Ecuador

It is hard to describe in words how grateful I am for the this experience.

The Hayulima Sanctuary is a land of ~120ha pure nature, including mountains, lake, river and different kind of community houses for the guests (15 people from all over the world) and volunteers. The host families itself (3parties) live there too. It is Salvador with his wife Paulina wich are the main Shaman couple + the sisters of Paulina, Amalia & Diana including their children and three dogs.

I got asked if I could arrive a day earlier because the transportation for the next day would be full. In exchange i would get the night + meals for free. ✅
So I got the chance to get to know the beautiful 4 volunteers and help them with the daily tasks like cooking, wood chopping or fire preparation.
They all were very experienced with the different types of medicine ceremonies and answered all of my questions wisely.

As the rest of the participants arrived the program started with a temazcal / sweat lodge ceremony. It’s comparable with a sauna or steam bath. It’s a round tent were the people sit in a circle. Outside of it burns a huge fire with volcano stones in it, wich are given into the middle of the circle. The first round started with 10 stones, then the door is closed and the glowing stones are doused with water in complete darkness. Each further round the amount of stones got decreased until the final 17 stone round. 😮‍💨

A ceremony always starts and ends with a tobacco prayer were the shamans set different Intensions. One very big and everlasting prayer was the appreciation for water, wich is the origin of everything and from wich we were surrounded permanently. I’ve never been to a place were it was raining that much and constantly!
Then there are many people extremely beautiful songs sung supported by a drum and a rattle.

We did four rounds, one lasts ~20min until the door is asked to get opened again, for a short entry of air and the possibility to use the toilet. Imagine a really hot sauna maybe around 80degrees with a huge humidity. After it we got served a glass of water and fruits.

All of the 10 days were pretty well structured with some optional additions like Kambo 🐸, massages or energy cleansing.
The sure thing we’re the delicious meals we got served three times a day, were I was also helping to prepare and serve from time to time.

As you can see on the white board our first Ayahuasca ceremony started at 9pm at day two.
The name “ayahuasca” originates from the Quechua language, where aya means soul or ancestors, and wasca (huasca) means vine or rope. Most people translate this as “vine of the soul.”

The brew has been popular in regions of the Amazon for millennia, for both medical and spiritual reasons. It induces an “introspective dream-like experience” that includes visions and memories.

If I had to explain it in a nutshell it felt to me like an knowledge exchange with my pure loving nature grandmother wich knows me better than anyone and better than myself.

After purging I had different kind of visions and believe it or not my birth trauma was solved when my neck started to mobilise by itself.
I was born via cesarean section because the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck. I didn’t know what that meant but the shaman told me afterwards, that some people experience that by there first use of the medicine.

After again many prayers and songs the ceremony ended when the sun rised around 6/7 in the morning.

I’m still processing many of the things I experienced these days. One thing I know for sure that that this was the best thing that could have happened to me and I learned to be grateful for every step, even every mistake i did in my past wich put me on that path I am now. I am at peace with my past and I am able to continue the rest of my life with joy and gratitude.

Gratitude for everything I have in my life and especially for my family and you my friends. I love you from the bottom of my heart.

Gratitude for Hayulima Family who provide this sacred healing place. In one of the ceremonies I had the vision of playing football with the kids there, so in my freetime I built two goals out wood and painted them 💙🤍!

As you can see I hardly reported about two days, but there is so much more I can tell you in persona, so I will stop at this point.

After these 10 or 11 days I spent three more nights back in civilazation in the village of Mindo with Paul (81 years old, USA), Chris (53yo, Canada), Balthazar (41 yo Australia) and the amazing volunteers Manuell (~38yo, Québec, Canada) and Courtney (29yo USA). All of the people of the retreat got so familiar and close because we all showed our true and most vulnerable selves.

We visited different kind of Cacao Manufacturers 🤤 and were witnesses of Carneval in Ecuador were people are having funny “water war” on the streets. So everywhere you walk, some kid would splash you with a water gun or even a bucket over your had 💦.

Next Footprint: Back to Quito and then off to Banos.

If you have read until here, i won’t hide that I shaved my head completely 😬🧑🏼‍🦲Read more