Flower Adventure 3 - Peru
by David Dalton
December 13, 2018
It took me a full year to recover from the 2006 trip to Uganda. I had almost decided to forego another flower essence adventure when someone lent me a book about Amazon flowers. I was so struck by the primitive beauty I was seeing, that I planned a trip to Peru for the late winter of 2007. By then, I had learned that having a competent guide was vital for success and survival. During this adventure I spent half the time in the Andes near Macchu Picchu and half the time in the Amazon a few miles downriver from Iquitos.
Even with a competent guide, there were unexpected dangers and complications. During the late winter, the ice at high altitudes begins to thaw, and there are floods and rockslides on the roads through the mountains. At one point, the bridge on the road we were traveling between Santa Maria and Santa Theresa was washed out. We hired a reluctant driver to take us up through the mountains to Santa Theresa. Several hours later, after pushing the truck through muddy inclines and stopping for a bulldozer to clear the road from boulders, we arrived in a small village along the Urubamba River where we would then trek for 20 miles looking for orchids.
For me, finding flowers I have never seen in their natural environment is an unsurpassed delight. My guide, Ruly, could not fathom the excess of emotions I expressed when we would find another unusual lower. At a certain point, there were about 20 travelers who had joined the search with us. They were like children, eager to please and delighted when I would select one of their discoveries for essence preparation.
You can read about the whole 2007 adventure, including the second part of the trip into the Amazon by following
this link.
This trip yielded a very special set of 36 essence from Peru which you can explore
here.
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David Dalton
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