Love & Light and everything bright...

FROM HAIKU, MAUI

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On the Angel Trail: Steepest Descent...

Rich Harvest of Mountain Gifts Continues at Ancient Uaca

WAYNAY MTN, Peru, June 6 - I woke up at one point in the middle of the night feeling naked.  Not literally, of course.  I had at least three layers on me inside the "sub-zero" sleeping bag.  But I had a feeling that I was missing something.

When I went out to relieve myself, the night under a full moon looked like silvery twilight.  A solid sheet of ice had formed on the ground (left).  Our black and red duffle bags were also white, encrusted by the frost.  The campsite was quiet, except for occasional snoring sounds from some tents.  Not ours.  My partner Jeff later told me he was cold and barely slept that night.

When I crawled back in my sleeping bag, I realized why I was feeling naked.  My precious, shape-shifting meteorite and gold ring was gone.  My left pinky felt forlorn without it. 

"Wonder if the Apus took it?" I remember thinking. They've been known to do things like that if someone transgressed. "Must talk to Don Sebastian and Jose Luis in the morning and have them track it for me" (shamanically).

But when I crawled out of the tent in the predawn hours, with my eyes still shut, I felt something hard under my left hand.  I opened my eyes.  It was the ring. "Yeah!" I shouted in jubilantly although no sound came out.  Everybody was still asleep in the camp.  I was glad that I was still in alignment with the forces of the universe.

At that moment, a herd of llamas passed by (middle left).  I scrambled to get my camera out.  I snapped a picture just before they disappeared downfield toward the stream in which I took an (upper body) bath yesterday.  "Wonder if that creak is also frozen?" I was curious, but not curious enough to go down and take another bath.

That was to come a couple of hours later, after we had had breakfast, packed our gear, and hiked over the nearby pass to the two nearby lagoons (two middle shots).  That's where we were to perform a water cleansing ceremony and take a splash in the icy waters at the end.  It was all a part of our Altomesayok toughening up process.

On our way there, I asked the mountain for a gift of a heart rock for one of those two women with whom I had a brief tiff yesterday over my partner Jeff's snoring.  Not more than five steps later, there it was.  I picked it up and gave it to her.  "

"This one has your name on it," I said.  She smiled as we hugged.  She told me that at one point she had a large collection of heart rocks from all over the world. 

Women jumped in first at "female" lagoon, while the men proceeded to another one over the hill. After we stripped to our birthday suits and proceeded with our ceremonies individually.  I stepped into the lake,  My right foot sank into the muck up to my knee.  I also heard the cracking of the ice. 

"Oh, shucks," I thought.  "Bet the ice cut me.  Here I go again, leaving blood on the mountain" (right).  At least this time, the wound froze over almost instantly.  The ice-cold lagoon worked both as a disinfectant and a bandage.

After our swim, we proceeded to hike up the mountain back to that 14,300 pass.  As I turned around to take a look for one last time at our camp site, I noticed an interesting face on the mountain (left).  A few minutes later, there was a sign of scorpion in the clouds (middle left). "Wonder what that means?" I remember thinking.  We continued to trek, huffing and puffing again until we reached the pass, about an hour or so later.

Our communal apucheto was still there (left) as was my big heart rock and the Wakai Willke mirror image stone that I contributed to it yesterday (middle left).  The 360-degree vistas from the pass were again breathtaking.

After a short break, we pressed on.  I asked the mountain for a heart rock gift for the second woman involved in yesterday's snoring bout.  The mountain wouldn't give it to me.  At least not initially.  Instead, it gave me another wonderful shape-shifting rock which I gave to this lady over lunch.  There was a new message emanating from it each time you looked at it from a different angle.  Then just as we were passing this natural uaca (left two shots), I got a heart rock for her, too.

Meanwhile, Wakai Willke, our "host mountain spirit," has been more than generous to me.  Just before we took a break for lunch on a mountain pass below an ancient Inca uaca, at a little over 14,000 ft, he gifted me this extraordinary rock... depicting the maps of South and North America from both sides and angles.

And the same stone continued to shape-shift each time you change the viewing angle.  While most people were eating lunch, I aimed my camera at the nearby mountain peaks, reveling in their majestic beauty...

You can also experience some of the sights and sounds at the pass through this video clip...

  On the Angel Trail (6/6/09) - The Altomesayok Journey, Peru - Bob Djurdjevic (3:11 mins)

After lunch, Jose Luis wanted us to hike up to the top of the nearby hill, where an ancient Inca uaca was supposedly located.  That "hill," by the way, was at over 14,000 feet (left). I really didn't feel like moving.  I felt so connected to the mountains from the pass that I could have spent hours there.  The woman whom the mountain had just gifted a heart rock at my request said she felt the same way.  So we stayed behind the group for a while.  Eventually, we dragged our touches up to the uaca.

Boy, was I ever glad I did it.  What followed was one of the most moving emotional experiences on this entire trip.  Tears were rolling down my face as I addressed one gorgeous mountain spirit after another.  Each of them seemed to be sending me its blessings and love in response. The energy at the old Inca uaca was incredible.  Later on, several other people, including Jose Luis, told me they had similar experiences there.

And even before we even settled down in prayer and meditation at the uaca, the mountain had gifted us all a huge heart rock (top right). 

Then, Wakai Willke gave me another heart rock (right)...

...this one matching its mountain contours when turned upside down (left). [That rock has now become initiated into my mesa].  It was followed by a whale (middle right), also the first one #1, and shortly after that by the second one #1.  The funny thing was that as soon as I got the first #1, I knew the second one were coming.  I just didn't know when and where. "Here's another sign for my Masters' #11 collection," I rejoiced (see left and  Masters' #11 & My life).

Next was a "throne," which I placed atop our communal apucheto (right).  That's when my camera battery died, exhausted by hundreds of pictures and several movie clips.  Lincoln, our British pal, who had by now completely recovered from his stomach problems two days ago, promised to send me the rest of the shots he took from this point on.  When I get them, I will update this page.

(Voila!  Here are a couple of shots he took)

The Apus' non-verbal communications continued.  Two eagles lazily circled above our heads as we sat on the uaca.  When I finished my prayers to Wakai Willke and asked for a response, the mountain spirit created a white angel cloud over its peak.  A few minutes later, when I did the same to Wawayok, my new friend from yesterday, that Apu flashed a white and fluffy "A" sign over its top ("A" for Altzar, my astral name).  And so on...

When we were done at the uaca, Jose Luis warned us that ahead of us was a very steep and dangerous descent.  It's a good thing he had not said anything about it  before.  People did not have much time to fret about it.  As it turns out, it was probably the most treacherous path I have ever hiked on.  And I've done a lot of hiking.  The trail dropped from over 14,000 ft to about 11,700 almost straight down Bueno Negro (name of the mountain on the right). 

This time, I stayed behind with Don Francisco and Don Juan to help three or four women from  our group who seemed to be having trouble "skiing" down the steep and occasionally dusty patches of rocks.  With some humor, cajoling and coaching, we all made it eventually down the mountain.  We all slipped and crashed, but no major injuries occurred.  The "coach" (yours truly) was the only one who was branded by the mountain.  At one, my feet slipped to the side as I was guiding the woman ahead, and my left arm hit a rock on the opposite side (left shot).  Later, I joked that Wakai Willke wanted to imprint in my skin two bird images as I already seem to have in my soul.

"I have never climbed a mountain to which I had not made a donation in blood," I joked while telling the truth.  "So now, Wakai Willke and I are blood brothers." :-) 

Our third and final campsite was at an elevation of about 11,700 ft, tucked under the mountain ridge on which Intipunko (Gateway to the Sun) lay, an ancient altar directly opposite Wakai Willke mountain (above).  There were some Inca ruins nearby, from where I took the above shot with my cell phone camera.  The name of the pueblo was Kachikata, we were told, which stands for "mound of salt."  I have no idea why...

Thus ended our third successive day of hard hiking, marked by an abundance of mountain gifts.  June 6 is known as the "D-Day" in history, the date on which the Allied troops stormed the beaches in Normandy, France, in 1944.  For us, June 6 will also remain in mountaineering memory as a "D-Day."  Except that the "D" here stands for Descent or Downhill or Drop, the steepest downward grade of our entire trip.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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