Iquitos internet cafes...

do not have computers that read RAW format files. So it´s a case of water, water everywhere as I am up to my ojos downloading and burning all the pictures I took while out on the river, yet I can´t post any quite yet for you all to see. (Actually I can, but only if I wait until after 11 pm where the ¨no download¨ ban at this cafe is temporarily lifted and I can get Picasa to stay on the computer for a few hours. Yet I will continue to choose sleep over this option).

I have let myself look at a few of them though and I´m excited about a lot of the portraits--esp. of the kids. So many big wide open eyes that want to look right down into my camera.

So I offer no pictures, but I will urge you to tale a look at my friend Caroline´s clever and purty photoblog from Beijing.

The first part of our trip has been busy (you can read about it on the project blog Rimanaku) but these past two days we´ve been in a bit of a waiting period while we locate and schedule time with the rest of the shamans that we will record with and get our next jungle expedition set.

This waiting time is a good thing because according to Cesar, our shaman friend, we all picked up dark energies while working with the other shamans we meet in the villages and we needed the time to get it all out of our system. Cesar is an elfin little man that I love more than I can really express with just words. He´s spent the past 30 years of his life taking ayahuasca and adminstering ceremonies to anyone who is sick or sad or like us, has stumbled into some darker energies out there in the road. Unlike many of these other shamans, Cesar does not work with darker energies--he saves himself for God, Mother Mary, Jesus, and Sai Baba--who he sings to throughout the ceremonies.

I´ve taken ayahuasca a few times in my Peruvian travels, but I can´t say that I really understand all that goes on with it (read this article if you want to know more). Still, after two nights of drinking the bitter vine and vomitting up god knows what (yesterday´s lunch? dark spirits?), I do feel much cleaner and calmer.

The message I kept getting during the ceremony was about taking time out to really enjoy my life and to spend time contemplating what is really going on with me. I think we have a lot of turning points that are always being offered to us so that we can keep opening up and going further as human beings--yet its not easy to do this when we are so busy and lost in our minds.

Being out here in such different, basic surival situations where everyone is sick and everyone needs something and cultural survial isn´t a sure thing makes me feel extra fragile and human. It helps me to remember why I am here and that its important to not get complacent and to be grateful for what I´ve got going on with me.

"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..."

lindsey at the door.

i took this picture of my hilarious and beautiful friend lindsey the day before she got married this last september. we've been friends for a long time, yet rarely live within a few hundred mile radius of each other. we spent a lot of time in our teenage years eating indian food in arlington with justin, driving my baby blue car to outdoor concerts and trying to get our clothes to not smell like cigarette smoke when we got back home. we also laughed a good bit. she currently training to become a yoga instructor in hawaii and keeps a tidy house with her husband andrew that i hope to visit soon. she writes a little blog of her own about entertaining and cat care in the tropics.

***

"i tell you these stories because these things happens to everyone. it´s not about being starched or polished or cute or polite. it´s about having ears that stick out, about breaking yet another glass. it´s about seeing something for the first time and making a million mistakes and not ever getting completely discouraged." --maira kalman

around dc.

STL

nature, revelry.

Noah's Visit