Mundo Amazónico
July 1, 2017
Jimmy Weiskopf
3 citations
A narrator living in Colombia, who has been drinking ayahuasca with indigenous shamans for a book, travels to Iquitos, Peru, at the turn of the millennium to investigate local rituals. The travelogue recounts his river journey from Leticia, his impressions of a city centered on eco-tourism, and his encounter with Zappa, an American expatriate who runs ayahuasca ceremonies but lacks proper respect for indigenous traditions. The narrator contrasts this with the unspoiled Native-American healing he experienced in the Putumayo. He finds Iquitos charming for its local color and rubber-boom history, yet notes its poverty, provincialism, loss of environment and customs, and the absurd division of the Amazon into three countries. He relates these points humorously through border hassles and folkloric incidents.
Mundo Amazónico
July 1, 2018
Jimmy Weiskopf
2 citations
A narrator living in Colombia, who regularly drinks yajé (ayahuasca) with indigenous shamans, travels to Iquitos, Peru, to research rituals for a book. The account, the second of three parts, is a travelogue of vignettes: the river journey from Leticia to Iquitos, impressions of a city dominated by eco-tourism, and meeting his host Zappa, an American expatriate who exports shamanic plants and leads ayahuasca ceremonies.
Mundo Amazónico
January 1, 2020
Jimmy Weiskopf
1 citation
In the final installment of a three-part narrative, the Colombian narrator, who has been consuming yajé (ayahuasca) with indigenous shamans for a book project, travels to Iquitos at the turn of the millennium. His host, an American expatriate named Zappa who exports shamanic plants and leads ceremonies, attempts to commercialize a traditional plant remedy for diabetes, inadvertently becoming entangled in international drug war intrigue. After several unsatisfying rituals with unqualified or unethical healers, the narrator finally participates in a ceremony led by a skilled and ethical shaman.
Mundo Amazónico
June 2, 2022
Jimmy Weiskopf
Ayahuasca, originally from indigenous Amazonia, has spread globally through ceremonies for Westerners, academic studies, and cultural depictions. Its survival is paradoxical because native ayahuasqueros have been both victims and beneficiaries of its globalization, as their traditional cultures were eroded by colonization while they revealed the medicine to outsiders. This essay traces the dissemination of yajé (the Colombian name for ayahuasca) from the author's perspective as an early participant in rituals held in Bogotá by a handful of taitas (indigenous healers) in the early 1990s, a number that has since grown to at least fifty working regularly in Colombian cities.