Recently, Peru program participant, and former Mountain Spirit board President Elizabeth Sofish, PhD reminded me of a technique that seemed to help her with jet lag. I actually tried it before I left New Zealand for Peru last month. The technique along with the “No Jet Lag” homeopathic pills seemed to really do the trick. Here’s an introduction, then the technique which Betsy described to me. Read the rest of this entry »
Technique Helps Relieve Jet Lag
02/08/2009MSI Blog adds Video Clips
02/08/2009We’ve just added video capability to our blog. Expect to see some educational, thought prevoking and maybe even enlightening content, all G Rated of course. We’ve decided to go this route rather than placing our videos on other services such as YouTube. It keeps it all under the same blog.
Peru’09: To Ollantaytambo
02/08/2009By R. Richards
In the next few weeks I’ll be journaling the Peru 2009 Cultural Immersion program which lasted 14 days. I won’t chronicle every day but the most important highlights of our experience.
We had 7 participants: Sally R. and her husband Scott S., Gail and Hal B. of Sunapee NH, newlyweds Tim Y. and Amy G. and Betsy S. of Grantham NH. Most were teachers which made for good dynamics. On our first day in Cusco, we hiked up to Sacsayhuaman ruins. After walking the great walls, we had a little meeting as the sun set, setting the tone for open communication and willing to stretch outside of one’s comfort zone. The group all agreed they’d give it their best shot. That night we had dinner at the Retama where Guillermo is the music director of his band Chimu’s/Chimu Inka and plays there almost nightly.
Guillermo plays "Quena" flute at Moray
After a night in Tika Wasi in Cusco, we headed for the Chinchero and the fascinating agricultural terraces of Moray. Here, Guillermo took out his flute and played, setting a surreal tone in the ruins. You could hear the music echo through the terraces below. Then there was a hair-raising ride (not so much much for me, I’m used to the heights) to the Inka salt pans just before the sun set, then off to Anna’s pension. Many thanks goes to Julio of Personal Travel Service for setting up our ride with Ernesto and the Mercedes bus plus all tickets and other logistics in the Sacred Valley.
Anna's Family, Guillermo & Ernesto
It had been a few years since I’d seen Anna when I stayed at her pension for night. It was good to see Anna again, her daughter Katey and her other daughter who had been in Italy for four years, who I’d not yet met. Anyway, we all settled in nicely, the participants heading off to stay in nearby homes, down the street. We’d all met up for dinner at Anna’s though. Although it was a bit of a switch from the four star Hotel Antigua in Lima, everyone adjusted well to Anna’s where we’d be basing ourselves over the next few days. Below is a short clip as we arrived at Anna’s. Ernesto our knowledgeable driver, Anna, her godchild, daughter, and Guillermo are featured.
Peru’09 Program A Success
31/07/2009
Peru'09 Group in Cuzco with Chimu Inka
Facilitators Guillermo Seminario and Randy Richards are back in Cusco after leading a truly unique 14-day program. “We set out to offer something that connects our participants with the culture, the people and land of Peru, and we did it” says Richards. MSI’s programs and mission are inspired from both: a) Outward Bound experiential education programs, where participants practice community building, self-reliance, compassion and “stretching out of their comfort zones”, and b) a holistic learning center such as the Omega Institute in Reinbeck, NY. However our version of a “holistic learning center” is mobile.
R & G all decked out on the Peruvian coast
The program went off without a hitch, and the participants left feeling like they not only learned immensely about Peru, its people and history, but also something about themselves. The image at right is the group with Guillermo Seminario and fellow band members at the Rettama Restaurant in Cuzco. Guillermo took time off from the band in order to co-facilitate the trip.
Stay tuned – Since Randall didn’t have time to do journal entries while on the program, expect to see details on the program’s stop-overs in upcoming entries. These will be posted on (roughly) a daily basis starting tomorrow. We will cover elements of the program the exemplify the tenets of MSI.
The Enigma of the Nazca Lines
26/07/2009The Enigma of the Nazca Lines
By Amanda Richards
Trapezoid Designs
Peru is an incredibly beautiful, diverse and historically rich country. The Peruvian people are an upbeat, warm and friendly culture, with a sense of optimism. The country is a magical place, considered the spiritual center of the Americas. Cusco, the outlying Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu all have a special feeling to which no picture can do justice, not to mention the physical beauty of the land and the warmth of its people.
The Mountain Spirit Peru ’09 program is in its 11th day and the group are in Ica, having spent the day at the famous Nazca Lines. The Nazca Lines are an enigma. No one has proof who built them or why.
I came across a great article by Holly Hayes on her website
Sacred-Destinations.
Writes Hayes, “The Nazca Lines are giant sketches drawn in the desert of western Peru by ancient peoples. The drawings were created on such a large scale is such that the shapes can be readily discerned only from the air, leading to a variety of theories about their purpose.”
“Since their discovery, the Nazca Lines have inspired fantastic explanations from ancient gods, a landing strip for returning aliens, a celestial calendar created by the ancient Nazca civilization — putting the creation of the lines between 200 BC and 600 AD, used for rituals probably related to astronomy, to confirm the ayllus or clans who made up the population and to determine through ritual their economic functions held up by reciprocity and redistribution, or a map of underground water supplies. To read the rest of this article on Hayes’s website click here.
Cultural Immersion, The Creative Way
16/07/2009By Amanda Richards
Machu Picchu
The Mountain Spirit Peru 2009 cultural immersion trip is already into Day 4 of the exciting program. The group of 7 clients with Randy Richards and Guillermo Seminario as their facilitators, are currently at Ollantaytambo, staying with Anna Sequiros and her family. Today is a day to learn more about local customs, sustainable agriculture, women’s issues and visit the local school. The group will also help prepare their own meal, which for some will include preparing and eating guinea pig – a national dish of Peru. Tomorrow they will set off for Machu Picchu and discover more about the richness of the Inca Empire. An excellent book to learn more about the ruins is by Peter Frost, ‘Exploring Cusco’.
I am here in Cusco, my fourth day in Peru. Randy has always spoken so fondly of the Peruvian people and I am experiencing what he means.The people are so open and gentle and kind, its a delight to be here. The group will be back in Cusco on Saturday and we will spend some time with the very special Chimu Inkas – Guillermo, Mario and Wach
i.
The Earth is Hiring
06/07/2009Commencement Address to the Class of 2009
University of Portland, May 3rd, 2009
By Paul Hawken
Help Wanted: Good Custodians
When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” Boy, no pressure there.
But let’s begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation – but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement.
Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades. Read the rest of this entry »
The American Bedouin
05/07/2009Reconnecting with a Mentor
By R. Richards, MSI Founder
Screen Shot of "American Bedouin"
According to an excellent 2007 Aljazeera Feature video, Erga Rehns has been living the life of a Bedouin in the desert with the Bedouin tribes of Wadi Rum for seven years. I’m not sure if she still does though. I’ll have to do more research in order to contact her again. The last, (and first) time I saw her in person was in 1981, when we first met at her little art studio and home in Obidos, Portugal.
Some people are lucky enough to be a primed for a turning point in their young lives, and come across just the right person at the right time that poses questions, and challenges one’s view of the world – who plants the seed for a paradigm shift. Most people aren’t’ aware they’re ready for that change, until years later, when they realize the shift was primed by those mentors. Read the rest of this entry »
The Rules…
04/07/2009The Rules for Being Human
I’ve used this reading in the wilderness for programs when the participants were having a particularly difficult time adjusting to the wilderness or the circumstances presented to them at the time. It’s also had a place on my refrigerator over the years. I don’t recall the author.
Meditating in Ecuador
1. You will receive a body.
You may like it or hate it but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.
2. You will learn lessons.
You are enrolled in a full-time, informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irreveleant and stupid.
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons.
Growth is a process of trial and error, experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately “works.” Read the rest of this entry »
Mistaken Identity: Bears
28/06/2009Bear Cubs.. Not Porcupines
Paysayten Trail, WA
It was late in the day on a trail in the North Cascades of Washington State. I had been a course supervisor for a 22-day Outward Bound mountaineering course in the Paysayten Wilderness on the Canadian border, and was hiking out to the trailhead to meet our logistics person. I had to head out to prepare for the course-end cleanup and ceremonies. One of three groups of students was an hour behind me on the trail, following me to the same destination. I’d last seen them at morning camp in the wilderness about 10 miles ago, and told them I’d see them at the parking lot. I didn’t expect they’d catch me, as I was in a hurry.
As I cruised along the wooded trail which wound around small contours in the Douglas fir forest, I walked fast, using my ski poles for extra propulsion, and kept my head down. As I strode at a good clip I heard a scratching high up in a tree to my right. Some of us get cocky after having been in the mountains for years.
Since I was in a hurry, I didn’t bother looking up, and deduced I’d just heard a porcupine scratching and climbing about. I kept on. But, after a few more steps, I heard the same type of scratching far up in a tree above me, but this time to my left. So I thought, “Oh, must be another porcupine” but this time I decided to look up, and the thought occurred to me, “it’s odd, to have two porcupines in trees like this.”
"B.b..Bear!"
And to my surprise, when I looked up I discovered it was a baby bear cub. It didn’t take me long to conclude: “If that sound is from a baby cub…then the sound back there could also be a…….baby bear cub.” I looked back and high up, to the first tree, and yep, I was in between two cubs. “Breathe! Look around! Where’s Mama Bear?” My thoughts raced nervously. There was no sign of her. “Not good! Now what?” Read the rest of this entry »
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