Sama Niwe Retreats
We offer trauma-informed, responsibly held retreat experiences rooted in the traditional and authentic Shipibo lineage of the Peruvian Amazon. Our retreats are guided with care, integrity, and deep respect for the medicines, the ancient wisdom of the Shipibo lineage and the people who feel the calling to come to receive healing and start relationships with these sacred plants beings.
Set within the living intelligence of the Amazon jungle, our immersions invite profound self-healing and self-discovery. Through the Maestra’s incredible skill in ceremonies, classes and workshops, guided facilitation and deep connection with the plant teachers, participants are supported in empowering themselves and reconnecting back to their hearts, back to their inner wisdom, intuition, spiritual depths and innate true nature.
Welcome to Sama Niwe
In the Shipibo language Sama (Dieta) and Niwe (Wind) translates to the winds of the dietas. The spiritual living intelligent life force of the relationships we create with the Master/Teacher plant beings during dieta.
“Sama” is a shamanic dieta and apprenticeship of the ancestral spirit medicine tradition of the Amazonian Indigenous Shipibo culture. “Sama” is the practice of cultivating relationships with the spirits of plants, creating a thread of connection through which you receive their teachings and transmissions. Within Shipibo cosmology, the world is animistic and they recognize nature as a sentient, multi-dimensional and living intelligence that is capable of being in relationship. The ancient practice of committing to “Sama” is a deep traverse across the threshold into the inner and outer wilderness, where we retreat into a sacred container of spaciousness, silence and solitude, which honors the conditions to begin forming a relationship with the intelligence and consciousness of these ascended plants spirit beings.
“Sama” is a deep immersion into one’s solo pilgrimage, of deep self-exploration and self-inquiry, praying to the mysterious, wild forces of nature, for teachings, connections, visions and songs that can then be carried back to the “community” for healing, divination, direction and for imbibing deeper meaning and depth into your life. It is a portal for moving from the ego to the heart, for deep self-reflection, emotional and spiritual maturation, the opportunity to cleanse the doors of perception, revitalize our spirits, deepen our embodied presence and memory more fully the feeling sense. It is a portal to unconditional constructs of the mind and deep seated patterns, empowering our heart and intuitive capabilities, so that we can retrace our footsteps back towards remembering our truth and soul essence. It is a practice that opens the doors to a direct experience of a living and sentient world, to touch the mystic mystery of this grand web of connection in which we are embedded.
MAESTRA DONA ANGELA
(Kene Bensho) carries and honours the ancient wisdom that has been guarded and passed down as a beautiful gift from her Shipibo grandparents and lineage of ancestors. She recognizes her duty and divine purpose as a curandera, shamanic healer, teacher, wisdom keeper, guardian and advocate of the plant spirit medicines of the Amazonian jungle.
She embodies the spirit of the divine, nurturing mother, who gives her full heart into connecting intimately with each patient and student. She humbly walks the path, with great integrity, giving her compassion and loving care generously. At the heart of the Lopez family tradition is the spirit of the Tree of Light, Noya Rao. It is the central root of the tradition. It is the energy of Noya Rao that permeates the work done by the Lopez family. The spirit of Noya Rao is considered to be an enlightened being, with a consciousness that radiates peace, joy and compassion.
In support of Noya Rao are four powerful master plant spirits: Bobinsana, Chullachaqui, Chiric Sanango & Marusa. Each one holding its own unique powers, frequencies & teachings. She guides traditional Shipibo style dietas, connecting with mystical trees and plants of the Amazonian jungle. She will be offering classes on Icaros, the Shipibo language and the philosophies of Amazonian shamanism.
Maestra Angela has 22 years working as a curandera. She worked at the Temple of the Way of Light before moving to Riosbo Center of the Ayahuasca Foundation to become the curandera at the Riosbo Retreats. In between her schedule at Riosbo, she offers private retreats at her center called Metsa Kabi in the jungle region of Iquitos, Peru, which means home/space of beauty and harmony. Her center has two old and big Noya Rao trees on the property, making it a very rare and unique space to connect deeper to the tree itself and the other plants within the family.
website: metsakabi.com
facilitators
INI BIRI
Ini Biri has been a student of Amazonian Curanderismo since 2021, primarily within the Shipibo tradition and has also studied with the Yawanawa people of Brazil.
She is a licensed psychotherapist and has been in private practice since 2017. In her clinical work as a cognitive behavioural therapist, Ini integrates trauma-focused modalities including EMDR, schema therapy, emotional regulation skills training, mindfulness meditation and guided imagery.
She also offers ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, integration support and group therapy. During her academic training, Ini spent several years working in neuroscience research. Today, her interests are increasingly drawn toward the study of plant medicines and the healing potential of altered states of awareness, bridging contemporary therapeutic frameworks with ancestral knowledge systems.
CASSANDRITA SANKEN YABI
Raised in South Africa, Cassandra has been a student, exploring Shipibo curanderismo for almost 6 years. Before being initiated into the Shipibo lineage through her first Noya Rao dieta, she spent years exploring the Huni Kuin tradition, which led her towards her deep dive, when she travelled to Acre State, Brazil to be with the Huni Kuin tribe, spending 3 months immersed in their communities, apprenticing and dieting in their tradition.
Having dieted with the Lopez family, Enrique, Rono and Angela, she has worked as a facilitator alongside Doña Angela and Don Rono at Riosbo Center, Ayahuasca Foundation for 2 years. She is now self-organizing and facilitating retreats in collaboration with other facilitators, guided by the Maesteros themselves, in Europe and Peru. She offers coaching and psychedelic integration therapy. She is qualified as a 200hr Tantra Yoga teacher, transformational breathwork facilitator and currently studying Gabor Maté’s Compassionate Inquiry, Alethéa’s Advanced Coaching Program and the Effortless Mindfulness and Internal Family Systems course.
She is an artist and illustrator, also holding containers for art therapy. She is passionate about music and loves to hold song circles, sound journeys and voice activation and medicine circles.
Instagram: cassandrita_sanken_yabi
Website: intothecosmicwonder.com
the teacher plants
noya rao
Otherwise known as Palo Volador (the flying tree), is a very mystical, unique and enchanted spirit of which only a few are known to exist. Maestra Angela has been blessed with a few Noya Rao trees on his property. Also known as the Tree of Light, whose leaves glow in the dark, enhances the intuitive perception and who guides the dietero through profound transformation on their path of self- discovery, self-illumination and authentic purpose. The mythical Noya Rao has been used by the Mahua lineage for centuries and is renowned for being an essential teacher in the path of becoming a healer.
CHULLACHAQUI CASPI
Is named after the legend of the mythical trickster dwarf spirit, who has an extraordinary appearance of sturdy roots growing out of its trunk raised above the ground. He is a powerful warrior tree and guardian spirit, who defends all the other trees and plants of the jungle. He is known for grounding the dietero, calming the scattered mind, giving inner strength, protection, strong boundaries and self assertiveness.
MARUSA
Is a small delicate unassuming spindly plant with white flowers, and she is known for her potent teachings and guidance on the path of becoming a healer or curandera. She is a very sensitive plant and requires extra caution in post dieta. Known for activating the nervous system, releasing blockages, trauma and grief, neutralizing masculine and feminine imbalances and healing issues related to female reproductive system.
BOBINSANA
Mesmerizing, magical beautiful brush-like pink flowery bush, who enhances lucid dreaming, amplifies visions, opens the heart, releasing traumas and emotions, whilst teaching compassion and self love. She is also a potent medicine for purifying the blood, alleviating rheumatism, treating disorders of the uterus, and used as a powerful contraceptive. Those trying to fall pregnant should avoid her.
CHIRIC SANANGO
Is a purple, violet and white flowered shrub, also known as “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”. “Chiric” refers to tingling in Quechua. As ingesting the concoction can activate the blood circulation and nervous system giving a tingling sensation. He is a powerful medicine for rheumatism, arthritis, inflammation, flus and colds. He teaches the student lessons of willpower, self dignity, courage and self esteem, mental clarity, bravery and belief in oneself. Chiric Sanango is a very sensitive plant and requires a strict post dieta avoiding certain contra-indicatory foods.
teacher PLANT DIETA
WHAT IS A teacher plant dieta?
Ingestion of dieta plant extract, being in periods of silence and isolation in your private jungle huts, plant baths, Icaros and Shipibo curanderismo classes, Ayahuasca ceremonies, dieta alimentation of no salt, no oil, no sugar or fruits etc, dry fasting and water fasting. We will inform you of your post diet instructions. Pork is prohibited for life after dieta. We will initiate the process with “treatment” of 3 days, prior to starting dieta. Dieta will be just over 2 weeks.
Dieting requires deep dedication, an assertive mindset and the passion to learn and empower yourself beyond your physical and mental limits. As practiced in traditional and ancient style of dieta, you will be in isolation and silence in a private tambo (jungle hut) abstaining from all contact with the outside world, from talking unnecessarily, from sex/masturbation, from foods with salt, sugar, fruits and oils.
It is required to dry fast for the first 48 hours, from once your dieta has been opened.
Thereafter, you continue fasting with water for as long as you can. Long term dietas require dry or water fasting every other day or during the time period when you are drinking the teacher plant medicine.
The fasting allows the body to absorb the spirit of the plant to ensure a strong connection. The spirits of the teacher plants and trees approach and converse with the dietero in silence, they share their gifts and teachings in the dream realm, in deep meditations and in the ceremonies of Ayahuasca.
You will be required to drink the extract of the teacher plant for 3 days on, 3 days off and so forth continued throughout the dieta. You will also be required to smoke mapacho (sacred tobacco) in a pipe made of Noya Rao, Chullachaqui or Bobinsana wood depending on what you’re dieting. (Pipes will be for sale from Metsa Kabi Center.)
The pipe becomes your ally, protective tool and aid to connect to your dieta plant. Every third day is a ceremony of Ayahuasca, the opportunity to connect deeper to your teacher plant and to practice singing Icaros in ceremony under the mareación of Ayahuasca.
WHAT IS A TREATMENT?
Patients wanting deep physical, emotional, spiritual cleansing and healing, have the option to do treatment as a group. We will do certain treatments before dieta, to cleanse the body of any obstructions that may prevent deep connection to the teacher plants.
Patients who would like to continue with treatments, purification and healing with the endless variety of potent medicinal plants that the Amazonian jungle offers, can choose the option of treatment whilst dieting. Treatments include a range of powerful medicinal plants, guided by the spirits of the plants themselves and specifically prepared depending on the illness and disease of the patients, whether it be emotional, physical or spiritual.
The first 3 days of “treatment” will consist of certain treatments, purgatives and saunas. These saunas release dense energies, addressing traumas, stress, anxieties. Specific plants, known by Shipibo maestros, are used for their effectiveness in the healing process.
PLANT PURGATIVE
Sangre de Grado induces vomiting, cleansing the body and stomach internally. Purgatives are often given at the outset of a treatment process to cleanse the body in preparation for receiving dieta and other medicines.
PLANT baths
Dieters receive different plant baths for cleansing, protection and inner illumination, amplifying their connection with their plant they are dieting. Plant baths are another keystone modality for most curanderos. Plant baths and flower baths are generally used to treat conditions that are more energetic and spiritual in nature. In some cases, plant baths are done every day or every other day. They also cleanse on energetic, emotional and psychic levels and can lead to profound shifts in health and consciousness all on their own.
EMBODIMENT OF SPIRIT
Embodiment, sound & spirit
This retreat is an invitation to remember and embody spirit through the human form, and to listen deeply for the unique rhythm of your own becoming.
Through the container of dieta, sound, prayer and somatic practice, participants are gently guided into the resonance field of the heart — awakening the heart- mind and its innate intelligence. As the heart softens and opens, perception begins to shift: from effort to listening, from fragmentation to coherence, from survival to soul-led presence.
This work supports the unfolding of one’s dharma — the remembrance of purpose, calling and the singular path each soul is here to walk. By attuning to the subtle cognition of the heart, we begin to sense what is truly ours to carry, to offer, and to embody in this lifetime.
As emotional waters are cleansed and recalibrated, layers of unresolved experience held within the body — personal, ancestral and multi-generational — are invited into release. Trauma stored in the cells, in the nervous system and in the unconscious field gently loosens its grip, restoring clarity of attention and reopening pathways of intimacy with self, spirit and life.
In this softened state of presence, we begin to perceive through the heart rather than the wounds of the past. The lens shifts — from trauma-shaped knowing to heart-based knowing. From here, a living relationship with the plant-based spirits can emerge. Participants attune to the mycelial intelligence of the forest — sensing the subtle tendrils, threads and resonance of the plant network, and recognizing themselves as part of this vast, interwoven field of life.
Sound, song and creative expression become tools of integration — anchoring spirit into matter, rooting consciousness into the body and allowing what has been received to take form. Through deepening embodiment, spirit is no longer abstract or distant, but lived, felt and carried through the breath, the voice and the cells themselves.
This is a return to coherence.
A flowering of the heart.
A remembering of purpose.
A rooting of spirit into flesh.
retreat information
Introduction meeting:
13th Oct | 12pm Noon
Dieta introduction for Metsa KabI:
14th Oct | 10am
End of retreat:
5th November
cost of retreat
To support inclusivity, equity, and community, we offer the following pricing options where applicable:
normal price
$3,500 USD
Regular price for a single participant.
Bring a friend
$3,200 USD pp
Available when two participants register together.
South American & Low-Income Countries
Sliding Scale
Please get in touch with us. Limited spaces available.
Early Bird Registration
$3,200 USD
Valid for registrations completed on or before April 1st. Limited spaces available.
Last-Minute Booking
(within 30 days)
$3,700 USD
Subject to availability and screening.
Included in the cost:
Dieta with food and accommodation
Necessities for dieta (mapacho etc)
Bus to Metsa Kabi Center
Hotel accommodation
2 onboarding preparation calls
2 integration post-dieta calls
excluded in the cost:
Food in Iquitos
Flights costs
Visa costs
Travel insurance
Additional hotel bookings
Additional costs: staff tip of Metsa Kabi Center and purchase of Shipibo hand crafts
Optional day excursion: post-dieta integration day
WHAT TO BRING
Solarity charger (no electricity at the center)
Rain jacket, rain boots
Lighters
Long sleeved clothes
Water bottle
Candles
Head torch with red light
Work book / diary to write in
Art supplies
Relevant books to read
Musical instruments (optional)
Protective bags and humidifying sachets for electronic equipment
Bring phone for recording Icaros
Most of the above can be bought in “Medicine Alley”
Cosmetics: best to not use toothpaste (only water) but if you can’t resist, natural cosmetics and natural toothpaste only.
Note that there is no cellphone signal at the center.
contact us
Email us with any questions or fill in the application from below to apply.