Mon 23 May - Meeting Don Americo

Met Don Americo, and his family - Gayle and Arilu, in Jacks Cafe.

Initially Americo thought I was only in Peru for 10 days. That morning he was heading off with a group to the mountains, and then to the jungle. Since it was my first time, Americo suggested going with him to the mountains, and staying there, whilst he went on to the jungle with the group. Since they'd been there before two times. However, once Americo learnt that I was in Peru for 4 months, everything changed... All of a sudden, there wasn't such a big rush, and he didn't want me to take on the unnecessary expense of paying for the petrol for another car... He said that he could see that I was working with 'Intent' as opposed to intention, and that he'd be happy to spend time with me, without charging me for anything more than the cost of the petrol. I'd already explained that I didn't know what I was doing there, or that I didn't have much money, and it seems that over the four months, when Americo had openings in his calendar, we'd co-ordinate so that I could spend time with him... Mentioning that I also knew a 'Puma', it seems that everyone knew him, and that they were all friends.

Content that the people I knew, knew each other, I figured things would unfold in their own time... For now, I had been given by Americo a list of sites in the Sacred Valley that might be worth visiting, as well as instructions on how to use the local transport system to travel from site to site without having to spend too much money!

So, with maps of the routes sketched out in my notebook, I checked out of my hotel, and went to get a Paradero(the equivalent of the local regional bus, also known as a collectivo) to Pisaq. After checking into a hospedaje. I find a local restaurant to have lunch in.

After lunch, I buy some bread, and some fruit before getting a taxi upto the top of the sacred site. I want to stay up here till nightfall - so that I can look up at the stars from atop this mountain, and arrange with the taxi driver to come and collect me at 8pm, at night... Declining all the offers of 'guides' round the site, as well as all the offers of trinkets, gifts, and souvenirs, I eventually manage to start exploring a little the site. Donning my poncho, and hat, I start very purposefully making myself towards somewhere, though I don't know where. A few minutes later, I find myself a nice quiet spot on a terrace facing inwards, to the opposing mountain, and settle myself down. Not quite knowing what I'm doing there, I find myself singing with the wind, in words of a language unknown to me, to the Apu, the mountain spirit in front of me..

After performing some ceremonies, and making offerings of bread, to the mountain, as well as to Pachamama, the spirit of the earth, I eventually find myself ready to leave.

Carefully making my way back to the top of the ridges, I decide to try to find the path that leads down to the car park, where the taxi will meet me, before settling into a meditation, or doing anything else. I figure, at the very least, once I'm at the carpark, I'll know how to make my way back, at night, in the dark...

So I slowly start to walk around the terraces, of Pisaq, since I've been told that there's a path on the other side that leads straight down to the car park. As I find the path, and start to walk down it, it starts to get more like a slope, and less and less like steps. Eventually, seeing gentler slopes in the middle of the terraces, I decide it would probably be easier to walk down the terraces themselves... Boy was I wrong!! Once I get to the other side of the terrace, where I saw the steps, I start walking down, until the steps seem to become slopes even here... scared of going down the slopes, I decide to try the middle of the terrace... the path seems a little rougher, but it seems like less of a risk. Cutting a long story short, I see the taxi waiting in the car park, and afraid that he might leave without me, even though it's still light, I decide to just slide down the slopes, and though I make it down, I do catch my fair share of the slope with me... especially the prickly plants that decided to grow right where I ended up sitting!

Making it into the car park, I ask the taxi driver, if he wouldn't mind waiting for the night to come, so that I can at least get to take a look at the stars at night... He's ok with it, and so I wait...

As it gets dark, and the starts start to come out, I start connecting myself, with filaments of light, to the stars, feeling their energies, and sending them mine...
watching in amazement at their beauty, and at just how many of them are out tonight... Slowly, words start to come to me, and I start to sing to the sky, again in a language foreign to my own...

And then, I notice a light shining out over the edge of some mountains facing Pisaq. Putting my attention there, I realise that the Moon will be rising over the shoulder of the mountain... praying in that direction, welcoming the moon into the night, and making an offering to it, I stand there, connected with the sky, as the moon begins to rise... the most magical scene I had ever scene... the moon rising, as if it were the sun... over the shoulders of the mountain... I can only acknowledge the beauty of the moon rising in the black night sky to be as amazing as the beauty of the sun rising in the blue morning. As it happens, it was also a full moon - so you can just begin to imagine how amplified and intense the energy was. Especially with chants filling my lungs, and being blown into the night.

That night I wove the most enchanted blessing with the moon as it rose from amongst the mountains, thanking the stars. It was the most amazing moon rise I've ever participated in.

On the way back into town, I could tell that the taxi driver had suddenly developed a different respect for me from before, asking me if I was a shaman, and respecting the silence following the magic that had just happened.

That night, I got out of the taxi, and made my way straight to bed, not wanting to spoil a perfect evening. The only thing that had dawned on me sometime on the taxi ride down was how the 8pm, that I had said to the taxi driver had probably been understood as 18pm, meaning 6pm - which was why he had turned up when it was still light... but I guess that little misunderstanding meant that he got to be a part of the magic that night with the moon, and I went to sleep content...