"Spirit Songs"

Cesar cuts barks from the Renaca tree to make medicines.


The Bora people doing their traditional dances.



I'm leaving today to start my journey down to Peru to document the changing reality of the Amazon and explore ways to preserve the shamanic healing traditions. Exciting stuff. I'll try to post as much as possible while on the road.

I've always had a thing for Peru because I get so inspired while I am there. Despite all the messiness of that country (of any country), she's so damn beautiful and personable. I wrote this first time I visited her, while helping my friend Rebecca with her documentary in the Andes:

"we are lovers and dreamers because we become like the water in the constant pursuit of moving and shaking what the universe has bestowed upon us in its perfect dicition of saturday afternoon picnics. we refuse to stagnate, withdraw, give-up, escape for more than a few hours at a time. we see life for the process and have always loved happiness for its sexy elusiveness. in turn, we have learned to love her twin sister of heartbreak and how it comes to leave us a different person, knowing more about beauty and kindness than we thought possible. we believe in: dancing as prayer, chewing slowing, asking questions and listening to the answers, impromptu morning mass on deserted mountain tops, delirious gratitude, homemade bread, riveting conversation, and cups of tea when the moment requires rest. we are not afraid of change, our bodies, getting older, technology, confusion, bursts of anger, or the elusiveness of everything we seek. we have learned to sit still to see that which reaches beyond us and connects every single part of this world. by seeing the connection, we finally know there is no more need to fight. we are fed by each other, lessons learned, children´s sticky faces, treetops waving in the breeze, and above all, the love that loves to love us. we tough it out, we change, and we will change this world through consideration, compost piles of ideas, and a willingness to laugh in the face of anything that seems too big, too closed, or too difficult. we make loving look good..."