Sachamama (Mother-Spirit of the Jungle), the first Ethnobotanical Garden in the Upper Peruvian Amazon, is at the core and at the foundation of our initiative. Sachamama hosts an impressive variety of ethno-significant plant varieties – more than one thousand and two hundred species, spread over sixty hectares of beautiful , mature secondary rainforest (designated conservation area) – collected over many years from different native tribes, by don Francisco Montes Shuña, of Capanahua ancestry.  Founder of this unique shamanic retreat and ethnobotanical research centre, don Francisco is a maestro curandero since the age of twenty-two, a perfumero ayahuasquero (e.g. a vegetalista specialized in working with the perfume and with the ayahuasca medicine), and a renown visionary artist, on the same line of his cousin and spiritual brother, Pablo Caesar Amaringo. The word vegetalista refers - in this area of Latin America - to a shamanic healer of non-tribal culture who has acquired his knowledge by 'dieting' special plants and trees, retreating alone in the forest. 

A full account of the origins of Sachamama is at the link Conversations... with Sachamama.

The School of Traditional Amazonian Medicine

Cultural-Educational activities - Shamanic and healing Programmes in Sachamama

Foreword

We have listed in the following menu' - amid other things - a range of all activities that may place in Sachamama, to give you an idea of what to expect. This is not to be intended as a surgically neat programme description, as activities may vary at all times (ultimately according to Don Francisco's availability, alongside - whenever possible - your own interests) and to the length, purpose and intent of your retreat. The largest part of the shamanic training is experiential, hands-on, rather than theoretical.  Do not expect a scheduled workshop format, or formal talks!! Cleansing/purification herbal baths ("baños de limpie"), flowered perfumed baths  ("baños de flores"), seeing how ayahuasca is prepared and participation to ayahuasca ceremonies are a constant throughout everybody's staying.

Please be aware that the conduction of the rituals - being them "baños de limpie", baños de flores, "healing" or "ayahuasca ceremonies" - is not unlikely to be left to senior students ("estudiantes", long-term "dieteros"), rather than to the shaman himself, in order to offer them the opportunity to practice and apply what they have learnt, in real life situations. In some cases, however, there may be other unpredictable elements at play for choosing one dietero rather than another, in a specific field of apprenticeship, like signs from the plant spirits themselves, that may point to a specific person to serve in the preparation of the mesa, or to perform a cleansing ritual, etc.

Doing the shamanic dieta - given the nature of the training - is very often an extremely deep and strong experience, where you may develop and share incredibly intense bonds with your fellow plant diet companions, the plants, and - last but not least - the plant spirits. The Amazon is full of life - in body and spirit - and following a serious "dieta" you may see much more than can be possibly described and may access realms of perception that could radically shift your consolidated idea of reality and of the world. The world is YES as you dream it, and  - for the Amazonian shamans - it is ALSO as you "diet" the plants! Worlds and worlds may open up and reveal to you, plants may talk, forest spirits may appear in vision/dreaming, all may come alive, in the visible and invisible realms. The plant spirit world may ultimately appear for what it really is to the eyes and ears of the shaman - not a matter of anthropological/ethnobotanical research, nor  a fictitious Amazonian folk-tale - if you develop the right connection. Those who will engage themselves in the plant teachers training through the "dieta", will have a practical direct exposure to the cosmovision of Amazonian shamans. This is not to be intended as a formal lecture of anthropological contents, but rather as an experiential, day-to-day immersion in the plant spirit world of the rainforest.

Sachamama is first and foremost - and above all - a centre of diffusion and dissemination of Amazonian Traditional Plant Medicine, where people will be directly exposed to, learn and experience, with different degrees of intensity - according to their own sensitivity, inclination, experience and the length of their training - ancestral shamanic practices. It is a School of Shamanic Apprenticeship where one has the chance to be - by practicing the "dieta" - one with the Amazonian plants and nature, in a beautiful and timeless setting, learning practically and gradually on how to deal with the plantas maestras, and being exposed to traditional knowledge in a radically different way than any workshop or formal lecture will ever give you. The training for the dieta - the traditional avenue towards accessing plant spirits knowledge, personal healing and the status of purification required by the assumption of the powerful ayahuasca medicine - may be austere and demanding.  Only serious and deeply motivated students should enquire for - and commit to -  the plant diet programme, although all people sincerely interested can apply for an ayahuasca retreat!!!

Should you wish to explore more and adventure deeper in the Amazon jungle, you may want to combine your shamanic retreat in Sachamama with an eco-expedition to the stunning Pacaya Samiria National Reserve, one of the largest wet-land reserves of Latin America.

Cultural

• Visionary painting tutorials;

• Use of the medicinal plants of the Amazon and learning the practice of natural medicine using roots, barks, resins, leaves, and/or essential oil-extracts;

• Use of special perfume essences naturally obtained from wild rainforest flowers, for personal protection and purification;

• Informal classes on the make of natural pigments using the natural colours of leaves, fruits or barks.

Educational

• Informal Talks on tales and myths of the Amazon Rainforest.

Ethnobotanical

• Identification of plant specimens;

• See how the ayahuasca is prepared!

Shamanic

• Direct participation to ayahuasca ceremonies and shamanic rituals;

• Direct experiential participation to shamanic practices and interaction with native and/or mestizo shamans;

• Shamanic apprenticeship programme via special plant teacher diets; an Amazonian Vision Quest! (dieteros only);

• Direct and experiential exposure to Amazonian shamanic cosmovision (dieteros only);

• Learn to clear other's people energy field (dieteros only);

• Learn the icaros - the magical melodies taught to the shaman by the plant teachers (dieteros only);

• Learn how to conduct ayahuasca ceremonies (advanced students on "plant teacher diet" retreat only).

 healing

• Aromatic baths: cold water ritual baths especially prepared with flowers and aromatic essences;

• Clay therapy: to purify the body from dead cells and toxins accumulated with the ageing process;

• Personal spiritual healing through the icaros: magical, haunting melodies sang by the shaman - and/or by his senior apprentices - to call the spirits to help the healing to take place;

• Healing through mapacho smoke; the black jungle tobacco smoke is said to be the "food of the plant spirits".  It is blown by the shaman - and/or by his apprentices - over a patient, during the singing of the icaros, during a curación (healing session). The smoke is also blown on to the ayahuasca brew, to purify it from negative energies/entities. The spirits of ayahuasca and mapacho are greatly connected and in tune with each other.

Note: This is an important aspect of the plant diet training and all dieteros (people committed to the plant diet) will be required to smoke mapacho as part of their apprenticeship.

• Physical healing through Traditional Amazonian Medicinal Plant Medicine (optional and subject to prior assessment and acceptance ).

• Treatment of drug addictions and depressive conditions through the use of ayahuasca medicine (optional and subject to prior assessment and acceptance ).

Other maestros in Sachamama

Many different indigenous and mestizo maestros have worked in and/or lived in Sachamama, in the past few years. Here we present a few who have joined this ethnobotanical and shamanic organization in the jungle:

Don Jose' Coral, a 96 years old muraya featured in Luna's Vegetalismo, a mile stone in anthropological research in this field, renown for entering in trance without the ingestion of entheogenic plants, still leading ayahuasca ceremonies at his venerable age!

Alejandrina,:a tabaquera, e.g. a vegetalista specialised in working with the tobacco plant;

Don Fernando Laiche Celis, an excellent maestro of Cocama origins;

Artidoro Aro Cardenas, a mestizo maestro dialectista renowned for his beautiful icaros sang in Indian dialect, has also worked in the Ethnobotanical Garden;

Don Leoncio Garcia Sampaya, a wonderful 74 years old shaman from the Shipibo indigenous group of the Amazon, who sings all his icaros exclusively in Shipibo tongue of his people, has also been a maestro of ceremony in Sachamama.  

Don Alberto Vasquez, a 76 years old shaman, a maestro palero from the Lamista people, has also helped regularly in Sachamama.

Otilia Pashmiño, a native shaman of the Bora ethnic group, has for a long time coadiuvated don Francisco in the conduction of the ayahuasca rituals. Those who have listened at her icaros, have seen how caringly and sweetly her Mother Earth energy comes to life!

Don Ruperto Peña Shuña, a seventy-six years old shaman, uncle of don Francisco, is a powerful muraya (and with a great sense of humour too!). He is an allpa muraya (the Quechua 'allpa' stands for 'earth') - e.g. a shaman who works with the earthly realm (jungle, plants,  trees and animals) - and a alto muraya (from the Spanish 'alto', e.g. 'high'), a shaman knowledgeable about the heavenly realm - the sky, the planets, the constellations and the spirits and forces that inhabit it. Don Ruperto has now retired from Sachamama, and stays in the Capanahua  community on the Rio Ucayali.

There are two types of accommodation offered in the Ethnobotanical Garden: a relatively comfortable one for normal retreat attendees, and a relatively rustic one for dieteros (the people who are 'dieting' with the 'teacher plants'). In the first case every one has his - or her - own private room inside the two new main structures, the casas de los pasajeros (traditional Amazonian style wooden buildings with thatched palm roof, built on stilts), with shared toilets, showers, wash basins and a communal area for socializing. You will sleep in comfortable beds, on a thick mattress, screened with mosquito net. In the patio area outside one of the wooden building there are also hammocks to rest on. These are located in the centre of the Garden, next to all other facilities.

In the second case, dieteros stay in one of the twenty individual tambos (wooden huts, with thatched palm roof, built on stilts), recently refurbished but intentionally kept very traditional, set away from the centre of the Garden. All tambos for dieteros are screened from insects and all have a comfortable bed with a thick mattress, fitted mosquito net, a private shower and an attached toilet. No electricity. They are located on the opposite side of the ceremonial house, along a pretty nice jungle stream that crosses Sachamama (where the perfume baths rituals are done), a bit secluded and distant from each other. These are built in the traditional Amazonian style of wooden huts on stilts, with thatched palm-roof.

Please note that - unless you are used to live in the jungle - you may need time to adjust to these conditions, one more reason not to try out the plant diet - a serious and demanding shamanic training, which require absolute dedication, endurance and strong commitment - for only one or two weeks, unless it is absolutely necessary. Each plant teacher may be dieted for a period running from two up to six weeks, depending on individual circumstances, inclinations and subject to approval (that is, both from the maestro and the spirit of the planta that one wishes to diet with!).

There is no difference of price for doing a normal ayahuasca retreat or the shamanic plant teachers diet.

A beautiful communal area (e.g. the building of the School of Traditional Amazonian Medicine), a wood-fire kitchen, a small library/workshop area and ceremonial house (where the ayahuasca ceremonies take place) complement the structure of the Garden. The sight of wild monkeys in the day light is not uncommon in Sachamama, whilst pet monkeys and parrots roam usually free around the comeador. At night time, wild sloths (peresosos) may be seen (or heard) hanging around!

Dieting plantas maestras in Sachamama

Click here for more information on teacher plants diet in Sachamama.

 IMPORTANT!

Please save us time and energy by reading carefully all the information provided on our site before contacting us for further information. The best way to get to know the ayahuasca and the plant teacher 'diet' is...to try it!!