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A few days ago, I posted a message on the site of the Lima couchsurfing group, saying that I was interested to attend a shaman session. Out of the several responses I got, the one of Bertha was the most interesting. She is very religious, and the day before our meeting, she seriously and rather worried asked me if I had signed a pact with the devil.

 

Exactly the kind of guide that suits me.


So today we drove  to Gamarra, a huge market in a rather seedy area of ​​Lima. Next to it is the Avenida de Aviacion, the street where we try to find what I am looking for. For this I absolutely have to be accompanied by a local; alone I do not have the slightest chance to find what I am looking for.


After a few passages in small shops selling lots of interesting and intriguing stuff, all quite useful for all obscure purposes, and after many questionings all around, we found the place we wanted. And here we are now staring at the dark entrance of a creepy building; the shaman lives on the first floor. Bertha is hesitating, since a while she keeps on telling me that she does not believe in these pagan things, and that I'd better go to a church and pray for what I want.


Before entering the building we first drank a rather unusual cocktail: Do you remember the Gremlins movie? The scene where one of the Gremlins jumped into a blender? Well, come to Gamarra, here can watch it live and in color. The only difference is that there is no living Gremlins in the blender, but frogs. Out comes a kind of green soup that I swallow while it is still fresh and hot. In Beijing, I struggled to eat scorpions, worms, snakes and other funny stuff, but I swear you: drinking this magic potion needed all my courage. Well, I drunk it, I survived, and now I am immortal and my sexual potency is ensured for decades.

 

To whom it might concern, one can also buy dried llama fetuses here.


The shaman shares the first floor with a witch, La señora de las Amarres Eternos, specialized in  love issues, fortune and protection. I did not see her, but a glimpse in her "temple" confirmed me that we were on the right place: here I will find what I am looking for.


The shaman leads us to another room, dark and narrow. Wow, this is the real deal! The room is filled with the full range of witchcraft; at first it makes me rather think of black than of white magic. In addition to candles, bottles and jars, there are voodoo dolls, some half burned, others new; whips, candles, skulls of all kinds, including two human ones, and... a wig (!)

 

But there are also images of Christ, Buddha, Confucius, and Pharaoh, so that everyone will find something for his own convictions. Surprisingly: no image of the Virgin Maria, which here can be seen  at all street corners in Latina America.


Now, if you expect me to tell you the whole session, the answer is no, haha!


Just know that, among other things I also got a tarot session, and future predictions through coca leaves.


Upon my question if there are also witches practicing black magic, the answer was yes, the brujas negras.

 

“Is there perhaps someone I want to see death?”  

 

Perhaps ... ... but, what if it worked?


Once out of this evil place, Bertha immediately dragged me to a statue of Christo de los milagros to ask for forgiveness for our sins, and after a series of signs of the cross, everything was fine again.

 

Thank you Bertha, if somehow I am not immortal after all, now I am reassured for my life after death.