What to bring
You don’t need to bring your sleeping bag! But here you have a list of things you should bring:
• Two flashlights (with refills of alkaline batteries; you may also buy refills from any drugstore and from Belén market, in Iquitos). A powerful one and a small/emergency one also to use during the ceremonies. The night falls suddenly in the rainforest, it’s deep and dark and it lasts a good 12 hours.
• Long-burning candles (it’s an optional, depending on how accustomed you are to live without electricity – bear in mind, though, that they attract scores of insects at night, so citronella imbued candles may just be a bit more useful. In Iquitos it’s hard to find good quality, long-burning candles).
• Sun-glasses.
• Sun-block (high potency) and after-sun lotion.
• Eco-friendly soap and shampoo.
• Toothpaste and personal hygiene items.
• Medical & dental emergency kit.
• T-shirts; long sleeved shirts; light, strong and quick-dry trousers (high-tech fibres, mix of cotton and synthetic materials, will do better than 100% cotton); shorts; socks.
• Tight swimming suit, bath towel and flip-flops.
• Wellingtons (for muddy areas, or excursions, or wet weather), sandals (for the good weather) and shoes (preferably not leather, as this material is easily decomposed with the wet climate).
• Jumper/Sweater and a warm blanket (it is important to keep the body warm when drinking the ayahuasca, as body temperature may fell considerably after the intake of the medicine, regardless of external temperature).
• Rain-poncho or a waterproof coat (especially if going during the wet season; generally, rainwear is also useful during the dry season!).
• Zip-lock plastic bags (to protect cameras, films, batteries, travel documents, etc. from humidity).
• And last, but not least, a roll of toilet paper…this rather essential item seems to be often lacking from the toilets of Lima and Iquitos airports! No need to carry toilet paper rolls for your staying in Ashi Meraya, unless you wish to bring along “high quality” Western ones…
