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Part IA Look Into Peruvian Lifeby Lorraine Michaels July 10, 2006 As we were packing to go to Miami and then Peru, Kim said yet for the third time, “Why are we going to Peru? He had no inner direction to go but yet I felt a strong response back from my I AM THAT I AM twin flame when I contemplated where to go with our free vouchers. We had given up our seats in Bogotá in January and in return received three vouchers to certain select cities in South America with certain blackout periods where we could not use them. We were invited back to Columbia with much enthusiasm and as much as we would love to return again, I felt this inner prompting that these vouchers were for another use. But where? But I went ahead and checked into the availability for Bogotá. They were easy to get seats, much to my surprise and I actually reserved them to see how the process goes, but then let them expire. I was being drawn to go to Peru as one of the other choices where we could use these tickets. So I gently brought up my idea to Kim but he seemed not interested and was not receiving the inner prompting to go. So I waited a few days and then asked him again. He eventually said, “Go ahead, you will do what you want anyway!” He knows me and knows that once I receive inner direction I don’t let go of the idea until it manifests or I receive new direction. So I took that as a go ahead and called the airlines. Unfortunately, there were no tickets available for the entire month of June and the few days in July we were allowed to use the vouchers, as they were all taken - but one seat on June 22nd. I said I would take it! There are only a few times a year you can use these tickets and the other period was September through mid December, summer time for Peru and the rainy season. I really wanted to go when the weather was sunny and dry. Knowing that with one positive we can build a momentum through alchemy, I reserved not just the one seat available, but two more seats for the same day. The airline headquarters then will confirm back with you in 48 hours if they will let you take the seats that they hold for paying customers, the reservation office told me. I knew if the Brotherhood wanted us to go they would perform the miracle, so I turned it over to God Reserve and the I AM THAT I AM twin flame. There were no seats back as well, but I tried reserving three seats in July. Time came and went and 48 hours turned into four days and I did not hear back from the airline. I tried calling and left a message and they later returned my call saying “nothing yet.” Another few days went by and I called again. I connected with a person who gave me little hope we would ever get the tickets confirmed. She said she had been working with one person who had been trying for several weeks to get seats with no confirmations. The idea that we could get three seats confirmed was really pushing the limits of probability. I surrendered the whole idea, realizing that if it was not in accordance with God’s will for us that was okay. I told Kim it didn’t look like we would get to use the tickets after all, but at least I tried. Days later I finally received a call back from the friendly woman I had originally worked with. She said I have good news for you, your two tickets are confirmed! Kim’s I already had with the one seat that this alchemy was built upon. The bad news was that they would not confirm his seat back, but only the other two. But I was not concerned, we would get Kim back sometime! I tried again for confirmation for a seat a day earlier than the other two tickets, going through the same waiting period we did for getting the other two seats confirmed. But we didn’t end up using that ticket anyway but had a seat reconfirmed with us on the same day as our return, although a blessing with that change, the way it came about was not. Miami to Peru We were blessed to be invited to stay at someone’s home as we had a layover of three days before our flight out to Peru. We had a wonderful visit with visits to local areas and a tropical garden with many exotic plants. As usual, whenever I am with someone, we do healing sessions and we also did a hypnotherapy session with a powerful lesson on the healing power of love to combat evil, which followed with an inner vision of the Golden Age civilization to come. Although I don’t get to see these inner visions, I feel like I do on some level see what they are seeing and I truly feel blessed to be a part of these wonderful experiences they have. Coincidentally, our hosts were heading out to Turkey the same day we were heading out to Peru, so we all prepared at the same time to do our final packing and find ways to get to the airport. We were offered a ride by a friend of a friend and so we headed off in plenty of time to make an international flight, only to discover after they dropped us off and left, that we were twelve hours too late to connect with our flight! The South American airline uses military time and thus our flight time was not labeled a.m. or p.m. and the 1:30 flight we thought was in the afternoon was really 1:30 in the morning! Not only did we lose our hard won seats, but Kim’s seat again! Because the airline also automatically cancels your return seats as well when you miss your flight, and although they could reconfirm two return seats, they couldn’t get a seat for Kim back to the U. S. ! And then of course, we had to book seats on standby for the evening flight, as this is their busiest season for travel to Peru, as I discovered when originally trying to procure these seats. I could not believe I had made this error. We discovered that several American’s a week lose their seats this way and yet the airline did not try to correct this problem, with no incentive on their part as they always overbooked their seats and charge $200 per ticket to reaffirm seats on subsequent flights. So we started that process over of getting a seat confirmed and trying to connect with the airlines while in Peru to see if the seat was confirmed. But the good news was we asked for the original seat they turned down so that we could all fly home together and we eventually connected with a Lan airline office in Trujillo that confirmed we had Kim’s seat home and on the same flight as the other two tickets. So that was one good news out of this escapade. We were graced to have only a $25 fee assessed and an opportunity to go on standby on the evening a.m. flight out twelve hours later. We could not get them to waive this fee, but finally they advised us to contact the main office and file a complaint and see what they will do. Although the next flight had no available seats and was over-booked as well, I felt optimistic as I was prompted to contact God Reserve and I know the power to have anything you need delivered through love. So I sent love and a prayer and turned the whole matter over to God Power, God Reserve and God Direction. Although at that moment our chances were slim for three open seats, as the day progressed, checking again our chances they were much increased as people’s lives unfolded who were connected with the next flight. And we did get on the flight. Our daughter, remembering our cancelled flight to Columbia from Miami last year and the long wait in the same airport, put her foot down - demanding in her teenage demanding way - that she would absolutely die if she had to spend twelve hours at the airport again! So although she would have rather done most anything besides go on a jaunt with her mother, she voluntarily went on Miami’s wonderful transit system via their bus, train and people mover to Miami Beach and go shopping with me. Meanwhile, we left Kim in peace as he happily transcribed Mother Mary’s wonderful dictation from the day before. It is always interesting to travel around Miami and good preparation for Latin America travel, as at least half of the people you meet—and in some areas more—speak only Spanish and you can become quickly acclimatized to Latin culture and trying to find your way around while not being able to communicate in the same language. It was nice to be able to do something for a few hours and I enjoyed getting out of the airport, not looking forward to the long twelve hours wait either. Midnight arrived and our names were called for seats - as I felt confident they would - feeling total peace that all would unfold in accordance with God’s plan. And I had all day to contemplate how this mishap happened and why. Was it just our irresponsibility in not noticing? Was it lack of protection for our travel plans? Was it God’s will for us to experience this delay? It turned out to be for none of those reasons but a state of consciousness that we ran into again and again in Peru—and we became a victim of—systemic to all of Latin America, but especially in Peru. Later I will address this consciousness. Arriving in Lima - Capital of Peru
This little hostel opened up into a delightfully decorated three story hostel with patios decorated in ivy, big marble busts so unPeruvian, and large colonial era paintings from the Spanish period. Even our teenager who refrains from expressing any joy connected to any choices of her parents, let out an exclamation of surprised delight. I am sure the taxi driver helped elicit this reaction from her because when she heard what he said and our response she expected the worst. They even had an internet cafe in the building and a charming top floor open patio cafe decorated with plants and even a live turtle! It is amazing how most of the hostels we stayed at were decorated very nicely and quite inexpensive by north American standards. They often had beautiful floors, clean comfortable common areas with rooms on several floors surrounding open patios and sometimes inside garden areas. Rooms were generally quite plain, but the bathrooms were usually clean, big and tiled nicely. Our experience with the first hostel and taxi driver remained about the same throughout the trip. Usually the taxi drivers spoke a smidgen of English and with our smidgen of Spanish we always got to where we were wanting to go with no trouble whatsoever. The hostels usually had one person speaking fairly good English or at least enough to answer our questions. We were also surprised at being able to check into our rooms at 6 a.m. - with checkout noon the following day. Making the stay over 24 hours for one night’s rental, although we didn’t stay over 24 hours, leaving bright and early the following morning to take an early bus north to our next stop. Since we were at the hostel so early, we took the opportunity to capture a few hours rest before heading out to town to explore.
The styles of buildings in Peru, especially in the main cities that are not the higher end businesses, are all the same. They form one long building on each street, with the side walls of one business being the side wall of the next business and so on. There is no uniformity in the shapes of each business, and thus no ascetic beauty to them. In the outlying cities the majority of the buildings were made out of adobe handmade bricks. Over fifty percent of these buildings were just outer shells, not finished, or crumbling down buildings or finished on the bottom level and the upper levels still in construction.This contributed to the lower vibration and dirty feeling you experienced in most outlying towns. In the main cities there is no space for parking, no parking lots, or spaces between shops except where the road intersects these buildings. In front of them is usually a very small sidewalk and in the outlying towns, no sidewalks, just dirt. And filth seems to be everywhere with very few shop owners trying to change that vibration. The fronts of the buildings are different shades of faded paint, graffiti and dirt. Some were gated, but all were locked and some remained locked all day. The openings were like garage doors that fold up or sideways. Nothing matched from store to store or looked esthetic and plants were almost non existent. There simply seemed to be a lack of caring what environment you shopped, lived or worked in for many of these Peruvians. Lima has eight million people in it and it is estimated that over 50% of them live in poverty. Most of these shops seemed to be the size of a garage, some very much smaller. There were also many street vendors in Lima, although in some of the other cities they seem to be not many or none at all, possibly due to city laws curtailing them, as they lowered the surrounding vibration as you can imagine, with carrying dirty buckets of food they would scoop out into bags to sell to you. Inside each shop would be the same thing, items you could find in dozens of other stores in the same area. There didn't seem to be much originality and you could not shop in peace, as the store proprietors would hound you to buy this and that. I believe that is why I could never find anything to buy, as I like to take my time looking and going within to decide. That was virtually impossible with so much talk and bartering. Even outside restaurants there would be a person who would hound you to come in and eat at their restaurant and show you the menus, while the next door restaurant employee would try to get your attention and take you away from the one where you were standing. One block we were on had all outdoor covered patios for their restaurants (besides their inside tables), which all looked the same, all sold pasta and italian foods and all hounded you as you walked by. Not one restaurant was original and we finally had to walk away and go to another part of town where we could find a restaurant without being hounded. Restaurants were open to bartering as well and the employees would often come down in certain menu prices right there on the sidewalk!
The saving grace for most cities was the central square which was usually clean and surrounded by cathedrals and colonial era buildings with beautiful architecture. We usually got a hostel that was within walking distance of the central square, as this was often the safest part of the cities and where you could always find the main museums or churches to visit. So we would tour a little around the main plaza during the day and went in any open cathedral, which in each town you usually can find quite a few. Lima was made the capital of Peru by the Spanish conquerors in the 16th century, and they built beautiful buildings that are scattered amongst the more modern Peruvian buildings in central Lima where we stayed. But the first day we toured a little around the main plaza during the day and went in any open cathedral, which in each town you usually can find quite a few.
Some churches were magnificent with their elaborate side chapels, shrines and altars, lining along the nave. I don't believe we visited any churches that were not Catholic, as the Spaniards built the majority of them during the 16th century when they conquered the Incas. And they often built them on top of sacred Inca sites or places of the indigent people the Spanish razed.
The stark contrast between the opulence in these churches and the surrounding shops and buildings was immense - except for the other Colonial buildings built during the Spanish era. You could see how the difference in the cathedrals could set a schism or chasm between what Jesus and Mary represented with the magnificent shrines to them and what the people deserved. I love churches and always have. But to see the reverence for these Cosmic Beings and how much opulence, flowers and gifts were given to them and what was denied the ordinary people in their everyday living conditions was heartbreaking. One of our guides told us, as she was explaining the Inca traditions and practices, that although she was Catholic, she also believed and practiced the ancient Inca rituals. As we left Lima the next day we drove through much more slum areas, but this time they were open and we could see on long stretches on each block these long buildings that would be catering to the same type of business. In other words, if you needed car parts, you would find store after store of car parts on the same street. Same with furniture as store after store had mattresses spilling out of the stores and lining the streets. If you needed appliances, store after store, one right along side of another, carrying the same appliances for what must have been the same prices. This seemed very perplexing. But we saw this type of business actions all over Peru. And we could not figure out how these places could compete or afford to stay in business, although it was convenient for the buyer, knowing exactly which block sold what products. This state of consciousness will also be addressed later. On the streets were countless taxis. Again, we pondered how they could make enough money to survive. If you were a tourist, or coming directly from a bus or plane, they often charged you a lot more than if you picked up a taxi on the streets. But even so, compared to American dollars the amount was miniscule. And hundreds of taxis in constant travel around town for a mere average three sols ($1.00) to go anywhere around town, and with the price of car upkeep and gas prices, and maybe only picking up a few fares an hour, it seemed like a no profit affair for them. There seems to be no rules in driving on the Lima streets. Who gets to go first is the law simply by who beeps their horn first! Priority between two cars is decided by who can push their way through first. It mattered not if it was a car against a bus, because the bus often lost regardless of its size. It is much more important to be able to hear than to be able to see, because seeing a sudden oncoming hazard didn’t seem to have any effect on the driver’s decision to go or stop. And if you are walking on the street, each taxi that drives by you empty will slow down and beep their horn. Imagine this going on to every person looking like they might need a taxi, coupled with the beeps to tell the other vehicles you have the right away, and you can begin to get the impression of how much noise pollution is in this city. When leaving Lima the next morning the taxi driver that picked us up was the same one who drove to the airport to pick us up the morning we were due in before missing our flight. He was so nice and he said he waited three hours for us to show, God bless him and never acted resentful at what we put him through. So we gladly paid him the fare he missed for his trip, as your heart goes out to them and how hard some work for mere dollars. He was very pleasant as many were, as they shared their knowledge of what to see or do and where to stay. Our taxi driver in Cuzco was exceptionally helpful, and would not leave us until we had a hostel that he helped us find, as we had no reservations in Cuzco and the ones we had picked from the travel guide were all full. He even came inside to show us the hostel to make sure we liked it before leaving! The people in Lima, as well as many other towns in Peru, would walk along the narrow streets always moving from street to street. I am not sure what they were doing or where they were going, as many just seemed to "hang around". In Trujillo, the furthest town north of Lima that we traveled to, did not allow personal cars on the inner streets. Taxis were so abundant in that town, you would see rows of them traveling all day and well into the night. And they are well known for the beeping far worse than Lima. The horn beeping is nonstop and contrary to Lima which seems to have a purpose for the beeps, taxis in Trujillo beep their horn just for the sake of making noise and thus each taxi beeps constantly. The dim is overwhelming at first and lasts long into the night. People there walked and walked like in Lima seemingly going nowhere, much like you experience on America highways, wondering where all these cars were going up and down the highways at all hours of the day and night. There were a few museums as well as the churches in each town. But it did not matter if they were tourist attractions, as most of the visitors did not look like tourists but mostly Latin Americans. In Trujillo, close to the central square was one church that had several worship services going which people flowed in and out of casually. It seemed to be quite ordinary to leave all the doors open and have people walking around even during the services. Even in Cuzco, we rarely saw Europeans or Americans. We thought maybe most tourists didn’t stay in Lima, although everyone has to fly in there. Lima is so large it could absorb the few tourists, but even in the Plaza area there were no recognizable tourists, so Kim and I stood out like a sore thumb and we often were looked at, especially by the children and especially at our teenage daughter. Probably Miraflores was the main European tourist area, before flying to Cuzco, as most people were heading for Machu Picchu and there was not much to hold your attraction in Lima. It seemed 95% of the people we saw on the streets were Latin Americans. So we rarely talked to anyone but each other for two weeks. We occasionally met a few Americans, Canadian, Europeans or Australians on our tours where English speaking guides were hired. We also met a few on the buses, but only a few. Our bus trip to Trujillo had only one other couple that spoke English on it and they were in seats far from us. Half of the eight hour trip was accompanied by English movies spoken in Spanish with no subtitles. As the T.V. screen was above our heads and the volume was extremely loud, you could not ignore them. They all seemed to be quite depressing movies and full of violence. One movie was "Swimming Upstream" about the Australian Olympic Swimmer Tony Fingleton. Not knowing the movie, but just watching the extreme abuse by his father, without words, was very hard to take. After three of these kinds of movies in a row and the constant chatter in Spanish, coupled with the boring desert scenery outside, the trip was pretty near exhausting. But worse was to come, but I am getting ahead of myself. The Peruvian Coast
The entire desert coast runs 1,500 miles, but even far desolate was the southern coast which we were meant to visit Arequipa, but ran out of time (and inclination due to our trip up the northern coast!) The southern desert forms part of the Atacama desert, one of the driest deserts on earth with some areas only getting two hours of rain a year! Although we would have been able to glimpse a bit of the Nasca lines in this southern trip back to Lima from Arequipa, you really needed to take a plane tour to see these fascinating lines and form your own opinion as to why they were created. Just west of our travels up the northern coast are the Andes mountains of which the Cordillera Blanca contains 22 peaks of over 19,000 feet with the spectacular world-famous snow covered pyramids and mountain range second highest only to the Himalayas. Unfortunately, we could not see them from the coast and the walls of sand dunes blocking our vision. Although from some areas you can see the mountain range jutting up seemingly out of the desert.
Then you came across little towns of a few buildings plopped in the middle of all this dirt and rocks. And then hundreds of miles of desert sands. You feel the lack of abundance and the happiness that comes with being in the cradle of the abundance of the Mother. As I observed the people in Lima and on up to Trujillo, no one seemed happy. They were cordial in the traditional greeting of “buenos dias” to everyone, but that cordiality didn’t seem to cross over into friendliness. It could have been the winter weather, as that definitely has an effect on people's happiness, it could also be the collective consciousness of poverty that abounded in this area. People seemed to be loners, walking maybe with others, but yet alone. Occasionally we saw young couples kissing and holding hands in the plazas. But men and women were often walking alone.
Occasionally along the road with a rare tree or two and plants planted around the homes, would be a burst of bright pinks and red bougainvillea, astounding the eye in such squalor. The contrast was amazing.
Another astounding scene would be to see the lone Peruvian senora, sweeping her sand in front of their dirty, rock covered front yard. Why were they sweeping dirt with all the dirt around them? Why did not these people try to brighten up their surroundings, clean them up, haul away the dead and broken down man-made materials and plant life and rocks? Could they not see? Or was their no desire to change their living circumstances? Was there so little to survive on that just a roof over their head was all that mattered? I pondered these things on the long drive to Trujillo, my heart going out to these people and praying to God for "how can one help these people?" Although they have their right and free will to choose to live this way, did they really have a choice? And if they did, what was holding them back? The answer came in a most unexpected way. And many other realizations came with it. The only way any of us can help other is to Be our God flame and who we are in I AM. Part II - The Divine Purpose in the Base Chakra of Peru.
Copyright © 2007 Shangra-la Mission, Inc |
Unfortunately, we had to fly out of Miami and make the long drive down, so we arranged for some classes in Miami while we were there. Although we only had a few people show for the lectures on such short notice, they were quality people who warm-heartedly shared their gratitude in attending. And we received the very enlightening 
Unfortunately I had been unable to connect by phone to our hostel (the name for the backpacker type hotels in Peru) in Lima, who had arranged for our pickup at the airport, so when we arrived we had to hire a taxi ourselves and hope they would know of our hostel. The taxi driver politely told us in his broken English that our intended hostel was not very good and he recommended a hotel and drove us by one of the more expensive ones in the area. We politely declined as I felt confident our choice was fine. In Peruvian cities, hotel costs does not necessarily equate with quality and we learned this as we traveled around.
We had purchased a Peru travel guide book and we discovered how accurate and helpful this book was for our entire trip. We were pleased with the first little hostel we chose from the book and reserved over the internet for only $18 a night for three people!
The first night in Lima we walked the streets around the hostel and square and in the market areas looking for gifts to bring home and Peru's famous Alpaca sweaters. Alpaca's look like llamas and both are famous to Peru, used for their wool, pack animals and their meat. It is hard to find pure Alpaca sweaters today as they are often mixed with llama or sheep wool, or synthetic fibers. Alpaca's wool looks a lot like llama's but their wool is silky and is very warm and water repellent. I looked in most every town for the real pure Alpaca, but could not find any. The demand today for pure white Alpaca and those who want to capitalize on this demand, have brought in the imitations. You must travel into the highlands where the natives are still creating these sweaters as they did centuries ago. The colors of the blankets and local creations is amazing. But I could not imagine I would wear a poncho or these colorful handmade clothes once back in the states. They simply didn't fit in with our style and they seemed to be only worn by the people closest to the tourists to impress them, so I restricted myself from purchasing any, however pretty they looked. 
Lima can be a shock to the senses along with your mind and heart. Our taxi from the airport to the hostel took us through what looked like a slum business area. We are not sure if the area was combination living and working quarters, as the buildings were one solid row on each block and as it was 6 a.m., they were all locked up. 
If you go to the coastal area you arrive at Lima's Miraflores, which is a modern district with beautiful parks, squares and avenues. On our last day in Peru, I wanted to go there to see the markets and that section of the city, but the Masters' directed us not to. It could be because of the free trade demonstrations and extremely heavy traffic through Lima that day, or it was not in alignment with our reason for being in Lima. Whatever the reason, we entered Lima and left Lima with the impression of a polluted, dirty city with many outlying shantytowns with 1/3 of its citizens living in extreme poverty without running water, sanitation or electricity. 
The opulence in some of these churches was such a stark contrast to the dirt and squalor just short distances away from them. Some of the churches were closed, but maybe were open for services on Sunday. In some of the small towns, the churches were several centuries old and had not been kept up and smelled very damp and were dank and cold. I could not imagine enduring a church service in those conditions.
Because of the air currents flowing from east to west in Peru, sucking all moisture from the coasts, the coasts are lacking any rain whatsoever, having thus created these huge deserts running the entire coastline. Although the sand dunes hundreds of feet high along side the coastal highway were impressive, there is only so many sand dunes one can see and hold your interest. For hundreds of miles these desert sands held nothing, not one bit of plant life. On top of this desolation was the overcast haze that hangs over the coast, including Lima, obscuring the sun for almost half of the year. The fog (called garua) rolls in from the ocean and does not lift the entire day. The sun almost broke through while we were in Trujillo one afternoon and your heart rejoiced for just that mere glimpse of it.
But why did we need to travel this route by bus? The first thing that hits you as you wind your way out of Lima is the shantytowns. There were often no water or even electricity to these huts. And huts they were, square boxes of shed like buildings people were living in. 
Dispersed along this desert trip were a few villages of the same squalor type villages surrounds the sands around Lima. 
I tried to capture these rare moments in photos, but the bus was traveling too fast or I wasn’t ready as we unexpectedly came upon one of these scenes. Still, this picture captures the idea of how beautiful were these displays of pink against the adobe bricks and dirt grounds around the homes.