Fam Tour Peru 2
Peru Fam Tour - From the Journal of Stuart Barter
Photos and Text by Stuart Barter
I don’t believe much in prognostication but the predictions of one palm reader have always stuck with me. Funny, I can clearly remember the occasion and the fortuneteller. We were at an afternoon gathering at beautiful Will Rogers State Park in Pacific Palisades, California. Lying on the luxurious lawn in front of Will’s sprawling Monterey style house surrounded by giant Eucalyptus trees, one member of the group claimed to be able to read palms. She was willing to give palm readings to interested members of our group. My girlfriend was interested. Skeptically, I volunteered as well. Holding the palm of my girlfriend’s hand upwards, the palm reader claimed that my girlfriend would marry and become extremely wealthy. Later, reading my palm she claimed that I would have one child and live to an old age.
My former girlfriend is now quite rich. I have one son, (biological that is.). I also have 4 step kids. I don’t think that nullifies the prediction. We will see how long I live. I’m now in my mid sixties.
Recently, I was lucky enough to be given the chance visit Peru as a location photographer and advisor assisting the Peruvian government develop a film commission thereby encouraging Hollywood productions to choose Peru as their preferred Latin American location country. The Peruvians want to get in the game with Brazil and Argentina who now dominate film production in South America. So, a small group of us spent two weeks dashing around Peru photographing location sites that Bruno Canale, a talented young Peruvian producer, and a group of Peruvians connected to Peruvian economic development, felt were prospective sites to attract Hollywood style productions to film in Peru.
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Peru is a big country 512,00 square miles, almost twice the size of Texas. In the two weeks we were there, we photographed quite a bit of this vast country from Arequipa to Titicaca Lake, from the jungles of the Chanchamayo Valley to the mountain stronghold of Machu Picchu.
Of course, Machu Picchu is the most famous archeological tourist site in all of Peru.
First flight out of Puno put us into Cusco. After spending most of the day driving through the Sacred Valley of Urubamba, at dusk we finally arrived in the town of Ollanttaytambo situated at the base of the 8000 ft mountain retreat Machu Picchu. Early the next day we set off to tour and photograph this mysterious Incan mountain citadel.
First flight out of Puno put us into Cusco. After spending most of the day driving through the Sacred Valley of Urubamba, at dusk we finally arrived in the town of Ollanttaytambo situated at the base of the 8000 ft mountain retreat Machu Picchu. Early the next day we set off to tour and photograph this mysterious Incan mountain citadel.
What a place !!
On the way back to our hotel in Ollanttaytambo one of the Peruvian members of our group said that she once had a Coca reading from an indigenous Incan shaman on the outskirts of town and thought we might like to have our coca leaves read. In Peru, both tea and cocaine are made from Coca, as distinct from cocoa, which is the source of chocolate. You need strong stuff to predict the future and see into the souls of itinerate Peruvians and foreign tourists.
We all thought that seeing the shaman might be fun, but it took quite a while to track the guy down. It was well after dark when we finally arrived at the shaman’s compound, which reminded me of an old hippy motel that you might have found in a place like Taos, New Mexico forty years ago. Our shaman had a small bungalow type house situated between two motel style adobe buildings housing what looked like four units apiece. Apparently, the shaman rented rooms to acolytes who helped him harvest the herbs in his garden that were sold at the local outdoor Mercado in the town square.
We parked our small tour bus outside his compound and picked numbers out of a hat in order to decide whose turn it would be to see the shaman first. As it turned out, I was the next to the last to have a reading.
We parked our small tour bus outside his compound and picked numbers out of a hat in order to decide whose turn it would be to see the shaman first. As it turned out, I was the next to the last to have a reading.
We waited outside the shaman’s bungalow for what seemed like an eternity. When my turn came I was escorted into an interior room through a porch area that must have been the living room of the house at one time. Chino, one of our guides from Lima came with me as a translator. The shaman didn’t speak a word of English and although I speak some Spanish, I wanted to be able to understand exactly what the shaman was telling me about my future.
Inside, I was presented to an elderly bearded gentleman that certainly looked the part of an Incan Shaman, snow white beard and all. Actually, he looked somewhat like the standard picture of Jesus Christ you see all over the world, as he sat behind a desk-like table at the far side of the interior room. It was like he was at the Last Supper waiting for his disciples to arrive. The room glowed in a soft bluish light.
I sat down across from the Shaman. Chino sat at the end of the table. The shaman took a scarf filled with coca leaves, put my hand on top of his, and wrapped a scarf filled with leaves around our hands, mumbled some incantations in a language I had never heard before, unwrapped our hands and threw the leaves on the table. He said that my pockets would always be full, which I took to mean I didn’t have to worry about money, but, of course, I worry anyway. He also warned me to be careful in my travels. I might suffer a head injury on some trip in the near future (Wasn’t I presently on a trip here in Peru?).
Two months later stopped at a signal in L.A. a guy from Zacatecas plowed into the back of my car giving my head and neck a good case of whiplash. I guess that qualifies as a prediction fulfilled.
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