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denial? no de amazon

could it get any hotter? actually yes, I fear...7 hours to get deep into the jungle and to the lodge. low water season meant the small tributary of the Yanuyaku was a trickle. how do you get a pretty good sized boat up this? use the motor as dredging tool and push off the mud on the bottom. sometimes the boat stalls. you just sit and wait (in that hot sun).

we picked up a mom and baby along the way (it{s 90+ degrees and HUMID) - her husband was neck deep in mud/water pushing their dugout canoe full of bananas upriver. every 2 weeks he brings pirhanna downstream to trade with the people who grow bananas. the pirhanas are better where he lives but the bananas suck. for the banana village, they have the best kind of banana but no pirhannas. every 2 weeks, every year this happens. it is happening right now.

the lodge was great. our jungle guide carlos alberto palomino barndt (say this super fast to sound peruvian) was even better!! everyone must see this jungle before you die and carlos must be your guide. excellent english, sense of humor (carlos, how many guests have you killed? not so many. just one.). he made this trip exceptional! it was just DD and I for 3 nights. staff of 5 men taking care of us - what queens are we? at night, we went cayman hunting - surrounded by sounds of the jungle. red eyes reflected back in flash lights are cayman eyes. we could see how active carlos eyes and mind are by where the light shined (it never stopped in one place). he saw these long fish swim by. DD screamed and jumped. carlos: was that a snake? dd: no, 2 long fish. carlos: good, but if you see a snake, don jump like dat. eet could keel you.

we delivered supplies to the villiagers of san juan - what an experience. I waffled from feeling like the "rich american showering our bloated wealth on these poor villagers" to really feeling geniunely glad we did this and seeing genuine happiness in their eyes. I think the later was the more appropriate emotion as we were invited back that night for a party (spring festival). we danced with the kids and vilagers. (some of the same songs I had just heard in miami - THIS is the contrast I was hoping would happen). we drank their local brew. it was great, just great. my blonde hair is also gaining mucho attention (nahncay, you are so sexsay!). maye I{ll get used to this?

carlos took us deep into the jungle. we only walked 20 yards and I jokingly asked "carlos, how many plants could kill us right here?"  "right heere, only one. heere, cover your eyes" WHACK went the machete into the bark. the ooze was used to kill fish but is now illegal. guess if you eat the fish, you loose your mind over time. easy fishing, but bad consequenses. we caught bullet ants (izula). a bit would kill you in 24 hours. carlos used my tweasers. one wasn{t enough, he caught 3 & we stored them in a tupperware container (you hold it. NO, you hold it...). Mi tres izula finally died from the jungle heat - they are upstairs. if they last the trip, you{ll see them in art someday :)

that afternoon, fishing for pirhannas. I caught 5! that is only becuase I grea up fishing with my grandpa using a cane pole and a hook. this was the same process. except carlos took them off the hooks for us. we ended up with 3 sets of teeth. they look like mini dentures.

our last night, I made arrangements with the village shaman to perform the ayhuasca ceremony. I cannot even begin to describe it all here (maybe in another entry), I{m still trying to process it all my self. The shaman has spent all day in the jungle boiling various plants down to a thick broth. this, combined with special tobacco is what the physical body consumes. Around this, the shaman is chanting and shaking reeds and shells. the room is completely black. well, if I tell you this is a complete cleansing of the spirit as well as the phisical body, you can hopefully draw the next conclusions. the actual drink is expelled (vomit first, the big D later) about 1 hour into it, then lasts for 8 more. around this, your mind wavers between states of euphoria, confusion, internal and external (see, no words to describe it yet...). It was unlike any experience I have ever had. truly amazing. and to be in the jungle for it. so lucky.

hard to image leaving but we got in our dugout canoe the next day. I was still hallucinating - it was such the right state of mind to leave in. I felt so safe, so at peace.

tonight back to lima, tomorrow to peurto maldonado. at the Loving Light Lodge that we just left, we had wood huts, mosquito nets, a shower, hamocks, food cooked for us. in PM, we have tents, sand bars, fishing for our own food, and tons of insect repellent.

this will be so much more intense.

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