About me and this blog

For this blog, I am taking one of the names that was given to me by friends – “The Cosmic Dr. Bii” – ‘Bii’ is the Shipibo word for mosquito. In the blog entry dated April 3rd 2013, I write about my connection to the world of the mosquitoes).

My friends occasionally refer to me as the “Awesome Cosmic Dr Bii”. I prefer to omit or disguise the A*e*o*e word in writing (and speaking) for reasons that I will also later make clear in a blog.

I live and work in Pucallpa in the Peruvian Amazon. Pucallpa is the most intense, absorbing and challenging place I have ever lived. It’s important to have your wits about you. A close friend calls it “Ground Zero”.

I first traveled here from Iquitos in January 2011 with a good friend who had previously lived here for seven years. I commented to him that the ‘vibe’ in Yarina – the indigenous part of Pucallpa – felt very different from Iquitos. He leaned over to me and said in a quiet, almost conspiratorial tone: “It is the Heartland”. He was referring to the fact that it is the geographical center of the Shipibo-Konibo people – who traditionally have lived along the river Ucayali and its tributaries.

Pucallpa is the ugliest city I have ever been in, but its indigenous area based around the ox-bow lake of Yarinacocha, its proximity to the mighty river Ucayali, the beauty of the surrounding Amazonian rainforest, and the extraordinary culture of the Shipibo-Konibo people more than make up for this.

In this blog, I will write about some of my experiences here that do not fit into the conventional, rational Western mindset. I am very grateful to la Madre Ayahuasca and the Shipibo culture for offering me access to these experiences, and to my friends who have encouraged and supported me in taking this path –  “the Medicine Path”.