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Mostly_Harmless
wyrd bið ful aræd



Registered: 05/12/09
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Loc: Perfidious Albion
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Tourists to Mexico still drawn by peyote trips
#18681627 - 08/09/13 05:27 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/08/03/world/tourists-to-mexico-still-drawn-by-peyote-trips/#.UgKFv1O9wal
REAL DE CATORCE, MEXICO – Gisele Beker, a 26-year-old Argentine, trudged for hours in scorching sun to the sprawling Wirikuta desert craving peyote, the hallucinogenic cactus that Mexicans deem sacred.
Joined by three Mexican friends, Beker was living her dream as part of a new wave of tourists taking a trip for a trip — in this case to see where Lophophora williamsii takes her.
“Did you strike gold yet?” she asked her Mexican friends anxiously after a 700-km trip as they searched the desert floor for the small, spineless cactus full of psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline.
The drug is technically illegal, but for centuries it has played a role in indigenous culture in northern Mexico and Texas, where it is part of transcendence and meditation for cultures such as the Wixarika, or Huicholes in Spanish — so much so that this remote corner of San Luis Potosi state has become a bit of a promised land for those who have trekked here to try peyote, despite the logistic challenges, since the 1960s.
The tourists just keep trickling in. They have not been deterred by the difficult topography, and there is no indication they have paid any heed to rusty, metal signs announcing regularly, “Harvesting and selling peyote is a federal crime.”
Nor has the legal background done anything to change the availability of local guides who, when they hear the magic words from tourists — “We want to go out to the desert” — sidle up and quietly offer their services.
Cesar, one of Gisele’s friends who wanted to keep his last name private, recalled his favorite saying: “You do not find peyote. It finds you.”
When the group located what they had come for, the rituals started in earnest.
Typically, people ask permission from the Wirikuta desert, where the indigenous people believe the universe was created.
Then an offering is made to the plant, and people are careful not to uproot it, since the plant is extremely slow-growing. The peyote is splashed with water, and its small, button-shaped fleshy parts are eaten.
“It is like a fruit, fleshy but very bitter,” said Gisele.
The native people see the plant as the symbolic heart of the deer god, as well as their communications hotline to the gods.
Every year, the local community treks to Quemado hill, led by a shaman who gives blessings and makes offerings to the peyote.
Soaking up the mystical feel of the place, Mexican Eliana bit on her peyote. “It’s like going inside your own spirit,” she said. “When I finish, I am going to think some more and then I am leaving.”
Many people experience heightened senses and synesthesia, but also vomiting and other unpleasant side effects.
Chris Biddle, a 32-year-old South African, said he and his girlfriend felt connected to nature, but that the experience “is not for everybody.”
Local expert Jose Luis Bustos, 67, underscored that people trying to treat peyote without respect would perhaps pay a price.
“Peyote is not a drug,” he said. “It is a sacred plant. And it must be treated with great respect, because if someone does something bad, the plant just may punish him, treat him badly.”
Other residents also have voiced concern about foreigners who have come from around the world only to die alone in the desert or wind up in a local psychiatric facility.
Mayor Hector Moreno warned: “Peyote is exclusively for (indigenous) Huichol culture. The rest of us are only supposed to promote its preservation and respect for it.”
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LuSiD enthusiast
Stranger

Registered: 03/14/13
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Re: Tourists to Mexico still drawn by peyote trips [Re: Mostly_Harmless]
#18681989 - 08/09/13 08:41 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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YOU DON'T SAY??
-------------------- I'm addicted to coke, weed, booze, ludes and speed. Not LSD, you can't get addicted to LSD, it was built by scientists. I ain't got no demons that gonna get woke. In erowid we trust. Just take your damn pills and don't ask any questions, you'll be fine.
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The_Good_Doctor
Stranger than you might think

Registered: 10/26/12
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Re: Tourists to Mexico still drawn by peyote trips [Re: LuSiD enthusiast]
#18682036 - 08/09/13 09:03 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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I stayed in Real de Catorce for a week a few years ago, and I had someone ask me every day if I wanted to take a tour of the desert on one of their horses. They said I could "find the peyote for photos" or if I wanted to, I could pay them a little extra to "know the peyote". Everyone in Real de Catorce is friendly and will tell you where to find the happy little plants, but there is no peyote actually in Real de Catorce.
You have to go out into the desert, and the people around there are much less friendly when it comes to gringos walking around and staring at the dirt. Anyone you ask will tell you that there is "no peyote here, not for miles and miles". If you are going to go look for Lophophora in it's natural habitat it's better to go with a guide who can show you where to go that won't piss off the locals.
If you go to Tecolote and find El Jefe de San Juis, he will help the peyote find you.
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Sulfurshelfsean
Defender of Cubes



Registered: 07/29/10
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Re: Tourists to Mexico still drawn by peyote trips [Re: The_Good_Doctor]
#18682417 - 08/09/13 10:58 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
The_Good_Doctor said:
If you go to Tecolote and find El Jefe de San Juis, he will help the peyote find you.
How true is this last statement? I have friends going on a Mexican/South American journey this winter.
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   Everything is better when it is done ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN!
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refried

Registered: 06/14/13
Posts: 3,675
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Re: Tourists to Mexico still drawn by peyote trips [Re: Sulfurshelfsean]
#18688145 - 08/10/13 06:39 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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I wonder if there will be any peyote left with this damned peyote tourism...
On a side note: how is the trip different from shrooms?
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The_Good_Doctor
Stranger than you might think

Registered: 10/26/12
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Loc: Germany
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Re: Tourists to Mexico still drawn by peyote trips [Re: Sulfurshelfsean]
#18690557 - 08/11/13 09:35 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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It's true as of 3 years ago. In Real de Catorce you can find Peyote if you go with the donkey/horse ride guys, but the feeling I got from that was very cheap and artificial. It felt sketchy. The guy that my friends have gone to goes by the name of El Jefe de San Louis, and they went to him in Tecolote. He took them out in a truck and dropped them off in the desert, in the general area where peyote can be found and they had to search for hours. But as the saying goes, you have to let your peyote find you.
In the valley on the drive up to Real de Catorce there is a small town, and there are paintings of peyote buttons on lamp posts, and signs and all sorts of stuff. If you go to Real de Catorce you will find peyote, but if you aren't careful you can come away from the experience feeling very let down.
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist

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Re: Tourists to Mexico still drawn by peyote trips [Re: refried]
#18690691 - 08/11/13 10:20 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
refried said: I wonder if there will be any peyote left with this damned peyote tourism...
Yes, there is a lot left. It's just in Texas where hippies have eaten it all.
The biggest threat to Mexican peyote are the tomato farms which are encroaching on its habitat.
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ShroomDoom
Friend of the Medicine



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Re: Tourists to Mexico still drawn by peyote trips [Re: Alan Rockefeller] 1
#18691527 - 08/11/13 02:03 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Do not go to real to pick peyote. It hurts the huichol who cant find it for their ceremonies when gringos and jipis rip it up. Also if you get caught its Mexican prison time. Articles like this encourage poaching. Salvemos Wirikuta!
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refried

Registered: 06/14/13
Posts: 3,675
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Re: Tourists to Mexico still drawn by peyote trips [Re: ShroomDoom]
#18693010 - 08/11/13 08:39 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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I totally agree with this, good call. ^^
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