Ahyawaska in San Francisco, Peru

I believe we left off with Pucallpas. It has been over 3 months since I was there but I will try and remember all the details.

So from Pucallpas I took a small collectivo taxi to San Francisco which is about 30 minutes of drive away. Not sure if you all remember but my motorcycle was still in Tarapoto.

To get to the collectivo taxi, I had to take a mototaxi. What I didn’t realize was that my iPhone had slid out of my pocket in the mototaxi. I only realized it was missing about 30 seconds after getting off the bike and by then it was long gone. I couldn’t even tell which mototaxi it would have been since they all look the same. I was a bit upset but oh well, it’s just a thing. I had another iPhone with water damage that I just had to fix somewhere down the road. The problem was that I had no lock code on the phone so whoever found it could read all my e-mails and personal info. Live and learn, lock your phone!

In the collectivo taxi cab I asked if anyone knew Eduardo in San Francisco. His name was given to me by my good friend Alejandro from Argentina. Eduardo is a herbal doctor. His father was actually a Herbal Doctor really well known internationally. The knowledge got passed down from father to sons so I decided to go see Eduardo. It turns out that his brother was sitting in the same taxi as me. So when I asked about Eduardo, right away I had someone to explain the taxi driver where to go. Coincidence?

What you see here are cabins used for people staying for a while to do the whole diet.

And here is the ceremony temple. The ceremony is done inside the gigantic moskito net.

Here is Eduardo’s mother. She is in her late 80s I think. His father died around the age of 90 after drinking Ahyawaska and other strong medicinal plants throughout his life thousands of times.

Shot glass, Ahyawaska bottle, puke bukket. A few other items were added later on, such as the perfume that they use, cigarettes and I’m sure I’m missing something.

Eduardo’s older brother who also joined in on the ceremony.

And here is Eduardo.

So how did this ceremony go? Well, it was quite different from the first one. Eduardo is not a Shaman, he is a doctor and therefore he is there to cure you. I just wanted a good Ahyawaska cleaning. Back when I was younger, I did some substance abuse and well, I drank quite a bit too. With all that, I had some bad energies that had accumulated and I wanted to clean them out as much as possible.

Before the ceremony, Eduardo and I had a talk about what the problems where and what I was looking for.

The night came and it was full moon or almost full moon. Just like the Shaman, Eduardo and his brother talked to the Ahyawaska before we drank it. They said something that looked like prayers. They both had a shot while they made me drink 2 shots. We relaxed for about a half an hour.

After about 3o-60 minutes, the effects started to kick in. Eduardo and his brother started singing. They were actually speaking in the old indigenous language in the form of songs. Really beautiful songs. They were telling the ahyawaska what to do. I layed down and closed my eyes. I could see snakes everywhere. I could also feel the medicine going through my body. This time it wasn’t a strong spiritual experience. I didn’t go into the other dimension. It was relaxing, smooth experience similar to magic mushrooms. The medicine was infiltrating but it was having a hard time gathering all the energies. After about an hour, Eduardo looked at me and in a joking manner, asked me if I wanted another shot of the medicine. I said yes and he looked really surprised but poured me another shot. Before the ceremony he told me that 99% of people only drink one shot. I started with 2. This was the 3rd one… and well, this last one did it’s work. I felt it strong, going through my body, gathering energies along with some of the work done by the first 2 shots. About 30 minutes later I took the bucket and it all came out.

What a great feeling! I felt like I was reborn. I felt relieved! I felt cleaner. Eduardo and his brother continued their singing for a little while and then we all laid down on our own matts and tried to sleep. They were able to sleep but I wasn’t. Between the light of the full moon and the after effects of the medicine, I’m not sure if I was able to catch an hour of sleep.

The next morning I had a bit of a headache like the first time I drank Ahyawaska. They offered me some rice to eat and then I was on my way back to Pucallpa from where I had to catch a bus to ride back to Tarapoto where my bike had been waiting for me for 2 weeks or so.

So did it work? For about a month after the ceremony, I couldn’t even look at alcohol. The smell, the taste or even looking at it made me uneasy in my stomach. I pretty much had to force myself after a long while to have a beer or a glass of wine. These days I have a glass here and there or a beer, but just really randomly.