After a while in Santa Marta, with whistle stop visits to Taganga to buy coffee and chocolate brownines, i went back to Tyrona. This time I went with the addition of two lovely English girls i met in the cheap hostel I was staying in. They left after a few days and i continued to get into the placid pace of Tyrona, accompanied by token French man.
During this time I played alot of music and recorded a song with Jeremie which we are pretty happy with. It was great to get into such a creative process and with a satisfying end result! I also did loads of swimming, playing, sun bathing, cooking, photography, jungle exploration. I checked out some new beachs, including a nudist one (a first time experience for me) which blessed me with some very interesting situations (i might only tell you if you ask me!) I meditated alot too, on the ocean infront of the waves. It was a really special and suprising time.
During one weekend a large group of Biology students stayed at the camp site where I hung out. I noticed, under a wooden table where i often ate brekfast, that there was a box with a label on it saying "Serpent, dangerous". Tres interesting, i thought...keeping my feet at a distance. There was indeed a serpent in it, which got put down the following day (by lethal injection) for the Biology students to "study". I witnessed this process and felt quite emotional seeing a beautiful creature die for research.
Staying at Tyrona for so long meant that I was able to watch the ebb and flow of people come and go. I met some really cool and interesting people, sharing mini adventures along the way. I also started to feel a sense of community, building connections with people through regular encounters. One of my favourate daily meetings was with the owner of a bakery just off the beach. He was a great character, silent and cool, witnessing the world go by in his weatherd way.
As i write this i am in Leticia! It has been an epic journey to get here, i was in Santa Marta yesterday morning, and Bogota last night before catching an early flight today to get here. When i arrived the humid heat smacked me in the face, contrasting the cool temperature in Bogota (i actually found it very difficult to sleep as i was so cold!) In Leticai i got stamped at DAS and walked with my heavy bags to the centre of this simple city. I was unsure about where to go, and thankfully met a friendly local walking his son back home. He showed me a good, relativly cheap hostel and gave me his number incase i needed any help or advice. My experience has been that often Colombians are very warm, welcoming and friendly :)
The hostel im staying at is a non gringo palce (yey. Im starting to really dislike hostels full of English speakers and back packers, not very authentic.) It is very homely here. It was actually a home until February when it got sold and turned into a small friendly hostel. there is a nice communal area with comfy sofas and books, simple and classey. I like it alot. And here I met a quirky French lady who has been travelling for 12 years, saying her home is planet earth (i know, a very hippy saying...but it fits her lifestyle). She just spent ten days at an Indian Village nearby which she said was deeply rooted in Catholism, likely influcened by neighbouring country, Brazil. At this village she was basically the devil incarnate, as a free woman who will not be controlled, who smokes, who speaks her mind. At one point she stood up in church and started to speak of love, life, freedom, corruption. She explained to me that the words just seemed to flow out of her mouth, perhaps the forest energy propelling her on. Everyone stared with wide and astonished eyes. Afterwards she was afraid she may get assasinated, as she is dangerous to the status quo there...and is messing with political Religious Mafia types. Now she is back in Leticia, safely we hope! She makes a living by finding jobs along her way, running creative art workshops, teaching languages, doing manual labour and taking opportunities as they arise. As I was talking to her a man walked in, they got chatting and she, after 10 minutes, got a job! She will be working with people dealing with addictions in a beautiful jungle area near by. She will run workshops and support where she can. The ethos of the centre is run off love not money, which fits well with her ideals. She was very excited and invited me to check the place out tommorow. I plan to!
The day after tommrow I will be catching a speed boat to Iqitos, where i will spend a few days checking out the witch market and general area before starting my ten day Ayhauska retreat. I see the retreat as a red carpet to the next chapter in my life...back to the UK!
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
Tyrona
What an incredible place , oozing in wildlife: Snakes, Caymen, monkeys, donkeys, unidentifiable creatures including some kind of big rodent!¿ various spiders with colourful bums, tropical birds, many insects...Panthas roam the jungle but stayed clear of the more human areas. Though nowhere is really safe at dark, when animals come out to hunt and play.
To get there i ended up travelling with a friend, Jeremie, whom I met at a monkey rescue centre in Ecuador. We, for some reason, went the long way round and had to walk for ages with heavy bags through the national park to get to the beach. It was a hard walk, loads of steep bits and epic rock climbing. One wrong slip and you fall into a 20 meter ditch. It took longer than we expected, too. 3 hours turned into 6 hours. We stopped of once to eat cheese and bread, and watched indigenous children play innocently in the river. After more walking, the sun set. It got dark and we were lost in the jungle. Spiders and snakes showed themselves. We heard monkeys and i tryed not to let my mind dwell on jungle cats. It was tres Indiana Jones style and flashes of horror movie set ups kept blessing me. But we survived to tell the tale, and had fun along the way. It got to the point where could either made fun of the situation and laugh and joke our way through it...or cave into our tiredness and collapse into the jungle bed with little hope. Or perhaps kill one another as an outlet for our frustration. The later was our choice. Seemed like an interesting test of character!
The first camp site we got to seemed pretty tourist soaked and smelt of rotten fruit and crap. We had walked thus far and thought, whats another 60 minutes!? So off we set to the next camp site. Along the way i saw the biggest blue crab i have ever set my eyes on! When we arrived at the next site we stayed. It was peaceful and all i wanted was to shower. The shower was a bad experience though. Insects made a carpet on the floor, and im not sure if i had more bugs on my legs than i did water whilst showering. I was pretty grossed out. Big beatles, flying things, crawling things, creep me out things everywhere. Shower was super quick. Also that night someone stole a bottle of rum from the tent. And tried to steal food, but got caught in the act. A pretty adventourous day. The next day we found a nice camp site!!
Beautiful camp site: Finca Don Pedro, Surrounded by coconut mango and avocado trees. Set ten minutes away from the beach, and with perfect entrances to incredible jungle walks. Death by falling coconut seemed highly possible but thankfully i survived. Bringing food made it much cheaper and it was great to be able to cook everyday. Coconut rice, pasta and chunky tomato sauce, scrambled vegtable eggs, simple things but tasty none the less.
I spent long days doing yoga in the morning, dipping in the ocean, buying chocolate bread from a little bakery, wondering the jungle, witnessing natural wonders, playing on my guitar (and be taught by Jeremie...as well as helping him improve his English), trying to improve my spanish, enjoying daily cooking, getting into morning pages...and regular showers!
One evening the tent got totally swamped/ flooded by a strong down pour of rain and all the bags and shoes in the outside compartment of the tent floated! Tent had to be moved, but the next sunny day helped dry things out. I couldn´t stop laughing though. I have laughed a lot this last week. Sometimes rather inappropriately. Still, im sure its good for the soul.
Now back in Santa Marta sorting out VISA extensions and booking flights to enter the Amazon at the end of the month. May be going back to Tyrona next week. There is more sun bathing to be done, more chocolate bread to eat. And its a peaceful place to consolidate and reflect upon my journey, my intentions, my life. A good place to practice, to meditate and to simply be with life. Everything seems so alive in the jungle and along the rustic beach. For me, it evocks thoughts of how dead and fixed things can seem in more "civilized" environments. Where nature rules, everything has something to teach. Things are random, spontanious, all dance their own dance around you. Birds fly and sing in unison as the Caymen bathes his skin under the sun. The Ocean roars, a crab bumps into your big toe. Watchful, wonderful. I become more intune with the natural cycles of the sun and moon. The sky wraps a blanket of dark around me. Stars twinkle my spirit. The sun slows me. Im reminded constantly to expect the unexpected.
To get there i ended up travelling with a friend, Jeremie, whom I met at a monkey rescue centre in Ecuador. We, for some reason, went the long way round and had to walk for ages with heavy bags through the national park to get to the beach. It was a hard walk, loads of steep bits and epic rock climbing. One wrong slip and you fall into a 20 meter ditch. It took longer than we expected, too. 3 hours turned into 6 hours. We stopped of once to eat cheese and bread, and watched indigenous children play innocently in the river. After more walking, the sun set. It got dark and we were lost in the jungle. Spiders and snakes showed themselves. We heard monkeys and i tryed not to let my mind dwell on jungle cats. It was tres Indiana Jones style and flashes of horror movie set ups kept blessing me. But we survived to tell the tale, and had fun along the way. It got to the point where could either made fun of the situation and laugh and joke our way through it...or cave into our tiredness and collapse into the jungle bed with little hope. Or perhaps kill one another as an outlet for our frustration. The later was our choice. Seemed like an interesting test of character!
The first camp site we got to seemed pretty tourist soaked and smelt of rotten fruit and crap. We had walked thus far and thought, whats another 60 minutes!? So off we set to the next camp site. Along the way i saw the biggest blue crab i have ever set my eyes on! When we arrived at the next site we stayed. It was peaceful and all i wanted was to shower. The shower was a bad experience though. Insects made a carpet on the floor, and im not sure if i had more bugs on my legs than i did water whilst showering. I was pretty grossed out. Big beatles, flying things, crawling things, creep me out things everywhere. Shower was super quick. Also that night someone stole a bottle of rum from the tent. And tried to steal food, but got caught in the act. A pretty adventourous day. The next day we found a nice camp site!!
Beautiful camp site: Finca Don Pedro, Surrounded by coconut mango and avocado trees. Set ten minutes away from the beach, and with perfect entrances to incredible jungle walks. Death by falling coconut seemed highly possible but thankfully i survived. Bringing food made it much cheaper and it was great to be able to cook everyday. Coconut rice, pasta and chunky tomato sauce, scrambled vegtable eggs, simple things but tasty none the less.
I spent long days doing yoga in the morning, dipping in the ocean, buying chocolate bread from a little bakery, wondering the jungle, witnessing natural wonders, playing on my guitar (and be taught by Jeremie...as well as helping him improve his English), trying to improve my spanish, enjoying daily cooking, getting into morning pages...and regular showers!
One evening the tent got totally swamped/ flooded by a strong down pour of rain and all the bags and shoes in the outside compartment of the tent floated! Tent had to be moved, but the next sunny day helped dry things out. I couldn´t stop laughing though. I have laughed a lot this last week. Sometimes rather inappropriately. Still, im sure its good for the soul.
Now back in Santa Marta sorting out VISA extensions and booking flights to enter the Amazon at the end of the month. May be going back to Tyrona next week. There is more sun bathing to be done, more chocolate bread to eat. And its a peaceful place to consolidate and reflect upon my journey, my intentions, my life. A good place to practice, to meditate and to simply be with life. Everything seems so alive in the jungle and along the rustic beach. For me, it evocks thoughts of how dead and fixed things can seem in more "civilized" environments. Where nature rules, everything has something to teach. Things are random, spontanious, all dance their own dance around you. Birds fly and sing in unison as the Caymen bathes his skin under the sun. The Ocean roars, a crab bumps into your big toe. Watchful, wonderful. I become more intune with the natural cycles of the sun and moon. The sky wraps a blanket of dark around me. Stars twinkle my spirit. The sun slows me. Im reminded constantly to expect the unexpected.
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