Urubamba

A good friend set out to Machu Pichu yesterday morning.  We had a conversation about Machu Pichu and his life before he left to Peru with his wife.  He was adopted as a baby, and had recently found his birth family.  He had also quit his job.  He is in search of his highest self.  All this brings up my journey.

I went in a group to Peru some years ago.  We did indeed go to Machu Pichu.

I had found a teacher, who had so much impact on my life and my beingness.  Mary was and still is a major teacher.  I learned ways to heal: not just for myself, but for others.

There was a piece of the teaching that we each had to go through.  It opened so many doors I had shut in my inner being.  In the process, I saw the Peruvian Master teacher, Don Manuel.  He was a simple man in some ways, while on the shamanic level, he was incredible.  He was also in my dreams, teaching!

From then on it was amazing.  I had very little money, but I put my down payment.  Surely my guides would help me! Mary asked me if I wanted to get my down payment back.  I said no. As we got closer to the time of departure, I began to wonder whether I was just being foolish.  But no - there was a woman who had a scholarship fully paid.  She was pregnant and there were complications, and her doctor said there was no way she could go.  Mary called and told me I had a full scholarship!  I got a passport, just barely on time.

I packed my bags and went.

The journey to get to Peru was long and I was tired and hungry.  We arrived in Cusco, the major city of Peru.  Our guide, Jose Luis, met us at the airport.  We went by bus to a hotel, where we ate and rested.

We were in Cusco for a few days, getting acclimated to the high altitude.  Then we went to Urubamba or Urupampa (Quechua "flat land of spiders"), a small town in Peru, located near the Urubamba River under the snow-capped mountain Ch'iqun. Located one hour fromCusco, Urubamba is the largest town in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. It is also located near a number of significant ruins of the Inca Empire, including Machu Picchu. Tourists often come through the town on their way to visit these sites.

TO BE CONTINUED

Rare Encounters

When I left my busy life in Olympia, the Capitol of Washington State, I moved to Whatcom County.  My time was my own, and did read quite a lot.  I had no idea it would be so satisfying.  Even more, I learned a great deal about birds.

One of the things I did was feed the birds. There was a Vine Maple right outside my window, and I put seeds out for the birds. I hadn't any previous experience, but I had a couple of books and watched what they did.  There were lots of small birds:  Chickadees, Robins, Swallows, Finches, Bluebirds, Starlings, Sparrow, and more.  I enjoyed watching them.

There were larger birds: Flicker, Cardinal, Crow and even Raven.  But the most interesting was a large bird, looking straight at me.  It was longer than a yard long, more than the width of the Vine Maple.  I had no idea what to do.  But I looked at my bird books, and talked to an expert.

Cormorant!  Usually Cormorants stay close to the sea.  Where I was living was about five miles from the sea.  That's not a difficult flight for this bird, but this young one was confused.  There wasn't really anything I could do: I couldn't even give food and water.  Eventually the bird flew.

Later, in a different and bigger house, I continued to feed  the birds through the winter.  I saw many different species.  I have two bird feeders through the winter.  One is for the smaller birds, and another somewhat bigger, and easier for the larger birds.  I also put out suet. The most interesting was a Northern Harrier, sitting on our roof.  I went to my bird book, and found this is a rare bird.  It didn't come close to the bird feeders.  This one couldn't have easily gotten food out of the feeders anyway, and it flew fairly quickly.

There is a dead tree in the front of the house, which I covered with Hollyhock, a leafy vine and two different Clematis.  It also has a hole into the center of the tree, just big enough for two Flickers.  And so our tree became a Flicker nursery.

One of my favorite bird siting was when I was driving South and saw a huge Snowy Owl going the other way.  Snowy owls sometimes come South in the winter, but this was nearly summer. It was about five feet away, and the bird wasn't higher than where I was in my car.  I can see it still!  It was beautiful.