Maestro Santiago Enrrique

Maestro Enrrique is the son of a powerful shaman and has continued on his father legacy at Santuario Huishtin.

For centuries, Peruvians have been passing on the story of The Boiling River in the Amazon from generation to generation. We other inhabitants of the world have mostly never even heard of her.

Santuario Huisthtin is the destination for adventurous visitors that are looking for an authentic experience working with Amazonian plant medicine for healing and knowledge in the tradition of vegetalismo.

Only here is Ayahuasca prepared according to an old traditional recipe from boiling water from The Boiling River.

You are going with maestro Enrrique to take a journey together and by the end of the journey you will recognize the subtle changes that the spirit of Ayahuasca, La Madrecita, is offering you.

Words are OK, but the understanding of Ayahuasca will not be in the words. The spirit of Ayahuasca will come to you through intention, energy, for this is what a shaman does, he transmits energy and healing through his songs, through his presence and with the help of spirits who he calls upon through his ICAROS.

Ayahuasca is a mystery and cannot be held down to facts. There are many books that try to explain Ayahuasca (many very interesting and very good) because people in the Western world like facts. Our brains like certainty and explana tions, but Ayahuasca cannot come to you in this way. She does not enter your brain from the left side. She is global. She lights up your entire brain. You make communication harder when you approach her with your left brain, so relax, breathe and let maestro Enrrique sing you a few songs.

In the Amazon the word shaman acctualy does not exist. What does exist is another name, vegetalista because the vegetalistas work with plants. There is also another way of saying it, which is curandero. If you ask the old curanderos, "Are you a shaman?" They will say, "No, I am a vegetalista." They prefer to be called a vegetalistas because work with the plants. Ayahuasca is one among many.

In the jungle, the curanderos or vegetalistas who drink the plants do so partly to acquire their power. This power or force is called MARIRI. It means the power of the plants you have taken.

Shaman has the power to invoke energies, spirits. He can clearly see the protection. You too also can see the protection. It is through drinking the plants that one can obtain this force and the transfer of this force is shamanic.

Of course, you will have the vision because you will drink the plants. So from being a curandero, a vegetalista, one is able to acquire all the forces of the plants. Then you have the possibility of invoking the powers of the animals, and with your intention, you pass it on to people for their healing.

It's very important to understand that how you say things has power. One's intention and how one says it, what's behind the intention and the faith one has in the intention, all these things contribute to the healing. And if you have faith and you want to heal somebody and if your intention is clear and pure and clean, then even just a cup of water can heall Of course it's even better if you drink the plants because then, with gratitude and the right intention even more power!

One becomes a vegetalista by experimenting or by transmission from ancestors. Our Mother Earth offers us this garden of plants. Our ancestors transmit their experience to us and, of course, we experiment.

In Enrrique case, from his father's side and because his grandfather was a vegetalista-curandero, it is in his blood. This knowledge of the plants, though he was never seeking it, he knew it was in him. So when he began drinking the plants it was very easy. It was easy for him to understand, to be very sensitive.

It is important to understand that one is not ingesting a liquid, one is ingesting the spirit of the plant. One then acquires the mariri and one advances spiritually. With the plants the process of spiritual advancement is accelerated. One enters the world of the spirit of plants, the world of the spirits of the animals. One enters the world of the spirit of the elements: Fire, Air, Earth and Water. Plants will accelerate one's understanding of these things. Yes, the plants will take you to this level.

At times during ceremony, people can confront what we could call their own "demons" or negative energies. This has to take place in a religious context. As you know, we take Ayahuasca in a group setting. There we release our masks and expose our real selves.

When you go to church you might do it hypocritically. Not here. Here you will vomit, cleanse, and quite often support each other in that. That is how it should be. Accept one another. The most subtle and refined sensibilities are there. From the delicate sounds of the forest that is where the orchestra begins. From there you will find all the musical instruments.

So, thank you to the plants, thank you, Ayahuasca, thank you, Mother Earth. That is the gratitude.

Of course, there are other ways, other practices that can be used to gain access to the knowledge and wisdom one gains from Ayahuasca but with the plants, it's an accelerated curriculum, an accelerated course, if you will. Yes, there are other ways, for example, medita tion. But it might take you years to attain what one can gain in one ceremony. That's why you shuld like the plants. They are very fast.

Sometimes you can see myself like a tree and you feel that throughout your body there are other little trees growing, and also little animals are walking by, and little birds are singing, teaching you the icaros, and when you look at yours veins they are like little vines. And you feel that vibration in other people. That's what Ayahuasca transmits. It's like a blessing. It is a blessing. And there is a continuous growth.