Everything Happens For A Reason

Within two hours of arriving in Iquitos I met two great women, each of whom had traveled on their own to come to the conference, just like me. From then on we did practically everything together, ceremonies, eating, talking all night long and watching out for one another, until we all went home. We became great friends and formed friendships that will last forever. Here are some photos of us together, loving life. As one of them said, meeting them was some of the best medicine I had in Peru.

Photojournaling of Peru 2

The markets too were fascinating places, with shelves of corked bottles containing medicines and ointments made from hundreds of Amazonian plants. After all, the Amazon is the pharmacy to the world. And the Plaza de Armas was always a happening place on weekends, with plenty of nightlife and entertainment on Saturday night, including an airband of 8 year olds.

Photojournaling of Peru

Here are some more pictures of my trip to Peru. I enjoyed riding in the moto taxis, although they make Iquitos one of the noisiest cities on earth. The boat ride to my camping spot was always interesting, like being in another country compared to the city, where local people fished, swam and washed their clothes, seemingly unaware of the nearby noisy Iquitos. I thought the kids playing in the water from the storm runoff were adorable as well as this cutie at a fruit stand.

More Photojournaling of Mexico

Here are some more pics of Mexico and a video of some Huichol acrobats in the plaza one Sunday. There are photos here of Palm Sunday, where the locals create gorgeous art from palm fronds and of amazing sandcastles of the last supper, next to the Plaza de Centro in Puerto Vallarta.

Photojournaling in Mexico

I love to photograph things, everything in my life. I call these images my photo journal and I must have thousands of them documenting my life. So I wanted to show you some of them, from my recent life at least.
This batch is from the Mexico trip and there is a video of a cute Mexican girl singing on the bus. There are pictures here of an elaborate cemetery, some day of the dead dolls and smoking fish.

Peyote Ceremony……In the Mall!

In Mexico one of my main hopes was to be a part of an indigenous ceremony with one of the sacred plant teachers. But even with my contacts through the yaje community I could not make it happen. It’s just not that easy. Understandably, they are not that open to allowing just anyone into their sacred ceremonies, especially westerners.
Instead I found an article online that told of a Huichol tribe that would be performing a Peyote ceremony at the local mall. At first I thought this was just too weird and how could any true shaman want a part of this but as I read on it made perfect sense.
They had come down from the mountains, where many of them had always lived and never ventured from, to big city Puerto Vallarta, to educate the public about how important the sacred plant medicine, Peyote, is to their culture. They had risked so much in leaving their home. They were unfamiliar with our ways and laws and while they were there, their head shaman got arrested for swimming in the river. They were selling their art to help pay for his release and to pay for the cost of bringing the tribe there.
The Huichols use peyote as medicine for healing and connecting with spirit. It has been used by them in a sacred way for eons and they are legally the only ones allowed to possess the plant. They are truly brilliant artisans and much of their artwork is designed from the elaborate visions they receive from working with peyote.
Ever since peyote was discovered by outsiders, as a psychotropic plant, it has been harvested in mass, from the land in Mexico for recreational use and has become much harder for the Huichols to obtain. And with so much land ownership, it is very hard for them to even get to the land that it grows on due to property lines and fences that exist today.
So I went to the mall to learn more about these beautiful people and their sacred traditions and also to see how a peyote ceremony in the mall would play out. It was very fascinating. I fell in love with the art and jewelry and bought a ton of it from them.
The whole tribe was there and they sang and danced the traditional songs around the medicine men as their head shaman prayed to the medicine and then cut up and ate the peyote. I could’nt believe I was watching this, right by a McDonald’s, but it was clear to me that this really was not a show but for our education.
I believe that even more than for our education, they were there for the healing of us. Bringing their work through the peyote medicine to give us the healing that we need to be able to respect and connect with nature, spirit, peyote and all of the sacred plant teachers again in a way that we have forgotten.
Photo description: My cousin snapped one picture of the head shaman holding a baby and from the look in his eyes the medicine was at work.

Dolphin Dream Come True!

Okay….rewind. I went to Mexico about two weeks before I visited the primate sanctuary. My cousin lives in Puerto Vallarta where she trains dolphins and I was so excited to see her at work and meet her animal friends.
The dolphins were such beautiful and aware creatures. Dolphins are not only some of the smartest creatures on earth but are also said to have telepathic abilities (this fascinates me). They are also one of the only other species, besides us, that have sex for pleasure, not just procreation, which makes it even more clear to me how truly aware they are.
I had the rare opportunity of being able to sit alone with them and my cousin as she interacted with them in their simple human/dolphin communication way. It was obvious to me that these creatures really do have a massive intelligence. The wonderful opportunity of being in such close contact with them, touching and kissing them, was one that I will never forget.
My cousin always dreamed of working with dolphins and I am proud of her for making her dream come true. However, she knows that this is not truly how she wants to work with them and wants to one day do work that will benefit the dolphins. Although, they are being well taken care of, I believe that they know that they do not belong there, even those who were born there. I again hope that our society can learn soon to stop caging animals for our own amusement and realize that taking animals from the wild is a crime.
Here are some photos and videos of these magnificent creatures. Enjoy!