Ayahuasca works in a unique way with every person depending on the healing that he or she needs to have done. This healing can be physical, emotional or spiritual and the medicine addresses any energetic blockages we have in our bodies to resolve these.
The indigenous healers believe that all western illnesses are really just symptoms of spiritual or energetic imbalances. The healers, working together with ayahuasca, have been shown to have great benefits in helping to alleviate a variety of conditions because it addresses the energetic patterns that underlie them rather than the specific symptoms. However, because individual circumstances vary so much, it is impossible to predict the depth and degree of healing. Certainly the deeper and more serious/chronic the condition, the more time would be needed to address it.
While the Santuario Huishtin is a traditional Amazonian plant medicine healing center, we make no specific claims regarding the efficacy in treating any particular medical disease as defined by Western medical standards. Any medical illness should be assessed by a qualified medical professional. In working with Ayahuasca at the Santuario Huishtin, there are no guarantees that any certain level of healing will be achieved or any cure for a condition obtained.
Ayahuasca is a medicine that has been used traditionally by indigenous cultures in the Amazon for likely thousands of years. Ayahuasca is made from two plants — the ayahuasca vine (banisteriopsis caapi) and the leaf of the chakruna plant (psychotria viridis). Both plants are collected from the jungle to create a potent mixture that offers access to the realm of spirits and an energetic world that that we are typically unable to perceive in our ordinary state of consciousness.
In chemical terms, the leafy chacruna plant contains the powerful psychoactive dimethyletryptamine (DMT), which, by itself, is not orally active because it is metabolized by the stomach enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO). However, certain chemicals within the ayahuasca vine contain MAO inhibitors in the form of harmine compounds that result in a psychoactive compound with an identical chemical makeup to the organic tryptamines in our brains. This mixture circulates through the bloodstream into the brain, where it triggers powerful visionary experiences and enables us to access otherworldly realms and our hidden, inner subconscious landscapes.
The effects can last anywhere from a few hours to the whole night. The length of time a person feels the effects of ayahuasca varies from person to person and from ceremony to ceremony. Even when the conscious effects have warn off, the medicine continues to work with the body and energetic fields in ways that are not always immediately perceptible. Ayahuasca is a medicine that works far beyond the level of conscious experience.
The Santuario Huisthin of light does not condone irresponsible, unsafe use of ayahuasca. This includes drinking the medicine alone (without extensive experience and training beforehand), or participating in ceremonies held by people who do not have adequate training and experience. Ayahuasca is an immensly powerful medicine that requires a team of experienced space holders and carriers of a deep lineage of understanding of how to work with the medicine in order to be a safe and effective experience. Ayahuasca can be at a minimum inneffective and in some cases very dangerous and harmful if it is approached casually and without the support of experienced spaceholders.
Ayahuasca should be approached with respect and care. Center Santuario Huisthin has an impeccable safety record. In our 20 years of offering this medicine to thousands of guests, we have not had any deaths or major medical emergencies. We carefully screen each person who applies to our retreats to ensure that ayahuasca and the retreat environment we provide are appropriate and safe for that person. Safety is our number one priority. We are staffed by a well trained facilitation team with a high number of facilitators and healers per guest in our retreats. The healers we work with are chosen for their integrity and care for working with the highest concern and intention for healing. Our facilitators are all deeply experienced with ayahuasca and plant medicine work themselves and with ongoing skill development through continuous staff training.
With the initial work focused on cleansing and purifying your physical body to prepare you for the next stages, one quite reasonable expectation is that you will experience a strong purge (hence the name given to ayahuasca, “La Purga”). The purge is an important part of the ceremony experience, yet not everyone purges in the first ceremonies. The purge usually takes the form of vomiting, but sometimes takes the form of diarrhea. It is an energetic cleansing that will help clear vibrational imprints and emotional blockages as well as physical toxins. Many people purge strongly in their initial ceremony experiences, and move into deeper experiences as these blockages are removed. Other people experience the reverse: they do not purge early on but have cleansing purges in later experiences.
Ayahuasca is not addictive. In fact, it is a medicine that can help to resolve the roots of addiction.
Ayahuasca is contraindicated and potentially very dangerous in combination with or taken in close proximity to certain medications and drugs. We carefully screen each potential guest on our retreats for any contraindicated medication and drug use. We take every precaution to ensure the safest possible experience with ayahuasca through our extensive screening process.
Ayahuasca has been used as a highly respected medicine in the Amazon for a very long time. We work with it with respect to the healing traditions from which it sprouted. Recreational drugs are generally substances that bring short term pleasure or relief but in the long term they provide no value and often cause more harm than good. True medicine brings long term healing while the experience itself can be at times very difficult, blissful at other times, and everything in between. Ayahuasca is a true medicine when worked with in a conscious and responsible way. Santuario Huishtin is not a “tripping center,” we engage with plant medicines with one intention only: healing.
The ayahuasca diet or set of dietary recommendations that have been developed by the indigenous groups who have been working with the medicine for many generations. The central aspects of the dieta we follow at the Santuario Huishtin are common to the teachings of all ayahuasquero/as across the Peruvian Amazon. In the case of some of the food restrictions, there is also definitive scientific evidence that they are essential for safety. We advise guest coming to our retreats to begin the diet at least two weeks before a retreat and to continue the diet for at least two weeks after the last ceremony. It is essential to continue the diet to ensure the ikaros you have received and any possible plant remedies you are prescribed, are given sufficient time to integrate.
The food prepared at the Santuario Huishtin is prepared by our wonderful cooks who provide you with a well rounded, healthy and plentiful diet throughout your stay whilst adhering to the essential restrictions.
Our focus is deep healing on all levels – emotional, mental and spiritual and where feasible – physical (depending on what needs to be treated). We work with a high number of healers and facilitators per guest, to ensure each person has considerable personal attention during their time with us. Fundamental to the healing process in our workshops at the Santuaro Huishtin is a high number of ceremonies to ensure that each guest has the opportunity to work very deeply with Ayahuasca and to ensure that our healers and the plants have sufficient time with each guest to carry out their work. The process is deep and we are committed to effecting lasting change to our guests.
Our work goes much further than just offering an experience with Ayahuasca. Our priority is to firstly identify and diagnose the energetic imbalances, where negative energies have taken hold in our guests, and then over the duration of the workshop, we work closely with each guest to cleanse them of these dense energies that hold them back in their life. Working with the plants takes time and it is crucial that every person who comes to the Santuario Huishtin receives a certain level of healing. As well as cleansing and purifying the bodies of our guests of the immediate heavy energies, the icaros that are given to our guests are in effect “seeds of change” that are planted into their system which then grow over time offering guidance and support on the unfolding healing journey. Healing during a workshop is really the beginning of a much longer process that is affected in “plant time,” not human time.
A workshop at the Santuario Huishtin is an intense experience where guests face their shadow selves and are helped to be able to identify where the root of the negative energy they carry stems from. We work to deep clean traumas, suppressed emotional problems, negative behavioral patterns and mental programs that are not conducive to a peaceful, joyous and connected existence. We help people to rid themselves of a lifetime of energetic issues in order to connect to their true nature, build right relationships with people around them and fundamentally to establish more respect and compassion for the world around us.
This process cannot be effectively carried out over a shorter number of ceremonies. It follows a path / course where the first ceremony is to get to know the medicine, for the medicine to get to know the guests and for the healers to diagnose where the negative energies are held. The middle ceremonies are where we carry out the deep clean and the final ceremony is where we then seal the work we have carried out with “arkanas” to ensure that the ikaros that have been placed into the systems of the guests are protected for the longer term. In addition to the ceremonies, we work throughout the day with many other healing methods such as floral baths (to clean off the energies that are coming out), a steam bath at the beginning of the workshop (to clean the skin from impurities and some energies), vomitivos (to rid the stomach of toxins / some dense energies / worries, etc), plant remedies (we prescribe specific plants to guests subject to their healing requirements), energy massages (to move and release blocked energies), as well as sometimes working with ikaros (plant energy in the form of song), chupar (sucking energies), soplaring (blowing plant medicine into the guests systems) in every ceremony, or as needed during the day.
For most people, the effects of ayahuasca are felt about 30 minutes to an hour after drinking. However, some people feel it almost immediately and others do not notice any effects until several hours after drinking.
While visions (any combination of light, color, and shape not perceptable in ordinary states of consiousness) are a common experience with ayahuasca, not everyone has them. The amount of visions a person experiences or doesn’t experience when working with ayahusaca has no correlation to the amount of healing that person receives from the medicine. While visions can sometimes be the grounds for profound experiences, many people have these experiences in the form of insights, somatic experiences, and emotional releases during the ceremony. The Santuario Huishtin is not a “tripping” center. Our goal is to provde a safe and effective space for healing, with or without visions.
Ayahuasca is not compatible with a variety of pharmaceutical medications including anti-depressant medications of the SSRI variety. Ayahuasca is an MAO-I (monoamine oxidase inhibitor) which is pharmacologically contraindicated with several types of medication. Additionally, the energies of many pharmaceutical medications can potentially block the effectiveness of ayahuasca in ceremony.
It’s a mystery who learned to combine the two ingredients necessary for an ayahuasca brew (ayahuasca vine and chakruna leaf). Individually, both plants are more or less inert. In the Amazon Rainforest there are approximately 80,000 catalogued leafy plant species, of which as many as 10,000 are vines. Neither the vine nor the leaf is especially distinguished in appearance. Yet the healers of the Amazon, acting as archaic psycho-pharmacologists, somehow knew how to use one particular species of vine and one particular species of leaf to make a psychoactive brew.
There are many different creation stories told by indigenous groups about how ayahuasca first came to be. For the most part, these stories involve some form of communication from the plants/spirits to the ancestors who were so closely connected to them. These communications would often come through in dreams, in the form of specific sets of instructions on how to locate the ingredients necessary and how to prepare them.
There is no shortage of places to drink ayahuasca. There are ‘underground’ ceremonies happening all over the world. In Peru, where ayahuasca is legal for medicinal use, there are a plethora of centers and people offering medicine, with new centers appearing seemingly every day. The popularity of ayahuasca has sky rocketed in recent years. Along with this surge in popularity, there unfortunately comes a dilution in the quality and intention behind those who offer this medicine. Many are in it for the potential of material gain. Others are serving ayahuasca from a true desire to assist others in their healing, but with an unfortunate lack of understanding of the healing process and sometimes a delusional belief that they can adequately and safely hold a ceremony without proper training from an established lineage and right intention.
Santuario Huishtin has been creating a safe legitimate space for healing with ayahuasca. Maestro Enrique is an experienced shaman with many years of experience and his entire team takes care of each visitor individually. Our ceremonies are held exclusively by tried and true Shipibo ayahuasqueros who carry with them years of their own experience, backed by countless generations of indigenous wisdom. Our facilitation and teaching team is composed of women and men who have done and continue to do their own “work” in healing and evolution. They all have extensive experience with ayahuasca and other plants, and have a passion for witnessing and supporting others in their healing journey.
Safe and effective healing with ayahuasca is our primary concern. Our goal is to provide a space where each person who comes to us feels completely safe and thus able to surrender and connect with ayahuasca on a deep level. In our own experience, feeling safe and supported is the most important aspect of any ceremonial medicine offering, and unfortunately many centers are not able to provide this level of care. We have a track record of providing this over and look forward to continuing to improve and exceed our own standard in the years to come, for the benefit of all beings.
Tobacco is utilized as a sacred and healing plant in the Americas and documented medicinal use predates the fabrication and consumption of commercial cigarettes by thousands of years. In many indigenous Amazonian traditions, tobacco (or ‘mapacho’) is considered a Master Plant and is given equal regard and importance as ayahuasca. The qualities ascribed to tobacco in the healing and cermeonial context include energetic clearing, protection, alignment and grounding. Tobacco is actively used by most Shipibo ayahuasceros during ceremonies for these qualities. The tobacco used in ceremonies is the Nicotiana Rustica variey which is very different to the strands used in commercial cigarettes (Virginia, Burley, Oriental). Unlike commerical cigarettes, the tobacco used in ceremony is pure tobacco leaf and does not contain any chemical additives.
The weather in this area of the Amazon is pretty consistent year-round with a mix of sunshine, clouds, occasional rain and thunderstorms, and hot humid air in the day, cooling down quite a bit a night. January-June is considered the rainy season here so it tends to be a bit cooler, with more frequent rains (but sunny days nonetheless). There are generally more mosquitos during the rainy season. The mosquitoes and rain subside a bit in June-December with hotter temperatures, though thunderstorms are still a common occurrence. Regardless of when you come, we recommend coming prepared for all conditions as the temperatures/conditions can vary greatly from day to day and week to week and there is no way to predict this. Please ensure you have lightweight long sleeve shirts and pants and clothes appropriate for the heat during the day, a warm sweater or sweatshirt and warm socks for at night, and rain gear.
Santuario Huishtin is located in the Amazon Basin, in the Ucayali region of Peru, district Yarinacocha, 70 km from Pucallpa.
To get to Santuario Huishtin, you should arrive at Pucallpa Airport. You have a flight to Pucallpa from Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima. We recommend that you book your flights by arriving in Pucallpa early in the morning to continue your journey to Santuario on the same day. Another option is to arrive one day before and after the start and end dates of your retreat to first give yourself time to acclimatize to the environment, and then allow yourself enough time to travel and time to reintegrate into the mainstream world when the retreat finish finished. We recommend the hotel in the center of Pucallpa, Del Castillo Plaza Hotel. Whatever you decide, our guides will be waiting for you at the agreed place, either at the airport in Pucallpa or at the hotel.
** Please do not book flights or make any travel arrangements until your registration and medical records have been reviewed and you have been approved to attend the recovery. **
Each person or group to withdraw will be picked up at a designated location in Pucallpa by one of our staff members, and then from there they will travel together to Santuario Huishtin. The person or group will be returned to the airport after breakfast on the last morning of the retreat and will arrive in the city by early afternoon (usually no later than 2 pm).
The price for the guide is not included in the price of the stay in Santuario Huishtin. The price does not include flights and hotel costs.
Safety is our primary concern and we have facilitated thousands of guests on our retreats without any deaths or significant medical emergencies.
The Santuario Huishtin is not in a position to recommend or not recommend vaccinations, so we offer this for only your information and suggest that you discuss your concerns further with your travel clinic or with your doctor. For detailed information regarding Chovid 19, visit the Peruvian government website.
The Pucallpa area is not endangered by malaria mosquitoes like some other areas in the Amazon. Although malaria is uncommon in our area, the active season is during the rainy season from December/January to May/June where the risk factor does increase. However, there have been some isolated cases at other times of year, so you do need to weigh the risks personally. Please note that the strain of malaria most common around Iquitos is vivax, which is a weaker form and usually easily treated for most healthy individuals.
For those who want to take pharmaceutical anti-malarial medication, Malarone (atovaquone/proguanil) shows no contraindications when taken in conjunction with ayahuasca.
Lariam is NOT recommended due to it’s inherent potential neuropsychiatric risks, which may be increased in combination with ayahuasca. Doxycycline is also NOT recommended as a malaria preventative in conjunction with ayahuasca due to potential negative physical interactions. Please note that some antimalarial medications, such as Lariam, have been associated with neuropsychiatric effects — including anxiety, hallucinations, depression, unusual behavior, and suicidal ideation — that might be particularly problematic if you are going to drink ayahuasca.
We have had many couples come to our retreats together. This is generally fine for mature couples who are able and willing to give one another the space they may need during the retreat without needing to interfere in one another’s process. Doing a retreat together can be very healing for the relationship if it is approached wisely.
Some couples do choose to come to retreats separately, recognizing that their relationship dynamic may make it difficult to participate in a retreat together. This is ok too, and can be beneficial if the individuals in the couple recognize that they may be able to go deeper into their process if they participate in retreats separately.
Santuario Huishtin is located in the jungle, surrounded with The Boiling River. There is no electricity in Santuario Huishtin, and therefore no WIFI. In fact, it has a generator unit that serves as a light in the dining room and has a socket for charging a phone or some other device. You can use your phone to take photos or take notes. You can bring an internal charger, although there are solar chargers in the center, it is often cloudy, so it is not the most convenient to rely on them. If you still want to make an invitation, ask Maestro Enrrique to take you to Honoria, a few kilometers from Santuario Huishtin. Honoria is a place you will definitely pass on your way to Santuario Huishtin. From Pucallpa to Honoria you travel by jeep, and from Honoria you continue by boat.
Should your family/friends need to reach you in an emergency, they can send message to our Facebook page Santuario Ayahuasca, and your facilitators will pass on the information to you during the retreat. We ask that you inform your loved ones that you will be completely out of contact for the duration of the retreat before you head to the Santuario Huishtin. It is also possible to send a message via Viber or WhatsApp to the contact phone you will receive after booking.
Laundry is handwashed onsite and air-dried. It can take several days to get laundry dried when it is raining a lot. We provide linens for each guest. As you are in a unique place in the world, you can wash your laundry with water from The Boiling River, and you can also ask someone from the camp for a service for a fee. Agree on the price of laundry, usually the price is 20-30 soles (that's a few dollars).
It is possible to come individually or in a group. Our retreats are structured as complete programs, so departing early or arriving late wouldn’t allow the healers to complete their work with you or for you to receive the full course of treatment or integration support. It is for these reasons that we offer a stay of 8 or 15 days. In the center Santuario Huishtin, Ayahuasca ceremonies are held three times a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). If you want to stay longer, it is possible to organize a longer stay, it is only necessary for maestro Enrrique to give his consent.
We will do our best to meet your travel plan. What we advise is to come on a Saturday or Sunday so that you have time to prepare for the ceremony on Monday. Please note that the Ayahuasca ceremonies are on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, so it is best to arrive the day before. Also, keep in mind that the center is 70 km away from Pucallpa and that maesto Enrrique is not often on the phone, so it takes time to organize guides who will come for you. Sometimes he personally came to take his guests from Pucallpa to Santuraio.
Another note is that sometimes due to weather conditions you cannot continue your trip on the same day so you need to stay longer than you planned in Pucallpa. So never go without reserve money, always think a step further. These are exceptions though, but one should be prepared for this kind of surprise as well.
Please check the specific requirements for your country online with the Peruvian Embassy to find out if anything is required beforehand or if you may obtain a visa onsite once you have entered Peru.
At this time, the Santuario Huishtin is currently rapidly expanding with new retreats and updated buildings and facilities and most of the revenues are being directly reinvested in the Santuario Huishtin to support this growth, and for this reason we are unable to offer any discounts or special payment exceptions at this time.
The reservation you pay via PayPal is for website maintenance and logistics to Santuario Huishtin.
Santuario Huishtin is located in the jungle, surrounded with The Boiling River. There is no electricity in Santuario Huishtin, and therefore no WIFI. In fact, it has a generator unit that serves as a light in the dining room and has a socket for charging a phone or some other device. You can use your phone to take photos or take notes. You can bring an internal charger, although there are solar chargers in the center, it is often cloudy, so it is not the most convenient to rely on them. If you still want to make an invitation, ask Maestro Enrrique to take you to Honoria, a few kilometers from Santuario Huishtin. Honoria is a place you will definitely pass on your way to Santuario Huishtin. From Pucallpa to Honoria you travel by jeep, and from Honoria you continue by boat.
Should your family/friends need to reach you in an emergency, they can send message to our Facebook page Santuario Ayahuasca, and your facilitators will pass on the information to you during the retreat. We ask that you inform your loved ones that you will be completely out of contact for the duration of the retreat before you head to the Santuario Huishtin. It is also possible to send a message via Viber or WhatsApp to the contact phone you will receive after booking.
On occasion, the healers may ask a woman to reduce her dose of ayahuasca a bit on the first day of her period when her flow is heaviest (if there happens to be ceremony that night). Women are generally more sensitive to ayahuasca when their flow is at its heaviest so reducing the dose doesn’t typically change much.
Accommodation in Santuario Huishtin is very satisfying even though it is far from civilization. You will have the option of your own tambo (jungle hut). Most guests are in their own tambo unless they are coming with a partner with whom they would like to share. Everyone sleeps in their room, bed linen is provided. We would ask yours not to leave food in the room as the bugs will find it. The bathroom is on the bank of The Boiling River, in the bathroom there are barrels with water from a hot river, some with hot water and some with cold so you can adjust the temperature. You grab the water from the barrel with a bowl and pour it while showering. Pretty natural, isn't it? Also, there are barrels with plants in the bathroom, it is recommended that you take a bath before each ceremony. You will be surprised how clean and tidy the toilet is.
We are in a remote location and cooking for large groups, with very limited access to food/markets. We are limited in this way due to our location and the resources available to us, and that because of this, we aren’t able to guarantee specific food requests as centers in other locations may be able to.
The food at the Santuario Ayahuasca is served according to the predominant Shipibo wisdom around food served with ayahuasca along with influences of local Peruvian cuisine. While we do serve a variety of fruits and vegetables, we are also limited by our location in the jungle (all foods are carried in by foot) and the lack of electricity and hence refrigeration to preserve foods. Our meals are served buffet style. Breakfast includes chopped fruit, and any combination of cooked oatmeal or quinoa porridge, rice, eggs,steamed yucca, and avocados. For lunch and dinners, there is generally rice or quinoa, some form of cooked veggie dish, legumes (lentils, beans, etc.), and a basic salad (sometimes lettuce or cabbage, cucumber, tomato, avocado).
While we can accommodate some special dietary requests, the logistics involved in holding our retreats can make it difficult to honor all of them, particularly from those with acute allergies or sensitivities.
If you have any allergies or special dietary needs emphasize Maestro Enrique so he can tell the cooks about your case.
Our retreats are conducted in Spanish and it would be desirable for you to understand Spanish at least at the level of conversation. It often happens that there is someone in the center who knows both Spanish and English, so you can ask for help. Maestro Enrrique speaks only Spanish, but several of our guides speak English so you can arrange a translation with them.
If mosquitos are a major concern for you, we would suggest bringing one natural repellent without DEET and one with DEET as a backup in case the natural one isn’t working well for you. It is preferable to refrain from using mosquito repellent with DEET during your time with us to support our sustainability initiative and to minimize that amount of toxic chemicals on your body when working with plants, however, we have many guests that choose to use DEET during their time at the Santuario Huishtin, and if you feel more comfortable with this, then that is ok. Please also note that the best protection against mosquitoes is staying covered with light-colored long sleeve shirts, pants, and socks.
All of our buildings (guest housing, dining areas, and ceremony spaces) are screened. Every bed is also covered with a mosquito net for extra protection.
There are several lemons in Santuario Huishtin that also help fight mosquitoes. Pick some lemon and rub it with lemon juice because it will help remove itching from mosquito bites.
Maestro Enrrique advises certain guidelines before the trip. Diet before the trip for at least a two week. Free of sugar, alcohol, sex, red meat, drugs and opiates.
Diet: fresh fruits and vegetables, boiled vegetables, chicken, fish, boiled eggs, as little salt as possible or if possible without salt.
Pack things in a backpack because you will find it easier to walk through the jungle.
Boots, but you can also buy them at Pucallpa or Honoria.
A flashlight, the best one is for the head.
Wardrobe with long sleeves and legs, rain jacket, towels, underwear, for hygiene if you can ecological soap because of the river, book, mosquito repellent.
The advice is to keep mobile phones and other equipment with PVC bags with a zipper. This is a recommendation due to the high humidity, and the evaporation of The Boiling River.
Department/Region: Ucayali
Province: Coronel Portillo
District: Yarinacocha
City: Pucallpa
When buying a ticket to Pucallpa, keep in mind that it takes about 4 hours from Pucallpa to Santuario, the same goes for the return from Santuario to Pucallpa. Although the distance from Pucallpa to Honoria is about 40 mile (64 km), one part of the road is paved and the other is a ruined road and it takes about two hours to travel by jeep.
There is a break in Honoria and the journey continues by boat, and the last stage is on foot. Once again, it would be advisable to wear deep hiking shoes or rubber boots in Honoria, because the road through the jungle can sometimes be muddy.
