Sunday lived up to its reputation. A lazy day of coffee and tradicional festivities, I was accompanied in my inaction by Amalaa, Susanna and Swedish Theo who was visiting Pisac for its most celebrated weekend of the year. Theo had recently completed a course of free-diving in Koh Tao, Thailand, where he had successfully held his breath underwater for 4 1/2 minutes and dove without scuba-gear to 37m!!
A long, colourful procession of gaily dressed dancing characters and locals trailed from the festivities of the main square to the church al frente (opposite) Gringo Estate. This was the culmination of four days of celebrations of the Virgin Carmen for the people of Pisac , which manifested in drinking, dancing, loud tunes and much eating of food.
On Monday I visited Cusco and Amalaa to get supplies for my upcoming trek, then on Tuesday I arranged to meet Susanna in Calca (just down the valley) to begin the 50km/3hr/less than 20km/hr bus journey riding the edge of the dirt to the snowline of the Calca Valley. But before those white knuckles I took the day to visit super-touristy Ollataytambo, with ruins built into the side of steep mountains in front of a backdrop of nevados (snowy peaks). Spectacular and scenic but definitely not my preferred town of the area. The bus we were taking was to Lares and its so-named valley, but the scheduled 3pm departure was delayed until 530pm. As such we arrived in the small town latish, found food and accomodation and hit the hay.
The next morning we breakfasted on my home-made coffee and my home-made balls of fury. Over the course of the day we consumed 9 between us and slowly ascended to another plain. We went to the delicious and nutritious hot springs to soak up the minerals and sun. An awesome setting, beautiful day and a variety of temperatures to enjoy the rich dark waters in. I filled up my bottle with slightly effevescent and definitely mineralised water. A great day. On the afternoon colectivo we got to see what we hadn`t on the way there - a deep elevated valley peppered with the same highland granite agriculture as from the lakes near Pisac. All around were serrated and snow-dusted ridgelines and towering well above was (I think) the striking Salkantay mountains and glaciers. Very beautiful. The road soon turned to roadworks... country Peru-style. The system was to completely close the road for an unknown time period until 6pm, then allow all hell to break loose. Banked up vehicles, mostly large, just drove towards each other on a dangerous dirt road with about a 50% capacity to allow 2 vehicles side by side. As such logic was difficult to locate this evening, but we eventually made it back to Calca where Susanna transferred back to Cusco and I home, where a pot-luck dinner was enjoyed by all to celebrate the return of Fiorela and Mel from vacationes in Lima.
Thursday was time to say goodbye to Maggie, who was off to Lima to pick up her visiting parents and take them touring down south. Thanks for everything Maggie, great to stay with you and best luck in Pisac! x () Then another journey to Cusco and the market for trekking supplies and a great dinner with Susanna and Amalaa which claimed to be Indian but was quite different... still delicious in a snazzy setting too. Thanks Susanna!
On Friday I commenced the cooking on my trekking food and found out the person with whom we'd organised to do do-it-yourself ayahuasca ceremony with was not keen to serve the medicine, but I got some off him anyway to do-it-myself. My friends who were going to join me bailed so it was a solo mission! So that night I set up my little altar in front of the fireplace with meaningful stuff, water and vomit bucket. I had completely planned a night of recorded music from my Ipod and at 12am I kicked off with prayers and ceremony. It was an interesting experience - my friend had said the medicine was "up and down; I knew what he had meant. It definitely wasn't super-strong, and I topped up a few hours in. I had a great time singing along to Bon Iver, Baka Beyond and Low songs while stretching out and going to the toilet! The fire I'd planned was just not happening and at one point the music went completely twisted for a few seconds, but then all was well. So eventually I just fell asleep at around an hour short of my goal of seeing the sun up.
The next morning I drizzled a little medicine into my juice and kicked back into kitchen action complete with a tonne of caffeine in my system and 'The Mule' cranked on the stereo. It was an extremely busy day of cooking, cleaning and organising enhanced by chocolate/San Pedro balls and visits from local folk. I had asked people around for roast veges and salad and farewells from after lunch/3pm... no one showed up until 630pm!! By that time I was running on adrenaline and caffeine alone but still managed to hold a nice space for Sandra, Brian, Astor, Julian, Michael, Christopher, Zoe, Anna, Fernando, Paul and Amelia as we discussed chocolate balls, long treks and trekking food, Anna's delicious banana bread and the rich, rich chocolate cake brought by Sandra and Brian. Thanks for coming guys and farewell!
Sunday dawned better than Saturday due to some overnight sleep but was again a mad cleaning/cooking/packing adventure, this time fueled by just coffee, chocolate and sugar. I eventually readied myself after visits and help from Brian, Amalaa and Susanna, the latter two with whom I returned to Cusco with, after saying goodbye to Gringo Estate and its residents. As we wound our way up out of town I farewelled Pisac and all there with a tear in my mind´s eye, and upon checking in to our hostel felt very tired and relieved to be through that stage of my journey. But I also felt very contented in a way I haven´t felt before. I felt like in staying there I had changed myself considerably and connected with an amazing community and energy and experienced joy and ecstasy in a completely new way with the ayahuasca ceremonies. I felt like my life was very complete.
Sounds like an incredible journey filled with authenticity, tranquility, and breathtaking scenery along the Lares Trek in Peru . Truly a remarkable adventure!
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