• Breakfast
• Huaca del Sol y Hauca de la Luna
• Sunset Ceremony
• Day Highlights
• Favorite Picture of the Day
• Days Photo Gallery (opens in new page)

Breakfast

Breakfast the following morning would seem to be what I found as a traditional breakfast in Peru. Eggs either scrambled or fried, completely fresh juiced pineapple or papaya juice, a bread made fresh that morning or the previous evening. While not a coffee drinker, I totally appreciated how they served the Peruvian coffee. They would bring out a pitcher with hot water, another with cream, and the a third small cup with very concentrated coffee. Then at your table you made whatever strength coffee you wanted. I totally appreciated the ability to make your own strength coffee at your table, and with what I heard was outstanding coffee.
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Huaca del Sol y Hauca de la Luna

After breakfast and a little leisure time, we got in the bus to head to the main focus of the day. We were on our way to Huaca de Moches, Temples of the Moche. Huaca in Quechua, the native language of the people of Peru, is a word that means temple or shrine. The Moche people were a group of people that lived on the coast of Peru over a thousand years ago. At Huaca de Moche these people built two huacas, Huaca de Sol and Huaca de la Luna, Temple of the Sun and Temple of the Moon.

Oh as a side note here, it is at the visitors station that I got my first view of the native Peruvian dog. A hairless creature with little tufts of hair on its head. Super bizarre to look at and see. We all took a ton of pictures of this sucker, and of course noticed a lot more of them later on in the trip, taking not so many pictures later.

Huaca del Sol had hardly been excavated at all. So the huaca was a largely left under layers of sand with some of the lower tiers to the pyramid showing. It is estimated that at one point in time this huaca was significantly bigger than Huaca de la Luna. In fact it is believed that at one point it was the largest pyramid structure in the Americas. However after the Spaniards came begun the colonization process of the natives,  the huaca was still largely in use. So the Spaniards diverted the Moche River to facilitate the plundering as destruction of the huaca. Ruben at one point said that it is believed that around two-thirds of the Huaca del Sol was destroyed in this fashion.

Huaca de la Luna however has had extensive excavation, conservation, and restoration to it. Personally I would have to say that of all the ruins we would visit on this trip, this huaca was my favorite, more so then even Machu Picchu. Maybe it was the color to it, or maybe it was the shear size and work that went into the complex as a whole, or maybe simply it was the energy of the site.

Huaca de la Luna was basically a reverse step pyramid built over generations. Used for religious and ceremonial purposes it like the Huaca del Sol was built from thousands of adobe bricks and had a large ceremonial plaza to the north of the temple. On the north facing wall of the pyramid facing the plaza, colored frescoes were created. These frescoes were incredibly beautiful and colorful. During they heyday they must have been tremendous to behold. At the middle top of the frescoes was a section that had been removed by looters in years past. The only part of the frescoes so effected. The benefit of this damage was that one was able to see some of the frescoes from the layers that had been covered over.

One of the things that made this structure outstanding was it’s construction. The first structure built on this place of power was a simple one level pyramid, with one level of frescoes facing the plaza. Then when the Moche king died, he was buried (likely in Huaca del Sol) and the structure of Huaca de la Luna was filled in with brick and a new layer, now stepped was built over the first structure. This build over would include the frescoes, and a whole new set of frescoes was created, now encompassing two levels. This process was repeated over and over a total of seven times. So by the time of it’s final construction, the huaca is measured well over 100 feet tall at the front of the plaza, with an overall dimensions of 210 to 290 meters in east-west and north-south measurements. To face the plaza with all the color and size, was amazing and quite astonishing.

Millions of adobe bricks went into the construction of this ceremonial place. To imagine the number that also went into a larger pyramid in Huaca del Sol is truly mind-blogging. We were informed that the bricks each had stamps on them that reflected a particular family. Providing bricks for these huacas was essentially the form of taxation that happened for the Moche people. So for those families that might not have worked directly on the huaca, they provided a certain number of bricks, stamped with their family symbol as proof of payment.

It was difficult for me to imagine that a pyramid tier would be built, decorated and colored in the most exquisite fashion, only to be covered over, and the whole process starting a new with a new ruler. When we first entered the huaca, we can into a covered area, that had the excavations layered showing three different of these levels exposed. One could clearly see the differences in the artwork that adorned the different levels.

The distance between the two huacas was considerable. They have begun excavating the city that lied between the two huacas on the intervening plain. Only a small fraction of the city has been excavated, but it is obvious that it would have been hugely extensive. What little was uncovered was impressive.

Ruben talked quite a bit about the nature of the human sacrifice. How the belief systems of the people are so very different than what we carry today. First of all death was just simply a part of life back then in a way we cannot comprehend. Then there was what he talked about with regards to the cycles of life, birth, life, and death. The understanding an belief of these people in the afterlife were huge. When you believe strongly in a wondrous afterlife, death in this life is not such a big deal. On one of the frescoes, there was a long line of war prisoners roped up and being marched. He talked about how the prisoners were treated extremely well up until the time of their sacrifice. How they would have been brought in on litters and almost treated like royalty for their offering. The offerings were made to the deity that was represented by the faces that we saw throughout the huaca.

Huaca de la Luna was definitely a ceremonial/religious temple. With rooms used by the priests or to prepare offerings and the like. At the bottom of the plaza was one wall in particular that encased a room believed to have been used by the priests. On this wall are various icons in color on a white background, over 200 icons in fact. The work was tremendous and amazing to behold.

Ruben also talked a lot about the energy of this place. Additionally he talked about the function of crystals to focus and magnify energy as well and how in this location the Moche used a large number of crystals in the fashioning of their adobe bricks to focus and enhance the energy of this huaca. Combine that with the energy that was already located at this particular spot and it was quite significant. I wonder if that had anything to do with the reason why I liked this place best of all.

Ruben talked about how these people also viewed the light and the dark, pointing out the reason for a Temple of the Sun and a Temple of the Moon. To these people it was not light and dark, just light. You see at night there was the penumbra, the light of the moon. Even if the moon was in the New phase and not visible, there was still light visible. But particular with the different phases of the moon, there was varying degrees of light. So for these people everything was just a shade of the light so to speak.
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Sunset Ceremony

The day would conclude with a ceremony at the beach at sunset. Ruben took the whole group out and had us line up in a row facing the ocean. He talked about the imagination and using the brain to imagine and creating healing in the body. Color was an important manifestation of how this happens. Noticing what colors are were in the body and “feeling” into them will tell you want is going on with the body. That visualizing colors can help heal the body, but changing and replacing. He had us look at the sun for a few moments, and then close our eyes. Seeing the sun in our mind’s eye and the play of colors. Then to simply just start playing with colors in our mind and body and how they related to the sun. While we did this he used his chimes and whistling. He has the ability to whistle on both the exhale and inhale and create truly magical sounds. The chimes are truly like fairies, with the combination of the two fantastic.
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Day Highlights

The highlight of the day had to be coming around and seeing the magnificence of the frescoes. The shear size, detail, colors, height, and amount of work that must have gone into creating this is beyond comprehension. How well it has been preserved and lasted for hundreds of years is astonishing. The pictures that I took really did not capture the energy and the magnificence of the front of the plaza. It must have been an amazing site to behold in it’s day.

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Favorite Picture of the Day

This I think is one of the first pictures that really made me feel like a photographer. I caught Kyle in a good moment, and he was well in focus with a soft blur to the frescoes in the background. Overall I think this is one of the better pictures that took during the early part of the trip. To check out all the other pictures from the first day check out this link.

Kyle in front of the frescoes at Huaca de la Luna

• To Trujillo
• Lunch
• Chan Chan
• Downtown Trujillo
• Day Highlights
• Favorite Picture of the Day
• Days Photo Gallery (opens in new page)

To Trujillo

After having arrived in Lima at about 10:30pm local time, we basically had a nap and then were up and back at the airport around 4am in the morning to catch our flight to Trujillo on the north coast. Can you say a little travel weary already?

Regardless, we were taken to our hotel which was north of Trujillo, in Huanchaco. It was a very nice hotel. I was sharing a room with Drew and Nick, as I would throughout the whole trip. The hotel was directly across the street from the ocean. I immediately began to remember growing up with wonderful views of the ocean and the sunset over the ocean. There truly is nothing like it.
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Lunch

After getting settle we headed off to lunch down the street. The lunch was amazing with mean trying quite a few different things. Ruben ordered for us, and I just tried a lot of different things, with the Ceviche being my favorite of the day. It immediately became apparent to me that the pace of life was significantly slower here in Peru. Lunch lasted in the order of hours. Planning for moving to our next destination seemed very casual. It felt wonderful to experience. Lot’s of time and room to breath and be present. The fresh ocean air was additionally outstanding, something I have missed about living in the bay area.

After lunch was a short walk across the street to the beach as we waited for Ruben to handle some stuff.We were shown some of the traditional reed boats that are used for fishing. This method of fishing has been used for hundreds of years, with the fishermen still going out in the morning on these reed boats and fishing to catch only what is necessary for the day. Noticing a bunch of dead fish on the beach, Ruben explained how when the El Nino current changes and warms up the water how it takes a high toll on the fish as a result.
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Chan Chan

From here it was back on the bus to be taken back towards Trujillo to an area of Chimu ruins known as Ruinas de Chan Chan. Our first ruins of the trip were definitely impressive. Chan Chan an area that was once developed of currently over 20 square km, and historically about twice that size. Chan Chan had little fortress towns built up for each of it’s kings, referred to as citadel. So in the area still preserved, there are nine citadels. We visited the one open to the public, Tschudi Citadel.

Now when the Chimu had a king they would build these complexes with abode brick. The walls were about 40 feet tall. With various rooms, plazas, storage rooms, and ceremonial places in the complex. Then when the king would die, the king would be interred into that particular complex. Then the entire community would move to another location with a new king and build a whole new citadel. The amount of  work that would go into these was astonishing, and then to just simply leave it and start all over again is just mind boggling.

The ruins are the largest, in terms of area, adobe ruins in the world. The whole site is made of adobe bricks. As such the entire citadel was rather monochrome in color, and obviously suffering from the weather in deterioration. Though some of the walls the symbols had been restored to show what the citadel was once like. There were numerous motifs of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic creates throughout the complex. From pelicans to catfish to squirrels to swans to other creatures that were obviously a combination of a few different types of animals. Highly skilled and detailed pottery had been found at this site as well.

It was believed that the ruins during the time they were occupied were not of a colorful nature. Ruben said he had a vision of lot’s of color at these places, but was disbelieved after sharing that. Then he showed how recently a small section that did indeed have coloring was discovered.

From there we learned about how during this time period this area of the coast was in fact much more lush, with a higher water supply. After the conquest by the Spaniards, much of the trees in the area were cut down, drying up much of the water making this area arid as it is now. However still there was a need for a large water source due to the housing of so many thousands of people. And that is when we were brought to the cistern.

This cistern had been hand dug by the inhabitants to provide a steady source of water. It was massive in scale and about 15m deep. It was truly a breath-taking area to behold. There is still water in the cistern, which of course meant that there was reeds and high grasses still in the cistern. Also making the cistern quite picturesque was the fact that there was a lone Egret in the pond  surrounded by many ducks. It was a beautiful scene. Later our group noticed two rather large lizards that seemed to call the cistern their home as well.

Finally we were taken to the tomb of the king that resided in this citadel. The king of course had been removed and the tomb was not necessarily a spectacular site to behold per se. However the knowledge that after he was interned, a whole community picked up and left this citadel only to start it all over again was mind boggling.

Ruben began talking at this point about a topic that he would touch on frequently in all our travels to the various ruins that we would go to. How these people were connected to energy and to the cycles of the earth, of life. How they had no concept of linear time as we know it. They are not building something like this thinking, “oh it is going to take me x amount of hours to build this wall.” They are just in touch with the cycle of life and building for that cycle. And after the cycle is over, they move on to start the new cycle. How a king represents the archetypal energy of the sun and essentially how when a king died it was the setting of the sun in a form. So that cycle has ended.

Additionally how they were connected to the energy of a place or spot in the earth and what that did for the people as far as health, happiness and living in harmony. How for these people the energy of a spot was associated with a king, and that king would die, then the association with the energy would end, and the new king would need to associate himself with a new source of energy to make his mark so to speak.

To demonstrate this, shortly after the king’s tomb, in a large plaza, he asked for a volunteer. Natalie stepped forward. He had Natalie close her eyes, and he told her to relax. He touched the top of her head and rubbed a particular spot. Then ran his hand down her back, I got the sense as if he was “unzipping” her. her body slowly started to rotate in a spiral type fashion. Ruben “closed” her back up, speaking about these energy. He referred to the energy in the area as a vortex, and this is something that he would come back to over and over during the trip.
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Downtown Trujillo

From Chan Chan we again boarded the bus to head to the historic downtown area of Trujillo. Here there was a main plaza, Plaza de Armas de Trujillo,  with a large statue as the center point. Situated around this plaza were numerous Historic buildings from the colonial times.

The colonial buildings surrounding the plaza were quite beautiful. There was an outdoor concert just closing down. And our group immediately seemed to gravitate towards the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mary, a large colonial cathedral, of a bright yellow color at one end of the plaza.

Inside the decor and frescoes on the ceiling were just outstanding. The doors to the cathedral were amazing being the original wooden doors, still with the original nails in it. There once was an earlier cathedral that was destroyed in an earthquake in the early 1600′s that the current one was built to replace. As a historical building I completely appreciated the artwork and age of this wonderful building.

Ruben later explained how this was built over a place that was considered sacred by the indigenous people to begin the process of colonization and control that the Spaniards exhibited in such force in the Americas. Though I learned later what they did around here was not nearly so bad as what they did in other places in Peru.

After this we walked around the block of the city to get to an ATM. Looking at a few other buildings along the way. The bus ride home provided us with a spectacular view of the sunset over the ocean for our first evening in Trujillo. From there another spectacular meal that evening.
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Day Highlights

For me there were two main highlights of the day. The first being was coming upon the cistern. The Ruinas de Chan Chan were very colorless and drab, being fairly monochrome in some ways due to the location and nature of things. Then to round the wall and come upon this sea of green, with the blue water was really quite breathtaking, particularly since my favorite color is green. Then to see the egret, many ducks and large lizard in the water or nearby was amazing. Not to mention the sheer scope of the cistern that was hand dug a thousand years ago. I could have really stayed and hung out at this idyllic spot for some time.

Secondly was just simply the sunset. I grew up with my back deck pointed out towards the Pacific Ocean. So I grew up watching spectacular sunsets out over the beauty of the Pacific. The colors, the clarity, are just spectacular, and sunsets elsewhere, though they might be spectacular cannot compare. I honestly cannot remember exactly the last time that I got to see the sunset over the Pacific Ocean. It was so beautiful, and brought back a longing for my childhood home.
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Favorite Picture of the Day

I have decided I am going to run each post with a favorite picture of the day that I took. Today’s picture I took of Bruce at lunch. I adore Bruce and I think he is a very fun loving spirit. The whole trip I thought this picture really capture Bruce’s essence and fun loving spirit. To check out all the other pictures from the first day check out this link.

Bruce laughing while at lunch

Wholehearted people have the willingness to love with no guarantees.

That line changed my life.

So when I gave Jerry my check I was pretty clear, let me know when you want the rest of the money, what do I need to bring, and what flight do I need to book. That is all I needed to know.

So cost of the trip was $2350. This would include all lodging and all meals. This would not be inclusive of tips, the cost of beverages, and of course whatever shopping I wanted to do. This would cover 15 days of travel. This would also not include the cost of the international flight to get to Peru and some domestic flights that we would need in country. The domestic flights ended up costing $806. While, through the generosity of my friend Kim letting me get some of her unused Delta miles to add to my own I was able to book my international flight for about $340 rather than $1300. So all said and done the entire trip was costing my last than $3500 for 15 days with an archeologist as a guide while being able to do ceremony. HFCIT?!?

During the course of the months leading up to the trip I had no questions for Jerry. I was fully in. There is once I looked at the itinerary for the trip but none of it stuck cause I had no point of reference for those places never having been nor studied about Peru. When people asked me the best I could tell them is that we were going to the north coast for 5 days to see a mummified queen that was found recently, we were going to Cusco, of course going to Mach Picchu, and we were going to be doing some native ceremonies. Honestly that was about all I knew. I had not heard specifically yet, but I assumed we were going to be doing ceremony with Ayahuasca, but I did not know.

A month before the trip we had a gathering at Bruce and Jerry’s to meet everyone going and to get some information. Of the 15 going, 11 were there, and we skyped with Natalie, who lives in London, and Nick, who lives in Portland. There were a ton of questions asked and answered, far more than I needed or wanted. The two most important pieces of new information that I got were that Ruben had been the chief archeologist at Machu Picchu for twelve years. HFCIT? To have a guide of that calibre through that sacred city? Secondly we would be doing ceremonies with San Pedro, which is a different medicine than Ayahuasca. I have never done mood altering substances before. Certainly nothing ever casual (yes I have have never even smoked pot), though I have participated in a Peyote ceremony once run by a native road man. I really had no idea what I was getting into there, nor did I really care. I was ready for a spiritual journey of a life time.

I have always liked pictures. But I have never been a huge picture taker, nor have I ever had a really good camera. However many New Year’s ago, at my spiritual family’s ranch, I had to opportunity to use an SLR camera for a while. Man, oh man, did I ever enjoy it, I had always wanted an SLR since then. Mentioning my desire for an SLR to my friend Wendy, she generously said she has the body to an older camera of hers that she is more than willing to let me borrow. Though a bit of an older camera, at the time she bought it, it was a high end $1200 camera, so it was still pretty bad ass. She also let me borrow a 50mm lens. I went out and got myself a telephoto lens. I could not afford a wide-angle lens, to which I would be sad about on my trip, but there was no way for me to make that happen.

So on Oct 15th, armed with my excitement, all my stuff thrown into a good size backpack, a bad-ass camera, I boarded the plane in Salt Lake to fly to Atlanta, to hook up with everyone, then to get on a late nite flight from Atlanta for a 6 and 1/2 hour flight to Lima, Peru.

You can check out some of the pictures of the landing in Peru. Nothing too exciting, but they are the first pictures from Peru.

Why did I go to Peru? It’s a valid question, especially considering that most everyone on the trip had always wanted to go to Peru, and so many people I talked to about leaving for the trip said that is was someplace that they always wanted to go to. This was not the case for me. Peru was never on the short list of places that I wanted to go visit first. So what changed my mind?

Well since early last year I have been doing sweat lodges on a monthly basis with Bruce and Jerry. They run an amazing lodge in their backyard on a regular basis. I had heard a little about their trips to Peru over the last 4-5 years to visit and work with a native healer down there. Though as above, while it sounded awesome, my interest was never there. Then I heard early this year that in May they were bringing that Peruvian healer up to Salt Lake for a weekend workshop billed as a Peruvian Shamanism Workshop. I had been very hungry to meet more like minded people, more spiritually seeking/active people, and to deepen my own personal spiritual journey for some time; so signing up for this workshop was a no-brainer.

The workshop turned out to be a quite powerful experience.We crammed about 30 people into the basement of Bruce and Jerry’s home for this event. Our “shaman” was Ruben Carlos Orellena, and he preferred to not be called a shaman. Shaman is a term specific used to the healers from Siberia. The word for healer in Quechua (the native language of the people of Peru)  was Paco, and is the term he preferred to be referred as. I found Ruben to be quite humble, very intelligent and knowledgeable, playful and funny, easy going, approachable and skilled in his art. I also came to find out that Ruben as well as being a traditionally taught Paco is an archeologist. I found this combination to be quite powerful as he was able to express spiritual beliefs in a common everyday language that I have not heard from many. It made his teachings so much more accessible.

At times we would have us lay down and he would conduct ceremony, encouraging us to let the music, sounds, vibrations, and energies take us wherever they may move us. During these ceremonies Ruben would use one of many things to create sound and vibration; a rattle, songs, drum, whistling, spherical bell/chimes, grouping of dried coca leaves. He would also use florida water, water that has been infused with flower essences. He would blow this into the air, which would ignite the sense of smell, moving energy. As part of his medicine work, Ruben had what was referred to as a Mesa. A cloth that held healing objects he used during his ceremonies. It had about a dozen items, not including drum, rattle, and such.

We did six of these ceremonial journeys during the course of the weekend.  I found the ceremonies to be quite awesome, powerful and an opening experience for me. I felt powerful energy moving in my body during a these ceremonies, in different ways for each one of them.

During one of the ceremonies a thunderstorm passed by, contributing beautifully to the ceremonial songs/music that Ruben was making with wonderful peals of thunder that seemed to be just outside the house. Ruben’s whistling was astonishing, as one point when I came to realize he was whistling, I had honestly thought for the last five minutes or more that a song bird had somehow gotten into the room and was flying around.

During these ceremonies I definitely experience some emotional and energetic releasing in my body. Over the years I have come to truly believe and value in releasing emotions and energy that is trapped in the body. I found the means used in these ceremonies to be highly effective and moving in an enjoyable way.

He would variously spend some time talking to us about the native spiritual and healing beliefs, definitely focusing on the beliefs of the indigenous people of Peru. I got quite a lot from this. Though Ruben did not necessarily speak a great deal of new information to me, he reminded me of a great deal of information I had forgotten, or re-framed old teachings into new language that brought it back to life and into my consciousness.

He talked a great deal about the humans need for healing, and how the main aspect of healing comes from releasing. Releasing stuck emotions, stuck energy, whatever is stuffed in the body that has not been previously released. We should not repress our natural release of emotions and energy. The high important of play to help in the release and re-energizing of the body and spirit. Reconnection with the spirit and energy of the earth and the need to spend time out in nature to experience this.

Ultimately I think the whole workshop can be summed up in the biggest line that has stayed with me for the rest of the year.

We need to release the old mistake to make room for the next mistake.

I continue to use this line to focus my energies and share with others. Instilling in me this firm belief that to be human is to make mistakes and the utter importance of releasing the emotions or energy we feel about a previous mistake so we can be present for the next mistake. Thereby continuing to grow and blossom as human beings. Holding onto old mistakes, that either I or someone else has done, will only lock me into a cycle and pattern that will literal cause a sickness and blockage in my life. And this teaching was put into such amusing words. Ah how well humor works with me and healing, I seem to remember those funny teachings the best. I suppose it is the emotional release and positive feelings that come in from laughter.

Well this got more descriptive then I might have otherwise intended. So back to the why Peru? Well it was clear to me by early on Saturday that going anywhere on any trip with a guide like this was a unique opportunity. Jerry at one point also spoke about how well Ruben sets these trips up. In addition to visiting ruins with an extremely  knowledgeable guide and doing native ceremonies, we would be staying in very nice places and eat exceptionally well. Only think not covered in the price tag was tips, beverages and the domestic flights once we got into Peru.

I immediately heard my intuition in this environment very load and very clear. My hunger for deeper spiritual learning had kicked in big time during this weekend. My spirit was hungry for more of what I experienced and learned (and released) during this  workshop. On Sunday morning I handed Jerry a $100 check as a deposit to hold my spot on the trip, as space was limited to no more than 14-15 people. I am very clear that it was meeting and my interaction with Ruben and experiencing his ceremonies that was largely the sole reason that I found myself signing up to going on a trip to visit a country I never really had a strong pull to visit.

I have included a video that was made from this workshop. View at your leisure to experience just a small taste of the experience I had at the workshop. Also well as a small collection of photos from the workshop.

Stay tuned for my next post on on journey to Peru…

Note: My short list includes Europe (particularly the Celtic lands, Germany, France, Italy, Greece in particular), New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa for starters. Though there are very few places in the world that I would choose to turn down the opportunity to travel to.

As posts from particular days become available I will be posting the corresponding pictures in an album. I have been going through and selecting the choice photos from the trip both from the 4200 pictures I took as well as from the photos that the others in the group took.

I hope you enjoy these comics from Peru.

Additionally I will be posting the choice selection of my pictures that I took in Peru. I ended up taking 4200 pictures thanks to the generosity of my friend Wendy, and a new found artist love of photography I discovered on my journey. I will also be sharing pictures from some of the other people that were on the journey with me, as there is also some quality pictures there as well. So there will be many more pictures posted through here than will be displayed on Facebook.

I hope you all enjoy the spinning of my tales, as well as, what I discovered through the lens.

Blessed Be

Phillip