Peru – An Initiation Journey – part 1

In a way I always knew that I would eventually go to Peru. Small hints over the years – such as a book by Shirley Macleine, documentaries on tv, experiences from others – and dreams. All these small – and maybe insignificant details have inspired me

Obviously, it is no big secret that I am interested in spirituality, so what attracted me the most was of course the spiritual part of Peru – i.e. the Inka tradition. And the special energies there, I had heard about before my journey.

The opportunity of going on this long journey to another place on earth, where the moon looks like a boat (when it is a half moon) – came upon a workshop in 2016 regarding the Inka tradition. I had attracted this workshop upon a dream I had three times, which made me ask the (often) wise Google, hoping to get an answer to what this particular dream meant. The answer from Google lead me to a website concerning the Inka Tradition, which caught my interest – and shortly after this a newsletter told me about this 6 days workshops with teachings and initiations by Don Juan Nuñez del Prado and his son Ivan Nuñez del Prado from

Ivan Nuñez del Prado, Peru

Don Juan Nuñez del Prado, Peru

Peru. Not until later I found out that Juan is a well-known anthroplogist and Paqo (performer of the Inka tradition), who is one of the main characters of the book by Elizabeth B. Jenkins “The Inka initiation”. Juan, his son was taught by his father, while he followed him around as a very young boy.

I participated in 3 workshops, during which I learned many of the tools of the q’ero indians meant for using the ever existing energy to help others and oneself to feel better. First and foremost by receiving “sami” light and healing energy and let go of all “hoocha”, which is heavy energy.

These three workshops also lead me to Anna Southerington. She is an amazing Swedish woman – and paqo, living in Stockholm. She has know Juan and Ivan for years and has been travelling in Peru many times. She has written the very inspirational book “Inkamestrenes Arv”, descriping the Inka Tradition and showing many energy exercises in detail. From time to time she is giving workshops in Sweden and Denmark. A workshop with Anna encouraged me further:  I knew that I had to go to Peru.

In September 2017, this wish was manifested, when I together with a group of people from Denmark, Greece, Austria, Croatia, and Scotland arrived in the beatiful and magical Peru.

Before the arrival most of us started from Copenhagen Airport full of expectations. Some of us already met before – others met for the first time at a presentation workshop prior to the journey – and yet a few persons were to arrive later in Peru.

Så startede den laaaange rejse mod rejsemålet. Først til Amsterdam – derfra videre til Lima. 12,5 timer, hvor vi enten læste, så film (jeg så bl. a. den varme film om Paul Potts), “gik tur” på de lange gange, blundede eller spiste. Det sidste gjorde vi ca. hver anden time, hvor det søde KLM-personale gik rundt og servicerede os.

The loooon journey towards our goal – Peru – started. KLM to Amsterdam – and from there 12.5 hours to Lima. How to spend this many hours on a plane? Watching movies (e.g. the Paul Potts movie) – taking a walk on the long aisles, sleeping, or eating. The latter every second hour – serviced by the very kind KLM cabin crew.

Finally, we arrived at the airport hotel in Lima. Very tired – but still happy. Endelig ankom vi trætte – men stadig glade og forventningsfulde til Lima. However, we had to wait for a very long  time, before we were accomodated, because the hotel staff said that we had booked a room less than the leader of the journey claimed.

Very early the next morning we were to fly from Lima to Cusco. The time difference is 7 hours earlier than i Copenhagen, so we hadn’t really got accustomed to that yet.

The flights from Lima are only able to fly within a specific time limit each day because of the weather conditions. Sometimes, the flights are cancelled because the weather is not fine enough for flying. But today, everything went fine. We were booked in two various flights leaving with an interval of 5 minutes.

Approaching Cusco, the appearance really touched me deeply. This was huge – very huge. Already now – it felt like “coming home”.

Right after having met the other half of the group, we drank a cup of coca tea (tea made on coca leaves), which helps extending the bloodvessels, so it is (a little) easier to breath in the very thin air.  The first half of the group had got free coca leaves to chew on, but I was told that it cost 1 dollar for a cup of tea. Ok – I wasn’t ruined by that – and the tea was fine, but some got a good laugh because of this.

Cusco is almost 3400 meter above sealevel, so the latitude sickness was inavoidable despite of coca leaves and extra iron mixture (Krauterblaut some weeks prior to our departure, in order to increase the contents of hemoglobine in our blood). It is not recommendable to take medicine against latitude illness, as this might give you the feeling of being capable of anything (eg. climbing mountains or running fast), because you don’t have any symptoms. Worst case scenario, this will hide any serious side effects of the latitude illness.

How does it feel to have latitude illness?

Of course, this might vary from person to person. I had strong respitory issues – almost astmatic, when I was going upwards – e.g. climbning stairs, of which there are quite a few in Cusco.

I felt dizzy, my heart beat was fast, and I had a bad migraine. All the symptoms (except for the migraine, which was constant for some hours) were like waves. One moment you think that now – hurray – I have become used to the latitude. Alas – the next moment you know that you have still not become used to it.

Add to the latitude issues, that you “inner time watch” is noisy. Your body still believes that it is time to wake up between 1 or 2 in the night.

All of this, however, is evened out over time. I heard that when you have been here for a months your body has totally adapted to the latitude. However, even people born and living in Peru will have lattitude issues, when return to Cusco after visits to lower areas. (This applies to Juan and Ivan as well).

This means that you have to accept that this is just how it is, and after a few days it is already better. The most important thing is that you take it easy. You have to walk slowly and pause every time you get dizzy or loose your breath.

This is way of practizing your “live in the moment” skills.

So upon the arrival at this beautiful old city of Cusco, we all went very very slowly arround and watched the colourful inhabitants of the city on the streets – or on the way in or out of the cathedral or the church

From time to time, we were stopped by street sellers, who wanted to sell everything from “genuine” Rayban sunglasses, jewelry, and opportunities of photographing their son holding a goat (wearing clothes) in his arms or a little woman with a lama walking by her side in a line (like a dog)

We had a lunch at the Pukara – a tiny popular restaurant nearby the hotel, very good at cooking chicken with coriander. A large portion of rice, vegetables and chicken was about 25 soles, which is about 7 Euros.

Narrow streets of Cusco

After coffee, cocoa or coca tee at the coffeeshop “Jack’s”, colourful boots were demanding us to be bought in the little shoeshop on the other side of the street. Handmade and unique (In Europe at least). Well, they didn’t have my size. “Come tomorrow, and we have sewn a new pair for you – only 140 soles. And they must have loved us, because they actually sold three pairs at a time, because a woman of my group, who became a dear friend of me, also bought a pair – as well as a third person from elsewhere, who was so excited, when she watched us trying the boots that she also wanted to order a pair.

Later on that day, my wallet was emptied, and the contents replaced by a beautiful and hand woven poncho, which I intended to use for ceremonial purposes later on. Unfortunately, most of the group (including me) were not aware that it is in fact possible to buy soles in Forex in Denmark, and we had only brought a few dollars. The small shops were not very keen on accepting credit cards, so this did result in some stupid fees in the ATM’s.

The next few days – leading up to the arrival of Juan and Ivan, were beautiful and memorable due to the views of mountains, lamas, sheep, and colourful people. It is a really beautiful country. The sun was burning – especially when we went further up in the mountains. Our noses became red – and we enjoyed being adventorers in this foreign country.

One afternoon, I went on a (huge) shopping trip together with a nice couple, who are now good friends of mine. I must admit – the male part of this couple really deserves a golden medal for being patient. 6 hours….. I do not know any other man who can beat this. J The other woman and I managed to get (almost) everything we needed. She found a misha cloth, and I found gifts for my family. The misha cloth was found in a fantastic shop with ancient misha cloths and other interesting Inka stuff. She just knew that she had to enter this shop (at the end of the day). And she was right. She found a beatiful misha cloth in exactly the colours she had imagined.

I was also lucky. I found an expensive bag for my own misha, and I was ready to leave the shop without it, in case I couldn’t obtain it for 200 soles. And then suddenly, the seller – Wilbert – shouted after me that I could get it for this amount, because he felt that I was serous in regards of ceremonial stuff. The below photo shows the owner of a shop of music instruments and I. Here I bought a pan flute for my younger son. Take it easy now – I didn’t bring home the owner of the shop 🙂

After a couple of days with sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment in front of the cathedral, our two teachers Juan and Ivan Nunes del Prado came – and now the adventure started for real,which I will tell you about in my next blog.

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