Cusco, Peru · 11,150 feet · Twelve guests
Our Services
Three medicines, cleared one at a time. Every week is built around four ayahuasca ceremonies. Kambo and Bufo are open to guests who are separately screened and who ask, at no extra charge, and neither is ever suggested to someone who did not raise it.
Clearance for one is never clearance for another
Each medicine has its own contraindications and they do not overlap neatly. A heart condition that rules out Kambo may not rule out ayahuasca. An SSRI needing a taper before ayahuasca is a different question again for Bufo. So the physician assesses each one separately, against your own file, and any of the three can be declined while the others proceed.
We never run two medicines on the same day and we do not sell packages. A center offering all three as a bundle is selling you a menu, not a protocol.
Covers all three
You do not apply per medicine. One file of thirty four questions, read once by a licensed physician, with a separate answer for each.
Often a mixed result
Cleared for ayahuasca and declined for Kambo is a common outcome, and it changes nothing about your week or your price.
Some on the day
Kambo and Bufo are re-checked against how you are actually doing that morning, not only against what you wrote months earlier.
01 · Included in every week · four ceremonies
Ayahuasca
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 sing icaros and move between guests all night. Purging is expected and prepared for at every mat. Nobody is asked how much to drink, and nobody is offered a second cup they did not request.
How a night runs
- Doors after dark, medicine served in the evening
- Five to six hours, closing at first light with bells over San Blas
- Two maestros in the room for twelve guests
- A physician awake through every ceremony
Why four, not one
The first ceremony is mostly spent learning how to be in the room. The second is usually the one guests describe afterwards. A single ceremony rarely does much for anyone, which is why we do not sell weekend sittings.
Preparation
Three weeks of dieta before you fly: no alcohol, no fermented food, minimal salt and sugar. Tyramine rich food is the specific reason the list exists. We send a grocery list written for US supermarkets and a day by day plan, and any medication taper is planned around your own prescriber.
Where the brew comes from
The vine does not grow at 11,150 feet. It is cooked in the Ucayali lowlands by the maestros’ own families in Paoyhan and Nueva Betania, and brought up, logged by batch with where it was cut and when. We say that rather than implying a garden outside the maloca.
A full stop for ayahuasca
MAOI medication of any kind, diagnosed schizophrenia or bipolar I, uncontrolled hypertension, epilepsy, severe liver disease, a cardiac event within the last twelve months, and pregnancy. SSRIs, SNRIs, lithium, tramadol, triptans and stimulants are reviewed individually and often require a supervised taper.
02 · Optional · one daytime session, no extra charge
Kambo
The secretion of the giant monkey frog, Phyllomedusa bicolor, 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 stays with you the whole time. It is not psychoactive; you are fully present for all of it.
What it is not
Not a psychedelic, not a warm up to ayahuasca, and not a detox in the sense the internet uses that word. We describe the physical experience accurately and make no claims about what it removes from your body.
Where it sits in the week
- Always a rest day, never a ceremony day
- At least twenty four hours either side
- Morning, so the day is yours to recover
- Skipped without comment if you change your mind
Why we screen it separately
Kambo puts a real load on blood pressure and fluid balance, and that load has nothing to do with the MAO inhibition governing ayahuasca screening. Different risk, different assessment, different answer.
Why never early in the week
Thin dry air at 11,150 feet already shifts fluid balance before the secretion adds anything. We hold Kambo until you have been at altitude several days, and cancel rather than run it on a guest still short of breath on the stairs.
A full stop for Kambo
Heart conditions, low blood pressure, Addison’s disease, pregnancy or breastfeeding, recovery from recent surgery, and current chemotherapy. At this altitude we watch fluid balance more closely than a jungle center needs to, and we will move or cancel a session rather than run it on a bad day.
03 · Optional · by clearance from two people
Bufo
A single brief session with 5-MeO-DMT, synthetically sourced so no toad is milked or harmed. Fifteen to twenty minutes, one to one, with two facilitators present and one seated beside you the whole time. Offered only in the quiet after the final ceremony, and only when the physician and your integration lead agree independently.
Synthetic, and why
Milking wild Incilius alvarius stresses the animal and demand is damaging populations. Synthetic 5-MeO-DMT is molecularly identical and takes nothing from the desert. We would not offer it otherwise.
Two people have to agree
- The physician, on medical grounds
- Your integration lead, on everything else
- Either can decline without explaining it
- No appeal, and no charge either way
Often we say wait
Many guests who would be cleared are advised to leave Bufo for a future visit. It is short, extremely intense, and integrates poorly when stacked on a first ayahuasca week. Declining it is the common outcome, not the rare one.
Not an Andean medicine
The species is Sonoran and has no place in Shipibo or Quechua practice. It is the one thing we offer with no connection to this valley, and we would rather say so than let the setting imply a lineage.
A full stop for Bufo
Any reservation from either lead. Beyond that: cardiac history, uncontrolled hypertension, diagnosed schizophrenia or bipolar I, epilepsy, pregnancy, and any current psychiatric medication that has not been fully reviewed. First time guests are frequently asked to wait.
What 11,150 feet changes, and what it does not
This is the question that actually separates a Cusco week from a lowland one, and most centers here skip it. Altitude does not change what the medicines are. It changes the schedule, the screening margins, and the first two days of your week.
05 · One price
$5,800 covers all of it
Including both optional medicines for guests who are cleared. There is no tiered package and no add-on menu, because pricing a second medicine separately gives a center a reason to recommend it.
Not included
Flights, budget $700 to $1,300 from most US hubs. Travel insurance, which we require. Any nights in Cusco either side of the week, which we will help you plan. Any taper appointments with your own prescriber.
Terms
No deposit until a physician confirms a place. Then 30% to hold and the balance 30 days out. Payment plans over three or six months. Full refund to 45 days out, and medical withdrawals refunded in full at any point.
Two maestros in every ceremony, twelve guests.
On a rest day in the second half of the week, at no extra charge.
After the final ceremony, at no extra charge.
Nobody shares.
Before ceremony one, with medical intake on arrival.
Plus the three week plan sent before you fly.
On every rest day.
Awake through all four ceremonies.
Velasco Astete to the center in fifteen minutes.
Four calls in three months, then quarterly, same lead, your time zone.
Which of the three is right for you
The short version: everyone comes for ayahuasca, most guests take the Kambo session, and few should take Bufo on a first visit.
| Ayahuasca | Kambo | Bufo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Included | Yes, four ceremonies every week | Optional, no extra charge | Optional, no extra charge |
| Duration | Five to six hours, overnight | Twenty to forty minutes, daytime | Fifteen to twenty minutes, morning |
| Psychoactive | Yes, profoundly | No, fully present throughout | Yes, very short and very intense |
| Setting | Group of twelve, two maestros | One to one with a practitioner | One to one, two facilitators |
| Who clears it | The physician | The physician | The physician and your integration lead, independently |
| What altitude adds | Starts night three, after two acclimatisation days | Held back to the second half of the week | Judged on how your body handled the week |
| Dieta applies | Yes, three weeks before and one after | Yes, you are already on it | Yes, same week |
| First visit | Yes, this is the week | Commonly, if cleared | Usually advised to wait |
| Choose it if | You want the work this whole center is built around | You want the physical reset and you are medically clear for it | You have sat before and both leads agree you are ready |
07 · Questions
About the services
How does altitude change the three medicines?
It changes the schedule more than the medicines. At 11,150 feet the first ayahuasca ceremony is held on night three rather than night two, so nobody sits while still acclimatising, and blood pressure and oxygen saturation are measured on arrival and again before ceremony one. Kambo is scheduled after mid week because thin dry air already shifts fluid balance before the secretion adds anything. Bufo, which raises blood pressure and heart rate sharply, is assessed against how your body handled the altitude across the whole week rather than against your application alone.
Can I do all three in one week?
Possibly, but never on the same day and only if each is cleared on its own contraindications. Ayahuasca is in every week. Kambo sits on a rest day at least twenty four hours from any ceremony. Bufo is offered only on the morning after the final ceremony. Plenty of guests are cleared for one or two and not the third.
Do Kambo and Bufo cost extra?
No. Both are included in the $5,800 week for guests who are cleared and who ask. Neither is ever suggested to a guest who did not raise it, because pricing a second medicine separately gives a center a financial reason to recommend it.
Where does the ayahuasca come from, given Cusco is not the lowlands?
The caapi vine and chacruna do not grow at 11,150 feet, so the brew is cooked in the Ucayali lowlands by the maestros’ own families and brought up. We say that plainly rather than implying a garden outside the maloca. Every batch is logged with where it was cut, who cooked it, and when. If provenance within an hour of the maloca is what matters most to you, our Iquitos house is the honest answer.
Do I need to arrive early to acclimatise?
The retreat already builds in two acclimatisation days before the first ceremony, so you do not have to. A night or two in Cusco before your week begins is still a good idea for anyone flying in from sea level, and we will help you plan it. Nobody drinks on their first or second night in the city either way.
Can I take altitude sickness medication?
Tell us before you fill the prescription. Acetazolamide and similar drugs are reviewed alongside everything else in your file, and coca tea, which is offered everywhere here, is discussed at intake rather than assumed to be fine. Supplemental oxygen is on site. Nothing on this page is medical advice.
I am a first timer. What should I choose?
The standard week, four ayahuasca ceremonies, and the Kambo session if you are cleared and curious. We will often advise skipping Bufo on a first visit even when you would pass the medical screening, because it integrates poorly stacked on a first week.
What if I change my mind once I arrive?
Then you skip it, without comment and without anyone asking twice. That applies to a Kambo session, a Bufo session, and any individual ceremony. You keep the room, the food and every integration call.
How far is a hospital?
Twelve minutes to a clinic and about twenty minutes to a Cusco hospital we hold a standing arrangement with, on sealed road, with the protocol rehearsed monthly. In the jungle that number is measured in hours, and that margin is the main reason a few guests declined for our Iquitos house are offered a place here instead.
Is integration included?
Yes. Four calls in the first three months, then quarterly for a year, with the same integration lead who read your file before you travelled, scheduled on your time zone at no extra charge.
No charge to apply · reviewed within 48 hours
Apply once, and we will tell you what you are cleared for.
One application of thirty four questions covers all three. A licensed physician reads it within 48 hours, decides each medicine on its own merits, and tells you plainly which are open to you and which are not. About one application in five does not proceed, nothing is charged until a place is confirmed, and a mixed answer is the normal one.