Text by Andrea Minarcek

The use of ayahuasca is illegal in the United States, but for those interested in shamanistic
ceremonies, a number of organizations lead trips to the Amazon Basin.
Read the Article | Adventure Guide: Peru
OUTFITTERS AND TOURS: Hamilton Souther's Blue Morpho Tours ($785 for six days;
www.bluemorphotours.com) runs customized shamanistic workshops in the Peruvian
Amazon. Three evening ayahuasca ceremonies cap off daytime jungle treks, Ro Itaya
excursions, and piranha fishing trips.
The most respected shamans and ayahuasca scientists in the field will give talks followed by
jungle trips and ayahuasca ceremonies at the second annual Amazonian Shamanism
Conference ($500 for one week; www.soga-del-alma.org), this summer in Iquitos, Peru.
An international panel of experts from Ayahuasca Healing, in Itacar, Brazil, discusses
ancient uses of the plant during an eight-day course ($2,300; www.ayahuasca-healing.net),
which includes three ayahuasca ceremonies.
GETTING THERE: To follow in the footsteps of the author, LAN Airlines serves Iquitos via
Lima ($800 from New York City; www.lan.com). From there, Blue Morpho provides
transportation for the one-hour drive on the Iquitos Nauta road to the Shamanism Center
and Jungle Lodge. The lodge moved to kilometer 53 of the Iquitos Nauta road last year, so it
no longer requires the boat ride described by the author.

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE:
The National Geographic
Channel sent a film crew
to Peru to shadow a pair
of Americans on their
quest to try
ayahuasca. See
for yourself how the
ritual ceremony begins.
Watch the video >>
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NEED TO KNOW: Mosquito repellent and lightweight long-sleeve shirts are a must for travel in the Amazon Basin, as is a
course of antimalarial drugs. Bring along a pair of earplugs, too, for the long daytime naps that you'll need to recover from
the ayahuasca ceremonies.
RESOURCES: The Way of the Shaman (Harper & Row, $16) by Michael Harner, Ph.D., founder of the California-based
Foundation for Shamanic Studies, is an
excellent introduction to the tradition. To learn more about ayahuasca, the benchmark text is Ralph Metzner's Sacred Vine of
Spirits (Park Street Press, $17).
Read the Article | Adventure Guide: Peru

22-01-2015 AM 02:08