Aya Madre is located about an hour from the international airport in Iquitos, Peru. The center lies deep in the jungle, off Carretera Nauta (KM 22), down a dirt road just past the tiny village of Nueva Esperanza.

The center is fairly remote and secluded and is currently composed of 5 individual tambos, a larger shared guesthouse, a kitchen, a large maloka, and 2 outdoor bathrooms (construction is under way for 2 additional bathrooms and 4 showers).

​These simple, rustic, yet comfortable buildings are located in a large clearing filled with white sand, mysterious (and rare!) patches of soft jungle moss, and a nearby creek for swimming and bathing. As the center continues to grow and expand, we anticipate building several more individual and large tambos/guesthouses, a common area, a medicine & vegetable plant garden, a house of medicine, and more. The property contains approximately 22 acres of land, much of it pristine rain forest.

Come stay at Aya Madre and help us build a traditional yet innovative healing house and community for the 21st century!

A Woman Shaman Defies the Odds, and Starts her Own Healing Center

Several years ago when I first sat in an ayahuasca ceremony at Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual with maestra shaman Estela Pangoza, her icaros, the healing ayahuasca songs, felt like scalpels of love penetrating deeply into my heart, spine and psyche. I was captivated by her skill, and by the kindness and dignity with which she conducted ceremony. As she sang, I felt myself elevated, coming more into alignment, a sense of everything being put together in a loving and harmonious way. Over several ceremonies, I discovered that Estela is a shaman of great talent. From that point on, I’ve had great affection and respect for her and for her medicine.

“When Estela turns on the hummingbird medicine, well, your soul takes flight. And while I have drunk ayahuasca over time with around sixty shamans, I have never ever heard any one of them sing like Estela.” – Chris Kilham