The Adventure Begins

The Cosmic Shift happened in Peru. I went last October to fulfill a lifelong dream of seeing Machu Picchu. I actually tried to go to Machu Picchu when I was 30 and living in Long Beach, CA. I saw a documentary on Machu Picchu, and at that time Shirley McLain’s book “Out on a Limb” was quite popular. In it she talked a lot about her time spent in Machu Picchu and it was so much a part of her mystical path that I too wanted to experience it. This was in the days before the internet and on-line booking of flights and rooms, etc. In calling airlines and contacting travel agents, we (my partner at the time, and I) found out that a short trip for two would cost us about $8,000. That was so far out of our budget we just gave up. It had been the only thing on my bucket list ever since, and when a friend told me at the beginning of 2018 that airfare from Philadelphia to Lima was down to $451.00. 

I said “One way, right?”

He said “Nope. Round trip!” 

I immediately replied “Let’s go. I’ve always wanted to see Machu Picchu.” 

He said “How did you know I was going to ask if you wanted to go to Machu Picchu with me?” 

I replied “Why else would you be interested in airfare prices to Lima?” 

We both laughed and within a week, we booked our flight for mid-October. We spent most of the spring and summer making plans.

Very early on in the process of figuring out how we were going to get from Lima to Cusco, and from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, and from there to Machu Picchu, we came across a very cool-looking, quaint B&B in Ollantaytambo. The nightly price was very cheap and we could get the train from there to Aguas Calientes. We booked it far in advance and my friend kept researching this and other places. He found that this place was owned and operated by a Shaman, whose grandfather taught him all about plant medicine, in particular, San Pedro cactus which contains mescaline. As it happens, he now does “plant ceremonies” for the guests of his B&B. My friend asked if I was interested. I thought for only a few seconds before saying “Fly to a foreign country, be far out of civilization, and take illegal drugs with a person I don’t know and whose language I don’t speak very well? No. I don’t think I could do that.” 

It didn’t take long—actually that evening—to look at this from a different perspective. I called him the next morning and said “I’ve reconsidered. How could I travel thousands of miles, stay overnight with a Shaman who is offering me a mystical experience so close to Machu Picchu, and say “No thanks. I’m good.”? I said “Of COURSE I have to do this if it is offered. 

And the short version (for now) is I did.

Machu Picchu was more wonderful than I had even imagined. I’d built it up so much in my mind I was afraid I’d be disappointed. It was just incredible. This was one of the highlights of the trip and I just can’t think of any words to describe it. Truly a journey of a lifetime. Little did I know it would become secondary to what I was about to experience in the days to follow.

I spent 3 nights in Ollantaytambo. The first was on our way to Aguas Calientes, and then two more after Machu Picchu. I fell in love with this town. There were few cars, it had a nice, neighborhood feel, it was easily walkable, even to me who was very sensitive to the altitude, and it seemed very safe, with many, many friendly dogs roaming the streets. My kind of town. I stayed there the second two nights after Machu Picchu at Casa de Wow, the B&B owned and operated by a third generation Shaman and his girlfriend from Minnesota. Roberto and Maria just exuded loving kindness. It was a joy to be there every minute. I arrived Saturday late afternoon and Roberto was just about to start the introduction to his San Pedro Ceremony which was happening Sunday morning. I had purposely chosen to stay there because of my interest in doing this ceremony with him, but by now I was having second thoughts about “drinking the juice” which contained mescaline, in a foreign country with strangers. But something told me that I’d come so far to do this, and Roberto was such a kind and gentle man, it was impossible not to trust him. He gave the introduction and explained a little about what would take place (all in Spanish—thankfully there was a young woman, Talitha from Brazil, who spoke fluent Spanish and translated for us Gringos who were there) He said to go get some light food and meet in the kitchen at 8:00 to prepare the medicine. We did. At 8:00 we met in the kitchen, 5 of us in all, plus Roberto and Maria. Roberto went outside and soon came back in with a big chunk of cactus, about 2 ½ feet in length and about as big around as my thigh. We all sat around the table and Roberto instructed us in how to remove the spines (thorns?) and then peel off a thin transparent layer, that almost seemed like the cactus had been laminated or shrink wrapped. He then cut off the green, fleshy skin and put it in a big pot full of water and it boiled all night long. Maria got up every few hours to stir and add water as needed.

The Ceremony

The next morning we awoke and kept our fast going. We left about 10:00 a.m. and Roberto had arranged for a driver to take us to three different temples. All were fairly high up in the mountains, and there was a LOT of hiking involved. For me it was closer to rock climbing at times, and I was still having trouble with the altitude (although someone pointed out that you normally adjust to altitude after a day or so, and perhaps it wasn’t the altitude so much as I’m old and fat and out of shape. I’m sticking with MY story—I was at nearly 9,000 feet mountain climbing. What do you expect?)

We (Roberto mostly) did a beautiful ceremony at each temple, and Talitha or Jeremy (a young man from Connecticut who was there teaching English to Peruvian kids for 6 months) translated the prayers/incantations for me. It was all very beautiful, thanking the god of the sun, mother earth, the moon, and the condor, and asking for permission to use their temples, and to guide us in our journey and give us what we needed. We drank some of the Huachuma cactus “juice” at each stop. It was green and bitter. Not at all what you’d order for a smoothie, but all in all, not too bad. For some, the effects came on quite quickly and intensely. Nicole from Israel had trouble with the taste and felt nauseous. For me, the effects were subtle. As we left the first temple, it seemed to kick in, and all I could think of was how beautiful everything was, how loving everyone around me was, and how lucky I was to be alive at this time, in this place with these people. Roberto called the plant “a heart opener” and that was a pretty accurate description. I loved everyone and everything. 

We went to three different temples: The Temple of the Serpent, the Temple of the Puma and late at night, to the Temple of the Condor. That seems to be the Inca’s Holy Trinity, with the Serpent representing base desires, over-consumption, alcohol, sex, (my interpretation from what I could understand in Spanish) and the Puma representing life on the earth plane, and the Condor representing lofty ideals, maybe heaven? At each, Roberto performed a ceremony and we all drank again. We walked barefoot in the grass outside the Temple of the Puma, and I’d never felt such a sensation, of softness, of connectedness to the earth. It was beautiful and so was the view. We sat on big rocks and shared fruit we’d bought at the market—tangerines, tiny bananas, plums. I’ve never tasted anything so wonderful, and it was all so much better because we were literally feeding each other. Talitha would peel her tangerine, take a segment and pop it in her mouth. She’d make an orgasmic noise of approval and then peel a segment and put it in my mouth, and then give one to Jeremy. He in turn, took a tiny plum and gave each of us one. I peeled tiny bananas and fed my friends. I cried several times during the day because the beauty was just too much for me to take in. 

Roberto said not to ask the plant for anything; instead, he said, let the plant medicine guide you and give you what you need. He said the plant would give us each a lesson. As the sun was setting and we walked from the Temple of the Puma, Talitha asked if I’d gotten my lesson. I said “Yes” and she asked if I cared to share it. I said my lesson was “I LIVE HERE!” She asked if I meant on this planet, and I said, “I was thinking more along the lines of this Universe.”  She laughed. Then her eyes welled up with tears. She got it.

That experience changed who I was, or maybe it made me realize who I really am. At any rate, it has stayed with me, on a daily basis. I remember that feeling of being connected to Pacha Mama, of feeling the earth’s energy being drawn up through my bare feet, and shooting throughout my entire body. Every day I remember the loving kindness of the people I was with there, and how I felt so nurtured by them. And all this against a background of my country brutally divided over politics, race, sexual orientation and gender. I feel that divisiveness in my daily life some days, and it feels like it is background noise. Static. It tries to distract me from the beauty I learned to feel in Peru, and it sometimes almost succeeds. But I still have those feelings of connectedness to Mother Earth, Father Sky, and to the nurturing people that surrounded me that day. 

And I want to live in THAT world. And so I will!