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- Feb 24, 2011
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I've been meaning to post for months now, and finally have had the time (and worthwhile internet connection!) to upload a few pics of this little trip I took into the desert at the end of October...
One of my good friends I've made while living down here in Mexico is a Huichol, and every year, generally around September, his father (the medicine man of his family and close community) organizes a pilgrimage to the desert in the north to harvest the medicine they will use for ceremonies for the following year. For most of 2013, my friend's father had been dealing with heart and general health problems and they were faced with the reality that he couldn't lead the pilgrimage. In the end the trip was delayed by a couple months and after some prayer and reflection, father medicine man decided that my friend would take his place, and gave the blessing to bring me and another Gringo along to help out.
Before I go on with the pics, I will offer a little disclaimer: the medicine we are harvesting is Peyote, and while illegal in the US and for most Mexicans, Huichols are legally protected and are allowed to harvest and consume this medicine. Since we were with my friend, who had all the legal paperwork for this mission, I was not breaking any laws on this trip and assume posting these photos is OK...
I was very excited and a little nervous to take this trip, but knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and seemed like a great chance to finally put my AMSMO to use...here it is right before I left, pretty much unused up to this point:
So we set off, leaving my little tropical paradise town in the state of Nayarit and head north. Bye bye beach town:
After a long drive, we arrive at our desert hunting grounds just as the sun is setting:
We rush to set up camp and get a fire going and rest up before the next day's ceremony and hunt really begins...
The next morning, I am notified that we will be fasting for this first day and not even allowed to have water since we will be consuming medicine later on. Having tasted the bitter goodness of peyote before, I am a little worried about how I'm going to get it into my system and also concerned about the idea of having to walk around the desert all day without any water (seemed a little crazy to me). And of course I found this out right after putting my freshly warranty-replaced 1311 to some light use:
I'd built up a little sweat and was just about to drink some water when they stopped me and informed me of the fast :/ While this concerned me, I have suffered in the name of work with other plant medicines before, so I just bucked up and dealt with it...
After prayer and preparation, the group lines up and we start combing the desert for the first peyote button. Within a minute, I end up being honored with spotting the first one! So I yell out "hikuri! hikuri!" (the Huichol word for Peyote), we gather around it, my friend makes more opening prayers and we all leave offerings around this first button, before continuing the hunt for more medicine.
You are never supposed to harvest the first button found, instead it becomes the meeting point for future parts of the trip.
So after leaving these offerings, we then wander the desert for a couple hours, collecting peyote. I was eager to put my AMSMO to use, knowing that I'd be digging into hard, rocky desert earth and also having to cut through it while I was harvesting peyote buttons...seemed like INFI would be perfect for this job...
Here's the first one and the first official job for my AMSMO:
Cut through it and the hundreds that followed like butter...rather than dig up the whole root, we cut it 1-2" below the surface so that the root can go on to make more medicine in the next years.
I had also brought my Spyderco K390 Mule and wanted to see how it would deal with this trip, as up until now, I'd only used it for kitchen duty and to cut up a tire I found while exploring the jungle a couple months earlier.
I will say the K390 was a great performer as well. It didn't suffer any chipping from the rocks or hard use (really had no idea how tough or brittle it would be...)
I basically switched off between the AMSMO and the K390, walking through the desert, harvesting medicine and taking the occasional picture:
Lots of interesting plants and cactii out here...
The Huichols call this one Mother of Peyote:
Stumbling into a couple of these guys later in the day was real painful!
After the first couple hours, here's what my friend and I had collected:
This place was PACKED with medicine...I'd sit down to harvest one and find 2-3 more between my legs. Even after a couple of days of hunting, it was still just ridiculous. The land we were on has been privately owned and protected for a long time, with only a few select Huichol families given access to it, so I'm grateful to say Peyote thrives here and we were able to harvest everything we needed, while leaving lots more medicine to grow and thrive.
This place is beautiful:
Over the next few days, we harvest plenty of medicine, engage in some seriously profound, powerful, beautiful ceremony. The sun shines and cooks us, then at times the rain suddenly surprises us with a downpour. The medicine challenges me at times, and then also lifts me up and connects me to a strength I didn't know lived inside of me. Lots of healing, lots of prayer, lots of laughter and fun with my small group of medicine hunters along the way.
The AMSMO and K390 Mule ended up doing all the food prep once we were past fasting time...everyone in the group was grateful that I had brought some decent cutlery. I ended up putting the AMSMO through it's potentially biggest test, by letting my totally non-knife-nut friend use it for almost the whole second day...I trusted the knife enough to know he couldn't do any real damage to it, and he was left impressed by how well a knife could cut and feel in his hand all day long. He used the back of it to dig up dirt around the medicine and it was fine.
In the end I was left with a couple edges to touch up, some scratches on the DCBB finish of the AMSMO, but no real damage.
I can't find the after desert trip photos on my computer right now, so I'll update this in a few days with close up pics of the knives before and after sharpening them...
INFI and Jerry's designs continue to rock my world
One of my good friends I've made while living down here in Mexico is a Huichol, and every year, generally around September, his father (the medicine man of his family and close community) organizes a pilgrimage to the desert in the north to harvest the medicine they will use for ceremonies for the following year. For most of 2013, my friend's father had been dealing with heart and general health problems and they were faced with the reality that he couldn't lead the pilgrimage. In the end the trip was delayed by a couple months and after some prayer and reflection, father medicine man decided that my friend would take his place, and gave the blessing to bring me and another Gringo along to help out.
Before I go on with the pics, I will offer a little disclaimer: the medicine we are harvesting is Peyote, and while illegal in the US and for most Mexicans, Huichols are legally protected and are allowed to harvest and consume this medicine. Since we were with my friend, who had all the legal paperwork for this mission, I was not breaking any laws on this trip and assume posting these photos is OK...
I was very excited and a little nervous to take this trip, but knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and seemed like a great chance to finally put my AMSMO to use...here it is right before I left, pretty much unused up to this point:
So we set off, leaving my little tropical paradise town in the state of Nayarit and head north. Bye bye beach town:
After a long drive, we arrive at our desert hunting grounds just as the sun is setting:
We rush to set up camp and get a fire going and rest up before the next day's ceremony and hunt really begins...
The next morning, I am notified that we will be fasting for this first day and not even allowed to have water since we will be consuming medicine later on. Having tasted the bitter goodness of peyote before, I am a little worried about how I'm going to get it into my system and also concerned about the idea of having to walk around the desert all day without any water (seemed a little crazy to me). And of course I found this out right after putting my freshly warranty-replaced 1311 to some light use:
I'd built up a little sweat and was just about to drink some water when they stopped me and informed me of the fast :/ While this concerned me, I have suffered in the name of work with other plant medicines before, so I just bucked up and dealt with it...
After prayer and preparation, the group lines up and we start combing the desert for the first peyote button. Within a minute, I end up being honored with spotting the first one! So I yell out "hikuri! hikuri!" (the Huichol word for Peyote), we gather around it, my friend makes more opening prayers and we all leave offerings around this first button, before continuing the hunt for more medicine.
You are never supposed to harvest the first button found, instead it becomes the meeting point for future parts of the trip.
So after leaving these offerings, we then wander the desert for a couple hours, collecting peyote. I was eager to put my AMSMO to use, knowing that I'd be digging into hard, rocky desert earth and also having to cut through it while I was harvesting peyote buttons...seemed like INFI would be perfect for this job...
Here's the first one and the first official job for my AMSMO:
Cut through it and the hundreds that followed like butter...rather than dig up the whole root, we cut it 1-2" below the surface so that the root can go on to make more medicine in the next years.
I had also brought my Spyderco K390 Mule and wanted to see how it would deal with this trip, as up until now, I'd only used it for kitchen duty and to cut up a tire I found while exploring the jungle a couple months earlier.
I will say the K390 was a great performer as well. It didn't suffer any chipping from the rocks or hard use (really had no idea how tough or brittle it would be...)
I basically switched off between the AMSMO and the K390, walking through the desert, harvesting medicine and taking the occasional picture:
Lots of interesting plants and cactii out here...
The Huichols call this one Mother of Peyote:
Stumbling into a couple of these guys later in the day was real painful!
After the first couple hours, here's what my friend and I had collected:
This place was PACKED with medicine...I'd sit down to harvest one and find 2-3 more between my legs. Even after a couple of days of hunting, it was still just ridiculous. The land we were on has been privately owned and protected for a long time, with only a few select Huichol families given access to it, so I'm grateful to say Peyote thrives here and we were able to harvest everything we needed, while leaving lots more medicine to grow and thrive.
This place is beautiful:
Over the next few days, we harvest plenty of medicine, engage in some seriously profound, powerful, beautiful ceremony. The sun shines and cooks us, then at times the rain suddenly surprises us with a downpour. The medicine challenges me at times, and then also lifts me up and connects me to a strength I didn't know lived inside of me. Lots of healing, lots of prayer, lots of laughter and fun with my small group of medicine hunters along the way.
The AMSMO and K390 Mule ended up doing all the food prep once we were past fasting time...everyone in the group was grateful that I had brought some decent cutlery. I ended up putting the AMSMO through it's potentially biggest test, by letting my totally non-knife-nut friend use it for almost the whole second day...I trusted the knife enough to know he couldn't do any real damage to it, and he was left impressed by how well a knife could cut and feel in his hand all day long. He used the back of it to dig up dirt around the medicine and it was fine.
In the end I was left with a couple edges to touch up, some scratches on the DCBB finish of the AMSMO, but no real damage.
I can't find the after desert trip photos on my computer right now, so I'll update this in a few days with close up pics of the knives before and after sharpening them...
INFI and Jerry's designs continue to rock my world
Do not!! i repeat Do not!! drink Tequila that has had dried Peyote soaking in the bottle for months. 
:thumbup::thumbup:
