Shaman

We went to the Shaman´s house way out in the middle of nowhere for a nightr. We woke up at 5 am in the moring to go to the his house Cochlecito. We arrived at the hill to meet with Pablo. We tried to tell him that Joy fell ont he rocks the night before and cut up her leg so there would only be five of us. We made our way over to Pablo´s house to drop some us with JKoel so we could take two cars and then we went to pick up Julie. It was bit of a squeeze with Ahlee, Joey and I in the back of se4at for 3 hours or somehting but we makçde it work. We stopped in Pananome for breakfast and headed on our way. Once we arrived at the site of a Canadian mine, they would not let us pass to get to the trail head to hike because there were to many gringos and they think we are lawyers who want to shut them down. We then had to proceed up a long 4 hour muddy path to the house. After two long climb up the muddy hills, I was having a hard time catching my breath, stupid exercise-enduced asthma, and they had to unload the donkey to let me ride on it. THis was the first time I rode on a donkey and it was kind of scary because I was afraid of falling off. ANyways I was the first to arrive at the house and it was a bit akward. I was carring a small turtle the size of my hand, for Julie, and I there was these children nd I showed them the turtle but they didn´t want to pet it. They just started at me and giggled. They may have been afraid of the turtle. One of the guys motioned me to come to the fromnt of the house. I think I took the wrong way and ended in the kitchen. I said hello in spanish and nobody really aknowldged me accept to give a drink. Little to my knowledge the Shaman was in there eating and it was akward. I was then motioned into a porch where Pablo told me to remove my boots. At least they didn´t seem to be too angry walking around the house with my shoes on. The time we where there they fed us more than they eat for each meal. More than we would have liked but its polite to eat everything or most of the food. One of the older women took us on a hike to show us some of the medicinal plants but we hung around mostly. We tried our hand at cutting ukka çI´m not sure how you spell it. It is something I have no talent for. They also gave us the best tea ever. I don´t normally like tea but there was awesome. We didn´t meet with the Shaman until the before we left. Apparrently he is shy but he is excited to meet with us the next itme we come back. THe hike back was no fun. It rained all night so it was muddy and the river was high. THe water flowed over my boot. We eventually made it back to the main road, changed in t some less wet cloths and headed back to Panoneme for dinner where me, Ashlee, Julie and Pablo sang to music on the way back. We got back after dark to Julie´s and it was raining so me and Ashlee stayed the night. We learned a lot about her and Pablo and I thoughly enjoyed myself. Next we will be going to Santa MArta for home stays which will be interesting cause most of us do not speak spanish very well and they do not speak english at all. Fun times ahead.