Iquitos, Loreto · Twelve guests · Physician screened
Our Services
Three medicines, cleared one at a time. Every week is built around four ayahuasca ceremonies, brewed here from vine cut within an hour of the kitchen. Kambo and Bufo are open to guests who are separately screened and who ask, at no extra charge.
The rule that governs all three
Clearance for one is never clearance for another
Each medicine has its own contraindications, and they do not overlap neatly. A heart condition that rules out Kambo may not rule out ayahuasca. An SSRI that needs a taper before ayahuasca is irrelevant to Bufo. The physician assesses each one separately against your own file, and any of the three can be declined while the others proceed.
We never run two medicines on the same day, and we do not sell packages. Ninety minutes from a hospital, thirty of them by river, stacking medicines is not a value proposition — it is a way to be far from help with two loads on the same body. A center offering all three as a bundle is selling you a menu, not a protocol.
What only a lowland center can say
The vine is cut in the morning and on the fire by afternoon
Most centers buy their brew in. Ours is cooked in our own kitchen from Banisteriopsis caapi and chacruna cut within an hour of the maloca. That is not a romantic detail — it is the one part of the supply chain a highland center cannot control, and it is why we can tell you the date your medicine was cut.
Two ingredients only
Caapi vine and chacruna leaf. No tobacco, no toé, no admixtures. If a center will not list what is in the cup, do not drink it.
Cut, pounded, reduced
Vine is pounded by hand, layered with leaf, and reduced over two days. Maestra Sanken Bea walks the garden most mornings and chooses what is cut.
Logged by batch
Every batch is recorded with its cutting and cooking dates. Ask us at intake which batch your week is drinking and we will tell you.
02 · Included in every week · four ceremonies
Ayahuasca
Drunk after dark and worked with for five to six hours while two Shipibo maestros sing icaros and move between guests all night. Purging is expected and prepared for at every mat. Nobody is asked how much to drink, and nobody is offered a second cup they did not request. There is no altitude here, so you sit on the second night rather than spending the first two acclimatising.
How a night runs
- Doors at eight, medicine served around nine
- Five to six hours, closing near first light
- Two maestros, one for every three guests
- A physician in the room the entire night
Why four, not one
The first ceremony is mostly spent learning how to be in the room. The second is usually the one guests describe afterwards. A single ceremony rarely does much for anyone, which is why we do not sell weekend sittings.
Preparation
Three weeks of dieta before you fly: no alcohol, no fermented food, minimal salt and sugar, and no scented products once you arrive. We send a grocery list written for US supermarkets and a day by day plan, and any taper is planned around your own prescriber.
A full stop for ayahuasca
MAOI medication of any kind, diagnosed schizophrenia or bipolar I, uncontrolled hypertension, epilepsy, severe liver disease, a cardiac event within the last twelve months, and pregnancy. SSRIs, SNRIs, lithium, tramadol, triptans and stimulants are reviewed individually and often require a supervised taper. Ninety minutes from a hospital, cardiac history is read very closely.
03 · Optional · one daytime session, no extra charge
Kambo
The secretion of the giant monkey frog, Phyllomedusa bicolor, applied to small points on the skin. Twenty to forty minutes of intense physical response, then it passes. A trained practitioner measures your fluid intake throughout and stays with you the whole time. It is not psychoactive; you are fully present for all of it.
Heat changes the calculation
Around 88°F and heavy humidity load fluid balance before the frog adds any. Sessions run in the morning, intake is measured, and we will move or cancel rather than run one on a hot afternoon. A highland center does not have to think about this.
Where it sits in the week
- Always a rest day, never a ceremony day
- At least twenty four hours either side
- Morning, so the day is yours to recover
- Skipped without comment if you change your mind
What it is not
Not a psychedelic, not a warm up to ayahuasca, and not a detox in the sense the internet uses that word. We describe the physical experience accurately and make no claims about what it removes from your body.
A full stop for Kambo
Heart conditions, low blood pressure, Addison’s disease, pregnancy or breastfeeding, recovery from recent surgery, and current chemotherapy. Kambo loads blood pressure and fluid balance, and that load has nothing to do with the MAO inhibition that governs ayahuasca screening. Different risk, different assessment, different answer.
04 · Optional · by clearance from two people
Bufo
A single brief session with 5-MeO-DMT, synthetically sourced so no toad is milked or harmed. Fifteen to twenty minutes, one to one, with two facilitators present and one seated beside you the whole time. Offered only in the quiet after the final ceremony, and only when the physician and your integration lead agree independently.
Synthetic, and why
Milking wild Incilius alvarius stresses the animal and demand is damaging populations. Synthetic 5-MeO-DMT is molecularly identical and takes nothing from the desert. We would not offer it otherwise.
Two people have to agree
- The physician, on medical grounds
- Your integration lead, on everything else
- Either can decline without explaining it
- No appeal, and no charge either way
Often we say wait
Many guests who would be cleared are advised to leave Bufo for a future visit. It is short, extremely intense, and integrates poorly stacked on a first ayahuasca week. Declining it is the common outcome, not the rare one.
A full stop for Bufo
Any reservation from either lead. Beyond that: cardiac history, uncontrolled hypertension, diagnosed schizophrenia or bipolar I, epilepsy, pregnancy, and any current psychiatric medication that has not been fully reviewed. First time guests are frequently asked to wait. It is also the last thing we would run before a travel day upriver, which is why it sits in the morning with the boat still hours away.
05 · One price
$5,800 covers all of it
Including both optional medicines for guests who are cleared. There is no tiered package and no add-on menu, because pricing a second medicine separately gives a center a reason to recommend it.
Origins retreat · 7 nights
No deposit until a physician confirms a place. Then 30% to hold and the balance 30 days out, or a plan over three or six months. Full refund to 45 days out; medical withdrawals refunded in full at any point.
Begin your applicationNot included: flights, budget $900 to $1,500 from most US hubs including the Lima–Iquitos leg. Travel insurance with medical evacuation cover, which we require here rather than recommend. Vaccinations. Nights in Iquitos either side. Any taper appointments with your own prescriber.
Two maestros in each, one for every three guests.
On a rest day, at no extra charge.
After the final ceremony, at no extra charge.
Nobody shares. Nets and unscented repellent supplied.
Plus the three week plan sent before you fly.
Cut from the garden that morning, thirty yards from where you sleep.
Awake through all four ceremonies, every night.
Both ways. An hour by road, thirty minutes by boat.
Four calls in three months, then quarterly, same lead, your time zone.
From vine cut within an hour, logged by batch and date.
Which of the three is right for you
The short version: everyone comes for ayahuasca, most guests take the Kambo session, and few should take Bufo on a first visit.
| Ayahuasca | Kambo | Bufo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Included | Yes, four ceremonies every week | Optional, no extra charge | Optional, no extra charge |
| Duration | Five to six hours, overnight | Twenty to forty minutes, daytime | Fifteen to twenty minutes, morning |
| Psychoactive | Yes, profoundly | No, fully present throughout | Yes, very short and very intense |
| Setting | Group of twelve, two maestros | One to one with a practitioner | One to one, two facilitators |
| Who clears it | The physician | The physician | The physician and your integration lead, independently |
| What the heat adds | Room cools after dark; fluid intake watched all night | The reason sessions run in the morning, not the afternoon | Minimal, but it sits hours before a travel day upriver |
| Dieta applies | Yes, three weeks before and one after | Yes, you are already on it | Yes, same week |
| First visit | Yes, this is the week | Commonly, if cleared | Usually advised to wait |
| Choose it if | You want the work this whole center is built around | You want the physical reset and you are medically clear for it | You have sat before and both leads agree you are ready |
Nothing on this page is medical advice and these lists are not exhaustive. Yellow fever vaccination is recommended for this region and some antimalarials interact with ayahuasca, so send us what your travel clinic suggests before you fill the prescription. Send your file and let the physician decide.
07 · Questions
About the services
Can I do all three in one week?
Is the ayahuasca brewed on site in Iquitos?
Do Kambo and Bufo cost extra?
Why four ayahuasca ceremonies rather than two?
Does the Amazon heat change how Kambo is run?
I am a first timer. What should I choose?
Is Bufo taken from live toads?
Do I need to acclimatise before the first ceremony?
What if I change my mind once I arrive?
No charge to apply · reviewed within 48 hours
Apply once, and we will tell you what you are cleared for.
One application covers all three. A physician reads it, decides each medicine on its own merits, and tells you plainly which are open to you and which are not. Nothing is charged until a place is confirmed.