30-Day Shipibo Plant Dieta in the Ecuadorian Amazon with Maestro Sina

Most of the month is spent in your own cabin. After the private opening ceremony, Sina starts you on piñon colorado for three days — it's a gentler cleansing plant he uses to prepare people who haven't done a dieta before. Once that's complete you move into the main dieta with your master plant, and the days become slow and repetitive on purpose: you eat the special diet food, you rest, you walk a little, and you keep track of your dreams, which in the Shipibo tradition are where a lot of the plant's work shows up.

What makes this different from a short ayahuasca stay is the isolation and the length. You're asked to keep silence and keep social contact to a minimum, so there's no group bonding, no excursions, no filling the time. The salt-free meals aren't a wellness menu — they're part of the dieta itself, and the restriction is what lets the plant 'speak'. Someone translates throughout, so the lack of a shared language with Sina isn't a barrier, and there's support on hand the whole time if the process gets difficult.

Sina himself is the reason to come. He's 75 and comes from the Shipibo lineage along the Ucayali, one of the Amazonian traditions best known for its icaros — the healing songs sung during ceremony. Over the month you sit in nine ceremonies with him: one private one held only for you, and eight group ones, with ayahuasca taken in up to four of them. The rest centre on receiving icaros.

The setting is genuinely remote. The reserve is 23 hectares of private rainforest against the boundary of Llanganates National Park, with the Piatúa River running clear and cold nearby. You reach it via Santa Clara in Pastaza, and the centre handles the transfer in and back out at the end. Beyond that you're deep in the jungle, which is exactly the point — the forest is part of the dieta, not a backdrop to it.

This is a demanding experience and the operator is upfront about that. Booking starts with an application and a health screening because the dieta isn't suitable for everyone, and the once-or-twice-a-year schedule keeps numbers small.

What's included

- 30-day accommodation in a separate private cabin - Full board with specially prepared salt-free dieta meals - Guidance from Maestro Sina throughout the process - 1 private ayahuasca ceremony held only for you - 8 additional group ceremonies with icaros (ayahuasca in up to 4) - Traditional opening and closing of the dieta - Assistance and translation support - Transport from Santa Clara, Pastaza to the centre and back

What's not included

- Return flight to Ecuador - Lunch at a restaurant during travel to and from the Amazon - Healing work arranged separately with the healer - Activities arranged separately beyond the listed program - Gifts or personal purchases - Private transport from Quito or the airport to the meeting point - Additional days or nights at the centre beyond the program - Additional ayahuasca ceremonies beyond the planned ones