I previously reported on my
first and
second times drinking ayahuasca (vine + chacruna) on the Summer Solstice in the Upper Amazon, then two days later. The next time drinking would be two days following the second time, which would fall on Christmas Eve. I had originally come to Luis's place not even expecting to stay the night, but ended up staying for much longer - I had no idea what to expect, as all I had was his name, his village, and the recommendation of a well-respected internet vendor that was enough to send me in search of this very special man. Austin, the Turkish lad who was staying there on a longer-term basis, recommended drinking three times - once to get the initial shock, once to get used to it, and once to go in deep - in the same way that bathing in cold water is best done in three dips, for similar purposes. A bit about the surroundings: there was a cabin for guests, with mosquito nets and simple bunks, plenty for comfortable sleep, along with a tin roof that seemed, surprisingly enough, to leak a bit more than the traditional thatched roofs. Still the mosquitoes always managed to slip in the net, but by the end of a week-and-a-half in the monte, the jungle, I had become surprisingly accustomed to the mosquitoes, and was even able to forgo use of the DEET-containing mosquito spray that I was applying constantly at the beginning of my stay. Again, I was told not to worry about malaria (despite the warnings) because, I'm told, it is both rare in that particular area, and the ayahuasca kills the malaria. Incredible.
Besides the cabin, there was the ceremony house with traditional stilts and thatching, and enough space to seat perhaps 30-40 people comfortably. Next to this there was an outhouse with flushing toilet - the septic sort where used toilet paper gets thrown in the trash - a shower with "normal" water (by which they meant it's not heated), a side building with workshop, and the main hut, with Luis' room, the kitchen, and a patio for eating/tea/conversation. There were about twenty chickens, several friendly cats, and neighborhood dogs strolling through at times. The castañas, or Brazil Nuts, were in season - large seed pods, compact, probably 3-4 inches in diameter and weighing a few pounds, would drop without warning from high up in the castaña tree, which made for occasional surprisingly loud "clangs" on the tin roof tops. I wonder how many people get killed by falling castaña nuts every year, since getting hit by one in the wrong part of the head could easily do brain damage. The grounds took up about an acre-and-a-half of shady land lying between the main road and the other houses of the mestizo community, and a steep slope with stairs leading down to the river, where the community's boats were tied up. The river seemed to serve as a backdrop for the landscape: Austin also remarked that he felt the river played some subtle role in the ayahuasca; D.M. Turner made a similar comment on the DMT-Water Spirit connection in a full chapter in "The Essential Psychedelic Guide". Ayahuasca, as a feminine force, teaches the power of humility - which, as Juan Flores has said, is "the light of the world". In the same way, the Tao Te Ching describes the power of water, the softest and most humble substance, and its ability to erode the tallest, toughest mountains into lowly valleys. On multiple times during the ayahuasca sessions, I asked the ayahuasca for advice in handling "personal problems" in my life, and each time, the answer filtered back was, "There is no need to ask, you have the answers you need inside of you". The ayahuasca mirrored back every question about "personal issues", but at the same time it emphasized, in its strange visual-telepathic form of "communication", the value of the congealed wisdom that's stored in books like the Tao Te Ching. The Tao Te Ching and the ayahuasca, it seems, have similar views on the universe and how to unify with the ways of the universe, to become a "conscious tool of the universe".
SO on Friday, Christmas Eve, I headed to the market in search of a jugo, freshly made juice of a variety of available fruits; my favorite was the extract of carrot, which cost less than 1 USD for two glasses of fantastic carrot juice. The produce available in the markets was of a quality rarely seen in the States outside of select small-production farmers. Physically HUGE fruits and vegetables with a substance, health, and vitality to them that's very much unlike the watered-down Monsanto/GMO garbage found at Wal-Mart. There was no visible regulation of the food/restaurant business, and ironically the food there was almost all of very high quality, and very cheap. Awesome. I also attempted to procure some cannabis, or yerba as they call it, and found out it's much easier to procure cocaine or the highly addictive, smokable "pasta" or cocaine paste that's an intermediary between the leaves and the cocaine. The cocaine available was very cheap and of very high purity, I am told, but I have no interest in this particular poison, so I continued to ask for yerba. I was warned in the guidebooks not to publicly ask for such items, as this could lead to several years in jail (according to Lonely Planet), but I asked the locals and they assured me, "No te preocupas" - if caught the punishment would be a small fine, or more likely, a "gift" or "on-the-spot fine" to the cops; it's apparently easy to bribe the cops but you can't use the word "bribe" since bribery is illegal, so instead you offer to make a "gift" or ask if you can pay an "on-the-spot fine"...but I digress; I've never been in trouble, so why worry?
Back at Luis', I rolled a nice spliff then sat out by the river...as the sweet tropical ganja smoke took its effect, I took my journal and recorded as much as I could of what had transpired, and drew (to the best of my ability) images of the ceremony house, grounds, and the river. Christmas Evening settled in, and the music from the nearby shops began to fill the community. The music continued after dark, as many of the locals apparently took the beer and liquor to celebrate the holiday (alcoholism, unfortunately, seemed rampant in the community). After a while, I wondered if we would have to postpone the evening's ayahuasca session, but Luis said we could go to a place 30 minutes away that would be far quieter. So off we went, Luis, Austin, Carlos (the Chilean lad who dropped in for two sessions), and myself, under the stars on a warm, muggy, festive Christmas Eve. 30 minutes down the road, there was a small plank of wood laid across the drain to the right of the road, and we followed this into a small, dark path through the woods and past a field of corn. We arrived at the house where we would be drinking, and Luis woke up the man who evidently stayed at this house and told him we would be taking ayahuasca there tonight, so he would have to leave. Evidently Luis' ayahuasca sessions took priority in the community, probably given the amount of money they bring into an area that's not poor, but that certainly faces poverty. The man brought out a tarp, then headed towards the village, muttering on the path about "Being woken at 12 in the morning! 'Oh Excuse Me Julio'...at 12 o'clock in the middle of the night!" I felt rude for a second, but then realized that Luis probably either owned the house or had privileges for its usage.
Each of us sat on the mat, with Luis in the chair, and he immediately began to prepare the ayahuasca for drinking. He found a cup, cleaned it out, then lit a mapacho and poured the medicine into the cup, blew the mapacho over the cup, then passed it to each of us, refilling and reblowing the mapacho over it for each person. He then drank a cup, and extinguished the candle, allowing the peace of the surrounding forest to settle in. The beats of the music from the village could be heard, but they were dim enough that the insects, birds, and crickling of a nearby creek provided a setting appropriate for the medicine. This session was largely uncomfortable: I had made the mistake of eating a hard-boiled egg earlier (but not early enough) in the day, and this reacted very poorly with the ayahuasca in my stomach. I didn't feel that I had ruined the session, but my lack of discipline made it quite uncomfortable for a while. We continued to stay at the more remote house for - who knows? - an hour and a half or two hours - and the medicine continued to work its way through my body, with no purge yet again. Before long, however, the mosquitoes and uneven ground became old, and Luis suggested we head back. So we began our walk, with Carlos taking a break to vomit in the bushes. This is when the ayahuasca became fantastic. I was "Ayahuasca Drunk", very clear in the head but with a body full of harmala alkaloids, my walking was uneven and evidently caused much comedic pleasure in Carlos and Luis, who walked behind me and laughed with each foot I misplaced.
Upon arrival at Luis's house perhaps 30 minutes later, the others headed to the toilet or to bed, but I was not in the mood for bed. I was in a very festive mood, in the midst of a very enjoyable fully psychedelic buzz, similar to how I've felt with strong acid trips at festivals where I'm surrounded by good people and good music; I did not experience such a psychedelic state any other time I drank the ayahuasca. After the others headed to bed, I sat on the cabin porch, listening to the complex sounds of the jungle - night-time birds, crickets and other insects, and even a group of laughing monkeys who came to town to check things out late in the evening. I also laid down at one point, and was given a guided tour of my body through the strange language of the ayahuasca. I was shown things in my life I'd completely forgotten, shown how they continued to effect me; I was also shown images of bugs living in my stomach, and the ayahuasca showed that through the course of my living I'd picked up various "bugs" that continued to thrive inside of me. This was strange information, as I usually consider myself a fairly healthy young person; being given a guided visual tour of my body as I laid in my bed, fully awake as Christmas morning approached.
In retrospect this Christmas Eve ayahuasca session was both very enjoyable - the only time out of 5 times where I had a full psychedelic "trip", almost LSD- or mushroom-like but with the jungle-ayahuasca twist - and I felt like one of Kesey's Merry Pranksters, transported to the jungle. At the same time, the ayahuasca showed me parts of my body and my past that needed to be cleaned out; I was shown, with almost microscopic precision, where exactly these conditions stayed, and the ayahuasca seemed to suggest that it would be able to clean the "parasites" - both literal and metaphorical - out. The whole experience was like a perfect Christmas gift from the ayahuasca, since it was both a fantastic time in the jungle, and at the same time, it furthered the medicinal work the ayahuasca had already begun.
The following time drinking, two days later, almost nothing happened in terms of reportable activity. Instead, there were almost no noticeable psychotropic effects; I spent the session lying down, feeling very, very sick, and unable to purge. Soon, however, the diarrhea began. I spent most of the 48 hours following this session either lying down and resting, or getting rid of the junk the ayahuasca was cleaning out of my system. On Christmas Eve the ayahuasca showed the ailments that affect me, and showed that it could fix them. Two days later, the "fixing" part began. It was a bit painful at times, and I became dehydrated as any water I drank soon was flushed through my system by the ayahuasca. As the 24 hour mark neared, I asked the others if it was normal for the ayahuasca to continue to work its way through the body for over a day after drinking. They emphasized, "Yes, it's good medicine". Good medicine indeed!
With the Christmas Eve present, and the "cleaning out" that began with what we drank two days later, we arrived at the fifth and final time I would be drinking ayahuasca - at least on this visit to the rainforest. Stay tuned for the final report, including some fascinating information on DMT I learned from others staying at Luis' place.
"...I didn't know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn't know that cats could grin..." - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland