Ecuador(4) – Hallucination versus Reality

It was a bright sunny day. I could feel the sun burning my beararms, and it was only 8am. Delfin carried a long knife on his back, and cross-wrapped a long climbing rope around his torso. Calos was busy distributing rubber boots to us slightly confused foreigners. He said, “We are going to take a nice walk in the jungle.” Recognizing the rope Delfin carried was a professional grade mountaineering rope, I got suspicious, “A walk? Why would you need such a long rope for a walk?” Delfin and Carlos exchanged a knowing glance; they both smiled but refused to say more. I cautiously sealed my camera in a plastic bag, put it in the pocket of a waterproof jacket, tied the jacket around my waist, and proceed to enter the dense greenery with the group.

It cooled down immediately inside the forest. Exotic plants and strange but colorful wild flowers were growing upon every visible square inch. A tree was probably the worst thing to be in a jungle, because literally everything grew, climbed, stuck, and tangled upon the poor tree, until all possible tree-like features were concealed below that thick layer of “vegetation robe”. I felt suffocated for them. We walked along a crystal clear brook. Colorful butterflies and blue-green dragonflies dotted the sunlight spotted space above the brook, where the forest canopy opened up slightly.

My suspicion was proven to be correct. The brook came down from the top of the mountain; it formed various shaped waterfalls when it encountered cliffs upon its path. We were walking uphill in the brook. Whenever we reached a waterfall, our only way up would be climbing the waterfall. We climbed total four waterfalls, which ranged from 8-feet to 20-feet. Granted, it was no comparison to a hundreds feet tall rock route in Yosemite, but we had no climbing shoes, no harness or belay, plus the surface was wet from the splashing current. It was a challenging experience, to say the least. Usually either Delfin or Carlos would solo up the fall with the rope, anchor the rope around a tree or a rock, throw the other end to us, then we lined up and started scrambling up one at a time, held on to the rope when there was no visible rock crack for a hand hold. Luckily all the falls ended in a small pool. If we fell, we fell in the water. There was no immediate danger. Among the four of us, Helmut was the only who had not tried rock climbing before. He fell only once and accidentally submerged his Nikon SLR. He was cool enough to joke about it. We completed the entire “walk” in excellent spirit. I felt lucky to have met such adventurous people!

Our final destination was a large waterfall, approximately 30 feet tall. Delfin pointed out two naturally formed stone faces along the rocky cliff that saddled the fall. They were Eastern Island style. The one on the right was in the midst of shouting. Both were covered with a think layer of moss. Green stone faces stared down at us. Delfin told us the fall is sacred. For the people who would be trying Ayawashca tonight, they should cleanse themselves in the fall to be free of any evil that might have befallen their bodies. The current was strong, I was almost crashed hadn’t I held on to the rock wall behind the fall.

On our descent, I grew cocky and lost my balance once when I tried to check out a bird nest next to the waterfall. I smashed into the opposite cliff face and ended up with a bloody elbow. It looked worse than it actually was.

When we reached a small clearing area, Delfin taught us to identify “killer tree”. It was a tree-like vine, always started on the top of a tree, grew its vine downward, lived off the nutrition of its host, and eventually suffocated the host as its vine reached the host’s root. Meanwhile the vines were branching off from the top of the dead tree and started looking for its next victim. “This one,” Delfin shook a branch, which was hanging off a vast green crown next to us, approximately 100 feet long, looked like a rootless tree hanging in mid-air; “is still looking for a ‘home’.” Before finishing his sentence, Delfin suddenly jumped up, wrapped himself around the “killer tree”, and swung out like a monkey. “Cool!” We were in awe! When he swung back, Sarah and I took turns tried out this jungle swing set. As the surrounding forest swam by, wind whistled in my ears, I was transformed into a forest beast, could almost feel the morning dew on the bottom of my padded feet…

In the morning, before we entered the forest, Carlos asked each of us to decide whether we would have some “Ayawashca” that night. It took 7 hours to boil the root, so Delfin needed to know the exact quantity and must start preparing before we set off.

I was uncharacteristically indecisive this time. Being madly curious on one hand, I was a bit scared on the other. Deep down inside I must have held something against this mysterious medicine. If anything went wrong, we were in the middle of nowhere. .. Still remembering how sick I was on the bus ride into Tena, I didn’t want to miss the fun the next day, when we would be going rafting down a branch of Amazon River.

At the end, Carlos and Caroline were the only brave ones.

After dinner, Delfin waited till all the children went to bed. He started explain to us the making of “Ayawashca”, its usual affect, and our responsibilities as on-lookers. Even though every dose of “Ayawashca” was made from the same type of tree roots, the portion’s effectiveness was often varied due to the variety in rainfall, temperature, earth, and sunlight. Each recipient that drank from the same dose would also experience different things due to each person’s personality, attitude, and mood he/she was in at the time. No matter how strong or weak the affect was, it always wore off within two hours. Within the two hours, on-lookers should watch out for their friends. Hallucination sometimes would make them do silly things. If they wanted to jump onto the roof to catch an imaginary monkey, for example, you should stop him/her from getting hurt. “Don’t let them leave this hut alone.” Delfin said, “All candles must be off. They would be too sensitive to light.” Delfin picked up a Quichuan instrument that has a single string. He held it in the hollow of his open mouth, played it with his other hand. A monotonous and even rhythm filled the hut. It was supposed to calm everyone’s spirit.

After drinking their portion, Carlos and Caroline each were given a slice of lime to clear their mouth. It was like a tequila shot! :)

The only two candles were extinguished. We sat in the dark. As my eyes adjusted to the moonlight streaming in from the open air “window”, I was able to identify our dining table and the two long and narrow wooden benches along side it. Carlos was sitting on the floor opposite to us, and his back was against the bamboo wall. Caroline was leaning against one dinner bench next to us. Everyone was quiet. Delfin continued with his “new age” meditation music. After ten minutes, we whispered to Caroline, “Do you feel anything?” Caroline shook her head, whispered back, “I feel nothing.” Before she finished her sentence, Carlos suddenly stood up and dashed for the back wall of the hut. He leaned his head over the 4-ft high wall, started vomiting. We exchanged a surprised glance among ourselves. “Uh-oh!” Delfin didn’t even raise his eyebrow. So we watched Caroline with more alertness.

After another half an hour, Caroline still felt nothing. She said, “Maybe it is all in your mind. Maybe it will only work if you believe in it. I really don’t believe in this sort of stuff.” I laughed, “Caroline! You are wasting it!”

Right then, Carlos stumbled back to Delfin’s side and whispered something at his ear. Delfin put down his instrument, stood up and shouldered Carlos’ body weight. As they were leaving the hut, Delfin picked up a roll of toilet paper by the door. Caroline was still as clear-witted as any of us, she gave us an apologetic smile. We walked to the “window” and looked up at the starry sky. I had never seen such a crowded and busy evening sky in my life. Sarah and Helmut pointed up a winkling one, said, “that is a satellite.” I smiled, “Couldn’t get away from western technology even in the Amazon Jungles!”

Without any warning, Caroline made a dash for the back wall and started vomiting. We took turns checking up on her, brought her water bottles and paper towels. In between my turns, I took one glance outside the hut, and froze. Delfin’s estate located in a valley, we were surrounded by green mountains covered by forests. At night, the border between the mountain and sky was very clear. Under the star studded dark blue sky, the mountains were completely black. But just then I saw a few spot of bright lights flashed through the dark mountains, then disappeared. They were like the distant headlights I used to see when driving at night in Lake Tahoe’s mountain highway. But in these uninhabited tropical jungles, there were no highways, where did the headlights come from? Were there people with torches? But it truly looked more like electrical lights rather than flames. Judging from the distance between us and mountains, the vertical illuminated area by the light was approximately 3-4 square feet each in the forest.

I thought maybe I was mistaken until I saw them again. This time, the lights seemed to have shifted further to the right. I called over Helmut and Sarah. We were all staring at the darkness outside. For a while, there was nothing. Sarah joked, “Did you sneak a sip of Caroline’s ‘Ayawashca’? Maybe I should watch you more carefully.”

At that moment, Helmut and I both saw the lights again. He said, “Firefly!” “Come on! I’ve seen firefly! They couldn’t possibly be THAT BRIGHT!” I didn’t buy that argument. Sarah saw it too, and she said, “The fireflies are right in our yard. Our eyes are deceiving since it is so dark, we are not able to judge the distance correctly.” I half-heartedly believed her.

Momentarily, Caroline stopped vomiting, she slipped to the floor by the back wall. She asked us in a weak voice, “I really want to go to bed. Would you ask Delfin for permission when he comes back?” We all nodded. Caroline stood up again and resumed throwing up. Then we suddenly remembered that Carlos and Caroline were the only Spanish speakers among us and Delfin didn’t speak any English. When Caroline felt a little better, we, slightly embarrassed, ask her to teach us how to say “She wants to go to bed” in Spanish. For some reason, we had the hardest time to remember these few simple Spanish syllables. Caroline had to repeat over and over again “quiero, ir, a la cama” in-between her vomiting sessions. Eventually, we all started giggling hysterically.

When it was half hour away from the two hour limit Delfin has imposed, Delfin and Carlos were still no where to be seen. We walked Caroline back to our sleeping quarters. Sarah even made a little “puking basket”, covering a plastic bag over a garbage can in the hut, and placed it right infront of Caroline’s bamboo bed.

The next day, Caroline told us that after she started feeling sick, whenever she closed her eyes, she could see kaleidoscope of colors in front of her eyes. She completely lost judgments for space and distance. All her limbs seemed to be detached from her body. The interesting fact was that after two hours, it was like someone hit a switch, she was completely well. Carlos was less fortunate. Delfin didn’t take him back till after midnight. Then we heard that Carlos sat on the balcony for a long time before finally settled into bed. He was still sick the next day. He stayed in Tena after he handed us to our handsome rafting guide Tarquino. He said he felt sick just thinking about “rafting”.

But Carlos insisted that he saw many wild and magical animals. Among them, there was a group of large golden jaguars running through the red forest. Their eyes were bright as silver headlights, looked like stars that had fallen into the jungle.

Hearing this, I felt hair stood up on the back of my neck….