We've moved!

 It has been quite a challenging time moving from Cusco where we have spent the last five years, but now Lourdes and I are living in a tiny rented house on Laguna Azul up in the northern jungle of Peru in San Martin province one and a half hours south of the city of Tarapoto.  Google Laguna Azul Tarapoto San Martin Peru if you would like to see further pictures and videos.

Lourdes made a commitment to teach a group of children in the Sacred Valley near Cusco for six years during which time local parents invited her to help start the Kusi Kawsay Waldorf-inspired school in the town of Pisac.

Having completed her commitment it felt right to both of us to change our base of operations to a climate and altitude that more suits us and accordingly we have moved to the small lakeside community of Sauce, pronounced 'sau-say' and meaning willow in Spanish.

Land prices here are much more reasonable than in the Cusco area and we have had the good fortune to have bought a 220 square meter building plot one block back from the three mile long lake where we plan to build a multi-purpose structure that will include our residence, a small cafe (serving really good coffee which is actually something of a rarity in Peru), a two-room bed and breakfast, a classroom for our newest branch of Estrella del Sur, our educational and social community outreach program and a woodworking shop.

In addition we have purchased a two hectare (5 acre) piece of agricultural land with an amazing view of the lake up behind the town where we plan to develop a biodynamic/permaculture garden and tropical orchard together with a ceremonial maloca for traditional plant spirit medicine ceremonies.

Lourdes will continue her involvement in the Kusi Kawsay school at Pisac in an advisory capacity.  She will also continue with her work training new Waldorf teachers in the Spanish-speaking world with upcoming journeys to the Dominican Republic and Chile.

After quite a number of years living without a boat I have just begun work on an experimental 10 meter wooden sailing catamaran.  At present I'm in the chemical purgatory of fiberglassing the hulls, but once that part is over it will just be carpentry work to get the vessel put together.  Stay tuned for updates on the building process on this website.  I've had the sails made by Lee Sails in Hong Kong and am going to be using a Parsun 25 HP four-stroke motor which is a new brand here in Peru.

We have also purchased two plastic sit-on-top kayaks to begin a small boat rental business and they will soon be joined by a single and a double traditional wooden dugout Amazonian canoe and a small rowboat/ sailing skiff in the coming months.  It's a beautiful lake for "simply messing about in boats"  to quote from the classic "Wind in the Willows".

Huachuma ceremonies to mark the October 28 Mayan calendar end date

Tentative dates for this year's pilgrimage up to sacred sites in the Central Highlands and around Cusco are October 26 - November 5.  Ceremonies are planned to begin October 28 which coincides with the end of the Mayan Calendar according to some researchers.  Contact  martinstevens@juno.com  for details.

Amazon medicine retreat

We had a wonderful two week retreat with our Shipibo family back in April.  Now I'd like to announce the next one which will be from 7 - 17 July. 
Please contact me at  martinstevens@juno.com  if you have any interest in joining us.