Moche culture Union Jack earring

Well, well, well. Today in the Bruning National Archaeological Museum, Lambayeque, Peru, I saw a large earring dating from around 750 AD that clearly has a Union Jack a millennium before the Act of Union.

North Peru Around Chachapoyas

We came to Chachapoyas to see Kuélap, the mountain-top "fortress" that predates Machu Picchu, consists of more stones than the Great Pyramid and was built by the "warriors of the cloud": the Cultura Chachapoyas. We got more than that: we saw

the world´s third-highest waterfall and sarcophagi to boot.

I asked the iPeru office to send me an electronic version of the map of the region so that I could begin planning my next trip. Apparently, the museum at Leymebamba is not to be missed.

Cajamarca to Chachapoyas

Movil tours now does a direct bus (50 soles) leaving at 6am and taking around 12 hours. The views are breathtaking but don´t look down if you are afraid of heights: the road is only centimetres wider than the bus in parts, with no crash barriers to prevent that plunge.

Huánuco to Huaraz

Most places in Huánuco (we were coming from Pucallpa) told us we needed to go (backwards) to Lima in order to then advance to Chavín de Huantar, site of the ruins of the oldest civilizaton in the Americas. This seemed rather ridiculous given our relative proximity on the map and we eventually found a scenic route along the Cordillera Blanca that took in some great peak views.

• In Huánuco, we caught a La Union-bound bus from Union Transport at cuadra 4, Jr. Tarapaca. 
• From La Union, we caught a 45-minute collectívo to Huallanca (3 soles).
• From there we caught one of the thrice-daily (4a.m., 4.4.5a.m., 1pm) buses to Huaraz.

Our original intention had been to stay in Chavín, which would have meant alighting at Catac on the last bus and catching another. We decided last-minute to stay in Huaraz and that was definitely the right decision.

Huaca de la Luna

The Moche culture did a paint job that looks this good after 1500 years; worth getting on a bus for.

My Ayahuasca Experiences

For information on where to try Ayahuasca in Pucallpa, click here.
My experiences with Ayahuasca varied but not to the extent that my wife Jun´s did. Her very first time and her first time with a second curandero, Jun exhausted superlatives in her attempt to capture how wonderful she had felt. In contrast, her last three nights were not so positive and the penultimate one was especially bad, so much so that she requested the help of Don Marçial to help her get through her bad trip. This seemed to be largely due to fear resulting from a lack of physical strength. The brew overwhelmed her.

It has been said that using words to try to describe the ayahuasca experience is an exercise in futility. My worry is more related to the fact that listening to other people describe a dream they had can be painfully tedious. I will try to avoid that fate by remaining general.

My encounters ranged from feeling nothing to undergoing a mammoth horror show, which, however, I would not describe as a bad trip because at no point was I afraid or paranoid. On the whole, the adventures consisted in large part of random memories plucked from the depths of my unconscious mind and served up for my consideration; the vast majority of these were negative: incidents of violence, bullying and maltreatment that I had inflicted or suffered.

Beyond this – especially when I increased my dose on my third night with Don Marçial – the episodes included scenes of imagined horror which could have been from a film like “Hostel” or “Saw” and hypothetical dangerous or threatening situations that challenged my ability to respond. If this all sounds gruesome, I am afraid that is because it was. The fact is though that I was never “lost” to the extent that I had no control over the reels playing through my mind.

Whilst there were a few recalled memories that brought a smile to my face, the main positive I got from my experimentation was confirmation of my successful transition from child bully and coward to the man I am today. I am aware that this may seem a modest achievement but IMHO, in a very un-Peter Pan way, many people never manage to grow up.