Heaven > Mystic Journeys > Peru > Peru & Bolivia - Page 2 (Days 4-6)

We wake up at 3am. Sleep -- what's that? We almost miss the plane in the Lima airport, and only after running and settling into our seats can we rest. But what rewards await us! As we fly away from the urban sprawl of Lima and into the Sacred Valley of the Incas towards Cuzco, the tears well up inside of me and I start to sob for no apparent reason. Happy tears. Homecoming. I look over at Thomas, the tour director, and he smiles as if he understands something I do not yet. He should. He's been here before. In the airport in Cuzco, I am super-charged as if I am walking through a humming, living electric field.

Our tour bus is surrounded by ladies trying to sell us their wares. A young Peruvian gentleman named Chasci gets on the bus and guides us as we drive through the city. I want to cry again as we pass the statue of Pakakuti. Where am I anymore? Who am I? We walk through a locked gate in a stone wall, into the courtyard of the Caserona del Sol hotel. After stopping for a drink of cocoa tea (reputed to help with altitude sickness) we check into our rooms. I share a spacious dorm with six beds and one trickling shower. The alpaca blankets promise to be snug and the comforter covers are a firey passionate weave. So beautiful. I cannot believe we're here. I'm thrilled to be in this city of magic.

James doesn't waste any time. "Come on," he tells me. "We're going to the shaman's market. Several of us struggle to keep up with him as he weaves a course through the winding stone streets wedged in between the charming old buildings. We pass endless rows of market vendors with piles of rugs, blankets, artwork, and vegetables. The shaman's market is a small hole-in-the-wall shop where you can buy all sorts of wild stuff...herbs, despachos (offering bundles), copal, condor feathers...and oh-my-goodness (what are they for?) dried llama fetuses. Ugh. I settle for some fragrant copal resin.



Lunch is at a beautiful vegetarian restaurant with blue shutters with bright blue shutters. Soon we are on the bus again heading to the hills outside of Cusco where we will visit several of the sacred sites. Here we meet Willaru, our Inca guide. He is a gentle unassuming soul whose humility seems to mask a vast reservoir of wisdom.






Tambomachay, the water temple, is our first stop. Still humming with electric current I run up the hill, oblivious to the change in altitude. I sit in a five foot nitch to meditate and the tears come again as the pain from the last two years of my life is washed from me like muddy water. James comes and plays his dijeridoo into the niche and as the sound reverberates through my body I let myself go. I become sound and I feel bliss coursing through every cell in my body. For the first time in two years, I can relax. I feel safe here. Loved by the universe. Everything is in divine perfection in my life and I can see that so clearly. I have been waiting for this moment. The tears feel good.

We board the bus and drive to Q'enko, the fire temple, with its phallic rock out front and underground cavern that makes you feel like you are entering the womb in the earth itself. I sit on the alter stone in the darkness and focus on the stillness in an attempt to still my racing thoughts.

Sacsayhuaman, the earth temple, is next. The clouds are brewing rain but who cares? The stones here are massive, ten feet high at times and fit together so closely you could not slide a credit card in between them. No mortar. Ancient mystery. My head is swimming with the energy, the personal release, and the overwhelming beauty of the storm coming in. I wander to the top of the fortress to join the others. Half in a daze we create a wheel and start to chant. I wouldn't have been caught dead doing this in public before. Now I join in wholeheartedly as the group energy carries me into more visions.


Spinning, I sit down and look over the city where the lights are beginning to flicker on. Nature is holding me, envigorating me. The storm is promising more power. I surrender, God. I'm part of something so much more. All of it.

We leave our hotel in Cusco and spend the morning on the bus riding to Moray. The towns we pass through are adobe villages nestled in breathtaking mountains with terraced fields on the slopes. What a contrast to view such poverty and yet such beauty. Llamas and colorfully dressed women cruise the streets. Beyond the towns, after a long bumpy ride on a dirt road that parallels the majestic Andes mountains, we arrive at our campsite.

Moray is off the beaten path. It consists of a set of several sunken terraces, many of them circular, all patterned around a central courtyard. A large set of circular terraces beckons me inward, down to its center. I wander down the spiralling trail into the strange site. At each level, six foot circular walls hold up grassy plateaus. I am oblivious to the bleating of the sheep, as I am pulled towards the very center, a small square about four feet by two feet wide, and about one foot deep. Instincitvely, I shut my eyes and sit there preparing to meditate. Talk about a vortex. . .

Nothing prepared me for the inrush of swirling energy that seemed to course through my crown chakra and up into the heavens. I was taken aback and nearly lost my focus. And then, in the world behind my eyes, I saw at first four then eight angelic beings around me, and I saw cities of light where there was only grass, and I had a feeling that each level of the terrace ramped down the divine energy until we were able to assimiliate and process it in our physical form.

And with this understanding came a rush of love so profound that it flooded my entire being. I wanted to get up and run because the energy was so powerful and so overwhelmingly beautiful that it was terrifying as well. I could hardly contain it. The hot flashes and bolts of electricity running through me wouldn't stop. My entire body was buzzing and then, as yet one more wave of love flooded through me, a wave of emotion was released as well. I sobbed with the grief of knowing that for so many years I forgot what it is like to feel so connected to God. I feel washed clean.

I climb out of this terrace and go exploring the others, but soon it is dark and time to return to the campsite. We pitched our tents on a grassy platform just on the rim of the terraces. The clouds clear and the diamond stars appear as the full moon rises over the Andes mountains. I am in for another treat. After an awesome pasta dinner, James calls me over and performs a much anticipated soul retrieval on me. I feel ripped wide open and put back together again. Vulnerable and yet very peaceful. Calm and ok after the earth-shaking life changes that have rocked my world these last few years.

With a small group I climb back down into the terraces in the moonlight. We sit in the center of the vortex and we pray. We pray for ourselves, our loved ones and for the earth. Funneling the immense energy through the top of my head, I imagine a web of light and love going outwards to my friends back home and all those I love. As I do so, I can feel the presence of beings of profound light and love surrounding me. The expanding sensation in my heart and the tingling of inexplicable electricity is as real as the reality I can touch, see, taste, and smell. The whole place is lit with an ethereal light in addition to the soft glow of the moon. I sleep so soundly that morning comes way too soon.

Breakfast was this incredible egg and sausage deal followed by big thick buckwheat pancakes with whipped milk and jam. Oh sweet heaven. Real breakfast food! And coffee too. Willaru takes us down to the bottom of the second vortex where we pray and chant. Once again I shut my eyes and this time I "see" a female being. I feel giddy.

We stop at the market place in Pisac where you can buy anything! Anything at all. I pick up several woven tablecloths, a duffle bag for a friend, a sack for my mother and some decorative pottery, several flutes and some shaman's stone. I wander for ages absorbing the color, ignoring the tugging pleas for my business and occasionally running into the members of my own group. Women in the traditional garb chat as their children run around their skirts, playing hide and seek. For a few coins they'll let you take their picture. The locals ignore the wares and go back to the food market near the church courtyard. I am in another place and time here. I love it!.

Next on the agenda is Ollantaytambo, the temple of the wind. Woah! Huge stones were moved across the river to build it...huge steps. The archaeologists claim that these were dragged across the river.. yeah, right! The site is a mixture of ancient mystery and modern tourist trap. Vendors are selling all sorts of colorful wares and suntanned children are begging for handouts. A Quechua woman from the village dances and sings for us. She walks six miles every day we are told, to sing for the tourists and supplement the small family income. I give her a Peruvian $10 and you would have thought it was wealth. She kissed me and cried. Beautiful woman, your presence and love are worth far more than I gave you. Thank you.

We climb to the top of the temple and then I go exploring around the back. I sit in one of the carved out niches, and my heart bursts open wide... again. Willaru takes myself and another man on the tour up to the "third eye spot" where an Inca man in a giant headdress appears in a vision and blows something that looks like gold dust onto my forehead. I open my eyes and the landscape is alive, humming. My awareness begins to merge with the grasses, the hills and the trees. I meld with the oneness for what seems like eternity and then in a moment, we are called back together as a group. Back on the bus we are warm and cozy as the weather turns colder.

Our hotel tonight is a gorgoues two-story building with a courtyard and gardens spilling over with bright flowers. The rooms are spacious with old pine floors, and instead of windows there are carved wooden doors that open out onto small patios. The Andes mountains beckon in the distance as the stars reappear. We are told this hotel has hot showers, and the bathrooms are certainly more modern than we have seen previously. Living in this luxury we enjoy a fantastic trout dinner, and then I fall asleep drifting into heaven.

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