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Shipibo Style Retreat for the Black Community
Imagine arriving within this lush environment. Breathing in the air, sights, and sounds of the Amazonian Jungle. Beaming with the excitement in your heart that over the course of following days, you’ll be receiving deeply nourishing healing support that will change your life forever….
You’re not alone. You’ve arrived alongside a small group of Black kin—visionaries, seekers, and community healers—each answering the call to release, realign, and remember who they are. Together, you’ll be held in a sacred container by the Maestras Manuela and Robertina Mahua, beloved Shipibo Grandmothers whose icaros (sacred songs) and plant medicine treatments are passed down through generations.
And in between the ceremonies? You'll rest in your private jungle tambo, reflect within our integration circle, share meals alongside community, and reconnect with the parts of yourself you've been praying to see.
These are just a few aspects of this epic retreat that I am so excited to be offering to Black folks, and I hope you can see yourself there.
Why Join Black to the Jungle?
Black to the Jungle is a chance to return to yourself. To breathe deeper. To be held in an environment where ancestral healing, spiritual clarity, and cultural belonging come together.
This retreat was created for the Black community—offering a space where you are seen, centered, and supported. Many who join us have long felt called to work with Ayahuasca, but didn’t want to be the only Black person in the room. This is your invitation into a healing space designed with you in mind.
You’ll be guided by Shipibo maestras—Indigenous grandmothers carrying a lineage that has remained intact for thousands of years. What drew me to them, and what continues to move so many who sit with them, is the warmth, wisdom, and safety they bring. There is something deeply powerful about healing in the presence of feminine energy that holds without judgment.
You’ll be in a fully off-grid, tech-free sanctuary in the Amazon jungle, supported by a Black-led facilitation team and held in ceremony with care.
Our intention is to create a space to rest, release, and reconnect with yourself, your ancestors, and your path forward.
Our offering
This retreat is a payanti—a sacred time of deep cleansing and healing within the Shipibo tradition. During the ceremonies, the Mahua grandmothers offer personalized healing work, singing icaros (healing songs) directly to each participant to clear stagnant energies and restore balance. This intimate and transformative process is at the heart of the payanti, creating a space for profound release and renewal.
Our retreat is designed to be flexible, allowing participants to join for either the first or second week.
Each week is limited to 8 participants, ensuring a deeply personal and supportive healing experience. Held at the Jakon Rate Center in Pucallpa, Peru, this retreat offers the opportunity to work closely with Shipibo plant medicine, Ayahuasca ceremonies, and traditional treatments in a safe and grounded environment.
Week 1: November 23rd–29th
Week 2: November 30th–December 6th
The payanti also includes additional opportunities to connect with the medicine and traditions, which are further outlined below.
Join us for 1- or 2-week Payanti:
- Accommodation in your own spacious jungle tambo
- 3 Traditional Shipibo-Konibo ceremonies with Yoxán Manuela and Yoxán Robi
- Traditional Shipibo-Konibo Cultural Workshops in kené (ancient designs), embroidery, and ceramics
- 1 one-on- one Retreat Preparation session
- Pre-retreat group call to support with logistics and orientation
- Integrative Black Condor Circle throughout the retreat to support with integrating the work of the healers and plants.
- Shipibo Flower Baths for cleansing and purification
- Jungle-Style Plant medicine sauna bath
- Transportation to and from the center from anywhere in Pucallpa
- All meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) throughout the entire time
- Post retreat integration group call via Zoom
Learn more info about the accommodations HERE.
The Masters of Ceremony
Manuela Mahua
Manuela Mahua comes from a long-standing and well-respected family lineage of Shipibo-Konibo healers from the upper and lower Ucayali regions of the Peruvian Amazon. Born in 1947, she began apprenticing with her father at age 13 and now has 60+ years of experience working with her ancestral medicine.
Today she heals and teaches, both Shipibo-Konibo and foreigners alike. She has a vast knowledge and understanding of the natural pharmacy of her land and is very open to sharing it with those who are willing to make the commitment to carry on the tradition.
Manuela is an altruistic, generous, and positive force. She cares deeply for all of her students and provides individual attention and care that only a great-grandmother can give. She embodies her given Shipibo-Konibo name Jakon Rate and truly is a "Life-Giving Good Surprise" for all who meet and learn with her!
Robertina Mahua
Robertina Mahua is the eldest daughter of the late Pascual Mahua and is a Noyá Ráo maestra who has been working side-by-side with Manuela for the most part of the last 4 years. She’s 67 years old but did not begin her samá path until she was 52. After being around her father, uncles, and cousins and witnessing this path for decades, she was encouraged, taught, and supported by her own father. After two years of dedicated study with only Noyá Ráo, she began samá with Tobí Ráo and began developing her message and bone setting skills. She also has strong samá connections with Sémein (Bobinsana), Mókapari (Chiricsanango), Chullachaqui Caspi, and Marosa.
Group Leader
Adorable Earth Angel
Adorable Jasmine (Earth Angel) is the director of Black Condor Tribe. She is a sacred musician, energy healer, ceremonialist, and organizer of healing courses, rituals, and retreats for over 15 years. Adorable is devoted to creating safe, trauma-informed spaces where Black and BIPOC individuals can come together for healing, liberation, and community.
Why You Should Be Here
Black to the Jungle is a sacred journey of healing, self-discovery, and empowerment. It’s for Black individuals who are ready to let go of what no longer serves them, reclaim their voice, and step forward with clarity and purpose.
You’ll be guided by Shipibo maestras—respected elder healers from the Mahua lineage—whose wisdom and care have been passed down through generations.
With personalized icaros, plant remedies, and traditional cleansing rituals, you’ll receive focused, intentional healing. The maestras' deep spiritual practices create a potent environment for transformation.
When Black people come together in spaces made for us, something extraordinary happens. You’ll leave with a stronger connection to yourself, to Spirit, and to a community that truly understands and supports you.
This retreat is your invitation to:
- Sit in ceremony with Indigenous grandmothers in a lineage-based Ayahuasca tradition
- Receive tailored energetic healing and support from trusted spiritual guides
- Unplug fully in a tech-free jungle sanctuary designed for deep inner work
- Be witnessed and held in a circle of Black kin walking their healing path
- Reconnect with your body, your purpose, and your ancestral power
- Ground your medicine journey in a safe, trauma-informed space
Whether you join us for one or two weeks, the time you spend in this environment is part of the medicine. Being in the jungle, unplugged, nourished, and deeply held, creates the spaciousness needed to truly integrate your healing. We are only inviting 8 participants per week, to give folks the attention and room to breathe, reflect, and receive what the medicine has to offer at a pace that honors your body, spirit, and process.
The Land
The Jakon Rate Center for Shipibo-Konibo Studies
Asociación Jakon Rate is a Shipibo-Konibo family-owned and run non-profit organization that aims to support and preserve the culture and ancestral wisdom of the Shipibo-Konibo in the Peruvian Amazon. They do this by creating natural, clean, and safe environments for traditional practices to be remembered, regenerated, relearned, and shared throughout the Shipibo-Konibo Nation and the global community.
Inspired and guided by the great grandmother Manuela Mahua Ahuanari and the essence of her true name, Jakon Rate—‘A Life-Giving Good Surprise’—Asociación Jakon Rate is dedicated to helping current and new generations learn and practice the Shipibo-Konibo culture with educational workshops, courses, and traditional samá to deeply reconnect with the plants and animals from the forests and rivers of the Shipibo-Konibo homelands—through life-giving good shocks to the system—to help us reconnect to our source energy.
Jakon Rate and her family live on 26.5 hectares (65 acres) of land 8 km from the cities of Yarina and Pucallpa. It is a raised peninsula of forest and farmland, which extends into the natural floodplain between the oxbow lakes of Cashibococha and Yarinacocha. Our family lives at the entrance along the northeast side. House by house and garden by garden we they building community and home.
There is a deep well (112.5m / 369ft) and a large water tower with a 10m / 33ft observation deck. The well provides delicious potable water for drinking and washing. Currently there are 11 small private houses that serve as each student’s sámati xóbo. They are all located further back on the land, isolated from each other and our family homes.
"The whole experience helped me to grasp just how powerful I am and gave me a glimpse of what I am capable of when I get my heart, mind, and body in alignment. It also gave me the courage to liberate my voice so that I can use it in deep service to myself and the collective."
-Jenny, Black to the Jungle 2024
Food as Medicine
All meals at Jakon Rate are prepared fresh onsite with intention and care, supporting your healing journey every step of the way. The dieta-style food is simple, unprocessed, and aligned with the Shipibo-Konibo tradition—designed not to distract the body, but to nourish it in a way that supports the deep medicine work taking place.
You’ll be eating fresh, lightly prepared meals using local ingredients such as grilled fish, cassava, plantains, and seasonal vegetables. For those who are vegetarian, we offer a balanced and supportive diet of rice, quinoa, lentils, and grilled or raw vegetables.
This is not a retreat for indulgence—it is a time to cleanse, reset, and return to the essentials. Food is part of the medicine.
Working with Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca (pronounced ah-yah-WAH-ska) aka Mama Aya, is a sacred Amazonian plant medicine long revered for its deep healing and spiritual power. In the Peruvian Amazon, Ayahuasca is considered a wise feminine spirit—a grandmother who teaches, reveals, and restores balance.
The name comes from the Quechua words aya (spirit or soul) and waska (vine or rope), often translated as “vine of the soul” or “vine of the dead.” It is used in ceremony to help people reconnect with their truth, clear emotional and energetic blockages, and gain insights that support personal transformation.
Ayahuasca is not a quick fix—it is a path. And within the Shipibo tradition, that path is held with deep integrity, precision, and care. The Shipibo people carry one of the most intact and respected Ayahuasca lineages, known for their spiritual mastery, healing songs (icaros), and plant wisdom.
At Black to the Jungle, we’re honored to offer a rare opportunity for Black individuals to work with Shipibo healers in an all-Black ceremonial container—one that honors our unique cultural needs while connecting us to ancient Indigenous medicine.
Benefits of Ayahuasca:
- Deep emotional and psychological healing
- Increased self-awareness and personal insights
- Spiritual exploration and connection
- Potential relief from anxiety and depression
Flight info
To join us in the jungle, you’ll first fly into Lima, Peru (LIM) and then take a short domestic flight to Pucallpa (PCL). There are no direct international flights to Pucallpa, so this two-leg journey is the usual path.
We suggest:
✅ Overnighting in Lima – Breaking up your trip with a hotel stay in Lima before heading to Pucallpa the next day.
✅ Arriving early in Pucallpa – You’re welcome to arrive the Saturday before your retreat starts and stay overnight in town.
If you arrive early, we recommend Manish Hotel—a beautiful option with healthy food and a quiet setting that supports the energy of the retreat.
Domestic flights from Lima to Pucallpa are about 1 hour and 15 minutes, with several daily options via LATAM, Sky Airline, and Star Perú. Roundtrip tickets are often affordable when booked early.
Once you arrive in Pucallpa, our team will greet you and coordinate transportation to the retreat center.
Let us know if you’d like help planning your route or finding accommodations—we’re here to support your journey.
