Are We There Yet?

The photos from Peru may leave some people wondering - when do we get to hear about Peru? So let's begin. This is gonna take several posts.
"El Condor Pasa" - I am riding in a bus at 14,000 feet above sea level, on a winding gravel road, up the side of a cliff, looking over a deep canyon. I am nauseated from altitude sickness and the San Pedro cactus I ingested 2 hours ago. Before we get off at the Condor Cross, Don Theo tells us we will be hiking above the canyon after we see the condors. I say that I don't think I can do the hike and he says, "But you will."
We walk up to the condor viewing area and it suddenly hits me: the rugged beauty of the canyon, the connection to the land, the sadness of losing my mother and the nausea, always the nausea. The sickness, the beauty, the loss, the connection. Suddenly I'm sobbing uncontrollably as I realize that I have never lived in the moment until this moment - connected to my body, the earth, to the ancestors of these people, to my ancestors, to the condors and to this plant. Pepe, the other shaman, begins to do extraction work on me and tells me to just keep releasing. He pours Agua Florida into my hands, tells me to clap my hands 3 times and inhale the vapors. He tells the worried young Red Cross worker that I am okay - that I am having a mystical experience. We see 6 condors and the world's largest hummingbird.