paranoia of nohas ark and the improvised 4th world kitchen

We wake up the next day of the storm, all wet, some didnt slept at all trying to save their camps.
Nina (that was camping by the river)woke in the middle of the night already starting to float in the middle of her tent over the "raft" that was under her sleeping bag. She didnt have a flashlight, she was naked in the universe with just a sarong, all her stuff was taken by the river: her clothes, passport, credit cards and money. all her identity vanished in one night.
Thon also lost his camp in the other river, Indio and other guys that were in las choapas also lost their stuff. Sebastian and Tim where the naked heroes that were rescuing other peoples camps, and bringing supplies from the semi-flooded kitchen. By the time the rain wasnt that hard, but still rained non stop and the water continued to go up, some people got paranoid and talked about Tabasco´s flood: if they opened the dam into their own people, they´re not going to make considerations of us. if they open the dam again water will rise up to the hill were we are at. this hill will become an island, etc.
The supply boat arrived on the morning, and around 20 to 30 people left. some where ill, others scared, and others just wanted to go to the beach (as the guy that i went with to the gathering).
He wanted me to leave with him, but i said: this is when you met the true rainbow warriors. Im having fun, and by the way this is only a rehearsal for apocalypse. (The familiy needed me, i didnt wanted to be any other place in the world.)
I stayed and start to figure out what do we needed. first i tryed to focalice putting some tarps around the house to have more dry space for people, but nobody listened, so i did it myself and put the first tarp as an example. then i drop that task and start cleaning the hallway that was on one side of the house(it looked like a dumpster), and classifing and focalizing our next meal (nobody new where was anything). we needed something hot, colorfull and with consistency. there where lots of spices, vegetables that were starting to rot, 1 gallon of teriyaki, 1 gal of soy sauce, mushrooms, a pine apple, lots of organic tea, bags of rice and beans, chocolate and other goodies. so we made pad thai: rice with vegetables, mooshroom soup with beet, and teriyaki vegetables with pine apple. and 2 kinds of tea: green-hibiscus and chai.
rainbow food = happy people again.
just after that sister Harmony made Power goo balls: chocolate, nuts, honey, caramel, and oats.....wooo that was another catalizer for the nohas ark party.
we started to jam inside the house, some people was resting, others getting warm around a fire, some started to dance and jump to stay warm and happy. the music was the energy and we were the engine, the house became nohas galactic-ark, we were tripping big time into the heart of the space.
Colors was noah, he climbed inside the house an sitted on the rooftop, the house was bouncing, but so many things had happened on that day that nobbody cared about a couple of guys sitting in the roof top. we jammed until the end.
we even changed the mood of the music for the people that was sleeping, into more mellow songs with guitar, the djambes went to sleep. we, the last 8 people awake managed to find a hole between the carpet of sleeping bodies that resembled a tetris puzzle. i slept between 5 people and a baby named seph ha. it was the best night for sleeping i had: very cossy, warm and i wake up with the smile and joy of seph.

on the 3rd day the sun came out, the family was closer thatn ever, every single soul on that camp was happy and praising Ra, the sun. every creature got out of the refugee wood shed, to bathe in the sun rays. I spotted a Japaneise brother doing Chi-kung, so i stepped beside him and star following his movements. he tought me a couple of steps. and told me that the best way to do chi-kung is on a sunny-yang day, cuz you dont want to take ying-cloudy energy inside.
i wore my orange silk clothes that day and bathed on the river with mint organic shampoo.
Everyone was re-born, the low vibes were sweeped away as well the thicks and other insects.
almost everyone moved out from the house, the stuff of the improvised kitchen was carried to the main kitchen that was in ruins. we started from scarps to build again everything.
this time as one family, one love and one vision.
that day around 10 cops arrived to the camp, some freaked out, but i just tought it was sureral, i was just waking up so i hided in my sleeping bag. Kareem and other guys complained and start shouting at the officials that were sent by Nati and Pachan, sisters that were in las choapas by that time, and didnt knew about the situation in the camp, so they went to speak to the President of las choapas and asked for support. so this guys dressed as cops brought us clothes, tarps and water.

Sister Harmony, Jay and Tenali left the camp, heading from "el desengaño" toward rancho "la renovacion", looking forward for better weather. Harmony was a saint and left us all her goodies: a bucket full of honey, lots of spices, sacks of soy and grains, 3 kilos of gouda cheese (that Kareem took to hide it in a safe place from the family, and then we never saw teh cheese again), dry fuit (that also dissapeared in his hands), organic green and black tea, mate, cofee, a box of org sugar, sea salt, nuts, hibiscus, and other delicatessen stuff. -Infinite Thanks Harmony-

i felt as in the best christmas ever.
That same day when we were improvisin a breakfast with the left over supplies, a boat full of fruits and water arrived to the camp, so we were really happy and celebrated with fruits.
everyone was working full power, cuz the official rainbow started in a few days and we had no infrasestructure at all, the river took away the pipe from the source. all tarps were down, the shitters were gone. the paths and the kitchen floor was muddy. soooo re-construction day started.

Inter-acuatic RAINbow X-perience

When the earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the earth from many colors, classes, creeds, and who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again. They will be known as the warriors of the Rainbow -Hopi legend

RAINbow gatherings are temporary intentional communities, typically held in outdoor settings, and espousing and practicing ideals of peace, love, harmony, freedom and community, as a consciously expressed alternative to mainstreampop culture, consummerism, capitalism and mass media. Rainbow Gatherings and the "Rainbow family of living light"are an expression of a Utopian impulse, combined with bohemianism and hippie culture, with roots clearly traceable to the 1960s counterculture.

there are many kinds of rainbow gatherings:

• the world gatherings:1993 Israel,2000 Australia,2001 Zimbabwe (on the path of the solar eclipse),2003 Brazil2004 Costa Rica,2005 Turkey,2006 Thailand, and 2008 China
  

• The European Gatherings: 2000 Romania,2001 Croatia,2002 Italy,2003 France (Pyrenees),2004 Bulgaria,2005 Germany,2006 England,2007 Bosnia and 2008 Serbia andSpain

• the National Gatherings (on each country)
• 
  
• the Intergalactic Gatherings (alternative world gathering)

Last year in the gathering at thailand, in the council circle that selected china as the site for 2008, some people still wanted to do a gathering in mexico, so they title it galactic rainbow gathering, cuz the world gathering had already chosen a site.
so in a way this gathering was the alternative within the alternative....

El Desengaño, Veracruz, a ranch 5 hrs south of las choapas, a 20, 000 people town that merely appears on the google map as a poblation, in the middle of a rain forest and on the entrance of one of the biggest "virgin" jungles of mexico.


I took a bus from Monterrey Nuevo Leon (N.E. of Mexico), (13 hrs trip) to Mexico city, then i took a bus to Veracruz (8 hrs), there wasnt a bus to las choapas, so i took one to Coatzacoalcos (4 hrs), and then finally to Las Choapas.
i reached this town at sunset, then after visiting 3 hotels, i managed to find a fine and cheap (150 pesos) hotel named Jismark, that had lime-yellow walls and mirrors on the sealing.
at night i found the perfect spot for eating frijoles a la charra and rice. in that restaurant i met Rock a Quebecois and Infinite his gigant Shnausser. they didnt speak a word of spanish, so his taxi driver asked me: hablas ingles? and delivered me this 2 guys with an amazing story of how they had been robed and picked up by this angel guy that drived them from coatza up to las choapas. Rock was dressed in white, and infinite had a beautifull and very particular hair cut for a dog.

After dinner we went to Jismark and while we were at the lobby the lady who worked there asked us that if we knew Mckena, a girl that was also staying there, and the first thing that came to my mind was that she was a relative of Terence Mckenna (one of my fav psychedelic writers), also because she came from Hawaii where Terence founded Botanical Dimensions, a non-profit ethnobotanical preserve. But this was just a mere illusion of my brain conections, then we met her and realized her name was spelled Makena, a funny coincidence.
On the next day we went to have a breakfast in the heart of the market (the cheapest place you can eat in mexico) and then hit the road by hitching a ride.
the first truck i asked for a ride, took us almost half of the way near cerro nanchital a town that reminded me the old west movies.

When we got out of the truck, we wanted to give the guy some money, but he stepped back saying that it was a favor, so whe thanked him very much and gaved him some goodies.
When we got to cerro nanchital in an old 1970´s bus (for 30 pesos),

nobody wanted to take us to el desengaño, it wasnt on their way, we asked almost every guy in town that had a truck to take us to el desengaño, until one half drunk guy offered to take us for $500 (100 per head, including the dog ha), but i denied it and waited for a better option, 2 hrs passed and just when we accepted and where jumping on the box of the truck, one rainbow girl asked us to step down the truck and saved us from paying that large cuantity, when there was a bus passing by in a few minutes (for 60 pesos) that would take us up to the entrance gate of the site.
Her name was Silph, she was pregnant and went down to the town with his mate, to get some personal supplies.
I´ve just started to notice that the town was like a vortex that didnt want us to leave from babylon, it was the border between internet and phone booths and unpaved roads that lead to freedom (literary this was the name of a town before the site).

finally we got into a fine 1990's bus in very good shape, that was making the first offiacial trip to "el desengaño", so they didnt knew the road, just as us. we were lucky that Sylph and Rob knew the way back to the site, they where the leaders, Rojo and I where the mediators. Rock, infinite, Makena and other guy fom the states also where on the bus, (as many other locals).

It was an amazing trip, i felt like entering the lost world. every kilometer was a new paradise opening to us. gigant hule trees, acacias, bamboos, palms, rivers, banana trees, hills full of cows, trees full of white birds. sunset over the hills, piercing through the windows.

3 hours of non paved road between the hills, non stop shaking, twist turns and creepy bridges in wich the bus merely fit. I was tired of sitting down so i started to bus surfing (balancing in the hallway with out using the hands.) we reached the gate at night, luckily it was almost ful moon, so we had great light for walking with out flashlights.
we walked around 1 hour trough a field full of cows and mud, at half the way i took my shoes off, i had more balance and awareness of the ground this way.
i rested my back in every big tree i could find, then after a vey tiring trail we saw what looked like smoke of fire (then we realized it was the river shining) and where more motivated to get there. at first we reached a small wood shed- house that received us with "welcome home" greetings and hugs. then we dropped our bags where we could, and walked down hill to the main circle, where the music was coming from. it was a beautifull scene: people sitting (like 30 or 40) around fire in different clusters: the drum cluster, the talking cluster, everybody was chilling out (they had just ate dinner), i jumped inmediatly into the fire, with my instruments, present them to fire, got comfortable. next thing i know a couple of bright light guys introduce themselves as jouso and kancer, from finland, they were very friendly and shiny, big blue eyes that jumped from their face. i played a while around the fire, and i was wondering why i was the only one playing...the guys told me that last night everyone stayed out late, so they were tired, so was i, tired but excited. then i went to sleep in the house.


as an outline: this intergalactic rainbow gathering served me as a launching base into new ways of living and seeing life. i´ve been influenced and inspired by many persons and their diferent styles of living and moving through the world. now i have enough motivation to explore the 4 directions of gaia anytime.
the books where my spark and people are my inspiration for future meetings in distant corners.

now i feel proud of being who i am, cuz now i feel part of a family,
no more crying alone in a corner as i did as child and teenager, feeling abandoned in a foreign planet, alienated from society. now i feel connected and protected.

in the main circle i´ve pictured us around the fire as in the neverever land and the city of lost children where nobody dies and every night is a new year party.
each one of us represented a tribe, a color, a smell, a taste, a geographical region and a whole universe.
im a red magnetic dragon, the order-chaos of the primordial waters, the initiator, the chi, shakti- xochiquetzal: Flower feather (the godess of flowers), im Parvati, the creation, im the spider that threads the web... the matrix... the akashic records.

now i have the power of the tropical rain forest in my magic pouch, i´ve lived on the jungles of my ancestors.
the cold rivers and rains cleansed my spirit.
I´ve danced around fire while Tlaloc played the drums of rain, sweating in the shiny core while the majority was distracted by fire twirling with babylon´s gas.
(that is how babylon is: attractive, but dont lasts long, just mere illusion).
my stongest brothers and sisters (thanks Tuukka, Colors, sal paradiso(aka Todd), the irish mama, the italian girls, Mare and Pamela) where beside me, giving their dance offerings to the fire. molding the flames, taking and spreading them around the multitude.
that was my last dance in the main circle, we gave it all out, on the night preceding the full moon in the morning. it was a cloudy night, just the ones that stayed close to the fire (about 15 or 20) saw the moon for 3 times, for 6 seconds.
we howled, sang, shouted and aplouded to her.
we sang all the songs and mantras that we knew, we even did new songs.
(the mud was an extra factor while dancing, you had to follow the directions where the mud took your feet, be strong, balanced and playfull.)

the food was a surprise everyday, well sometimes it resembled more like a bad joke (when the rice was burned, raw and goo at the same time), that motivated me to jump into the kitchen the next day and make the best meal we could have that evening. one day we made pizza, pasta and coockies, other day made sushi and stir fry with curry vegs, that was the abundance days, contrasted by scarcity days of 3 kinds of making soy: soy with soy sauce and potatoes, soy w oregano and cabage, and soy w beet and carrot, aaaaa and beans, and tahini surprise.
i enjoyed alot being in the kitchen, every day was like making a whole symphony, putting intention and joy in every cut.
the kitchen crew was amazing: the fire trolls, the cutting guys, the cleaning beings, the musicians, the clowns and the chefs.
the base line was onions, garlic and spices, the other instruments where improvised in the moment depending on what we still had.

making the supply runs was an oddysey few dared to accomplish:
a 2 day trip to las choapas or to cerro nanchital, one for going and the other for coming back, just when the kitchen was almost empty, the supply runners arrived as santaclause with their bags full of colors and textures that illuminated their path into the kitchen. then the racks of the grocery looked like a rainbow again. then i was tired of cooking and improvising with little, and took one or 2 days of the kitchen (even tough i still wanted to cook with all the new stuff).

then i dedicated the day to myself, went bathing to the river, swimmed to the other end, through the green and blue cold river, and reached a wall of amazing carved boulders that were waterfalls long time ago, then i climbed and meditated over them. perfect spot in front of the sun.
then i jumpet from as high as i could and climbed again.


just on the second week i was there , rain poured down during 3 days and flooded many parts of the camp, all the tarps were down, the water connections were gone and 5 camps where sweeped by the water that rised like 8 meters from the river side.
chaos ruled the gathering. many abandoned their camps to go sleep on the "house", an old wooden shed with metal roof top(with wholes) that moved everytime the wind blowed.
by the time i was already sleeping on the house, cuz i just had a hamock and a sleeping bag, so i went there since the rain started one day ago.
that night the population sleeping on the house grew from 20 to 50.
the next day almost avery one emigrated to the house or the sourrounding areas, cuz it was on the safest spot of the valley: a hill.

ill write about paranoia of nohas ark and the improvised 4th world kitchen on the next entry .
(one of the funnest part of the gathering for me.)