So … yeah, I’m not even going to come close to even writing about all of the important things that have happened while I’ve been here. And it’s hardly been a week – wow. I feel as if I’ve been away for a month.

In terms of organizing this blog, I’m a little torn. Do I chronicle my travels or high highlights. If I hit highlights, what’s a highlight? Do I talk more about the positives or the negatives? Do ya’ll even care so long as I post something? I haven’t been taking the pictures for a photoblog – I highly prefer to live experiences and borrow the pictures other people take.

So, the traveling was just traveling. I didn’t get to explore Lima like I wanted to because Andrew, one of the leaders didn’t want to give me the opportunity to get lost and I decided not to push it. The Living Routes (livingroutes.org) program is happening at the Sachamama Center (website coming?) in Lamas, Peru. Near Tampoco, which is easier to find on a map. It’s not an ecovillage (I’m a little bummed) and is the project of Frederique, or professor, who is an anthropologist of India who came to Peru and “went native.” She’s founded this center to work with the native population and has developed a strong spiritual relationship with Ayahuasca, one of the psychedelics used in Amazonian Shamanism. Unfortunately, our other professor had all her bags stolen on the way to the airport while in the states and, for lack of a passport, was unable to come.

We had the chance to meet with a group of University students our age from the local native Kechwa-Lamistas. They danced some for us, but the main show was the elders who came with them to play the music for the dance. Wow! These two men had small drums they hit with a stick which had a string on the other side to vibrate and played flutes with three holes at the end of the flute. It was amazing how well they played! They were very simple instruments, by my standards, but were also amazingly complex in their use and in the music we played. After a bit the USA students got to dance with the indigenous students and we all had a good time. Below is a picture of me engaged in a wrestling style we got taught. The idea was to knock your opponent over. Naturally, I lost, but it was a fun experience and I was amazed at how easily the guy I wrestled and I bonded after our bout. Must be something cross cultural about friendly competition forging personal bonds.

We toured the Takiwasi Center (http://www.takiwasi.com/ – in Spanish), which a French psychotherapist founded to treat drug addiction with a combination of Ayahuasca use, community living, and psychotherapy. It was an interesting tour, and they claim an impressive success rate for addicts who complete their nine month program. Additionally, it seems that they have been recognized by the Peruvian government for successfully treating addicts with traditional medicine.