Dear readers,
Finding meaning and purpose in my life was the most important thing for me. Most people are barely existing, without knowing why and what the purpose to their life is or why they exist. After my last trip to Vancouver island, I ended up on a spiritual journey that gave me an intense calling to visit Pisac in Sacred Valley in Peru to find answers. It was funny because I felt I knew about the place even before even knowing about the place. It felt like a deep spiritual connection.
Before I got there, I spent little more than a week to visit my family in the United States. Visiting family was very special for me because I had not been seen them for more than a decade. And for me any time I spend with my family is second to none. I should give a special mention to the BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham temple in Robbinsville, NJ, which is the biggest Hindu temple in the world that I visited with my uncle and cousin brother. I thought it was majestic and it is a must visit if you are in the area. After visiting my family, I took the flight to Lima, where I spent a week before proceeding onwards to Pisac, where I spent most of my 7 weeks in Peru, other than a 4 day hike to Salkantay mountain, Machu Pichu and Humantay Lake in between.
Salkantay Hike and Machu Pichu
I want to get the 4 day, 3 night hike I did to Salkantay mountain, Machu Pichu and Humantay Lake out of the way, even when I did it sometime in between my trip because while that is not what this post is about, this was a very special hike. Someone asked me why I wanted to do the hike and I said it was because it was a difficult hike and I was looking for something difficult to do. And I did get what I was looking for.
On the second day of the hike, I sprained my ankle after my foot slipped on a loose rock. Luckily, there was a doctor and a sports coach on my group. They would tie my ankle together in the morning with tape and I would ice it in the evening. Somehow I managed to finish the hike, including Machu Pichu without any help. One step at a time, that’s all I was thinking. Step by step, I managed to finish the hike. I could barely stand after I finished it. I have a belief that doing difficult things is a path to spirituality and inner strength. Anything you do is forever imprinted on your soul. And that includes building inner strength by getting through difficult situations. Those who can spot it, will spot it.
I later was talking to someone who told me she had to go through a dog bite on her face on her Peru trip, but for some reason that incident changed things for the better for her. She told me this incident probably did for me too. It’s funny how small incidents can change things in meaningful ways, even when they don’t seem connected.
Stay in Sacred Valley – Pisac
Located in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, Pisac is a very interesting place. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place like that before. It’s a very hippie place, with a lot of Hindu culture. But it’s lot of white people instead of Indian people. There is a lot of artisanal products that you can buy. The streets are narrow and walking only. There is definitely a lot of alternative energy. Pisac is known for spiritual tourism.
I stayed at a small community called Maska, about 8 kms from the town of Pisac. The hostel I stayed at was called Saced Valley Maska Tribe. It wasn’t really a hostel, but more of a community place, where people stayed together, cooked together, did ceremonies and activities together. I ended up staying most of my Peru trip here because I felt I didn’t need to be anywhere else. The place was very peaceful, the nature was stunning, you could see all the stars, even the milky way at night and it was easy to meet people to do ceremonies with. Most importantly, the place was full of interesting people with special talents and I felt I could connect with many of them. People with amazing guitar and singing skills – like Lauren, someone with speech impediment and was biking across all of South America and happened to be amazing at guitar – Laura, friend I made who wrote amazing poetry – Eric, the girl who is amazing at flowers – Alexia, Daniel – amazing at fires, Papi Yugi – with her creative dressing and countless others – they all inspired me in their unique ways.
I also did a few events like Kirtan, Kirjam, Aesthetic Dance, Poetry nights, Tamazcal, other than cooking for other people, hiking and ofcourse spending a lot of time in nature around the area. I want to talk about a few in particular.
Poetry
I made a friend in Maska – Eric and he organized poetry nights twice a week. I never thought I would enjoy writing or listening to poetry, but having come to the first one I felt I couldn’t miss any of them. I never thought I would write a poem in my life, but I ended up writing several. People had different talents like playing instruments while reciting poems, everyone had their own style of poetry, but it all came from the soul.
We had poetry in many different languages – including English, Spanish, French, German. I contributed with Hindi borrowed from a Hindi song that I was listening to. Poetry night’s had Falafel, Sea Moss, Mushrooms available, but one day we also had Blue Lotus wine and herb to smoke. I particularly enjoyed poetry by Rumi, Sufi Poetry and Saint Sidarameshwar Maharaj. This is a poem I wrote about my Tahsis trip.
I was in Tahsis, where trees held their silence And where blue waves crashed and showed their violence We tucked away our screens and let the pixels pale Against the world we nearly lost Time felt unhuried, free from hums of data streams of screen time and algorithmic dreams Where silence spoke through forest seams And life returned to what it seems Yet in cities we carry prison in our palms Constantly whispering what must be seen What must be scrolled, spoken, thought Phones our companions become silent tyrants They steal the subtlety of the glance The divine magic of chance Where souls met by pure chance Algorithms baptise our thoughts Which posts matter, who is our friend We think like machines, tuned to metrics Trained to profit trillion dollar ends So let us put our phones down Share this space, unscrolled, unplanned For poetry night at Maska's glow Where words replace screens and hearts expand
By pure synchronicity, the day I got to Toronto, there was poetry night open mic at the bar attached to the hostel I was staying at. I ended up performing on stage. I read out 2 poems – but only got one on video.
Cooking
One thing that I really liked about the community that I was staying in was that everyone cooked for everyone else. The breakfast ritual where everyone contributed and cooked food was amazing. Everyone had different talents for cooking and it was interesting tasting different foods. I learnt a lot from other people cooking – especially baking. I had never baked before trying it here.
One of the talents that I have is being able to cook good food. And it mostly stems from having to cook myself if I had to have high protein and high quality food that is necessary when I was obsessed about body building, powerlifting and gymming. Baring an odd disaster, where I ended up somehow nearly getting the blender on fire while trying to cook while being very high after hitting gravity bong, most of the dishes turned out pretty good. I left the hostel with some Aloo Gobhi I made with Jaydyn- My friend from Texas just before leaving. Daniel had to leave a voice note saying that it was amazing and it blew his mind. And I agree, I really enjoyed it as well and I think it was one of the more sophisticated dishes I had cooked. We also cooked everything from cake to chicken curry, naan, sandwiches, guacamole, eggs.
Ceremonies – Spirituality and Plant Medicine
In Peru, there is a lot of opportunity to do ceremonies and plant medicines that can help in your spiritual journey. I initially did not do much other than magic mushrooms, until the last three weeks of my trip, where I felt the calling to try Ayahuasca. At that point I felt I could trust the people I was doing it with since I knew them fairly well at that point. Eric really helped me through this journey so I want to really thank him for that.
The only thing I did not do and did not feel I was ready for was frog venom – Kambo and Bufo.
Ayahuasca
I ended up doing Ayahuasca 2 times. The first time was during the day and it was a very intense experience. I had just done the Salkantay hike the week leading upto it and had a few days to relax before getting into the ceremony. I did get on a fruit based diet leading leading upto it. It is recommended to do Ayahuasca in the jungles, but I wanted to enjoy more time in Sacred Valley than go somewhere else.
We did the ceremony at the tipi. I took 2 cups, with an hour of gap in between them. I also did Rapé – traditional tobacco. Although I had done clay the night before and thought I was cleaned up, I did end up puking out the cacao I had the previous night. I saw intense visuals of being surrounded by snakes. I cannot share all parts of my trip here because Ayahuasca is a very personal experience. It also showed me by deepest desires and doing Changa later actually helped me process it better. I also learned that I am beautiful in ways I had not thought about and I think it helped me lean into who I actually am. I don’t think most people want to know more about themselves, but I think I know myself better now and I am comfortable with who I am. I also realized that I am God myself and the whole universe is just within me. I also think it helped me understand to surrender to the universe better, especially when something interesting comes in my life. The ceremony ended up delicious soup and bread.
The second time was at a private ceremony with my friend Eric. It was a very different experience for me. This time it was much more mellow, but it was intensely spiritual at the same time. At the end, I ended up singing songs about Lord Shiva and Lord Ganesha. I also had a dream about God which felt as powerful as the ceremony itself. Or maybe that was my trip.
Wachuma – San Pedro Cactus
San Pedro Cactus, also known as Wachuma is a psychedelic cactus. I did Wachuma three times. Two times with my friend Eric, and an another time with my other friend and owner of the hostel I was staying at Neo. With Eric, it was more of intense trips, sitting by the river. While with Neo, it was more of hiking with not as much Wachuma being consumed. Overall my trips were very gentle and you could even question if you were high. I would describe my trips to be more gentle than even weed or magic mushrooms, but at the same time they were very powerful.
For me Wachuma was a very enjoyable experience. It allowed me to feel things better. And that is important because any action is actually an energy before that is put into action. So it is important to feel energy of things. During my second Wachuma experience, I even could go back and feel what people were feeling during interactions I had with people around two weeks leading upto the ceremony. It was like the interactions were always stored in my brain’s memory and I could bring those up and understand those interactions way more than I would have earlier. I also felt that Wachuma permanently increased my sense of touch and feeling things. Eric told me this can happen with increased medicine use. It can permanently alter your sense of feeling and understanding energy of the world around you. Another girl I was talking to also told me that happened to her after using Ayahuasca.
I think Wachuma might be my favorite psychedelic that I have tried so far. It’s very gentle and mellow, while it can be strong at the same time. It is also not draining like mushrooms.
Temazcal
Temazcal is an ancient sweat lodge that is similar to a sauna, but has much more spiritual element to it. Rocks are heated up, before being brought into a makeshift tent like structure. There are 4 doors to a Temazcal ceremony, for Earth – Pachamama, Water – Yaku, Air – Wayra, Fire – Nina. Songs are recited in Ketchua language. Once you get through the ceremony, they consider you reborn into this world and the ceremony is used to symbolize being inside the Earth’s womb.
I did Temazcal 2 times and both of the times it was special and powerful. It is very spiritually draining, more than the physical aspects of it. The second one I did with 56 rocks was very intense and at the end I had trouble breathing because the air was so hot. I highly recommend trying it if you get a chance.
Changa – DMT
I did Changa(DMT) with Eric in a private ceremony. DMT is a short acting psychedelic that human brain naturally secrets in the final moments of your life. Changa is a plant derived form of DMT, combined with a few more herbs to enhance the effects. It is to be smoked with a pipe. I ended up doing it four times. For the first two times, I did not experience a lot, other than hexagonal shapes when I closed my eyes. I did however see my Mother and felt a strong connection with her. I also realized that I should be spending more time with her. The last two times was very powerful.
For the last two times, I saw hallucinations of my friend Eric being blurred and then another man appearing infront of him. I realized that what I was seeing and who I was interacting with could just be a figment of my imagination. Because life is just made up by prime originator – God, who actually just exists within us and we are just witness to it. I like the words we were given these choices from Eric’s poetry. It’s not like we can control life. We can only flow with the decisions already made for us. For we may only watch.
I also realized that we are often unhappy because of unfulfilled desires. But these aren’t really our desires. They are just given to us by others. Sometimes it’s given to us by evolution. Other times by society and their expectations from us. But life often has it’s own story already written for us. So it doesn’t really help or give you happiness by holding onto desires. To experience happiness, it is important to let go of them.
Final Thoughts
I think this was a very meaningful trip for me. So much happened in the 7 odd weeks I was there, that it felt more like 7 months. I think the whole trip and people I met there have had a deep impact on my life. It’s funny how 7 weeks you spend somewhere can impact your life more than sometimes many years and I definitely felt that. I also realized that sometimes it just pays to be in the same place instead of uprooting yourself and moving from place to place. Sometimes the answers you seek are at the exact same place. I would love to go back to Pisac if I get a chance and it isn’t so far fetched, considering the familiar time zone and cheap flight tickets to Peru from Canada.
I think it will take me time to process some of the things, but I am happy to be back in Kelowna, BC as well after a very long time and it is good to see my friends and this familiar landscape again. However I get the feeling that my life will never be the same again and things that happened on this trip will impact my life forever.