About Mai Niti Healing Center
We are a family-run ayahuasca retreat center located in a native Shipibo community in the sacred Amazon rainforest of Peru. Our ayahuasca retreat connects you with ancestral medicinal plants, guided by master healers Leonardo and Lucila.
For generations, our family has practiced as healers, developing a deep understanding of the healing properties of plants.
Mai Niti offers ayahuasca retreats with customized dates and personal guidance for traditional Shipibo healing and Amazonian plant medicine.
Ayahuasca Retreats in Peru
Mai Niti offers personalized ayahuasca retreats in Peru to introduce healing and transformation in the safest way possible. Our ayahuasca retreat in Peru is conducted under the guidance of Shipibo healers, in our women-run center, following ancestral traditions. At our center, the curanderos and family maintain a compassionate and supportive environment at all times, assuring that all participants receive proper care and guidance throughout their healing journeys.
We believe that small groups create more impactful and personal healing experiences, therefore, our ayahuasca retreat ceremonies in Peru accommodate an average of 10 people with a maximum of 15 participants. Healers work closely with each individual guest, developing unique treatment plans tailored to their specific needs and healing goals.
During your first ceremony at our ayahuasca retreat in Peru, you will only drink a small cup of ayahuasca. In this initial ceremony, the healers will drink ayahuasca for you to assess your energy and determine which plants you will need in the following days, as well as how much ayahuasca you will need for subsequent ceremonies. This approach allows guests to be introduced to the medicine safely, rather than feeling overwhelmed at first.
ayahuasca masters and guides
Leonardo, our ayahuasca master at Mai Niti began working with sacred plants at the remarkable age of 12. Now 85 years old, he brings more than seven decades of profound knowledge of plant medicine to our ceremonies.
This ayahuasca master has guided countless healing journeys throughout his life in the Peruvian Amazon.
At our ayahuasca retreat in Peru, the tradition flows through generations. Leonardo initiated the training of his daughter Lucila as an ayahuasca teacher more than 20 years ago. Today, father and daughter join their healing energies to guide transformative ceremonies together, combining ancestral wisdom with contemporary understanding.
Leonardo's journey as an ayahuasca master began under the guidance of his own father, following Shipibo ancestral traditions at our ayahuasca retreat site in Peru. His initial plant diets included the powerful master plants tobacco, pinon colorado, and sanango chirico-fundamental elements in traditional Amazonian plant medicine that continue to inform his masterful ceremonial work today.
After rigorous training from Leonardo, strict dietas, and many years in isolation, Lucila has followed in her father’s footsteps to become a Maestra.
After rigorous training from Leonardo, strict dietas, and many years in isolation, Lucilla has followed in her father’s footsteps to become a maestra.
Under the guidance of her father Leonardo, Lucila spent three years in isolation dieting with many master plants including chiric sanango, ayahuma, marusa, shihuahuaco, toé and piñon blanco before becoming a curandera.
Lucila is driven by a strong desire to help others and since she first began her training with the plants, it has been her desire to heal not only the locals in the community, but people from all parts of the world. Today Lucila is known in her community, and among all those who have visited Mai Niti, to be a highly powerful and deeply compassionate healer.
Peter is the head facilitator and integration specialist at Mai Niti. With over 28 years of professional experience, including 20 years in managerial roles in the recycled paper industry, Peter honed robust people management skills, team leadership, and conflict resolution. These abilities, supported by certifications in human resources administration, are now central to his current work: guiding guests through their personal transformation processes.
He arrived at Mai Niti in 2019 after a radical shift: two years earlier, his first ayahuasca experience and volunteer work with medicine retreats in Vanuatu, Nepal, and Mexico led him to leave his corporate life behind. At the center, he spent his early years immersed in rigorous plant dietas and apprenticeship under Leonardo and Lucila, culminating in a six-month solitary dieta that solidified his curanderismo training.
Today, he merges his expertise in navigating interpersonal dynamics with ancestral wisdom to ensure participants not only experience safe ceremonies but also integrate their insights into daily life. His approach, rooted in active listening and adaptability to individual needs, reflects his career in fostering trust and respect—both in corporate environments and spiritual contexts.
Mai Niti Center
Ayahuasca retreats at Mai Niti are crafted to facilitate the realisation of the intentions of the guests who arrive. A significant percentage of guests come in search of healing, and this is a core aspect of the intentions of the team at Mai Niti to facilitate in the healing process of those who come with these intentions. Retreats at Mai Niti have the potential to facilitate in the healing of the following:
Physical Conditions:
1. Chronic pain (e.g., fibromyalgia, arthritis)
2. Addiction (alcohol, drugs, smoking)
3. Digestive disorders (e.g., irritable bowel syndrome)
4. Infections (e.g., parasites, bacterial infections)
5. Autoimmune diseases (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis)
6. Stress-related physical symptoms (e.g., high blood pressure)
7. Inflammation
8. Fatigue or low energy
9. Headaches or migraines
Spiritual Conditions:
1. Spiritual disconnection or lack of purpose
2. Lack of self-awareness or insight
3. Existential crises or loss of meaning in life
4. Fear of death or unresolved grief
5. Inability to forgive or self-acceptance
6. Personal growth and transformation
7. Deepening spiritual connection or consciousness
8. Clarity in spiritual practices or path
9. Soul retrieval (healing emotional or spiritual trauma)
Mental Conditions:
1. Depression (including treatment-resistant depression)
2. Anxiety (e.g., general anxiety, social anxiety)
3. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
4. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
5. Addiction and substance abuse disorders
6. Phobias (e.g., fear of the unknown or past trauma)
7. Grief and emotional pain (e.g., unresolved loss)
8. Anger management or emotional regulation
9. Negative thought patterns or limiting beliefs
10. Trauma healing (psychological and emotional)
These potential benefits have been reported by various past guests at Mai Niti.
Mai Niti Center
Our retreat center is located in a Shipibo community, one hour north of Pucallpa, Peru.
WARNING! If you’re looking for an ensuite bathroom, warm water, a toilet that has a flush and no insects, you are likely best off looking at another center. Mai Niti is NOT a 5 star (or 4!) luxury resort! However, most guests get used to the rustic rooms and jungle lifestyle quickly, and come to appreciate the simplicity of the center and living here. Edit: We now have flushing toilets! (no change with the insects and all the rest though ;D)
Staying here is an opportunity to experience life in a Shipibo Community. You’ll live in harmony with the earth as the Shipibo do – consuming a healthy but scrumptious vegetarian (mainly) diet and living in basic wooden cabins / dorms, hand built on a small clearing of this Amazon Jungle village.
Guests are free to explore the centre whenever they please, and will have 24/7 access to the community house and Maloka.
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