My room with view on the jungle

I just woke up after the first night in my new room, it is 6 am, i can already hear the sounds of the jungle. You can see a fast overview of my new place. A room on the terrace (3rd floor) with a bed, chair and cupboard, outside I am surrounded by the view of the jungle (still cloudy at this time of the day). A desk outside (raincovered), water, showroom and toilets, some hooks for my hamack... and wifi internet... On the first floor I have access to a collective kitchen shared with two psychologists. Just perfect



21 oct 08 - My Room in Tarapoto

The mystery of Urcos

Just before travelling back to Lima, I finally got the opportunity to go to Urcos, which supposedely holds the secret of the Alchemists, in relationship with the Great Cross of Hendaye. I went there with my friend tito, planning to stay just for the morning (my bus to Lima was leaving at 6 pm from Cusco). Once we arrived there we asked for directions to a girl that just got out of the same bus, she proposed to show us the lake and help us unravel the mysteries of Urcos,she took us to a house that her parents just bought. We discovered the house togethers, put our stuff there and went ligthly to Urcos lake, so magic. We rented canoes and swam with much joy.

Then we headed to the church and asked for the cross, the church was unaccessible because of works but we finally manage to have someone let us in and get closer to the cross.



I couldn't define what happened but it was too magic a moment of spontaneous friendship and shared magic moments of truth, that I decided to miss my bus and we spend the afternoon and the night in Urcos, listening to music, cooking delicious food with woodfire (an improvised chocolate fondue in the night, delicious), doing creative painting in the bathroom. The next day I headed back to Cusco with Tito, didn't manage to get my lost ticket refunded and jumped in the first Bus to Lima I found, as my flight was leaving on the next day's evening, and the trip Cusco - Lima takes 24 hours. I ended up in the worst company (from what the local said), with a seat next to the toilets, but the whole ride was fine and Urcos still holds many mysteries for my next visit !

Marcahuasi Festival Report : my first days in Peru

A very promising festival, 4000m high, 5h drive from Lima, Peru, in a mysterious mountain. I arrived in Lima around noon on Oct 3rd, took a Taxi. After a 25 min ride with a nice part along the sea,I arrived at Loki Backpacker hostal, in the middle of Miraflores (one of Lima nicest area). I checked in a 6 dorm room with backpack lockers, had a shower and got to know the friendly crew from Loki. Later in the time I got to meet some Dj's from Chile who had come for the festival as well. A mini-bus was supposed to get all the artists at 4am. After a very short sleep, we embarked on the bus filled with artists and equipment. After waiting around an hour to locate somebody we departed and made several stops, finally leaving the city of lima around 7am. The trip was nice and I made good encounters, as we were going from concrete road to rocky mountain paths, moving from Lima's sea level to San Pedro de Casta's 3500 m, with an incredible scenery on the way. I got along very well with a didgeridoo palyer named David, who draw my attention to the numerous San Pedro cacti we encountered on the road. We arrived in San Pedro de Casta around 1 pm. Equipments were loaded onto donkeys and we got on horses for a 2-hour climb to Marcahuasi, 4000m high. Those who were used to the altitude made the 3,5 hours climbing by foot. It was my first experience of riding a horse and that was quite funny, especially with the amazing scenery. We arrived at the natural amphitheater and people started to set up tents.





I had warned the organizer that I had no tent but he had no one for me ;-( He proposed me to share his tent, that was supposed to arrive later, with the sound system... Indeed, as the party was supposed to start at 6pm, I was kinda surprised to see not any single speaker onsite. I took it easy and spend the afternoon hanging out with people, relaxing and discovering the magical place. Local people had set up small shops with food and drinks, preparing coca leaf tea, supposed to help with altitude sickness. Despite the tea and some medication, I could barely walk more than 4 minutes without being exhausted and out of breath. I could really feel the lack of oxygen.
There was a gigantic white stonewall, where we had planned to be doing videoprojections with the local VJ. After a magnificent sunset, there was still no sign of sound equipment. I have been told that it, as the well as the tent I was supposed to sleep in, was on its way... Around 200 ppl were there, waiting for the festival to start. Sound equipment was to heavy to be carried by the donkeys and had to be taken up by manpower. The situation started to get really messy and the weather started to be really really coldy. Local people were selling some wood, I bought a big bunch of it and with some friends we started a fire that warmed us for an hour or so, as many fires were being started, the wood stock rapidly disappeared. Around midnight, it was frezzing cold... The safe place meant to store the equipment did not existe either, I was lucky that my VJ friend let me use his tent for storing my equipment and having some hours of sleep. Around 3 am, I woke up frozen, my sleeping bag being obviously not warm enough. With some friends we decided to start walking to warm us up, in spite of the tiredness and the cold we kept walking for around 3hours, until the sun rose again.
When we got back to the festival location, we could see one of the two sound systems which had arrived, but the electricity generator actually never got there ! Most people had a terrible cold night and were really pissed, after a lot of discussions between artists and organizers, it was finally decided to make a party down in San Pedro. I got some hours of sleep and then started the walk down with my equipment. After this long night and given the lack of oxygen, the 2 hours walk down the mountain was a real challenge. When we finally got down, the organizer was impossible to find and everybody was waiting on the village plaza, no trace of a party and the festival bus for the crowd and artists were missing ! I was lucky enough to bump into a guy I had met at the party and who offered me a place in his van back to Lima. All the other people, who had paid for the festival and the shuttles, were doing large queues, waiting for the public buses. I went back to my hostal in Lima around 9pm, the other artists had to wait the bus in San Pedro until 3 am ! I saw them the next day around noon, in a terrible state :-( We were so frustrated about this party that two Dj's, that were also working at Loki, put up a small party at the hostal Bar, with most of the artists present, and I made a small video gig as well. To sum it up, the place was really magic but the experience was really intense and frustrating, the organizers happened not only to have made a big mistake with the equipment, but also totally failed to communicate and handle the problematic situation. I made a lot of friends though and had much fun ;-)