This is the article I wrote on my Chimbre ayahuasca experience for
Reality Sandwich, which they then decide not to publish because it felt like too much of an old wound. But! Here it is for you!
As you'll see, this account is merely a sampling of all that occurred over two very intense weeks at the Chimbre Shamanic Retreat’s Grand Opening in Puerto Maldonado, Peru. A whole book would do justice to this incredible adventure, but for now, please enjoy this glimpse into a Chimbre’s complex world...
…
“So you’re gonna drink tonight, right? If you want to drink it has to be tonight. You’re drinking tonight,” Rob says without a pause, with wide, child-like eyes and a beaming grin.
This is what greets me instead of a hello, nice to meet-cha, as soon as I step out of the mini-bus and into, literally, Chimbre’s red, muddy soil. I will soon learn that this is classic Rob-style: cut to the chase, no frills, here’s the agenda and now lets get on with it shall we, I’ve got no time for questions.
“Uh, OK, let me think about it, I mean I would like to, but, uh, I guess I hadn’t quite considered it just yet.”
“Oh no, you have to drink tonight tonight. Don’t worry about teaching yoga tomorrow, we’ll figure all that out later,” Rob replies from a half turn as he heads away. Despite Rob’s near constant enthusiasm, I can already sense some tension. And no doubt, there’s reason for tension. He’s juggling A LOT – hosting a group of international travelers who constantly flux from 30 to 60 guests at a time, plus a Hollywood film crew, the rule of the shaman, guest speakers such as metaphysical and enthnobotanical pioneer Dennis McKenna and author Rak Razam, and the care of a wife and young son, all in a space that is still physically under construction and in a remote Amazon location. Rob’s noble intent is to facilitate a transformative experience for all, and he seems to have chosen the hard way. The man has a full plate, to say the least.
I’ve come to the grand opening of Chimbre, a sprawling retreat located outside of the small jungle-town of Puerto Maldonado, Peru to teach yoga for this eclectic group of seekers, many from the Burner/Festival scene around the world, but also middle-class North Americans that you would more easily peg for singing in a church choir before you’d even think to imagine them willfully ingesting, then purging, a hallucinogen in the depths of the Amazon. We are artists, scientists, writers, computer technicians & designers, government employees, wanderers, wall street brokers, marketing specialists, engineers, counselors, entrepreneurs and community organizers, both young and old, and from across the globe. Tattooed, dreaded and pierced to clean-shaven and freshly showered, tie-dyed to tucked-in, we reflected the rainbow spectrum of personalities, and our outer contrasts and match-ups as just as intense as our internal resonances...
You can read the rest of this article on my facebook note:
