Ayahuascan Uno

Quito, Ecuador

Every so often I find myself in random situations, situations that I never could've even guessed I'd be in. For instance, dancing samba on top of a ferry on the amazon,or having tea with the postmaster of Varanasi. To add to this ever growing list, the other day, I found myself playing uno with a girl from my class, the son of a shaman, and a Ecuadorian soldier, while tripping on Ayhuasca. How did I do I find myself in these situations? Well, in this case, our class took a trip into the Oriente, the Amazonian region of Ecuador. We spent four days in a beautiful little campground hostal that looked over the Napo river. The first day, our guide took us in a dugout canoe to a nature reserve where they rescued abused animals and tried to re-introduce them back into the wild. It was a intriguing little place, replete with squawking macaws, slinking jaguars, and greedy little monkeys crawling up our legs trying to take anything off our bodies that wasn’t zipped up, locked, or otherwise tied down. Afterwards, I put aside my National Geographic visions of piranhas devouring cows in five minutes, or crocodiles that snatch unsuspecting tourists, and went for a swim, along with my classmates, in the river.

That night, we had a shaman come to our campground to cleanse our souls and give us a little ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic drink that has been used in the Amazon for thousands of years to put you in touch with the jungle and yourself. I had read quite a bit about it, and supposedly it can take you to other worlds, however it was obvious that we were not going to be taken anywhere, as we received the watered-down tourist version, that made our head spin slightly, but nothing else. I had been interested in shamans and ayahuasca for quite some time, and I wanted to experience the real thing. So I spoke privately to the shaman afterwards, and he invited me to his house the next night. The next day, we took a jungle walk, and learned why its sometimes called the rain forest, as it rained so hard that it felt like we were swimming more than walking through the forest. That night, I thought that I would probably be the only one interested in pursuing the Ayahuascan trip further, but I apparently underestimated the loconess of my classmates, because I found myself crammed into the shaman’s stilted bamboo hut with eight out of nine of my campeneros. It was an interesting experience, he definitely gave us gave us more of a stronger drink. He then cleansed our spirit, by dusting us with leaves, whistleing and humming over us, and finally by blowing aguardiente (a local alcohol) and Marlbro cigarette smoke in our faces. The Ayahuasca, mainly only succeeded in making us feel dizzy and nauseated. I think that, once again, there probably wasn’t enough to go around to give a real experience, but I did have some visuals, and a buzzing my ears. Most people didn’t feel anything, however, so we journeyed back to our campground ( walking in the dark, with only a couple of flashlights through the jungle is scary enough, without a couple of shots of Ayahuasca thrown into the equation). I went and sat by myself for a little while, and was able to increase the effects of the drink, but in the end I gave up. Which brings me back to what I was talking about in the beginning of this anecdote. I walked from the darkness into the well-lit covered area, where people were hanging out, and was asked to play uno. Walking to the light messed with my head enough, but trying to explain the intricacies of skip and reverse, in spanish to a Ecadorian soldier, really made my head spin. Anyway, I just thought I would share my little story with everybody. I hope that you are all well, and I will talk to y’all later, Moe.