Most retreats write terms to protect themselves from you. This one is written so you know exactly where you stand before you pay a cent: how the physician gate works, when a deposit is refunded and when it is not, the medical claims we do not make, what we ask of you on site, and the limits of what anyone can promise about a night with ayahuasca. Read it. Applying means you agree to it.
These terms are the agreement between you, the applicant or guest, and Ayahuasca Retreats Costa Rica, the retreat center on the Osa Peninsula. They take effect the moment you submit an application, and they govern everything from that first form through your stay and the integration period that follows.
We accept applications only from adults. By applying you confirm you are at least eighteen and are applying for yourself, not on behalf of someone else.
Submitting the thirty four question form is the moment these terms apply to you. Booking a place, and paying a deposit, confirms them a second time.
How we handle the sensitive information on your application is set out in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of this agreement.
The single most important term is the one other retreats leave out: your money does not buy a place. A licensed physician reviews every application and can decline it, and no charge is final until that review is complete. Here is the exact order it happens in.
A refundable deposit reserves a spot in a season while the physician reviews your file. It is a hold, not a purchase, and it does not guarantee acceptance.
If a contraindication makes ceremony unsafe for you, the answer is no. A decline comes with a written reason and, where we can, a referral. It is not a reflection on you; it is the one call we will not soften.
A confirmed place is what you are paying the balance for. If you are declined at step two, the deposit is refunded in full, as set out under cancellations and refunds.
Prices for each season are quoted in United States dollars and confirmed in writing before you pay. The fee is all-inclusive of the things a retreat controls, and honest about the things it does not.
A deposit, stated at the time of application, reserves your place. The balance is due before the date given in your confirmation. If a balance is not paid by that date, the place may be released and the deposit treated under the cancellation terms below.
A place, its food and its medicine are prepared for you in advance, so cancellations close to arrival cost us what we cannot recover. That is the honest reason behind these windows, and they apply the same way to everyone.
Full refund of the deposit within fourteen days. No screening or administration fee is withheld.
Deposit transfers to any season within eighteen months, or is refunded less a small processing fee.
Deposit is held as a transferable credit toward a future season. The balance, if paid, is refunded.
Deposit is non-refundable because your place was prepared. A documented medical emergency is always reviewed individually.
If we ever cancel a season for reasons on our side, you choose a full refund or a transfer to another date, whichever you prefer. We are not able to refund flights or other travel you booked separately, which is why travel insurance is a condition of coming.
This is the part most retreats blur, and the part we will not. The physician screening exists to keep you safe, not to promise you a result.
Ayahuasca, kambo and bufo are not treatments or cures for any medical or psychiatric condition, and we do not present them as such.
Nothing on this site or in our correspondence is medical, psychological or legal advice. Keep working with your own doctor.
No one can promise what a ceremony will bring. We prepare the conditions for it to be safe; we cannot guarantee an experience.
The physician review checks that ceremony will not harm you. It is a safety gate, not a diagnosis or a course of care.
Ayahuasca is a controlled substance in many countries and may not be brought into the United States or most other jurisdictions. What you do with the law where you live is your responsibility, and applying does not ask us to advise you on it.
Safety in ceremony is a shared job. In exchange for a place, you agree to these, and each one is here because it protects you and the people in the room with you.
The physician can only keep you safe with the truth. Concealing a condition or a medication is the one thing that can undo everything else in this agreement.
Follow the medication taper and dietary restrictions we send in advance. Some interactions with ayahuasca are dangerous, so this is a safety rule, not a preference.
The container holds because everyone in it agrees to. Follow the facilitators’ guidance during ceremony and treat other guests, and their privacy, with care.
No alcohol or recreational drugs on site. Mixing them with the medicine, or with the others’ process, is not something we can allow.
We would rather write this down than surprise you with it. In these situations we may end a stay without a refund, because each one puts you or someone else at real risk.
If a condition or medication you did not disclose comes to light and makes ceremony unsafe, we stop, for your safety before anything else.
Alcohol or recreational drugs before or during the retreat break the dieta and the safety of the medicine.
Violence, harassment, or ignoring the facilitators during ceremony threatens the whole group, and the group comes first.
Ending a stay is a last resort and never a punishment for a hard night, which is exactly what facilitators are there for. It is reserved for the situations above, and we will always tell you plainly which one applies.
Working with these medicines carries genuine physical and emotional risk, and no amount of screening removes it entirely. By coming, you accept that risk knowingly. In return, we accept the duty to run the retreat with the care and competence we describe across this site.
Physical purging, intense emotional states and psychological difficulty are part of the work, not a fault in it. You take part voluntarily, having read the medical disclaimer above.
Nothing here limits our responsibility for death or injury caused by our negligence, or for anything the law does not allow us to exclude. Where liability can be limited, it is limited to the fee you paid.
Holding valid travel and medical insurance for the duration of your stay is a condition of coming, and you confirm you have it before arrival.
This agreement is governed by the laws of Costa Rica, where the retreat operates, without affecting any consumer rights you hold at home that cannot be set aside.
Come to us first and most things are settled by a conversation. If they are not, disputes are handled in the courts of Costa Rica.
The words, design and photography on this site are ours or used with permission. Please do not reproduce them without asking.
We date every change and keep prior versions. The terms that apply to you are the ones in effect when you applied, unless a change is needed for safety or the law.
If any part of this agreement is found unenforceable, the rest stands. One weak clause does not undo the whole.
These terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between us, and they replace anything said informally before.
Your deposit is fully refunded. Nothing is charged until a physician has reviewed your application, and if the answer is no you are refunded in full within fourteen days, with a written reason and, where we can, a referral. We do not keep a screening or administration fee out of a declined deposit.
Cancel 60 days or more before arrival and your deposit transfers to any future season within eighteen months, or is refunded less a small processing fee. Between 60 and 30 days the deposit is held as a transferable credit. Inside 30 days the deposit is non-refundable because the place, the food and the medicine were prepared for you, but a documented medical emergency is always reviewed individually. Full detail is in the cancellations and refunds section.
No. Ayahuasca Retreats Costa Rica makes no medical, psychiatric or therapeutic claims of any kind. Ayahuasca, kambo and bufo are not treatments for any condition, nothing on this site is medical advice, and the physician screening exists for safety, not to promise an outcome. You should continue to work with your own doctor.
Yes, and this is stated up front rather than buried. If you concealed a contraindication on the application, arrive under the influence, break the dieta in a way that makes ceremony unsafe, or behave in a way that endangers another guest or the staff, we may end your stay without a refund. Safety is the one thing we will not trade.
If anything in this agreement is unclear, or you want to check how a term applies to your situation, write to us before you apply. A person will answer, and we would rather explain it now than have you agree to something you did not read.
When these terms change we update the date at the top and keep the previous version on file. The terms that govern your stay are the ones in effect on the day you applied, unless a change is required for safety or by law, and we will tell anyone with an active application or booking before a material change takes effect.