This next update is a guest entry from my dad. He spent COUNTLESS (it would help if he typed faster than three words per minute...) hours writing and editing this, so I hope that you all enjoy it!
A Blessing in Disguise
By John Pastorius
In February 2010 my wife JoAnn, her sister Rita and partner Colleen, and I went to Peru to visit my daughter Katie and Machu Picchu. When the rainiest rainy season in over 50 years washed out the train tracks and made it impossible for us to visit the sacred Incan ruins, Machu Picchu, I was very disappointed, as I thought I would never pass this way again, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. How?
First, JoAnn, Rita, Colleen and I got to spend three days visiting the Sacred Valley and other ancient Incan ruins around Cusco and had an amazing 4-day trip to the incredible Amazon rainforest with our daughter Katie that we would not have seen had we gone to Machu Picchu.
Second, it gave me an excuse to go back to hike the Inca trail with my son Dan. I planned it so that the hardest day of the trek, the second day, with the most vertical climb, was his 23rd birthday. I wanted to make it one he will never forget (unlike his 21st). I did it! It was one he will never forget, nor will I.
Before I went to Peru I said I was going to Machu Picchu with my son as a special birthday present for him so he would not have to spend his birthday alone. I now realize that I was doing it as much for myself as for him.
Part I - Pre-Inca trail
In essence, my 10 days with Dan in Peru was his birthday present – the present of my presence. I arrived in Lima around midnight and Dan met me at the airport and we waited until our 5am flight to Cusco. In those five hours we discussed his future plans. After having tried unsuccessfully to get into medical school last year, Dan faced the hardest time of his life. As the name of his blog implies, he didn’t know what to do - so he moved to Peru. Although he did not get in to med school at the University of Minnesota, they were kind enough to tell him the weakness in his application. They said he needed “more clinical experience.” So with his sister Katie’s contacts in Peru, Dan moved to Lima to get more “clinical experience.” It was also an opportunity to fill the yen to travel that many young people feel when they graduate from college. He could also take advantage of this opportunity to become bilingual as his sisters have become. It was going to be a challenge though, as he only had taken high school Spanish classes and none since. His time in Peru has been a blessing in disguise, which I came to realize there would be many more of in the coming week. After spending the past 10 days with Dan, I am amazed how well he is speaking and understanding Spanish. He is bilingual. He is no longer your typical American who can only speak English.
In those five hours in the airport, we decided he would not be applying to medical or D.O. schools for the 2011-12 school year. In the next 6 months, he will finish his two online classes and get his college diploma. YAY! He has been shadowing doctors, collecting data and doing field research in rural Peru, but mostly doing volunteer Public Health research with Dr. Bob Gilman monitoring treatment response in tuberculosis (TB) patients. Rewarding him for his efforts, he has just been offered and accepted a paid research position with Dr. Bob Gilman and the Gates Foundation for 6 more months to finish the research that he has started on monitoring TB treatment, and he will also begin new research on determining differences in bone density between Peruvians who live at sea level and those who live at altitude. After his year in Peru, he will have more clinical experience to strengthen his application for medical school next year, have a college diploma, and be bilingual. With a stronger application and a higher GPA after all the hard work he has done in Peru (and in his undergraduate work), his parents are very proud of him (and glad someone else will now being paying for his “yen to travel.”)
After figuring all that out, it was off to Cusco to acclimate for 3 days before our 4 day, 3 night Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu. On Saturday we slept, napped, and relaxed after being up all night on Friday. On Sunday we started our preparation for the Inca Trail trek by taking a walk uphill to the Cristo Blanco (White Christ) high on a hill that overlooks Cusco. It was a gift to Cusco from a group of Muslims. What a wonderful gift for this Catholic Community. I think one of the major needs in our world is a tolerance of other people’s religions. In his novel, Caribbean, James Michener notes “The history of war in mankind is one group’s inability to tolerate religious or cultural differences in another group”.
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| Cristo Blanco |
After enjoying the view from there we wandered through the sheep to Saqsaywaman (often purposely mispronounced “sexy woman”) to enjoy the view of this impressive Incan ruin. We then hustled back down to a pub on the Plaza de Armas to watch the Vikings beat the Cowboys. Yeah! Then we played some chess on the new Inca vs. Spanish-themed chess set I bought him as a small birthday present. He kicked my butt!
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| A saqsayllama |
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| Saqsaywaman |
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| Waterfall near Saqsaywaman |
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| Dan and I with a great view of Cusco's Plaza de Armas |
On Monday, we hired a taxi to take us to a couple of the favorite sites I had been to in February; Tipon, Piquillacta, and a beautiful Jesuit Church in Andahuaylillas that I had not seen before. We thought that the taxi driver was just going to drive to one site, wait for us, and then take us to the next site. We were wrong. He got out of the car and became our guide at each of the sites including taking us on a 2-hour hike at Tipon. Tipon is my favorite Incan site after Machu Picchu because of its peaceful and majestic setting, multiple terraces, and the Incan’s amazing talent at channeling water. In its heyday, the sight and sounds of the running water would have had a very peaceful, calming, refreshing, reposing effect on those fortunate enough to be there.
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| Tipon waterworks |
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| Terraces at Tipon |
After visiting Tipon, we were ready for lunch. The Lonely Planet guidebook had said the city of Tipon was a great place to have the Peruvian delicacy of cuy, cooked guinea pig. They were right. The cuy meat that Dan and I had there was fantastic. And since the driver had also become a tour guide, I knew I was going to give him a tip, so we agreed it would be to pay for a cuy dinner for him also, so he joined us. The experience of eating stone-oven cooked cuy, outdoors, looking at the beautiful Peruvian Andes and people is one we will never forget.
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| Cuy (guinea pig) cooking in the stone fire oven |
From there we went to visit Piquillacta, some well preserved ruins of the Wari people that lived in the area until they were conquered by the Incas. Nearby is the huge Inca gate of Rumicolca, built on Wari foundations. There was an amazing difference between the advanced Incan blocks and the cruder Wari stonework.
After that it was on to a beautiful Jesuit church. As the guidebook explains, the interior of the Church of San Pedro of Andahuaylillas is an explosion of Baroque art with a great quantity of decorations. It was built in 1631, and, as was the the Spanish tradition, above an Incan temple. It has numerous and beautiful paintings, and is sometimes called the “Capilla Sixtina” or “Sistine Chapel” of the Americas; its altars and wood carvings are beautiful pieces elaborated in leaves of gold, its colored roof is a perfect beauty. We have no pictures of the inside of the church, as they are not allowed. But it was cool to see the figure of llamas arranged in the stones outside the church and the nearby trees hundreds of years old. Then back to Cusco to pack up for our Inca Trail trek. We were now acclimated, in pretty good shape, fired up, and ready to go!
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| Llama in the rocks outside of the Church of San Pedro |
I had originally thought that just seeing only Machu Picchu was on my bucket list. It is accessible by train and bus, which is what we would have done last February. The blessing in disguise, with this trip with Dan was the beauty of the Andes Mountains while hiking the four days to get there. In fact, I would say that the journey there was more impressive than the destination!
There were only two other tourists in our group, a Canadian couple, originally from Vancouver, on their honeymoon, and she had never been camping or slept in a tent before this! It reminded me of taking JoAnn to the North Shore of Lake Superior for our honeymoon 30 years ago. Her name is Jenny, 33, she works for the Canadian Embassy in communications. Joe is 50, a superintendant in the Royal Canadian Mountain police (RCMP), currently training police in Afghanistan, and was in charge of the overall security at the recent Olympics in Vancouver! Needless to say, we felt very safe.
The tour group we went through is called Qente and I highly recommend them. Not all the groups take good care of the porters. The better ones have more porters so each carries less weight. The Qente group included 8 porters who carried all the tents, food, propane gas, tables, chairs, cooking utensils, sleeping bags, and mattress pads for our all of us. The cook, Jorge, was fantastic. Every meal we had was delicious, and the presentation of the food, napkins, and silverware was always amazing. He could open his own gourmet restaurant!
Our guide was Socrates, who lived up to his name. He reminded me of Roldan, our guide in the Amazon rain forest in February. They were both gentle spirited men (kinda like me), and they knew every plant and its varied uses (unlike me). Some guides would lead their groups and climb up first, having no idea how the weaker members of their group were doing. Socrates walked behind so he would know. But the four of us stayed together almost the entire time, taking turns leading, resting together when someone needed a break, which was often, and in general we all watched out for each other. We also received wise advice from Socrates. Before we started hiking the second day, which was going to be mostly a 6 hour uphill trek to the tallest pass on our trip, Socrates told us, “Go slow, and find your rhythm. Do not stop more than you have to, as you will find starting up again very difficult.” He was correct. More than once I was heard to exclaim, “I hate starting up again”, as the quads ached and the breathing was more labored upon restarting than when one was “in rhythm”. But we found our rhythm, and of the several hundred people on the Inca trail with us in the various groups, we were one of the first to reach the 2nd night’s campsite thanks to the sage advice from Socrates.
Tuesday started with an early morning bus ride through the Sacred Valley to the city of Ollantaytambo where we picked up our walking sticks and last minute supplies, and caught a view of the nearby Incan ruins. From there it was a short bus ride to the trail head, showed our permits, and the Inca Trail hike began. The first day was relatively easy as it was only a gentle climb, with wonderful views of the mountains rising up from the rushing Urubamba River, and periodic views of ancient Incan sites and ruins.
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| Map of the Inca Trail |
PART 3 - Wednesday October 20, 2010 – Dan’s 23rd Birthday
Dan’s 23rd birthday is one neither he nor I will ever forget. When I planned our trip to Machu Picchu, we could have started our trek on the 18th or 19th but I chose the 19th for two reasons, one, to give us one more day to acclimate to the higher altitude in Cusco, and two, to make the hardest day of the trek on Dan’s birthday. Mission Accomplished! The day started with an early morning breakfast so we could arrive at the campsite in early afternoon before the rain started. Breakfast this morning was supposed to be porridge, but they surprised us with a birthday cake for Dan’s 23rd birthday. Best birthday cake breakfast we’ve ever had. (You try baking a cake on a propane grill!)
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| Dan's first of two birthday cakes |
The hike that day was hard and arduous but we paced ourselves well, adhering to Socrates’ advice. We had gorgeous views of the mountains all day. We had great company with our new Canadian friends. We played name games that greatly helped distract us from the strenuous effort we were expending in hiking up the mountain. What a relief it was to reach the top of the pass around noon. The pass is at 4200 meters, or 13,800 feet above sea level. The air is much thinner there, so there was a lot of huffing and puffing going on. But we had made it! We all had a profound sense of relief, accomplishment, and awe of the beauty of the mountains, which were now mostly below us. As we descended 2 hours to our campsite there were a series of beautiful waterfalls on both sides of us. During this time I had my spiritual moment, but more about that later.
We reached our campsite which was situated adjacent to a babbling mountain stream. What a pleasant, relaxing sound after a hard day’s work. While our Canadian friends took a siesta, Dan and I walked back uphill a few hundred yards to an 8-foot rock that we climbed to smoke our celebratory cigars, have a cerveza, and look back up the majestic mountain we had just descended with the beautiful waterfalls in sight, surrounded 360 degrees by other mountains, with the sound of the rushing waters next to us, the sun setting, sitting next to “my beloved son in whom I am well pleased”. I knew that I had made this day special for him. I never realized how special it would be for me also. The blessing in disguise, or as the good book says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”. It was.
While sitting on that rock smoking our cigars, we were very close to another group’s porter’s tent, and one of the porters kept motioning to us if we wanted something stronger to smoke. We politely declined. We already had a natural Andean high!
Then we had fun playing Crazy 8’s, had another marvelous meal, and had our second cake of the day along with Sangria to celebrate Joe and Jenny’s anniversary. We thoroughly relished the ambiance and camaraderie we developed with our new friends as we bonded on the rigorous Incan Trail.
After dinner, we left the dining tent to retire to our tents for the night. On leaving the dinner tent we were blasted and blessed with one of the brightest full moons I have ever seen in my life. It was so bright we could see all the mountains lit up nearly 360 degrees around us - a perfect ending to a perfect day. I was reminded of the old Casey Jones birthday song lyrics, “hope the birthday present, you get from mom and dad, helps to make this special day, the best you’ve ever had.” It was!
Day 3 was the longest day of the hike. The total hike was 42 kilometers and 16 of them were on day 3. Fortunately mostly downhill, but a couple of small uphill passes to cross. Lots and lots of stairs. Up stairs, down stairs… a real bad place to be for those with bad knees. Because of the length of the hike that day, all the stairs, thinner air at the passes, we paused regularly to catch our breath, rest our knees, our quads, and drink a little water. And enjoy the beauty of the mountains (and take another picture, as I felt “We may never pass this way again,” as Seals and Croft had sung years ago.)
As we rested, I was frequently reminded of the words of advice I had gotten from the Dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School on my first day of orientation of medical school. Amongst other things, he said, “Remember there are more rear ends of horses in this world than horses”, and, “When treed by a bear, enjoy the view.” Needing to rest on the mountain was like being treed by a bear, but I heeded his advice and enjoyed the spectacular view of the mountains. Those pauses to rest were a blessing in disguise.
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| A chicken trying to eat the chicken |
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| Dan and I overlooking some Incan ruins |
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| Cow drinking a bottle of beer... maybe this is why the meat in Peru doesn't taste as good as back home? |
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| The porters along with our guide - the Q'ente Group |
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| Mountains in the clouds |
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| Our group - Me, Dan, Jennie, and Joe |
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| Dan trying to recreate the Incan carving in the rock |
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| More Incan ruins (at this point... they all seemed like just another pile of rocks!) |
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| King of the World atop the third pass |
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| Dan on the stairs on Day 3 |
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| Beautiful mountains |
On day 4 we were up early, hiked 1.5 hours to the Sun Gate, and caught our first glimpse of Machu Picchu. It was beautiful. It was just like all the pictures I had ever seen of it. Most days Machu Picchu is in the clouds until noon. We were blessed to have no clouds and sunny skies all day long. It was so warm we all almost fell asleep where we sat for a while as Socrates told us about Machu Picchu. The previous three days of hiking were catching up to us.
As I sat there, I realized that I had been wrong in what I thought was in my bucket list. I thought it had been to see Machu Picchu, and here I was seeing Machu Picchu. Now don’t get me wrong, Machu Picchu is a wonderful place and I hope all the readers of this narrative get there some day. But I realized Machu Picchu is famous mostly because of its beautiful location in the Andes and how well preserved it is, or has been restored. But to the Incas it was not a major site. They estimate only 100 people lived there. Cusco was the capital of the Incas, the center of their world (or as they say, “El ombligo y el Corazon del mundo”, or “The heart and navel of the world”), and largely destroyed or transformed by the conquering Spaniards.
The other realization that I had was that it was a great carrot to hang as a reason to hike the Incan Trail, but to me, it was anti-climactic. The beauty of the Andean mountain countryside we had just spent 3.5 days hiking through were in retrospect more beautiful than actually seeing Machu Picchu. What was most beautiful was the week I had just spent with my son, and the 4 days with our new Canadian friends and Qente crew, in the Andean highlands.
While Jenny and Joe relaxed at Machu Picchu, Dan and I decided that we would climb the taller Machu Picchu Mountain on the backside of Machu Picchu. This was a “slight” mistake as it was almost all stairs (paths are easier than stairs) and they were steeper than anything we had been on during the Inca Trail hike. But we made it! Again the views were fantastic and impressive. Then back down the steep steps to Machu Picchu.
When we got back to Machu Picchu, we had a choice, take the bus to Aguas Calientes for dinner and to catch the train back to Cusco, or hike down the mountain another half hour to Aguas Calientes. What did the masochists do? Of course we hiked down the mountain. Or more correctly, we ran down the steps. Because of Dan’s bad knee, it was easier for him to run down the stairs, and he showed me how to do it. It was easier. When I thought about the Incans, they did not use the Incan trail for pleasure hikes like we just had, they made it for messengers or soldiers to run quickly from one site to another, and the path was easier when run. Wished I had learned their lesson earlier. Dan could easily have been an Incan runner in an earlier life, what they called a chasqui. After we sped to the bottom, we enjoyed a well-deserved cerveza as we walked for 20 minutes up to Aguas Calientes, where we had dinner, then collapsed and slept on our 3-hour train ride back to Cusco.
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| My first glimpse of the Lost City of the Incas - Machu Picchu |
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| Group picture from the Sun Gate |
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| A Llama resting inside of Machu Picchu |
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| Postcard picture (it was Dr. Bordwell's picture from this same location that made me want to visit in the first place) |
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| The village of Machu Picchu |
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| A condor in the rocks (head on the ground, wings behind slanting upwards in both directions) |
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| Dan and I before climbing to the top of Machu Picchu Mountain (behind us) |
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| We did it! |
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| Dan the chasqui |
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| Celebrating with a cerveza with Machu Picchu Mountain behind us (the peak in the center of the picture) |
PART 5 - Lima
On Saturday we flew back to Lima, ate dinner with 7 of Dan’s good friends, then went back to his apartment for a nice birthday party with about 15 of Dan’s gringo and Peruvian friends, complete with Pisco Sours and Chilcanos and Dan blowing out the candles on the scrumptious tres leches cake. When the party ended at 2am, we were exhausted.
On Sunday, we had a delicious brunch complete with ceviche at Larcomar, an Oceanside entertainment complex, our table overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, watching the surfers, and enjoying the first sunny day in Lima in months with Danny’s roommates Beth and Beto. I felt that the power of the Spirits in the Andes and the Spirits of Balsam Lake where we have our cabin had allowed me to help bring the sunshine back to this usually cloud-draped city. Dan asked if I would kindly bring the cold cloudy Lima weather back to Minnesota with me. I said I would try. I was successful.
After brunch, Beto, who is from Lima, was kind enough to drive us around and show us some of the sights of his city, including driving/hiking again to where we had a wonderful vista view of the city at sunset. Unfortunately the clouds had returned, but sunsets are always beautiful. One of my mottos is, “It is impossible to watch too many sunsets in one’s life.”
We also had the great pleasure to meet with Beto’s dad, Luis, and Beto’s brother, Jorge, who is also 23. Luis and his family have become like family to Katie and Dan during their time in Peru, and I was very happy to meet Luis and to express, “Muchas gracias por cuidar a mis hijos,” which means, “Thank you very much for taking care of my children.” It is not easy as parents to have your beloved children living far away, so it is comforting to know that caring people are there for them if they need them.
Then Dan and I watched the first half of the Vikings-Packers game, said our good-byes and off to the airport and home I went. What a wonderful 10 days with my son. It’s too bad we don’t have more one-on-one time with all of our children as they are growing up. I am impressed with how well he can speak Spanish in the short 6 months that he has been here, and how well he can negotiate lower prices with vendors. I am proud of all the wonderful friends he has made. I am proud of all the good work he is doing in his classes, and the public health work he has been doing with TB patients. I am proud his mentor has been pleased enough with his work to pay him for another 6 months to finish his TB study, and to start an osteoporosis study. I believe his year in Peru will help him get into medical school next year if that is still his dream.
My goal was to make his 23rd birthday his most memorable ever. In succeeding, it became my most memorable birthday also - a blessing in disguise.
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| Happy birthday Dan! |
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| Dan with his roommates Beth and Beto |
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| Dan and I enjoying the sunset over Lima |
If you are still reading… here’s more about my unbelievable spiritual moment that I would like to share with you.
PART 6- My Spiritual Moment
Before this trip, when asked my favorite spot I had ever been, my answer was the top of Emerald Mountain at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado. My new one is in the middle of the Peruvian Andean Mountains.
While we descended from the highest point of our hike, Dan’s knee was bothering him, and it was easier for him to run down the slopes and steps that headed to the campsite, so he went on ahead. Joe and Jenny went next, and I was in the rear as usual, as I paused often to enjoy the moment and the beauty of where I was. And to take another one of the 600 pictures I took on the trip! Thank God for digital cameras!
As I descended, I was filled with awe and love of the beauty I was seeing, the beautiful tall green mountains, the sight and sounds of the multiple cascading waterfalls in the vistas on either side of me. At one point I had to move about 10 feet off the path to get the perfect picture of the mountains and waterfalls that I wanted. Then it happened. One of those spiritual moments of a lifetime.
I was filled with the awe, the beauty, the majesty, the water, the sounds of nature, the spirit of the Incas, of God. Up and down, 360 degrees around. I wept tears of profound happiness. I still shed a tear thinking about it.
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| The perfect picture! My new favorite place on Earth |
So many things and thoughts came together at that moment. As JoAnn can attest, whenever we travel and I have a chance to get off the beaten path (i.e. major freeway or highway), I do. One of my favorite poets is Robert Frost and his poem, “The Road Less Traveled By”. That would be me. The end of the poem goes, “and I, I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” (Interestingly, it was also my hiking partner’s, RCMP Joe, favorite poem also. Great minds think alike!) And there I was, off the beaten path.
While I was caught up in the rapture of the moment, I felt God speaking to me, and it didn’t matter if it was a Christian God, an Incan God, or some other higher power. At that moment, I realized they were all one and the same. I have come to believe that the Earth is God’s Cathedral, and much better than man-made cathedrals, although many of those are beautiful in their own ways. But here I was at one of God’s greatest cathedrals and I felt his presence.
JoAnn and I have been struggling a bit with one aspect of our daughter’s upcoming wedding in Costa Rica. Katie and Seth are a perfectly matched couple and beautifully in love with each other (as is my other daughter Anne and her boyfriend, Eric). The difficulty has been they do not consider themselves as Catholics, nor feel a need to have a spiritual component to their wedding. With JoAnn and I growing up strong, practicing Catholics, we felt we had failed in instilling a sense of faith in our children. And if the spiritual part of a marriage is removed, the legal part can be done anywhere, like Costa Rica.
What the Spirit told me and what I learned from later conversations with Dan on the trip, was that we had not failed. Our children are faith filled. What the Spirit of the Mountain told me was that faith is the most important thing, a belief in God, a higher power. Religions are all man-made and imperfect. God, or whatever higher power one worships or reveres, is perfect. Earth is perfectly made for our use and enjoyment. We can choose to love and embrace it, or destroy it. I’m proud to say I have been a tree hugger/environmentalist for a long time. I’m proud to see my children are too.
So now when I look forward to Katie and Seth’s wedding, I see two faith-filled people, with a love for each other and a love of the Earth, a want to help the less advantaged of the world, living out the call of all religions, “to love thy neighbor as thyself.” I shed some tears thinking about how hard the wedding planning process has been around this issue, especially between JoAnn and Katie. I hope my spiritual moment on the mountain helps heal their breach. I’m still shedding tears as I write this. I know I’ll be shedding tears at their wedding as well: tears of happiness.
Katie and Seth had the opportunity to hike the Inca Trail when Katie was in Peru last year. Now Danny and I did it. I hope and pray Annie and Eric get to hike it someday.
So I now have a new favorite place in the world, the Peruvian Andes. As I stood there, I also realized that my bucket list in life is nearly empty. Are there other places in the world I would like to see? Sure. But if I never go anywhere else in life, I will die a happy man! I have seen a bit of heaven on Earth!
I was also reminded that many of us struggle trying to meet our “wants” list in life, rather than being satisfied with our “needs “ list, which is quite a bit shorter. I no longer feel I “need “ to have more things, do more things in life, or to see more places, (but I hope I get to). I was profoundly appreciative to have been happily married to my caring, unselfish, supportive, better half for over 30 years, to have three wonderful and amazingly talented children well prepared for their life’s adventures, to have had a mostly rewarding job as a family doctor, to have had many opportunities to travel, and to have seen a lot of beautiful places and sunsets. Standing on that mountain, I was reminded of one of my favorite church hymns, “We’ll just say that we’ve been to the mountains, and caught a glimpse of all that we can be, we’ll just say that we’ve been to the mountains, with a morning sun for all of us to see.” And I was reminded of the biblical saying, “Amongst all men, I am most richly blessed.” It was a blessed moment on that mountain: the blessing in disguise.
When Joann, Rita, Colleen, Katie, and I were in the Amazon rainforest in February, we attended a shaman service where they needed a couple volunteers, so I did. Almost all shaman ceremonies have a therapeutic purpose, and the purpose of mine was for me to be more relaxed. During the ceremony I had an ayahuasca (potentially hallucinogenic) dipped bandana tied around my forehead while the shaman sang and blew strong tobacco smoke in my face while he danced around me. I felt mellow for about 30 minutes afterwards, but then thought the effects had worn off. Since then I have been my old self, frequently stressed out from work.
While I was looking up at mountains during my spiritual moment, one of the rocky promontories seemed to be where the Spirit of the Mountain was talking to me from. Ironically, this rock face is similar to the end of a stick I found a few years ago and have in my basement, waiting for me to finish into a walking stick. Guess it means I have to finish it. The rock face resembles that of a snake, one of the 3 important spiritual animals to the Incas, along with condors and pumas.
Since I had my spiritual moment, I have found I have been much more relaxed. I am driving slower even when I’m late, bad drivers don’t bother me, little things JoAnn asks me to do don’t bother me like spending much of last weekend on home improvements rather than playing in the unseasonably warm weather. A bad week of work last week was taken in stride. The shaman’s spell worked. I didn’t realize I needed to hike the Inca Trail to activate it: another blessing in disguise!
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| The author: John Pastorius |
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