Admit it, you’ve always harbored a secret desire to getaway to the Amazonian rain forest, where you will hack your way into the deep, dark jungle to find a tribe that welcomes you, that offers you a potent drink containing a powerful hallucinogen, and after you try it, the heavens open up and all of life’s mysteries reveal themselves to you. Unfortunately, you end up with one heck of a hangover. Oh, and you forget most of what you learned. Sorry about that. After effects, you know. But you did take away one morsel of wisdom: those big green leaves in the jungle: they make really cool hats.
Alas, you and I are not likely to fraternize with shamans any time soon, but the folks over at National Geographic did just that recently, and they brought along a video crew. Yes, two Americans, including one of my current writing idols Kira Salak, went to the Peruvian rain forest to try ayahuasca, a kind of jungly LSD/Mescaline drug that the locals use for ceremonies… and to play jokes on their bosses (Memo? I wasn’t supposed to have that memo done today? What, are you on ayahuasca?).
But seriously, this is wonderful story-telling and a cool story. I spent a wee bit of time in the Amazon years ago and very much dreamed of taking the time to plunge into the forest to do exactly this. Of course, I didn’t. Couldn’t stand the mosquitoes.