Take the good with the bad
There are definitely some damn weirdos out there!
We were dropped off in the middle of nowhere to undertake ziplining and other adventure activities. The guide for the park was an amiable guy in his 30s who claimed to speak Spanish, English, Portugese and German.
The guide (Lucho) also had a side kick, an older gentleman who brought us water but otherwise politely listened.
After learning that we were thinking about undertaking the traditional Peruvian Ayahuasca ceremony tonight, Lucho proceeded to tell us about all the weird things that he has seen during his Ayahuasca trips since starting to take it at the age of 14.
We politely listened but were eager to try the zipline. But when we got out there. It was just a very unsafe looking obstacle course and of course when we hopped on, it began bucketing with rain.
Lucho told us to wait inside for the rain to clear before trying the zipline, but when the rain showed no sign of slowing 1-2 hrs later, we asked him to get the cab back to the lodge.
It was at this point that he became very aggressive, telling us that no one will want to come and get us in this terrible weather, but then flipping to being more contrite to.say that he already talked to the lodge.
Finally, we insisted on talking to the lodge ourselves and the owner promised a car in about half an hr. After this phone call, Lucho got back on the phone with the owner and got even more aggressive. At one point afterwards when he was calling the French girl in our group derogatory things, I thought he was going to really go off his tree and stab us..
A girl in our group speculated that Lucho probably didn’t get paid his full amount unless we stayed the full duration.
A nervous hour later, the owner arrived in a rented 4-wheel drive (Lucho was right, no one did want to drive all that way in mud and rain to gdt us).
We were all pretty glad to hightail outta there and get back to the lodge.
So yes, what a strange day… I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come during our Ayahuasca ceremony later today.
For those of you who are curious, this is the basic lowdown on ayahuasca, http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayahuasca
I don’t know much more myself but I am not looking forward to the vomiting! But hey, when in Rome…
Not really sure why I am doing this, yes it is cultural and yes everyone is doing it, but I guess I am looking for some answers myself on this 1-year journey and perhaps this will be a good place to start?
Anyhow even if it is a bad trip, at least I get to meet a shaman... now that is looking on the bright side :)
