I`m healed hallelujah!

I´m pretty sure that some people won`t believe this story, but I can tell you it`s the truth and an important part of my trip.

The last months I`m more and more on a spiritual path. I guess it´s a side effect of having to much free time, hihi. The Colombian people are more conected to nature, cycles of the moon and sun, energies, and the ancient knowledge of the indigenous people. It gives a whole new perspective to my life and a need to live healthy and in peace. Do I sound very woolly?? Also the experiences with yagé (ayahuasca) showed me that there is more in life then a person can see and it makes you feel very connected to nature.

In December 2010 when I took yagé I had this crazy experience that something was fixing my tiroid inside my body by some kind of surgery. In the beginning I was very sceptic and couldn´t believe the yagé healed my tiroid illness completely. But after some weeks I started taking less and less pills, until I had to stop taking my medication (a tiroidhormone) and without the medication I felt great. Because of this amazing experience I thought I could maybe solve my hair problem too. I knew the two were connected.

So when I got back to Bogotá in May I decided to take more yagé and work on this problem. About a month ago I asked during a session why I had this problems with my tiroid and my hair loss and it guided me straight to the dead of David. It showed me that even though I loved him very much I felt very guilty of not telling him always the truth of how I honestly felt in our relationship. Sometimes it was very difficult in the hospitalization, but I never admitted it. And now I was confronted by it. The whole week I felt sad and in this week I got my problems of my tiroid back....

The next Sunday I discussed with the shaman my experiences and that I now knew I had this pain inside that gave me this disease of my tiroid and hair loss. I wanted to work on this even though I knew it was going to be difficult. I wanted to say sorry to David and just as important to forgive myself and the same time cure my tiroid and hair problem. He told me that he would help me giving a yagé especially to cure.
Uff this gave me the most heavy experience ever!

I felt an enorm pain in my heart and a very heavy weight on my shoulders, kilos that I carried. And I started to scream this pain out of my body for at least two hours, asking forgiveness to David and to myself in the rain completely covered by mud hitting my hands in the wet earth. I looked into hell (really) and it is very very ugly. But at the same time I screamed “gracias”, because I knew it was leaving my body. Between the screaming I vomited a lot, even though I had not been eating for more then 10 hours. Afterwards I was completely wasted but I felt a lot lighter. Even though it was heavy I also was very grate full for the opportunity to work on this.

Two weeks later I wanted to work on it again, because I wasn´t ready yet and still had the tiroid problems and hair loss. So I went back to were I ended the last session. A friend wanted to help me and she almost fell behind, because of the heavy energy I had over my body.

I asked the yagé for healing my tiroid and I started screaming the last pain out of my body and at the same time something was healing my tiroid inside. Vomiting from I don`t know where in my body. (I`m sorry for the untasted details, but it`s an important part of cleaning the soul). After this heavy experience I felt very relieved. For the first time in a long time I had a quiet heartbeat. And the day after a pain in my shoulder, which I had for months, disappeared. I feel great since then and cured. And very thankfull that in those last weeks I could have this amazing experience.

kisses from the dentist

My dental amalgam filling is broken. I had it for more then 25 years, so it is not so strange that it failed on me.
It´s always difficult to find a good dentist in a strange country, so I asked my friend Melibea if she knew a good dentist. And yes she did. He also takes yagé. I don´t know if this makes me trust him more....., but I didn´t have another option and went to see him last Friday. He was very friendly and gave me a free first consult just to see what was wrong.

When I called today to make a follow up consultation he ended the call with "nos vemos esta semana, un beso" "we see each other this week, a kiss". I guess only Colombian dentists will say this.
This Wednesday I´ll go for my consult. I hope he will do his job right! For me one of the most unsexy things is going to a dentist! Wish me luck!

Buenos Aires in a rush

Days fly when you are living in a cultural and exciting city like Buenos Aires. I spent the whole month of April in the capital of Argentina to feel and live the life of the Porteños (the Mokumers of Buenos Aires). Many friends told me that I would love this vibrating city of theater and night life. And I must say it was a great experience living a month over there, even though I felt like living in a hurry.

It´s the most cultural city of Latin America and there are so many things to do. I started with classes of salsa, impro lessons, macrame (knotting jewelery), drum lessons and whatever else came on my path... The Argentine people are sweet and have great habits like he ritual of sharing on cup of mate (tea) with there friends, dancing tango on the streets, and expressing their emotions and feelings in theater, music and dance. After two weeks of living thsi busy life it felt like rushing all the time. So I started skipping the salsa classes, classes of macrame and in the end also the impro lessons. And I put my focus on the tambor alegre (Colombian drum) lessons, because I was enjoying that the most. That was exactly how Buenos Aires and the Porteños felt for me. -Life goes so fast and there are so many things to do, that you forget to take a break and enjoy a good conversation-.
It all felt felt a little superficial. After seeing so many cultures, beautiful nature, countries the last year I guess I was withdrawn from the vibrating city nightlife. (I hope I survive Amsterdam when I return in one month ;))

The last weeks I spend a lot of time with my Colombian friend Santiago, who was living there since one week. We bumped into each other in the streets of this capital of 13 million residents and had some great conversations.
In the last week I decided to make a trip to the mountains and see some of Argentina's great nature. It´s such a big country that you have to travel at least 10 hours in bus to find mountains. I took a night bus to Cordoba to see some condors. The condor is the king of the sky for the indigenous people of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Santiago told me that it was one of the only places worldwide were you could see the condors (3 meters wingspan) just above your head. I went to this beautiful place without any other tourists. And stayed all alone in a mountain hut in Cerro Blanco in the Cordoba district in the middle of nowhere. After an ice cold skinny dip in a crystal lake between a canon, I made a hike to the highest mountain rock I could find, sat down and started to sing a song I learned from a shaman. "Vuela vuela condor". And after a while two huge condors circled just above my head. Amazing! It was so impressed by the birds that I failed making a good picture.

For the last part of my one and a half year trip I decided to go back to Colombia, where I have my flight from Bogotá on the 22 of june and enjoy those last 5 weeks to the fullest with my Colombian friends in this beauiful country.

Temezcal or sweat lodge

In the outskirts of Buenos Aires a shaman arranged every now and then a temezcal. A temezcal is a Mexican sweat lodge and is used by indigenous people in many countries of Latin America to purify the body, mind and spirit. Everybody brings a blanket to cover the bamboo structure of the temezcal to keep the warmth inside during the ceremony.
It´s a small space and we entered the temezcal with 14 persons. During 4 rounds (you can´t leave the temezcal) they open the front flap to bring in more hot stones, herbal water and a little bit of fresh air. During the ceremony you sweat like hell, sing, cure, make wishes for your friends and family and for yourself and get in some kind of natural trance. Every round they bring in 4 abuelas (grandmothers) from the big fire outside, that´s how they name the stones and the heat rises up to a level that it is difficult to breath but still acceptable. After a two or three hour ritual you feel like reborn. It certainly is worth trying for.

Suerte Negrito

Viviana a friend from Bolivia told me that only 1% of the Bolivian people is black people. In all Latin America they are called "negros", but in Bolivia they are Afro Bolivianos. And I agree it sounds a lot better. 25 Years ago it was a saying when you saw one Afro Boliviano in the streets you would say :"suerte negrito!" (suerte means good luck in English). For the rest of the day you would have a great day and good luck! Since 2010 it´s officially forbidden to say this because of racist reasons.

Culture shock

Three months ago I was in the jungle of Colombia, where the people are so sweet and helpful, the nature is amazing and the land very rich in culture and indigenous tribes. The speak very clearly in Spanish and life is cheap (except for the jungle tours). To Peru where buses, hostels, food, hand crafts work are more cheap than in Colombia. Where the people from the Highlands almost always are a little grumpy and like to lie to the tourist. The Peruvians from the jungle or they who live at the coast are a lot more friendly. People are more poor and becuase there live a lot of indigenous people very colorfully dressed. They speak in Spanish and Quechua.Where nature is beautiful and divers.

To Bolivia where people are very relaxed and friendly but a little shy. Nature also is beautiful, but less divers. Where life is even cheaper than Peru and the people are very poor. People sell there stuff on little blankets on the streets. Where a big part of the colorful population is indigenous. Where they speak Spanish and Quechua.

To Argentina, Buenos Aires, where live is expensive and modern. Where all houses have a washing machine and a toilet which flushes your toilet paper!! Where you can drink the tap water. Where it is not free to sell what ever you like in the streets and where you don´t find indigenous people. All the streets are clean, people wear expensive cloths and use mobile phones with Internet, shops sell new stuff, buses are very luxury. Aaaarrgh it looks like Europe! It´s one hell of a difference with the other three countries, but big fun because I found a nice room, a bicycle which I can use for a month, and there are a million of things to do in the most cultural city of this continent.

Chewing coca leaves

It was 6 am in the morning and pitch dark, when I left my hotel room to go to the biggest carnival in Bolivia in Oruro (4 hours in bus from la Paz). I didn't see the stairs and I fell all the way down, making a hell of a noise. It hurt like hell, but luckily it turned out to be only a huge bruise.
It was a short carnival for me, because it was difficult to walk or sit and I returned after three hours to La Paz.
My couchsurfing friend advised me to put some coca leaves on my leg. The only way to make them active is to chew them. When I got home in the evening I immediately started chewing leaves. The bruise was huge and I needed a lot of them. It worked great and the bruise definitely did reduce. I only learned that it is better to use them in the morning, because I couldn´t sleep before 4 am that night ...