Maestro Ricardo Amaringo, 58, is a warm-hearted Shipibo leader, owner of Nihue Rao, and the center’s head shaman. He began drinking Ayahuasca at just 14, and in his 20s completed his first long diet of two and a half years with a single purpose in mind: to help the world. Living, eating, and working at the center, he makes it clear that curandero practice is the heart of his life.
A committed purist, he remains loyal to the shamanic discipline passed down by his Shipibo ancestors, the merayas, curanderos of the highest level, and is determined to follow it without compromise. Unlike many shamans, he shares his knowledge openly and is patient with those who want to understand the medicine more deeply. “My job is to educate the world, the plants told me,” he often says, and he brings that teaching into the integration conversations he leads.
Through more than 50 diets, Maestro Ricardo has built a special relationship with the plants, and he has also dieted God’s Medicine for one year, giving him abilities in his work that few shamans possess. For those wishing to study shamanism with him, he says warmly, “If you want to learn the medicine, I will teach you like a brother or sister,” and he truly honors that promise. Sharp, kind, and deeply devoted, he is a rare gift to anyone drawn to this ancestral tradition.