"In the
company of friends including our guide, a young Olympic swimmer
Javier Padilla, my sister and I travelled to Huautla de Jiminez..
I spent many childhood
summers living in San
Miguel de Allende. My mother, an antiques dealer, bought and
restored an old house for us.
We took art and Spanish
at the Instituto Allende, we studied riding at the Escuela Ecuestre,
and when we weren't in school we were out doing any of a thousand
activities. It was one of the most interesting places in the world,
and still is.
Jennifer
Roth learned to ride at the Escuela Ecuetra in San Miguel de Allende,
and LOOK
WHAT HAPPENED TO HER!
It was safe
to travel in Mexico (it still is) and the world was considered
safe in general, not like today when kids are considered under
house arrest due to 'criminal elements abroad.'
Javier had
told us about this place where you could take magic mushrooms
and journey out of your body. He said the purpose of the journey
was to find a lost person, object, or the reason for a disease
process. Of course, being young hippies, we had to go to this
place. I was fascinated by the idea of leaving my body and being
able to obtain information to which I ordinarily didn't have access.
I was sixteen years old.
The road to
Huautla is infamous. The paved road ends at Teotitlan del Caminio
A Dios ("God/the road to the place of the Gods") We
were in a Volkswagen bus on a dirt road for some what seemed to
be days. The van eventually broke down and we waited more days
-- it seemed -- for a fourth class bus to come along. By the time
we arrived in Huauta, the rest of the group was so traumatized,
and then made paranoid by the news that the Federales were around
-- that they immediately left, leaving my sister and I alone to
the adventure at hand.
There was no
accommodations in Huatla except one very dark and dingy hotel,
which was full upon our arrival. My sister and I ended up residing
on the top of a chicken coop in a campesinos house. I think this
also was a security measure to hide ourselves from the Federales.
Outside the coop was a waterfall and cornfield (see photo.)
As far as Maria
Sabina, we did not meet her. We were brought mushrooms from another
curandero, and we took them the night before our departure in
the hotel. There were others having a desvelado and the
hotel seemed to shake all night with everyone's experience. I
was no newcomer to psychedelics, having come from Santa Barbara,
but I had only tried artificial ones. The mushrooms were indeed
different...far more gentle, and I indeed did leave my body and
"fly away." But I had no precognitive experience.
I will not
try to elaborate on the experience as Huxley (The Doors of
Perception) and Simon do it far better.
But I still have my manta cloth shirt with handembroidered mushrooms
on it in my closet...
Deposit and refund policy:
A 40% deposit is required to hold a reservation. The balance
is due 60 days prior to departure. If the balance is not paid
by that date,
reservation subject to cancellation. Monies refundable only if
property is re-rented, minus 20%.
