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Two walkers following a stone edged path along a high lake under a bright bank of cloud

July 1 to 11, 2027

Heart Path Huachuma Retreat in the Sacred Valley

Ten days in Peru, with two full days of ceremony on the mountain and planting at the Huachuma Sanctuary.

Apply See the price

The next season

The Next Retreat

July 1 to 11, 2027

There are ten nights and nine places.

Registration is open. Apply, and we will talk it through before anything is booked.

We take one group at a time to Pisac, in the Sacred Valley. The price starts at $3,800, and $500 holds your place.

A still lake holding the reflection of a dark mountain and a bank of cloud

Photographs

A still lake below a bare mountain ridge, with two people standing on the shore
A round thatched temple with Huachuma cacti growing in front of it
A sheep grazing at the edge of a high lake with bare hills rising behind it
A single tall Huachuma column standing against a bare mountain ridge and broken cloud
Someone standing on a rock outcrop with both arms raised toward the sky
Three Huachuma columns standing in long grass, with a thatched shelter on the rise behind them
People sitting in a circle on the floor around a painted mandala set with singing bowls
Tall Huachuma columns standing together against a blue sky above a tiled roof
A shallow stream running past adobe buildings, with ducks on the water and sheep on the bank
Someone kneeling with both hands in the soil around a newly planted Huachuma cutting, rows of young cuttings and rings of stone running up the slope behind
A row of Huachuma columns growing along a tiled adobe wall, looking across a wooded valley to a bare rock mountain under a clear sky
Two young Huachuma cuttings standing in red earth, sharp in the foreground, with someone digging out of focus behind them
Three walkers standing on a trail with a wide valley and mountains behind them
Looking straight down at a young Huachuma cutting set in dark soil inside a ring of broken stones
Someone in a wide brimmed hat swinging a pickaxe into hard ground beside a reed fence, a Huachuma cutting already planted at their feet
A narrow stone passage roofed with heavy slabs, lit by one lamp, a person standing at the far end
Someone standing on rock high above a valley, playing a wooden flute
A carved stone head seen in profile in a museum, its features part human and part feline
Someone standing among tall Huachuma columns with both arms raised
Someone walking the shore of a mirror still lake between two dark hills on a ceremony day
Tall Huachuma columns growing along the wall of an adobe roundhouse under a thatched roof

Ten Days in Pisac

We stay in Pisac, in the Sacred Valley of Peru, within walking distance of the center of town.

In Peru we sit in two ceremonies, each a whole day outdoors on the mountain, see the sacred sites of the valley, and on the last full day plant cactus at the Huachuma Sanctuary, together the whole way. We keep learning the whole time we are there. Before the trip, four preparation calls go through the history of the plant, the science, how it grows and how a ceremony works.

A narrow street in Pisac hung with bunting, its painted walls running toward the mountains
The ribbed green column of a Huachuma cactus close up, its spines catching the light

The medicine

The Plant

Huachuma is a columnar cactus from the Andes, Echinopsis pachanoi, which older books call Trichocereus pachanoi. People in this part of the world have used it for around three thousand years, and they have never stopped.

The Quechua name is usually read as waqcha uma, roughly “without a head”. The name describes what the plant does: it quiets the analytical mind and moves your attention from the head to the heart.

It is also called San Pedro, after the saint who holds the keys. That name dates from the years when the Church was trying to end the practice, and the practice survived in part by taking it on. The plant also goes by Wachuma, Achuma and Aguacolla, sometimes spelled Aguacoya.

Huachuma columns seen from below against a bright sky

Learning

What You Will Learn

Most of this we cover on the four preparation calls before the trip. The rest we learn in Peru, from the place, the people and the ceremonies.

History

The record starts at Chavin de Huantar, a temple complex in the northern highlands from roughly 900 to 200 BCE. The plant is carved into its stonework, held by a figure at the center of the site, so it was already at the center of religious life there.

In 1532 the Spanish arrived, and at Cajamarca they seized Atahualpa. For the next three centuries the medicine was recorded as heresy and the people who used it were prosecuted. The Peruvian Inquisition ended in 1820, and the practice outlived it.

Part of how it survived is that some priests tried the medicine themselves and came back wanting to reconcile what they found with their own faith. The name San Pedro comes from that time. The practice took on the vocabulary of the people trying to end it and carried on underneath.

Science

We go through what mescaline is and what it does, including what is well established and what is still argued over. Most substances people reach for turn the volume down, and this one turns it up.

Mescaline gets most of the attention because it was isolated early and comes out of the plant easily, but it is one compound among many. There are tyramines too, a long list of others, and fats, sugars and minerals. When five alkaloids are recorded in a cactus, those are the five that could be identified with the methods available, and there may be hundreds.

Cultivation

Huachuma grows slowly from seed and readily from a cutting, and it grows differently depending on where in the Andes it is. We see several varieties growing in one place and learn to tell them apart.

Its spines are too small to protect it from anything. One explanation is that they are left over from an ancestor that needed them. Another, from people who have spent time watching the plant, is that they catch dew and run the water down to the skin.

Demand has grown fast, and wild plants are being cut faster than they grow back. That is the problem the Foundation works on, and we plant some ourselves at the Huachuma Sanctuary.

Ceremonial Use

Huachuma has been used in ceremony in many different ways over three thousand years, and it still is. On the calls we go through how the ceremonies on this retreat are held: where the circle sits and why it sits close enough to touch, and how the day moves from first light to the end.

A stick, a rattle and a feather are passed around the circle. You hold the stick in your left hand and the rattle in your right, crossed over it, with the feather in the fingers of your left. They are an invitation to sing. Nobody has to, and you can pass them on.

Everything moves clockwise. You pass in front of people, not behind them, and you do not point the soles of your feet at the altar. Small rules like these let nine people move around the circle without anyone having to negotiate.

Ceremonies are held in noble silence, which means staying inside your own experience. The urge to speak in the middle of a ceremony is usually an urge to get out of a feeling, and you will learn what to do with it, and what to say if someone speaks to you.

The preparation calls also cover confidentiality, boundaries, asking before you touch someone or offer advice, and how to witness someone without trying to fix them. These are practiced for the whole ten days.

Miguel’s framework

Four Doors, and a Map of a Life

Miguel works with four doors and he opens them in order. Each has an element and an animal, and each stands for a season of a life.

The East is fire and the puma, for childhood and coming into presence. The West is water and the eagle, for youth and the opening of perspective. The North is air and the deer, for the generations behind you and ahead of you. The South is earth and the snake, for elderhood and staying close to the ground.

As Miguel puts it, we need a map to navigate the terrain. The framework is his to teach, and the preparation calls go further into it before the trip.

Jagged peaks rising beyond a long slope of golden grassland

Before and after

Before and After the Ten Days

The calls before and the sessions after are online, so the only travel is the ten days.

In Peru there are the two ceremonies, the visit to the Sanctuary, the ancient sites, and open days in between. Before the trip there are four weekly calls with the whole group, on history, science, ceremony and packing. After we get home there are four group integration sessions, spread over the following months, which is when most of the questions come up.

Four calls before the trip, the ten days in Peru, and four calls once everyone is home.

Suggested reading before you travel: San Pedro Huachuma: Opening the Pathways of the Heart, by Javier Regueiro.

Two ceremonies, each a full day on the mountain, guided by Miguel Mendiburu.

The shape of it

The Ten Days

The days follow a rough plan, since the weather and the group both change things. We arrive on the first day and leave on the eleventh, which makes ten nights.

How the Days Run.

On ceremony days we leave in the morning and come down as the light goes. Other days start with breakfast together, and the mornings go to sound work, ancient sites, or nothing at all. Afternoons are yours. At dusk everyone gathers to eat, and most evenings end at the fire with some songs and a story that runs longer than it should.

Day 1.Arrive in Cusco and transfer down to Pisac
Day 2.Rest from the travel. A gentle walk through the town or up to the terraces
Day 3.Opening circle with Miguel, and the group agreements out loud
Day 4.Open day. Market, rest, and preparation
Day 5.First mountain Huachuma ceremony
Day 6.Integration. Rest and light time together
Day 7.Open day. Ancient sites, horses, massage, or nothing
Day 8.Second mountain Huachuma ceremony
Day 9.Rest and integrate
Day 10.Closing circle and planting at the Huachuma Sanctuary
Day 11.Departure and transfer to Cusco

We guide gently, and you set your own pace. Resting is part of the program.

The group following a stone walled path past adobe buildings, with sheep grazing beside it

Preservation

Planting at the Sanctuary

Wild Huachuma is being cut faster than it grows back. At the Huachuma Sanctuary, mature plants are protected and new ones are propagated, with several hundred in the ground already and room on the hillside for five thousand.

Every group plants there, after learning what is growing and why.

Huachuma Works LLC is wholly owned by the Huachuma Foundation, a 501(c)⁠(3) in Arizona. Any profit this company makes is returned to the Foundation and applied to its charitable purposes.

Dozens of young Huachuma cuttings standing in dry red earth across a cleared slope, a painted marker stone set beside one of them
Young Huachuma cacti newly planted along a terraced hillside of red earth

Your guides

Who You Will Be With

Two people standing together outside an adobe house, with cacti and mountains behind them
Hamid Jabbar and Miguel Mendiburu above the valley, with young Huachuma planted along the wall.

Hamid Jabbar

Space holder and facilitator, founder of the Huachuma Foundation

Hamid is with every group, from the first call to the last. He studied music at NYU on a scholarship, then earned a law degree at UCLA and practiced law in Los Angeles for several years. He has practiced yoga and meditation since 2005 and taught them since 2013, and he has worked with Huachuma, and with the people who hold its ceremonies in Peru, since 2017.

He founded the Huachuma Foundation and is its director.

Miguel Mendiburu

Ceremony facilitator, Sacred Valley

Miguel has offered Huachuma ceremonies for more than twenty years from his home in the Sacred Valley. His way is gentle and unhurried. He guides people into states of unity and remembering.

Miguel owns the land where the Huachuma Sanctuary is growing, and the preservation project was his idea.

Dani Reardon beside a tall Huachuma column, smiling at the camera

Dani Reardon

Yoga instructor, sound practitioner and ceremony facilitator, Secretary of the Huachuma Foundation

Dani came to this work from professional fitness. She is a certified yoga instructor, sound practitioner and ceremony facilitator, and a devoted student of Huachuma.

As a professional fitness athlete she placed second in the world in Women’s Physique, and she earned her Master of Science in Applied Exercise Physiology and Nutrition. She has planted at the Sanctuary with every group so far.

The house

Where We Stay

We stay at Martina Wasi, a private Andean villa a ten minute walk from the center of Pisac, on more than four thousand square meters of garden and farmland with the mountains right behind it.

A stone terrace set with metal garden chairs and two planted urns, looking across a lawn and trees to a bare mountain
A sitting room under a beamed ceiling with a long low sofa, red and orange cushions, a red woven cloth on the table and green framed windows onto the garden
A kitchen with a concrete counter, a gas range under a steel hood, open wooden shelves and a window onto the garden
An adobe house with a tiled roof and green framed windows across a wide lawn, a covered terrace at one end and a mountain rising behind it
A bedroom under a beamed ceiling with a double bed, a bunk above it reached by a wooden ladder, a checked blanket and a green framed window

The house has local textiles, a fireplace in the common room, a full kitchen, laundry, a dining room and a game area. Sheep, guinea pigs and several unserious dogs live on the property.

Breakfast and dinner are cooked from fresh local ingredients, with no seed oils and no processed food. Tell us about allergies and restrictions in the application and the cook will work around them. Lunch is on your own.

Four Ways to Sleep

A shared room has two to four beds and a shared bathroom, assigned by gender unless you tell us otherwise. A private single room comes with a private bathroom. A bungalow has its own kitchen, patio and fireplace, and is popular with couples. The premium private suites are the largest and most private rooms we have.

Bungalows and premium suites are usually at Karina Wasi next door, which has its own kitchens, patios and fireplaces. Rooms go in the order deposits arrive.

The town

Pisac and the Sacred Valley

Pisac is a town of cobbled streets under granite peaks, at the lower end of the Sacred Valley. The farmers market runs most mornings with fresh produce, juice, and breakfast made in front of you. On Sundays the main square fills with textiles, carved flutes, and a lane of Andean herbs and incense.

Above the town the old terraces and stonework are still standing, and the irrigation channels cut into them still carry water. The Vilcanota River runs below, on its way to the Amazon.

Two people with rucksacks walking away down a narrow street in Pisac between brick walls

Fit

Who Comes on This

This is for you if you want to understand the medicine as well as take it, and you will do the preparation before you arrive. You can walk uphill above nine thousand feet for most of a day, and you have a stable life at home to come back to. You are ready to be uncomfortable at times, and you care about the people you travel with as much as about the medicine.

The group strung out along a trail climbing a bare golden ridge on a ceremony day

We talk before anything is booked, and that conversation covers your health, your medications and anything else on your mind.

If you have been on retreat with us before, or you have worked with Huachuma or Peyote and know how they affect you, the Fire Path adds a third ceremony, all night by the fire.

See the Fire Path

The detail

What Is Included

In the Price

The price covers all six months. Before you travel, it covers four weekly preparation calls, the preparation materials and packing lists, and help coordinating flights.

In Peru it covers ten nights in the room you choose, breakfast and dinner together each day, and all ground transport, including airport transfers and the ceremony days. It also covers the two full day ceremonies with Miguel and the visit and planting at the Huachuma Sanctuary, along with optional sound baths, cacao circles and evenings by the fire.

After you get home, it covers the four integration sessions.

What You Arrange Yourself

You book your own flights to and from Cusco, and we help you coordinate them. Lunch is on you too, and it is inexpensive in Pisac. We recommend travel and medical insurance but do not require it.

If the group decides it wants extra activities, such as ecstatic dance, temazcal or more sound work, we make the introductions. Personal shopping is yours.

We can arrange for you to arrive a day early or stay a day late, for a small extra cost.

The 2023 group

In Their Words

People who came in 2023 wrote about the ten days afterward. Every testimonial is printed in full on the testimonials page.

A steep valley of dry grass and rock falling toward distant mountains
The valley in the late afternoon, with the river running along the floor of it.

“This retreat to Peru, the love song to the mountains, is the best I have been on. And I have been on many.”

Prayas G., 2023 Group

“Hamid has mastered facilitating with integrity. He is incredibly intuitive and tuned in providing the right amount of support and grounded guidance whilst empowering you and giving you space to do the inner work.”

Saba S., 2023 Group

“This was my first experience with this type of plant medicine, I had a bit of imposter syndrome in joining our group of incredible individuals who had a deeper understanding of the medicine. However, Hamid and our container welcomed me with open arms and supported me through my journey.”

Joel W., 2023 Group
Read them all

What it costs

The Price

Prices are per person, for the ten days.

Shared room$3,800
Private single with a private bathroom$4,800
Bungalow or premium suite$5,200
Two sharing a bungalow or suite, each$4,800

A $500 deposit holds your place once your application is accepted, whichever room you choose. Half of what is left after the deposit is due two months before departure and the other half one month before. On a shared room that is $500, then $1,650, then $1,650.

Paying in full when you book takes $200 off and replaces the deposit, so a shared room comes to $3,600. You can take it whenever you book.

Any profit the company makes returns to the Foundation. The full terms are on our legal page.

Questions

What Are the Dates?

The retreat runs July 1 to 11, 2027, ten nights, with nine places. Registration is open.

Do I Need Experience with This Medicine?

No. The four preparation calls bring everybody to the same starting point, and there is room in them for every question.

How Difficult Is It Physically?

Expect several hours uphill above nine thousand feet on the two ceremony days, and to be on your feet for most of them. Pisac sits around nine thousand seven hundred feet, and the first ceremony comes after several easy days so your body can catch up. If a knee, a back or a heart is on your mind, say so in the application.

What Does a Day Look Like When There Is No Ceremony?

Breakfast together, then the morning is open: the market, the terraces, sound work, horses, or nothing at all. Afternoons are yours. Everyone comes back together at dusk to eat, and the evening usually ends at the fire.

What If the Season Is Full When I Apply?

Apply anyway. We will tell you where things stand.

Are Payment Plans Available?

Yes. After the $500 deposit, the balance can be paid in monthly installments instead of the two payments above, with the last one due a month before departure. Ask about it on the call.

Can I Come on My Own?

Most people do. We share a house for ten days, and the four preparation calls mean everyone arrives already knowing everybody.

Do I Need a Visa?

Most travelers from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the EU need no visa to visit Peru as tourists, and your passport needs to be valid for at least six months after you enter the country. Check the current rules for your own passport before you book flights.

Is It Legal?

Ceremonies are held in Peru, in a traditional Andean context, by local practitioners under local custom and law. Nothing crosses a border, and the full statement is on our legal page. What Peru’s law says, source by source, is set out in Is Huachuma Legal in Peru?

Can I Get a Certificate or Facilitator Training?

No. This is a retreat, and what you learn on the calls and in Peru is for your own understanding, so there is no certificate. Training people to hold ceremonies takes a different kind of program.

How to Apply

You apply first, and nothing is paid until we have talked.

The application takes about fifteen minutes. We reply within a few days and set up a call, and after it we both decide. If you want your place, $500 holds it, and the preparation materials follow.

The next step

July 1 to 11, 2027

If the mountains have been on your mind, apply and we will talk.

Apply

Questions first? Write to us and we will reply within a few days.