Deep in the Amazon rainforest, Paojilhuasca holds ayahuasca retreats in Iquitos, Peru, for small groups, the old way: real ceremony, unfiltered plant medicine, and slow time in untouched forest.
Seven days in the jungle. 77 days of integration to follow you home.
A SACRED PAUSE FROM ORDINARY LIFE
An Ayahuasca Retreat in Peru: Traditional Ceremony and Lasting Integration
Paojilhuasca is a medicine centre founded in 2018 on the river Itaya, deep in the heart of the Amazon, three hours upriver from Iquitos by our own boat. Ten guests at most. Our resident shamans are Don Gardel and Maestra Alicia, and Shipibo maestros from the communities join them through the year.
The base programme is seven days. Two authentic sacred ayahuasca ceremonies in the maloka, Kambo cleanse on the first morning, the ancestral plant medicines of the Amazon. Every day, different traditional practices and movement, to reconnect with body and nature — and quiet, slow hours in between, nothing you have to be on time for. We’ll make you sweat a little and relax a lot. No activity is mandatory, all are designed to get you the most out of the ayahuasca ceremonies and your stay as a whole.
These are your days, and they take place in the magic of the jungle, with a soundtrack of birdsong and the breath of the forest, the river. The nights, you’ll never forget.
Our approach to ayahuasca is true, unfiltered — which means intense. Making it safe is our job. Our physician reviews your health before you travel and you go through a psychological screening.
And when you go home, 77 days of integration and continuous support go with you.
Come deep into the Peruvian Amazon for an intimate ayahuasca retreat in Iquitos, Peru, held in the presence of ancient rainforest, sacred ceremony, and traditions passed down through countless generations.
Leave the noise behind. Enter the silence. Listen to what has been calling within you.
The Amazon awaits you.
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77 Days Of Support, Wherever Home Is
The rainforest fades behind you. The sounds around you change. You go home, to your people and your everyday life. Returning home is its own kind of threshold.
Something is still moving.
The ceremony is a door: what you choose to carry forward and how you begin to live with those insights will unfold over the weeks that follow.
That’s what the 77 days are for. The Paojilhuasca „Integration Compass“ is a free ayahuasca integration app, designed to help you settle into what you experienced in the Amazon. Each day it puts something in front of you — a gentle reminder, a practice, a question to sit with. Journaling, dreamwork, grounding exercises, things to actually do.
And once a week, for the first six weeks, you meet Kate Arpin and fellow Paojilhuasca guests in a live Mambé-style talking circle. A private space to reflect, share and stay connected long after your ayahuasca retreat in Peru has ended. And, if you need more personal support, you can message the team directly, any time.
Some insights arrive immediately. Others take their time.
The ceremony gave you the experience. Integration gives it a place to live.
Science around ayahuasca is still unfolding. We’re contributing to it, day by day.
Our multidisciplinary team is conducting research on the experience of our guests, especially through the NETI — the Nondual Embodiment Thematic Inventory, developed by John Astin and David Butlein, and used by Deepak Chopra in MetaHuman. Guests complete it before the retreat and again afterwards. Through our Integration Compass App we’re also able to keep following guests long after the retreat, and many come back, so some of what we hold now runs over years.
Eight years of work, guests from all over the world, more than 600 ceremonies: we’ve accumulated significant data. What our guests report, consistently, is lasting improvement — in inner peace, in fear and anxiety, and in how authentic and how alive they feel. Those who arrive carrying depression or anxiety report the strongest movement of all. The study is published in full in Fabrizio Beverina’s book Le Ali dell’Ayahuasca.
One thing stands out: the gains fade fastest in guests who don’t follow an integration process once they’re back home. That’s why we developed the Integration Compass App and the reason the 77 days exist.
Still, ayahuasca is not a pill: it isn’t interested in names and labels. The medicine doesn’t numb the pain. Worked with, it lets you really see its source — and deal with it. And it doesn’t finish when the ceremony ends.
Yes. Our guests report improvements in mood and wellbeing that remain months afterwards. At Paojilhuasca, our 77-day integration programme gives you continued support as you return to everyday life.
Integration is the process of reflecting on your experience and bringing what you learned into everyday life. Our 77-day programme includes guided practices, dreamwork, live circles and ongoing community support.
No. Ayahuasca is not suitable for everyone, and certain medical conditions and medications may make participation unsafe. That is why every guest completes a medical screening, reviewed by our resident physician Dr. Conti, before arrival, and completes a NETI psychological assessment.
There is no single answer. Consider your intentions, your health and your readiness for an intense and unfamiliar experience. We encourage every guest to approach an ayahuasca retreat in Peru with respect, openness and realistic expectations.
Before arrival, you will receive guidance on preparation, what to bring and what to expect. You will also complete our health screening, a psychological questionnaire, and share relevant medical information and medications with our team.
Your retreat combines ayahuasca ceremonies in the Peruvian Amazon with traditional practices, time in nature, movement, breathwork, nourishing meals and space for reflection. You will also have guidance and support throughout your stay.
Curandero, ayahuasquero, kambocero, nurse, co-founder
Ayahuasquera, Vegetalista
Co-founder & director, biomedical researcher, kambo & bufo practitioner
Physician, breathwork guide
Facilitator, Integration Coach, Kambo practitioner
Acupuncturist, sound healer, and holistic practitioner from Australia
Facilitator, kambo practitioner, sound healer
Everything you need for a comfortable, supported and deeply immersive stay in the Peruvian Amazon, from the moment you begin preparing to the weeks after you return home
• Pre-retreat guidance and arrival support
• 6 nights of accommodation
• Two fresh, locally sourced meals and snacks each day
• Medical screening reviewed by our physician before arrival
• 2 sacred ayahuasca ceremonies
• Kambo treatment
• Optional Yopo ceremony and master plant dietas
• Daily somatic practices including breathwork, yoga and Qigong
• Guided jungle walks and river excursions
• 77 days of post-retreat integration support
• Full access to the Paojilhuasca Integration App
• Weekly integration circles for six weeks
• Chinese medicine support as part of your post-ceremony care
This is our base retreat module for a 7-day stay. Many guests choose to stay longer, of course, especially if interested in a master plant dieta. Contact us to arrange the details of longer stays.
A few personal arrangements remain outside the retreat programme:
• International and domestic flights to Iquitos, Peru
• Personal purchases and optional expenses during your stay
• Local transportation outside the arrangements provided by Paojilhuasca
Many of our guests come alone, including women travelling to the Peruvian Amazon for the first time. You’ll be comfortable from the moment you arrive: we offer attentive individual guidance, and women make up an essential part of our team.
Groups are kept intimate, with no more than ten guests, allowing for genuine connection and personal attention throughout your stay. With eight years of experience, our team knows how to hold the space with care, respect and presence.
You can arrive on your own and still feel surrounded by people who are there for you.
The Amazon makes the world go quiet.
The green — brimming over with all the colours of life — stretches out endlessly. The river moves with infinite patience. Days start with birdsong and end under a sky with no city lights to chase away the stars. Whispers from the trees at dusk. Candlelight in the maloka. A conversation that finds you at exactly the right moment.
Between the ceremonies and the long, slow days, there’s room to hear yourself.
You come for the medicine. You’ll find it, and the things you weren’t looking for. You’ll leave having lived somewhere that runs at a completely different speed — and that will stay with you.
Give yourself the gift of time, space and quiet, surrounded by the primordial nature of the Peruvian Amazon, in careful hands. So much is waiting for you: sacred ayahuasca ceremonies in the maloka with our shamans Don Gardel and Maestra Alicia, the wisdom and challenges of plant medicine, individual guidance from a multidisciplinary team with more than 600 ceremonies of experience, and the slow rhythm of rainforest life — with 77 days of continued integration to stay with you long after you return home.
Give yourself the gift of time, space and quiet, surrounded by the primordial nature of the Peruvian Amazon, in careful hands. So much is waiting for you: sacred ayahuasca ceremonies in the maloka with our shamans Don Gardel and Maestra Alicia, the wisdom and challenges of plant medicine, individual guidance from a multidisciplinary team with more than 600 ceremonies of experience, and the slow rhythm of rainforest life — with 77 days of continued integration to stay with you long after you return home.
YOUR TIME IN THE AMAZON AWAITS
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