We offer three medicines in Písac and clear each one separately, because the valley floor is not the jungle and altitude changes what each of them asks of a body. Ayahuasca is the week: four ceremonies over seven nights. Kambo sits on a rest day, screened more strictly here than a jungle center would need to. Bufo, if it is offered at all, comes on the final morning, and most guests are never offered it.
The short answer: never on the same day, never sold as a package, and always assessed against the altitude we are at. Clearance for one is never clearance for another. You are applying for four ayahuasca ceremonies; Kambo and Bufo are included in the same price whether you take them or not, which is deliberate. The moment a medicine carries its own line item, someone starts selling it.
A brew of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and chacruna leaf, drunk after dark and worked with for five to six hours while two Shipibo maestros from the Paoyhan and Nueva Betania communities sing icaros and move between guests. Purging is expected and prepared for at every mat. Nobody is asked how much to drink.
A full stop: MAOI medication, diagnosed schizophrenia or bipolar I, pregnancy, uncontrolled hypertension, epilepsy, or a cardiac event in the last twelve months.
The secretion of the giant monkey frog, 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 it always sits on a rest day, because at 9,750 feet the recovery window is not a courtesy, it is the protocol.
A full stop: heart conditions, low blood pressure, Addison’s disease, pregnancy, or recovery from recent surgery. Písac is lower than Cusco but it is not low, and we screen Kambo more strictly here than a jungle center would.
A single brief session with 5-MeO-DMT, synthetically sourced so no toad is milked or harmed. Fifteen to twenty minutes, one to one, two facilitators present with one seated beside you the whole time. Offered only in the quiet after the final ceremony.
A full stop: any reservation from the physician or your integration lead. Either can decline without explaining it to the group.
Kambo and Bufo carry no extra charge and neither is ever suggested to a guest who did not ask.
Most services pages in the Sacred Valley are copied from jungle centers, altitude included by omission. Písac sits about 2,000 feet below Cusco and you descend to reach us: kinder than the city, but not sea level, and each medicine feels that differently.
Raises heart rate and blood pressure for several hours, and altitude has already done some of that work before you drink. So: two settling days before the first ceremony, blood pressure and oxygen saturation measured twice, and one more cardiac question on the application than a jungle center needs.
Shifts fluid balance fast, and dehydration arrives faster at altitude than most guests expect. Fluid intake is measured rather than estimated, the session sits on a rest day with a full recovery window, and we screen it more strictly here than we would at sea level. A dehydrated morning defers it, decided on the day.
Brief enough that altitude changes little about the session itself. What it changes is the decision: four ceremonies at this elevation have shown the physician exactly how your heart and breathing respond, which is one reason Bufo only ever comes last and is never available cold.
Being in Písac rather than Cusco puts a hospital an hour away instead of twenty minutes. We staff for that: a physician on site every night, supplemental oxygen in the maloca, the clinic at Calca twenty five minutes down the valley road, a standing arrangement with a Cusco hospital, and an emergency protocol rehearsed monthly. Ask any valley center these questions and expect numbers rather than reassurance.
Seven nights on the valley floor, hour placement included. Nothing here moves for scheduling convenience, because the gaps are load-bearing.
Collected at Cusco airport and driven down the same afternoon, losing 2,000 feet on the way. Medical intake, blood pressure and oxygen saturation, coca tea, early nights. No medicine.
Mostly spent learning how to be in the room. Two maestros, a physician on site until first light, oxygen in the maloca.
Plant baths cut from the garden that morning, bodywork, one meal. Kambo sits here for guests cleared for it. Skipping it costs nothing and changes nothing.
Usually the one people describe afterwards. By now the maestros have adjusted what they sing for you specifically, the practical argument for four nights rather than one.
The closing ceremonies, ending as first light comes down the terraces above the house. Then integration planning for the year ahead, before anyone books a flight home.
Individual and brief, then the transfer back up to Cusco that afternoon. If you were not offered it, you fly home having had the full retreat.
The combinations we refuse: Kambo and Bufo in the same week. Kambo on a ceremony day or within twenty four hours of one. Bufo before ayahuasca rather than after. A fifth ceremony because someone feels they need one. And any medicine at all for a guest still tapering a contraindicated prescription, however close that taper is to done.
Including the rows that cost us bookings: whether you can request each one, and what altitude does to it.
| Ayahuasca | Kambo | Bufo · 5-MeO-DMT | |
|---|---|---|---|
| When in the week | Nights 3, 5, 7 and 8 | A rest day, morning only | Final morning |
| How long | 5 to 6 hours | 20 to 40 minutes | 15 to 20 minutes |
| Who is with you | Two maestros, two facilitators, physician on site | A trained practitioner, one to one | Two facilitators, one seated beside you |
| Can you request it? | It is the retreat | Yes, subject to its own screen | No. Offered or not, never requested |
| What altitude changes | Two settling days, oxygen in the maloca, one extra cardiac question | Stricter screen than a jungle center; measured hydration | Nothing about the session; everything about the decision |
| Extra cost | Included | Included | Included |
| Separate screening | The 34-question application | Cardiac, blood pressure, hydration, altitude | Two independent leads must clear you |
| What it is not for | A fix, a diagnosis, or a substitute for treatment | Detox claims. We make none | A shortcut past the four nights |
Clearance for one medicine is never clearance for another, and no two are ever taken on the same day. Deeper protocol detail sits on each medicine’s own page: Ayahuasca, Kambo, Bufo.
A licensed physician reads every file, and roughly one application in five does not proceed. Clearing the ayahuasca screen does not clear you for the other two. Each has its own exclusions, and altitude puts one more question on every list than a jungle center needs.
MAOI medication, diagnosed schizophrenia or bipolar I, uncontrolled hypertension or a cardiac event within twelve months, epilepsy, severe liver disease, pregnancy. SSRIs, SNRIs, lithium, tramadol, triptans and stimulants are reviewed one at a time, and any taper runs on your own prescriber’s clock, never rushed to fit a retreat date.
Heart conditions, low or unstable blood pressure, Addison’s disease, pregnancy or breastfeeding, recovery from recent surgery. Písac is lower than Cusco but it is not low, so we screen Kambo more strictly here than a jungle center would. A dehydrated morning defers it, decided on the day.
Everything the ayahuasca screen excludes, plus how your four nights actually went at this altitude. The physician and your integration lead decide independently; either can decline without explaining it to the group, and neither decision is appealable.
None of these medicines is a treatment for any condition, and we make no medical claims for any of them. Ayahuasca is legal in Peru and may not be brought into the United States. Participants report lasting change; we cite the peer reviewed research with its limitations rather than around them. No list on this page is exhaustive and nothing here is medical advice. Send your file and let the physician decide.
Four ceremonies with two maestros in each, a single occupancy room, two settling days, the dieta kitchen with a nutritionist on site, plant baths and bodywork daily, physician screening and on-site care, transfers between Cusco airport and Písac both ways, Kambo at no extra charge, Bufo where both leads agree, and twelve months of integration calls.
No deposit until a physician confirms a place. Then 30% to hold and the balance 30 days out. Full refund to 45 days out, and medical withdrawals refunded in full at any point. Not included: flights ($700 to $1,300 from most US hubs) and travel insurance, which we require.
No. Ayahuasca is the retreat; Kambo and Bufo are optional and neither costs extra. Most guests sit four ceremonies and nothing else, some add Kambo on a rest day, and only a minority is offered Bufo on the final morning. Declining either changes nothing about your week or your price, and neither is ever suggested to a guest who did not ask.
Písac sits at about 9,750 feet, roughly 2,000 feet below Cusco. Ayahuasca raises heart rate and blood pressure for several hours, and altitude has already done some of that work, so we add two settling days, measure blood pressure and oxygen saturation twice, and keep supplemental oxygen in the maloca. Kambo shifts fluid balance quickly and is screened more strictly here than a jungle center would need to. Bufo is brief enough that altitude changes little about the session, and everything about the decision to offer it.
Kambo produces an intense twenty-to-forty-minute physical response that shifts fluid balance, and at 9,750 feet the body is already working harder than at sea level. It sits on a rest day so there is a full recovery window before the next ceremony. Never on a ceremony day, never within twenty four hours of one, and never for a guest who is dehydrated, which arrives faster at altitude than most guests expect.
Only in that order, only on the final morning, and only if the physician and your integration lead independently clear you. Either can decline without explaining it to the group, and the decision is not negotiable. Our Bufo is synthetically sourced 5-MeO-DMT, so no toad is milked or harmed.
$5,800 all inclusive for seven nights: four ceremonies, a single occupancy room, two settling days, the dieta kitchen, plant baths and bodywork, physician screening and on-site care, airport transfers both ways, optional Kambo, Bufo where both leads agree, and twelve months of integration calls. Flights and travel insurance are not included. Nothing is charged before a physician confirms a place.
Yes. Ayahuasca is legal in Peru and was recognised as part of the national cultural heritage in 2008. It may not be brought into the United States, which is why the work happens here and stays here.
Deeper protocol detail sits on each medicine’s own page: Ayahuasca, Kambo, Bufo.
Apply and a physician reads all thirty four answers. We either offer a place on a named week, suggest a different house if another altitude suits you better, or explain plainly why we cannot proceed. There is no follow up you did not ask for.