La Piscina!!

Are words needed?

 We have finished the natural pool at the first waterfall. We made a wall on one side made of stone from the river and now we have a huge deep natural (almost) swimming pool under the waterfall. It is seven to eight feet deep and is spectacular!! The wall forms a reservoir from which we take water by tube 100 meters away to our hydroelectric wheel and dynamo in order to generate totally clean electricity for our needs.

The hydroelectric project is nearing completion after many delays and setbacks but it is giving new life to TierraMitica. It will allow us to cut the umbilical cord with Tarapoto, it will cut down the pollution and noise of the generator, we will be able to have electricity all day with no noise or cost of gasoline and it will power Okopua, Casablanca, the shamans tambo and many other places still to be built.

Bridges and vegetables and more

Our new bridge

 We have been doing a lot of work, adding safe paths and bridges everywhere, always with respect to the environment and the beauty of the land. One project was a footbridge that could be usable even in very high waters. We thought of suspension bridges, rope bridges and all sorts of things but finally we made this beautiful wooden bridge out of fallen trees. We have also made many passageways with hand rails, using always stone from the river and fallen branches.

 The organic vegetable and fruit tree garden is growing, we now have many varieties, we are growing fennel, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, bell peppers and hot peppers, zucchini, eggplant, cucumber, radishes, many aromatic plants such as basil, parsley etc, papayas, bananas, mangos, oranges, mandarins and much more.

 We plan to keep growing the garden and experimenting with more varieties and organic ways to keep pests away in order to achieve self sufficiency for vegetables and fruit within two years. To that we will add our project of the free range chicken coop that will give us fresh eggs and chicken. We are also cooperating with our neighbor Vidal Dias who is making a fish farm to have fresh fish daily.

 Plans that are still in the future is to have some goats in order to make our own goat cheese and fresh Greek Yogourt. We already are baking our own, fresh bread daily and we are going to restore a very old wood oven that is behind Okopua with a new adobe dome soon. Everything is very exciting, and as we keep adding (slowly and carefully) volunteers we will have more people to handle and be inspired by the various projects around.

 We will be soon doing Sara's Moon circle for ceremonies of the feminine, and that together with the North American native Indian teepee, the Temazcal or Sweat Lodge that we will make out of earth and adobe and the Art therapy school and work shop will complete the Indian Village on the hills of TierraMitica.

Hello There

Vision of Ayahuasca

 To start with, we need to apologize for not having posted anything for so long. We have been so busy being creative both on the land and ourselves that we haven't had the time. To start with, we have acquired an amazing painting of the grandmother Ayahuasca that will be giving life to a wall at Casablanca, the biggest building in TierraMitica, a building in the shape of the Andean Cross that will be our main socializing area, our dining room, cinema, living room, main kitchens, office, Spa, accommodation for staff and our center point                                                                                                                      

 It will also serve as a place for ceremonies when it rains until the main ceremony maloca is finished. It is now more than 60% done, and we hope to have it finished within 2012.
The painting is by a very talented young Peruvian artist, Luis Tamani.
The photo does not do it justice, it is a magnetic experience finding the pictures within the pictures within the pictures.

Marion painting signs

 Our "ferocious" guard dog, Huascar is growing at an amazing pace. He is now a little over 3 months old but his paws are enormous. His coat is turning blonder all the time, he jumps in the river and the natural pool at least 5 times a day and is eager for a walk, following everybody playfully. 

The November Mythic Voyage was amazing, everybody went away very very happy and with new vision for their lives. Many stayed on and shared our life here in TierraMitica and enjoyed being creative. We have new members of the community, except Ivan we now also have Mieke and Kumo. Amin and Marion just left yesterday after a great party for raising the Indian TeePee and a Mocha and Banana cream cake!! Friends for life. They will be back next year to spend more time with us. Hurrah!!!

Aura,Theo, Kumo, Leslie and Sara

Life in Tierra Mitica continues creatively. 

We just erected the huge (8 meters or 26 feet in diameter) North American native Indian Teepee. Soon a blog with photos will appear about this, but it has an adobe floor, a fire pit and sits on a beautiful spot with awesome views. Many people will enjoy this in the future. After some finishing touches, it will be ready to use.                                                                   

Jackie with Deli

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Our shamans are now living continuously with us and Deli is teaching us the Shipibo language and also the Art of the Ikaros, the traditional, thousands of years old ceremonial chants.We are discovering that TierraMitica is full of a great variety of Medicinal plants and we have plans to put many of them together in a botanical garden of Medicinal master plants so that visitors can see them and understand what each one of them is and what it does.

 Our shamans are very happy in TierraMitica and excited with everything going on, with the new things appearing all the time and the beautiful energy of everybody around.

Ferd, Juanita and Ivan

An amazing Mythic Voyage!!

Natural pool

massage at the cataract

 In a few days, the conversion of the muddy pool to a natural swimming pool at the first waterfall will be complete, it will have over 2 meters of depth (about 7 feet), crystal clear water and is made with stone from the waterfalls themselves with respect to the natural beauty of the place. We are making a stone wall to allow it to fill not only at high waters but all year round, and a drain to allow mud and leaves to filter out. It will be an amazing addition to the wonders of TierraMitica!!

This is the life- soon, deep and clean!!!

More Okopua pics

Okopua is getting more comfy and beautiful

The back of Okopua

the loungers to watch the stars

Door to Okopua

Okopua by night!!

Our Peruvian Staff

 Our Peruvian staff is growing . Now Lucas has joined us , he is a master carpenter and builder and will be in charge of all building projects. We also have three new field workers, Roy, Himne and  Wilmer and our older staff has graduated to new responsibilities: Hans is in charge of the natural pool project, Abel is in charge of our agricultural projects in our organic vegetable garden and our fruit tree garden, Brus is as always the chief and Jessica is responsible for the housework at Okopua.           

We also organized a movie night with our projector for the employee's children. We showed Disney's classics Fantasia and Bambi , and both kids and parents were fascinated!!!

Shaman's Tambo details

Theo in front of the Shaman Tambo

We have been doing some detailing on the Shaman's Tambo, some finishing to make them as comfortable as possible. Some stone and wood stairs for the pathway, some steps after the bridge leading to their tambo and painting and finishing on their bathroom, shower and outdoor traditional kitchen. Soon they will be back and enjoy the additions.

The bathroom and shower freshly painted

Their traditional kitchen finished

The bridge to the tambo

Tigre, our new workhorse

 This is Tigre, our new workhorse. We needed a sturdy truck to transport materials and do heavy work, so we got this 2008 Toyota 4x4 HiLux truck which is great!! It is really strong and serves all our needs and we no longer have to rent a truck for all the work needed. He is beige and black, he is a Turbo Intercooler model so he is strong and roars, so Tigre is his natural name!!

Huascar, The ferocious German Shepherd!!

Huascar running at Babushka

 This is Huascar, our "ferocious" german shepherd "guard dog?" He is a new addition to our community, he was born August 9th, and has the same birthday as Sara. Everyone is in love with him although he pisses and shits all over the place!! He also bites evrybody's trousers but he is sooooo cute!!!

Just look at that face!!

 He is growing every day, he now follows us around on walks, jumps up and down stairs and munches on everything . We have built him a huge house (pics in a future blog story) but for the time being he is sleeping in a closed veranda, he is still too small. He has come to join Pasha and Luna (our cats- pics in a future blog story) as a TierraMitican, and already he is friends with every creature around!! Sara named him Huascar, which is the keeper of the underworld in Q'ero lore, and also the brother of the Inca Atahualpa with which they fought a civil war that weekened the Inca Empire and made it vulnerable to the conquistadores.

Here, even smaller

Cute as a button!!

Sara is his Godmother

Aeropuerto

Aeropuerto view from above

 The Airport, Aeropuerto in Spanish is ready and operational.  It is our meeting room for the Mythic Voyage, and the place for private and communal consultations, as well as for any kind of meeting. At the back it has a small tools storage (because we wanted to milk this construction for all it was worth and save lots of time and cost. It has amazing views to the creek, beautiful acoustics and feels great. It has already seen service in the last Mythic Voyage and is becoming nicer by the day.

A beautiful spot right under Okopua

                                                                           It is called Aeropuerto because this is where we go to fly and since we give everything names, this one stuck very naturally. It has space for 23 people, 20 Argonauts and 3 Guides , nice coffe tables and a Shipibo woven cloth on the wall. The t
 ools storage room was also really needed, we had lost count of of our tools and materials, they were all over the place, so now we have a chance to be organised.

Interior with Shipibo cloth

Airy, with views all around

View down the creek

The door to the Terminal going UP!!