22.) The search for the forest demon

The last two days have probably been the most adventurous of my life so far..
Angel, my Shaman dad, his wife Nilsa and daugther Daisy took me on an expedition deep into the old part of the jungle to look for the "super chacra" (see the report on demons and sirens).
We packed gear for two days and took off early Sunday morning at sunrise. The plan was to get to an old mans house, who lives all by himself far off in the forest, which would be our base camp from which we would go out to search the super chacras.
The walk to the old mans "house" took 4 hours through thickest jungle -and I can tell you with a lot of gear to carry that is not a sunday stroll. I found out that my super extreme hiking boots are made for rock climbing rather than walking through a muddy, slippery jungle. The soles are so hard and unflexible that it is almost impossible to cross slippery tree bridges over rivers with them. It is like trying to walk over a slippery wet wooden trunk with poles on your feet. I leave it to your imagination how many times I fell. Plenty, to everybodys amusement (mine included).

So after four hours of struggling through mud and vegetation with our machetes, we get to the old mans house, who Angel call "Mister". The mister is 47 and looks about 70, with thick square glasses that seem to have been made before the invention of lenses. Two glass blocks, held by a wire frame. The man resembles a mole slightly. He has a tiny cottage in the middle of the woods, with no direct neighbours for at least 1.5 hours.
We set up our camps- hammocks and mosquiteros and head back out deeper into the jungle. Here, so far from civilisation, the forest is truly ancient, with trees that are so high that you can´t make out where they end. It is amazing! So many smells and plants and animals per squaremeter! I can see why the rainforest is called the green lungs of earth. It really is like a breathing living organism.
It is hard work to cut through the heavy vegetation, and we are completely soaked in sweat. I am carrying all my camera equipment, which doesn´t make it easier. We walk for another hour before we reach the first "super chacra". Now I imagined from explanations they were giving me before, that these super chacras are like patches that look as if they were being cultivated by humans, where there are no humans around and it is totally impossible for anyone to get the harvest of the chacra to any port..
What they really look like is a bit different. Basically they are parts in the middle of the rainforest, that are clear from any small plants. All that grows there are high trees and the ground is totally clear. That is quite a sight, when you struggle for hours and hours through the thickest imaginable vegetation. It looks a bit like german forest. Just trees and pretty clear ground. So I can see why people here believe these places are haunted. It is really quiet there, as if all the animals stayed outside and so clean, it doesn´t seem like jungle at all.
Angel makes us all smoke cigars, before we enter the super chacra, to calm the demons.
I take amazing pictures and am happy that we made the long way here. I hope that I will be able to capture that weird atmosphere in pictures. It could just be a normal forest in Europe..
Altogether we walk to three different super chacras and the last one is actually home of a demon, Angel tells me. The demon lives in a huge dead tree and we leave some cigars for him. This last chacra is a magical place, where trees grow in circular loops. No lie. I wish I had some kind of audio recording device, because the silence is very dense and serene. No doubt this is the home of a demon.
After that we make our way back to "misters" house and prepare some food. By now we have been walking for about 8 hours in total and that means climbing, cutting, struggling through mud, trees and vegetation. You can not imagine how pretty we all look and how nice we smell.
My hat is covered in cobwebs as the rest of my body, which is probably good to capture some of the million zancudos.
I was so clever not to bring a change of spare clothes- so i will be wearing the same soaked stuff again the next day. Fun.
We get to eat some Zorillos ("Zorro" is the word for "Fox", "Zorillo" means "little fox"). The rat like animal has no resemblance whatsoever with a fox and tastes clearly of rodent, which is not my favorite food in the world.
Still great to eat something and with a soup of platanos and fish it is a good meal.
The next days we head back and I get to wash the black crust off my body..
I really hope the pictures turn out the way I have them in my head.
Today I am heading back to the jungle for my last two days there. We finally got the pictures of the kids developed and I will pick them up tomorrow. I can´t wait to see them after all this time!
On Friday I will fly into Lima to meet Tosh on saturday. Can´t wait to see the boy again and go on more adventures!
More stories on friday! Ciao luego!