Messages

We know it's a long and expensive ride to get to Iquitos... but we always have several people from Australia that make the trip. Many found that buying a Round the World pass was the way to go, but then you have to have the rest of the funds to manage that round the world passage. Regardless of how you can manage it, we love all of you here and you always bring new information that we don't see anywhere else. We really appreciate that.
However, from Carpedmt we have some excellent new! You can fly to Lima roundtrip on Aerolinas Argentina for $1000 Australian dollars... that's a huge difference from the 2,500 to 3,000 USDs it was in the past!
I can book you from Lima to Iquitos at really good rates if you buy early. Currently we're booking that roundtrip from $125 to $145 USDs.

I am in Iquitos, Peru and if you want to contact me about programs, curanderos, flights getting here, where to saty, etc. please do. you can reach me at alanshoemaker at hotmail.com

Conference is also looking very good this year, surprisingly... I was a bit concerned that the economic woes of the World would put a damper on shamanism but it´s not working out that way. Seems people will put the beach vacation on hold but shamanism is about working on your self and others and so we have more early bird sign ups than ever before.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we have added many new things to the Conference website  www.soga-del-alma.org/conferencesite
And we just got confirmation that the famous musician Tito Del Rosa will be at the conference with his music and his medicina.

and Peru just knocked 19 percent off all flights flying into and out of Iquitos!
So booking the flight now, a roundtrip for July, costs $126 USDs total....

Cheers!
alan

We'll miss you John.. so let's hope things come around for you and you would be able to make it!

this morning, I received confirmation that the incredible ayahuasca visionary artist Pablo Amaringo will be with us at the Conference.
Pablo is most always with us at the Conferences and he brings not only his original art but very nice litho's printed in Spain. He's one of the most fascinating "Presenters" as he discusses his paintings, explaining in great detail the meaning of each small section of the paintings while they are projected to the large screen.

"In a world of ultimate mystery, we create boredom. In a Universe of overwhelming abundance, we create lack. In a long life of safety, despite thousands of demonstrations of peace, we still create disquiet. In a life with but one guarantee, death, we create being afraid of it. And, finally, with a consciousness that is able to so powerfully create these things, it is also a Truth that we can as well create their opposites, at any time, in any place, for no reason, other than we can."  TB Wright

Come join us in Iquitos, Peru for the 5th Shamanism Conference this July. See and feel how the mystical and mysterious World of Shamanism will guide us to a new reality of healing and happiness.
We hope to see you here. www.soga-del-alma.org  click on "shamanism conference"

All the good things,
Alan Shoemaker/Iquitos-Peru

We've just received confirmation that Rober Tindale, author of Jaguars That Roam the Mind, will be Presenting at the 5th Conference. As well, Susana Bustos will be a Presenter as well. She wrote her disseratationj on the healing power of icaros.
Peter Gorman is a Confirmed Presenter as well and Howard Charing.

Just got a "confirmed" Presenter! Martin Ball, Phd...
He's an excellent speaker and writer on shamanism and religion, has incredible music as well.

www.martinball.net

Dennis Mckenna will "tentatively" be Presenting at the Conference as well.

Dr. Richard Grossman is confirmed!

and many more to be announced as we know...

The 5th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference: "The Art and the Heart of Healing" will be held in Iquitos, Peru
July 11th - 18th, 2009

Website is being worked on now and will be up as soon as it is ready: www.soga-del-alma.org click on shamanism conference

The schedule looks like this:

Saturday, July 11th:  9am Registeration at El Parthenon Hotel
                3pm - Presentations
                6pm - Catered Dinner
                7.30pm - Presentations till 11pm
Sunday, July 12th: 3pm to 11pm - Presentations  6pm - 7.30pm: Catered Dinner

Monday, July 13th: Free day and evening for Ceremony with the Curandero of your choice

Tues./Wed., July 14th and 15th: Presentations from 3pm to 11pm  Catered Dinner - 6pm to 7.30pm

Thur., July 16th: Free day and evening for Ceremony with the Curandero of your choice

Friday, July 17th: Presentations from 3pm till 11pm  Catered Dinner - 6pm to 7.30pm

Saturday, July 18th: Free day and evening for Ceremony with the Curandero of your choice

We've adjusted the schedule this year so you can possibly have Sunday, July 19th as a travel day to return home, especially for those that need to get back to work on Monday, July 20th.

We have several Presenters already confirmed, many "tentative" as well and we have are open to suggestions, if any of you have someone in particular that you think would be an excellent addition to the "Presenter" list. Please PM me. Thanks for reading and I hope to meet you here in Iquitos this coming July 2009.

alan shoemaker

Well, you're not the only one to have thought that. You realize that when it was first given it's nomenclature, it was called "banisteropsis rusbyana". that held for years... and sometime around 20 years? ago someone recognized that it had been mis-classified and so it because dip.cabrerana....
Certainly looks like a caapi to me and most people couldn't tell the difference when looking at the leaves side by side...

the curandero Percy Garcia is here in the office with me now and he's been working with chali since he was 11, has his own plants, and he also has never seen it in flower.
when we want plants to flower here in the jungle, we simply put new rich soil piled up around the base of the plant. I've tried that with chali but didn't work. Perhaps some of the people in other countries are correct, I'd love to know that it flowers, seems it would have to..

Here's what I just posted on the aussie forum:

to clear this up... I have never written that I have seen chaliponga in flower, because I haven't. I've been growing it for 10 years and have huge plants. They love very damp earth but will also grow in full sun with only rain, but the vines get very brittle and it doesn't grow very quickly. From one cutting in the ground, it sends out shoots and these too begin growing quickly. the original mother plant of chali was brought to Iquitos by the curandera Adela. She got it from the Huambisa tribe near the border of Ecuador about 40 years ago, so most all the chaliponga (huambisa) growing in Loreto have come from this Mother plant. Adela has also never seen it in flower.

Teotzlcoatl, no worries. I didn't think any offence was intended and certainly no offence was taken.

Chaliponga is also known as Oco-yage. "Oco" is indigenous for "water". It's a water loving plant and so that's the way that I've been able to get them growing and once they get going, they really take off, growing quickly and sending out many many vines.
I'll ask my friend if he thinks he can ship some live cuttings... but I don't think he can get them out of Peru, much less entered into another country.
I'm in complete agreement that it must flower at some point... but as I said, no one that I have spoken with in 16 years here has seen it in flower. I've got another really beautiful plant in my garden here.. have no idea what it is, but it grows up the side of my wall, flowers, drops a few seeds and dies. then the seeds take and it keeps repeating this cycle over and  over... bizarre plant.

Most likely they are growing B. caapi, not DCabrerana. The leaves of B. Caapi are very similar to DCabrerana as well... so much so that the chali was initially misidentified as Banisteriopsis Rusbyana.
it's far superior to pviridis, especially because it's a vine and so grows really quickly. With the PV you have to wait 4 years to harvest and then you'll need every leaf from the bush to cook a bash. DC cuttings are very sensitive but we've been quite sucessful in putting in a plantation with leaves 10 inches long.
I don't know about shipping live plants but will check into it. My friend shipped to Moscow, took 12 days but when the cutting got there they were growing tiny white roots.

You must be kidding...
This is Alan Shoemaker, Mariella´s husband. I am the one that first wrote that it was called ¨chaliponga¨NOT ¨chagropunga¨.
here in Loretto, the region where Iquitos is located, it is knows as ¨huambisa¨, named after the tribe, which is located near the border to Ecuador.
No one has seen it in seed, yet.