Travel E-mails
An archive of e-mails from my Centeral/South America trip.5/10/2006
Mushrooms really grow in cow shit?
Well.... How to begin. I mean, I could begin by writing my story... but I would rather simply begin by saying "Whoa"... maybe "Holy Shit" would be preferable.. well, that´s for you to decide... Choose your own e-mail. If you want "Whoa" flip to paragraph 7, if you prefer "Holy Shit" go to chapter 37. HA! What a notion! maybe for another day, but enough of that now.
So. Why the Whoa? The Holy Shit (Which by my best estimation could ONLY be a result of someone drinking some really bad holy water and getting a mean case of the runs)?
Let us begin our story in Panama City. After several nights of partying in the city with a number of people -- including a professional poker player who ended up getting a free room at a ***** hotel (that is 5, count´em 5 stars) to play poker at their casino... I decided that I was heading to Peru. I bought my ticket for the 18th of January with a return on the 17th of Febuary... I met a lot of people at the hostel, as is the case with every hostel... Two girls that I met (who formed a couple) spoke highly of an upcoming "Rainbow Festival". At first I was uninterested... but as they went on my interest grew... see, the Rainbow Family is a "family" of... well... people... who gather. Thus the Rainbow Gathering. It is founded on the principals that were so prevailant in the hippie culture of the 1960´s -- peace, love, unity. After some chatting, I decided that I would check this gathering out, see what it´s all about... So we all headed to Bocas del Toro for a couple nights before going to Boquete for the festival. We took an overnight bus (and missed the bus that we had pre-paid, getting screwed for $23.. it was all the fault of the damned bus driver who TOLD us that his bus was the right bus... taking us 2 hours and $4 out of out way. Dangit!) So... We got to Bocas... which had been experiencing 2 SOLID DAYS of HEAVY rain. Roads were flooded in this oceanside town.. the rain kept up and I ended up holed up in a hostel most of the time... in the end, I didn´t do much there, but it was nice to get some time to gather my thoughts, make a few journal entries, and read a little more Dostoevsky.
(this is turning into another long e-mail)
So.. After a few days there, I had had enough rain. I got on a boat to the mainland, then took a bus to David, then Boquete (towards the gathering)... Unfortunatley, this was the day that the sun finally came out in Bocas.. oh well. So. Boquete. In the hostel in Boquete I ran into 2 other travelers I´d met in the hostel in Panama City and chilled out with them and another guy they had met here. The next day we all went to the Rainbow Gathering... a Taxi Ride and a 2 hour hike through farmland and forests got us to the main gate. A "Welcome Home" sign was hung over the gate, and an umbrella with fresh grapefruit and drinking water was just on the other side.. at this point we saw people foraging around in the fields. We headed past the "Welcome Center" and past the "Great Circle" which was a massive fire pit in a field... then another 5 minutes got us to the kitchen and main camp. There we were-- on a riverside, in the jungle, in centeral panama. There were about 35 people there -- from all over.. some from europe, some from south america, some from north america... There were Gypsies, Clouns, artists, travelers, all sorts of people... it was unbelivable the way life was.. We ate 2 meals per day, usually oatmeal and fruit for breakfast (and coffee), and rice, beans, and a stew for dinner... though the menu changed depending on what food got found that day. Available to us were numerous orange trees, grapefruit trees, fresh spring (unfiltered, pure) drinking water, ginger, peas, bannas, plantanes... all growing about our site... There was a hotspring about a 7 minute walk out of camp.. a waterfall just further... the river just off our camp had cool water and some rapids... We had locals bringing us various fruits of the land -- mandrin oranges, sugar cane (which we are raw, or made sugar cane juice from), PVC piping to get cooking water to the camp.. papayas.. MAN O MAN! What a life!!! Can you imagine? TRULY living off the land... we ground out own flour, played music late into the night.. there was juggeling, fire spinning, belly dancing, crystal ball manipulating, henna tattos.... In the day we did work to keep going -- collecting firewood, digging compost holes and "toilets", collecting food... and best of all, heading to the cow pasture next to the welcome center, and picking mushrooms from the patties.. you heard me. Psychedelic mushrooms growing out of cow dung. We collected them in the day and made mushroom tea in the evening... every day a few people would go out in search of them...
Well, I could go on and on and on... but I won´t. It was a great time, quite an experience. People came and went... in the end I stayed 3 nights, sleeping in a hammock under a tarp in the woods... No one got sick, no one got stung by scorpions or bit by snakes (which was a definate concern) and all in all, it was quite memorable. I had trouble pulling myself away from it... but in the end, I have a plane to catch.
So, in the end, Here I am. In Boquete for another night, then off to Panama.. after that Peru. Who knows what adventures the future holds... Who knows what I will do when I get home... after this kind of an adventure, sleeping under a bridge doesn´t sound so bad... Hell, it could even be a great time! A little music, a little wine, cow patty shrooms, a few cans of beans and some rice. Damn! That´s where you´ll find me! HA HA! Is he kidding? Humm? You never know!
Well. That concludes THIS e-mail. Watch for the next issue of "Zac´s (occationally) weekly". The questions beg answers; Will he make it to Peru? Will he make it to the Inca Trail before it closes? Will he be robbed in Lima? Cuzco? Will he see the Nazca Lines? Lake Titicaca? Will he make his return flight, or end up in Colombia fighting against the government for liberty? Who knows?? All this and more in the next issue!
There you have it! VIVA LA REVOLUTION!
HOYA!
Zac
So. Why the Whoa? The Holy Shit (Which by my best estimation could ONLY be a result of someone drinking some really bad holy water and getting a mean case of the runs)?
Let us begin our story in Panama City. After several nights of partying in the city with a number of people -- including a professional poker player who ended up getting a free room at a ***** hotel (that is 5, count´em 5 stars) to play poker at their casino... I decided that I was heading to Peru. I bought my ticket for the 18th of January with a return on the 17th of Febuary... I met a lot of people at the hostel, as is the case with every hostel... Two girls that I met (who formed a couple) spoke highly of an upcoming "Rainbow Festival". At first I was uninterested... but as they went on my interest grew... see, the Rainbow Family is a "family" of... well... people... who gather. Thus the Rainbow Gathering. It is founded on the principals that were so prevailant in the hippie culture of the 1960´s -- peace, love, unity. After some chatting, I decided that I would check this gathering out, see what it´s all about... So we all headed to Bocas del Toro for a couple nights before going to Boquete for the festival. We took an overnight bus (and missed the bus that we had pre-paid, getting screwed for $23.. it was all the fault of the damned bus driver who TOLD us that his bus was the right bus... taking us 2 hours and $4 out of out way. Dangit!) So... We got to Bocas... which had been experiencing 2 SOLID DAYS of HEAVY rain. Roads were flooded in this oceanside town.. the rain kept up and I ended up holed up in a hostel most of the time... in the end, I didn´t do much there, but it was nice to get some time to gather my thoughts, make a few journal entries, and read a little more Dostoevsky.
(this is turning into another long e-mail)
So.. After a few days there, I had had enough rain. I got on a boat to the mainland, then took a bus to David, then Boquete (towards the gathering)... Unfortunatley, this was the day that the sun finally came out in Bocas.. oh well. So. Boquete. In the hostel in Boquete I ran into 2 other travelers I´d met in the hostel in Panama City and chilled out with them and another guy they had met here. The next day we all went to the Rainbow Gathering... a Taxi Ride and a 2 hour hike through farmland and forests got us to the main gate. A "Welcome Home" sign was hung over the gate, and an umbrella with fresh grapefruit and drinking water was just on the other side.. at this point we saw people foraging around in the fields. We headed past the "Welcome Center" and past the "Great Circle" which was a massive fire pit in a field... then another 5 minutes got us to the kitchen and main camp. There we were-- on a riverside, in the jungle, in centeral panama. There were about 35 people there -- from all over.. some from europe, some from south america, some from north america... There were Gypsies, Clouns, artists, travelers, all sorts of people... it was unbelivable the way life was.. We ate 2 meals per day, usually oatmeal and fruit for breakfast (and coffee), and rice, beans, and a stew for dinner... though the menu changed depending on what food got found that day. Available to us were numerous orange trees, grapefruit trees, fresh spring (unfiltered, pure) drinking water, ginger, peas, bannas, plantanes... all growing about our site... There was a hotspring about a 7 minute walk out of camp.. a waterfall just further... the river just off our camp had cool water and some rapids... We had locals bringing us various fruits of the land -- mandrin oranges, sugar cane (which we are raw, or made sugar cane juice from), PVC piping to get cooking water to the camp.. papayas.. MAN O MAN! What a life!!! Can you imagine? TRULY living off the land... we ground out own flour, played music late into the night.. there was juggeling, fire spinning, belly dancing, crystal ball manipulating, henna tattos.... In the day we did work to keep going -- collecting firewood, digging compost holes and "toilets", collecting food... and best of all, heading to the cow pasture next to the welcome center, and picking mushrooms from the patties.. you heard me. Psychedelic mushrooms growing out of cow dung. We collected them in the day and made mushroom tea in the evening... every day a few people would go out in search of them...
Well, I could go on and on and on... but I won´t. It was a great time, quite an experience. People came and went... in the end I stayed 3 nights, sleeping in a hammock under a tarp in the woods... No one got sick, no one got stung by scorpions or bit by snakes (which was a definate concern) and all in all, it was quite memorable. I had trouble pulling myself away from it... but in the end, I have a plane to catch.
So, in the end, Here I am. In Boquete for another night, then off to Panama.. after that Peru. Who knows what adventures the future holds... Who knows what I will do when I get home... after this kind of an adventure, sleeping under a bridge doesn´t sound so bad... Hell, it could even be a great time! A little music, a little wine, cow patty shrooms, a few cans of beans and some rice. Damn! That´s where you´ll find me! HA HA! Is he kidding? Humm? You never know!
Well. That concludes THIS e-mail. Watch for the next issue of "Zac´s (occationally) weekly". The questions beg answers; Will he make it to Peru? Will he make it to the Inca Trail before it closes? Will he be robbed in Lima? Cuzco? Will he see the Nazca Lines? Lake Titicaca? Will he make his return flight, or end up in Colombia fighting against the government for liberty? Who knows?? All this and more in the next issue!
There you have it! VIVA LA REVOLUTION!
HOYA!
Zac
# 1:05 PM 
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