We are a small resident team on the Osa Peninsula and four Shipibo maestros who fly in from Ucayali. We chose Costa Rica for one reason: it removes the part of this work that breaks people before the medicine ever does, the journey. Everything else is held to the standard we would want for our own family.
The short answer: after years of running houses in Peru, the pattern was impossible to ignore. Guests handled ceremony. What they did not handle was thirty hours door to door, a missed connection in Lima, 11,000 feet of altitude, and a stomach that turned on day two. Four problems, all of them logistical, all of them solved by moving the house three hours from Miami.
Three hours from Miami, four from Houston, five and a half from Los Angeles, all direct. We collect you at the airport and you are on a mat the following night rather than the fourth.
No altitude to acclimatise to, tap water you can drink, no vaccination schedule starting six weeks out, and a dieta kitchen buying produce grown within twenty miles.
Twenty five minutes to the clinic at Puerto Jiménez, a licensed air ambulance fifteen minutes away, two hours by road to San José. Your insurer will already recognise the receiving hospital.
The trade we will not spin: the Osa is not the tradition’s homeland. No Costa Rican ayahuasca lineage exists, and any center implying one is selling you scenery. What we can promise is that the people who carry the tradition are here by invitation, named, credited and paid properly — and that if Peru is the better answer for you, we will book you there instead.
Twelve guests a week is not a business model, it is a staffing ratio. This is everyone you will be in a room with, and what each of them is responsible for.
Licensed in Costa Rica, reads all thirty four answers on every application before a place is offered, runs your intake on day one, and stays awake on site until first light on every ceremony night. Oxygen, a defibrillator and benzodiazepines are within reach of the maloca.
Calls you before you book a flight, sits the long first conversation on day one, and holds twelve months of calls afterwards. The same person, start to finish — integration is included in the price and has never been an upsell here.
A nutritionist on site who cooks tyramine-free without making it feel like punishment, buying from farms within twenty miles. She writes the three-week grocery list you get before you fly, laid out for US supermarkets, day by day.
Facilitators are in the maloca every ceremony and awake between them; one of them sits beside you for Bufo, if both leads clear you. The house manager handles transfers, rooms and the things that should never reach your attention.
Four maestros from the Paoyhan and Nueva Betania communities fly to the Osa for the weeks they hold. Two are in the maloca every ceremony — one for every three guests — singing icaros and moving mat to mat for five to six hours. They adjust what they sing per person by the second night, which is the single clearest argument against one-off ceremonies.
A full ceremony fee plus travel from Ucayali. Not a stipend, not a share of a bundle.
Named and credited by name and community, with years in practice. Never “our shaman”.
Photographed only with permission. We do not reproduce Shipibo textile patterns as decoration.
Names, communities and portraits are published on the ceremony page with each maestro’s consent, and reconfirmed each season rather than left standing.
Costa Rica attracts people who want this to be simple, and simple is exactly where centers get careless. Here is what we do about that, in the order it happens to you.
A licensed physician reads every answer. Screening takes about two weeks and cannot be rushed for a date.
No deposit until a physician confirms a place. Then 30% to hold, balance 30 days out, plans over three or six months.
Roughly one in five applications does not proceed. You get the reason in writing and a referral list, not a marketing sequence.
Hospitality and food handling permits and professional liability cover, sent before you pay anything. Ask any center for the same and note whether they answer.
We make no medical claims. Ayahuasca is not a treatment for any condition, and it may not be brought into the United States. Participants report lasting change; we cite the peer reviewed research with its limitations rather than around them. Nothing on this page is medical advice and no list here is exhaustive. Send your file and let the physician decide.
A full stop, regardless of anything else: MAOI medication, diagnosed schizophrenia or bipolar I, uncontrolled hypertension or a cardiac event within twelve months, epilepsy, severe liver disease, or pregnancy. Read the full screening list before you apply.
No spa, no excursion, no beach day, no cocktail hour. The Osa is spectacular and you will barely see it. Come back afterwards as a tourist; that week will be better than this one.
No such tradition exists here. Our maestros are Shipibo, from Ucayali in Peru, and they fly in for the weeks they hold. We would rather lose the booking than imply otherwise.
We will say so on the call if you are hoping for one. Guests who arrive expecting a fix tend to leave disappointed, and sometimes worse than they came.
Screening takes about two weeks and the dieta takes three more. If you want to sit in four weeks, we are the wrong center and we will tell you in the first email.
We run houses in Costa Rica and Peru, which is why the comparison we give on the phone is not a sales pitch. Choose the Osa if you have limited leave, a body that hates altitude, or this is your first time. Choose Peru if lineage in its own territory matters more to you than the journey.
A resident team of six on the Osa: a licensed physician who reads every application and stays on site all seven nights, an integration lead who calls you before you fly and for twelve months after, a nutritionist running the dieta kitchen, two facilitators, and a house manager. Ceremony is held by four Shipibo maestros from Ucayali, Peru, who fly in for the weeks they hold.
Because most of what goes wrong for North American guests goes wrong in transit, not in ceremony. The Osa is three hours direct from Miami, at sea level, with drinkable water, no required vaccinations, dollars accepted, and private hospitals built around visiting patients. Costa Rica is not the tradition’s homeland, and we say so — we also run houses in Peru and will book you there if that is the better answer.
Each maestro is paid a full ceremony fee plus travel from Ucayali, is named and credited on the site with community and years in practice, and is photographed only with permission. We do not reproduce Shipibo textile patterns as decoration anywhere in our branding.
Roughly one in five. The application runs to thirty four questions, a licensed physician reads every one, screening takes about two weeks, and declined applicants receive the reason in writing plus a referral list. Nothing is charged before a physician confirms a place.
Ayahuasca is not a scheduled substance here and its ceremonial use is not prohibited, which is why established centers operate openly under ordinary hospitality and health permits. Be clear about what that means: a permissive position rather than an explicit protection, unlike Peru where ayahuasca has been recognised as national cultural heritage since 2008. We hold hospitality and food handling permits, carry professional liability cover, and send copies before you pay anything.
A physician is on site every night, awake until first light, with oxygen, a defibrillator and benzodiazepines on hand. The public clinic at Puerto Jiménez is twenty five minutes away, a licensed air ambulance is fifteen minutes away at the airstrip, and a private hospital in San José your insurer will recognise is about two hours by road. The evacuation protocol is rehearsed monthly.
More on the week itself, the price and the full screening lists on the home page, or ask us directly on the contact page.
A physician reads every application. Your integration lead calls you. We either offer a place on a named week on the Osa, suggest one of our Peru houses instead, or explain plainly why we cannot proceed. There is no follow up you did not ask for.