Eight Week Shipibo Ayahuasca Initiation Course in Peru – July 5 - August 29, 2026
Description
Experience an authentic immersion into the Shipibo healing tradition through this condensed initiation into curanderismo, centered on plant dietas, ayahuasca ceremonies, and natural remedies. Designed as the first step toward apprenticeship in the sacred art of ayahuasca healing, the course offers deep teachings, personal insight, and direct contact with the foundations of Shipibo plant medicine in Peru.
The program is held at the Kesten Rono school for plant medicine, a dedicated space created specifically for plant dietas and training. For those who feel called to learn ancestral healing practices, this is a meaningful place to begin. For students already walking the path of healing, it offers full immersion in Shipibo culture and the living world of plant spirit healing in the Amazon rainforest.
Profound Plant Dietas
Plant dietas are the heart of the course and the basis of traditional curandero training. Students learn how to strengthen their relationship with plant spirits, deepen the benefits of the dieta, and continue the process after the course ends. The first half of the program is spent in dieta with Noya Rao, followed by a second dieta with one of the following teacher plants: Bobinsana, Chiric Sanango, Marusa, Chullachaqui, or Padma Rao. All of these, except Padma Rao, grow around the school. Seeing, touching, and communing with the Noya Rao tree is a rare privilege and a true honor.
Lectures, Workshops, and Practice
A structured learning path introduces students to the foundations of Shipibo ayahuasca healing. Through lectures and workshops led by a Shipibo maestro and the facilitators, students explore dieta navigation, ceremony preparation, plant remedy administration, and the practical skills needed to work responsibly within the tradition.
Working with Ayahuasca and Plant Medicine
Students actively practice throughout the course, from singing icaros in ceremony to learning treatment techniques and receiving healing remedies. They also gain firsthand experience through ayahuasca ceremonies, where the most important lessons often arise from direct connection with the plant spirits. Over eight intensive weeks, the course includes more than twenty ayahuasca ceremonies, along with a wide range of plant treatments and healing activities.
What Students Learn
- Curanderismo and the core principles of the Shipibo healing tradition
- Plant dietas, Shipibo icaros, and basic Shipibo language
- How to make ayahuasca from beginning to end
- Mapacho, pipes, agua florida, and other traditional healing tools
- Ayahuasca ceremony preparation, opening, closing, and mareacion management
- Plant baths, vapor baths, purgatives, poultices, and remedies
- Facilitation, safety, ethics, preparation, integration, and trauma-informed care
The course also includes complementary offerings such as sharing circles, somatic practices, breathwork sessions, movement workshops, meditation, yoga, and counseling. The exact mix of lectures, treatments, and activities may vary according to the needs of the group and the guidance of the plant spirits.
A Jungle School in the Amazon
Set in the rainforest outside Iquitos, the school is surrounded by the energies of the Amazon and the rare Noya Rao trees growing on the property. Rustic accommodations reflect village life and support a deep connection with nature throughout the training.
Cost and Inclusions
The cost of the initiation course is $6,850. This includes teachings, accommodation, transportation, meals, course materials, post-course integration support, and a wide range of traditional practices and treatments. It also includes 21 traditional ayahuasca ceremonies, two plant dietas, over fifty lectures and workshops, translations, recordings, and access to traditional Shipibo healing tools.
Dates
- July 5 - August 29, 2026
- October 4 - November 28, 2026
Safety and Participation
Participants are asked to review the medical guidelines before applying, as certain conditions may make ayahuasca unsuitable. Honest disclosure of medical history and medications is essential so the team can assess suitability and support each person’s well-being. All information is kept confidential.
Accommodation Options
Student Tambo (Jungle Hut)
The Kesten Rono Plant Medicine School features a mini village in a remote part of the rainforest, consisting of small collections of huts spread over a cleared expanse of jungle terrain. Every student is assigned a tambo, or jungle hut, on the property. These huts and the other buildings like the dining room, vapor bath hut, and ceremony maloca, come together to form a peaceful little village for the students, surrounded by the energies of the plants. The student huts provide the basics in accommodations, a bed, a hammock, a desk, and a closet. Each hut also has a bathroom with running water. The simplicity of the rooms resembles an authentic indigenous hut, with some added improvements in comfort. The plant medicine school features is a mini village in a remote part of the rainforest, consisting of small collections of huts spread over a cleared expanse of jungle terrain. Each student hut, or tambo, has a private bathroom with running water. Rooms are furnished with a bed with bedding and mosquito net, a desk and chair, a closet, and a hammock. There are outlets and lights but there is only electricity for a few hours each day. On-site, all ayahuasca preparation, plant baths, vapor baths, and other remedies are crafted with care, strengthening the connection to the healing plants. While accommodations are simple, the profound beauty, power, and peace of the rainforest are ever-present in this extraordinary and sacred place. Kesten Rono School offers an authentic jungle living experience, far away from the hustle and noise of modern life. It was designed specifically for the Shipibo Curandero Initiation Course. This location has tremendous energy due to the quality and integrity of plant dietas being done here by students of the Noya Rao tradition. It is more rustic than the our other center, but you will feel an amazing connection with the plants instantly upon arrival. Kesten Rono is a place for deep immersion into the world of spirit plant healing. Students quickly recognize that the school and the entire experience during courses is authentic to the indigenous tradition being taught. This is as real a place as it gets.
Teachers
Ayahuasca Foundation
Place
Place map
Categories
Contact Information
Sun, Jul 5