Day 4: 15 March 2025
The morning of the 15th of March 2025 came around far too soon after the short night with little sleep that followed our visit to Machu Picchu the previous day. We could not have breakfast, as it was the day where we would all go through a San Pedro healing ceremony. It was also Alta’s birthday.
The sun was shining and the rain seemed to be moving away. This allowed us to go through our private processes relaxing in the beautiful garden of the mountain house. In quiet contemplation, the peaceful space allowed us to remain in a prayer-like state for most of the day. The ceremony brought each person what they needed. For two of the group, relief came in the form of an instant release from restless leg syndrome, which seemed to stay away. For another group member, there was relief from irritating itching that surfaced most days. After the ceremony, the hives disappeared and did not return.
For myself, the journey was profound and enlightening. My intention was not to find healing; it was to find clarity on some things. I got a little more than I bargained for, and my experience circled out to affect the group. Some of this I might share in the sequel to The Puppet Master’s Secret that I am working on, but for now I think it is enough to say that no one was left unaffected by the day’s events, whether it was because of their own deep experiences, or because of the way my experience had played out after the ceremony when we went to visit the dimensional doorways in the Temple of the Moon, right opposite the front door of Casa de la Gringa, our home while in Cusco, Peru. Either way, we were changed that day, into better versions of ourselves.
Dinner at Casa de la Gringa is always delicious, but that night the soup and croutons seemed to be especially comforting. And then came the birthday cake Lesley had ordered for Alta. The moist chocolate cake was simply delicious, dessert for the next two days! Our journey was fast drawing to an end, because we only had two more days left in Cusco. ‘All good things come to an end’, they say … But to be honest, the icy cold and thin air were beginning to wear us down. It is hard to move through the day feeling like you have either somehow aged ten years since you landed in Cusco, or you have picked up ten extra kilograms that you were trying to carry around. Sometimes, it felt like both! Everyone had coped well with the high altitude and the cold in Peru, but our sunny home in South Africa was beginning to look like heaven – and it was calling us.