This day was supposed to be a very special day. I wanted to do the cleaning ceremony with Ayahuasca. Two friends I met in Galapagos had recommended me Petronio the shaman who lives in a small community near Mishualli in the rain forest of Ecuador. They had told me about the ceremony in the jungle at night leaning on the sacred rock. Petronio yesterday told me to come back around 6:30pm today and he had told me to eat only fruits and a very light breakfast – nothing else. And so I did. During the day I went to the Amazoonico Zoo in the jungle. I took buses and a boat since that was way cheaper than a expensive tour. The place itself was OK but nothing special. You are guided at all times of one of the volunteers. You can not observe the animals alone. I saw few cats, monkeys and birds mainly.
In the evening I met up with Petronio who brought me to the sacred place and gave me the Ayahuasca. He explained to me that he is going to stay with me for hours and offered me even that I could stay with him and his family after… I still preferred my place. He explained all steps of the ceremony: First I will see the clouds and the stars, then the animals like jaguar and tarantula. Then I will talk to people and then finally to the dead. I was excited since I wanted to see my grandparents and my friend who had died six years ago. Leaning on the sacred rock I waited, the shaman sitting next to me… It was pitch black. Nothing else then the voice of the jungle… Then I felt so many things and still I lost so much of my memory. I’ve seen the jaguar and baby turtles running into the ocean. I’ve talked to my grandparents and my best dead friend. I talked to my mother who cried and apologized for being so sick with cancer. That was heartbreaking. I felt so sorry and cried. Then she gave me a card saying she felt already a bit better now. Then I tried a few times to get up but it was not possible or the shaman pulled me down again. But at one point I stood and nobody hold me… I saw a cliff in front of my feet. I felt like jumping on the other side but at the same point to weak to make it with a super move like the characters in the computer games. But the I decided to jump with all my energy what was left. I jumped. And I smashed against the rock. There has been no cliff and I jumped against the rock! Slowly I felt the blood running down my leg and hand. I was not scared neither I felt pain. I just hold on to the rock until the shaman found me and pulled me down again… Where has he been… I don’t know if he had left for a minute or had simply fall asleep. Meanwhile it was already 3am next morning. Petronio helped me back to Misahualli where I still had visions for the next few days.

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Today I left Casa Amarilla mircette birth control buy and therefore it is time to at least introduce that beautiful place in the mountains. The place is owned by Jorge and his lovely wife and daughter. The lady is a great cook – I loved her Ecuadorian food (Mostly I don’t like it in Ecuador.). It is small but so cozy that you don’t want to leave. The view is great over Baños. You better reach it with horse because hiking up with backpacks might be a just too much of a mission. The garden is lovely – so many different flowers and butterflies. But best of all at this place you can watch birds like hummingbirds and the kin kin! It is difficult to take pictures of them but I took a few…

Casa Amarilla

Kin Kin

While staying at Casa Amarilla I met Ines and Juan a very nice couple from France. They invited me to join them for their waterfall trip Baños area is rich with waterfalls. So the complete day our host Don Jorge drove us from one to another waterfall. I never have seen so many on one day. Extreme amazing is the waterfall “El Diabolo”. The visitor can walk almost underneath it.

Waterfalls

El Diabolo

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“He that can have Patience, can have what he will.” Benjamin Franklin once said. And he was right. As a few friends of you know I am waiting since two days to see the active volcano Tungurahua near Baños erupting at night. At day time I’ve seen it but it is way more memorable at night. It is supposed to be one of these spectacles you will never forget. I’ve seen volcano’s, walked on cold lava but never seen it actually through up red. But to be worth to see it you will need patience I had to learn. And patience is not my strongest virtue! Two days I went up tho mountains to different view points freezing and hoping but being disappointed by rain and even more clouds. Until today. This was supposed THE day! In the morning I moved for a couple of days to the mountains to lovely Casa Amarilla. From here you have the best view over Baños. The hosts were not at home when I arrived on my horse but I used the time to check out the path to the Virgin view point. In within 15min you can hike to the statue of the Virgin Mary who watches over the city. From here it is possible to see the volcano by night. As we have the saying in Germany: “All good things are three.” I tried again. Even though my hosts ask me for staying at home I insisted and was rewarded with a 20-30min spectacle of its own. And while watching the exploding volcano a shooting star directly fall over it. I could not believe what I was witnessing but I made quickly a wish and was grateful to experience this phenomenal power of nature. I was able to make few photos but live it was way better especially with the thunder sound the volcano made. After 30min the sky started to cloud again… So I was very very lucky…

Virgin view point

Volcano Tungurahua erupting

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On my first day in Baños I did a horse ride to the volcano Tungurahua. This volcano is near Baños and it is active since years. All the time every now and then little eruptions. And it is noisy! The horse ride was quite ok and on the way back I saw first time the Casa Amarilla and I decided that I wanted to spend at least one night there to watch the kin kin and the birds during daytime.

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Today started with a breakfast at the WunderBar. While eating my fruit salad I observed a hummingbird outside the windows. I did some photos what was kind of difficult since the bird is very fast. After that I decided to see the view archeological sites like the Ruinas de Todos Santos and the ruins of the Inca city called Tomebamba. The archeological park is wonderful. Not that much the ruins but the garden and the various Ecuadorian birds.

Hummingbird

Sights in Cuenca

Birds

Flowers

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I am excited. Three of my Galapagos photos came into the finals for the Galapagos calender of the GCT (Galapagos Conservation Trust). The voting is until the 5th of January and I really want to win to help the animals of Galapagos with having a month in that beautiful calendar! Please help me and vote for photo 10, photo 26 or photo 31! You can make a difference and it will raise awareness for the amazing animals on the enchanted islands! All photos are made with the best equipment: Sony NEX5 Camera and Joby Gorillapod Tripod!
VOTE them here: http://www.savegalapagos.org/photos/competition/2010/

Photo 10

Photo 26

Photo 31

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It is easy to forget about time while walking through the old streets of Cuenca. All over the place you will find the loveliest restored colonial houses and a lot of churches or cathedrals – one more pompous than the other. Therefore the center is listed as UNESCO World Heritage Trust site. This city which its full name Santa Ana de los cuatro ríos de Cuenca is definitely one of the most beautiful colonial cities of the world ad at the same time the third biggest in Ecuador. It is located in the southern highlands at above 2500m (8200ft) above sea level. Named was Cuenca around 1557 but first settlements go back to 8060 BC. Later the indigenous people the Cañari settled which were conquered by the Incas which called it Tomebamba. For the Inca it became as same important like Cusco in Peru and was considered a candidate for the mythical city of gold which the Spanish called El Dorado. In 1557 Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, then Viceroy of Peru had commissioned the founding and ordered the city named after his home town of Cuenca, Spain. Nowadays according to the latest numbers about 467,000 people live here.

The Old Cathedral of Cuenca, or El Sagrario, was constructed 1557, the same year that the town of Cuenca was founded. Its location where to buy viagara in south africa is on ancient Inca ruins.

El Sagrario / Old Cathedral of Cuenca

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The best and cheapest way to visit Ingapirca the best preserved Inca ruins of Ecuador from Cuenca is with the bus. You need to go to the main terminal and take a “Canar” bus. It cost me $5 there and back. But it took ages since the bus stops for everybody who waits for a bus at the streets. In total it took about 3h there then I only had 45min to visit the ruins and the museum and then the same exhausting trip for 3h back. Ingapirca cost $6 entry for foreigners. The ruins are nice but not to compare with Machu Pichu or the Mexican pyramids. Still it was worth seeing! If I would have done that trip with a tour it would have cost me about $40. So $11 is a great deal I think.

Ingapirca ruins

Ingapirca museum

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Since I had much time in Guayaquil staying in the house of my friends who mostly were models the idea came up to do another nice photo shot. I got only my cameras and no external lights or much more equipment. But there was this great location the abandoned house. This time we sneaked in and were as quiet as possible since we didn’t wanted to wake up the dog nor meet the man with the machete again… This shooting was easier than the first one since I already knew the location and had a few ideas what I wanted my models to do. We had no big variaty of clothes and such but see yourself… The photos became quite nice. The camera did a great job simply using the little light we had. I like to express the contrasts between light/shadow, black/white and structures and space in my photos.

Models: Angel Passini, Oswaldo Vargas, Maria Belen Intriago
Photographer: Susanna Kubernus
Camera: Sony NEX5 with Joby Gorillapod

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