Ten days in Peru with the ancestral medicine of Huachuma. Mountain ceremonies guided by Miguel Mendiburu, who has been doing this for over twenty years. A six month container built around the trip so the work does not end when the plane lands.
Two pathways. Nine spots each. Summer 2027, dates announced soon
Apply and place your $500 deposit before December 31, 2026 and $300 comes off any room option, on either path.
Both paths share the same container, the same house, the same guides, and the same six month arc. They differ in how much of the time is spent in ceremony.
Summer 2027, dates announced soon. Ten days.
This is the retreat we recommend if you have not travelled with us before. It is also the one many people come back for.
Summer 2027, dates announced soon. Ten days.
The all night fire ceremony is the reason this path exists. It asks more of you than the Heart Path does.
Hamid holds the container. Miguel Mendiburu guides the ceremonies from his temple in Taray, a few minutes from where we stay. The group is capped at nine people so that nobody gets lost in it.
You will spend full days on the mountain with the medicine, from sunrise until the light goes. On the other days you will walk Pisac, eat well, sleep, sit by the fire, and talk to the people you came with. Before you leave you will put cactus in the ground at the Huachuma Sanctuary.
Preparation starts a month before you fly, with weekly calls. Integration continues for four sessions after you get home. That is the part most retreats leave out, and it is the part that decides whether any of this holds.
Huachuma, commonly called San Pedro, is a columnar cactus native to the Andean highlands. The Spanish name came later, from conquistadors who decided the plant opened heavenly gates and named it for the saint who keeps the keys. Its ceremonial use in these mountains predates that by thousands of years.
Several closely related Trichocereus species grow across Peru, from thin spineless plants in the low deserts to thick spined columns at elevation. Ornamental San Pedro is cultivated all over the world now. Traditional healers here work with specific Andean strains.
People describe Huachuma as a mirror rather than a rocket. It tends to strip away the arrangements we make with ourselves and leave us sitting with what is underneath. That can be tender, funny, boring, or devastating, sometimes in the same afternoon.
Huachuma is also under real pressure from over harvesting. That is why every retreat includes a day at the Huachuma Sanctuary, where we are building toward five thousand cacti on land Miguel stewards. You plant. That is the whole ethos: plant more, worry less.
An honest note. Nobody can tell you what Huachuma will do for you. Most people have one of the most important days of their life on those mountains. But, there are some people who do not. Even in those situations, most everyone finds the experience deeply meaningful and, with the passage of time after, a milestone in their life that they look back upon with gratitude.
The preservation work behind the retreat, filmed on the land where you will plant.
If you are unsure which side of that line you are on, apply anyway and say so in the form. We read every application and we answer every one personally.
Summer 2027, dates announced soon. All levels welcome.
Two full day mountain ceremonies, visits to sacred sites, and enough unstructured time that the experiences have somewhere to settle. The group tends to run nurturing. There is room for a breakthrough and there is room for a quiet unfolding, and we do not rank them.
Choose this one if you are new, or if you are coming back for another round of a container you already trust.
Summer 2027, dates announced soon. For experienced seekers.
Three ceremonies rather than two: the same two mountain days, plus an all night fire ceremony that runs through darkness into dawn. We spend more time in ceremony and integration and far less time visiting sites. If you want to see Machu Picchu, this is not the trip for that.
We ask that you have travelled with us before, completed other substantial plant medicine work, or built a real practice of self inquiry. Please assess that honestly. We will ask about it in the application.
The retreat sits in the middle of a longer arc. A month of preparation, ten days in Peru, and four integration sessions after you get home.
We meet weekly online to build the group, clarify intentions, and get your body and mind ready.
Suggested reading: San Pedro Huachuma: Opening the Pathways of the Heart, by Javier Regueiro. Audio version is excellent.
Ten days in the Sacred Valley with Miguel and Hamid.
We keep meeting once you are home, while the insights are still soft and easy to lose.
Most people find this is where the retreat actually pays out.
Optional and recommended: a hair tissue mineral analysis and a review of your bloodwork before you travel. Starting from a balanced mineral state changes how the medicine lands, and altitude is unkind to people running on empty. This is optional, priced separately, and never required.
Space holder, facilitator, founder of the Huachuma Foundation
Hamid merges modern and ancient approaches in his practice. As @mineralshaman he writes for a worldwide readership about minerals, physical healing, emotional processing, and the places where those meet spiritual work. His research follows how mineral status shapes preparation for and integration of plant medicine journeys.
He founded the Huachuma Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and propagating the sacred Huachuma cactus. Plant more, worry less is the short version of what he thinks personal healing and ecological stewardship have to do with each other.
Ceremony facilitator, Sacred Valley
Miguel has offered Huachuma ceremonies for over twenty years from his home base in the Sacred Valley. His style is gentle and unhurried. He is known for guiding people into states of unity and remembering without ever making a performance of it.
Miguel stewards and owns the land where the Huachuma Sanctuary is being built, and the preservation project was his vision before it was ours. His decades with the plant shape both the ceremonies and the conservation work.
We stay at Martina Wasi, a private Andean villa a ten minute walk from the centre of Pisac. The house sits on more than four thousand square meters of garden and farmland with the mountains directly behind it. Local textiles, a fireplace in the common room, a full kitchen, laundry, a dining room, and a game area. Sheep, guinea pigs, and several unserious dogs live on the property.
Guests who choose a bungalow, a premium suite, or a private house usually stay at Karina Wasi, the adjacent property, which has its own kitchens, patios, and fireplaces.
Two group meals a day are prepared with fresh local ingredients. No seed oils, no processed food. Tell us about allergies and restrictions in the application and our cook will work around them.
Room types are limited and go in the order deposits arrive. Pricing for each is in the next section.
The Sunday artisan market, the Incan ruins above town, cafes, bakeries, and a genuinely deep local healing community offering sound work, ecstatic dance, cacao, and temazcal. The Vilcanota river runs below. People have been coming here to look for something for a very long time.
Every group is different and the valley has opinions of its own, so this flexes. The shape below is the Heart Path. The Fire Path follows a similar arc with a third ceremony and far less sightseeing.
Ceremony days are full days. We leave in the morning and come down as the light goes. There is no schedule inside them.
On other mornings we gather around the table for breakfast. Middle days go to sound work, ancient sites, or nothing at all. Afternoons are yours. Explore the market, walk the terraces, sleep. At dusk we come back together to eat, and the evening usually finds its way to the fire, some songs, and a story that runs longer than it should.
We guide gently and you set the pace. Rest is not a lesser activity here.
Pisac sits at the lower end of the Sacred Valley, cobbled streets backed by granite peaks. The farmers market runs most mornings with fresh produce, juice, and breakfast made in front of you. On Sundays the Plaza de Armas fills with textiles, carved flutes, and the shamanic alley of Andean herbs and incense.
Above town, the Pisac ruins show off masonry and cosmic alignment that still has not been fully explained. Irrigation canals from the Incan terraces are still running. The Vilcanota river moves below, on its way toward the Amazon.
People call this the valley of wellbeing. It has been drawing seekers for centuries and it does not seem to be getting tired of it.
Arriving a day early or staying a day late is usually possible at a small additional cost. Longer stays and back to back retreats can be arranged. Ask.
This retreat to Peru, the love song to the mountains, is the best I have been on. And I have been on many. It is really about you, the participant. Not money, not ego, not recognition. There is much purity here. Hamid holds excellent space. Support when you need it, distance when you need it. You are in very good hands.
Prayas G.
2023 Group
This trip to Peru with Hamid and my newfound tribe was no less than life changing. I gained way more than I could have thought possible. Hamid has mastered facilitating with integrity. Incredibly intuitive, providing the right amount of grounded guidance while giving you space to do the inner work. I gained lifelong friendships.
Saba S.
2023 Group
This was my first experience with this type of plant medicine and I had a bit of imposter syndrome joining a group with deeper understanding. Hamid and the container welcomed me and supported me through it. I shed many layers and was humbled by the sincerity of Miguel. It removed what no longer served me.
Joel W.
2023 Group
Prices are per person in US dollars and cover the full six month container, not just the days in Peru. Nine spots per path.
Summer 2027, dates announced soon
Summer 2027, dates announced soon
The Fire Path carries a third ceremony and a longer night.
Apply and place your $500 deposit before December 31, 2026 and take $300 off any room option on either path. Applies to every room type, including bungalows and premium suites.
Your payment covers the retreat and it also funds cactus going into the ground at the Huachuma Sanctuary. That part is not marketing. You will do the planting yourself.
Soon. Both paths run in summer 2027, back to back, the way they have every year. You can send an application now. The application is not a booking and nothing is owed when you send it. If we accept you, we talk directly, and you will have the dates in hand before any money changes hands.
Fit enough to walk uphill for several hours above 9,000 feet and to be on your feet for a full day. You do not need to be an athlete. If you have a knee, a back, or a heart that worries you, tell us in the application and we will talk about it honestly.
Pisac sits around 9,700 feet. We build in several easy days before the first ceremony so your body can catch up. If altitude has hit you hard before, come a day or two early. We can arrange it.
Not automatically, but some medications make this genuinely unsafe, antidepressants among them. Put everything you take in the application. If it needs a conversation we will have one, and we may ask you to speak with your prescriber. Nothing you write goes anywhere outside of Hamid.
The ceremonies happen in Peru, in a traditional Andean context, run by local practitioners under local custom and law. Nothing on this page is an offer or sale of any controlled substance in the United States.
Most travellers from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the EU enter Peru on a tourist stamp given at the airport, and your passport should have at least six months left on it. Check the current rules for your own passport before you book flights.
Most people do. You will be nine people in a house for ten days. Nobody stays a stranger for long.
The Heart Path is built for exactly that, and the preparation calls exist so you arrive knowing what you are walking into. The Fire Path is not a first experience and we will say so if you apply for it.
This is an application, not a checkout. We are taking a small group of people to a foreign country at altitude to do profoundly powerful work, so we read carefully and we say no sometimes.
It takes about twenty minutes. It is an application, not a checkout, and it asks for no payment. Every question is there for a reason, including the uncomfortable ones about health and medication. Answer honestly. Nothing you write is shared outside of Hamid.
Every applicant gets an individual reply, usually within a few days. Then we get on a call together. That conversation is where we both decide whether this is right, and where you get the dates and the details straight from me.
Only after that call does a $500 deposit hold your spot. Then you receive packing lists, flight guidance, preparation instructions, and the schedule for the pre trip calls.
Questions first? Write to me and I will answer them myself.
If your heart has been nudging you toward this, apply. If it has not, do not. Both are fine answers and we would rather have the honest one.
Early registration closes December 31, 2026.
Disclaimer. Everything on this page is offered for educational and ceremonial purposes. Hamid Jabbar is not a licensed medical or mental health provider, and nothing here is medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Nothing described on this page is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Ceremonies take place in Peru within a traditional Andean context and are conducted by local practitioners under local custom and law. Nothing on this page is an offer, sale, or facilitation of any controlled substance in the United States or anywhere else. We do not accept anyone whose participation we believe would be unsafe, and we may decline or withdraw an application at any point.
Travel to Peru involves inherent risk, including risk at high altitude. Participants are required to carry their own travel and medical insurance. Deposits and payments are non refundable except as described in the pricing section and in the retreat agreement you will sign as part of the application.
