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Loreto peru

The region of Loreto is the most bigest region in Peru. Covering almost one-third of Peru´s territory, its capital is the city of Iquitos. Its population 915,138 ( census 2005 ). This year 2007 is around 916,000. Its elevation ( lowest town 70 m. Amelia ) ( highest town 220 m. Balsapuerto ).
The weather is warm and humid with an average temperature of 17°C ( 63°F ) to 20°C ( 68°F ) during the months of June and July, and a highest up to 36°C ( 97°F ) from months of December through March. Even if the weather is hot during those months, this time of the year is conceived as winter. The average humidity level is 84 %, with strong rain all year long.

ONE - THIRD OF PERU`S TERRITORY IS LORETO REGION

The region Loreto is divided into seven provinces which are composed of 48 districts. The provinces and their capitals are as follows:

1.- Alto Amazonas ( Yurimaguas )
2.- Datem del Marañón ( San Lorenzo )
3.- Loreto ( Nauta )
4.-Mariscal Ramón Castilla ( Caballococha )
5.- Maynas ( Iquitos ).
6.- Requena ( Requena ).
7.- Ucayali ( Contamana ).

THE CAPITAL IS IQUITOS

Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest, with a population of around 400,000. It is the capital of Loreto Region and Maynas Province. It is generally considered the most populous city in the world that cannot be reached by road.
Located on the Amazon River, it is a mere 106 m (348 ft) above sea level even though it is more than 3,000 km (1,864 mi) from the mouth of the Amazon at Belem in Brazil, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is situated 125 km (78 mi) downstream of the confluence of the Ucayali and Marañón rivers, the two main headwaters of the Amazon River. Iquitos has long been a major port in the Amazon Basin. It is surrounded by three rivers: the Nanay, the Itaya, and the Amazon.
The city can be reached only by airplane or boat, with the exception of a road to Nauta, a small town roughly 100 km (62 mi) south. Most travel within the city itself is via bus, motorcycle, or auto rickshaw (mototaxi, motocarro or motokar). Transportation to nearby towns often requires a river trip via llevo-llevo, a small public motorised boat.
The climate is hot and humid, with an average relative humidity of 85%. The wet season lasts from around November to May, with the river reaching its highest point in May. The river is at its lowest in October.
In Tourism, Iquitos has a growing reputation as a tourist community, especially as a jumping-off point for tours of the Amazon rainforest and the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, and trips downriver to Manaus, Brazil - the other rubber-industry city in the interior of the Amazon basin - and finally the Atlantic Ocean, which is 3,360 km (2,088 mi) away.
A boat tour of Belén is a common tourist attraction. Belén is an area of Iquitos that can be accessed by foot in the dry season but is only accessible via boat in the wet season. Many of the homes in this area are tethered to large poles and float upon the rising waters every year, and some homes float year-round. Where the waters begin there are often a few men with their boats who transport locals and tourists for a small fee.
A typical house in Belén, where many are built so they can rise and fall with the water level.There is also an open-air market in Belén (in a part that doesn't flood). This too is a common tourist attraction. Most notable is the medicine lane, "Pasaje Paquito", an entire block of the market lined with local plant (and animal) medicines, stocking everything from copaiba to chuchuwasai.
During the 1990s, homosexuals fled the repressive police in other cities of Peru to live in this frontier town. Many now live in Belén.

Ayahuasca tourism has increased in Iquitos in recent years, with Westerners seeking traditional shamanic experiences using the visionary Amazonian medicinal tea. Although there are some reputable curanderos who can provide a safe context for such experiences, others do not have the specialised training or skills. As with any tourist activity, consumer discretion is advised.

MAIN ATTRACTIONS

Parque de Quistococha. This park has a zoo site with exotic animals and various species of serpents.
Laguna de Moronacocha. A lagoon with a paiche breeding center.The paiche is a very big species of Amazon fish (one or two meters long).
Amazonas, Itaya, Yarapa and Manatí River Banks,in which several lodgings have been built.
Nineteenth Century Mansions.Sumptuous and exquisite, they display the opulence of the rubber heyday. Most of these mansions are located in front of the river sidewalk. Most outstanding among them is the Casa de Hierro (Iron House), the so called first prefabricated house in America. It was designed and constructed by Gustave Eiffel, brought from Europe in parts (bolts and nuts included), and assembled in the site in which it currently stands.
Barrio de Belén,also known as The Venice of the Jungle. This is located in the center of the city and built over the waters of the Amazon river. Transportation must be done in canoes or by swimming.
Cruise Services offer navigating through the Amazon river for a whole week. These cruises include visits to the cities of Leticia in Colombia and Tabatinga in Brazil; walks into the Jungle; visits to native settlements; and night excursions and fishing.
Ecotourism. The Amazon region offers a great opportunity to enjoy this type of tourism. It is the biggest and most assorted natural reserve in the world. It houses no less than 25,000 species of plants already classified; approximately 4,000 species of butterflies; and 2,000 species of fish.
Camping over the Sucusari River.This is considered one of the most attractive Ecotourism sites worldwide. It holds the first aerial corridor in the continent, which offers visitors a privileged view of the abounding fauna and flora. This wire-net corridor is made of a hanging bridge 200 mt (656 ft) long, located at 30 mt (98 ft) high.
Reserva Nacional del Pacaya-Samiria.This natural reserve is the biggest in the country, with an extension of 21,000 km² (8,108 sq ml). It was created to preserve the distinctive fauna and flora of this enormous extension of Low Jungle territory. Access and guided visits can be done setting off lodges located at a four-hour distance by glider boat.

AYAHUASCA IQUITOS

Ayahuasca (Quechua, pronounced [a.ja.wa.ska]) is any of various psychoactive infusions or decoctions prepared from the Banisteriopsis. vine, native to the Amazon Rainforest (which is also called ayahuasca). The resulting drinks are pharmacologically complex and used for shamanic, folk-medicinal, and religious purposes.
Sections of vine are macerated and boiled alone or with leaves from any of a large number of other plants, including Psychotria viridis (chakruna in Quechua) or Diplopterys cabrerana (also known as chacropanga). The resulting brew contains MAO inhibiting harmala alkaloids and the powerful hallucinogenic alkaloid N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a psychedelic which is active orally only when combined with an MAOI. Harmala alkaloids in Banisteriopsis caapi serve as MAOIs in Ayahuasca.
Ayahuasca is used largely as a religious sacrament, no matter which culture it is associated with. Those whose usage of ayahuasca is performed in non-traditional contexts often align themselves with the philosophies and cosmologies associated with ayahuasca shamanism, as practiced among indigenous peoples like the Urarina of Peruvian Amazonia.
While non-native users know of the spiritual applications of ayahuasca, a less well-known traditional usage focuses on the medicinal properties of ayahuasca. Its purgative properties are highly important (many refer to it as la Purga, "the purge"). The intense vomiting and occasional diarrhea it induces can clear the body of worms and other tropical parasites, and harmala alkaloids themselves have been shown to be anthelmintic. Thus, this action is twofold; a direct action on the parasites by these harmala alkaloids (particularly harmine in ayahuasca) works to kill the parasites, and parasites are expelled through the increased intestinal motility that is caused by these alkaloids.
Today, the name 'ayahuasca' can mean a variety of botanical concoctions containing one or more MAOIs and DMT or one of its chemical analogues. The synthetic pharmahuasca is sometimes called ayahuasca as well. In this usage, the DMT is generally considered the main psychoactive active ingredient, while the MAOI merely activates orally ingested DMT. However, most ayahuasqueros and others working with the brew claim the B. caapi vine to be the defining ingredient; according to them, it is not ayahuasca unless B. caapi is in the brew. The vine is considered to be the "spirit" of ayahuasca, the gatekeeper and guide to the otherworldly realms.
When originally researched in the 20th century, the active chemical constituent of B. caapi was called telepathine, but it was found to be identical to a chemical already isolated from Peganum harmala and given the name harmaline.
In modern Europe and North America, ayahuasca analogues are often prepared using non-traditional plants which contain the same alkaloids. For example, seeds of the Syrian rue plant are often used as a substitute for the ayawaska vine, and the DMT-rich Mimosa hostilis is used in place of chakruna.
In the US and Europe have started to see new religious groups develop in relation to increased ayahuasca use. PaDeva, an American Wiccan group, has become the first incorporated legal church which holds the use of ayahuasca central to their beliefs.
Several notable celebrities have publicly discussed their use of ayahuasca, including Sting, Tori Amos, and Paul Simon (who wrote the song Spirit Voices about his experience with the brew in the Amazon).
Usually a visitor who wishes to becomes a "dietero" or "dietera" that is, a male or female apprentice-shaman learning the way of the teacher plants undergoes a rigorous initiation. This can involve spending a year in the jungle. This initiation challenges and trains the initiate through extreme circumstances covering isolation, deprivation from utilities available in civilisation and its conveniences, enduring radical weather of heavy rains, storms, intense heat, insects and solitude.

The master plant Ayahuasca (banisteriopsis caapi) is a liana of the amazonian forest. It is well known and used by the amazonian tribes, they consider it a sacred and master plant; it is the basis of shamanism, taditional medicine and indigenous cosmovisión. It is called Caapi in Brasil, natema in Ecuador, Yajè in Colombia and Ayahuasca in Perù. In the quechua language, ayahuasca means “liana of heaven”, so is called Mihi, Dapa, Pindè, Kamarampi, etc.
The use of ayahuasca goes back from 5000 years ago and still lives as a magical, religious and therapeutic wisdom. When the drink ayahuasca is made, it is often supplemented with other plants that provide hallucinogenic properties to the drink. There are many species of plants, stretching across genera, that are added. Some of the plants included in these various admixtures are Diplopterys cabrerana, Psychotria viridis (chakruna), and Psychotria carthaginensis. There are also members of the Solanaceae that are commonly used, Nicotiana species, Brugmansia species, and Brunfelsia species These plants bring different chemical constituents to the drink.
B. caapi alone in ayahuasca has limited hallucinogenic affects, but it is sometimes fashioned this way. More likely though, the prepared drink is composed of more than just B. caapi. When these other plant species (listed above) are used in the preparation of the drink they bring along their own chemical compounds and enhance the psychoactive affects of the drink. The active chemical compound of these plants is N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT). It is believed that this provides most of the hallucinogenic effects of the drink.
DMT is not orally active. This is why B. caapi is such an important component of the drink. The chemical compounds in B. caapi are believed to guard the DMT from being destroyed, and thus rendered inactive when taken orally. Since the DMT is not destroyed it can then elicit an effect.
Ayahuasca is a method of inner healing that Works simultaneously in the phisical, energetic and psiquic bodies, allowing us to clean ourselves in those levels; it is too a gate to altered states of consciousness, therefore we can observe realities that are usually hidden in normal circunstances. This situation will allow us to understand and to be reconciled with life, with others, with nature, universe, us and God; in words of the shamans that drink ayahuasca: “you are going too see and understand “- This fundamental contribution to a brave change of consciousness deserves a special and serious consideration because allows people to feel and re-think about their limits and their infinite spiritual possibilities.

They cause a deep action in body, mind, emotions and spirit, allowing us to confront and conquer our deepest fears, to revitalize life energies and to wake up a higher level of consciousness with the purpose to open us to our “Inner Master”. The Ayahuasca Ceremony opens a relation with the Spiritual World that will last your whole life.
Ayahuasca is not addictive
The magical plant ayahuasca containsnatural chemical compounds capable of give intense visions and make our senses sharply awake. This and other effects guide the human consciousness to rare, inexplicable and misterious mental states that are at the same time revealing and wonderfull. The master plant ayahuasca is not addictive, rather expands our mind and serves us as a key to obtain a spiritual-mistical-personal experience.

Ayahuasca is used as a psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutically resort for the people to obtain consciousness of their problems in its truly meaning. Drinking Ayahuasca, that is, planning a whole mystical experience, we can influence by our will in the essence of our most intimate inner personality, and improve it.
Uses - Information of Ayahuasca in shamanism.
Psychological states caused by ayahuasca.
As detailed bellow, these are some mystical-spiritual status caused by the master plant Ayahuasca:
Introspection. Inner examination of the soul (Inner watching. Recognition of the evolution of our inner being)
Regresión: You can psiquically re-experience past stages of your life or former lifes to solve problems. It allows to connect us and recognize ourselves in a better way. The contents of forgotten or suppressed experiences come back to consciousness as a true revival. Conflicts and stress in human psique are so diluted and it occurs a restructuration and healing of personality.
Mistical religious experience. Ascension to heaven (to Divine World) due to a spiritual recognition.
Trascendental experience that makes receptivity and mistical comunión with universe grow.
Astral Journey: Out-of-the-body experience of the soul.
Super cosmic consciousness. Omniscient illumination (satori).
Psico-activity. Manisfestation of brain functions usually asleep, sharp senses, intense memory, deep analisys, developing of intuition.
Exalting of extra-sense faculties. Thelepathic, clairvoyant and pre-cognitive manifestations and entrance to a divine dimension.
Amplification of consciousness. Freedom of spirit to raise consciousness and knowledge to higher levels and perspectives.
This mental manifestations (introspection, regresión, etc.) take place even simultaneously, but with the accent in one of them. Each experience with ayahuasca is totally different of former ones.
Stages of Ayahuasca session:
First and second hours: Uncomfortable sensations of nausea, vertigo, fears and repressed paranoia
First and second hours: Resolution of conflicts, peace and harmony.
Third and fourth hours: deep thinking, exhaustive analysis and introspection.
Ayahuasca is a sacred and purifying plant, it can cause vomits, diarrhea, sweating and other purification effects; this is the way master ayahuasca heals, teaches and guides. Nevertheless all this process is relative; many times we reach “magic” in a single session, as we can also do different sessions with vomits and diarrhea without understand and find anything.
There is no good or bad ceremony, but bad understood ones. It is easy to drink ayahuasca, the difficult thing is to understand what comes next…The challenge of the person is to understand the true meanings of the visions that the plant shows us and be capable to use this training ship in our daily life, therefore before doing a session, we always recommend people not to create false expectations of “wonder and magic” experiences of others, because it not always happens that way, due to each people has its own experience. There is nothing more wrong than to be waiting for that or such thing of a session, because if we maintain our attention fixed in a mental hope, it won`t leave place for what it might come in the hour of truth….Before doing an Ayahuasca ceremony, it is recommended to keep mind free of prejudices and fears, and to be open-hearted; as well you should prepare yourself mental, physical, emotional and spiritually.