Today, my wife and I went on our first hike through the Andes with Miguel and another first timer. We met at 7.30am and the 4 of us took a taxi about 30 minutes up one of the mountains. We then went to the house of one of the locals, and Miguel conducted a short ceremony. The ceremony involved tobacco, coca leaves, fire and of course, San Pedro. We all drunk one cup of San Pedro. It wasn’t awful but it wasn’t particularly pleasant either – it was a thick gunk. We were advised that we would begin feeling the effects within an hour. Within about 5 minutes, I was already beginning to notice movement out of the corner of my eye – swirls and fragments. I began to feel that I had an expanded field of vision.
Without much time to think, we got our bags together and begun the hike. 10 minutes later, I was in tears – tears of emotion at the sheer beauty of what was around me. I’d just never seen or felt anything like it. The San Pedro wasn’t a “high” or hallucinogenic trip. It grounded me and connected me with what was really there. It opened my consciousness, allowing me to sense more, perceive more, and feel from the heart rather than the mind. San Pedro was kind, loving and gentle yet powerful. The effects came and went in subtle waves.
I promptly vomited out of nowhere, not even having felt nauseous. A whirlwind of emotions came in quick succession from sorrow to anger, joy to happiness. On reflection, I feel that this was a physical and emotional cleansing of some of my most basic blockages, as well as a taste of what was to come.
The time absolutely flew on the hike which turned out to be over 6 hours in the end. Some of my voice notes from the hike include;
“Everything looks so beautiful, and everything is so perfect. Even the animals fighting or not fighting is just perfect.”
“I’m looking at a body of water and it’s just beautiful with everything moving in perfect harmony. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen”
“The scenery is just beautiful. My recordings are so inaccurate because you can’t put this into words at all. There’s no way to put this kind of experience into words, there’s just nothing to say.”
The sense of connectedness was unbelievable. At several times, I would notice something stand out as we hiked, which someone else would then pick up or remark on. The items weren’t particularly exciting, colourful or remarkable – often just a regular small stone or rock. We would all notice things in sync or have a feeling come over us collectively. The experience strongly confirmed to me the existence of a group consciousness. It was difficult to rationalise some of the synchronicity and bizarre coincidences on the hike. It is so clear to me why this has been used as a healing medicine for thousands of years.
Throughout the hike, we experienced every weather condition possible from sun to rain, icy winds and hail. At the same time, the variety of feelings and emotions made the hike both feel like a lifetime but at the same time pass quickly. Strangely, the San Pedro gave me an enormous amount of energy, and the hike didn’t feel too strenuous at all. At the end, we went back to the local house and had a lovely soup and potato dinner before going back to Pisac.
My first experience with San Pedro was very pleasant, gentle and enjoyable.
That night, sleeping was difficult. There was no noticeable stimulant effect, and if anything I was tired after the experience – I just couldn’t sleep. I later came to realize that this is common after taking San Pedro.
