At about 19.30, after the sun had gone down, we began the ceremony. A couple of kerosene lamps were placed around, all went quiet and calm, then we began.
The shaman went around sprinkling this really beautiful intensely scented liquid. Then darkness fell, the lamps were blown out, it all became pitch black, I could not see a single thing. The only thing that I knew was going on was the shaman blessing the ayhuasca, chanting and purifying the air with his really strong and tasty cigarettes. We were all called up in turns, I was actually getting quite nervous now, don't really know why, just that I felt a bit uneasy but excited. When I knelt before the shaman, he poured out my concentrated shot of ayhuasca, blew the smoke to purify it, then he gave it to me. I actually didn't think the shot tasted too bad, if anything it was quite nice, in my opinion it was very similar to a highly concentrated malt extract drink. After I had drunk it, I returned to my mattress and sick bucket to be comfortable and ready for what might happen. Once we had all taken our shots, the shaman went round and individually blew his smoke at us and on us. This went on for a bit, then he went back to his seat and began his chants, the chants that would last the entire duration of the ayhuasca trip.