As part of a walking tour, Kerri visited the shop of a traditional healer in Ecuador.
The walls were covered in items of spiritual significance, including dead animals, shells, pottery and bare T12 fluorescent light bulbs.
Hanging money from the dead ram was supposed to bring wealth. I hope it still works when the money isn’t worth anything, because these are old Ecuador Sucres, which were replaced with the American Dollar after the last bout of hyperinflation.
This is the skin of a caiman, a small crocodile type thing that lives in the Amazon.
For $50 he offered spit alcohol at me to “cleanse my soul”. But only because nothing is actually wrong with me. An actual cure costs $300 and would likely involve a guinea pig. It would not end well for the guinea pig. This is in a country where a meal of chicken soup, 1/4 roast chicken, rice and beans goes for $3.
He dressed me up as a “princess of the earth” and sat me on a replica of a traditional Incan throne. The crown is an original artefact made of hammered gold. Except presumably for the staples that hold it together.
