Muisne Day, 57: Salt
The misunderstandings and bad communication (and my ignorance) apparently continue ’till I will learn to ask, not twice, but probably 3 times for both parties to get it.
I thought I was going to Atacames, as I thought Amelia had told me so. Apparently I was supposed to go to little island called Muisne – I must admit, I didn’t research properly before going either. SO I went to Atacames, discovered I was wrong and found a hostel in the evening. I took a walk in the busy, colourful and noisy night atmosphere of the coast town, getting barked at by uncountable stray dogs while I was trying to find the beach. When I came so far out in the darkness between the concrete houses and grassy roads that I couldn’t see much anymore, I decided to turn around, back into the street lights fearing a bit what would be out there – even though I could smell the sea being nearby. I looked a bit around for fruits and vegetables before heading back to my hostal with no luck – I thought all the places might just be closed.
It felt weird to be alone suddenly, realizing this is the first time I travel alone on my journey, really – with no host or travelmate to talk to. It felt so lonely and deadquiet. I’s like the noise of the traffic and the streets magnifies when not having someone to talk to.
The next day I got up and packed my stuff, ready to check out and leave my stuff in a locker in order to look for something to eat in town before heading to Muisne. After checking out I had a frustrating lack-of-vocabulary conversation with the staff about leaving my stuff for an hour, which they would not let me do and apparently they had no lockers. Fortunately I was early on checking out and could put my stuff back in ’my’ room before leaving. I started out for food, seeing all sorts of animal mistreating on the way; alive chickens, tied by their feet, lying on the ground; chicks stoved together in a small box, barely able to stand up; hundreds of fish in the same aquarium with very shallow, dirty water; the smell of burned meat everywhere. By the river, in which people by the way throw their trash in, were piles of shells where small vultures would roam and wait for waste. I walked around, asking for vegetarian food (it’s quite unusual to find someone who knows the word ’vegan’) for about half an hour, not being very fortunate. Even though I could SEE restaurants serving rice next to meat and other places frying vegetables, they would not serve me just rice and vegetables. Not possible they said. Finally I found a place that served me rice, salad and some fried bananas. I swallowed my breakfast/lunch and walked quickly back to the hostal, grabbed my stuff and found a bus to Muisne. As soon as the bus left the little town, we were driving fast past of turquoise and dark blue strips of water stretching forever behind flat, dark strips of sand. The water encircling big rocks and cliffs in the water, greens growing where ever the water would not reach. I smiled of the view, being happy about being out of Atacames.
I arrived to Muisne and as soon as I got off the bus with my backpack, a man would already be there, talking to me. If there’s something I learned on this travel, it is that: As a foreign girl, you can be sure that where ever you go, there will always be men starting a conversation with you as soon as you stand still. They will hit on you, even the bus drivers hit on me while driving, but if you just answer their questions (honest or not – I like to be honest) more or less reserved, you can actually have a, almost, normal conversation about where to go, what to see, where to eat and so on. This man was quite persistent, he asked me what I ate and said I was Vegetarian. He said ohh okay, and invited me to eat camari with him… I said, but, I’m vegetarian, and he said, oh but I’ll buy it for you. It’s on me.
I was puzzled and with a smile thought he might not understand why I said I was vegetarian. After a some words forth and back and the language barrier, I think he said that if I wanted to go later I could just find him. I said thanks and looked down on my phone. When I looked up, another, younger, guy was standing in front of me smiling and started a conversation, trying to get me to come with him and his friends to the beach. I smiled and asked what place was nice, saying I wanted to go alone though. He advised me what to pay for the boat to Muisne, the island, and after he tried to get me to come with him anyway we said goodbye and I left for the boat.
When on the other side of the water, which is basically just a wide river, I took – what would be a TucTuc in Asia – a taxi to the other side of the island, which was not more than 5 minutes away. We arrived at the most incredibly beach, soo wide and flat as a floor. The sea stretching out forever with big waves, tall palm trees as the edge of the beach. When I got off a man tried to advertise a bit for his hotel. I said I already had a place to stay but that I would like to leave my stuff for a while if he had space. He was very kind and moved some cleaning utensils in a pretty full closet behind the front desk in order to fit in my stuff.
I took my, now pretty jungle dirty, yoga mat; some fruit and water; my hula hoop and a bikini and headed straight for the water, excited. I found a place to lie and started walking out into the water. The water was lukewarm! I expected it to be much colder. As I was walking out in the waves my smile broadened – I always loved walking out in the sea and always had this tingling sensation in my body to jump in head first whenever my legs were in already. This time the sensation and the joy it gave me was even greater as I had not done this for a while – what seemed like a whole year. I jumped in, laughing loud and giggling, coughing and making ridiculous face expressions from the overly salty water in my mouth and nose, which made me laugh even more. In the water, where no one was near and I felt safe, I undressed in order to feel the silkiness of the water on the whole body. It IS the best way to swim.
Coming up, lying on the beach, the salty water would dry into flakes on my body – an experience I hadn’t tried since being a kid in Greece. This army-dressed police guy with a stick would roam around near me for some reason for a full hour before leaving with more men dressed like him. Maybe it was just coincidence, but I felt strangely watched. After lying a while on my back in my own thoughts, I suddenly felt a soft, smooth, quick and wet swoosh by my feet, crawling up my legs, and before I could sit up and open my eyes, the water was everywhere! The rise was coming and I was completely unprepared. All my things were wet and I laughed with surprise, trying to save them all from leaving me with the retreating wave.
After having a coconut drink at the bar where my things were, Amelia came to get me as her hostal, Te de Menta (hostal mint tea), was very near. I’m now in my own room in a 4 story hut of bamboo, wood, tiles, concrete and palm leafs, enjoying the peace.
Sunset
Seeeaaa ❤
Psychedelic Sand
‘My’ balcony, in front of my room on the 1st floor
Hostal Te de Menta, worth a stay if on Muisne 🙂
Cozy and pretty place, beautiful and very kind host 😉
Sunset over the sea shines through the palm trees and onto the balcony ❤
View of the beach
Santo Domingo, Day 54: Merry Christmas
Merry christmas to everyone! I’m sure you had a good, traditional more or less, night with your families at home J For my sake it’s probaby going to be the most untraditional christmas for me; it’s more going to feel like a special night than specifically christmas. Which is perfectly fine – it seems relieving not to prepare special vegan meals for hours while trying to talk to several family members at a time, while taking the time to dress up and prepare everything else. Instead we eat together with extra special treats in the meal, like dried food mushrooms and vegan homemade banana/peanutbutter/cacao cookies. Gluten and sugar free 😀
After that, who knows? Someone snug a red wine in here; That’s what funny here: that signs several places in the finca says ”No Drugs Here”, but liquid tobacco and Ayahuascha for cleansing, coca leaves for work at events and night time and a bit of alcohol for special parties are apparently ok. I guess it’s the more natural-ressource minded culture here that’s ok.
So when I mention events it’s because we have been selling stuff on the market at Margerita bar for 2 days/1 ½ days now. Christian, Savatana and Rama sold herbs, insence, cacao, and other raw organic materials from the farm; Lily sold her jewelry and I sold my photos. It was my first exhibition and it was fun J I sold about 10 photos and used almost all the money I earned on treating myself/buying ’food’ while being there. After fruit fasting, water fasting a bit and cleansing out my body, it is/must be completely confused after a 2-day diet of loads of sugar, deep fried snacks as food, alcohol and coca leaves. It’s not like there’s the best variety og healthy or vegan food at a regular bar in Santo Domingo, Ecuador. In this one I actually think we were lucky: They even had guacamole (and remembered it half the time)!
Me on the way to the market at the bar, ready to sell some photos!
Lily working her magic, jewelry
Sandra in the wedding dress!
Evidence #1 of being in the jungle
Evidence #2 of being in the jungle
Savatana at the Kuruksutra (the farm/finca) stand, my photos beside them. Sandra in the background, possibly scouting for cake?
Emily and Savatana 🙂
Savatana doing his shamanic tricks and treatments
After the market closed the last day, an after party was arranged. It cost 3 dollars, for everyone including those who had worked at the market, apparently. Except the organizers.. Who btw advertised greatly for the afterparty, even when we did buy the paper bracelets they had made with fancy DJ names and everything and we went to the gate to the place, they advertized more at the entrance to by-passers everyone else. The entrance for a rusty metal door in a concrete wall next to a bar. I had the idea it was in a house of someone of the organizers. We finally entered after it being exclaimed that the preparations were done and found a long narrow ’hallway’ with no roof, kind of like an entrance to a back yard. It was dark and the only light there was was the sparse amount coming from the street behind the gate in the wall we just entered. Around the concrete corner of the hallway a dj was behind a small table with one speaker on his side on another block of wood and a mixer. I looked around, this couldn’t be it. The music was blown out into the empty, dark space of concrete walls and a den in the middle of it all that one had to be careful not stepping into. I asked the DJ, whom I had spoken with at the bar earlier about this party, if this was seriously it. He literally said: ”Yeah, we have musiiic, aaand… drugs!” while laughing. People immediately, as if they’d heard him, started smoking weed. He forgot to mention something though: dog shit. They had music, drugs and piles of dog shit. Yeah. I stepped in some. twice.
I laughed in amazement of that we just paid 3 dollars for this and went to talk to the girls. We decided to leave and got driven all the way home by one of the friends of Christian, just for him to drive back to the party. So nice of him.
Evidence #1 of lamest after party ever
Evidence 2# of lamest after party ever
Tomorrow I and the 2 other Brujas will depart for the coast. It will be nice to have some travel mates when hitchhiking, and fire and air will go good together. We already do; 2 Libras and 1 Leo. Magical times to come!
Next stop: Atacames for new years with Amelia, my roommate’s friend. She seems lovely and ready to take 3 instead of 1 persons in, really cool. There’s also another friend of my roommate 1 hours south of Atacames, a dane even. Maybe I’ll meet up with him, let’s see what happens. I also met a Danish girl yesterday; it was so strange to talk Danish to another person again. Now I’m really language-confused!
(Later)
So apparently, I’m bad at communication and expectations these days. The 2 other girls ended up wanting to go to Cotopaxi instead and I got quite disappointed and sad again. Not as bad as last time, but that really took me by surprise too.
I found myself, again, dealing with the way-bigger-than-I-knew amount of expectations that now were left unsatisfied, and the clecnhing, sad feeling it gave me. I don’t know why I keep building up expectations, even though people confirm them for a while – after all, they are just travelers like me, with no set plan and a spontaneous life. I can’t expect anything more of them than I can trust myself when I say I will be somewhere in a week. Yet still I trick myself, and have done it twice in a row now, hm. But then again, the communication could have been better in both situations.
Santo Domingo, Day 51: Winter Solstice
So me and the 3 other ’Brujas’ (witches) are sitting on the sidewalk in Santo Domingo, waiting for a shaman. Today is the Winter Solstice and apparently an extra special day as the planets are aligned in a certain way that only happens every 30 years. The shaman is going to take us to the river with a pound of salt and a pound of sugar for each person to clean themselves with by the (bigger nearby) river for a cleansing ritual. Afterwards we are going to have to decide if we want to take Ayahuascha at another ceremony back at the farm. I asked him about the dosis and and he says it does not matter how small the dosis is; it will do what has to be done. I’m considering a small dosis as a cleansing, but I haven’t decided yet. It depends on the vibe. Today we were supposed to faste, but everyone of us have ingested something. Me being the most fasting one though as I’ve drunk some cacao with maca and eaten a cherry (it’s afternoon now). I feel quite light-headed and the cherry alone made me more awake and raised my blood sugar. It’s interesting to play with the boundraries of eating and not feel how much more you get affected from the less you eat.
I like to see the street life here compared to Europe; How people talk, stop in the middle of the road to talk and barely anyone get’s annoyed, how mothers nurse their babies while drinking smoothies at a street juice bar, how people eat hugemongous amounts of panela (caramelized sugar cane sugar); how the fashion is the same style as in Asia – bright colours on synthetic, tight clothes, plastic golden buttons and a lot of scotch patterned things – how greasy, smoky street food is not only sold in stands on the street but carried around cooking, and so on and so on.
(Later)
So we did the cleansing ritual at the river and went back to the farm to the the Ayahuascha ritual at 11 in the evening – this is supposed to be the best time in Ecuador according to the solstice/Greenwich time around the world. It was hard to understand in Spanish.
We wrote down fears, negative thoughts and bad mantras on one side of a paper with our name on – the hopes and dreams we had on he other side, and burned them after a while, after they’d been under s bowl with flowers and candles. We received some liquid tobacco in each nostril to clean out the sinuses and after that the shaman played some music and blessed the shots we took: and we all received a little shot of Ayahuascha along with a glass of water. We were then not allowed to speak for the next 3 hours. It was very late and we were all tired, so most fell asleep and I tried to stay up, lying in a hammock with my blanket, in order to see if I felt something. With closed eyes, my imagination was a bit more colourful and I could ’see’ things clearer, colours and patterns interferred with pictures of all the food I would like to eat as my stomach was rumbling (we had fruit fasted all day) but I didn’t feel much. Eventually, I went to the little tent I’m sleeping in at the monent and fell into a deep sleep.
In the morning we all got up and made a huge breakfast in order to fill our empty, hungry stomachs 🙂
One of the girls had seen some auras around the trees and other things, but not something intense.
Hitching a ride on the back of a truck, pretty normal these days
Meet the Bride; Lily!
❤
The four Brujas!
– Having silly girl-time
View from the finca
Back yard
Back yard 🙂
Painting project progressing a biit
How I look these days 🙂
Back yard
Medicinal tea, real colour!
Yin and Yang sleeping in the fire place 🙂
– Two random dogs who just showed up and stayed.
Santo Domingo, Day 49: Mental turmoil
So much has happened the past 2 days but I’ll try to remember it all..
So today has been pretty normal; I woke up, did yoga with one of the girls, helped cooking breakfast, talked about our dreams we had while eating, cleaned a bit, went to use the internet, struggled with miscommunication (as we have no schedule here it can get a bit frustrating) and went back to cook experimental empanadas for lunch.
As I might have mentioned before, I talked to the male volunteer here about traveling together to the coast sometime. We didn’t plan anything about it – what we did plan though, which I was very excited about, was to exhibit some of our best photos together at a little market this weekend at a bar where one of Christian’s (the owner of the farm I’m at) friends work. It was a very spontaneous decision but we printed out some photos two days ago and I already sold my first one on the street in front of the printer shop when the owner of the bar saw them. She was very excited and liked them a lot. I was surprised of how good it felt to sell something I made. I don’t remember having that feeling before.
But back to the lunch today – after we finished eating, Jamal (the male volunteer) got up and said that now he was leaving. I thought; to do some work, but apparently he woke up this morning after having this crazy apocalypse dream about the end of the world as we know it, and thought it was time to leave. He just didn’t tell me at all, as the only one, that he was going to leave. I was a bit shocked to say it mildly, I still wonder why it affected me so much, but I guess he just really surprised me – changing plans so abruptly. What he’s going to do with the photos he printed and payed for and all the projects he started here, I have no idea. I guess they’re just going to fade.. It definitely made me think if it’s just my time to travel alone, and it might just be. It feels right, so why not. I’m going to stay here until right after Christmas and then leave for the coast.
The girls and I have talked about dreams and spirituality in general. They told me that taking a Datura flower, which grows here in big quantities, and putting it beside your head when you sleep will make your dreams crazily vivid. I found a one (huge, they’re so big) and will try it tonight. It’s exciting what’s going to happen. Someone said that all women coming here to camp, are witches. I can definitely see how each one of us has different powers, in each our way. It’s interesting to observe; a completely different ambient to be in than what I usually am, as I am generally in the company of guys. It’s sometimes just more chill to me. But then again, you just have got to find the right people; and sex, age, appearance and blabla doesn’t ever matter 🙂
Oh! And 2 days ago Christian came up with a cardboard box. Inside was a scared, over-pissed and soo alien-looking creature. It was a sloth! I have never seen one in real life and it was quite interesting to observe. It moved slow compared to our standards but way too fast for it’s species, but it was really afraid. It was a pregnant female and was caught when a field of the plant it’s eating was harvested. It would die without the food and Christian saved it to keep/let loose at the farm. He took it out, untied the rope around it’s feet that had been used to catch it and put it in a tree. Today it had moved to a different tree and hopefully will live well.
On it’s way to freedom again
My painting project so far
Chilies from the garden 🙂
The mandala on our dinner table
Another crazy work of art by a volunteer
Santo Domingo, Day 45: Peace
Up here on the hill at Goura’s Krishna farm, one of the many within the network, there’s definitely a more peaceful vibe to the place. There’s not so many people and we arrived in the start of a faste, so it’s not so busy here. Also we arrived on his birthday and participated in a big family party and dinner on our first night with his cousins, aunts, uncles and parents at his parent’s house, which is connected to the farm. So incredibly nice of his parents to cook and host so many strangers. The same day, before the big dinner, Goura and every volunteer only had Cacao the whole day, and some were a bit sick, some were tripping; this one guy I talked with ended up not participating in the family birthday dinner because he was tripping as much as if he’d been on Peyote or Ayahuascha, he later told me. He spoke with the plants and the elements while we were gone – that cacao really worked on him apparently.
I talked with the same guy, Jamal, about his travel route – he has the exact same one as the one I originally made with Marion, more or less, so I might travel on with him once he goes. Brendan leaves tomorrow and I will have to decide whether to go all the way, backwards, to Iquitos or further to the coast with Jamal or alone. I think I kind of already decided though. I just really hope to see Alice and Kristin again.
Today the whole group went to a school to teach the kids about composting and then afterwards to the bigger river. I stayed home with Rama, a Colombian man, and relaxed, made some jewelry, carried water up from the small stream (there’s no water supply or electricity here) and cooked. It was nice to relax for a full day.
Puyo Day 40: Sumak Kawsay
So after climbing up to our house on the top of a hill yesterday, we slept in a tent on a platform om 2nd floor. The place is called Sumak Kawsay and has a great view. We both woke up by sunrise (behind the cloudy sky though) by all the new bird sounds.
There’s a very cute kitten here, named Panchito, who is very attention demanding. It’s very young, I believe it got taken away from its mother too early, and every time I sit down he jumps to my lap and starts sleeping or purring. It’s the only time he’s quiet.
Our guide, Henry, is just amazing – it is just us 3 (and Panchito) in the rather big open house build of bamboo, logs and palm leafs from the jungle.
Henry sleeps in a hammock in the kitchen and cooks 3 times a day, cleans, takes us on tours while taking pictures of us, and does everything else all by himself. He is so enthusiastic and patient and teaches us more spanish – which is very necessary as he has different words for almost everything. It’s almost like his dialect is so different, it’s another language.
Today he took us on a little walk jungle, 20 minutes downhill, then a break, and 30 minutes uphill he said – we were back 3-4 hours later. Tomorrow is a longer tour he says, 5 hours, I wonder if we’re back by sunset! It’s not hard to get used to Ecuadorian time though when one has experienced Nepalese time. Here at least you can count on things happening, just not when.
On our way down to the little stream nearby we saw hundreds of plant and trees, termites and two kinds of snakes – both very poisonous. They keep much to themselves though and are not dangerous unless you actually step on them. You can step right beside them and they won’t attack. It makes me wonder if the stress of humans affect all of their environment as well – here in Ecuador people are so laid back and relaxed, maybe the animals are too unless threatened.
Although I know that the logical explanation might just be that their venom is so energy-demanding to produce, they’d rather use it one prey.
Many people here have a hard time pronouncing my name or knowing how it’s spelled – some people I meet prefer to call me Vibe (said in English, as short for vibrations) and some people just create their own pronunciation or even own word. Some think it’s better just with V. I can’t blame them, especially here in Spanish speaking countries where V and B is pronounced the same. I thought about it before and Henry just reminded me today – He thought I was called Vive, which means he/she lives, in spanish. I kind of like that. Whatever my name is being associated with, so far it’s just been good things, hippie expressions, which I find very fitting. I’m definitely not complaining.
Here around the house, so many different plants grow. I’m still amazed how everything just grows SO fast. If a tree falls in Denmark, months and years after, the exposed root will still be there, the hole in the earth will still be there.. Maybe some moss and ferns has started to grow on it, but not much. Here, within months, or maybe even weeks, the whole area will be full of ferns, moss, small trees, flowers and other plants, completely covered. The hole barely more than a shallow pit full of plants. The fallen tree barely visible!
Close to the house cinnamon plants grow, coffee plants, banana trees, limes, Peanut trees… And of course, ayahuascha plants everywhere. They don’t look especially different from the other vines that grow and feed on other trees really, but then again, to me here everything is just so luminous green. It’s like arriving in Asia for the first time, thinking everyone looks the same. However, when you get accustomed to the different looks, expressions and differences of the people, they suddenly look different from each other. I guess it’s the same with the plants in unfamiliar vegetation.
Inside a cave in the cloud forest
Puyo, Day 39: 22
So, after deciding with Brendan where to go together, I left the beautiful group of people at Wisdom Forest that had become my lovely family. Wow, I’m going to miss them sooo muuch!
Julie, Jake, Berty, Philipp, Kristin, Alice all of them.. And the farm.. And the food… Sigh. Brendan even stated that he was going to make me come back to them one day.
The day I went with Brendan didn’t start too well; I had decided to sleep one last night in my hammock in the tree house. After not being able to sleep for a while, I fell asleep finally but slept badly. I woke up completely bloated, bad stomach pain and instant diarrhea with the rising sun. Nice. It was a very beautiful sunrise though, even though I had a hard time enjoying it. I seriously considered if this was a warning of not to go..
I went to the house for packing and serious toilet dates, and had some lemon water with bicarbonate for breakfast. The night before I had made little goodbye-notes for some of the people at the farm (I hope they all see them, yay) and had secretly during the morning after put them where they, hopefully, would find them after I went. After saying a very quick goodbye, as I was almost late for the bus, I went with Julie to wait for it. My stomach definately had not settled yet but I was more or less in control of it. After saying goodbye to Julie and meeting Brendan in the bus, I found a seat and put on this one on as I hadn’t heard music for myself for a long time:
In my uplifted but sad-to-leave mind, I looked up in some goodbye tears for this beautiful place and saw the number over my seat. It looked like it once had 4 numbers, but now two were scratched away, hence the number was now 22. I smiled a big smile and more tears rolled down my face. I had made the right decision then. Later this same day I found myself sitting in the street below the number 2 on a wall, plus I now am writing my 22nd page of my blog.
After getting the bus to Tena, From there the bus to Puyo and from there a taxi to the tourist office where we looked at a lodge/house in the jungle in the ”Cloud Forest” – which is a natural reserve in the mountains with high humidity (clouds, doh) and many species of animals – and decided to go there. Our guide would pick us up 15 minutes later we were told and transport us to the house. 30-40 minutes later a friendly guy arrived and helped us to take care of some necessities before we could take a bus. We were surprised, we thought HE would transport us, in a car..?
We eventually did get a ride though with a car, as a friend of his passed by where the bus would have picked us up. After going to Mera, a little town near the house, we waited a while and then got a front wheel-driven taxi ride through the jungle (which he said took 20 minutes) which took around 40. After the bumpiest ride up what seemed like riverbeds and rocky hillsides we stopped when the road ended in a path made of logs and from there we walked through the jungle up the mountain for 20 minutes.
Tena, Day 31: Spiritual Monday
Wow, today has been plan-changing, maybe even destiny-changing, but let’s see. I had an individual session with Brendan, the yoga teacher, acupuncturist healer and kinesologist, and I almost left my body. It really felt like my feet were trying to pull the rest of my body out (of body) and the result was that I felt like being spun around, hung upside down, crouching to the side even though I was lying straight and all kinds of weird sensations while eyes-closed. I talked a lot with him afterwards and he offered me more sessions, he really wanted to help me, sensing how serious the problem was. We discussed traveling around Ecuador a bit together, doing sessions as we go, to make it more convenient for the both of us.
After getting back to the farm and the others, I had the longest conversation with two Australian newcomers, a couple, about water fasting, channelling, meditation, DMT, higher levels of consciousness and their guidance through mediation to come to South America. A lot of very interesting things had happen to them within the last 6 months and apparently they were guided here by a channel, and old Mayan, to experince certain things. Wow, I’m so overwhelmed right now by all these things.
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