– Safety at Caya Shobo –
At Caya Shobo we understand the enormous trust you place in our hands to ensure your safety and physical and psychological well-being. We consider your safety as our number one priority. From when you begin your application with us, throughout your stay and to your departure and beyond, our focus is on delivering the best services and support in the safest and most effective way possible.
Our foundational ability to assure your safety hinges on the depth of knowledge which we bring to your treatment and care, and which carries across all aspects of our operations.
This begins with our strong commitment to closely following the time-honored medicine knowledge of the Shipibo people. This ancient tradition incorporates critical understandings developed over many generations, regarding how to work appropriately with Amazonian plants to achieve meaningful healing benefit in a safe way. We are dedicated to responsibly helping you access this knowledge and its powerful benefits.
Throughout our entire operation and community culture we also uphold a key emphasis on the value of experience. We work only with experienced maestro Onánya healers with the highest levels of Shipibo shamanic healing knowledge developed over decades of working with the medicine plants. And we employ only the most experienced and trained lead facilitators, each whom carry many years of plant dieta healing and learning practice.
It is not only experience that qualifies the selection of our team, but also integrity, kindness and care. We know that the entire Caya Shobo team must be in energetic cohesion for the vision of a safe, supportive healing environment to be realized. Therefore, new members are carefully screened for high standards of practical experience, respectfulness and sensitivity to guests and the needs of the entire center. We are always working on enhancing our skills and capability as a team.
Foundational aspects of Caya Shobo’s safety and care practices
Respect for the power of the Amazonian Plants
Traditional Shipibo medicine knowledge centers around respect for the power of the Amazonian plants. This embodies adherence to careful management of dietary, social and personal care choices while working with the plants and includes deliberate selection of specific plants and dosing levels appropriate to the physical and psychological profile of each individual. In particular, at Caya Shobo we are alert to the physical and psychological danger of contraindicated interactions between plants and other substances (such as kambo, iboga, huachuma, etc).
In addition, our in-depth research into Western health matters, including the complex subject of medications (supported by guidance from medical and psychological health experts), ensures that we form a cohesive bridge between Shipibo and Western understandings for diagnosing guests’ health needs. We often work hand-in-hand with medical advisers to safely recommend appropriate plant medicine treatment. And we maintain direct relationships with the best clinics in Iquitos (45 minute drive) in case urgent medical care is required.
While Shipibo plant medicine is remarkably effective at treating many illnesses, there are some cases where an illness is too far progressed to be reversed by plant treatments. Plant treatments tend to work slowly and occasionally the complex nature of disease prohibits the safe use of Ayahuasca or other powerful medicine plants.
In any case there is always a benefit in an immersive retreat stay in the natural healing energy of the rainforest. Emotional and physical well-being is also enhanced by receiving the Icaro song treatments of the maestros (where plant energies are transmitted directly to the patient). These options exist for those who are not eligible to ingest plant medicines but would still like to experience the magic of the jungle.
Emotional and psychological safety within the healing process
Many Westerners today feel a strong need for emotional healing and support, with more and more people turning to alternative healing traditions for help; especially treatments rooted in treating the body or accessing the healing powers of nature. However alternative healing approaches can present valid concerns around non-regulated standards of physical care, and the uncertain integrity of practitioners in different settings. We at Caya Shobo appreciate these concerns especially for solo / female guests. We communicate and uphold strict rules around appropriate conduct for all of our team members, and all of our visitors.
We want our guests to feel safe and respected throughout their stay. And to give you the confidence to surrender into a deep healing process with Ayahuasca and the powerful Amazonian medicine plants. We know the process can involve an uncomfortable dissolution of long held perspectives, notions of identity or ego, and general ways of relating with life; which can all be scary territory for many Westerners. At Caya Shobo we are here to make your transformational journey feel as well supported and secure as possible. Our many frequent return guests attest to our excellent track record in this regard.
Physical safety through operational and facilities excellence
Throughout every aspect of management and development of the center we implement health and safety protections for our guests and staff. We remain committed to continuously improving the standard of our facilities, staff training levels and accommodation. Additionally, we provide therapeutic services on-site in order to enhance the comfort and well-being of visitors.
- Pre-arrival medical screening – for all guests. Careful identification of medications, substances or psychological and physical conditions which may be a contradiction to the consumption of Ayahuasca or other plant treatments.
- Recommendations and preparation guidelines for individual health situations for your retreat stay at Caya Shobo, as well as for returning to normal life back home.
- Expert emotional support for guests both during the process of retreat, and also access to skilled integration support and professional therapeutic and psychological support for guests post-departure.
- Appropriate ratio of skilled maestros, facilitators and helpers to the number of guests in every ceremony.
- First aid training of Caya Shobo’s facilitators and staff. Appropriate emergency response protocols – assessment, equipped first-responder kits (incl. anti-venom), transportation to best medical facilities (less than 45 minutes drive), and emergency physician contact.
- 24×7 security patrol (trained guards, efficient walkie-talkie communication devices, attentive, discreet monitoring support during ceremonies and retreats).
- Compliance with regional and national safety requirements for public accommodations facilities.
- Appropriate attention to hygiene and sanitation. This includes daily cleaning of shared facilities, daily disinfection of shared equipment such as purge buckets, frequent laundering of towels & bed linen in private accommodations and in the maloka. Private bathrooms with running cold water in all standard rooms. Tambos are a short distance from shared bathroom facilities.
- Food-safety trained kitchen staff. Ready attendance to special dietary requirements, allergies, etc. Steel preparation surfaces for optimal sanitisation. Effective, safe disinfection of market-bought fruits and vegetables from common parasites (giardia, etc). High quality Caterpillar Olympian generator & solar powered refrigeration plus proper containment of perishables.
- Clean potable water sourced from reliable Iquitos suppliers. Clear guidance provided to guests for avoiding contamination from non-filtered water sources.
- In the design of Caya Shobo’s facilities and amenities we always have in mind the comfort of guests during their stay and support for the therapeutic healing process. Our center is conveniently located with appropriately designed common spaces including:
- Guest admission plus administration office at center entrance.
- Spacious common dining facility with dedicated social gathering/relaxing area.
- Traditionally designed maloka for sacred ayahuasca ceremony, yoga and group discussions.
- Dedicated, enclosed medicine-house facility for preparation and administration of herbal medicines.
- Tasteful, private cabins for flower-baths
- Conveniently located public washroom facilities.
- Private discussion spaces.
- Incorporation of modern construction principles for isolation Tambos which allow for spaciousness, natural light & airflow. Increased privacy and jungle immersion experience.
- Excellent protection from the elements in standard adobe-concrete rooms, each with private bathroom facilities.
- Constantly maintained sandy walking paths, safely connecting private accommodations with all shared facilities on-site.
- Beautiful herb gardens and flower beds guests can visit to connect deeper with their plants.
We are proud to affirm you can be confident of your safety and well-being at Caya Shobo, and in the certainty that you will be received with kindness, consideration and respect during your stay. If you have any questions about safety or other topics related to your retreat stay at Caya Shobo, please connect with us.
We are always happy to hear from you.
*Please note: Confirmation of your stay at Caya Shobo is conditional upon review of your medical situation, and may be subject to preliminary psychological evaluation, and/or written doctor’s approval. More serious healing cases may require a unique treatment and support plan or in some cases may not be able to be treated at Caya Shobo.
Rafael was born into a family of Ayahuasca Curanderos in the Shipibo village of Santa Rosa de Dinamarca, 5 hours journey by riverboat to the south of Pucallpa. Growing up immersed in the world of Ayahuasca, he observed his parents and the men and women of his extended family always working in healing ceremonies and guiding plant dietas. At the age of 18, his curiosity to learn more about this path inspired him to open his first plant dieta, and he has since been learning and dieting with different master plants over the past 15 years.
Meeting Walter you immediately recognize his natural warmth and humility as a person, as well as his impressive capability as an experienced Onánya Maestro healer. His beautiful, lower toned voice and variety of melodic Icaros can transport you to a place of peace and reconciliation with your life’s experiences and your healing path. Walter is always solid in the middle of the storm.
Maestra Maricela is a highly experienced Shipiba Onánya curandera and Raomi herbalist. Born in the Alto Ucayali river village of Roya, south of Pucallpa, her father Nicolas Vardales is a well known Shipibo medicine man with a strong famileal lineage of medicine knowledge. At age 13, in receiving treatment for some serious health issues of her own, Maricela began to learn about the healing properties of Amazonian medicine plants. She continued dieting with different master plants until she started working with Ayahuasca in her early 30’s.
Immersed in the medicine world her entire life, Maestra Lucinda is the eldest daughter of renowned Shipibo Onánya Maestro Pascual Mahua Ochavano, born in the Shipibo village of Paoyhan or ‘Water of the Pearls’ located on the banks of the beautiful Ucayali river, north of Pucallpa. When she was a tiny infant of 4 months old her father opened her first learning dieta to bring her the advanced knowledge of the Noya Rao “Tree of light” of her ancestors.
Orlando also belongs to the famous family Mahua. His great-grandfather Manuel Mahua was renowned as one of the most powerful Onánya shaman in the entire history of the Shipibo tribe. Manuel’s daughter Manuela, grandmother to Orlando, is also a well – known living Onánya Maestra. Manuela brought up Orlando from early childhood and opened his first medicine plant dieta at age 7. 
Fernando Levi, also born in the village of Paoyhan, is the grandson of Pascual Mahua, and, like his father, his grandfather and many generations before him, Fernando has inherited the Shipibo name “Sani Piko” which means “The Great Medicine Men.” This legacy of ancestral knowledge and the discipline Fernando has brought to developing its power within himself is clearly evident in his Icaros, in his medicine and also in his extensive knowledge of master plant dieta for healing and learning.
Francisco (or Pancho) has been working with the Shipibo medicine path since his early 40’s, and is now in his late 60s.
As a teenager, Pablo felt the call of the medicine, but without access to knowledgeable teachers in his own family or community, he pursued his own learning path with Ayahuasca in the way of the ancient Shipibo Maestro Onánya – by entering the jungle alone and following the call of the plants in isolation dieta.