The path of sacred plants

"My name is Jane and I am here in Colombia, I just finished doing a retreat with the taitas and well, what an amazing experience, I don't speak any Spanish, but their warm embrace with their smiles and the way they engage you with their eyes was beautiful, I came here to heal, to learn and that is absolutely what I got. The ceremonies and the thrifty medicines were profoundly deep and deeply healing, I don't know the extent of that healing yet, but that will come when I leave this very special place. The food, if you like food, so much food, food, The food was beautiful, so you will not go hungry at all, the food was made with so much love and was absolutely stunning and fantastic. The accommodation, I was actually very surprised, I thought it would be much more basic than it was, everything is clean and tidy and it felt like a home away from home."

"Hello. My name is James. I'm from Australia. But here I am in Putumayo, Colombia and for the last little bit of time I've been working with Taita Leonidas and Taita Fernando who grew up in this region — and have been Taitas here for many years. And I've been working with Leonidas now for a bit over a year and a half, maybe two years. So it's good to visit him in his homeland. In his home, where the medicine comes from, where the medicine grows, and where they make the medicine. And it's a really great area to be free. To be yourself. To learn to be yourself. To learn who you really are. To get in touch with yourself. And how to express yourself in a very, very safe environment.

And the benefit of having these Taitas, these guides, to take you through the experience is that they know how to manage your experience and what is going on. To give you the experience and the results and the knowledge and the learning that you need to have.

It's very special to be here, to be invited into Taita Leonidas home. To live with himself, with his wife and with his son, who is also learning to be a Taita himself. And their whole family is very loving, very caring. And all the time I spend with them I think, wow! When I'm having a family of my own. And when I'm interacting with the family that raised me. This is how I want to live my life. And this is how I want my family to be. Because it is just such a loving and caring environment to be in such a great space.

The accommodation is good. We're living out in the jungle. And almost every second day we get a nice rainstorm or a thunderstorm. Which allows us for some people at least, and for me to relax into the night. And to really enjoy the rain. And listen to it on the tin roof like we would have in Australia except it's much heavier and much more sporadic.

The food has been really good. My favourite thing is, first of all, the fruit. And second of all, the different species of riverfish. I think the catfish we've had which has been even bigger than this. It's a delicacy. So I've only had it twice in the time that I've been here. But it is really delicious.And then there's these other fish, boca chico and the kutchas. Which are also very delicious and very fatty. And I've been out fishing for them in the rivers near here.

I guess what I've really been looking for is to have more control in my life. Sometimes when you're going through the motions and you've got too much going on, you kind of feel like a pinball getting knocked around in a pinball machine.

And you don't really have any control over what you're eating or how you're doing in life. And you're working so much, but you've not got that much spare time. And you're just overworked, underpaid and all the rest that comes with living in a Western country.

And I've been doing yoga. And breath work. And meditation for a long time. But still, there's more that needs to happen. And there's more that needs to be let go of. And the plant medicines, Maybe you're not going to hit a home run or hit a six on your first time. But, by working with them continuously and you know what you're doing. And you're learning how to work with them. And how to take them into your body and to rework your mind and your nervous system. Yeah, they're really powerful.And abilities to be able to navigate that world and still stay in contact with myself and know who I am.

I really enjoy working with the Taitas. I especially enjoy Fernando, who's very active, animated. He plays these beautiful tunes on the harmonica, he loves to dance. He loves to move around, he loves to use his voice to guide the ceremony. Guide the medicine, and guide you through the conscious experience that you're having so.

Apart from all the benefits that you have, improving your life. Improving your personality, improving your being. Improving your sense of community. Also, working with the Taitas is a lot of fun, too."