Love & Light and everything bright...

FROM URUBAMBA, PERU

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Day 7: Trip to Waikai Willa; Conversations with Spirits #2

MT. URUBAMBA, Peru, July 4, 2008 - Today is the Fourth of July.  Yet if it weren't for some e-mails that I had received, I would have never remembered it was a holiday back home.  Ditto re. my other shamanic friends.  Especially after our last night's experience with the mountain spirits, our first, one has a sense of being in a different galaxy, not just another country.

No respite for the weary, though.  Our today's excursion took us up to the base of the second tallest mountain in the Peruvian Andes - Waikai Willka.  Up until now, we have been admiring it from a distance.  Today we would get a close up look and feel of this majestic mountain.

Our first stop was at Ollantay Tambo, an ancient Inka town from where one takes a train to Machu Picchu.  Today, however, we were here only as a pit stop, to replenish our supplies before tackling the mountains.  Ollantay Tambo was the name of an Inka warrior who led his people in a fight against the Spanish conquistadors.  They made a valiant stand at this place which protected the Machu Picchu from ever being discovered by the Spaniards.  The monument to the great warrior in the town's square (left) reminds the visitors that the technologically superior invaders may have been able to vanquish the Inkas' physical bodies but never conquered their spirits.

The drive to Waikai Willka was pretty spectacular.  Picture postcard views flowed from one to another like a slideshow of a nature's motion picture.

You can see from the left shot the many switchbacks we had navigated in our ascent up the mighty mountain. Occasionally, we saw traces of human habitation, such as in the middle two photos.  The stone huts and thatched roofs seemed to cling to the mountain like condors to a cliff.  It probably took condor-like people to build them and live in them at those altitudes and slopes.

Waikai Willa was growing on us both literally and  figuratively until we reached our destination at 14,000 ft.  From there, we went on a short hike to the flat area where we formed a circle for another morning ceremony in a natural uaca setting (right).

Before that, we all dispersed across the welcoming chest of the mighty mountain looking for our own private spot from which to commune with it.  Along the way, I saw some pretty blue flowers even at this elevation.  And yes, once a gain a bird that looked like a mallard found me here delivering a loud message from the spirits.  He would not shut up until I finally noticed him and took some pictures of him.  Then he jumped on that rock so I would have a better view of him.  Once a "birdman," always a birdman, I suppose (for more bird stories like that, see the stories about the hikes on Camelback, McDowell and Montenegro Djurdjevic Mtns, among others).

This is where I also made a video clip letting the mountain speak for itself.  Check it out...

From Waikai Willka, 2nd Tallest Holy Mountain in Peruvian Andes (July 4, 2008) (1:07 mins)