Ayahuasca Retreat Reviews — Helping You Stay Safe with 5,000+ Independent Reviews
Our Program
At Arkana, we create the space for you to get in touch with your truth, opening your path for deeper meaning and greater fulfillment in your life. We work with ancestral medicines such as Ayahuasca, San Pedro, Bufo Alvarius, Rapé , using the traditional practices of the indigenous cultures of the Peruvian Amazon. We currently operate two centers in Peru, one in the Peruvian Amazon and a second one in the Sacred Valley (close to Machu Picchu), and one in Mexico, the choice is yours.
With great respect for the plants and the knowledge and healing that comes with them, our lineage of Shipibo shamans set the stage for truly deep and profound healing. Awaken your inner power through their sacred and powerful icaros (healing songs), and discover your connection to all things by exploring some of the 2.2 million hectare Pacaya Samiria National Reserve which is our backyard. Nourish your body and soul with fresh, clean, delicious meals that promote your Ayahuasca experience, and integrate healthy habits into your routine with our yoga classes and extensive selection of gym equipment for all levels. We believe the health of physical body sets the foundation for the health of the energetic body – Often ignored in this type of spiritual work, we find this to be an important part of the healing process, so you can begin implementing the healthy habits that will carry this work with you into your life back home. Finally, relax your mind and spirit with sound baths, meditations, breathwave sessions, and OM circles, or simply enjoy the tranquil views of both sunrise and sunset from our front porch on the banks of the Ucayali River, surrounded by lush biodiversity and the mesmerizing sounds of the jungle.
Arkana’s exceptional team of highly-trained Shipibo Master Shamans represent an unbroken lineage of plant medicine work. With a combined history of over 70 years of experience working closely with Ayahuasca and other master plant teachers of the jungle, our compassionate healers lovingly share their teachings, healing songs (icaros), capabilities, and knowledge with integrity and honor. We strive to maintain the traditional practices passed down through thousands of years of indigenous Amazonian culture, in order to continue to promote the true purpose and nature of plant medicine work.
Experiencing the medicines with us is a transformative personal journey, and so much more. We also work closely with our local community, the Amazonian village of Libertad, to ensure that our Center can benefit and give back to the people who have so generously let us into their homes and hearts. We create employment opportunities, teach free English classes, provide a space for the ladies to sell their handmade crafts, and assist in construction projects, among other things. Our latest endeavor is outfitting the entire village with free solar panels, so every house can have light and electricity. When you join us, you are helping the rainforest and the Amazon communities that live here.
Guests that come to our Center often say they feel like “part of the family” with us – that’s no coincidence, as we are one big family at Arkana! The people that are with you throughout your experience can simply facilitate your own healing journey or become an integral part of it. Our experienced, loving, and professional team of caregivers welcomes you to join our tribe, where we strive to make you feel at home and at ease, supported and cared for with all the love and compassion that is at the core of the plant medicines and people we work with.
Ayahuasca is a powerful medicine that offers us the opportunity to understand our true nature, by shining a light onto our darkness, and holding a mirror up to our fears, negative thought patterns, and self-limiting beliefs. We provide the environment and expertise of a team of highly skilled, warm, compassionate Shamans and facilitators to guide you through the process of awakening, of choosing differently, healing, and expanding. It is a slow but steady path towards freedom – from fear, from illusion, from self-constructed boundaries – resulting in a lighter, brighter, more authentic self, and the full experience of love. It is our honor to help you on this most fulfilling of all journeys: the journey back home.
We look forward to having you with us!
Lots of Love,
The Team
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sambam
May 23, 2014 at 12:00 amI recently joined Pulse Tours for the 11 day Amazon excursion in March. It was by far one of the most amazing and exciting adventures I have ever experienced. I got the chance to see the bustling cities of Bogota and Iquitos, and boat down the Amazon river to a jungle lodge where we got to see and learn about the countless species of plants and animals in the Amazon Rainforest with the most amazing jungle guide Victor!! I also got the chance to participate in three ayahuasca ceremonies which gave me further clarity and joy for life and my current path. We had time to reflect and journal our experiences as well.
Dan is an incredible leader and gave us all the opportunity of a lifetime with Pulse Tours. He has an extensive amount of knowledge relating to South America and the traditions in the different areas we visited. The planning and organization of the entire trip could not have been better. I came home with a wealth of new knowledge and memories.
Overall, I am so grateful for Pulse Tours, and look forward to traveling with them again in the future!!
simonchan
May 8, 2014 at 12:00 amMy recent 11 day excursion with Pulse Tours was incredible.
Dan really has an awesome thing going down there!
For anyone looking for a unique, authentic, hands on experience in South America – Pulse Tours is the way to go.
Adventures ranging from touring the Mines del Sel deep underground in Columbia, to hanging out with monkeys, sloths, snakes and more in Peru, to taking part in the mind blowing Shipibo ceremony of Ayahuasca, this trip definitely was one for the books – I’ll never forget it and I’m incredibly thankful I got to experience it all.
The trip ran very smooth considering the amount and range of activities and locations we got to visit. There is no way I could have set this up myself, and having a guide who is fluent in Spanish – and a natural leader – really helped the trip to to run so smoothly.
Thank you Dan for such an awesome experience!
I’m sure I’ll be back 🙂
digigeo
May 2, 2014 at 12:00 amMy first trip to the amazon was with Pulse Tours – I would of been lost with out them and so so thankful my inner gut told me to tour the amazon and meet mother AYA with Pulse. Rest assured you are in good hands. Daniel and Tatyana are a caring and loving team. AND A WHOLE BUNCH OF FUN!!! I’m keeping this brief, just wanted to bump in with my 5 stars!
mikedamike
April 29, 2014 at 12:00 amI joined Pulse Adventure Tours on the June Solstice Journey in 2013. I had a mind-shattering, life-changing experience that spanned multiple countries, many cities, numerous attractions and an intimate look into South-American culture.
It comes as no surprise that the ceo and one of the tour leaders Dan has an extensive background organizing hundreds of tours into South America through his work at a established and renowned adventure tour company. It is through these many voyages that Dan has discovered Ayahuasca and got the honor to test-drive dozens of spiritual centers and work with many different shamans across the Americas.
Now, putting this experience into use in his own tour company ‘Pulse Tours’, Dan combines his wisdom with the best ayahuasca locations in the world, surrounded by nature and the setting where the ayahuasca plants live, fuelled by his glorious and generous love for life.
In fact, the journey wonderfully blends the exploration of culture, through numerous trips to cities and villages and interactions with the local people and an exploration of the fauna and flora and ample of time in the jungle and the Amazon with highlights being swimming with pink dolphins in the middle of the Amazon river, piranha fishing and making friends with the monkeys in the Sacred Monkey Tree (one nearly took our flashlight :D)
I now understand that these days also serve as a sort of preparation as you grow closer and closer to the group of like-minded strangers that become your family and your tribe, that share your experience in this undiscovered, raw and pure part of the world. The people of Pulse Tours understand the value of setting and preparation and the discovery of nature, people and the way of life in the Amazon, together with the sense of camaraderie and support from your fellow travellers / tribesmen prepares you for the voyage within that follows. Dan is always ready to inform and prepare people mentally (and physically through the dieta) for the spiritual connection that awaits with Mama Ayahuasca.
This voyage culminated in a clearing deep in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, in a setting that feels like a small village, but in fact is a high-end spiritual center. High-end in the terms that you have guards and (American trained) medical staff on hand, a generator for power, running water and even a wi-fi connection for a couple of hours a day, as to be connected with your loved ones during your journey, This brings a feeling of comfort, safety and confidence that you can have a deeply personal journey with Ayahuasca, and that everything is taken care of; all that’s left is to open yourself up and fully receive the experience.
As for my experience with the brew, it was a highly meaningful, cathartic and deeply self-introspective experience that connected me to the beauty and infinite nature of life and left me with a deep awareness that we are all part of an immortal life force that spans the reach of the Universe both in space and in time.
But every journey is different and unique. I felt I was confronted with this life force and it gave me the hard truth, both in my positives as in my negatives and I walked away from it reborn, glowing and spiritually enlightened. It felt like I gained multiple years in experience and now have grown to understand Dan’s life passion, as he just wants to share the beauty of life’s magic with people who have heard the call: You.
Pulse Tours is a labour of love, years of experience and the best life energy Dan has to offer. It is his life’s passion and it was my honour to see my life have grown more meaningful, honest and loving. Thank you, Pulse Tours, just writing this has given me the shivers and makes me want to re-visit this wonder that we all are part of.
tl;dr Highly recommended as it is like receiving a decade of life experience and wisdom over a couple of intense night, with the right preparation and setting. It will leave you humbled, in awe, in love and connected with the life force we are all a part of. If you have ever heard the call, even if it is very faintly, joining Pulse Tours is an honor and a privilege that you deserve as it connects you to the mystery and beauty of Life / God / the Universe / Everything itself.
pursuingmyself
April 15, 2014 at 12:00 amThey say you can only trust a review when you know the source, so first a bit of my own background: I?m a 23 y/o female, I generally consider myself an atheist, though if I had to pick a religion I most closely identify with it would be Buddhism. I attended an ivy league university studying Bioengineering, and finished with my Master?s. I?m a scientist through and through. The study of spirituality piqued my interest while I was in college, mainly because of the sheer diversity of people and cultures I encountered. There were so many questions posed by so many people. So with a goal to keep an open mind, I ventured into the world of hallucinogens. In reality I wanted to better understand myself and the world, beyond the logical and into something much more subjective. And while up until then I had ventured into cannabis pretty exclusively, I discovered a whole new side of my mind when trying hallucinogens. I got into lucid dreaming, I marveled at myself and the human experience, I felt connected to things and people like I never had before. I pursued mindfulness meditation and yoga. It colored my world. It fascinated and intrigued me and I wanted to know more.
I’m also a Redditor. For those of you who aren’t familiar, check it out. You’re welcome. I subscribe to the Psychonaut forum – some things can be hit or miss but generally speaking they have interesting perspectives and articles on all things cerebral. This is relevant because that’s where I first heard about Pulse Tours. Dan Cleland posted about his experiences leading people on an adventure tour of the Amazon jungle, culminating in a few days at a spiritual center and participating in Ayahuasca ceremonies. Dan was well-spoken, knowledgeable of the people and the area, had experience with the medicine before, and took the time to thoroughly answer even the most skeptical questions. I was immediately interested, as I was graduating just before the trip he was planning and I thought this would be an exceptional way to transition to the next big phase of my life. I contacted him immediately and wanted to bring my significant other along. Dan and I talked back and forth, I got a good vibe and did some due diligence. Everything I found about him I could tell he was interested in people and cultures, and that he had experience traveling throughout South America. My family (and even my ultra-skeptical SO) thought I was crazy for venturing into the unknown with someone(s) I had essentially met through the internet. Maybe I was crazy, probably a little naive, but somehow I knew he was genuine. I was sure of it and I decided, fuck it, I’m going to trust my gut. It was risky, but I did.
It was fucking awesome. No, seriously, it was beautiful and scary and bug-filled and sweaty and rain-soaked and dirty and I have never felt more alive. I breathed more deeply, spent more energy, slept more soundly and fell in love with the jungle, with my trip mates, with my SO, with the Earth, with life. I have never seen stars so beautiful or trees in such numbers. In short, if you’re looking at this site: Go, get the message Ayahuasca can bring you, and do something about it.
Now, in terms of actually reviewing this particular company:
I had only been out of the country once before, a rather inexperienced traveler, and that was perfectly ok. Dan, the founder and at the time the sole trip leader, took care of everything, literally everything. He had the logistics down, the transportation down, he spoke Spanish fluently and was one of the most genuine people I have ever met. I could tell he cared and wanted us to experience everything we could. He arranged some amazing adventures: we caught and released cayman; we fished for piranha (I caught 4); we took a jungle tour (where one of our boat’s motors fell into the water – truly a real Amazon adventure there. Kudos to our Peruvian guides for improvising a solution) where our local guide, Victor (also an amazing man who is continuing business with Pulse Tours – ask him for folklore stories about the jungle, they are fascinating) showed us the diversity and functionality of the Amazon’s myriad flora and fauna; we fed bananas to monkeys; we held a sloth!; we swam with the pink river dolphins; we toured the markets and I ate grubs for the first time; and all of this before we even went to the spiritual center. Dan did his research and took us to a spiritual center that was not only legitimate but had clean accommodations, was involved in and respectful of the surrounding area, and where the Ayahuasca contained only the two main ingredients, b. caapi and I believe chacruna in this case. The ceremonies were led by two shamans who sang beautifully, in a sacred Moloka hut. Everyone sits in a large circle, and gets their own mattress, pillows, sheets, and buckets. It’s kept clean and the grounds are beautiful. During the ceremonies there are respectful guards outside to help you get to the bathroom if needed and just make sure you’re not wandering off into the jungle. It’s a safe place and it facilitated an unforgettable experience. Pulse Tours gave the group the freedom to experience the jungle, the people, each other, and themselves and I highly recommend this company. Dan and Tatyana are hardworking people who want to spend their lives spreading the word about not only Ayahuasca, but the sacredness, beauty, and fragility of the Amazon. Victor grew up in the Amazon and wants nothing more than to protect it, to show people its wonders so they can appreciate and cherish it. They are genuinely good people who put their hearts and minds into Pulse Tours and they deserve as much business as they can handle.
My favorite part of this company is that they wanted us to experience the jungle first, which I think is what separates this from most other Aya trips – it’s so, so important to understand, or at least glimpse, the nature and culture of the Amazon, the people and animals that inhabit this beautiful, scary, fascinating, fragile world. Dan and Tatyana and Victor all get that. They facilitated a journey that was well thought out, well executed, and truly a memory I will cherish for the rest of my life.