The American Botanical Council’s annual pharmacy from the rainforest tour is starting up again, under the new name of Botanical Medicines from the Amazon and Machu Picchu. ABC and the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research (ACEER) will lead trips through the Peruvian Amazon in late October 2004, presenting seminars on native botanicals and habitat, and, as a special treat this year, visiting the Andes and the breathtaking ruins of the "Lost City of the Incas," Machu Picchu.

Sleep with the gentle susurration of the rainforest in the background and wake up to the lovely descending notes of the oropendula. Dine on good, simple foods in the fresh air to the accompaniment of laughing frogs. Hear a tropical storm pass overhead while you stay relatively dry walking the trails surrounded by 20-foot vanilla orchids and giant kapok trees. Hike up the Inca Trail to the lost city of Machu Picchu. Seminars generate CME/CE credit for doctors and pharmacists.

Presenters will include ABC founder and executive director Mark Blumenthal, ACEER President Roger Mustalish, PhD, and ABC Board of Trustees Founding Member Jim Duke, PhD.

Tentative seminar topics include: Herbs and Healing, Ancient Medicine and Modern Cures, Cultural Competence and Healthcare Outcomes, Rainforest Cultures, Nutrition and the Tropical "Food Farmacy," Spirituality and Healing, Psychoactive Plants and their Role in Shamanic Healing, the Amphibian Pharmacy, Neotropical Birds, Rainforest Ecology, Tropical Medicine in the Rainforest, and Emerging International Health Issues

Everyone is welcome, so sign up now. Visit <www.herbalgram.org>,or call Stacy Elliott at 800/373-7105, ext. 101 for more information.

–Jon Lucksinger