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My experience with Ayahuasca in Ecuador
I’d like to share a bit about my experience with Ayahuasca in Ecuador. These days, there’s increasing interest in this ayahuasca, as well as other plant medicines; more people are open to trying it and it’s important to have a good understanding of what it involves and how to approach your ayahuasca experience in the safest way possible.
Ayahuasca in Ecuador
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How to choose an ayahuasca retreat center in Ecuador
When I tried ayahuasca, I did it through Alma Healing Center and I would definitely recommend organizing your ayahuasca experience through them if you’re curious about trying ayahuasca in Ecuador.
Alma Healing Center holds ayahuasca retreats in Ecuador as well as San Pedro cactus experiences.
They offer retreats near Quito (Pintag) and in Mindo cloudforest, about 2 hours from Quito, where they have a beautiful space in nature.
It is run by a Peruvian-Dutch woman, Sandra, and her parter, Paulina, and have decades of experience working with ayahuasca and other plant medicine in Ecuador, including San Pedro (Huachuma), Yopo, Peyote, Rapé, Mambé and more. The pair are also founders of an Ecuadorian nonprofit, Nuestra Tierra Aldea Creativa, where they are actively working to conserve the cloudforest and ancestral practices.
One reason Alma Healing Center really stands out among other retreat centers in Ecuador is because they prioritize offering a safe ayahuasca retreat experience, especially solo women travelers, as well as minority groups, like LGBTQ+ identifying people.
This is not always the case in Ecuador (and Peru, Colombia etc), where there are a lot of traditional practices that are actually very sexist e.g. excluding menstruating women from ceremonies or judging people that identify as LGBTQ+. In some circles, women are not allowed to serve medicines like ayahuasca, but these are not actually traditional practices, they were introduced when Christianity was brought to the Americas.
If you have any questions about this and other plant medicine-related questions, make sure to ask directly on almahealingcenter.com.
Having that point of reference, knowing and talking directly with someone about the ayahuasca experience is important and gives you peace of mind as well as excitement. It’s important to realize that everyone’s experience is different and that, despite all the questions you might ask, you won’t understand what it’s like to drink ayahuasca until you’ve actually tried it.
Does Alma Healing Center host ayahuasca retreats in Ecuador?
Yes, Alma Healing Center offers various plant medicine retreat options:
- 2 Day Ayahuasca retreats near Quito
- 4 Day Ayahuasca retreats (Quito and Mindo)
- San Pedro (Huachuma) experiences and ceremonies near Quito
- Women’s spiritual retreats with plant medicine
- Private ayahuasca therapy retreats
- Ayahuasca ceremonies in Mindo cloudforest (2 hours from Quito)
- Ayahuasca retreats for LGBTQ+ identifying people
They have a beautiful space in Mindo that is still being built up that is part of their NGO, Nuestra Tierra Creative Village. It is an artist residency and healing center that also actively works to protect the surrounding cloudforest. They also refer travelers to trustworthy healers in other parts of the country when dates don’t align with Alma Healing Center retreats.
They only work directly with a selection of healers with whom they have a good relationship and who are considered safe, personalized and that treat both the plant medicines and their application with care and respect.
4 Day Ayahuasca retreats (Mindo cloudforest)
Their 4 day ayahuasca retreat is a great option for people that want to connect with nature at an offgrid, biodiversity hotspot. You’ll see a little more of the country without moving around on their own, and while working more deeply with ayahuasca.
During the 4 day ayahuasca retreat, you will participate in 2 ceremonies, one at night and the other during the day in a beautiful wildlife compound in the cloudforest. This is ideal since the first ceremony serves to cleanse and the second ceremony allows you to enter into even more expansive dimensions with ayahuasca.
When you’re not in ceremonies, you can hike, birdwatch, do yoga, swim in the river and enjoy the serenity of the cloudforest.
Though this retreat costs more ($700), it is all inclusive and you stay at a really beautiful location outside of Mindo. You also have direct, personal access to the medicine woman, Paulina, who learned from various indigenous peoples while on her spiritual path and enjoys sharing her knowledge. She is also a gestalt therapist and approaches the world of medicine with a lot of awareness and wisdom.
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