TSANTSAS! Shrunken Heads!

The Shaur and Achuar cultures who live in the upper amazon, we can thank for giving us the shrunken head! The Shaur live in the Upano Valley in eastern Ecuador and it was my mission to try to find a shrunken head while in Ecuador. The culture requires water just like any other culture but doesn't live near rivers. Also unique to their culture they don't use bows and arrows but only blowpipes.

To the dead, who do wrong during life, their heads are transformed into key chain sized charms. The skull is first removed and then the head undergoes a desiccation process of heating and cooling to shrink it down to size. Shrinking the head prevents the spirit from being able to seek revenge and also gives the spirits energy to their owner. The mouths and eyes are sewn shut to trap the spirit for eternity. Owning a head shows both braveness and power.

I came across 5 heads around Quito and they were awesome. They are smaller than a fist and still have their hair, eye brows and eye lashes. They are really unreal looking and a mythical thing that becomes a reality in person. You can look into their ears and see their hollowed heads. Its strange to fathom that these were actually really people with normal heads during life. You wonder what bad things they could have done to earn the right to have their heads shrunk. An awesome culture and interesting history!

Death On the Pan Americana

Along the entire Pan American Highway from Brazil down to Uruguay, across Argentina to Chile, Bolivia to Ecuador; there are memorials and flowers lining the road for those who died in accidents along it. While travelling along the Pan American and seeing how many there are it just becomes a commonplace sight during long distance bus routes. Only does it become reality when you see life taken from a person in less than a second.

As the bus departed from Guayaquil my only worries were my own petty problems and getting to Colombia to fly home. After 30 minutes of driving recklessly to get out of the city all would change. In the other lane of speeding traffic through a residential area outside of the city, a women carrying groceries attempted to cross the street. The only sounds were a thud and people around the scene shouting. No brakes. No screams of pain. Just the end of a life.

As her body flopped to the ground as an inanimate object people flocked to the windows of my bus and those around the scene ran over. Noone did anything. Noone checked if she was even alive, it was just assumed that she was dead.

Infact she was as she lay barefoot; her shoes having flown off from the hit. Her overweight body lay in a cheerleader position, something that during life she could not have done. Noone showed any remorse or sorrow for this newest casualty to the Pan American but moved about her as if ur were normal.

Disgusted with the way things went I slunk into my bus seat and thought deep and hard about life. The world is a strange place and things can come and go. My ordeal in Peru just turned to a speck of a problem and for days all I could think of was this pile of flesh that once had a family and a life, lying limp and deformed on the side of the highway.

Peru Medical Care!

Day 3 of visiting friends in Arequipa took a twisted turn for the worse. An out of control STAPH infection spread like wildfire in my lower abdomen and in just 24hours was the size of my fist. Thankfully I was with Michelle and Alex or I probably would have just died. The first hospital we tried was trying to charge 25$ just for consultation. So we declined and took a taxi across town to another hospital that was only charging 3$ for admittance. We explained what was happening and what I needed in the ER and I reluctantly sat on the ER table and waited.

I watched as the woman next to me was bleeding from her head, a baby cried in pain from double arm burns, and a criminal sat bleeding in his wheel chair with his tending police officer. The hospital was a bring-your-own-medical supplies type. So Alex had to go out on the street and find a place to buy anestesia, needles, and a cutting tool that were sterile.

The woman bleeding from her head took a turn for the worse as her young son was shaking her and screaming for someone to help her. The doctors slowly rearranged the ER ordering me to someone else´s bloody bed and Alex and Michelle out of the room.

Finally the doctor came over to me and without warning shot me with lidocaine causing the infection to burst open. Then he just began cutting away without saying a word. Blood and puss oozing into a bed pan then said finished. Bandaged it up and gave me a prescription for painkillers I couldn´t afford anyways.

For two days I slept on Alex and Michelle´s floor bleeding and in pain unable to move. Still pussing and bleeding I decided to take a 17 hour overnight bus to Lima where better hospitals or cheaper flights home are. Upon arrivlal I had blood stains all over me. I think that it´s improving so am taking another 17 hour bus journey to Tumbes on the Ecuador border and hoping for the best!

The Real Peru

Cusco was a really beautiful and historic city but overly touristic. Instead I moved into a small town, TikaTika 20 minutes outside the city in the poor country side. I slept on the floor of a school with several other volunteers for a week helping in anyway possible. During the day we would tend the gardens, add straw roof thatching to the new school rooms, clean the facility, or do other various tasks.

Then at 2pm everyday 30-35 children ages 2 to 14 would show up to study, do yoga. or play. Getting to know the kids and being a part of their everyday life was a rewarding experience and let me really see the Peru lifestyle.

I had a memorable Thanksgiving dinner at the school with the other volunteers. A roast guinea pig replaced the turkey and we improvised some yams and pasta. Saturday, my last day there, the kids came at 9am and we organized a day of games for them ending with a chaotic game of capture the flag atop the hill. After we prepared a healthy meal for them all and ate as one big family. It was sad to say bye to them all at the end of the day as they all jumped into my arms one by one to give me a hug. I definately wish I had more time to spend in that magical place where I learned so much, but have to keep moving.

Thanksgiving in Machu Picchu - A strange irony.

A 3AM wake up call November 24 in Aguas Caliente was the perfect way to start my Thanksgiving, unaware it was actually a holiday. I stumbled out into the rainy night and walked the 30 minutes to the Machu Picchu entrance via flashlight. There I met 5 other mates from England and Sweden also dedicated to saving money and being the first ones there. When the first tourist train arrived we furociously stood infront of the gate to guard our place.

At 4:30AM the guard opened the gate and allowed the 6 of us to run across the the bridge while the others were forced to show tickets, giving us a good head start. Nothing like an early morning climb up the side of a mountain in the rain with a ball of coca leaves in your mouth. At the top we were soaked in our own sweat and dying of exhaustion, but the first ones in line to enter the actual park. As the buses started arriving and dumping people off we felt damned proud. A girl from the USA came up with a paper turkey and for the first time I realized it was Thanksgiving.

When the park finally opened at 6AM we received our Wanapicchu tickets and then ran into the park before anyone. I instantly found myself lost in the ancient ruins, masked by early morning mist. With no sense of direction I weaved my way in and out of the labyrinth of ruins eventually getting to the Wanapichu entrance. When it opened at 7AM I joined up with 4 guys from Peru and began the tiresome hour climb up the misty jungle mountain. While relaxing on the ruins at the top the clouds and mist cleared revealing the most spectacular view down into the canyon and Machu Picchu.

Touring the ruins all day was a mystical experience and took me into an ancient world. The irony was, that being Thanksgiving, we celebrate a holiday that essentially signifies the beginning of European conquest and the decline of native culture. Yet there I was exploring the ruins of a great city that once thrived before European conquest. It was a very powerful feeling of sorrow amongst a day of beauty and excitement.

Peace on Lake Titicaca...

Lake Titicaca provided me several much needed days of complete tranquility and peace. The first day sitting with friends on the beach of Copacabana, watching the sunset while eating fresh trout from a food stall, and drinking a beer displaced me from the hectic buses and backpacking. Isla del Sol was a pristine island of ancient Inca terraces and donkeys. Our 3$ a night hostel from the top of the hill gave us a picturesque view over the lake with snow capped mountains in the distance.

 

Hiking from the south to the north of the island across farm land with the lake always in sight was completely relaxing. It left us with a sense of belonging to the culture and the land. On the last day I crossed over to Puno, Peru for a visit to the Floating Islands. Although extremely touristic, the islands were still impressive man made structures. Just floating in the middle of the lake are hundreds of islands made from water reeds, supporting small straw hut villages. A really beautiful place with beautiful people.

Bolivian Desert and Salt Flats

The 4 attempts to obtain a Bolivian Visa and 135$ it cost me was all worth it after just my first 3 days here. I took an epic 3 day jeep trek from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile to Uyuni, Bolivia. We had a great group of 12 representing Poland, Singapore, Switzerland, France, and the USA! During the first day I got serious altitude sickness going from 2000m to over 4000m in just a few hours, but nothing would hold back the beauty the landscape offered.

Day 1 we passed green, blue, and white lagoons full of flamingos. The surrounding desert and mountain back drop made for spectacular views. We also visited sulfur hot springs and geysers. The land was dotted with wild and domestic lamas. The place where we would sleep was out of this world. There was a large red lagoon with white rivers swerving through it. Mountains in the back ground and green algae on the shore with a thin line of blue water. Yellow golden grass fringed the lake and thousands of flamingos filled the waters creating an other worldly atmosphere.

Day 2 we drove long distances across the desert visiting several small desert towns and white lagoons along the way. While driving we went through the middle of dust storms and passed spectacular canyons. During the night we slept in a hostel made entirely of salt on the edge of the desert where we relaxed to some overpriced beers in the middle of nowhere.

Day 3 we visited the salt flats creating a false winter wonderland.. White salt covered the ground as far as the eyes could see on the flat plain. In the middle of the vast expanse of salt was a small desert island covered with massive cacti all in bloom.

At no point during the 3 days could a postcard picture not be taken. It was by far one of the most unique landscapes and amazing experiences of my life with an awesome group of friends.