8-Day Ayahuasca Retreat

This 8-day Ayahuasca retreat program is designed to maximize the amount of shamanic healing treatment within the span of one week. Hosted at Kawsay Ayahuasca Retreat, the program is very intense and facilitates profound transformation. It features four Ayahuasca ceremonies led by Maestro Trunco Ayahuascero Don Romulo, his son Maestro Don Winister, and Don Winister Junior. Additionally, the program introduces participants to the incredible healing power of the grandfather medicine, San Pedro Cactus, also traditionally known as Huachuma. The Huachuma ceremony is exclusively guided by William Menech. Some of the most significant transformations occur during the Huachuma ceremony at the end of the retreat.

Note: This week retreat is also included in the 15-Day Ayahuasca & San Pedro Retreat that has 8-Ayahuasca ceremonies and 1-San Pedro ceremony.

What’s included in this 8-Day ayahuasca retreat

Shamanic Treatments:

• 4-Ayahuasca ceremonies with Bobinsana: Participate in four ayahuasca ceremonies performed by Trunco Don Romulo, Maestro Don Winister, and Don Winister Junior. These sessions blend Ayahuasca with Bobinsana’s heart-opening aspects.
• 1-San Pedro Cactus Ceremony: Take part in a 12-hour ceremony with the ancient San Pedro Cactus, also known as Grandfather Huachuma, which is known for reaching higher energetic levels than Ayahuasca. Many people attest to the deep healing power of this ceremony, noting that it unlocks layers of healing that Ayahuasca alone cannot. Some even regard it as a necessary companion to Ayahuasca; difficult to imagine one without the other. William guides participants through this intensive, enlightening encounter, providing a path of deep healing and self-discovery.
• 24-Personal Shamanic Treatments During the Ayahuasca Ceremonies: We dedicate ourselves to providing everyone with the individualized attention they need. During the Ayahuasca ceremonies, the Personal Shamanic Treatments are tirelessly conducted to address your specific emotional, mental, spiritual, and sometimes physical needs. During each ceremony, each of our three skilled shamans completes two tailored treatments per person, for six individual treatments every ceremony and twenty-four personalized treatments during the ayahuasca ceremonies throughout the retreat. These treatments are varied, addressing addictions, removing negative energy, promoting equilibrium, relieving phobias, and more, all suited to the unique needs of each guest. According to our shamans, this personal work is the most important aspect of the ceremonies, creating transforming experiences and significant well-being while addressing each participant’s particular needs with the utmost care and attention.
• 4-Pulsario Treatments: A shamanic healing technique called Pulsario treatment is where the shamans identify and address emotional energy trapped in the stomach area, known as the pulsario. In this location, intense or unpleasant emotions often accumulate, causing general discomfort, headaches, back pain, and eating problems. The treatment involves the application of Santa Maria and Aceite de Suri, which are specifically pressed in the location of the Pulsario to release the trapped energies to be expelled through the legs, restoring a level of balance and well-being.
• 3-Energetic Clensing Plant Baños: The morning after three of the Ayahuasca Ceremonies, there are clensing plant baños, or “baños de limpiezas,” which occur in the morning following the Ayahuasca ceremonies to cleanse any lingering, sticky energy released from the body during the ceremonies purging processes. Ayahuasca expels negative energies as a powerful purger, some of which may linger on the body’s surface as they get expelled through the pores. These baños use strong healing plants with powerful cleansing properties, ensuring that the lingering energy is thoroughly removed.
  • The Properties of Shamanic Healing Plants:
    • Ajo Sacha: Known for its tremendous cleansing and protecting abilities, it is utilized to cleanse negative energy and beings, promoting spiritual purity and protection.
    • Achiote Colorado: Prized for its powerful cleaning properties, it aids in the removal of residual energy and improves spiritual clarity.
    • Gallinazo Panga: Known for its powerful purifying properties, it cleanses the aura and fortifies the spiritual body.
    • Albahaca (Albhaquilla): Known for its relaxing and clarifying effects, albahaca promotes mental clarity and peace of mind while also harmonizing the spirit.
    • Mucura: It is revered for its spiritual healing and protecting properties, since it feeds the soul and protects the spirit from harmful influences.
    • Shigura: Recognized for its ability to harmonize and balance energies within and around us, it aligns and stabilizes them.
    • Lancetilla: Known for its anchoring and stabilizing properties, it connects people to Earth’s energies and promotes spiritual grounding.
    • Canelilla: This flower is revered for its peaceful, loving energy, which promotes self-love, compassion, and emotional healing.
    • Pion Colorado: Known for its transformational and liberating properties, it releases suppressed emotions and spiritual obstacles, ensuring complete clearance of residual energy.

• 1-Flower Bath for Spiritual Flowering regarding Life and Love: The Baño de Florecimiento, or Spiritual Flowering Bath, is done on the morning after the last ayahuasca ceremony to cleanse and harmonize one’s energies while augmenting aspects of life and love. Participants are showered with this blend of sacred plants and flowers, each valued for their distinct spiritual and healing powers. This baño encourages the cultivation of dormant potentials and alignment with one’s life purpose.
  • Used Sacred Plants and Their Properties:
    • Ruda: is known for its protecting and cleansing properties and ability to repel negative energy.
    • Sharamasho: balances the energy within and around us and is valued for its purifying and harmonizing properties.
    • Motelillo: Known for its grounding and stabilizing properties, it connects people to the energy of the Earth.
    • Amor Seco: Known for its power to attract love and heal heartbreaks, it balances relationships.
    • Rosa Sisa: Known for its spiritual healing and protecting properties, it feeds the soul and protects the spirit.
    • Cariito: This peaceful, compassionate energy promotes self-love and compassion.
    • Lengua de Perro: Known for its transformational and liberating properties, it allows suppressed emotions and obstructions to be released.
    • Albahaca: This herb is revered for its relaxing and clarifying properties, which promote mental clarity and peace of mind.
    • Menta: Known for its rejuvenating and refreshing characteristics, it stimulates the senses and invigorates the spirit.

• Plant Vapor Saunas: these saunas are specialized, conditional therapy that is only used when necessary, particularly for people who are facing blockages in Ayahuasca, either physically due to cold in the bones or energetically. These treatments employ the use of aquatic plants for cold in the bones, which are boiled in a pot and placed beneath the individual sitting on a chair covered with a blanket. This technique, aided by the properties of aquatic plants, allows the ejection of cold from the bones through energetic and perspiration channels. Suppose the blockage is energetic or spiritual in origin. In that case, more potent Pantiquina family plants are used to assure the effective elimination of any blockages, usually helping the person to be able to open up past their blockages in Ayahuasca.
• 4-Meetings with the Shamans: These crucial meetings, led by William, Don Winister, and Don Winister Junior, are of the utmost importance to the healing journey, offering clarity and a deeper knowledge of each individual’s experiences as well as the entire healing process. They serve as a platform for shared learning and individual growth, where participants can discuss their visions and challenges with shamans and a transcultural translator, getting essential insights and support to properly navigate their healing path.
• Customized Shamanic therapies: If any guest faces difficulties outside the scope of our standard shamanic treatments, our shamans will be available to address and provide the necessary shamanic treatments. This extra care and treatment ensures that each individual’s specific needs are taken care of to the best of our ability, as well as thorough healing and support throughout their journey.
• After-Care Specialist and In-Retreat Aid: Viviane, a natural healer, is essential in both in-retreat support and after-care. She provides essential insights and support, especially in difficult cases, due to her unusual capacity to remotely know ongoing processes in ceremonies and individual experiences. Viviane and William frequently work together during the retreat to assist individuals undergoing difficult healing processes. Although she works mostly from a distance and only comes in person once a year, her presence is felt deeply. Viviane, our after-care specialist, continues to unravel deeper levels of healing and spiritual advancement for our guests, extending her support long after the retreat ends, assisting in long-term transformation and well-being. Her faithful availability and significant insights make her an essential and beloved family member. Most guests who speak with her afterward state that speaking with her was incredible, helpful, and so healing.

Excursions:

• Excursion to visit Island of the Monkeys a 450-hectare refuge and rescue center dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of New World monkeys. Learn about the project’s devotion to animal freedom and care, and visit and learn about over seven kinds of monkeys in their natural habitat, including Woolly, Howler, Capuchin, Titi, Saki, Pygmy Marmoset, and Tamarin monkeys. You can interact and play with these beautiful beings while observing their healthy development in the sanctuary. The Island of Monkeys is a favorite place for our guests, providing a unique look into the lives of these rescued animals and the efforts made to nurture them back to the wild.
• Excursion to visit a small Yuagua indigenous natives who will greet you dressed in their traditional clothing. Upon arrival, you will be treated a traditional dance and song performance, with an offer to join in the dance. You will be able to try out the Yagua’s traditional hunting tool, a blowgun, and majority will be successful in hitting the target, a basic wooden pole, demonstrating the effectiveness of this indigenous hunting device. Then finally, explore a selection of handcrafted products and jewelry for purchase, allowing you to take a piece of Yagua artistry home with you if you choose.
• Excursion, which is a jungle hike with several highlights, is a trek through the Amazon Jungle with a visit to the unusual Renaco Cocha tree, often known as the “walking tree.” According to legend, this tree species evolved from a man who was converted into this type of tree after losing a battle with the jungle’s guardian. The old Grandfather Lupuna tree is renowned as the master of all spiritual trees in the jungle and is conveniently situated behind the healing center. Shamans and indigenous peoples revere this tree for its shamanistic significance and curative secret knowledge, with some shamans entering special diets with the Lupuna tree to enhance their healing abilities. The excursion continues to our fish farm, which, when completed, should be able to sustain up to 4,000 Amazonian fish. We end our journey at our farm, which is home to over 600 banana and plantain trees, as well as more than 150 diverse Amazon jungle fruit trees, designed to provide sustenance to both humans and the variety of animals and birds that inhabit the jungle.
• Excursion to the Serpentarium in the Village San Juan You will be able to visit and interact with really cute sloths that you’ll be able to cuddle with and hold, several Amazonian parrots, as well as unusual aquatic and land turtles such as the ancient-looking alligator turtle, also the highlight for most being able to hold a live anaconda.
• Excursion to the Murui tribe in Village Bario de Florida: Begin with a jungle walk and a warm welcome from the tribe dressed in their traditional attire. A variety of seasonal Amazonian fruits, including cidra, caimito, charichuelo, papaya, sugar cane, guba, macambo, and cacau, will be available for guests to sample as they transition from the ayahuasca diet phase into the San Pedro cactus ceremony. Swim in the lake, which is fed by a stream, and enjoy seven traditional dances and songs in the tribe’s native language; at times the younger members of the tribe will sing a song about the sun and birds. Everybody usually is so happy to visit these traditional people and return to the lodge extremely delighted.
• If time and weather permit a boat trip to the Amazon River to watch the sunset and look for pink dolphins.

Transportation:

• Transportation to and from the Lodge & all Excursions: We take care of all your transportation needs between the retreat center, Iquitos, and all excursions. Traveling to the lodge is a moment to remember, taking you via the Mighty Amazon River, the world’s largest river, which begins in Iquitos. This journey is a beautiful trip into the Amazon Jungle. During the low water season, we travel on the Amazon River to a village, crossing through the village, and then we catch another boat on the River Yanu Yacu, a tributary of the Amazon, delivering an equally wonderful and beautiful experience. The varied birds of the jungle provide a continual sight during the trips, while monkeys, sloths, and dolphins may occasionally appear, giving a touch of magic to the travel experience.

Lodging and Meals:

• All Lodging at the Retreat Center Provided: Kawsay is a Peruvian government-certified Jungle Hotel & Lodge. The lodge, which has been lovingly built for over ten years, blends traditional Amazon jungle rustic architecture with modern amenities and is continuously improved to maximize the healing space for our guests. Each bedroom has its own tiled bathroom and shower, as well as comfortable beds with high-quality bedding and a hammock for relaxing. Several rooms include balconies for additional relaxation and private space. All shower water has been disinfected and cleaned to ensure our guests’ health. We generate our own power for the center, ensuring guests can access electricity and ample lighting throughout the center and bedrooms. We also give complimentary Starlink internet access so that guests can stay connected if needed during their stay. We also provide free laundry service, which adds to the convenience and comfort of your stay. The lodge has numerous relaxation places, including a dining room, a lounge with couches, and a hammock. A three-story watchtower that overlooks the lodge with beautiful views is a wonderful spot for seeing the sunrise, sunset, and, on clear evenings, celestial bodies such as the stars, moon, and the Milky Way galaxy, with the occasional occurrence of a shooting star. An exercise area with an exercise bike and a gym with Olympic weights and dumbbells is available to guests who want to keep up their fitness routines. We have taken great care to make our healing retreat as comfortable as possible, and many guests express a desire to stay longer, feeling completely at home in the lodge that has been built by love.
• Every meal at our Retreat Center is Provided: All meals are carefully prepared to adhere to the shamanic diet required when working with sacred plant medicines. We cater to omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans, ensuring that everyone’s dietary choices and needs are addressed. We collaborated closely with the shamans to develop meals that are not just shamanic diet compatible but also delicious and nutritionally balanced. Guests are frequently astounded by the food’s quality and taste, given that it complies with rigorous shamanic dietary restrictions.We are devoted to providing a variety of food groups to ensure proper nutrition and to meet each individual’s nutritional and energetic needs. If you have any food allergies or other dietary requirements, we will make the appropriate adjustments to ensure your safety. The quality of our meals contributes to our retreat center’s overall enriching and nourishing experience.

Note:

• Sometimes a few of the excursions are not possible if there are bad weather conditions or Amazon River water levels are too low for the boat to reach the destinations.

Lodging that is provided at our Ayahuasca Retreat

• Our tambos are large, spacious and very comfortable, you will feel at home.
• You will have your own bathroom and shower in your room. The bathrooms are tiled.
• Open with plenty of ventilation and views of the jungle.
• Completely sealed with wood and screens for the prevention of mosquito entry.
• Electricity and lighting.
• Comfortable mattresses and bedding.
• Rooms are locked and you are provided a key.
• We have Star-Link internet available at the lodge.
• Every room has a hammock within.
• Some rooms have private balconies overlooking the jungle.