Читать книгу Reality Is Just an Illusion - Chuck Sr. Coburn - Страница 11

OUR ECUADORIAN HEALER-SHAMAN from the Shuar tribe walked barefoot through the jungle for over six hours in order to provide ayahuasca for our little band of travelers. Not only were we allowed to participate in the spiritual healing ceremony, but the shaman agreed to make a house call to our luxurious upscale Amazon lodge.

I say "upscale" because, though it was basically an eight-room primitive structure, it was suspended off the forest floor—suggesting only a subtle separation from all kinds of hostile animal life much more native to this environment than us. Each six by ten foot enclosure contained two cots complete with mattresses and a vast assortment of very large ants, spiders, and other creatures yet unnamed. To our pleasant surprise, we discovered four communal bathrooms, each with a basin, shower, and a sometimes-operational flush toilet. The good news is that there was an ample supply of water for a long shower; the bad news is that it was always ice cold!

Since I had anticipated sleeping in much less secure surroundings, I was somewhat relieved with our accommodations. I have a feeling that if there were a jungle-travelers guide book, our habitation would have been rated several stars and listed among the very best in this specific area of the sparsely populated rain forest.

Each of our five days in this part of tropical Ecuador had been filled with adventure. Webster's Second College Edition Dictionary defines the word adventure as "a daring and hazardous undertaking" or "a liking for danger." All of this was, of course, right up my wife Shirl's alley. Being more cautious than Shirl, I had always defined adventure as "renting a hotel room with a bathroom down the hall."

Each evening, following what was an interesting but often mysterious meal prepared in a primitive kitchen, we would generally discuss the following day's schedule of activities. This particular day we had been fasting—a necessary procedure in preparation for our long-anticipated ayahuasca ritual. At nightfall, we gathered in a central courtyard between the two wings of our lodge. It was an oval­shaped area. A large fire pit resided in the center of an open-sided enclosure under a thatched canopy roof covered with leaves and odd scraps of tin.