Hello friends,

It's been some time now that I've been very interested in a particular way of life - the jungle life.

What I dream of experiencing is living in an ayahuasca/cacti healing center somewhere in Southern America (specifically Peru if a good option is available there). Basically what is stopping me from just going to a well-renowned center and staying there is money.

My idea is to go there and be a fully committed volunteer. I want to participate in gardening, construction, maintenance, I can do digital marketing and communications etc, basically everything this place might need, I can help a huge deal. So far I've spoken only to the communications guy for the Aya Madre healing center in Iquitos, Peru.

After offering my volunteering they still hit me with a price tag of $850/month, which to me seems quite a lot. I know such a place requires a lot of maintenance, and guests have to be accommodated in a respectable manner, with access to most of the things they might need. Add to that fresh food etc, it can get costly, I get it. But still - 850 is not a small sum monthly for someone who is there all the time and helps with everything.

So what I need is a place that will charge me a MAX of $250-300 per month, and still allow me to be there for at least a month as a volunteer, and as a participant in healing ceremonies. I don't want much - just some shelter and enough food not to starve to death.

What I need from you, friends, is recommendations of such places. I don't necessarily want them to be ayahuasca healing centers, those working with sacred cacti work too. I just need to separate myself from this destructive way of life. The damage I do to Mother Nature by living this way is killing me, both literally and not.

Any advice, recommendations or anything at all is greatly appreciated!

Yours truly.

Still no replies. Lookin like research time.

Yeah I guess not many people have looked into this, but still it was worth the try.

I am contacting different places and shamans, will share my findings here if something interesting pops up.

Cheers!

Yes please do research, for your ownbenefit.

I was part of a campaign to run a charlatan out of Washington State who has now run to central/south America to ply his trade of scamming vulnerable people. He and his cohorts seem to be more the rule than the exception.

I'm not sure if i can list it here, but if you are on Facebook(yeah yeah i know and agree) there are a few groups designed to place reviews and some to publicize nefarious activities of practitioners.

For information a basic worker in Peru owns around 20 dollars for a day of work (9 hours). Which means 400 dollars per month.
"Independent" healers ask between 20 and 100 dollars per person for an ayahuaaca ceremony which means that if there is for example 10 persons participating one single guy would receive between 200 and 1000 dollars in one night.
Big centers can have more than 20 persons paying for their treatment all the time. (If the price is 1000 dollars a month it means that they receive 20000 dollars per month. Something like 10 persons are necessary to make this kind of center work. In Peru the rice is around 70 cents/kg, potatoes 30 cents/kg, green banana and yucca is virtually free because it grows in large quantities without work. The same for fish, most of the centers have access to river and to free fish.
The plant medicines like every natural thing grows without paying them. They heal people without asking nothing in exchange. Only humans do.

This is a small calculus with no real importance, it is just to know a bit more on what is happening here...

Iquitos is a crazy city, full of crime and dirty stories. It is unique in the world, interesting to visit and there is the possibility to enter in deep jungle easily.
The region of tarapoto is less touristic, there are centers. Maybe a bit more serious.
Pucallpa is nice too. Good access to the jungle, not very touristic. Shipibo tribes own the aya business.
Then you can find a good brother to share with by just traveling and talking. Jungle is infinite and full of real people. Just have to go for adventure. The communities along the Ucayali river from the region of atalaya until Iquitos are very accessible and quite authentic. They all practice with plants.
The region of purus river looks to me the most authentic with the possibility to meet the huni kuin tribe (cashinawa). Have to take a small military plane from pucallpa. Need to be free in time because you can wait for 2 weeks just to take the plane. The same to come back.
The region of napo river is very savage. Few boats from Iquitos.

If you want to come without any fixed plan you are invited to come in my home in Sauce, Laguna azul, region San Martin near Tarapoto. It is good place to start from. Kichwa (quechua) people live around. They have good knowledge of the plants.

I live here with my wife and baby since September 2017. I have a land of 6 ha ready for constructing, making garden and living out of any problem. We make everything with our own unexploited capacities

AND FOR FREE !!!

The land is 1h30 walk from sauce, we carry material with horses, cut all the wood for construction with chainsaw from posts to boards. There is a small river of pure water and black soil.
You are welcome brother, let's live like real humans.

Two good brothers of mine are planning to create an aya meditation martial art center in a 20 ha land at 20 minutes walking from sauce. There is a big ceremony house, a big kitchen and three clay houses with leaves roofs. One is French, the other one is from Colorado. For this project we need relaxed independent people.
This year we organised maybe the first free tekno party of the region on this land.

WOW...I don't know what to say, Mr&Mrs McShulfman, except a wholeheartedly thank you for all the information and the invitation. It means a lot to me, really.

I will PM you now and we'll talk further. Much love!

Also, null24 thanks for the heads up, I've wondered how many of the "shamans" are actually scammers and generally bad people...Can you PM me the name of the group you mentioned? Thanks!

Are there any you have found in your search so far that are relatively low-cost? I've been looking at monasteries, which isn't the same thing. But I wonder if a retreat is anything I could conceivably save for in the coming years.

Not really man. I spoke to one australian female shaman that claims she's been doing ceremonies for over 10 years now. She's in Iquitos, Peru. She offered me to stay with her at her place for $10 per day, which includes a bit of food and a place to sleep only. The rest is supposed to be a shared purchase. Some ceremonies are included in this as well.

Let me know if you want to talk to her, I'll give you her facebook contact. I've currently decided I'm gonna stay with a friend on land he owns in Peru. There I will put to practice the theoretical knowledge I have on permaculture whilst integrating myself in this completely new and different environment. Getting to know the locals, getting to know the language and adjusting myself to the "flow" of Peru.

Let me know.

Thanks

No changes yet. But I can imagine wanting to do just this after things start looking up.

Best.