Brenda's Bicycles

This photo post is part three of three, documenting my three-month “Ayahuasca Deep Immersion” retreat at the “Temple of the Way of Light” located in the Amazon Jungle, up the Nanay River from the city of Iquitos.

This third post contains 74 photos, including detailed narratives. It contains photos of many of my new friends at the temple, then highlights a few other miscellaneous things, and finally ends with the boat journey back to Iquitos.

I traveled to the retreat center on Saturday, January 18, 2014, and remained there, completely off the electrical/internet grid until April 15, 2014.

As usual, the photos in this post are thumbnail images. Please click on any photo to enlarge it. The thumbnails leave much to be desired as far as colors and resolution – plus the thumbnails clip all of the edges. I use thumbnails for the post itself, because it gives people an opportunity to get a summary glimpse without downloading huge amounts of data for the high-res photos.

CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE TO HIGH RESOLUTION

People At The Temple

As before, I did NOT take many people photos while at the Temple. The majority of these photos were taken by my friend Kit, and published here with her permission. I am giving first names here, but am not providing any personal details. I may write in my blog about some people here, and I don’t want to give any identifying information that will tie them to my writing — and in my writing I will disguise names and genders.

Alexei

Amelia

Anita – Shipibo Maestra in my second workshop.

Ann-Marie

Ann-Marie

Anton

Bamboo (left) and Hosho (right)

Belmira (cook, wife of Segundo, Maestro in second workshop).

Brenda, actually smiling a huge smile.

Brenda, again smiling (I’m a lot happier)

Brenda and Jack (bad thumbnail image)

Brenda, sitting in maloca 3.

Carina, sometimes cook, sometimes cleaning lady.

Conor

David

Deanna

Diana

Eric

Francisco and his wife Maricela, our Maestro and Maestra during my third workshop. In this photo they are selling their creations at a mercado (handicraft market).

Greg

Helen

Hosho

Ivan

Jack and Horus

Jack

Jason

Jeany

Jemma and Matt

Jen and Jemma

Jeremiah

Joseph

Keith

Kit

Leanne

Louis

Lydia and Nick

Lydia and Olwyn

Maya and local girls

In kitchen food line, front to back: Shane, Elias, Maya, Bobby, Alexei, David, Sean, Luke, Jeany

Meredith

Meredith and Joseph

Mila

Nick

Sean

Segundo (Shipibo Maestro for second workshop) and his wife Belmira (cook for second and third workshops).

Segundo (Maestro second workshop) experimenting with Shane’s banjo.

Shane

Steph

Steph

Swan

Swan

Todd and Horus

Todd

Uli

Viro

Zafar

My Weight Loss

During my time at the temple, I lost around six inches off my waist measurement, rendering my jeans and slacks nearly unusable. I had to use a tight belt with holes punched with a knife, just to keep them from falling off.

When I got back to Iquitos on April 15, I stood on a scale in a local restaurant, and discovered I had lost around 30 pounds (14 Kilos) during those three months.

I took this photo myself, in my room, showing how loose my pants are.

And another similar self-photo.

I had a friend take this photo for me on my last day at the temple, standing in front of the Casa Grande. If I let go, my pants would definitely fall off.

 Miscellaneous Photos

These photos don’t really fit into any predefined category, so I lumped them all together here.

A cute bug on my door one day. It was so metallic and shiny.

A gorgeous spider that took up residence near my front door, living there for a couple of months before he disappeared. I suspect someone took it away. The total span of his legs was about three inches from tip to tip.

I was visiting Diana one day, and there were several bats clustered under the eaves of her tambo. This is two of them. They are hard to see here.

This plant is “Marosa”. It is the actual plant that I used in a “plant dieta” in my third workshop and integration period (from March 22 to April 13, 2014). I will write about it in my blog.

Sacred Geometry Fun

I have never been confident in creating or sharing art. During my first workshop, I started playing around with sacred geometry drawings, and just created them from intuition, with no plan, flowing as I went.

I had a lot of fun just doing what came to me and discovering what the result would be. Here are photos of some of my favorites that I made (most are with colored pencils).

The tree of life inside the flower of life.

The wall in my bedroom, with all of my drawings on it (except the lower middle is not mine, a friend in Guatemala created it).

Return To Iquitos

On the morning of April 15, 2014, I packed the final belongings, and carried my bags down to the Casa Grande. After breakfast and visiting with friends, the cargueros came around 10:00 a.m.. I was the only one from my group leaving for good, but between Center 2 and Center 3, we filled an entire boat with people and luggage (several from center 3 were leaving, and many were just going to Iquitos for the break).

This is our crowded boat. I won’t try to list all the names.

Me and Diana (she came to town for a break, and to say goodbye).

Jemma

Lydia

Lydia, Siri, and Todd

Farewell “Temple of the Way of Light”

It was an incredible journey. As I returned down the Nanay River, I am not even close to being the same person that last rode on these waters nearly three months earlier. So much has changed, so many emotional wounds healed and transmuted.

At around noon, we arrived at the same port of Santa Clara from which we left on January 18, 2014. Diana, myself, and another friend shared a mototaxi into town. I went to the same place where I rented for a month, but they wanted too much for a short-term rental.

After one very noisy hotel for three nights, I switched to a different one that cost a tiny bit more, but I am loving the quiet basement room with good internet and cool temperatures.

This concludes part three of my three-part photo post.

Copyright © 2014 by Brenda Larsen, All Rights Reserved