I should warn you, this is not one those romantic tales but it has a happy ending. It’s a story about my adventures as a volunteer at an ayahuasca retreat centre in the Andes Mountains and the misfortunes and fortunes that ensued.
What motivates someone to take a plane from JNB to NYC, NYC to Quito and Quito to Cuenca, Ecuador? I had good intentions. I wished to learn about Andes medicinal plants. I naively assumed that any place that facilitates retreats that are aimed at helping people to heal, is ideal for learning. I admit, in retrospect, that I was too optimistic and idealistic. However, I am glad that this “recklessness” to try new things, exists in me.
I met people from various walks of life. I shared a dormitory with five other people, one of whom was an 80 something older Jamaican lady on anti-depressants. She had come to the retreat because she believed someone in Paris had bewitched her by implanting a deadly virus within her. She took part in an ayahuasca ceremony, which I read should not be administered to people on anti-depressants; this older lady accused me of trying to steal her soul and claimed that she had seen this in a vision during her ayahuasca journey. I thought, how convenient and unoriginal! She chose to accuse the only other brown-skinned girl on this entire property of being a witch.
I also shared a bunk bed with a beautiful Spanish woman who had tried to commit suicide less than one month before arriving at this retreat. As you may have guessed another false accusation followed; this woman accused me of stealing her underwear, which she later found, and her book, which was lying on her desk, at the time that the accusations were thrown at me.
Needless to say, these accusations led to my banishment. I proposed that we should consult the shamans who work there to verify these gross accusations, the owner refused and dismissed me. As if that wasn’t enough for a young heart like mine, she accused me of poisoning her husband with rat poison. And she didn’t stop there, she called me a voodoo apprentice and claimed that since she operates in a different dimension to all of us commoners, she was the only person who could see two demons that were hovering above my shoulders.
I’m laughing now as I write this but it wasn’t funny at all, at the time. But there was a silver lining to this dark voodoo cloud. Four people, including the manager of this place, packed their bags the next day and came to live with me for one week, in Cuenca city. They showered me with love and support and understanding. They made the situation lighter by making me laugh.
The manager revealed that I was not the first witch to be banished from this place and he had proof in the form of emails, which I read and some of them were hilariously humorous.
My broken heart was mended and my exuberance of youth returned to me once again.
I traveled to Santa Marianita beach on the west coast soon after this incident and I met very special human beings there, kindred spirits. It was as if, we had all agreed to meet again in this one place, after many rounds of birth.
This is how love found me, after my banishment from an ayahuasca retreat centre.