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Our retreats are built around the living traditions of the Andes and the Amazon: ancient festivals, Andean priests, traditional curanderos, and medicines met in the places where they grow.
Our Raymi Retreats are timed to the Andean festivals that still gather people across Cusco.
We work with a Q’ero Paqo, an Andean priest from the highlands near Ausangate.
When available, we bring indigenous curanderos to hold ceremony with our groups.
Huachuma in the Andes and Ayahuasca in the jungle, each met where it grows.
More Than a Retreat
Plant medicine has a home, a language, and a people. At Mountain Wind, we want you to meet it the way it has been met for generations: within a living culture, guided by those who carry it.
That is why our retreats go beyond the ceremony. You will celebrate Andean festivals, walk sacred sites, learn from Andean practitioners, and travel from the high mountains to the jungle.
The Raymi Festivals
The four Raymi festivals mark the sun’s passage through the year, and they are among the oldest celebrations of the Andes. Each year, people from across the highlands travel to Cusco and the Sacred Valley to take part.
After the Spanish conquest, the Church suppressed many Andean festivals, yet communities kept celebrating them. Today Inti Raymi fills Cusco every June 24, and the other Raymis are honored in communities throughout the Andes.
March Equinox
The Festival of Flowering honors the garden and the abundance it provides. In ceremony, it becomes a time to honor your own inner garden: what has grown, what to release, and what to plant next.
June Solstice
The Festival of the Sun was the most important of the four ceremonies celebrated in Cusco in Inca times, and it remains the best known. Our retreat includes the June 24 festival.
September Equinox
The Festival of the Moon honors Mama Killa and the rhythms of nature, and marks the season of sowing seeds, a time to plant new beginnings.
December Solstice
The Andean Royal Feast is a time to reflect on the year behind you and prepare for what comes next.
The Name
Huachuma, also spelled Wachuma, is the Quechua name for the Andean cactus many people call San Pedro. Archaeological evidence of its ceremonial use in the Andes goes back more than 3,000 years, long before the Spanish arrived.
The name San Pedro came later, through colonial Spanish and Catholic contact, after Saint Peter, the keeper of the keys of heaven. We use the traditional name out of respect for the people who carried this medicine through centuries of change.
You will still see us write “Huachuma (San Pedro)” in places, so that guests searching for the cactus by its better-known name can find us.
Your Guides
Our ceremonies are held with the people who carry these traditions, not just about them.
Andean Priest
The Q’ero are a Quechua community from the remote highlands of the Cusco region, near the sacred mountain Ausangate. Their spiritual leaders are called Paqos, a Quechua word often translated as priest or practitioner. We work with a Q’ero Paqo, who joins our Huachuma ceremonies and offers a traditional cleansing.
When Available
Whenever possible, we bring indigenous curanderos to hold ceremony with our groups. These curanderos are often old friends of ours and they sometimes join our The Serpent & The Condor retreats. They may be Shipibo, Secoya, Cocama, or Ashininka.
Beside You
Our facilitators walk with you throughout, and are present for translation and support during individual consultations. All of our facilitators are experienced and live locally, they have deep understanding of local customs and history. These dedicated plant medicine workers can translate more than language, they translate culture.
The Jungle
Our Ayahuasca center sits in the Manu Reserve, far from towns and the pace of daily life. The isolation is intentional.
Traditionally, apprentice curanderos trained in isolation, away from distraction, dieting with the plants. Our jungle center offers a similar quiet, so you can meet the medicine with fewer distractions.
Experiences
Experiences vary by retreat. Here is what our guests encounter along the way.
Walk to sacred sites and archaeological places, including a guided walk at the ancient Temple of the Moon.
Join traditional offerings of gratitude, including coca leaf offerings at nearby temples.
Visit viewpoints, the Condor Sanctuary, and the market at Pisac on a guided day out.
Stop in mountain villages along the road, such as Paucartambo, on the journey between jungle and mountains.
Gather around the fire in the evening to share, laugh, and reflect with your fellow travelers.
Nutritious seasonal meals prepared by experienced cooks.
Go Deeper
Ausangate is one of the most sacred mountains of the Cusco region, an apu, or mountain spirit, honored by the Q’ero and other Andean communities. Through our Custom Retreats, you can add a visit to the Ausangate region with the Q’ero to one of our retreats, or build a private journey around it.
Custom retreats begin at five days but we can add the Ausangate visit to an existing retreat as well. Tell us what you are looking for, and we will shape the details around your dates, your pace, and your intentions.
Respect
In Q’ero tradition, ayni, or reciprocity, guides how people live with one another and with the land. We try to travel in the same spirit: learning before we ask, and giving back.
Answers to common questions about the cultural side of our retreats.
The four Raymi festivals are ancient Andean celebrations that mark the sun’s passage through the year: Pawkar Raymi at the March equinox, Inti Raymi at the June solstice, Killa Raymi at the September equinox, and Quapaq Raymi at the December solstice. Our Raymi Retreats are built around them.
Huachuma is the traditional Quechua name for the cactus. San Pedro is the name given in the colonial era through Spanish and Catholic contact. We use the traditional name out of respect, and write “Huachuma (San Pedro)” in places so guests can find us.
The Q’ero are a Quechua community from the remote highlands of the Cusco region. They call their spiritual leaders Paqos, a word often translated as priest or practitioner. We work with a Q’ero Paqo, who joins our Huachuma ceremonies.
Yes, whenever possible. We bring indigenous curanderos to hold ceremony with our groups when they are available.
The first thing we proritize is safety and the ability to work with foreign ideas. For this reason we only work with specific curanderos that have experience with foreign mindsets. When we can we bring indigenous curanderos as supplemental guests, especially on our The Serpent & The Condor retreats.
Our Ayahuasca center is in the Manu Reserve, far from towns, on purpose. Traditionally, apprentice curanderos trained in isolation, away from distraction. The quiet of the jungle helps you meet the medicine with fewer distractions.
Yes. Our Custom Retreats can add a visit to the Ausangate region with the Q’ero to an existing retreat or build a private journey around it. Custom retreats begin at five days, and we quote each one individually.
No. If you need translation or would like support, a facilitator is present during individual consultations.
Experiences vary by retreat and may include sacred site walks, coca leaf offerings, a guided Sacred Valley day, mountain village stops, and evening fire circles. See your retreat page for details.
Begin Your Journey
Whether you join a Raymi festival, travel from the jungle to the mountains, or build a private journey to Ausangate, we will help you find the right path.
Small-group Huachuma, Ayahuasca, and Kambo retreats in Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and Manu.
Add Machu Picchu or Ausangate to a retreat, or build a private retreat around your own dates.
How we screen guests, hold ceremony, and care for you throughout your journey.
