outside of myself and separate myself from the moment to process it and in so doing compromising the experience.

Mascot - the ceremony only dog

Calmer as a result, but with everything still pulsing visually and trapped in this new spiritual realm, I was able to lie down and for a time flow with the visions and experience a little. After a while though, I felt a repeated compulsion to purge again and found myself in the jungle, leaning on my new tree spirit friend’s for support, as I dry purged, kind of vomiting air. Expunging something deep inside that I needed to be rid of, though I know not what specifically. This went on for some time, periodically Jan or one the family’s assistants would come over and fan me, cleansing me of the bad energy I was releasing and protecting me in the process. This tangibly felt better each time it was performed. I was still in a state of total wonder and amazement at what was happening, but slowly the purging and the fanning eased the intensity of what was happening. I was also consciously aware of the tree’s support and energy helping me as well, plus a mysterious dog that seemed to be always by my side. I found out later he was called mascot and only ever really appeared during ceremonies.

I then found myself back in the ceremonial hut and seated before the shaman for an energy cleanse. I was shaking and still nauseas, Don Luis on entering could barely walk himself, lost deep in his own communion with the spirits, he had to be helped to his place. Bowed before him, he fed me his energy through the crown of my head and my palms, sprayed me with the ‘agua de florida’ and began his cleansing ritual of songs, dances and fanning with full power and energy. I closed my eyes and was lost to this dark, shadowy, tobacco filled realm. Soothing, familiar and somehow peaceful I felt the shakes and convulsions and battles within slowly subside, dissipate and slip away altogether replaced with a calmness, strength and clarity. When I finished I sat back in the ceremony room and relaxed. The visuals and other worldly perception was slowly receding and I felt myself slipping back into a serene and peaceful clarity.

It had all happened so fast and so intensely it actually felt kind of frustrating. I had been shown the door and pushed in, I had perceived this otherworld, interacted with its messengers and affirmed the experience that I had been seeking. But I had also found myself not quite ready or unable to let myself go and release myself to go deeper. There is still much for me to resolve, remove here. It is inspirational and world view changing for me in so many ways, but at the same time incredibly humbling. I am just a baby at the gates of perception, dwarfed by the immensity of the things I do not know or understand it seems. I am committed to going a lot deeper though and here I have received the encouragement I needed, but also a sense of the reality and challenges s well. There is so much I do not know or comprehend, so much that I need to let go of and re-evaluate.

Sharing experiences

The next morning I felt a little dizzy, but clear, light, pure and simply euphoric at the new awareness, excited at the paths ahead. We share experiences again, everyone is different, experiences all commensurate with each persons various stage, experience or needs. Megumi’s has been largely similar to mine it appears – it has been truly groundbreaking for her as well. Jan shares what he perceived with many of us on the energy plane and we are all incredibly bonded by the experience.

Jan also explains that while we have been cleansed and intensely energized by the Shaman and our experiences, we are also totally opened up and therefore vulnerable to other energies and bad spirits, to people taking energy and losing momentum. There are therefore some rules to follow from here. No alcohol for 6 days, no pork for 4 days, no sex for a week. No shaking hands with people for a while (the palms are a key energy transfer point, where energy flows and is refilled). Basically eating lots of fruits, vegetables which we do anyway and avoiding crowds, busy city environments until our new energy bodies can settle. It’s a lot to absorb, but we are floating on a high. We would love to go deeper and stay for more, our new German friend signs on for a month with Don Luis, but we intend to go deeper and explore this more in Peru. While we will remain seared by the experience forever, it was time to move on.

You can read more about our Peruvian experiences here

and the some of the background on the why of it here

 

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Hat Country – Cuenca, Ecuador

Ecuador is the land of the hat. Everyone has one here, most especially the women. Green, brown or black felt ones with a feather in the side; white felt bowler hats - essential for daily wear to identify your tribe. Then of course there is the Panama hat - Ecuador's most famous export and possibly the most famous hat of all, yet weirdly, irreparably credited to Panama. What do you do?

Ecuador is the land of the hat. Everyone has one here, most especially the women. Green, brown or black felt ones with a feather in the side; white or felt bowler hats – essential for daily wear to identify your tribe. Then of course there is the Panama hat – Ecuador’s most famous export and possibly the most famous hat of all, yet weirdly, irreparably credited to Panama. What do you do?

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Chasing the Vine

Vomiting, diarrhoea, nightmarish visions, serpents & spirits, fasting, restrictive diets, celibacy, mosquito’s and other bizarre insects…. strange things indeed to associate with a totally voluntary […]

Vomiting, diarrhoea, nightmarish visions, serpents & spirits, fasting, restrictive diets, celibacy, mosquito’s and other bizarre insects…. strange things indeed to associate with a totally voluntary travel escapade really. So why I find myself wondering, have I pursued this quest to trek deep into the jungle to visit with a shaman and drink Ayahuasca?

I have been conscious of this summons for the last 15 years or so, ever since I first became fascinated with the wonderful world of hallucinogenic plants and trance states. But it’s only since I started travelling again, that the passion and ‘the call’ have been transformed into a more compelling spiritual quest. Now staring at the jungle, about to dive into another encounter with the ‘vine of the dead’, I suddenly have found time to ponder the obsession and attraction.

For those wanting to know, a shaman is a person who, in tribal cultures, communicates with the spirit world. As intermediaries, shamans ask spirits to intercede in the lives of humans, healing them of illnesses, or granting favors. While Shaman are located all around the world and work in many strange ways, the Shaman of South America are some of the most famed – spending years in the deep, immersive plant kingdoms of the jungle by themselves training to work with the plants. Theirs is a history and world passed from master to apprentice all the way back through time. Using the Ayahuasca vine (or the San Pedro cactus in the Andean mountain traditions), they roam the bridging dimensions of the spirit world in service to their communities. We have found shamans just about everywhere in Ecuador and Peru, every community has one, though finding true masters is much more of a challenge.

In an Ayahuasca ceremony, the shaman guides you in navigating the wonders of this plant and exploring the mysterious otherworld. Their Icaros (songs), music and chants performed during the ceremony caste a protective net around the participants; freeing them from darker or negative spirits preying on those being opened up by the experience to the universe and spirit-world. The songs and music holds and binds you to reality somehow, keeping your head above water and often controlling the tempo of the experience itself. Serpents (manifestations of the Ayahuasca plant) and other plants spirits are strong presences in this realm, but there are other more malevolent energies and spirits as well, able to be conjured by brujos (witchdoctors) for more sinister purposes. As largely ignorant savages, the white man is scores of generations out of practice and familiarity with the nuances of this world, so the shamans’ role is very important here, we are way out of our depth and need careful policing.

An Ayahuasca ceremony usually taking place after the sun sets around 8pm, in the twilight hours. After the shaman blesses and purifies his brew, you drink a small amount. The concoction itself is made according to the Shaman’s own recipe and tastes, but is typically made from boiling the vine itself for many hours or even days, along with a varying combination of other plants (including Charuna, a source of DMT that triggers the more visual experiences). How they have found these combinations from the millions of other plants available in the jungle is testament to the incredible knowledge and guidance they have received from the plants themselves. The taste of the Ayahuasca brew is horrid though – earthy and bitter, the stomach blanches at the very thought and after digestion it is a typical compulsion to then throw it up or occasionally purge it in other less pleasant ways. (It thus requires careful dieting and preliminary fasting as a result). As the Ayahuasca kicks in, you drop into an eerie halflight almost between worlds and often feel the presence of the Ayahuasca vine in various forms. It is an experience that can involve intense visions and insights or communications from the plants themselves, while sometimes this is comes with physical purging or cleansing – a process of removing negative energies, past experiences or personal blocks. All told the experience lasts up to 5 hours, though its resultant effects reverberate through you for days afterward.

Part of the appeal of all this is the ancient mystique of the activity itself. The experience of researching & collecting information on ancient / lost traditions; of tracking down local knowledge, finding personal encounters and recommendations on Shaman and the chance to wander deep into the legendary Amazonian jungle zone, it all just oozes with wow for me. It is the attraction of the adventure, the random, the ancient, the lost, the unknown and the unexpected; a thirst for ancient wisdom from traditions in stark contrast to and often of greater knowledge than our own. Most simply perhaps, it’s a call of the wild, a chance to return to nature in the truest sense.

More than that though, there is the urgent call of the experience itself – of experiencing the spirit world with all its unfathomable mysteries and legends. The hallucinogenic plant, Ayahuasca is felt as a living presence in spirit form by its imbibers. Its ritual consumption claims a myriad of effects from visions of the future and personal insights to deep ancestral connections or clear perceptions of spirits and astral travel. Its guidance can be used by shamans to heal all manner of physical, spiritual and emotional disorders with results that often stun modern science. Drinking the vine is also often described as akin to partaking in a form of natural communion, connecting you with the universes’ many sentient lifeforms – an interspecies union through sentient plants. ‘Food of the gods’ indeed to quote Terrence Mckenna, much like Mushrooms and Cactii – the vine’s sentient cousins. It can be a gateway to higher consciousness and much more.

I have done my research of course. William Burroughs, beat author and general pioneer of the strange, first did this pilgrimage back in the early 1950’s based purely on the merest sniff of legend and rumour. His friend Ginsberg and other psychedelic revolutionaries such as Aldus Huxley began to follow in his footsteps later in the sixties. But over the last 20 years or so it has started to boom in popularity, an almost mainstream form of psychedelic tourism has kicked in, with custom built centres opening up everywhere. Jungle shaman are now ‘turning professional’ as they focus on servicing the ‘gringos’ and gringo’s in turn are donning shaman colours themselves; conversely  fakes and cons are rapidly incrasing, preying on the increased demand. Slowly it is bringing shamanism more mainstream attention – there are lots of recent books, documentaries and a yearly conference all reinforcing this momentum and sharing the wisdom – continued purveyors of the myth. In many ways it is saving the shamanic tradition, but it is also corrupting it as well and in some cases driving prices into the multi-star resort zone, out of reach of the average person. These days many centres in Peru have a webpage in several languages and I can network with shamans via Facebook,

What am I seeking or hoping to gain from it all, I find myself asking again? I think first, I selfishly crave the manifestation of the mystical experience, acquiring some tangible truths from this realm. Science, logic, glimpses of truth and an inherent instinct has led me here and it would be nice to have it confirmed, a curse of the rational mind I suppose. I have had many experiences with other plants and have explored similar realms in ways that I cannot dismiss as imaginative figments or induced irrelevancies. As I get older and filled with life experiences, these have taken on more spiritual meaning for me and remain true in the face of much else that I dismiss. Philosophically I have found that the science of chakras, energy points, planes of consciousness and existence as described in the Buddhist and Yogic traditions actually align themselves completely with those described by the shaman and accessed through sacred plants. A synchronicity that resonates with practical truth, at once incredibly both reassuring and compelling in their implicit agreement, albeit accessed in vastly different ways. The attraction with the plants though is the bypassing of the years of meditation, faith and training sometimes required by other forms to be able to experience and explore with these spaces directly. A shortcut, that doesn’t undermine the other pathways in any form, it just enables the opportunity for a more direct validation if you will.

So to navigate its depths perchance and in the process, feel the awe of connection with the universe and nature, injecting the spirit with the inspiration and motivation for true change. I see it as potentially seeking some kind of healing for myself of apathy, blockages and insecurities to better enable me to move forward and grow in this world, a catalyst for more applied daily channeling of such awareness, perhaps built upon through other means.

On rereading here, I realize  I am likely building this all up to much – too much pressure and expectation perhaps. Good as it all sounds, I know that there is never a single solution or instant personal holy grail to be had. I’m sure plenty of issues will come up in the process – nothing is ever as simple as it appears.

And of course, none of this can be achieved in just one sitting either, so we are shopping a little. Ecuador is really just the first foray – this is also a perspective and experience hunt from a few different tribe’s and traditions. Over the next few months in both Ecuador and Peru, we are planning on spending several weeks with a range of shaman in different areas. The goal is to go deep, scratch the itch and give the universe the chance to do its work, then ask questions on the other side? So we are at the beginning really – exciting most definitely, well prepared perhaps, but totally ignorant of what lies ahead. It’s a fitting culmination to our travels. In many ways it has taken me 18 months to get into the right frame of mind for it. Yoga, meditation, fasting, changed attitudes to food / body and spirit and a renewed love and connection with nature have all manifested themselves along the way – it has been a long and integrated path towards such a union. The vine awaits….

To read some of our experiences in Ecuador, click here

To read some of our experiences in Peru, click here!

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Highland Puppets – Otavalo, Ecuador

Some friendly felt puppets showing off the indigenous dress styles of the locals at Otavalo. One of the best markets in South America, Otavalo is famous for felt hats, leather-work, handy craft and the traditional wear / friendly demeanor of the locals. Unfortunately the puppets were easier to photograph.

Some friendly felt puppets showing off the indigenous dress styles of the locals at Otavalo. One of the best markets in South America, Otavalo is famous for felt hats, leather-work, handy craft and the traditional wear / friendly demeanor of the locals. Unfortunately the puppets were easier to photograph.

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Postcards from Galapagos

There are some places that from the moment they are mentioned regale the senses with a certain mystique, appeal and promise – the Galapagos Archipelago […]

There are some places that from the moment they are mentioned regale the senses with a certain mystique, appeal and promise – the Galapagos Archipelago is one of these and it doesn’t disappoint. Darwin famously visited this place as part of his 5 year voyage around the world aboard the ‘Beagle’ as a naturalist in the 1830’s. His discoveries, subsequent writings and contemplations as a result of what he found there, became a central piece in later moulding his revolutionary theories of evolution entitled the ‘Origin of the Species’. An idea spawned from the simple indisputable truth that all things must evolve to adapt to their environment by necessity. There is evidence for this everywhere in the Galapagos – a place where each island has evolved its own variations on single common species such as finches (same species, 4 different beaks), iguanas and tortoises amongst numerous others, all uniquely endemic to the islands. A ‘perfect evolutionary petri’ dish, crafted over time and apart from a few pirates and whalers, largely bereft of humans, enshrining it in legend.

The Galapagos Archipelago

Thanks to Darwin, in my minds eye I had envisioned giant turtles, exotic birds, vibrant sea life and lizards all independently going about life’s evolutionary endeavour, blissfully free of complication. What is most striking and perhaps unique amongst wildlife experiences though is the incredible timidity of all the animals. Birds you can walk up to and pick up; seals you can pat; fish you could touch; turtles and tortoises you can ride or iguanas that simply didn’t care you existed – not that you can do any of those things, but you get the point. Unlike anywhere else I’ve traveled it provides the opportunity to get intimate with a nature devoid of fear – pure photographer fantasy, Megumi was in heaven. While the diversity is not that great here, it is these micro details that fascinate, making it a superb naturalists encounter. Preserved if not identical to Darwin’s own experience, then a very close second and happily still able to invigorate the same evolutionary questions, wonder and awe at the mystery’s of life, even in spite of the packaged nature of the experience.

The Galapagos Archipelago is located just under a thousand klicks off the shore of Ecuador, right on the equator in the Pacific Ocean. You have to fly in obviously and given that there are 15 or so volcanic islands (5 major ones, 4 populated), up to 100km distant from each other and separated by major oceanic currents, there is a lot of ship-work involved simply to get around and see any of them. The most common way to experience this as you would probably expect then, is via a fully catered cruise aboard some kind of floating vessel, usually ranging between 4-8 nights (diving is extra) winding its way through the Islands and marine national parks. Cruises aren’t exactly amenable to the average backpacker budget, but this was one of those things (like Safari’s in Africa) that we had budgeted some cash to throw at and do properly.

Iguana posing for the sun

In Quito, the capital of Ecuador, we spent several days scoping out Galapagos “last minute” travel agencies – they are ubiquitous here, busily discounting final places in various types of cruise ships (the majority luxury) to try and fill them up. It is the easiest way to get a cheap deal, usually 30-50% discounted from the prices you might pay back home. If you are really ambitious you can fly to the islands directly (about $400), stay in a hotel in Puerto Ayora and either do some day trips to the bigger islands or try your luck on a last minute deal directly with the boat captains to get the cheapest possible ride. It does take time and patience though and there are usually only limited possibilities from the island. Given it was New Years Eve and peak season, we played it safe, we tried for a yacht or catamaran but watched the only viable option disappear before we could secure it. In the end, we went with the cheapest 5 day option we could find, which also worked out to be the most opportune timing. All in, it cost $650 pp incl. snorkelling – plus flights & park fee’s, we skipped the diving unfortunately – got to draw the line somewhere. Give us an excuse to go hammerhead hunting some other time.

The 'Flamingo' - note seal on back landing!

24 hours later, we are landing on a treeless, desert island, met by our guide at the airport and ushered along with a Columbian couple, 2 English guys, a Frenchmen and 3 Austrians aboard our small craft, the “Flamingo”. It quickly became obvious that ours was the cheapest boat afloat in the harbour that day, dwarfed as it was by the various yachts in its vicinity and most worryingly, heavily listing to one side! Our cabin was a double bunk with its own bathroom in the rear of the boat and quite honestly compared favourably with a Japanese apartment – this we could do. The 5 crew, our guide (required by law) and 8 fellow customers were all friendly and agreeable and within minutes we were all eating an impressive 3 course lunch in the small dining room and sitting on the roof lounge heading out to sea for our first look at a Galapagos Isle. We felt right at home, cheapest option it might be, but it felt like a great service.

For the 5 day cruise, we had chosen the Southern Loop, which has the better wildlife, apparently but there is also a 4 day Northern loop and when combined they form an 8 day overall program. It seems almost all cruises follow the same basic formula though. Quickly the days fell into a routine: Breakfast at 6.45am, land on an Island with our guide at 7.30am and explore the wildlife, travel to our next destination, lunch, another guided walk or some snorkelling, dinner, a few beers and an evening migration to the next Island on our itinerary.

The highlights and specifics of the islands I have journalized below.

Isla Seymour

Frigate birds playing escort

After arriving, we headed an hour or so north of the airport on Balta to this Island, trailed the whole way by a fleet of Frigate birds – their distinctive silhouettes providing a secure escort. A guided walk around the small island revealed a bizarre desert landscape, Beaching from our dingy, hundreds of bright red crabs covered the black volcanic rocks and aquatic iguanas sunned themselves. Here we encountered frigate birds nesting in their hundreds; young juveniles sitting on bushes within easy reach and males in the midst of their own stunning mating rituals. Their red chests billowing out like balloons as they worked hard to attract a mate. The timidity of the wildlife is totally unique, I have never felt anything like it; both birds & lizards allow you to stand within cm of them without flinching. In the evening, we went for a snorkel and took in some of the marine life – we saw numerous sting rays, seals, some white tipped sharks and tonnes of colourful fish.

Male Frigate Bird in full mating thrall

New Years Eve on a boat in the middle of the Pacific was a strange event, one of the English guys had a birthday so the crew cooked a cake. Afterwards everyone else crashed; a long day and the prospect of an early start overcoming any potential fervour for a new year. I stayed up with the English guys drinking beers for a while, before they too called it a night. Alone by 10pm, I took in the stunning night sky for a while before I joined them. On the equator you can view both the Northern and Southern sky together – the big dipper and the Southern Cross in one sky. So much for the countdown though – don’t know if I have ever missed it before. .

Isla Plaza

Arriving early in the morning on New Years day, this arid island was one of the prettiest. Covered in aging cactus tree’s, several metres tall yet growing only 1cm per year. Hiding beneath the cactus trees waiting for the cacti flowers or segments to fall from the wind – large, colourful, yellow Iguanas piled on top of each other. Along a cliff-face on one side, we saw thousands of birds – pelicans, frigates, nocturnal gulls and tropic birds (plus many more Iguanas) swooping over the volcanic rock faces covered with Red and black crabs. On the far end of the Island spread across bright red heath were lone male sea lions both aged and juvenile, striking lonesome poses in their exile. Near the beach complete families of seals played under the watchful protection of the large male heads of the family, patrolling the nearby ocean for sharks.

Bird photography from the cliff

Isla Sante Fe (Barrington)

After watching eagle rays jump out of the water either side of the boat, in the late morning, we headed here, a trip of about 2 hours. We then went snorkeling for a few hours, before a later afternoon walk along the beach trail. We saw many more sting rays here lying in the sand, plus lots of large sea turtles and aquatic iguanas swimming – several seals also swam along side us. The walk revealed the by now usual array of seals, iguanas and bird-life – almost the same old thing already, but somehow always new and fascinating. Spent quite some time playing with the seals here – the young ones so fearless that you could almost lean cross and kiss the pups. Mothers, brothers and sisters all spooned together sleeping on the side.

Iguanas - mean looking up close

Isla Espanola (Hood)

Travelled til late in the night to get here and woke up moored off a beautiful cove. Made landfall about 7.30am on 2 small beaches covered in Sea lions and cubs. There were Iguana’s absolutely everywhere here – but differently coloured, exotic variations of red and green. Further inland we found thousands of birds nesting along cliff paths, a Galapagos hawk, several blue footed & innumerable regular boobie families; yellow beaked albatrosses and numerous gulls and finches with their young, eggs lying around, some even abandoned on the paths.

Blue Footed boobies - oddly curious

Later we moved around the island to Gardner Cove to a beautiful long white sandy beach covered in seals with rocky outcrops and grasses. While it rained a little, we went snorkeling and found hundreds of large sting rays (Eagle & Golden Rays) buried in the sand along the ocean floor; numerous massive sea turtles grazing on the sea grasses by the shore; some sea snakes and other fish; a massive black sting ray and a Galapagos shark, it’s dark silhouette cruising by at speed as it hunted baby seals from the cover of the breaking surf.

Isla Santa Maria (Floreana)

Arrived late at night and got up at 6am for a snorkel from the boat. It was cold in. A strange way to wake up – but both the place and the ticking tour clock beckoned seductively. Had the pleasure of swimming with a dozen or so giant turtles though, all passively feeding on the sea grasses, some dwarfed me, almost 2m in length. Later we went ashore to explore a lava tube, a 300m or so underground tunnel and visited the post office – a barrel traditionally used by whalers and pirates to deposit messages to loved ones. The concept is still in play it seems – review the messages left and find one you can assist in helping on its way. Megumi sent herself a postcard and in return picked up a couple of other Japanese ones to deliver.

Seals are comfortably relaxing everywhere

Later, we went around the other side of the island to explore a fresh water lake. We were hoping to see flamingo’s here, but it being only the start of the wet season there was no fresh water and none to be found. To be honest there was not much on this Island apart from turtles, nesting and laying eggs on the beaches and hovering in the surf offshore in their multitudes, plus a few stray penguins and seals, one of which jumped onto our boat. Later we had ourselves a snorkel at Devils Crown, a volcanic crater forming a ring just offshore – full of starfish and a myriad of other exotic fish, this was a great experience. A pelican unperturbed by me blocking its way snorkeling, decided to just leverage itself over my head with its webbed feet – not shy at all. We passed several huge turtles snorkelling on the way back to the boat – one was so unfazed by 5 wetsuited humans that we spent 15 minutes poses for photos with it. Later as we left the island, we saw a large pod of dolphins carving their way across the horizon.

Isla Santa Cruz

Posing with Sea turtles

Our last stop was Puerto Ayora, the main city of the Galapagos Isles and absolutely wall to wall with t-shirt shops, tourist trinkets, restaurants and travel agencies. Here we visited the Darwin Centre, a research station focused on restoring giant tortoise stocks. The giant tortoises of the Galapagos where largely decimated by pirates and whalers. Darwin reports that when he was here, sailers would catch up to 100 of these in a day; slow and easy to track as they carved their wide paths through the undergrowth, some required up to 8 men to carry. Once tortoises were caught, they were usually stored alive in the holds of the ships so they could serve as fresh food during the long ocean journeys. Little wonder there are only a few left on the smaller islands. At the Darwin Centre we saw “Lonesome George”, the last tortoise of his species, from the island of Punta in the North and probably the most famous tortoise alive. He was shacked up with two female related species of tortoises from another island, trying desperately to entice him into some reproductive genetic action, poor bloke. After the tour, we said our farewells to both the crew and shipmates and moved into a hotel in town for a couple of days. This is an easy option if you want to extend your cruise with an extra day trip or some diving or simply soak up the island life a little more and the local cuisine.

No touching of course, but there is no fear here!

The next day, we headed inland soaking up the cooler, wetter climate of the highlands to explore the El Chato tortoise reserve and Rancho Principia. Both play host to a ridiculous number of giant tortoises that are littered all over the place. Lumbering, huge and elephant like, they carve huge paths through the dense bush in all directions from water holes and are easy to find. We must have come across at least 100 In our wandering around. The highlight was probably springing a couple mating – a long slow 2 hour ordeal, where the male pins the female with his neck and tries to through a leg over. Poor chick, it’s a pretty uneven contest.

Afterwards, we headed to Tortuga bay, a beautiful white beach and sheltered bay covered in land iguanas, pelicans and sea turtles a 2 or 3km walk from the town; a perfect place to relax, ahead of a return to the mainland. In the end we decided to skip the 2 bigger Islands of San Cristobel and Isabela, but it didn’t feel like we had missed much, we left well sated and did not want to overdo it.

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Tortoise Action – Galapagos, Ecuador

Gives a whole new meaning to 'getting a leg over'. We were lucky enough to come across this encounter wandering around a tortoise reserve. Apparently the male (top) tries to pin the female (much smaller) with his neck first, so that he can then climb on top and pin her for the deed. Meanwhile, she is trying to run (tortoise speed) to the nearest tree which she will use to protect herself (him being to large to maneuver). Mating like this takes several hours, but we gave up after 20 minutes. Really didn't know who to go for here either!

Gives a whole new meaning to ‘getting a leg over’. We were lucky enough to come across this encounter wandering around a tortoise reserve. Apparently the male (top) tries to pin the female (much smaller) with his neck first, so that he can then climb on top and pin her for the deed. Meanwhile, she is trying to run (tortoise speed) to the nearest tree which she will use to protect herself (him being to large to maneuver). Mating like this takes several hours, but we gave up after 20 minutes. Really didn’t know who to go for here either!

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Evolutionary Freakshow – Galapagos, Ecuador

Every island in the Galapagos has a unique assortment of wildlife, but these guys were probably my favourites. The mating dance of the frigate bird is quite spectacular as he blows up his chest into a giant bubble and waves it around. The blue footed boobie is just visually odd (there is a red footed one on another island) and of course you can't beat the giant tortoises, like mini elephant caravans - some are close to 2m long and live to 200 years old.

Every island in the Galapagos has a unique assortment of wildlife, but these guys were probably my favourites. The mating dance of the frigate bird is quite spectacular as he blows up his chest into a giant bubble and waves it around. The blue footed boobie is just visually odd (there is a red footed one on another island) and of course you can’t beat the giant tortoises, like mini elephant caravans – some are close to 2m long and live to 200 years old.

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Iguana ‘Sun Salutations’ – Galapagos, Ecuador

On top of every rock, under ever cactus, all over every island in the Archipelago. Iguanas of vivid colour - land or sea (and unnatural unions of the two), simply lie around, free of threat, focused entirely on soaking up the sun's rays. This guy wouldn't move no matter what we did so focused was he on the task at hand. His position would be the envy of any yogi - a perfect sun salutation.

On top of every rock, under ever cactus, all over every island in the Archipelago. Iguanas of vivid colour – land or sea (and unnatural unions of the two), simply lie around, free of threat, focused entirely on soaking up the sun’s rays. This guy wouldn’t move no matter what we did so focused was he on the task at hand. His position would be the envy of any yogi – a perfect sun salutation.

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Of Mayan Imaginings

The Mayans are one of those great mystic ancient civilizations, like the Egyptians and the Khmers of Angkor Wat, they suffered a demise so sudden […]

The Mayans are one of those great mystic ancient civilizations, like the Egyptians and the Khmers of Angkor Wat, they suffered a demise so sudden and mysterious that their culture remains an enigma. In the process they left behind a marvelous array of cryptic archaeological legacies across Central America – ruined cities, brutal sacrificial legends, alphabets, calendars and exotic predictions for the future. Half forgotten and shrouded in jungle, today they continue to confound, fire and inspire the imaginations of all manner of historians, travellers and conspiracy theorists.

Doomsday stone - the Mayan Calendar

The single biggest mystery with the Mayans of course was their sudden disappearance. At the very peak of their arts, architecture and civilization known as the classic period, their greatest cities such as Tikal, Palenque & Copan were suddenly abandoned around 900 AD and the entire civilization structure collapsed. While the entire area remains populated by their descendants to this day and mass migrations North fuelled development of later cities, largely they are but pale imitations of their former cultural heights – a deserting diaspora bereft of much of their knowledge and skill. By the time the Spanish rocked up in the 15th century to Yucatan in Mexico, many of the cities themselves had fused culturally with the Toltecs and Aztecs, the dominant Mexican tribes from the North. The cycles of repeated bad luck and tragedy manifested brutally as massive rituals of human sacrifice.

In what is a major echo of our own time perhaps, historians can now attribute the collapse of these great cities to a perfect storm of 3 factors. 1) Massive overpopulation as the cities reached their zenith 2) Complete environmental collapse from over-farming around the area of the cities themselves and 3) a long, extended drought that in effect lasted the better part of a century. In many ways the secrets and lessons of the Mayans lie not with their more famed futuristic astrological predictions, but with the manner in which they disappeared. You don’t have to think too far ahead to see that overpopulation, environmental collapse and severe water shortages are all that await us in the next 50 years.

Temple Cornice at Chichen Itza

Apart from human sacrifice and the disappearing act though, the Mayans are probably best known for their advanced writing, mathematics, incredibly accurate astronomy and time measurement. In an historic context, their calendars, perfected at the height of their classic civilization (250-900 AD), were the most accurate on earth right up until the late Renaissance period in Europe in the 17th century, almost a thousand years later. Famously, the Mayans broke the world’s time into 5126-year periods, the final epoche calendar cycle, or b’ak’tun calculated by the Mayans, ends in December 2012. Many of today’s apocalyptic dooms-dayers credit the end of the world with this key date and given the state of society today its’ easy to play along, but  there are other interpretations more reassuring. These read the importance of 2012 as not an end date in itself, but heralding the start of a new epoch of spiritual transformation and renewal – a new and final B’ak’tun that completes the cycle, one the Mayans never really had a chance to envision properly. We can certainly wish! Honestly speaking though, any civilization that didn’t see their own demise is hard to take too seriously in the prophecy stakes.

A stela from Copan

Back to us though, our Mayan adventures started in Southern Mexico with the people themselves. Then wound through the ruins of the great classic cities in Mexico to the most recent ones of the Northern Yucatan, diving into the great jungle cities and Mayan peoples of Guatemala, before finally finishing South in Honduras. A journey that yielded no magic answers on the question of 2012 and the fate of the world, but did provide for some fantastic locations, experiences and contemplations which I have summarized by location below:

The Modern Mayan Tribes

San Cristobel is a small, colonial town in the state of Chiapas. The cobblestone streets are a warren of lovely shops, café’s, restaurants, hostels and markets. It is a perfect blend of bohemian, colonial lifestyle in the heart of Mayan country and has trapped many a traveller. Not much of a danger for us in the height of winter though – the place is too bloody cold to sit still for long, but it is the villages that surround San Cristabel that enthral.

On a day tour from San Cristobel we visited 2 of them – San Juan Chamula and San Lorenzo Zinacantan, both home to the still fiercely independent Mayan tribes the Tzotzil and Tzeltal. Now to be honest, I didn’t really know that the Mayan people still existed at all. I had naively assumed that they had all died out long ago and were now the stuff of legend, but they still occupy extensive parts of Mexico and Belize and actually make up the majority of the population in Guatemala. Many of the more remote tribes such as those around San Cristobel still hold tightly to many aspects of their culture such as the traditional Mayan calendars and methods of counting and have done so continuously in the face of hundreds of years of ‘civilizing’ forces. Being able to witness this firsthand was an experience that resonated particularly strongly with me. Too often in our travels, we have encountered cultures quickly being over-run and trashed by globalization and that even greater cultural destroyer – Christian missionaries. It’s nice to see some still able to fight.

Mayan women from San Lorenzo

In San Lorenzo, the towns’ spiritual elders stand out the front of the local church with telltale grey and red hats demonstrating their various ranks, the elders wearing a unique kind of sandal. They stand there taking turns to chant, dance and administer the towns’ finances, a process that covers the better part of a 24 hour period every Sunday. The local women in the town all congregate in the square, opposite the church to sell their fruit and vegetables and brightly coloured woollen fabrics at the market. They all wear the same blue/purple woollen shawls with pink floral designs beautifully embroidered. Each Mayan village or tribe wears a different, distinctive colour combination like this to demonstrate where they are from – the same applies in much of Guatemala. There is no individuality here – their identity is all about the community, tribe or group and everything is managed collectively, hence the elders gathered at the church. The town also prohibits outside police, buses or taxi operators so everything is controlled and administered by the community itself – by the people for the people, necessary to protect themselves culturally from outside forces. It could not make a starker contrast with our own western imperative to set ourselves apart.

A special Mayan church

The next town, San Juan was even more striking. Here the locals wore a kind of black haired skirt and jacket, with a white variation to differentiate the spiritual leaders. We spent some time in a spiritual leaders’ house and learnt how they give up a year of their life for the honour of the role, paying for all the ceremonial dues, incense and other daily requirements out of their own personal savings. They spend several years of savings in fulfilling this role, but in doing so ensure their place of honour within the society.

The community concept here also ensures that there is almost no crime. If there is, criminals are publicly shamed and humiliated – we walked passed the cages where this occurs, but they are all empty. Seemingly minor transgressions from the community are dealt with harshly here. If you marry without family blessings, you are expelled from the town and community; with an even more severe excommunication for anyone that converts to Christianity. Changing religion or taking on obligations that prioritize things over the tribe, means you can no longer function in the community and are forced to leave. It is a harsh rule, but a necessary one to survive the constant cultural purges that the missionaries in particular bring. It is a lesson and solution that has been refined constantly over many centuries. San Cristobel itself is home to many generations of former village members thus removed, we are informed appreciatively by our guide, he is himself one.

View from the Sun Temple in Palenque

Perhaps the most striking experience of the community here though was a visit to the local church. This was a former catholic church reprised by the Mayan community after expelling the priests from the town over some major ideological conflict. Now, with no meddling priests in place, it is open 24 hours a day and the villagers are able to visit with their own respective shaman, midwife or spiritual healer in order to conduct their own special rituals as needed. The floor of the church itself is covered in pine needles and statues of catholic saints line the walls in old glass boxes. Throughout the church villagers sit on the floor, burning candles in front of themselves (both the colour and number of the candles is important), but also facing various directions toward the relevant saint that embody the values that they might be looking for some help with. Some of the villages have bottles of coca cola or soft drink next to them – these are used in special rituals to ‘burp out’ evil spirits. (Apparently coke worked a lot better than the corn syrup they used to do this with, so they happily switched over). Elsewhere there is a chicken trussed up on the floor, next to a small family, a husband, wife and child seated together with their local shaman. The chicken will soon have its neck broken as part of another sacrificial ritual, perhaps an offering for another child, perhaps for a harvest, it is hard to tell and impolite to ask.

Waterfall in the Palenque ruins

The hybrid nature of the rituals is uniquely fascinating as they integrate useful bits of the external world that happens to work in nicely with their own ideas. Equally impressive is the apparent indifference the towns’ people show to our presence here. They are confident enough in their own rituals and culture that they can open it up this way. While we are not permitted to photograph anything, we can watch and they are happy for the small contributions we make in return financially to their community. Living under the shadows of an encroaching modern world, they know what we are about fairly intimately and have still chosen their own path – they accept that they have their way and we have ours and leave it at that. They do wonder though why we can’t simply respect them the same way. They constantly have to repel missionaries. The strength of conviction to do this is quite enviable and it really is a delicate balance this cultures survival treads. I wish them all the very best!

Palenque

Jaguar King Stella, Yaxchilan

Our first ruin stop if you will was the great ancient city of Palenque – at its peak one of the greatest Mayan cities of the classic period before being abandoned in 900 AD. It was not rediscovered until the late 1770’s. The great temple of the inscriptions and the Palace here make a commanding sight – it’s hard to conceive of the sight of all these huge buildings around the central square at their height, painted red. The square around the temples of the Cross, Sun and Foliated Cross further atop the hill overlooking the great Palace and surrounded by encroaching jungle, casts a spell over the surrounding countryside and resonates with a sacred energy. It was easy to linger for hours here. Further south as you wander around the surrounding city, waterfalls and streams work their way quite spectacularly through the ruins of old courts and houses. In the museum, the great tomb of the King Pakal is on display, which was found buried beneath the Temple of the Inscriptions. The funerary details and inscriptions on the tombstone are simply amazing and one of the great finds of the Mayan kingdom – effectively its own Tutenkhamen.

Yaxchilan & Bonampak

Sacrificial temple square, Yaxchilan

These Mayan ruins sit on the Guatemalan border some 3 hours or so from Palenque. 10 years ago you could only access these by plane, but now you can travel an hour or so by boat up the river (past crocodiles on the bank) to the jungle site itself with the assistance of a local Mayan guide. The easiest way to get there is to sign up for a day tour from Palenque, but you also have the option of continuing on a multi-day tour to Tikal in Guatemala from here. Renown mostly for the important revelations deduced from the various carvings & inscriptions found here, these sights were magical to me more for their location and isolation. Bonampak is a small site, but there are a series of rooms recently uncovered in the small acropolis that are covered with murals and original paintings in great condition, depicting detailed scenes of war, torture and decapitation unlike those found anywhere else. At Yaxchilan, the spell caste by the sound of Howler monkeys in the trees all around the site is unforgettable. Like the distant throng of a horror movie in full force they enshroud the place in a mystique that is more Jurassic park than archaeological wonder. The ruins themselves though are still impressive with lots of ornate facades still clinging to the various temples and houses; extensive steps grafted into the mountainside leading to fine temple on top and another sacrificial temple located off some distance through the jungle. Sprinkled throughout are standing stellas or sculptures with Mayan inscriptions. With very few other tourists around it’s a special place to explore.

Uxmal

An Uxmal serpent at night

Located a few hours from the thriving city of Merida in the Yucatan, this was another classic era city. Featuring several great pyramids, palaces and other intact structures with many ornate carvings built into the temple walls and squares, this site was quite impressive once too. It is hard to get too though if you want to stay late in the evening (ie there are no buses), so we joined a tour that enabled us to explore the site during the afternoon and then stay for a “sound and light” show set within the grounds after dark. While the music, story and headset translation was pretty amateur and lame. The sight of the lights and lasers pouring over distinct features of the architecture and lighting up embedded forms in the carvings on the temples, such as those of the large serpent God Quetzalcoatl, was particularly memorable and intimate. Dark, shadowy, devoid of people, key buildings pleasantly illuminated – the night experience was a nice take to have on a Mayan site, fertile ground for the imagination.

Chichen Itza

The Great' Castle Pyramid' of Chichen Itza

Rated a modern wonder of the world, this was by far the most touristed of all the sites we visited. Located in the heart of Yucaten it is easy access for a day trip from most beach and resort tourists. The site itself is quite extensive and has many compelling features. The great Castle Pyramid is its signature and a stunning example of Mayan architecture with all the tricks. If you clap in the vicinity of the pyramid, a gap in its design creates an echo that mimics the call of the sacred Quetzal bird, something common to many pyramids we visited but still impressive. On one side though, two serpentine Quetzalcoatl railings are designed in such a way as to catch the light on the Spring or Autumn equinox respectively, these light up square by square so as to appear to be moving. Hard to imagine how crowded it would get here on those days, but the astronomical and archaeological precision of it still leave architects in awe. Amongst the ruins, decapitated sculls and other gruesome carvings abound; there is a sacrificial cenotes (water filled open cave) where bodies where disposed of and also the largest ball-court in MesoAmerica, with many intact sculptures and inscriptions (Ball-courts are common to all Maya, Aztec, Toltec, Olmec and Zapotecan sites). Throughout the site though, there are literally craft and Mayan souvenir stands everywhere you walk and thousands of tourists on guided package tours clamouring for photos. Fantastic as it is, its hard to appreciate when you are part of a seething, surging photo mass. We probably didn’t spend as much time here as we would of otherwise.

Tulum

The main plaza at Tikal

Though it was one of the last remaining occupied Mayan sites, there is nothing exceptional about this ruin at all, except that it is located on a cliff, right above a beautiful sandy beach, next to about a million beach resorts. Strangely this makes it the most popular Mayan ruin of all,. The place is literally covered in both Iguanas (which were actually pretty interesting) and half-naked tourists (definitely not interesting), there to swim at the beautiful beach onsite and all trying to get a ruin shot, nicely contrasted with the beautiful azure, waters and white sand. The ruins are boring though, really not much there at all, but still, its very easy to visit. The ruin shot was simply too hard for us to get though – way too many strange bums in the way.

Tikal

Getting cloud level at Tikal

The most impressive city by far in terms of its scale and location, it is too big to describe in detail and its marvel is the scale of the city and overall design. Located deep in the jungle, Tikal is one of those sites lost until the mid 1800’s and the jungle is constantly fighting reclaim it. The complex is huge, at its height it extended some 30km and housed 100,000 people, less than 1% of which has even been excavated today (there are some 4000 structures in the central city alone). As you walk around on the thin paths through the jungle linking the main excavated plaza’s, you pass many heavily forested little hills that you start to appreciate are really other temple pyramids completely reclaimed by the jungle and waiting one day to be restored. At the main sites you can climb some of the steep sided, towering pyramids, (the highest some 61 metres high) and poke your head above the clouds and forest canopy where you can perceive other distant structures and start to comprehend the amazing scale and alignment of the various temple complexes.

Great stairway of Copan

Tikal was also magic for the wildlife on display here, this is proper jungle and as you wander around you can spot numerous birds including flocks of Tucans and Macaus. We  also saw a giant tarantulas, numerous peacocks and other odd animals, all appeared quite tame and immune to the typical compulsive fear of the hunted. We did the trip in a tour from Flores, a very pleasant former Mayan city built in the middle of a lake and arrived at sunrise to explore Tikal in the misty early morning light and the main structures in the clearer sunlight of mid-morning. However, you can also stay at one of the inns right outside the site itself, which would give you flexibility to  visit later in the evening when you could have the place largely to yourself. The place is so big, it could easily occupy several days of exploration so this would probably be a great option.

Copan

Artists image of the temple /stairway, Copan

Probably my favourite of all the Mayan sights we visited to be honest. Located right outside the town of Copan just over the border from Guatemala in Honduras, it is an easy walk away and simple to explore. At the entrance a squadron of giant pet macaws make for a lot of interactive photo opportunities. But it is the sculptures and artwork on display that dazzle, by far the most intricate and beautiful of all the sites we visited. The engravings on the giant stella’s occupying the main square and the incredible staircase of inscriptions were really the highlights and left you in awe of what the Mayans had achieved and somehow lost all in one go. Every square on a step of the stairway is a beautifully engraved Mayan character all put together to tell some tale or prediction that I confess to having forgotten. Viewed together as the detail of all the characters rises up the hillside to the temple top, you can start to conceive of the awe and reverence that Mayans must have held for this place.   It is quite a compact ruin, although it was a huge city once, it remains largely un-excavated so comfortable to walk around and you can explore with ease the various plaza’s and temples. There are also several underground tours you can do that explore some of the excavations and secret locations beneath the city. None of which were given a positive wrap in our research so we skipped them, but certainly would have offered a different view of things. In all it was an inspiring way to finish.

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Chilling Legacies – Copan, Honduras

Some embedded sculptures from the base of a temple entrance in the ruins of Copan, Honduras. Copan was probably the most intricate and beautiful of all the Mayan sites we visited - the sculptures were rendered in incredible detail and exquisite. Epitaphs of the Mayan's doom though (much like this one) seemed intrinsically and mysteriously encoded in everything...

Some embedded sculptures from the base of a temple entrance in the ruins of Copan, Honduras. Copan was probably the most intricate and beautiful of all the Mayan sites we visited – the sculptures were rendered in incredible detail and exquisite. Epitaphs of the Mayan’s doom though (much like this one) seemed intrinsically and mysteriously encoded in everything…