San Pedro

I haven't been typing much. I was in Ecuador. Living on bannanas at the beach. But i'm back now in the siera of Peru. it's cheep here and i will type more and try to bring this web page up to date. I've now been in South America for 5 full moons, but here's a story from my first full moon of the trip. It happened right around here where i am now. This area is where the first Incas came from, where the oldest constantly inhabited city in the americas is, the people say this area is the umbibical of the world. I don't know, but there is a very special energy here. Never planing or intending to come here, i keep coming back.


ChewbySelva cooked the San Pedro for hours over the fire in the open court yard of the house where we were staying. It was a 1 room house with no bathroom, kitchen, or running water but with an excellent enclosed court yard for camping and fiestas. That night was Luna LLena (full moon). Every full moon is celebrated and remembered with theese friends. And in preperation for the purification of the SanPedro, nobody ate meat for these days. ChewbySelva is from the selva (rainforest) and has traveled extensively and shared much of his knowledge with me. I find him to be a bit easier to understand than most people. He knows how to talk to gringos. He made the batch a little mild because it was my first time. He's nice like that. It was difficult to leave this night with the guys, because the most beautiful of the Incas showed up and wanted to party with me. Locumbia yelled for me not to go.... I enjoyed the cab ride out of town. I haven't been in one of these goofy tiny racecar looking things much on this trip. We had just enough money for the cab and bread. We always have just enough money. We hiked down dry river beds into the night and each of us drank one glass of SanPedro under the light of the moon. When we arrived at our site for the night, next to a waterfall spring, we fell straight asleep to the music of the water, we were exausted and cold.
In the morning we all drank more, each saying nice things and drinking to our good trip. filling our bottles at the spring we hiked out of the lush green valley (snacking on all the vegtables that grow along the way) to the dessert mountains. In the dessert we took the sweet fruit of the SanCayo cactus to chase the bad taste of the SanPedro. I drank to "no mas guerras, no mas fronteras" (no more wars, no more borders) .
The sound of ChewbySelvas flute and the sound of Rastamans digeredoo echooed through the vallies and we looked for pretty rocks on our hike. Me and Rastamon hiked back down to the spring to get water for the others at the top. On our way down we found cactus cigaretts and smoked them. I learned more spanish and he english in a language trade. In the valley again i saw the irrigation system at work. a system that hasn't changed since before the Incas. In the field i had a talk with a funny old lady working her field. the rest of the day was spent in the sun and despite the language barrier, whenever i saw my friends i had to smile or laugh...
.... ..that night getting into town..it was strange seeing the bars and all the cars and crazy people of Babylon. I didn't want to party with those people. We went home.
My friends asked to look into my eyes. They starred for awhile and the said i had been effectively purified by the San Pedro cactus.

first part of the trip

It's more than 2 months into this trip so i'm ganna try to catch you up with the story here. I'm typeing this from Huancayo. It's a town in the sierra in the middle of Peru. I've been here for the past few days. I stay in a tiny room with 2 other great friends. There's really no water in the hostal and i sleep on the floor, but i draw and study spanish and make jewelery and spin fire and practice juggleing and make other art everyday. We trade earings for food and other things we need. I'm ganna have to leave them soon and cruize for the boarder as fast as i can, and by myself, because my visa is running out. I'm liveing my dream and i hope everyone else is to. ok, to start the story. I guess i'll type a few things from my journal (which has drawings and is alot cooler than this stupid bloggy bloggerson crap).


Waking up on a dessert hillside, a bit lost, with very little water, no money, and sick is the low point of this trip. And walking out of a town the size of Airequipa with all my gear is no small task. How does one get into a situation like this? you may ask yourself. And I'm realy not sure even when it's happening. The answer to that is probly somewhere in the question of "How long does it take to have bank problems and unusualy strange craps after just entering SouthAmerica?" ...for me, 3 days.

But it was nice. and adventure ya know. Hiking out of Airequipa, i was given a couple of funny looks, but it was a place where many a yankie had trod before (yankie as in the sandle not the northerners). Unlike my hike frim the Miami bus station to the airport. I was wondering why no one else hiked from the bus station to the airport. Taxis are overpriced and make smoke and in the first couple of blocks i already found some wire (good for making poi wicks) and a roll of electric tape (good for making many things like juggleing clubs and devil sticks and other stuff. not to mention you can tape with it). I climbed from a highway to the overpass bridge that had the road into the airport. On this road there were no sidewalks the whole way. Ok, maybe this is why the people don't walk it. it's not realy encouraged. As the cars wizzed past i was reminded of how in "Ferighenhight 451" the father from the family of real people was arrested several times for being a pedestrian.

After the long and strenious hike out of Airequipa (passing through many nice and scary neighborhoods) my reward was a beautiful sunset and view of the 4 volcanos that surround the city. At night the city lights are shimmering nicely and the whole town has the sound of barking. Sounds as if its inhabited souly by dogs. ..Looking at cities at night back home, i often think of the beautiful silence there will be when the system falls. But if the revolution happened tommorrow, Airequipa wouldn't sound any different. It would bark all night.

I found my way back to town the next day, not sure what i was going to do, and at this point not even sure what the hell i was doing here. ..but by nightfall i was drinking wine, eating, and staying at a friends house. It's been over a week now and i still don't have any money, and i don't care. I spend my days practiceing spanish, juggling , poi, staff, raul, andjewelry making. Yesterday i went to the country and cut a stump to make my drum. We also cut for 3 digeridoos and 4 other drums. I almost have enough jewelery to start selling. In one week me and my group will have enough money to go to Cuzco (the capital of the Incas and the oldest constantly inhabited city in the americas) from ther to the rainforest. I'm happy. You truely get what you give and as Ishmael suggests, i'm living by the hand of god.


Well, maybe not exactly as Ishmael suggests, but there will be more experiments with that later. And I'll try to type more when i get a chance. That's all ya get for now. love you and
amor=libertad