Stories of my time and adventures in the Peruvian Amazon, since 2001.

When I first traveled to the peurvian amazon to Pucallpa Peru, it was very different then today, and there are many changes. we came form lima by bus just for the adventure since we were young and adventuring all across the continent. At that time so many parts of the road were just dirt, mud, and landslides. When we arrived in pucallpa we were the only tourists around, and it seemed like hardly any tourists had been to pucallpa. We made our way to the port of the Ucayali river and onto the big huge boat named henry. They didnt have the fast boats, just these big huge cargo boats filled with hammocks for sleeping, and a kitchen for meals. On our adventure we ended up in a small shipibo village unable to talk to anyone, staring at each other and playing music. Then we went to Contamana, a beautiful small town, filled with an amazing local market every morning, beautiful mountains with hot springs, and nearby large lakes. At that time the way to the hot springs was a muddy difficult adventure filled with alot of walking. leaving contamana back to pucallpa we met Jungle Guide Gilber Reatigui who spoke basic english. At that time i didnt speak spanish. We ended up going to his house on yarina cocha lake, and drinking Ayahuasca in a tiny jungle hut with just a mosquito net. Little did i know that i would buy land in that village and my children would all be half shipibo. When I first bought land on yarina cocha lake, there wasnt alot going on for tourism, and there was alot going on with agricutlure, fishing, and logging. The original yarina cocha port was a dirt highground, filled with handmade wooden boats, farm products and fish sales every morning, the center of local commerce. Where the bulevard and port of yarina cocha is now, at that time you had to jump over sewage drains in front of the bars to get to the boats. The village had no well and everyone drank out of the lake after boiling the water, including me when i lived in nueva luz.

Giber was a mixtisu Jungle Guide from the village of nueva luz on the island. He was the only guide mentioned in the lonely planet guide book at the time. His father was a mixtisu shaman, yet gilber was hired to find the best native shipibo shamans. Being one of the first guides to take people to the village of paoyong where the Mahua family lived, who have been known for a longtime of their ayahuasca practices. The Mahua family was contacted by misisonaries much later then most other families, they were brought from another village to live in paoyong. It was told my mixtisus that their power was so stong that the whole village would shake and tremble. Paoyong is an old Shipibo village, possibly older then the town of pucallpa. The village of Paoyong is the home village of the father of the Noyarao tree, a sacred tree in shipibo mythology, considered to lost, Benjamin Mahua redicovered the Noyarao tree. Benjamin Mahua is now considered to be over 100 years old.

Gilber Retegui was one of the founders of the mixtisu village of nueva luz de fatima, originally from the lower ucayali territoty of cocamas, village of dos de mayo, he knows the river well from his birth village to the village of nueva luz.

When i first came to Pucallpa, there werent very many Ayahuascha shamans as there are today. Gilber found an ayahuasca shipibo shaman in the nearby village of San Fransisco. Many were saying no ayahuasca is no good. they are all liars. At that time the christian church was strongly advising againstly ayahuaca shamanism. The only shamans were the old ones, the young generation wasnt very interested, and didnt see it as their future, but only as their past. Racism tourds native blood and lifestyle was very strong in the area. This is just an extention of the genocidal inquisition to destroy indignous cultures. But what is interesting is the shipibo, before their culture and shamanism could be destroyed, a large interest came from the international world seeking the phycadelic spirituality and anceint shamanistic sceince. Tired of the genocidal corruption that attached itself to the church, and the materialism and lack of spiritulity of scieince. seekers came looking for the oldest native american culture that is still intact, and learn form them.

When I first came to yarina cocha lake, i drank from the river just like everyone else in the village, i jumped sewer drains to get to the boat, drank medicine in the houses of shipibos in san fransisco with the families and children, ducked under barbed wire to get to the bathroom in the cow feild, rode the colletive wooden boats in the morning to town stepping over huge fish and alligators on their way to market, traveled up and down the river sleeping in a hammock on huge cargo boats visiting many native villages, paddled in a wooden canoe on the ucayali river, and across yarina cocha lake at sunrise. I have more stories to tell in the next part of My time and adventures in the Peruvian Amazon since 2001.