Faster onset
The medicine arrives in 15–20 minutes rather than 30–45. Tomas attributes this to increased absorption at lower atmospheric pressure, and doses more conservatively than he would at sea level.
Four night-long ceremonies across eleven days at 3,100 meters in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, held by three permanent healers on the lead maestro’s ancestral land, with a physician in the room and a hospital 45 minutes away by road. Twelve guests maximum. Screened before a place is offered.
$3,000 all-inclusive · four ceremonies · twelve guests · 40 minutes from Cusco airport
Ayahuasca is a brew of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and chacruna leaf, drunk after dark and worked with for five to seven hours while the healers sing icaros. Ours is the only center we know of where Amazonian vegetalismo is practiced inside a Quechua Andean ceremonial container: coca leaf readings before ceremony, a fire in the maloca, a despacho offering to close, at 3,100 meters in the mountains rather than the jungle.
Two weeks of dietary preparation (no alcohol, no fermented foods, minimal salt) plus an altitude guide sent four weeks out. You arrive in the Sacred Valley 36 hours early. The first two retreat days are ceremony-free: coca tea, gentle walking, a medical baseline, and a coca leaf reading with Maestro Tomas.
Doors close at dusk. Tomas serves each guest individually after a brief reading. Three healers sing from 8:45 pm until close to 3 am while two facilitators and the physician stay in the room. The fire burns low; the stars are visible through the east-facing doorway. You may stop at any point, without argument.
Hot coca tea at dawn, an integration circle at 11 am on the glass-walled terrace facing the Inca terraces, and, after you fly home, the Puente Andino program: calls at week 1 and 3, check-ins to month 12, and a therapist referral network in five countries.
guests served across nine years and 170+ retreats
ceremonies held at 3,100 meters. Zero deaths, zero misconduct
applications does not proceed. We would rather lose the booking
weighted average across 202 independent reviews
Almost nobody serves ayahuasca at altitude. After 700+ ceremonies at 3,100 meters, the differences from lowland ceremony are consistent and observable. None of this is in the literature, because no other center has the data.
The medicine arrives in 15–20 minutes rather than 30–45. Tomas attributes this to increased absorption at lower atmospheric pressure, and doses more conservatively than he would at sea level.
3–10 °C inside the maloca during ceremony. Alpaca blankets, warm layers, and a hearth fire: a practical necessity that became ceremony. The cold grounds the experience and, in Tomas’s words, “makes the body honest.”
Unlike the total darkness of Amazon ceremony, a central hearth burns down to embers, and the Milky Way is visible through the east-facing doorway. Guests describe wider, more spatial visions: sky, mountains, open space.
What happens in the maloca is Amazonian vegetalismo. What happens around it is Andean: coca leaf readings as diagnosis, plant baths with mountain herbs, and a closing despacho offering to Pachamama and the apus.
“At sea level, the vine has only the person’s body to negotiate with. At altitude, the vine must also negotiate with the mountain. The mountain does not give way easily.” · Maestro Tomas Quispe Huaman
Vine and leaf. Nothing else: no toe, no datura, no admixtures. If a center cannot tell you what is in their brew and where it comes from, that is a red flag.
Ayahuasca vine does not grow at 3,100 meters. Ours is cultivated, never wild-harvested, by three Shipibo families Tomas has known since his fifteen years of training in the region. Every kilogram purchased funds two new vine seedlings; roughly 400 vines replanted over nine years.
Tomas and Ernesto cook every batch together in a dedicated stone medicine kitchen. Water boils at 90 °C at this altitude, so each batch takes longer and uses more vine than a lowland brew. Tomas sings icaros through the cook and tastes every batch.
Since 2020, every batch is logged: vine and chacruna weight, cook time, reductions, altitude notes, potency rating. Over 100 batches, likely the most detailed record of high-altitude ayahuasca preparation in existence.
The same three healers hold every ceremony. No rotating visitors, no guest shamans. Tomas insists the healer must know the guest across multiple ceremonies, night after night. Ratio in the room: three healers and two facilitators for twelve guests.
Quechua, born above Pisac. Fifteen years of Amazonian training under Don Alfredo Cairuna (Shipibo, Ucayali) and Don Julio Panduro (Pucallpa); a lifetime of Andean curanderismo from his grandmother, Dona Celestina. Over 35 master plants dieted across both traditions.
Six years of dieta work in the Ucayali under Don Alfredo before returning to the Sacred Valley. Eighteen master plants dieted; particular depth in women’s healing and emotional work. With the center since 2018.
Mestizo vegetalista from Pucallpa, trained under Don Julio Panduro. Twenty-five master plants dieted; specializes in limpieza and protection icaros. Manages the vine supply chain from the Ucayali. With the center since 2018.
Dra. Carmen Rojas Vargas, MD, with 18 years of practice including emergency medicine and specific training in altitude medicine, is on-site for every ceremony block, from the day before the first ceremony until the morning after the last. Supplemental oxygen, pulse oximetry, and a standby evacuation vehicle are on the property during every ceremony.
Ceremonies are held on nights 3, 5, 8, and 10 of the 11-day retreat. Tomas considers the two-day gaps essential: at altitude, the body is already working harder, and the medicine needs time to settle between sittings.
Last meal of the day (plain rice, boiled potatoes, simple vegetables) in the dining pavilion overlooking the Vilcanota Valley.
Guests gather at the maloca in warm layers with alpaca blankets. Mats are assigned by Tomas from each guest’s coca leaf reading. A small fire burns in the central hearth.
Tomas opens the ceremony: mapacho is lit, coca leaves are offered to the fire, and protection icaros seal the space.
Medicine is served one guest at a time. Tomas holds each guest’s hands, sings a short icaro directly to them, then pours their dose: typically 35–55 ml on a first night, calibrated for altitude.
The icaros begin: Shipibo songs from Tomas’s Amazon dietas layered with Quechua healing songs from his grandmother’s tradition. The fire is at embers; the stars are visible through the doorway.
A second cup is offered. Tomas decides each one individually and declines roughly a quarter of requests, the caution the altitude demands.
The deep work period, and the coldest hours. Facilitators circulate quietly; Tomas moves between guests with mapacho smoke and warming icaros, the practice he developed for altitude.
Tomas closes with a despacho: coca leaves, flowers, and seeds offered to the fire in reciprocity to Pachamama and the apus. Hot tea, then a short walk to your room on lit stone paths under the Milky Way.
13% of applicants are rejected outright; roughly one in five never attends. The altitude adds a screening dimension no lowland center faces, and we would rather turn you away than take a risk. Declined applicants are never charged.
A detailed application: medical and psychiatric history, every medication, substance use, previous experience, plus altitude questions no Amazon center asks. Guests over 50 or with cardiac history submit a recent ECG and bloodwork.
Dra. Rojas reviews every form within 72 hours. Medication tapers (SSRIs and SNRIs need a minimum six weeks, eight for fluoxetine) are planned jointly with your own prescriber, never rushed to fit a date.
A 30–45 minute video call with Diego Mendoza, MA in clinical psychology, for every applicant without exception. Only after internal review (Michael, Diego, Dra. Rojas, and Tomas on borderline cases) is a place offered.
Schizophrenia or psychosis history, bipolar I, current lithium or pharmaceutical MAOIs, SSRIs/SNRIs without a completed supervised taper, uncontrolled cardiac conditions or hypertension, severe asthma or COPD, pregnancy, active suicidal ideation, and, unique to this altitude, a history of severe altitude sickness (HACE, HAPE, or hospitalization). If your history is borderline, the physician will say so rather than guess.
In nine years: one medical evacuation (2020, full recovery), managed by Dra. Rojas with the standby vehicle, 45 minutes to the regional hospital by paved road, faster than the best-case boat evacuation from most jungle centers. Zero deaths, zero misconduct incidents, zero lawsuits.
The ceremony is the opening; the healing happens in the months that follow. Every guest enters Puente Andino (“Andean Bridge”), run by Laura Sinclair, a registered psychotherapist trained in somatic experiencing, IFS, and EMDR, with 650+ hours of ceremony facilitation.
average PHQ-9 depression score drop, sustained at three months
of guests show sustained improvement at the 3-month follow-up
of guests above the PTSD clinical cutoff at intake drop below it
complete before-and-after datasets, collected since 2020, published with limitations stated
The program: video calls at week 1 and week 3, check-ins at months 2, 6, and 12, an emergency WhatsApp line with a 4-hour response commitment, a referral network of 25+ integration-aware therapists across five countries, and an alumni community of roughly 350 members. This is observational data with selection bias, not a clinical trial. We state that plainly because the numbers are real and the limitations are too.
“I carried thirty years of service in my chest like a stone. The mountain took it. I do not know how. I know that it is gone.”
Prices stated plainly, in US dollars. All retreats are eleven days with four ceremonies; two retreats per month, dates published a year ahead. Peak season (June to September) sells out five to seven months in advance.
Your own stone-and-adobe room on the terraced hillside. Valley or mountain view, private bathroom, hot water, alpaca blankets.
For couples or friends traveling together, per person. Companion guests who do not drink pay the same rate and join everything but the cup.
Master plant dietas, Amazonian and Andean, under Tomas’s supervision, for guests ready for deeper work. By application and prior retreat.
Included: airport pickup and drop-off, all meals, four ceremonies, coca leaf reading, Andean plant baths, all integration circles and individual healer consultations, despacho ceremony, the year-long Puente Andino program, and hape and sananga sessions. Not included: flights, required travel insurance, pre-retreat hotel. 50% deposit; 3-month payment plan available. Two scholarship places per year, prioritizing indigenous community members, veterans, and first responders.
Yes. It has been protected as Peruvian national cultural heritage since 2008. There is no legal risk to guests in ceremony here. It is not legal to carry home, and we will never help you try.
$3,000 for eleven days in an individual room; $2,400 per person shared; $5,800 for the three-week dieta retreat. Everything from airport pickup to a year of integration is included. Payment plans available.
Four, on nights 3, 5, 8, and 10. The first two days are ceremony-free for acclimatization. You can sit out any ceremony, for any reason, with zero pressure. Roughly 7% of ceremony opportunities are.
Fly to Cusco (CUZ), one hour from Lima with direct international connections. We meet you at the airport; the drive is about 40 minutes. No jungle flight, no boat. Arrive in the Sacred Valley 36 hours early to begin acclimatizing.
Yes. Onset is faster, purging is stronger, visions tend toward the spatial and expansive, and the cold keeps you grounded in your body. Doses are calibrated conservatively for altitude, and a physician with altitude-medicine training is in the room.
Cold. 3–10 °C inside the maloca during ceremony. You get thick alpaca blankets, warm layers are essential, and the hearth fire never fully goes out. The cold is part of the medicine here; it keeps you honest. Pack fleece, thermals, and wool socks.
Not without a completed taper. SSRIs and SNRIs require a minimum six weeks off (eight for fluoxetine), supervised jointly by Dra. Rojas and your own prescriber. Lithium and pharmaceutical MAOIs are absolute no’s.
Three healers (Tomas, Isabel, and Ernesto), two facilitators, and Dra. Rojas, for a maximum of twelve guests. At least two women are in the ceremony space at all times. Nobody is ever alone with their fear; someone is always within arm’s reach.
Dra. Rojas assesses on-site with oxygen, monitoring, and emergency medication at hand; a standby vehicle waits at the entrance during every ceremony. The regional hospital is 45 minutes by road. The full evacuation protocol has been used once in nine years, with full recovery.
Puente Andino: calls at week 1 and week 3, check-ins to month 12, an emergency line with a 4-hour response commitment, therapist referrals in five countries, and an active alumni community. If you are struggling, a former trauma therapist is on the other end of the line.
Twelve guests, four ceremonies, three healers who will know you by name, and a year of integration after you fly home. Applications take one to three weeks; book flights after confirmation, not before.
Declined applicants are never charged and always receive the reason in writing.