We woke up by the buzzing sound of the jungle. We went to the kitchen to have breakfast and were greeted by a laughing grandmother telling us preparar para vomitar which was our first of many encounters with their wonderful sense of humor.
One of the most important things for them and ceremonies is to have a clean body. So we got served a bucket 🪣 (a real bucket) each of a special tea which we had to drink to begin cleaning the body. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience, to say the least, and we felt a huge accomplishment when we finished the process.
Afterward, we had breakfast and started slowly feeling the heat increasing. It’s a rainy season here in a jungle but it was an unusually dry and hot streak of days. We struggled to find a place to hide from the heat as both inside and outside was too hot for us. Today we went to shower 5 times as it was the only way to feel fresh.
In the afternoon Pio took us with a tuk-tuk to take some cocos. It was the first time for us to both take cocos from the trees as well as try opening it with the machete. For me, it was a frustrating and hard experience. I really felt like a city boy taken to the village as it took me too much time and being completely wet when the coco finally opened 😅.
Today was our first ayahuasca ceremony so we didn’t have any dinner. We went to shower with the special aromatic water, got dressed, and at 8 PM went to the ceremony.
About ayahuasca ceremonies in general
In a week a visitor usually participates in 3-4 ceremonies and experience can differ person per person and time from time. All the other details are pretty much the same every day. Since there’s a lot of mysticism and both wild-optimism as well as skepticism (depends on who you ask) about the ayahuasca throughout the week we tried to get a sense of what these ceremonies mean for locals and why do other people come here.
For the local people ayahuasca is first of all a medicine (they call it medicina). The king and the legend of all the medical plants they have. It is a medicine to clean the body, and most importantly, clean the mind. All the people have smaller or bigger problems that they need to face and address. The process of drinking ayahuasca can be intense and ask for a lot of mental and physical energy. Only after overcoming all these obstacles, you can get your mind clean and calm.
A ceremony is always a family event. Whether there are or aren’t visitors, locals meet once in a while for an ayahuasca ceremony, to connect with the family and help each other with the process. It is something they have had in small quantities since childhood (from 5-6 years old). When there are visitors ceremonies are more frequent but they are still always happening together with the family. In each ceremony, we had shaman Alberto with wife Maria and then either their children, nephews, their cousins, mothers, or grandmothers joining as well. Everybody is there to participate as equals as well as help visitors to feel calmer.
The ceremony happens in a round temple building. When you come in the evening it is only lit by candlelight. Along the walls of the temple, there are mattresses with pillows and blankets, next to them are buckets. The first hour is for chatting and getting in the mood. Some locals immediately come in the pajamas so you can get a feeling of a family sleepover party. They smoke their home-grown tobacco which they consider sacred. Then the shaman takes a small glass, pours ayahuasca, and invites people one by one. The amount depends on each person. During the first ceremonies, you get very little just to see if there are no unexpected reactions to the body and understand the effects. After drinking ayahuasca the candles are blown and it gets completely dark. Your job as a participant is to set the intention in your mind and just to be calm. Then the shaman begins singing with others occasionally joining in. The singing took on average 4 hours but it can vary from ceremony to ceremony depending on the overall mood. The shaman constantly sits next to participants, sings, asks how they are doing, if needed gives a massage to relax a body or gives advice. During the ceremony, there always comes a point when the family jokes around and laughs a bit just to create a more relaxing and casual feeling. An hour or two after midnight some people leave for their homes while the other part stays in the temple and eventually falls asleep. Throughout the day you meet different family members who are interested in your experience and give guidance for the next ceremony.