*Please note, while we will always do our best to accommodate guests at short notice, we recommend booking as far in advance as possible in order to avoid disappointment.

We can accommodate around 20 guests at our center at any given time. Often there are fewer than this.

We can pick you up from the airport, if you arrive before 4pm.  If you arrive after 4pm, please arrange to stay in Iquitos overnight. Tell us where you are staying, and we will come to pick you up from your hotel the following day. We are a 15-minute motokar (tuk-tuk) ride and 20-minute boat journey from the airport, 10 minutes less from the center of Iquitos. Transport costs to Amaru Spirit are not included in the cost of your retreat, so please have some change or small notes ready for the journey.

We hold 3 - 4 ceremonies a week. Our ceremonies are usually small and intimate, and unlikely to ever exceed 10 guests at any given time. This ensures each person receives individual attention from our shaman.

We need a 50% deposit to confirm your booking. Please note that your booking is not confirmed until you have paid the deposit. Please pay the balance in cash (US dollars) on the day you arrive, or by PayPal before you arrive. Internet access at Amaru Spirit is not good enough to access PayPal, so if you are not planning to pay in cash when you arrive please pay via PayPal before you travel.

We work with hundreds of different plants and believe that plant diets are an invaluable means of healing for many people. Whether we recommend a plant diet for you will depend on your personal situation, energetic readings by our shamans and the amount of time you have. Plant diets can be very powerful in strengthening and cleansing the body, grounding, and harmonising 'negative' energies. For some people it is best to do a plant diet before embarking on more intensive work; others will benefit more from doing a plant diet and doing ceremonies concurrently. 

The more you do to prepare your mind and body for your retreat, the more likely you are to get maximum benefit from the time you have with us. 'Depression Free for Life' by Gabriel Cousins outlines the nutritional way to stay cleansed. We also recommend any book that can help increase your awareness of your unhelpful patterns, thoughts, behaviours and beliefs, such as Loving What Is by Byron Katie, and The Dark Side of the Light Chasers by Debbie Ford.

Yes. We will take your laundry into town for you to be washed, or wash it on site. We normally get it back to you within two days. There is a small charge for this service.

You may be able to get emails on your phone while you are here. Having said that, we would encourage you to use this time to focus on your healing and to stay away from emails if at all possible (as well as texting). If you need to do anything else on the internet you will need to go into Iquitos. 

We provide soap, which is handmade from natural ingredients. If you do bring your own cleansing products, please make sure that they are natural products that do not contain sodium lauryl sulfate. Our gray water is filtered and released into the earth, and we do not want to risk contamination. Please bring them with you, as natural products are not readily available in Iquitos.

Please bring clothes that are appropriate for a hot, humid environment. Many people find the following things are useful:

• Natural shampoo, conditioner, mosquito repellent, sunscreen. Tiger balm can be very soothing for insect bites
• Long-sleeved tops and a couple of pairs of long trousers
• A torch (flashlight), ideally with a red light, for ceremonies
• A headlamp for reading
• Spare batteries
• Travel adaptor for electronic equipment (e.g. phone charger)
• Shoes or sandals that are easy to slip on and off
• Socks 
• Swimsuit/bikini
• Light raincoat
• Plastic bags for protecting clothes/possessions from humidity

 We have towels, bed sheets, and blankets. We also have rubber boots for walking in muddy conditions.

We are currently only accepting bank transfers or cash payments or paypal (Click Here). Please contact us for our banking information.

Our retreats are flexible. You can stay for as little time as you like (we do recommend a minimum of 10 nights but we can be flexible with this if you cannot make it for that amount of time) or you can stay for as long as you like. The longer you can stay, the better the results you are likely to see, but it's sometimes possible to do a lot of work in a relatively short space of time.

We work regularly with two excellent practitioners who visit us from Iquitos. Nick, a coca shaman originally from the UK, works with coca leaves and the Native American medicine wheel. He can remove unhelpful energetic attachments, ask the spirit of coca (a master plant) for information about issues that may be troubling you, and carry out soul release and soul retrievals. Appointments normally last from 2 to 4 hours and cost 300 soles. María Luisa is a traditional huesera (bone setter) who can help correct problems of posture, alignment and muscle tension. Her work could most closely be likened to osteopathy in the Western tradition, but it goes much deeper. Appointments last an hour and cost 100 soles. Both Nick and María Luisa regularly get rave reviews from clients! We can make appointments for you. 

During the day we have electricity (generated by solar panels) in the big house, where we eat meals and have our lounge area. You can charge your phone, iPod, etc here. There is no electricity in any of the accommodation – when it gets dark at around 6pm we enjoy gentle candlelight.

There is cell phone reception, but you might not get a good signal using your own phone in Peru. It will also be expensive! You can buy a local phone with prepaid minutes in Iquitos for less than $50.

You may, but remember that this is your retreat time. It's an ideal chance – possibly the only chance you'll have for a long time – to disconnect from the electronic maelstrom that is life in the Western world. If you use your laptop a lot, you risk being distracted from your healing, from your opening, from your heart. If you use your laptop for journaling, we ask you to buy a paper journal and a pen instead. Explore the difference of writing using only these basic tools. You may find it matches the slower pace of retreat time quite well! 

Yes. We have patrol guards on the land whom we trust. They have kept our belongings safe to date.