Lake Titicaca

Here we are - it´s free travel time! We are in the tourist haven of Puno right now, super fried after our two weeks of spanish classes in Arequipa.

Colca was incredible, as you could probably tell from the pics.

After a 6 hour bus ride in a double decker, flying on all sides of the ¨road¨ through the most picturesque landscapes of the Peruvian mountains we arrived here with mouth fulls of coca to ease our aching heads - Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world. It is beautiful here. This morning, Raul, a very different Shaman than ours from the Amazon, did a ceremony to the Pacchamamma (Mother Earth) with us. He taught us about the pre-Incans´ belief that the three most holy animals are the snake, which connects you to the underworld, your innerself and the knoweledge of the earth, the puma which connects you to the physical world and your drive and inner warrior spirit, and finally the condor which connects you to father sky and the cosmos. All of the Andean philosophies also believe in the concept of duality, creating a balance between opposing forces: the positive and negative, or the masculine and feminine energies in everyone and everything. On our journey to ¨the door of knowledge¨ we first sat at the rock of the puma where four cat foot prints lay embedded into an acient rock, then we traveled across the spine of the snake which was a long ridge leading to the nest of the condors, which was a series of natural rocks in the shape of condors overlooking a cliff. Along the way we participated in two rituals - one where Raul supported us as we leaned out with open arms over a cliff and released the negative parts of our past so that we can better face the future. The second was at the ´door of knowledge,´ where we became one with the earth, entering columns carved into the cliffs by either natural means or the ancestors of humans. We entered one column, felt its energy, and then entered the other, finally ending between the two, literally in the door, where we also felt the energy from the Pacchamamma.

After we all did this ritual, Raul and another Shaman prepared an offering to the Pacchamamma: sweets, coca leaves, wine, and the fetus of the llama. We all offered a handful of coca leaves, expressing our best thoughts for the universe, and then they burned the offering in a fire pit made of cow poo. The poo turned white as it burned, a sign that the Pacchamamma accepted the offering.

Tomorrow we head to the floating islands, and then Tuesday night we will be bound for Cuzco! WE GET TO RIDE A HOT AIR BALLOON OVER THE SACRED VALLEY HAH!

Peace out from Team SAM
Your bloggers, Maddie and Andy