June 18, 2023 ~ Our Hidden Inca Tour: Peru & Bolivia guided tour began with an early morning bus ride to the airport and our flight from Lima to Cusco.
Our personal experience of the tour began with some very strange happenings. After breakfast, we discovered that we were locked out of our room with all of our luggage still inside. New keys, a visit by the manager and a review by the maintenance person didn’t resolve the problem. We were beginning to get stressed and nervous as our tour group was to be loading onto the bus for the airport in minutes.
Meanwhile, my intestinal tract was feeling off. We didn’t just need our luggage in the room. I needed a bathroom. While Brian learned that our lock mechanism on our room needed a new battery and was resolving that with the hotel staff, I made a dash for the restroom in the hotel lobby.
Brian made it downstairs with our luggage just as everyone began loading onto the bus. I was still in the restroom with the intestinal issues. Then, as I went to leave the bathroom, I couldn’t get the door open. OMG! I was locked in the restroom. After a minute or two of trial and error, I finally got the door open and we sprinted out to the bus.
For the first time in Brian’s life, he was the last one to arrive somewhere. We were the final two people to get on the bus.
Our flight to Cusco and arrival there had more happenings and a sacred experience as well….
We were relieved to be on our flight and excited for the journey ahead.
Brian settled into the flight and took a nap. I had a little more adventurous trip. As I gazed out the window with our plane cascading over the Andes Mountains, I was suddenly overcome with emotion and this deep soulful feeling. Somewhere inside of me I heard the words, “I’m coming home…. I’m coming home…” In that instant, tears began to stream from my eyes.
Not long afterward, I felt a strong surge of energy and an accompanying sense of nausea. Luckily, the woman seated next to me had asked for sick bags for her teenage son who is prone to motion sickness. Thinking that preparedness was a good idea, I had asked for two as well. Thank goodness I did.
For the first time in my life and out of the clear blue nowhere, I got sick into that bag on the airplane. I was so subtle about it that Brian kept on napping and didn’t notice. He only awoke when I attempted to go to the lavatory and was turned back due to turbulence as travelers were asked to take their seats.
My sickness continued as we arrived into Cusco on Day One of our Hidden Inca group tour. Once we landed, I headed straight to the restroom as Brian collected our luggage. A kind former teacher from Canada who was on our trip asked after me and kept an eye out on me in a nurturing motherly way for the rest of the day.
Once on our bus ride, I continued feeling unwell. By that point, my hubby was keeping a keen loving eye on me too. Astonishingly, once again, I grabbed for another sick bag that I had tucked into my purse and emptied my stomach. Then, I learned how much my husband really does love me. He actually offered to hold my bag filled with the contents of my stomach. Yes, he is a former fire captain and advanced EMT, but still…. that is a next level kind of love offering. I thanked him and held it myself.
Once we got to the hotel, I again headed straight for the restroom after receiving our tour headphones and putting my full bag in a trash can. As I sat on the throne, I listened to the opening remarks of our group gathering that was transpiring in the hotel meeting room.
Thankfully, I soon felt well enough, just in time, to join our group for the sacred ceremonial opening of our Peruvian experience. Our shaman Wilco dressed head to toe in Incan priestly regalia spoke of the significance of Cusco. Our tour host and author Brien Foerster (who has been a presenter on the History Channel show “Ancient Aliens”) had told us about Wilco at the orientation and shared that Wilco is a ‘rare individual.’ He is part of an unbroken line of Incan shaman going back to the 15th century before the Spanish conquered Peru and annihilated much of the Incan and pre-Incan culture. Those Incans, who had lived, had quietly kept their wisdom alive for generations. Wilco was the latest in that line of wisdom bearers.
As I took my seat in the semi circle surrounding our tour’s shaman and the special altar he had created, I listened to Wilco speak (via translation by our tour manager Gustavo). Wilco shared with warm reverence and emphasis that “Cusco is the womb of Mother Earth. In Cusco, each of us connects our umbilical cord to the womb of the earth.”
Again, emotion welled up in me. Each of us were asked to share why we were here, in Cusco and on this trip to Peru. With tears streaming down my face, I said, “Cusco has called for a long time, and I feel like I’m coming home.” Wilco looked at me with one of those gazes that feels like someone sees right into your soul. I humbly, tenderly smiled and then listened as each person took their turn sharing.
Incredulously, the only other person to have tears arise was our tour guide Brien Foerster. He had not seemed an especially emotive person, but when he spoke of his desire to right the wrongs done to the Peruvian people by the Spanish his heart was keenly pouring out through his words. As I listened while staring at the back of his head, I took note that only he and I had cried, and he was sitting directly in front of me as my heart resounded in my chest. That connection formed a quiet, simple bond that seemed to continue though much of the Peru experience.
After our sacred opening ceremony, my loving Brian and I went to our hotel room. At first, I immediately shifted into my common resiliency mode and thought I could join the first walking tour of our trip; however, after several minutes, I realized that self care was my priority. Brian offered to stay with me in the hotel room, but I encouraged him to go on the walking tour of Cusco on behalf of both of us.
And so he did, lovingly taking photos to share with me. While he was away, I reached out to a dear friend who was right there messaging with me as I went through a poignant heart opening and energetic clearing experience.
Yes, I seemed to be in the midst of a Montezuma’s revenge sickness, or given that I was in Peru rather than Mexico maybe I should call it an Athaulpa’s revenge experience. In any case… I was genuinely sick, likely from eating a quarter size piece of lettuce with my ceviche at a local coastal restaurant the day before. Still… this truly felt like more than a food issue body clearing.
My keenly intuitive friend validated my sensing and encouraged me to ground myself by putting my bare feet on the floor. As an enormous cascade of tears poured forth, she lovingly held space from her home in Montana as I went through this experience in Cusco, Peru. We both knew this was a potent clearing on many levels. She quietly continued holding space from a distance while I went through my process on my own.
This clearing would open me up to the energies of Peru and its ancient places. I had longed to come to Peru for over two decades. Not only was my prayer answered but the land was obviously preparing me for a more authentic, genuine energetic experience. I slept for fourteen hours in our hotel room.
The next day, I would share with Wilco and Brien individually that it felt as if I had an Ayahuasca experience without taking Ayahuasca. They both understood me. Brien remarked that Cusco calls deeply to some people. Quietly he recognized my calling. By the end of our Peruvian journey, I had more sense of our gentle shaman’s understanding as well.
My beloved husband had returned from the walking tour of Cusco as the sun set. Brian shared what he remembered of the heart of Cusco ~ Qoricancha, and the roads through the city as well as the presenters’ discussions of pre-Incan megalithic construction and Incan stone building.
My love warmly shared the photos he took for me and what he had learned from the local anthropologist, our tour guide and more. Though I hadn’t set foot in the heart of Cusco that day, my heart felt full and so very grateful. It was the beginning of a meaningful and long awaited adventure, and I am so grateful for how we shared it together
Here is one resource that discusses Qoricancha:
https://www.peruhop.com/coricancha-sun-temple/
DeAnne Wolfgram 