USA and PERU - wildfires, dancing and hammock jungles

23 november 2012 - Písac, Peru

Meditation and wildfires at Shambhala Mountain Center

I left you beautiful people with the message I was on my way to SMC, the Shambhala Mountain Centre in the Rocky Mountains (at about 2700m)… which is now about 5 months ago haha oops! I’ve been thinking ‘bout you all and finally managed to write you another update :-)

Shambhala - Founded by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, this branch Tibettan Buddhist is orientated to how to integrate Buddhism into modern daily life (the “Buddhist householder”). On the land of the biggest Shambhala centre in the world I was able to spend a super fun and valuable 3 and a half weeks (http://www.shambhalamountain.org/). Together with the awesome “Set-Up Crew” I was setting up tents for the staff to be sleeping in during the summer, and 2 tents big enough to host a whole circus in (or a bunch of semi-Buddhist people eating lunch). There was time for a short meditation 3 times a day and I was able to participate in a creative-contemplative course during one of the weekends. There are many courses and programs hosted on the land and staff are divided over several different departments. For example, after 3 weeks of Set-Up I was to join the kitchen crew. Between and after working hours we had awesome dance parties, went on hikes and horseback riding, had MANY many great laughs, took our moments to enjoy the beauty and tranquility of the Great Stupa (the most important and beautiful temple on the land!) and enjoyed the rides over the beautiful land in the back of the Blue Pearl (the really old ramshackle pick-up truck we used to cruise the terrain with the set-up crew).

And then… the whole state of Colorado caught on fire! What?! Yes! At some point there were about 12 (!) wild fires going on at the same time and fireman were called in from everywhere to help out. And not only here, also in the neighboring states fireman were desperately needed.
As for us, on June 9th we saw the first heavy dark clouds coming up from behind the mountains, about 10 miles (= 15 km) away from SMC. The High Park Fire as it was soon to be called had started and was coming our way rapidly! Started by ‘dry lightning’ (lightning without rain, which happens a lot in the Rocky Mountains) the fire was eating away the incredibly dry forest really fast, feeding especially enthusiastically on the patches of dead and thus super dry pine forest. The Rockies are invaded by a special beetle that eats and kills the pine trees, turning them literally into matches. Add to this strong winds, more dry lightning and the fact that most parts of the Rockies are almost impossible to reach for firefighters…

We were still continuing our jobs as normal, watching the smoke clouds that were growing daily with concerned eyes. Until suddenly that smoke curtain completely covered SMC – it’s pretty crazy to feel your whole system reacting in a very primal, animal-like manner: smoke, threat of fire, run! It was very interesting to observe how everybody was dealing with the heightened tension of the big threat coming really close now. Luckily the smoke was mainly caused by a change of wind direction, and we had still time to organize ourselves. The Dorje Kasung (the protector/first aid/holding-the-space department of the Shambhala tradition) handled very professional. They were in contact with all the organizations involved in the firefighting and evacuation planning of the whole area, meanwhile making our own evacuation plan. I had my backpack fully packed in the toilet building close to the main gathering point for days. Also, we had just moved to our tents, which were now filled with smoke – so most of us found a sleeping place inside again. Then Wednesday June 13 came. I had just finished my early kitchen shift (6am-2pm) and got the message there was a obligated all-staff meeting right after lunch. The message: we have 1 hour to evacuate the whole land. Go get your essential belongings and come back here to arrange the carpooling.

And off we went, into the rollercoaster! A big part of the staff, including myself, went back to Boulder. There is a big Shambhala centre here where the programs would be rescheduled to. Another group went to Fort Collins (FC), which became the centre for all evacuees from the whole area. The rest of the week consisted of moving around a lot, finding places to stay, many insecurities and waiting for news, trying to stay updated and checking in if they needed more people to work on keeping the programs running… All the staff was very spread out (not only in Boulder and FC) so it was hard for the board and core staff (= non-volunteers) to communicate and organize everything. In FC the Sangha (= the Shambhala community that lives there) was able to quickly organize sleeping places for the SMC evacuees and a structure of daily meetings with meditation and news updates. Also, the whole of FC town was activated to give free food, shelter and other services (like massages!) to evacuees from the High Park Fire – it was incredible to see how proactive, generous and community orientated people become in case of emergency. In Boulder however, the situation remained more vague and unsure for a while longer. It led me to relocate to FC after a week, which then led to me going up to SMC for 2 days to help out with the fire mitigation: preparing the land for when the fire would reach it. I was super grateful I was able to return to the land, help the Kasung crew that stayed behind to ‘defend’ the land and learned a great deal! Together with the 5 other ‘volunteers’ that went up for those days we moved many many many sacred objects in to the Stupa (which is made out of pure concrete and therefore the safest structure on the land), including things filled with Trunkpa essence :-P

After that I moved back to Boulder to help out the kitchen crew. Most of us were now able to move into the “emergency operating base” dorms (dutch: “hallen”) at the Colorado University Campus, which was a lot of fun! But then, suddenly, there was smoke coming from the mountain close to the campus, south of Boulder… What?! We’re not evacuating again?!! Luckily we didn’t have to, though part of South Boulder did – this new wild fire was relatively quickly contained and we had big muscled fireman now staying with us at the dorms ;-)

The High Park Fire became the biggest fire in the state history, and by far the biggest out of all the fires going on in Colorado at this time. When it finally got contained (= the boundary lines are controlled) it was 87.284 acres = 353 km2 = about 32706 football fields. In total 259 houses were lost and the fire line reached the SMC up to about 4 miles = 6 km. More detailed information can be found on the site that we kept checking several times a day: http://inciweb.org/incident/2904/.


There are always multiple sides to anything that happens. Besides the tiring toll of living in confusion, uncertainty and anticipation of what was happening for a while, the 3 weeks I spend (mostly) in Boulder also birthed many wonderful and super fun moments. I got to bond with many people that I wouldn’t have bonded with otherwise, learn a lot about myself and others, got to hang out more in this fun town and got to spend time again with my beautiful friend Leila, who had hosted me before I went to SMC.

The SMC crew was able to return to the land on the day I flew out of Colorado.
A little video called ¨SMC looks back on High Park Fire experience¨ can be found on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iWkWG6f8XM&feature=relmfu

 

Surfing the Creative Dance Youth Camp

The most awesome thing happened while being evacuated to Boulder: I was able to participate in a 5 day dance camp right before flying out to continue my journey!! The Surfing the Creative Youth Camp is based on the 5 rhythms as formulated by Gabrielle Roth (http://www.gabrielleroth.com/). During the 5 days we danced a LOT – though the great thing about the 5 rhythms is that it’s actually more about getting away from ‘dancing’ and going towards ‘movement’: free expressive movement! Dancing however you and your body feel like. The 5 rhythms are flow, staccato, chaos, lyrical and stillness. The rhythms can be recognized in many events in our lives, in most cycles that occur. It’s a very interesting concept! We danced for example our emotions (anger, fear, sadness, joy) – by dancing through the 5 rhythms you also move “through” the emotion, you release tension and change your vibration. It helps you to become more connected to (the signals of) your body and ultimately makes you feel more whole and centered. Again I discovered a fantastic new community and added a super valuable experience to my journey. Thank you!

 

 Master Plants and Mosquitoes

Then it was time to say goodbye to my new dancing and Shambhala friends and take off to… Peru! This incredible country has been ‘calling’ me for years. However, for some reason I ended up in Central America first, spending a whole year there and another half a year in total in the USA before I finally making it here. I feel it was all part of the preparation for what was to come here. Just like my experiences here are invaluable for the next part of my journey in this world.

Peru is a not only a beautiful and diverse country, but also a catalyst in many ways for many people. It definitely catapulted me way further into my spiritual development than I could’ve ever imagined! When flying here it felt like my ultimate opportunity to really flow. The plan was to go without a plan… so I did! To see what would show up, what would come in to my path. After freaking out for a second on Lima Airport (“What if nothing shows up?!”) I found a flight to Iquitos. This town can only be reached by boat or plain and is found in the Amazon, north Peru.

Though I spend some time before in the jungle (Chiapas in Mexico and in north Australia) I still find it a very special and humbling experience to be surrounded by such impressive and colorful vegetation. To hear sounds you normally only hear while watching Animal Planet or the National Geographic channel and to really go back to the basics when going deeper into the jungle. I did a jungle trip for 4 days: meeting the river dolphins called Bufeos; peddling in a little wooden canoe over brown rivers; chasing Tarantula spiders out of our “bedroom”; spotting monkeys, parrots, snakes and other animals between all the green; eating fish I just caught myself; getting left alone by our guide that turned out to be a smooth talker but not very honest… well, he left us after 2.5 days in the jungle with his ‘associate’ called Pollon, “big chicken”. This man hardly spoke with us and there was confusion on how to get back to Iquitos. In the end it turned out fine though, like everything always will. The way back was super long and a bit stressful, but we arrived safely at our hostel and felt reborn thanks to a cold shower after 4 sweaty sticky days!

I spent about 2 more weeks in Iquitos, participating in a conference on shamanism and exploring the realm of Master Plant Medicine. Master Plants are plants with special qualities that have been used by the native inhabitants of these lands for thousands of years. All over the world native tribes have used and are still using plants for healing purposes. In this part of the world, the tribe shaman/curandero/healer/medicine man would take people on a ‘journey’ by drinking plant medicine together, helping them heal themselves on all levels – physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. I learned a lot about this work, which is done in the jungle mainly with the Master Plant called Ayahuasca (a vein that grows in the jungle), and got to experience journeying myself. This gave a whole new perspective to my own ‘journey’! Together with lots of healing, the experiences opened many new doors for me to explore and catapulted my evolvement.

 

Boat trip on Rio Ucayali

After spending 3 weeks in the heat of the jungle, it was time to return to the mountains! I missed them so much and though I love the jungle, my body is just not made for such heat ;-) To make my way south to Cusco and the Sacred Valley, I decided to take a route not much ventured by tourists. I took a boat from Iquitos to Pucallpa. Expecting at least 1 or 2 other gringo’s (= not-Peruvian, normally used for white people), I was quite surprised to find myself to be the only gringa on a boat FULL of Peruvians. Venturing the Rio Ucayali (which turns into Rio Amazonas more up north), the trip ended up being 6 full days!! The water was low (end of dry season) and we were going against the stream. Stories about other boats getting stuck in sandbanks for days made me more appreciative of the low speed we were going in. It was 6 days of swinging in my hammock (which was my bed, chair and table in one), next to the hot engine funnel, sometimes hip to hip with some Peruvians. 6 Days full of lessons about not having a second of privacy; of being stuck in intense heat; having beautiful views on the river, jungle and tiny towns at the riverside; dieting on pretty much only rice and chicken, rice and fish, and more rice and chicken (if you went out on the ‘balcony’ in time you could see them getting slaughtered); lessons of patience; making friends with all the kids on my deck after which they didn’t stop approaching me to play games :-) Getting ‘consulted’ by a few adults about their ‘problem child’ as soon as I was recognized as a “professora” or even “doctora”: In Latin America somebody that has an education oftentimes gets spoken to with their title (e.g. “maestro”, “doctora”, “licenciado” (Msc./doctorandus)), even by family!

I learned a LOT about Peruvian culture, made friends with some very friendly Peruvians in all age categories, and was grateful that most of the attention was out of curiosity, and not so much aggressive attention as I’ve experienced as well (mostly in Guatemala). Issues that Peru and Peruvians are dealing with appear to be comparable to the ones I encountered in Central America. There is a lot of corruption, poor education, survival-oriented lifestyle, machismo, a very big and conservative church-controlled religious influence in all of society and a lot of superstition. But the country seems to be taking a flight in its development and in general I find the people to be friendly, curious, warm and creative. There’s an interesting blend of the ‘new’ (post-colonial) Christian religion with old native (pre-colonial) beliefs and legends; many colorful traditions, clothing and art and a huge variety and diversity within the Peruvian population. This is due to the completely different climates the country encompasses and the many different ancient tribes and peoples that used to live on different parts of the land.  Basically, the long vertical coast line on the west side of Peru consists of desert; the centre of the country consists of a huge vertical strip of mountain land that is part of the Andes (which is the longest continental mountain range in the world, stretching 7000 km all the way north to south along the continent of South-America) with several peaks over 6000m high; and the east side of the country exists of (high and low) jungle. These roughly distinguished parts all come with their own language (!) and dialects of that, culture, traditions, music and dancing styles, festivities, typical clothing, legends and myths, life-styles, ancient wisdom and cuisine.

However, 6 days of constantly being observed and approached by these lovely Peruvians that all ask the same questions and not getting a lot of sleep, did make it feel al bit intrusive in the end. I was SO glad to have my own shabby dirty hotel room when boarding in the dirty town of Pucallpa ;-)

Check this out: me climbing through the hammock jungle on the way to my own hammock     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKgRz9kTgoI

 

Mountains, llamas and road works

For another week and a half I didn’t really meet any other non-Peruvian tourist while exploring the beautiful Central Highlands of Peru. I visited the impressive ruins of the ancient Yarowilca culture, close to Tantamayo (3800m. high); strolled the streets of the city Huanuco, Huancayo and the little towns in the Valley of Rio Mantaro and had many many more encounters with curious Peruvians. Then, suddenly, on the streets of Huancayo – the first two white tourists!! Although it’s oftentimes great to not have many tourists around, it did get kind of lonely this time. Because there are no backpackers, there were also no hostels (with dorms, where you normally meet fellow travelers) nor anyone to take a break from Spanish with. So seeing this couple (my parents age) made me internally go “Yahooo!” And… wait a minute… are they speaking Dutch?!! Who would’ve guessed this: Plony and Ton from Holland were to become my new travel mates for about 3 days :-)

Together we made the beautiful train ride from Huancayo to Huancavelica, shared fun and gezellige meals, and even dared to take a dip in the not-so-warm hot springs of Huancavelica. When taking this route to Cusco, the strip from Huancavelica to Ayacucho is kind of the “missing link”. Basically, there wasn’t really a road until recently. That’s not to say there is an actual road now, but at least they’re working on it. And with that I mean they are really working on it! Together with Plony and Ton we took a taxi to get to Ayacucho – what is only a very small part on the map became a whole day trip through incredibly beautiful, bare mountain land, full of  mountain tops, mountain lakes and many llamas, alpacas and sheep. The first roadwork crew we encountered told us we could pass in 10 minutes. That turned into 20 minutes. The second roadwork crew said “well, there’s a big hole in the road, so you’ll have to wait until lunch”. No problemo… I sat on the grass and enjoyed the beautiful views for 2.5 hours (!) until the men were having their well-earned lunch break. The third roadwork crew were the nicest ones so far, letting us pass after only a few minutes :-) We enjoyed fresh trout out of a big mountain lake for lunch – the specialty in many parts of Peru... next to “Ceviche” (a seafood cocktail), “Causa” (mashed potato-‘pie’) and “Cuy”, an intriguing specialty that I would discover later on…

In Ayacucho I shared one last great dinner with Plony and Ton before going our own ways again. Once in Ayacucho you think you’re almost in Cusco when looking at the map. Well, again appearances were deceptive, for it took me another 24 hours straight (!) to bus it to Cusco.

 

Arrival in Pisac

I spend a few days in the beautiful colonial city of Cusco (3326m. high), which means navel of the earth (qosq’o in Quechua, the original language of the peoples living in the Andes). Then I finally made my way to Pisac, which I felt was my destination since the moment I left Iquitos. Pisac is a small town at 2715m., about an hour from Cusco. It’s located in the Sacred Valley, which is full of cute little towns surrounded by beautiful mountains and with many ancient ruin sites dotting the whole valley. Pisac lays at the feet of the mountain called “Intihuatana” (literally meaning “hitching post of the sun”) where on top of the mountain’s ridge important Inca ruins are found. Pisac is also famous for its huge artesania (handcraft) market, which takes up about 1/8 of the whole town. Going to town on Sundays is the most fun: the market grows even bigger as people from surrounding communities come to sell their vegetables, fruits and herbs, dressed in traditional clothing with their typical hats.

Pisac became my home for about 3 weeks. After two weeks, my good friend Annelien from Holland arrived on September 4th, to start her 9-month-South-America-trip together with me here in Peru. We’ve known each other since we’re 12 and it was great to have her here on the 4th, since Anouk was a dear friend to both of us. Exactly 1 year ago on that day, my best friend Anouk passed away (see previous blogs). Annelien and I made a lovely mandala (altar) and had a beautiful ceremony at a riverside to remember her.

After that, Annelien and I were to have many adventures together – but I’ll tell you about those next time!
One thing that became clear to Annelien right away was that “You are a new person Rianne!”
A while after welcoming Annelien to the Sacred Valley and especially Pisac, it became so much a home for her too that she said “We should really leave now, cause if not we will never get out of here!” :-)
That was very truly spoken: It is a magical, magnetic place – and it has drawn me back again! I’m in Pisac now, living here for about 2 months until I come home. Huh?! Come home? Yes!!

On December 24 I land in Amsterdam, going straight home to spend Christmas with the whole family. I’m very excited about coming home after 2 years of traveling and needless to say, I’m looking forward to seeing you all so much!!

For now I’m really enjoying my last weeks here in Peru… and just to make you a little jealous, here’s a video showing my current house and surrounding views :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKl-RsxV5xY

 

Sending you all lots of Love and Smiles!

 

7 Reacties

  1. Hilde:
    23 november 2012
    Wow! Rianne! Wat een verhaal :-). Ik heb zin om je weer te zien. Ik ben vanaf 19 januari weer in NL. Heel veel plezier nog lieverd! Kus
  2. Plony:
    24 november 2012
    Hoi Rianne, wat een prachtig verhaal, geweldig om te lezen wat je allemaal gedaan en beleefd hebt. (een heel klein stukje hebben wij meebeleefd!) Nog een paar mooie weken daar in dat leuke huis, en dan..........weer naar huis. Zal fijn zijn, maar ook heel erg wennen denk ik.
    Heel veel liefs, ook van Ton,
    Plony
  3. Renske:
    25 november 2012
    Wauw gaaf huis Rianne!! Geniet van de rust en tot snel!!
    dikke kus
  4. Heiko:
    25 november 2012
    Ha Ri, we hadden al heel wat verhalen via Skype en via email van je vernomen, en toch staan hier ook weer heel nieuwe dingen in! Heerlijk.
    Nog een paar fijne weken & veel liefs,
    Papz


    PS: Advies voor iedereen die dit leest: als ouder WIL je echt niet 'alles' weten :)
  5. Oma:
    29 november 2012
    Lieve Rianne Het was een lang verhaal waar ik al veel over wist vanwege de regelmatige mail. geniet nog maar fijn van je laatste weken, voordat jij je van die bijzondere plaats moet losrukken.
    Veel liefs, Oma.
  6. Norita:
    1 december 2012
    Lieve schat, wat een heerlijk verhaal. Prachtig hoe jij die Peruaanse natuur en cultuur beschrijft! Echt genieten, net alsof ik even meekijk! Leuke filmpjes ook!!! En inderdaad, een heerlijk huis! Lekker orde :) en kleurrijk. Een goede plek om alles even te overdenken. Het zal niet makkelijk zijn terug te gaan, maar remember, de memories neem je voor eeuwig met je mee! Ben benieuwd of het waar is, en uberhaupt kan :), dat je nog liever en wijzer en gezelliger en leuker en toffer bent teruggekomen! ;) Con mucho carino uit een druilerig en ijskoud maar Sinterig Zuilen
  7. Norita:
    1 december 2012
    Ps: Je Engels is echt impressive!!!! En je Spaans geloof ik ook! :)