Into the Amazonian Rain Forest

"…I had traveled by car, plane, boat and foot — more than 100 miles from conventional civilization — to reach a place where the old ways have not been forgotten, where local people interpret the world through their dreams and the forest spirit known as arutam is said to inhabit the mighty kapok tree, and where healing and insight is sought from a hallucinogenic plant brew the Achuar call natem, known elsewhere as ayahuasca, or 'vine of the soul.'"
Article and photos in NYTimes by writer and photographer Andy Isaacson
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/10/11/travel/20101017ECUADOR-5.html