Our friendship with Alex Good, the owner of Ayahuasca Odyssey and The Way Inn, has expanded significantly recently.  In fact we have merged and now we are called Ayahuasca Satsangha. We are now one organization.

 

One of the main drivers for this was our recent trip up to The Way Inn which located in the mountains just outside of Huaraz.  Gumercindo and I made the journey up to Huaraz to see how ayahuasca ceremonies would go in the mountains.  We were unsure if ayahuasca would like the new setting.  Would the same spirits show up?  Would the mountain environment bring in unknown and unwelcoming spirits?  Would altitude (3,700 meters/ 12,000 feet) affect the experience in a negative way??  Maybe the altitude would bring a positive influence.

 

Upon arrival the beauty and the energy of the mountains bowled us over.  The apus, or mountain spirits, are the big daddies of Peruvian Shamanism.  We could see and feel why.  The Andes are dramatic snowcapped peaks and those peaks surround The Way Inn.  Absolutely amazing.

 

The energies in the mountains are just cleaner.  The jungle is an aggressive environment, the competition for life is intense.  The fish have teeth.  This all translates into how the general energies feel.  In the mountains this aggressiveness is not as prevalent.  The energy is exhilarating.  You don’t need to be in ceremony to feel it.

 

Obviously the weather in the mountains is very different.  It is cooler, downright cold at night, dryer and less oxygen.  Being from the jungle Gume was almost giddy on this adventure as he was clearly enjoying the natural beauty, the food, and the energies.  He was shivering for the first few days and his lips were chapped dark purple from the dry air.  It took a few conversations to explain that the air had much less/no water in it and that he needed to drink much more water in the new environment.  Once he got past these issues he was happy as a clam.

 

Since I grew up in the Pacific Northwest the environment was a huge treat for me.  Altitude and dry air took some getting used to but everything else was AWESOME.  They have hot showers, a sauna and the food was particularly good as they had quinoa, good bread, and much more selection when it came to veggies.  It also helped that Alex runs a very tight ship at The Way Inn.  His cooks knew what they were doing and prepared amazing meals.  Coming from the jungle, it felt like we were staying at a mountain Four Seasons…..maybe an exaggeration, but on a relative basis it rings true.

 

This trip was a dry run, so we did not have a dedicated ceremony space.  We set up in a lounge space above the dining room.  Windows with views of the mountains surrounded the space.  As luck would have it we had clear moonlit nights for a majority of the time.  It was magical to look out mid-ceremony to see bright stars and moonlight reflecting off the snowcapped mountains.

 

Note:  For our first retreat in January we will have a large dedicated ceremony space big enough to fit fifteen people.  We will also be building a fifteen meter diameter ceremony house out of adobe.  This will be a round dome with a  closable fireplace/fire-pit in the center and skylights in the roof.  This larger ceremony house will be completed by March of 2012.  Longer term we will be adding spa type services such as floral/herbal baths, massages, ayurvedic super food diets, meditation courses, and yoga.

 

The first ceremony consisted of “The Three Amigos”  (Alex, Gume, and myself) along with two guests that agreed to the trip up from the jungle and some of the staff.  There was definitely some anxiety as to how the ceremony would go.

 

Luckily Alex had experience with drinking ayahuasca in the mountains.  According to him the biggest concern is the cold (it gets quite chilly at night).  Apparently the cold cuts the ayahuasca visions much like light does.  To mitigate this, we had a wood stove burning downstairs all afternoon and loaded it up with wood for the ceremony.  Cold problem solved.

 

Ayahuasca and the other ingredients do not grow in the mountains so we had taken up about five liters of ayahuasca that we had cooked up in the jungle.  This was a particularly strong brew with a significant amount of sanango and very thick ayahuasca vine.  We also brought up about eight schakapas (this plant does not grow in the mountains either).  In the future we will do the same for all the mountain retreats we host.  It just does not make sense to ship up raw materials from the jungle.

 

The ceremony started without a hitch.  The mariacion hit on schedule about twenty minutes after drinking.  The first thing I noticed was the clarity of vision and the lightness of the energies.   I did not notice any dark/funky spirits at all.  Wow, so far so good.

 

As the ceremony progressed it became clear that our location, high altitude, was literally bringing us closer to the divine.  Shiva and Ganesh showed up right away and Gumercindo commented that he saw angels hanging out on a distant ridge, and I saw more divine light than I ever have down in the jungle.

 

On the other side of the coin, we encountered fewer animal and plant spirits.  Makes sense I guess.

 

When ceremony was over we all talked about the comparisons between the two.  The conclusion was that while they are different, they are essentially equal.  Not a ground breaking conclusion, but important for those trying to figure out which location is “better” to drink ayahuasca.  I would suggest people look at where they are more comfortable.  Do you like hot, humid, and don’t mind bugs?  Or, do you like cooler, crisper air with mountains all around.  Totally a personal call.

 

Post Script- We are now based out of The Way Inn near Huaraz.  Our first mountain retreat is scheduled for December 31, with two more mountain retreats to follow before our next Jungle Retreat February 18th.

 

We have also moved to a donation only model.  We feel this is just the right thing to do.  We feel that the  “Ayahuasca Industry” has gotten out of hand with a majority of centers interested in payment first and helping people second.  It is also understood that when you book a retreat, you are required to pay money upfront for a service that has yet to be delivered.  You don’t pay doctors, or other health care professionals up front.  Why do you do this for ayahuasca???  All this said, we are the first major center to try this.  It is an experiment.  If it works great.  If not, we will change it back.  We will be giving it a shot until October 2012.