6 Day Healing and Spiritual Retreat in the Sierra Nevadas, Colombia w/ Ayahuasca, Yoga, & Meditation
Spiritual Retreat in Colombia
This listing has one of the 10 most popular offers available in Colombia
Immerse yourself in 7 days of healing and cleansing with Ayahuasca, yoga, meditation, and so much more in the Sierra Nevada. Join Ayahuasca Sierra Ancestral for an immersive experience in the jungle of the Sierra Nevada mountains in Colombia. Together with other participants, you will heal through sacred ceremonies, yoga, meditation, sound healing, and more. Instructions will be offered in English and/or Spanish.
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Highlights
- 3 sacred Ayahuasca ceremonies including rapé ceremony
- Yoga and meditation sessions
- Waterfall tour, and cacao and coffee tour
- session and circle medicine
- Chiropractic massage
- 5 nights accommodation
- All organic meals included (vegetarian option too)
Skill level
- Beginner
- Intermediate
Accommodation
Facilities
- Shopping
- Swimming pool (outdoor)
- Temazcal
- Air-conditioned rooms
- Café
- Dining area
- Environmentally friendly
- Garden
- Kitchen
- Lobby
- Meditation garden
- Multilingual staff
- Picnic area
- Restaurant
- Smoke-free property
- Special menu request
- Terrace
- Beauty salon
- Conference room
- Dry cleaning
- Free bicycle
- Free parking
- Free Wi-Fi
- Hair salon
- Internet access
- Laundry
- Meeting room
- Parking lot
- Tour assistance
- Outdoor shower
You will be staying at Sierra Ancestral Resort, a wonderful place surrounded by nature, a river, and colorful macaws.
Sierra Ancestral is a spiritual retreat center, a house of ancestral medicines, located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. It is surrounded by green mountains, a place that is close to the sea and the waterfalls.
Inside the farm, you can find a river where you can take a delicious bath. It is a magical place. They also have mango, avocado, cocoa, lemon, and orange fruit trees, which you can enjoy during harvest time.
You can choose from a private King Casita or share a Double Casita. The newly renovated casitas are a tropical-chic sanctuary, equipped with all-new beds, furniture, medicinal art, and bathroom fixtures.
The property is a 10-hectare of tropical heaven to be at your disposal during the retreat. The luxury lodging provides comfort and safety for your journey throughout the week.
Facilities
- Maloca: The healing space for plant medicine / Ayahuasca ceremonies, breathwork, and yoga
Program
3 Ayahuasca ceremonies
Experience three profound and soul-merging plant medicine ceremonies throughout your stay. Led by their shamans Carlos and Giovanny, each ceremony is tailored to help you receive your miracle.
To date, Carlos and Giovanny have conducted over 3 000 individual ceremonial experiences. Ceremonies are led by their experienced shamans who have been trained in the Colombian tradition by Taita Aristides Piaguaje and other well-respected teacher shamans from the Siona community.
Yagé or Ayahuasca consists of banisteriopsis caapi and chakruna, two plants, which together have cleaning abilities. Ayahuasca works on three levels: The body, soul, and spirit. It cleans the body (you might vomit or have diarrhea), gives visions (you might see colors or other beings, be more sensitive to light), and gives you clarity of thought (you might realize or understand things more deeply, feel deeper emotions).
The experience is different for everyone and it might be that you get all these experiences, just some of them or that you feel nothing. In any case, Ayahuasca is working and doing the necessary healing to aid you in whatever you need.
Thus, don't worry about purging or try to hold back any experience you might have, but let yourself be guided and be open to whatever it might bring you, as the plant is here to aid you. If you have any questions or worries, always ask Carlos or Giovanny, they will be there for you at all times.
Healing massages and yoga classes
This isn’t your regular spa experience, this is a massage performed by Healing Touch Practitioners who nurture your body using essential oils. The massage technique used is designed to work with plant medicine experiences to help further release energy and trauma from your body that no longer serve you.
Yoga pairs perfectly with plant medicine to help integrate and process your experiences with a calm, clear mind. Created by Ayahuasca healers and wellness experts, it’s designed to create balance and groundedness; getting you out of your head and into your body.
They use an energetic, creative, full-spectrum approach to embodying the flow of yoga. Their yoga teachers have been trained and fully benefited from classical and innovative approaches to yoga. Students on all levels, beginner to expert, are welcomed to participate and are empowered to experience the classes.
The ceremony
The ceremony is conducted by a Taita (shaman) Carlos and his assistant Giovanny, who follow the tradition of the Putumayo indigenous people called the Siona. The ceremonies are focused on the participants doing mental work with the Ayahuasca with an intention to heal themselves or their past, understand or change their life, clean their energy and their body.
Thus, the ceremonies don't involve singing or dancing all night, but are more calm, letting the people focus on their thoughts and healing with yagé. However, the Taita and his assistant will do some singing and play harmonica, also use incense, to aid the people in their thoughts and clean the energy of the people and the place.
It’s also important not to have expectations about the ceremony. The most important work during the ceremony is your internal process. Thus, don’t focus yourself on what’s happening around you, but focus on your own thoughts and growth.
It’s also important to note that different Ayahuasca ceremonies follow different traditions, which is why this ceremony might not resemble another ceremony in another location you’ve been to.
A few hours before the ceremony (7-8 pm), people gather at the ceremony area / circle to get acquainted with the Taita and the other participants and relax. You can apply mambe (the medicine of coke leaves to give energy and nutrition to the body) or rapé (a medicine of tobacco and plant powder that cleans thoughts and emotions).
Everyone gets a hammock or a mat and a blanket. You can also bring your own comfort items, a candle, essential oils etc. Dress comfortably and have extra clothes to stay warm during the ceremony. It’s also good before the ceremony is to set an intention, with which you take Ayahuasca – whether you want to heal or understand something, leave something in the past, find your calling etc.
At 9 pm, the Taita prepares and hands everyone a cup of Ayahuasca. Usually the effect of the medicine starts after half an hour to an hour after drinking the medicine and lasts for around 3 hours. After this, for 1-2 hours the lights are dim and everyone contemplates their thoughts and lets the yagé do the healing in the body and the mind.
Every two hours, the Taita asks if you want to take another cup (or third or a half, however much you want). You don’t have to take anything, just try to understand how you’re feeling. If you still feel the effects of the Ayahuasca, wait an hour or two. If you want to have a stronger experience, you can take more, but be aware that with every cup the effect is stronger due to the medicine already being (and accumulating) in your body.
During the night, try to stay in the circle / maloca or at the bathrooms, but don’t go wandering off by yourself. When you feel that you have done enough work with Ayahuasca, you can go away from the circle and talk to other people (but don’t talk in the circle to let other people concentrate). If you feel tired, you can sleep in the hammock or the mat or, after informing the Taita, go to your room.
If you will also have an energy cleaning, the Taita will do it towards the end of the ceremony, around 3-4 am. You will be asked to take off your shirt (for women to be with a bra) and to sit on a chair while the Taita and his assistant will use tobacco, incense, sacred water, waira, and songs to clean your energy.
The main important thing is to not be afraid, but to trust the Ayahuasca, be open to the experience and let it guide you to heal your body and mind. It is a special experience and the first step on a journey of inner healing with this medicine.
They hope you will continue your healing journey - with or without Ayahuasca - and put your experience into practice also after the ceremony in your daily life.
Schedule
Day 1
- Welcome
- Consult with shaman
- Rapé ceremony
- Ayahuasca ceremony
Day 2
- Breakfast
- Free time / rest
- Lunch
- Yoga and meditation
- Dinner
Day 3
- Breakfast
- Waterfall tour
- Lunch
- Rapé ceremony
- Ayahuasca ceremony
Day 4
- Breakfast
- Free time / rest
- Lunch
- Massage
- Dinner
Day 5
- Breakfast
- Cacao and coffee tour
- Lunch
- Rapé ceremony
- Ayahuasca ceremony
Day 6
- Breakfast
- Bath with plants
- Check out
Important note
Kindly take into consideration that women in their menstrual period cannot take place at any of the Ayahuasca ceremonies.
Included excursions
While you are taking a day off from Ayahuasca ceremonies, they will organize tours so you could visit some of the most beautiful natural wonders in South America. Minca is located just 10 kilometers from Siera Ancestral estate, and that area has some of the richest ecosystems in Colombia.
You will have the opportunity to visit natural waterfalls Marinka and Pozo Azul and La Victoria Coffee Farm tour.
- Waterfall tour with time to bathe and refresh yourself
- Cacao and coffee cultivation tour with activities at the finca
Instructors
Jennifer Rueda
Jennifer was born in Colombia. She is the founder and director of the Sierra Ancestral ceremonial center. She is also a holistic psychologist, and has worked in different branches of social psychology. Her spiritual journey and learning began 10 years ago with the sacred medicine Ayahuasca. She then decided to do an apprenticeship with indigenous communities in the Colombian jungle. She works performing women's circles and rapé ceremonies, and has an apprenticeship in plants. She is the mother of a small child and the wife of shaman Carlos Estrada.
Shaman Carlos
Shaman Carlos is a traditional healer from lower Putumayo, Colombia, who was interned in the jungle with different grandparents who were knowledgeable about different indigenous communities, including Ziobain or Siona and Kamentsa. He learned about traditional Yagé-Ayahuasca medicine and many more plants of the Colombian Amazon. He has worked with medicine for 10 years, has been recognized within the Siona and Kamentsa communities as a traditional healer, and in recent years, has traveled to share medicine in various countries and cities to help patients and cure diseases.
Location
Located in one of the most beautiful areas in the world, Sierra Ancestral Resort is at La Tigrera km 7, on the road to Minca. You must reach a state called La Quebrada and along that road, enter approximately one kilometer.
The resort is situated in the Sierra Nevada area, where people live happier, longer lives. Minca is nearby and only a 10-minute motorcycle ride from the resort. It is within a 10-hectare gated community located in small-town La Tigrera, 20 minutes of a cab ride from Santa Marta.
Distances
- Minca - 10 minutes by motorcycle
- La Tigrera - 20 minutes by cab
Features
Activities
- Shopping
- Swimming pool (outdoor)
- Temazcal
General
- Air-conditioned rooms
- Café
- Dining area
- Environmentally friendly
- Garden
- Kitchen
- Lobby
- Meditation garden
- Multilingual staff
- Picnic area
- Restaurant
- Smoke-free property
- Special menu request
- Terrace
Services
- Beauty salon
- Conference room
- Dry cleaning
- Free bicycle
- Free parking
- Free Wi-Fi
- Hair salon
- Internet access
- Laundry
- Meeting room
- Parking lot
- Tour assistance
Food
Proper nourishment is the foundation of a happy life. At Comida Restaurant, they nourish their guests in the most supportive and aligned way possible through meals curated specifically for the plant medicine and spiritual work at Sierra Ancestral.
Their chef, María, designed the farm-to-table menus to complement the Sierra Ancestral Way program, utilizing his vast knowledge of plant-based and nutrient-dense cooking, combined with several years of input from various medicine workers and shamans from around the world.
Comida provides whole-food, plant-focused fare that not only supports their guests and staff but also comforts and inspires.
The following meals are included:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Drinks
The following drinks are included:
- Water
- Coffee
- Tea
- Detox juices
The following dietary requirement(s) are served and/or catered for:
- Vegetarian
- Whole food
Things to do (optional)
- Rapé, mambe, sage, natural medicine, jewelry, and other products created by indegineous people
- More excursions and experiences available for an extra fee
- Pedicure / manicure
- Massages
- Private yoga classes
- Braids and cornrows
- Option to stay for longer if you would like to
Spa treatments
- Chiropractic massage included
What's included
- 3 Ayahuasca ceremonies
- Rapé ceremonies
- Yoga and meditation, circle medicine
- Excursions
- Chiropractic or relaxing massage
- 5 nights accommodation
- All meals and drinks
What's not included
- Travel and health insurance
- Airfare
- Transportation to and from the airport or any area of the city (people must arrive at the farm)
How to get there
Recommended Airports
Simón Bolívar International Airport
11 km
Transfer not provided
Arrival by airplane
Please book your flight to arrive at Simón Bolívar International Airport (SMR), located just next to Santa Marta. The resort is a 30-minute ride from the airport and Sierra Ancestral can organize transportation to the resort. Moto rides are also organized for their guests.
Arrival by bus
When you’re at Santa Marta, take a bus from Mercado Publico to Minca and come off at Tigrera at km 7 on the way to Minca (the bus costs 9.000 COP).
At the roadside will be a green sign that reads “7” and another sign “Eden”. There will be a little road going up the hill. Walk that road for 5 minutes and you reach a big gate with a yellow sign “Sierra Ancestral.”
Arrival by taxi
It’s also possible to reach them with a mototaxi from Santa Marta (costs around 15.000 - 30.000 COP) or Minca (costs around 15.000 COP).
Cancellation Policy
- A reservation requires a deposit of 100% of the total price.
- The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
For this organizer you can guarantee your booking through Tripaneer.com. All major credit cards supported.