Dear friends:
Many of you are familiar with the stories I have told about my first journey to Ecuador six years ago, and the many synchronistic events that led to my meeting the man who distills the Palo Santo oil for Floracopeia; many of you are familiar with the oil itself, but perhaps have not heard these stories yet.

Over the last six years, many interesting and wonderful events have transpired for everyone involved with the Palo Santo tree and its oil. For those of us at Floracopeia, this oil has become one of our most beloved products, and our involvement with the reforestation of the tree one of our greatest success stories; for those in Ecuador, the production of the oil and reforestation of the trees, under the guidance of Dante Bolcato, the man responsible for the project, has also been a great success; for those who have met the oil through Floracopeia, there are a multitude of testimonials about its healing powers and the blessings that it has brought to people in different ways.

Since my first visit with Dante in the fishing village of Puerto Lopez, I have wanted to return. That visit was far too short, only half a day, and because of the language barrier, many questions remained in my mind when I left. Who was that interesting character, and what exactly is he doing? What are the secrets of his distillation methods? What does he know about the history, culture, mythology, symbolism and chemical science of this intriguing tree and its oil, so sacred to the native people that it has been called “Santo” for centuries?

Dante and I have had ongoing communication over the years, as we worked together on this project. Gradually, my Spanish has improved, as has his, and we have both learned to use “google translator,” allowing us to have discussions about our various discoveries and developments. Eventually, the day arrived when it was possible for me to return to the little village on the equator, and to spend not just a few hours but several weeks, satiating my appetite for knowledge and experience in those areas of life that I consider most meaningful: plants, their medicines, and the dimensions both sacred and mundane where they interact with humans.

Sara and I are now in Puerto Lopez. It is hot, humid, sultry, and typically third world; the mosquitoes are notoriously aggressive and abundant here, especially now that the short rainy season has come to the tropical dry forest. This is where the Palo Santo thrives, where Dante has lived and worked for twelve years since leaving Italy, and where a steadily growing sustainable enterprise has taken root in the community under his leadership, providing better livelihoods for over twenty people as well as ecological regeneration on a large scale. We have started our adventures, our studies, our discussions, our investigations, our work with photography and film and writing; in the few short days since our arrival it has already been incredibly rich and rewarding and intensely interesting and educational.

This blog post is the first in a series that Sara and I will be submitting for the next several weeks, titled “The Palo Santo Journey.” The story starts many years ago, far from Ecuador, before I knew of Palo Santo, and will eventually catch up to where we are now in present time. When this journey is over, the entire series will be republished as a complete story.

Toward the end of this month I will offer a webcast, to be broadcast from Dante’s octagonal house built around a huge tree trunk, that will share everything I have learned about Palo Santo, its medicine, its culture, its history, its magic and how it is transforming the lives of the people in its native land.

To be continued…

Palo Santo: The Tree of Life - An Exclusive Webcast Event with David Crow, accompanied by a vivid photographic slideshow from Sara Crow. Included in MedicineCrow membership.