#66 The Peruvian Adventure Part 2
Kelly shares highlights and discoveries from her adventures in Peru. Listen to find out:
Did Machu Picchu live up to the hype?
How did she end up in an Ayahuasca ceremony with Maestro Puma in his home in Chinchero?
What was said to her in a private meeting with 85 year old Mama Irene, Medicine Woman of the Andes?
What happened when she drank from the Hummingbird cup of Huachuma?
Why would she travel without her friends to stay with a local family in ‘the’ mountains? (And is it really not ‘the’ mountain?)
What message does Pachamama (Mother Earth) have to share?
What’s the deal with all of the hummingbirds?!
Why she won’t be running a retreat in Peru next year after all.
How to get in touch with Katherine if you’d like your own Peruvian adventure.
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Read the Transcript for this Episode below:
Episode 66 of the Project Me podcast.
Hi, I'm Kelly Pietrangeli, and this podcast is designed to be an entertaining, inspirational, personal growth journey. Each episode goes in a mostly chronological order as I piece together the books, modalities, people, and experiences that have fallen onto my life path exactly when I needed them, and how often I resisted the very things I needed the most.
Or didn't see the gifts contained in the challenges until later. By sharing my stories, I hope to inspire you to reflect on your life path. What are the seeming coincidences that have led you to where you are today? What are the hidden gifts within your challenges? And what magic is out there waiting for you as you let go of resistance and follow your own breadcrumb trail?
At the end of each short episode, there's an opportunity. For you to breathe and reflect on how my story relates to your own life. You can find more inspiration on my website kellypietrangeli. com Hi guys, I hope you're well. I am back from my Peruvian adventure, and I'm ready to share about it. If you've landed here without hearing Episode 61, The Peruvian Adventure, Part 1, you'll want to start there, or you won't know the backstory, the synchronicities that led me to Peru, or the main characters names in this story.
If you are already all caught up, here we go. Episode 66. It was the end of February and our big trip to Peru was now less than two and a half months away when my friend Amy messaged me from California. She sounded kind of concerned that we had our flights booked but still no hotels or our itinerary confirmed.
She had a point. We were relying on my friend Catherine, now living in Peru, to help us with all of this. She had sent through a sample itinerary and I had looked through it, but knowing nothing about Peru beyond Machu Picchu meant that these names of places like Olay Tayantambo and Kuliakromiak and Tambombachay, all of these words just meant nothing to me.
I was very happy to just let Catherine choose an itinerary for us and to just rock up and go with the flow. Amy suggested that we organize a Zoom call for us all to meet and talk all things Peru. It was a great call, and we realized how on top of it all, Catherine really was, and we truly were both happy for her to just come to us.
Pick an itinerary for us and we'd just show up. Staying in the Sacred Valley the entire two weeks, tapping into the spiritual essence of this area, rather than simply hitting the tourist trail and ticking off as many places as possible all over Peru in two weeks. Catherine kept referring to the family, the family.
And now I get it, but at the time, I was very vague on that. I mean, I knew she'd befriended a family, that this family had formed a tour company called Puma Adventures, but I didn't know much beyond that. Catherine said the most important part was getting our tickets to Machu Picchu booked in, as in recent years, they've dramatically reduced the amount of people going in.
I actually think she got those tickets booked for us way before we had that call, as that was a must for Amy and I, no question about it. So, with a thumbs up on the itinerary and a packing list from Katherine, I relaxed again about it all and just got excited about this mysterious adventure. Rather than looking up everything on the itinerary online, you know, doing my research, I was really happy to go with the flow.
May came around quickly, and I was packing to leave, when my friend Jeannie came to visit me in Madrid. She and her husband had visited Peru as part of their adult, empty nester, gap year. Don't you just love that? They traveled all over the world, but not with backpacks and youth hostels, and not continuously.
They'd stop back home for several weeks between their adventures, which would be more my style, too. I showed Jeannie all of my packing laid out on my bed, and she was ruthless. She reduced my huge stack down to only a few key items. Rewear stuff. You don't need more than one of those. You'll be so happy you kept it light.
I ended up going lighter than I often do for a long weekend away. I was pretty amazed. The big day came. My husband drove me to the airport. His parting words, Be safe, have fun, don't do ayahuasca. Which I found super annoying that he continued to think that what this trip was all about for me when it wasn't.
At the airport, I got a message from Amy. She drew an Oracle card for us from her deck by Denise Lin, Sacred Forest. She asked the deck what she and I should most aspire to on this trip, and she shared a picture of the card she drew. The hummingbird and the message was all about joy. Follow your soul. Look for joy in each moment.
Enjoy the journey. Your purpose is to experience joy. Yes. And then I'm not kidding. Only a few minutes later, I'm still at the airport. I'm waiting to board. I was astounded to open a book I brought to read in Peru. The page I opened to was about a hummingbird. Neither Amy or I knew yet that the hummingbird is a major symbol in Peru.
More on this to come. It was a 12 hour flight from Madrid to Lima. Then a change of plane to Cusco. At Cusco Airport, Catherine was outside waiting for me, along with a private driver named Flavio. Flavio gave me such a warm smile and a hug. I had no idea yet that Flavio was to be our private driver every day of this trip, and that I'd be greeted every morning.
To his beautiful heart, Amy then arrived from California and we all went out for lunch. Even though this was only the second time I'd seen my oldest friend in person in the past 30 something years, we picked up right where we'd left off. And it was then that I realized I was wearing a brand new shirt for the first time Ibiza.
And it had two birds embroidered on it. And we all looked at it and realized they look like hummingbirds. It was crazy. You couldn't make up this hummingbird thing. Already the Peruvian vibes were incredible. The food at lunch was so delicious. My absolute favorite food flavors are lime, chili, and coriander.
So this was my culinary happy place. And I love ceviche. And something that day made me decide to try alpaca. It was there on the menu and I'm like, you know what? I'm in an adventurous mood. This is an adventure. So I had the alpaca, but I will say that by a couple of days later, when I saw so many adorable llamas and alpacas everywhere.
I felt kind of bad for having eaten one. They are just so cute. Cusco had a fun buzz. I love how the city's surrounded by hills in all direction. It was bigger than I'd imagined. It was a proper city. But to avoid altitude sickness, we needed to get out of Cusco and go lower. So straight after lunch, we said goodbye to Catherine and Flavio.
drove us down to our first hotel in Urumbamba. All the way down we drove through villages where the women were wearing their traditional bright colored clothing and hats just like you see in the postcards. There were alpacas and pigs and cows and dogs everywhere. I can't get over how many dogs there are everywhere in Peru.
They're just everywhere. They're just, they're hanging out together, but it's all really getting along. And apparently they're not wild dogs. They all have homes that they go back to, but during the day they just happily roam around and hang out with each other. They look like they had it made. And on the way down, oh my goodness, the mountains and the scenery.
It was so exciting. We were looking at each other like we're really in Peru. There was no doubt about it. Arriving at our cute hotel, the Andean Wings Valley. We were greeted by a huge wall mural of hummingbirds, and we had the first of many cocoa leaf teas while hanging out in the grassy garden with a very cute and funny alpaca.
If you'd like visuals to go along with this, you can see the alpaca, the hummingbird oracle card, the hummingbird mural, and my hummingbird shirt. Go to May 8th on my Instagram, Kelly Project Me. Oh, and the very next morning, we drew a joint card again from Amy's deck, and even though the cards were carefully shuffled We drew the Hummingbird card again.
Okay, now I don't want this to become just a travel log, so I better skip through the fine details of every moment of every day and just get to the highlights and the spiritual aspects of this journey and what I discovered about the world and myself and what you might discover through hearing my discoveries.
I always want you, dear listener, To come away with some fresh insights and awakenings for yourself. What I learned at the incredible temple of the sun from our wonderful guide, Yotmar, was the meaning of the hummingbird in Andean culture. The Inca believed that the hummingbird was a messenger from heaven and the key to the next stage of development of human consciousness.
The hummingbird also represents leadership, creativity, And it's a symbol of resurrection and rebirth. The Incas viewed the hummingbird as a sacred animal. And indeed, we saw carvings and paintings and souvenir hummingbirds everywhere we went. Drawing the hummingbird card two days in a row, the day before we arrived and the day that we arrived.
It was becoming even more meaningful to Amy and I. Now I have to mention as a big highlight Machu Picchu. Which was above and beyond just blown away. And I'm so happy I didn't allow the naysayers, the ones who said, Oh, it's just too busy now. I'm so happy. I didn't discourage me from visiting because it was organized so well.
Catherine and the family had organized it for us to have an experience guide who knew to, he knew that we should arrive at the end of our window. So we didn't have to queue at all. We just glided on in and we still had three hours To explore this incredible site. We stayed overnight in Aguas Calientes so we could take a bus.
It was 25 minutes up to the top to the entrance. I think hiking up takes an hour and a half, and that would have been pretty cool too. And maybe on a different kind of trip, like if I went back with my husband, I'd maybe opt for the Inca trail and arrive from the top after days of hiking. I think that sounds quite cool.
But for Amy and I, This was just perfect with our itinerary. We got to see and do a lot of other things in the sacred Valley. And this just really suited us and it was perfect. And we loved it. Our train journey to Aguas Calientes was so fun too. We had this super funny entertainment on the train. There was the staff that were acting out a kind of Peruvian love story, opera thing.
We were just. crying laughing. And the scenery out of the train window there and back was just stunning. For the sake of time, I'm going to skip over all the many other sacred sites we visited. They were incredible. We visited Moray, the ancient salt mines. Everything was beautiful, but I want to get to the village of Chinchero.
And this is where the family are from and where we went to stay next. And we were so warmly welcomed by everyone there. It turns out there are various guides and our driver and our host family in Chinchero are all related to a master there named Puma. Everyone is Puma's cousin or his sister or uncle or brother in law.
And this makes up the amazing family that we've been hearing about from Catherine. Since the age of six. Maestro Puma was in training with his grandfather in the traditional ways of the Pako. That's the Andean medicine man. In some cultures they say shaman. Um, here they say the Pako. Puma is now in his forties.
He's an international speaker. He gives workshops about ancestral Inca healing and ways of global healing. And, um, It just so happens that just before my trip, I randomly I'm putting my fingers up, like nothing is a coincidence. I O I ordered this book on Amazon called masters of the living energy. And it features a whole section on Puma.
He was only 22 when this book was written, and his wisdom, already back then, was deep and profound. Puma's mission is to continue to share the ancient teachings of his ancestral indigenous culture in his own unique, inspiring, and heartful way. He's known for his infectious joy and good humor. And I guess I'm trying to give you some kind of a background, some kind of a perspective on how it came to be that Amy, Catherine and I were invited to participate in a private plant medicine ceremony with Maestro Puma.
And why it felt so natural to say yes. Catherine had been in ayahuasca ceremonies with Puma before, and she'd had an incredible experience, many incredible experiences of higher states of consciousness and awakening. She'd not experienced the purging or the terrifying visions that had always put me off the whole idea of it.
She believed that because I have healed and I'm in such a high vibration that like her, the medicine would serve as a portal for higher consciousness. And for the first time ever, I felt open and dare I even say it, was it kind of eager to work with the ayahuasca plant medicine. And yes, I felt like a total hypocrite for insisting to my husband that I was not going to Peru for ayahuasca and then somehow actually doing it.
But I had to put his potential judgments aside. And do what felt right for me in that moment. And working with Maestro Puma in this small circle with just Amy and Catherine and I, it felt so safe and not at all scary. Catherine had requested that we each get a cocoa leaf reading first with Maestro Puma.
He's known for his profound ability to see into the cocoa leaves. So the ceremony began with us all together with Puma and the cocoa leaves. And when he got to me, he dropped the leaves several times and remarked on my good health and my high degrees of passion. It turns out they place a very high value on how much passion someone embodies.
Someone with a lower amount of passion must find their passion. It's vital to their entire life. I hadn't ever really thought about passion like this before, but now I see it. We need to be imbued with the energy of passion or life will feel more flat, more kind of autopilot. We may meander without meaning, place too much value on unimportant things, and not live out our soul's purpose.
Find your passion, people. So yes, a high score on passion for me, and Pumas said I have climbed up the mountain and back up again, and yes, it does feel like that. He also said I am a powerful medicine woman, and that really spoke to me. And that I am connected to the goddess energy. And then he looked into the leaves again and he saw doubt.
He said, in my case, doubt is helpful. I need to use doubt as my teacher. When I know for myself what is true, there is no room for doubt to enter. Puma said if he doubted, it could totally kick him in the ass because in his line of work there is no room for doubt. He absolutely must believe, he must know.
And then I went on to have my very own lesson in doubt from grandmother Ayahuasca. But before I go there, I'll add that he asked if I had any questions before we began. I told him that my intention of working with Aya is to understand and connect with Pachamama. Pachamama is what they call Mother Nature.
I told him that I often feel this sense of disconnection, like I can obviously see just like anyone else the stunning beauty and magnificence of nature, yet I get this sensation that it's all a big backdrop, like the scenery in a play. I crave a more deeper, more profound connection, but I don't know how to reach it.
He told me that ayahuasca medicine is Pachamama, and that she can show me. He said to have a conversation with her, ask her to show herself to me, ask her my questions. I was suddenly eager to drink the medicine, eager to finally know Mother Nature, to find out why she'd called me here, and what messages she had for me.
And so we began.
I drank the cup of dark liquid. It didn't taste as bad as I was expecting it to. It tasted like the elixir of Pachamama. I welcomed her to enter me. I said to her, I'm ready. Bring it on. Show me what I'm here to be shown. It took a while before I began to feel different. It started with patterns under my eyelids.
Fascinating, geometric patterns. Then, a kind of electrical buzzing filled my head, and faster patterns, that seemed like codes. It felt like something out of a sci fi movie, like the Matrix. When I opened my eyes, the room was filled with tiny white lights, like dots of lights in straight lines going off into infinity.
I could make out the room itself behind the lights. And when I turned my head, I could see Amy, and Catherine, and the shadows of Puma, and his assistant, as they sang songs, and whistled, and chanted ancient chants. I was quite fascinated by it all, until, I started to feel really sick. From here, I think I'll turn to my journal, because as soon as I got back to my room after the ceremony, I journaled on the experience.
Okay. Okay. 10th of May, 2024. Post ayahuasca ceremony with Puma. Because of my sensitive body, working with this very strong plant medicine may not be my best path to self realization. I was so focused on my physical body that I felt unable to release control. I felt nauseous, but I didn't want to vomit and distract Amy or Catherine.
So finally I got up, made my way to the bathroom, but even there, I could not release control of my bodily functions to purge, I felt unable to trust and surrender, and I was so surprised by this as I feel compared to most people I know. I'm very good at trusting and letting go of control, but clearly there is a deeper level of trust that I need to discover.
I asked to feel, to know deeply Pachamama. Yet I could not let her in because I feared losing control. Now, I didn't write about all of this in my journal, but I didn't write about how much time I spent in the bathroom. I actually don't know how long I was in the bathroom for a very, very, very long time.
And I just couldn't seem to come out. I just felt like, I just want this to end. I'm not, you know, we're not feeling well, but I can't, I can't be sick. And I was just like, yeah, not having a good time. Let's just say. And, um, then I remembered. That Puma had said at the beginning that if we needed to communicate anything with him, we could do it telepathically.
So I was like, Puma, I'm in the bathroom and like, things aren't going so well in here and I'm afraid to come out, but I'm afraid to stay in here too. And I just, I just want to go home and like, I don't know what to do. And then I just got the message, come out and you will be safe. I took a deep breath and I.
Unlock the door and I went back out. Everything was still all the patterns of lights and everything was very kind of woof. Yeah, really intense. Um, and I went back and as soon as I got back, I purged. Um, you, you are given a, um, little purging. Bucket next to you in case that happens, because it happens to a lot of people.
It's meant to be your body, um, purging and getting rid of things that doesn't need anymore. And so I did do that there. Couldn't do it in the bathroom, but did it as soon as I got back. And then I did feel so much better after that. And then my body started doing this like crazy stuff. I wasn't scared. I was just really, um, like intrigued about it, but my body was doing like this kind of like, um, my arm would just jerk, jerk, jerk, jerk, jerk.
But like, as if like there was like some kind of like a, like something being, Being pressed into my arms, like all the way up my arm, all the way up my arm, like that, like my arm was jerking and then my legs would do it one and then the other, and then my hips would go out. And it was like, I was, it was like really interesting.
I think just because I wasn't feeling sick anymore, I was kind of like, okay with it. And I just got this really strong. Message and sensation that I was being reprogrammed like for the good. I know that might sound to some people like, Oh my God, that sounds awful. But to me, it felt like it was some kind of like a, an energetic upgrade.
And, um, I welcomed it. It was fine. And then I laid down and I finally. connection with Pachamama and, um, I'll read to you from my journal again. I wrote, Pachamama later revealed herself to me as an essence. She said, it's the best way I could possibly comprehend to understand her as a powerful energy. She said, all the beauty, the flowers, trees, and the bright orange sunsets reflected on the sea.
Or only representations of her. For many, they connect to her through these means. But I already sensed that she was something far beyond the pretty displays. This is why I feel that I don't truly know her because I don't. Then she showed me her powerful energy and her creativity. She created a hail storm, a tornado.
A hurricane. And she created a stunning landscape. She wanted me to understand that I have this power too. I am a powerful creator. Connect to her essence via being in nature and then I will also become more powerful. Stop trying to connect to the physical forms of nature. And focus on connecting to the vital life force that created everything.
And I said, thank you, Pachamama for showing me this. I am deeply grateful for your wisdom and support. What can you teach me about control and trust? And she said, you cannot control nature, right? You have no say in whether it rains or that that tree will drop its fruit on a certain day. It's the same with all of life.
You are under the illusion that you can control things. Controlling makes you feel safe, secure, certain. But that very same control is also what restricts you from fully experiencing life. Because life is not something to be controlled. What might happen if you surrendered and allowed even more than ever before?
And I said, I find it challenging to know when surrendering veers into laziness. Do I really just relax and meditate for hours? Rather than creating in my business. And she said, create. Yes. But how often are you really creating? And how often are you just doing the busy work? This is where doubt comes in.
As Puma said in the Cocoa Leaves, I have a creative idea, but then I doubt the logistics of it and whether it's what I should actually be doing and whether it's what people really want. And if I were to actually create without the doubt, then I'm always thinking two steps ahead. I'm pricing it. I'm mark, marketing it, running it, you know, all of that.
And then she said, well, look what happened when Catherine held your hand and helped you push past the doubt and you created the high vibe journey. It changed your life. And it changed a lot of other lives too. And it even reconnected Amy and you. And that was so true because Amy did my high vibe journey program in 2020.
And that was what really reconnected us again. And then I said, I am here to create when I am not creating, I am not surrendering and flowing with life. And creating doesn't have to be limited to what I already do. IE running online programs. I can create podcast episodes, soul plan charts. New ways to work with me.
And, um, yeah, I'm seeing if there's, uh, yeah, this part. This is like my biggest, my biggest, biggest revelation with this conversation with Pachamama. How could I ever expect to deeply know Mother Nature by only her external beauty? That would be like someone knowing me only by the way I dress, or by admiring my smile, or my hair.
You Or the necklace I'm wearing to truly know me, they will need to spend much time with me getting to know the deeper aspects of who I am getting to really know my essence, my energy. And this is the key for me. I'm realizing that I have been trying to connect with nature by looking at her. Her exterior, it's all very beautiful.
Just like when you're admiring somebody's beautiful dress or jewelry or, you know, smile or anything like that. But at the end of the day, that does, that's not them. And you know, it's not really them on a, on a deep level. And I am trying to get to know. Mother nature and the essence of mother nature by, by just looking at the exterior stuff, which is beautiful and it's a start, but I'm realizing now that it, I need to connect to her energy and to really understand the energy of Pachamama.
And thankfully, one of the books that I bought on Amazon, when I bought that other book I was telling you about, um, it's called the fourth level. Nature wisdom teachings of the Inca. And this book, let me just put this here for a second. This book, um, it's by Elizabeth Jenkins and I didn't really get to read it.
I looked at that little hummingbird story at the airport, but I didn't really get into this book when I was there. I wish I had, but I was busy reading masters of the, of the living energy. Um, this one is going to be gold for me. I just know it. Because it has all kinds of actual exercises that you can do out in nature where you are really properly connecting.
I mean, I haven't read it properly. I don't know if it talks about her essence or that, but that was the point. The message that I got through from the, um, from her, from the Aya ceremony. And I'm looking forward to so much, like getting out into nature with this book and with the recordings on the website that goes with the book, those recordings you can listen to, and I'll let you know how I get on with it.
Maybe there'll be a standalone episode called the fourth level nature's wisdom. We shall see. Um, the book that I was reading. That I did read the entire time I was out there is this other book that I highly recommend called Masters of the Living Energy. And like I said, it's got this whole chapter written by Puma himself.
Um, it's actually transcripts of, um, some talks that he gave when he was 22 years old. And in this book, he shares what his grandfather taught him about finding your path. So remember what I said about passion and how much they really, really place such a huge value on the level of passion that, that somebody has.
And a lot of that has to do with finding your path. And there's these four keys and key one is confidence. And that comes from respect and love for each person. You just, you have to work with confidence. And the second key is courage. And we have to learn not to have fear, to face fears and challenges and difficulties with courage.
And he writes in this book, you think you have to trust yourself, but you do not. You need to know yourself. And only Pachamama really knows you. And when you understand the difference between trust and knowing, Then courage should be easy. And I definitely want to explore this more because during that ayahuasca ceremony, I kept thinking it was about trust.
I kept thinking, wow, I don't know why I'm not surrendering. I don't know why I'm not trusting. And I'm realizing now that I was just doubting myself. It wasn't that I wasn't trusting the medicine. It wasn't that I wasn't trusting Puma or any of that. I was doubting myself. I was losing, losing my courage and my confidence when things got intense, when my body was in strong discomfort and when I felt ill and when I got afraid, I was not embodying courage or confidence in myself.
And I made it a story about not trusting her, but in fact, it was about a lack of courage. And yeah, the whole thing, I realized now that if I had been in the bathroom instead of going, why am I not trusting? I'm trying to trust. Uh, if I had just instead gone, you are brave. I am brave. I've got courage, whatever.
If I just really drawn on like my courage energy, I really think I could have gotten myself out of it, but I was focusing on the wrong thing. Um, and the third key that Puma talks about is respect. And I love this part, you know, he says we have lost respect. We've lost respect for mother earth with nature and in the way we speak.
We say things like the mountain, we objectify it and for them, it's not an object, it's a light being, you know, they, they, they call it, you know, Apu, they say the Apu, you know, is the mountain and, um, we will say like that person, like we see each other as objects and yeah, he just talks a lot about, I mean, the Peruvians, they're just so connected to, you know, To Pachamama, like they have such a reverence for her and to the Apus, the mountains.
And yeah, you can just see it. It's, it's, it's beautiful. They don't, they don't even think they would have the concept of a feeling like this disconnect, like I feel. Um, and yeah, he talks about respecting your elders, honoring them. They have more life than we do and we shouldn't dismiss that. And, um, And yeah, from there it's easier to understand our larger family.
The father is the son and we are the grandchildren of the son and the children of the stars and carrying that degree of respect for the universe as a whole family and respect for all humans and to know that we are all connected as two spirit guides and to not, to not honor another person is to not honor their spirit guides.
And to not honor their potential awakening. We should always honor the potential awakening of another. Even those who've heard us or taken something from us. Yeah. Respect the person who's harmed you because this is an opportunity for that person to wake up and heal. If we just hold hatred towards that person, then we're just sending that vibration to them.
We're just like, we're not helping them to heal. And so, yeah, we need to. We need to really look at that, have courage and compassion. And the fourth and final key that he talks about is love. A lot of people say that love comes first, but Pumas says that's not true anymore. Unfortunately, we need to first train in these other parts of ourselves before we can really reach the part of love.
And so, um, yeah, we need to, we need to work on confidence, courage, respect, and love. And then you'll have all you need to become the most powerful Paco, the medicine woman. Um, yeah, so that was, Gosh, that was my experience with ayahuasca. And the day after that ceremony, we got to participate in a despacho ceremony.
Then this is no plant medicine for this one. This is a despacho ceremony. We did it with another medicine man. His name is Jimmy, along with Puma, his lovely little sister, Magali. And this ceremony, the despacho ceremony is all about creating an offering to Pachamama. A despacho is an act of love. It's a reminder of the connections we share with all beings, elements, spirits, and sacred places.
And Jimmy is a master at creating such a beautiful despacho. He started with a large square of paper, and then he adds layers and layers and layers of these beautiful offerings, flower petals, red for Pachamama, white for the mountains. They're laid in a sacred geometric pattern. And other symbols of representations they're prayed over, they're offered up, and they're added to this.
It's fruits of the earth like seeds, raisins, grains, nuts, corn, quinoa, sweets, white cotton that represents the clouds that surround the mountains and bring rain. And we each whispered our intentions and our prayers into our cocoa leaves as the sacred plant of the Andes. We blowed on them just before giving them to Jimmy and he artfully placed them onto his creation.
And then when the despacho offering is complete, the bundle is folded, it's tied, it's wrapped in sacred weavings. And Jimmy, our Paco, he said he would burn it. And I was surprised because I never actually witnessed him burning it. I was thinking, but what happened to that? I didn't see it get burned. I'm now realizing I've learned since from this book that, um, the participants don't watch the offering burning because watching might hold back some of the filaments being sent to the cosmos.
Now, you know, now I know. And the following day was Peruvian Mother's Day. And I was given a red rose by our host mother. And then there was another ceremony. This time it was with the plant medicine. This is the plant medicine Wachuma. It's also known as San Pedro. We got to see the cactus being carefully cut a couple days earlier by our lovely host Edgardo in his garden and I put some pictures of that on my Instagram.
You can see this Big cactus. And he was like slicing it carefully. Um, an actual hummingbird came into the garden as we were sitting there. So I had heard really lovely things about what Chuma had no reservations at all about it. It opens your heart to love and the ceremony is held during the day out in nature.
You're walking out in nature in a gorgeous location. I was like, yes, bring it on. This is a proper opportunity for me to connect to Pachamama's essence. So we got out there in this beautiful place. We drank from a ceremonial cup. The cup had a hummingbird engraved on it. And I guess I would describe the flavor of huachuma as a lot like aloe vera juice.
It had that kind of consistency and flavor. I was told to be patient. San Pedro can take upwards of two or three hours for the full effects to be felt. The experience builds up in waves and it then can last for a long time. And it was a very slow burner for me. A couple of actual hummingbirds began mating in the tree right behind us, for real, not a hallucination.
And then we walked up to the cave of rebirth. The cave is shaped like the birth canal and in Incan days, women actually went into this cave and gave birth inside of it. We went inside, I went into the birth canal and we stayed inside for ages talking. It felt especially poignant to be there on Mother's Day.
We talked about birth, we talked about rebirth. I had just drawn the rebirth card the day before from my Zen tarot deck, which was amazing. And then finally, when I left the birth canal, as in the cave, I flew out like a condor. I was spreading my wings and feeling like I'd been reborn. And then we carried on.
We went to the Temple of the Moon and the Temple of Fertility, Home of the Inca Priestesses. It felt like paradise. We were the only ones there. And that evening I was definitely still feeling the love as I checked into my hotel in Cusco. I was expressing my deep and most heartfelt gratitude to the bellboy who brought me to my room.
I was beaming from ear to ear. In my room, I sat on my bed. I was holding the Red Mother's Day rose that I'd been gifted that morning. And suddenly I'm looking into this rose and I need to know it intimately. And I opened up the rose. I mean, I was like, put it on the bed. I was opening it up and spreading its petals.
And I was just like going into it. I just got completely lost in its beauty, in its essence. I was like, Oh my God, this is so amazing. And I ended up there on my bed, Creating my own little ceremony and I created a beautiful offering to my mother. And to my husband and my children, I was using nuts and seeds and rose petals and leaves.
And in my rucksack, I found some sea glass from my, my, from Ibiza and a, and a rock and some shells. And I was just putting all this stuff, uh, creating like this, like geometry, geometric shape and everything. And I took a picture of it. I haven't posted that yet on my Instagram, but I will do that. I felt such a deep, divine mother connection thanks to the Wachuma medicine, it was really beautiful.
The following morning, when I woke up, there was eager anticipation in the air. Catherine had managed to arrange a private meeting for us with the famous medicine woman of the Andes. There's a recent documentary made about Mama Irine and I'm excited to see it when it comes to a major network. I'm going to read you the synopsis of the film so you understand like what it meant that we were going to have this private meeting with Mama Irine.
Mama Irine discovered her healing gift by chance at three years old when she intuitively healed a neighbor's migraines by rubbing her own saliva on his forehead. She became known in the village as El Dr. Pequeño, the little doctor. She was sold by her father into slavery, beaten by her husband, who was determined to keep her in the role of servile female, gave birth to 15 children, eight of whom died, endured misogyny.
The rivalry from male medicine men. Yet Mama i, Renee never wavered in pursuing her craft. She believed in herself and in the gifts she was born with. This is a story about a woman who overcomes tremendous trauma and obstacles and continues to grow and inspire at age 84. And so, yeah, we had a private meeting with her that morning.
Flavia Flavio drove us to her home. It's a very meager structure in a crowded neighborhood in Cusco. She'd suffered a leak in her ceiling the night before and her sofa was too wet to sit on. So Amy and Catherine and I all sat on a wooden bench at her table. Our trusty interpreter, our trusty Jadmar, he was our interpreter.
He sat next to her on the right. Cause Mama Rene speaks Quechua, the language of the Andes. When it was my turn to ask my questions, I felt she'd be the right person to ask about standing in my personal power and fulfilling my divine mission. I asked her, what do I most need to focus on now to fully step up?
My word of the year. She consulted the cocoa leaves and saw great success for me. She said, I'm a powerful healer. This is what I discovered when doing my soul plan chart and Puma had said, I'm a powerful medicine woman. So it was very affirming. She said, I need to be patient. And I've received that message so many times lately, but then she surprised me by suddenly asking about my husband.
What is his name? I told her she kept looking at the leaves very seriously. What work is he doing? I explained that he's in corporate and has been for over 30 years, but he's soon leaving and Finally, she said he is a powerful healer too. Together, you are a power couple She looked me in the eyes then and said it's super important for me to always communicate with him What I need, what I want, so that he can support me It's with his support that I can do my best work.
And these words, they're so important to me. I do know that what I have with Luca is unique and special. We are so committed and dedicated to each other. And yet I'll admit that I have sometimes felt that maybe I don't go as deep into my spirituality as I would without feeling like, you know, he wants me to be careful and to not go too deep.
I kind of maybe holding me back a little on that front, but to know that we truly are a power couple and that I'm meant to communicate my wants and needs with him and to have his support in order for me to step up and fulfill my mission. That just feels so right. I asked her next about spiritual discipline.
I told her about my butterfly nature and how I'm always hopping around from one concept to another, or I'll be in one type of meditation and then I'm into another. And then I'll do self Reiki practice and then EFT tapping, et cetera, et cetera. She threw the cocoa leaves again. And again, she brought Luca into it.
She said to find something we both enjoy doing together, experiment with meditations, energy practices, whatever we can both enjoy together. This will strengthen our connection. And this was interesting because I do think sometimes about how my morning alone time might change when he leaves his job and he isn't leaving the house at 7 a.
m. Will his presence in the morning interfere with my practices? He'll be wanting me to jump out of bed and go work out with him. Always a focus on the physical with him. But I like what Mama Irene said about us having spiritual practices we do together. Building our spiritual connection. I felt like I had taken enough time, but I wanted to squeeze in one more quick question.
I wanted to know about the health of my chakras. Are any of them blocked or needing my focus? I asked this because I keep feeling called to create a course about the chakras. And of course, I want to make sure my own are healthy and vibrant. First, she confirmed that none of my chakras are blocked. She said, my smile, my positivity and radiance are a gift to others.
I share. I heal by sharing my smile and my energy. This also confirming my soul plan. My soul plan chart shows that my worldly talent is to share my radiance with others. I used to think what kind of a worldly talent is that? But now it's like confirming, okay, that's what I'm meant to do to share my radiance.
So that was my meeting with Mama Irene, Medicine Woman of the Andes. I shared pictures of this meeting in my Instagram stories, but I don't think I've shared it in my squares and I'll do that so you can see what Mama Irene looks like. I think she's 85 now. Now, I'm gonna let Amy tell her own story in a tight, but you know, I don't know, maybe she'll come on the podcast or something sometime, but I'm gonna let her tell her own story.
But in a tight nutshell, she got sick. She was stuck in bed in Cusco city with no energy, suspected altitude sickness. And so after staying with her for another day and making sure she was okay, I carried on with our itinerary and I traveled to Asungate without Amy or Catherine. Her daughter was unwell, so she had to stay in Cusco too.
This ended up being a solo spiritual pilgrimage. And a test of my courage. Flavio, our driver, and Yodmar, our guide, accompanied me for the three and a half hour drive to sacred Apu Asugate, the highest peak in Peru. Asungate is known by the locals as the father of all mountains. For the Inca, he is a spirit.
Apu, that protects people and the surrounding mountain ranges. It was way out here that I got to truly experience life with the locals. I was a guest with the host family. Only my room was across a river from their house, walking across a makeshift wooden bridge with no railings. I was thanking my friend Jeannie then for encouraging me to pack much lighter.
My room had nowhere to unpack or hang anything anyway. No bedside table, only a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. And like all of the houses I'd seen on the drive up, No indoor plumbing, only an outhouse. The outhouse was located around the back down a slope and involved dodging massive piles of horse or cow, or maybe it was alpaca dung.
I'm not sure, but big massive piles of it on the way down to the outhouse. I decided right there and then no liquids all evening. I did not want to have to navigate that in the middle of the night in pitch darkness on my own. My host family back up at the main house, they were humble and kind, serving me simple but delicious lunch and dinner.
River trout, quinoa soup, vegetables from their land. Their toddler was crying in agony over a toothache all day and evening. And he was given a slice of tomato to hold over his cheek. I'd been craving an authentic travel experience and hanging out with this family in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of Peru was certainly it.
Back at my room, it was cold. There was no heating. So I went to bed wearing sweatpants, two sweaters. wool socks and my knit beanie hat plus three blankets piled on top of me. Only a flimsy latch on my door separated me from vast expanses of dark countryside and I felt very on my own. This was a test of my bravery because I genuinely did not allow myself to feel afraid.
Yes, I was out of my comfort zone. That's what I'd wanted and that's what I was getting. And at 2 AM, when my bladder was bursting, even though I'd tried not to drink anything, I got out from under the covers, stepped out into the dark, cold night and navigated my way to that outhouse successfully. I even paused on the way back to take in the vast expanse of stars above.
And I felt so alive. I was brave and confident and capable and courageous. The next morning I woke up early. Knowing it was the big trek up to meet Apu Asegante, up close and personal. I could see his snow capped peak from my bedroom window, calling me closer. After a home cooked breakfast of porridge and fruit, I was met with a proposal from my host family.
Their eldest son could lead me up the mountain on a trail on their horse for 80 sol, which is like 20 US dollars. Part of me was like, no thanks, I'm up for the hike. I But I could see in their eyes that they'd love me to say yes. 20 bucks was not a big deal for me, yet it would be a lot of money for them.
I could always start on the horse and then get off and walk. So I agreed. The horse was saddled. I made a connection with him first. And then, up I climbed. I used to love riding as a girl at my grandparents farm in Minnesota. It felt so empowering to be up high in the saddle again. The ride up there was so beautiful.
One of my favorite photos from the entire trip was taken from atop my horse as a herd of alpacas were crossing my path. It was magic. My trusty guide, Yawdmar, had followed behind me on foot, and when we reached the first lake, I dismounted, and we walked together to three more lakes. He played his Andean flute, and it felt like something out of a dream.
Then we found a spot to sit, and Yawdmar, a medicine man himself, showed me how to make my mesa. A mesa is, in simple terms, a bundle of medicine stones in a special woven cloth. It was magic. It's like a portable altar. Stones and crystals of the earth are the wisdom keepers, and they play an important part during healing rituals.
These special stones will absorb painful or heavy energy and then release it. It was such a special privilege to have this one on one Mesa making lesson by an Andean medicine man in this sacred spot in the mountains. I started crying from the sheer wonder of it. I was wearing my sunglasses so I don't think he saw, but I was just like, Oh my god, wow, this is my life?
Like this isn't a fantasy? Wait, am I dreaming? This is really where I am and what I'm doing. I walked all the way back rather than on horseback, and I felt so alive and connected and switched on. I would only stay until after lunch and then travel back to Cusco to check on Amy. Back at the house, the little boy was still crying from his toothache.
I ate the fried alpaca and the boiled potatoes that were prepared for my lunch. It was actually really delicious. And then I paid this lovely family cash, gave them extra for the horse. And suddenly the father said he could take the boy to a doctor if we could give them a lift into town on our way to Cusco.
I'm sure the money from my stay enabled this to happen and that felt so good. It was many miles to the town and I don't know how they got back home afterwards, but they were so grateful for the ride there and we said our goodbyes. My experience with this homestay really highlighted some things for me.
Where we Westerners may have more money, better amenities with our indoor plumbing and heating, more opportunities, more choices, They have a stronger sense of family and community support and ceremony and a much deeper affinity to Pachamama. On the long drive back to Cusco I passed through many villages and I saw how happy they looked with smiles and laughter.
We have it all and yet having it all somehow brings with it these degrees of stress and anxiety. It's almost like we have too many choices. Too many decisions. How many of us have ever stressed out majorly about choosing a school for our child? In Peru, I saw children walking home from one school. I saw the school and I could see miles in both directions.
These kids with the little backpacks, they were all with their friends smiling and waving at our car as we passed. But it went on and on and on. These kids were walking miles to school. No choice of which school to attend, it's just the one. We do make our lives so inordinately complicated. The long drive back to Cusco also gave me time to create a new Spotify playlist.
I called it Pachamama. And I'm sharing this playlist with my newsletter subscribers. You can go to kellypietrangeli. com to subscribe. I'll remind you again at the end of this episode. It sounds like Catmandu wants to come in and say hi to me. He's scratching at the door. Let's see how I get on. Um, yeah, so back in Cusco, Amy, she was still very weak, but thankfully getting better.
We had a slow and easy day of visiting museums and having lunch and just laughing an awful lot. We continued to draw an oracle card. This time we drew an individual one for ourselves every morning of the entire trip. And the messages we received were just so aligned for ourselves. When I drew the stag card, it spoke to me deeply.
It was all about leadership, not dimming my light to fit in. It said, you empower others by simply being who you are. And who you are is enough. You inspire others to greater heights. The final words on that card, it literally said, step up, that's my word of the year that I defined a few months ago and I read it.
I was like, okay, got the message. And it feels like the entire theme and purpose of my trip to Peru is to show myself what I'm made of. To know that I can do it alone, but that I'm always supported. I'm in partnership to feel that support beneath me every day, every moment by Pachamama, to be in reverence and devotion to her.
It's only by dropping my ego that thinks I have control, that I can fully surrender to the natural flow of life and allow life to happen through me rather than by me. And it is then that I'll truly know her deeper essence. No trying, only sweet surrender. And I'll end by sharing one more little story.
When Catherine and I were sitting on a beautiful grassy hill, overlooking the mountains as the Huachuma medicine was working its magic that day, we spoke about running a retreat together next year in the Sacred Valley. I got back home, I shot off an email to my subscribers about it. If you're on my list, you probably saw this.
I'm running a retreat next May in, in Peru. But then it was maybe the next day I hosted a full moon group meditation and it was under the light of this full moon that I had a sudden realization. I'm going to deal with Kathmandu, I'll be back in a second. Okay, I've given him some food. Hopefully that'll buy me a few more minutes.
Um, so I'm going to read to you from my journal again. This was under the full moon. I wrote, wow, big revelation under this full moon. I don't actually want to run a retreat in Peru. I love running retreats in the place where I feel the most energetically aligned. Ibiza. I love Kundalini. I like collaborating with Nicole.
I love curating experiences, healing modalities, leading the hikes, sharing my special place that I know and love so well. I love the energy there. The beauty, the sunshine, the vast blue skies, the sea, the dramatic coastlines. Es Vedra, the music, the hippie market, palm trees, pine trees, birds, spectacular sunrises and sunsets.
And yeah, it just, it's just, It just really made me realize that bringing a group of people to Peru, like, you know, I, I wouldn't be able to lead people in that retreat. I would still need to call on all of the different people who helped me to have that trip, which is fine. But I just, like, it wouldn't be a retreat.
It'd be more like a travel, like it'd be more like organizing people's travel. And I. As soon as I made this, you know, realization, I decided that I, um, well, I immediately put out, um, a, um, a sign up for my October retreat in Ibiza and two people immediately joined. And so there's place for two more. Um, this is my four person retreat in Ibiza in October.
And then I am going to run another Retreat in the spring. And I want that to be a bigger one, like 10 women in Ibiza. So I'm feeling really good about that decision. If however, my story has you hankering for a trip like mine to Peru, my friend Catherine is happy to be your travel advisor too. She will work with the family on creating an itinerary for you.
Maybe you'll have Flavio as your driver too. It's all custom design, so you don't need to include the plant medicine if you don't want to. Um, you don't have to do a homestay if you don't want to, but you could do something like the despacho ceremony. You could, you can, she'll, she'll create something depending on you, depending on your budget, you'll be booked into hotels that are suitable for you.
So if you're interested. Email me hello at my project me. com and just ask me for Catherine's contact details. Just say Peru contact details, and I'm really happy to share them. She said, she's very happy to, to help you. So already people have been connecting with Catherine after seeing my post on social media.
And I said, message me, I'll give you her details and I'm getting thank you. She's been super helpful already. So there you go. If you do want to want to go to Peru and you want to have this authentic experience like I had, I highly, highly recommend it. And the other aha that I just want to leave with is that I personally don't think that I need ayahuasca from my healing journey.
I've had deeply profound healing from breath work. Both in one on one sessions and in group sessions, I've had incredible healing using EFT matrix, re imprinting many of the healing modalities that I've shared about in this podcast, true breakthroughs. And I did already know that before I went to Peru, which is why the ayahuasca wasn't calling to me, but at least now I really know.
And. You know, maybe this, the message that I got from Aya is going to have a really profound effect on me. I'm just open and willing to see what happens. I just remain a curious and open minded soul explorer.
Thank you for listening to the project me podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with your friends. Coming up, I'm going to be in conversation with some guests. Usually these are solo episodes, but I'm feeling called to bring in some of the healers I've worked with to go deeper into their modalities.
Ask them questions, have a conversation. I definitely have it arranged to have Ancana come on. Ancana recently went into my Akashic Records. And if you don't know what the Akashic Records are, we're going to go into what all that is. It was amazing. And I also want to get Catherine in Peru to come on the show and share her story and her wisdom and what she does, how she works with people.
And if you want to receive my Pachamama music playlist. Get onto my newsletter list and I will put that in the PS of my next couple of newsletters. If you're listening to this episode later on in the future, just go ahead and send me a DM on Instagram kellyprojectme or you can email me hello at myprojectme.
com and I'm happy to share that with you. Until next time, open your mind, open your heart, and be curious. We all need some space in our lives. For the magical and unknown.