Today I went to Real de Catorce (Royal 14?) and was seriously underimpressed. The ghost town moniker is a bit exaggerated (although there are some quite nifty abandoned houses) but the settings, nestled amongst the mountains and only accessible through a long tunnel, are pretty enough. The fact that today was the start of the Saint Francis celebrations probably didn't help much either: the town was packed with religious pilgrims and a plethora of stalls selling pretty much everything imaginable, except anything useful that is.
After wandering about the town for about half an hour I was already bored and so when a bloke came up to me and offered a horseback tour to the desert with maybe some peyote if we can find any (for the uninitiated peyote is a hallucinogenic plant used in indigenous shamanic rituals and the active ingredient is mescaline) all for 300 pesos, I thought why not. Bad decision. Not that anything wrong happened mind you, it's just that there are 2 things I will not be trying again in a hurry (or ever at all).
Lets start with the more innocent one: horse riding. Sarah (one of my housemates this year who used to go horse riding every weekend) has risen quite significantly in my esteem. I used to think that there wasn't much to horse riding: just point the beast in the right direction and let it do the rest. How wrong I was! Riding a horse requires you to be alert all the time and is physically quite demanding when the horse is doing anything but a gentle walk. After close to 4 hours in the saddle I don't think I'll be able to sit absolutely comfortably for a few days yet.
As for the second, peyote, for those of you thinking of trying it I'd recommend you try some prepared stuff (infusion, etc.) or just pop down to Camden market and get some shrooms instead, because peyote must be the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted. I is so horribly bitter that with every bite I was physically fighting the urge to throw up, and even now more than 6 hours later just thinking about it makes me want to retch. I don't think I was able to stomach enough of the stuff for a sufficient hallucinogenic trip and so all I got was a lingering urge to throw up.
Ah well, you live you learn. Hopefully the rest of you will learn from this and not make the same mistakes. On second thoughts, don't listen to me, make the mistakes yourselves, it's a much more effective way of learning than having me preach at you. So off you go my children, experiment away!
After wandering about the town for about half an hour I was already bored and so when a bloke came up to me and offered a horseback tour to the desert with maybe some peyote if we can find any (for the uninitiated peyote is a hallucinogenic plant used in indigenous shamanic rituals and the active ingredient is mescaline) all for 300 pesos, I thought why not. Bad decision. Not that anything wrong happened mind you, it's just that there are 2 things I will not be trying again in a hurry (or ever at all).
Lets start with the more innocent one: horse riding. Sarah (one of my housemates this year who used to go horse riding every weekend) has risen quite significantly in my esteem. I used to think that there wasn't much to horse riding: just point the beast in the right direction and let it do the rest. How wrong I was! Riding a horse requires you to be alert all the time and is physically quite demanding when the horse is doing anything but a gentle walk. After close to 4 hours in the saddle I don't think I'll be able to sit absolutely comfortably for a few days yet.
As for the second, peyote, for those of you thinking of trying it I'd recommend you try some prepared stuff (infusion, etc.) or just pop down to Camden market and get some shrooms instead, because peyote must be the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted. I is so horribly bitter that with every bite I was physically fighting the urge to throw up, and even now more than 6 hours later just thinking about it makes me want to retch. I don't think I was able to stomach enough of the stuff for a sufficient hallucinogenic trip and so all I got was a lingering urge to throw up.
Ah well, you live you learn. Hopefully the rest of you will learn from this and not make the same mistakes. On second thoughts, don't listen to me, make the mistakes yourselves, it's a much more effective way of learning than having me preach at you. So off you go my children, experiment away!
No comments:
Post a Comment