Thanks for your recommendations. I wouldn't want to go without establishing some connections first.. With so many options in Iquitos I wouldn't want to end up with people who didn't have the best of intentions and experience.

Blessings!

www.fidelandy.com/Fidel_Andy.html

i did 10 days of work with him in iquitos, though he is from ecuador. the healing and teachings i experienced were far beyond what i could ever have expected...and i went in to the trip with serious expectations and found him "by accident". his prices are MORE than reasonable and he does very good political and educational work as well

blessings on your journey

I am Hamilton Souther, owner of Blue Morpho. Over the last months many commentaries about Blue Morpho have appeared on the tribe forums. I have stayed out of the discussions as a way of supporting open communication about our business and practices. Due to inaccurate criticism by others who have never been to Blue Morpho, I have decided to respond, to offer the community of tribe the opportunity to know more about our practice as a center and work with Ayahuasca.

In 2001, at the age of 23, I was called to an apprenticeship in the jungle and found myself traveling into a very remote area of the Peruvian Amazon in search of Ayahuasca. I participated in my first ceremonies and knew that I would stay to continue apprenticeship. I built a modest jungle house, with the help of some locals, of palm thatch and plank wood floors along a tributary 24 hours travel from Iquitos. My house became part of a community of eight families. Upriver from our house there were no other permanent inhabitants. The area had only a small river into and out of it. There were no roads and no modern services. We were a five hour canoe paddle from the nearest store.
I began apprenticeship with a backpack and a machete independent of any other financial support. I was then 23 years old, living on my own in the middle of the forest, apprenticing in a traditional manner with a love and commitment to the medicine in my heart.

I realized that apprenticeship would take years and I needed a way to support myself while studying. I formed Blue Morpho with a local guide who specialized in jungle adventure trekking. I hoped that Blue Morpho would allow me to live a frontier life in the jungle.
My dream was to be able to support myself enough to be able to continue learning and living in the jungle. I lived for apprenticeship and the ability to continue participating in diets and ceremonies.

After our first year I knew that Blue Morpho would become a center dedicated solely to shamanism. At the same time I ended apprenticeship with the first shamans I had worked with and began training under the tutelage of Don Alberto Torres Davila. Don Alberto is a Maestro Ayahuasquero, Palero and Sanangero who has over 3,000 ceremonies of experience. He started apprenticing at the age of 8 under the tutelage of his grandfather. He came from a lineage of shamans that extended back to the Lamas people before the arrival of the Spanish. He had not worked with westerners before agreeing to work with us. He had worked as a traditional healer treating people from local communities in and around his home town.

After the first three months of apprenticeship with Alberto, I was accepted by Julio Llerena Pinedo (Maestro Ayahuascquero, Palero and Sanangero) as his apprentice as well. He became my grandfather maestro taking me under his wing as he had done for Alberto 30 years earlier. The two of them guided my apprenticeship, as they had been guided, taking me through diets and ceremonies. We entered into pacts of loyalty in the medicine to work together and to defend each other for life.

Apprenticeship was the hardest thing I ever imagined. I dedicated my life to it and to the medicine. I came to an understanding that you have to be willing to die for it. The tests of apprenticeship led me through the darkest fears and greatest terrors as well as physical illnesses and injury including being hospitalized on three occasions. Nothing mattered in comparison to being in ceremony and learning how to guide and direct the medicine. The medicine was the most beautiful thing I had ever experienced. My maestros guided me with very little verbal discussion about Ayahuasca and apprenticeship. The doctor spirits taught me directly through vision and realization. Ayahausca coursed through every part of my being transforming my mind, body and spirit.

I completed my apprenticeship and was granted the rank of Maestro by Julio in December 2004. Julio was 86 at the time and I was the last shaman to be granted the rank of Maestro by him. I had been given the right to drink and practice medicine on my own. I felt ecstatic to have lived through apprenticeship but I knew that my path was only beginning.

During my apprenticeship, I ran Blue Morpho where small groups came to our camp to participate in ceremonies and/or diet. We were a very small organization with only five of us working. I did the airport pickups, hotel reservations, tour organization, purchasing, administration, translating, guiding, boat driving, and camp managing. Blue Morpho was my passion as it allowed me to continue to participate in the medicine.

We had worked seven days a week for the first three years and still were not sure if Blue Morpho would survive. Then little by little Blue Morpho grew. After becoming a Maestro I began to see a future for us and the possibility that groups would grow in size. I decided that we needed to move location closer to Iquitos to decrease the travel time to and from camp and to be in an area that had access to modern support. I asked the spirits where I would find a piece of land suitable to our needs and they lead me to our current camp location on the Iquitos Nauta road. In September of 2005 we built the initial phase of our second camp and in November of the same year we began hosting groups. I designed the camp, buildings and layout including the architecture and construction. I built the center out of the love I had for the medicine and the guests who would experience medicine there. I gave the first camp to the local family that worked with us in gratitude for their faithful support through our early years.

In March of 2006 an article was published about the author Kira Salak’s personally transformational experiences at Blue Morpho in the National Geographic Adventure Magazine. www.nationalgeographic.com/adve....html Soon thereafter, people responded to the article expressing interest in Blue Morpho. We were presented with a challenge that guests wanted to participate in our workshops, not so much interested in the practice of Amazonian shamanism but rather for results. They wanted to transform. They wanted to be positively changed. They wanted to learn and grow. We developed a style that made Ayahusaca and Amazonian shamanism accessible and understandable to those with little or no shamanistic background or experience. Our guests began showing results as profound as the ones stated in the article. They left decades of depression behind in five ceremonies. They released every imaginable trauma or horror from their pasts. They were freed from the internal suffering of guilt and doubt. They transcended and met the infinite.
They experienced, firsthand, divinity and unconditional divine love.

We continued to expand our camp as demand for workshop spaces grew. We created a paradise in the jungle of gardens filled with flowering plants, extremely comfortable rustic and simple accommodations, and trained and organized a staff dedicated to supporting our work with each guest. Over the last two and a half years we have evolved and refined our presentation of our work. We are now a staff of full time and part time employees of over twenty.

The positive feedback from our guests is overwhelming and demonstrates the true impact it has on them. Each new group represents a journey into unconditional love through the guidance of the shamans and the phenomenal expression of Ayahuasca. Don Alberto and I continue to preside over all of our ceremonies.

At Blue Morpho we have worked to offer a space that is more than just participating in ceremonies. The transformational work with Ayahuasca can be the most intense experience of your life which may include violent movements of your body, chaotic mental spaces, interaction with many different kinds of spirits, huge swings of emotions or very dark visions. Considering how intense it can be, our method of working with Ayahausca has taken into account our guests’ various needs and how to meet those needs during their experience. We created a huge support system at the camp to make sure the experience is safe and that you are well taken care of.

A 9 day workshop includes:

Shamanism

• 5 Ayahausca ceremonies: Presided over by Maestros, apprentices and trained support staff
• Post ceremony discussions of individual experiences with Questions & Answers
• Question & Answers sessions with the Maestros
• Preparation for Ayahuasca Ceremony presentation
• Collection of Plants for the preparation of Ayahuasca
• Cooking Ayahuasca: You help prepare the Ayahausca that will be used during the week
• Medicinal Plant Walk
• Guided Meditations
• Camalonga Dream Journey
• Incan Fire Ceremony
• Blue Morpho Workbook
• Preparation for leaving Blue Morpho presentation

Jungle Excursions Activities

• Guided Hikes
• Self guided trail system
• Bird Watching
• River fishing
• Itaya River Swim
• Itaya River Boat Ride

Camp Layout and Accommodations

• Main House: Dining and Main Living Area
• Ceremonial House: All ceremonies and Hammock Lounge (during the day)
• 5 Bungalows: Sleeps 6 with private bedrooms with shared bathroom and living room
• Lake House: Guided Meditations, Yoga and Arts & Crafts
• Lake Gazebo
• Swimming lake
• Meditation Bungalows
• Apprentice House
• Staff Bungalow
• Staff House
• Brick walking paths between buildings
• Stunningly colorful gardens
• Trail System: Self guided hiking trail system

Meals and Services

• Varied generous menu offering our standard, vegetarian or vegan cuisine
• 24 hour coffee, tea and infusions
• Purified bottled drinking water
• Laundry Service
• Transportation from Iquitos to the camp and back
• Airport Pickup
• Hotel reservations
• Personal guided booking process

Safety

• Maestros on call 24 hours a day
• Apprentices on call 24 hours a day
• Registered Nurse at camp
• Two emergency vehicles
• Emergency satellite communication system
• Anti-Venom
• Extensive supply of western medicine for minor or travel related illnesses
• Fire Prevention and Safety Plan
• Staff certified and trained in emergency safety
• Prescreening of guests to make sure they are medically approved for the experience

Security:

• 24 hours security staff
• Individual lock boxes for valuables in private accommodation

9 Day Shamanic Workshop Sample Itinerary:


Meet at the Blue Morpho Office in Iquitos on Monday morning at 10:00 A.M.

Depart Iquitos at 11:00 A.M. to begin the one and a half hour bus ride to the Shamanic Center.

1st day / Monday
Arrival at Blue Morpho Shamanism Center
Afternoon - Medicinal plant walk
Evening - Orientation meeting, Camalonga Dream Journey (optional)
Meals: Lunch, Dinner

Arrive at the Blue Morpho Jungle Camp around 12:30 P.M. After settling into your private accommodations, go on a short walk around the area to familiarize yourself with your surroundings and return for lunch. After lunch at 3:30 P.M. go on group jungle walk to collect medicinal plant admixtures for the ayahuasca preparation and identify medicinal plants lead by Master Shamans Alberto Torres Davila and Hamilton Souther. Attend a presentation of the shamanic diet and preparation of diet plants, and then a group orientation meeting before dinner. Learn about the Blue Morpho history. Dinner will be served for those not participating in the Camalonga Dream Journey. The Camalonga Dream Journey requires an evening fast. After a savory dinner continue to get to know the other guests. Drink Camalonga a sacred teacher plant that teaches through dream journeys. For dieters, drink diet plants followed by an informal evening question and answer session with Hamilton Souther.

2nd day / Tuesday
Morning - Preparation of Ayahuasca, Discussion of Ayahuasca, Q&A with Don Alberto Torres Davila
Afternoon - Continuation of Q&A
Evening - Sacred Ayahuasca Ceremony
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Awake early to a hot cup of tea or coffee, and then begin the preparation of Ayahuasca at 7:30 A.M. Participate in the preparation of Ayahuasca (Sacred Visionary Teacher Plant) that will be used in our ceremonial work. Connect with its spirit through the beginning stages of preparation. After breakfast the apprentices will hold a meeting to prepare you for the ceremony of ayahuasca. After the meeting, meet in small groups with Don Alberto Torrres Davila for questions and answers. After lunch your last meal for the day, due to a mandatory evening fast before the Ayahuasca ceremony, help in the final stages of cooking Ayahuasca. At 8:00 P.M. begin the Ceremony of Ayahuasca with Master Shaman Curandero Alberto Torres Davila. Listen to sacred magical singing, Icaros, as the shamans conduct this sacred ceremony. After the ceremony adjourn to your bed and rest.

3rd day / Wednesday
Morning - Discussion of Ceremony, Guided Hike
Afternoon - Q&A with Hamilton Souther, Guided Meditation
Evening - Sacred Ayahuasca Ceremony
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

After a nourishing breakfast we will have a discussion of the first ceremony. Share in the experience of others and the subsequent question and answer session. Continue your exploration of these diverse places connecting to Spirit. Before lunch take a guided hike through the immense forest. The afternoon activities begin with a Q&A session with Hamilton Souther. Afterward, prepare for the second ceremony by resting or participating in a guided meditation. As darkness falls prepare for our second ceremony.

4th day / Thursday
Morning - Discussion of Ceremony
Afternoon - Itaya River Swim and fishing
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Work with apprentices to further understand the previous night’s ceremony. Hear the experiences of other guests and share your own. In the afternoon visit the Itaya River, a tributary of the Amazon and swim in the refreshing waters. If you would like, try catching some fish. Enjoy an evening meal, a welcome change after the previous nights' fasts.

5th day / Friday
Morning - Rest & Relax, Jungle hike medicinal plant identification
Afternoon – Q&A with Don Alberto Torres Davila, Guided Shamanic Meditation Journey,
Evening - Sacred Ayahuasca Ceremony
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Enjoy breakfast after a night of deep rest. Relax in the morning, and then participate in a jungle hike where the medicinal plants of the forest are explained by one of our apprentices. In the afternoon there will be a Q&A with Maestro Alberto Torres Davila and then a guided Shamanic Meditation Journey. Prepare for our 3rd Ayahuasca ceremony. See how much you have learned over the last 5 days.

6th day / Saturday
Morning - Discussion of different shamanic practices, Jungle walk
Afternoon – Q&A with Hamilton Souther Rest & Relax
Evening - Ayahuasca Ceremony
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

After breakfast we will begin with a discussion of different kinds of shamanic practices. After the meeting go on a walk to visit the trees used in the Ayahuasca. Commune with the spirits of the trees. In the afternoon there will be Q&A with Hamilton Souther where we will expand deeper into the realms of universal spirituality As darkness falls, enter the amazing wonders and worlds of Ayahuasca in our fourth ceremony.

7th day / Sunday
Morning - Q&A with Hamilton Souther
Afternoon - Excursion Itaya river boat ride
Evening - Inka Fire Ceremony
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Discuss the previous night’s ceremony or any other question that have come up during the previous 4 ceremonies. This afternoon explore more of the jungle on the Itaya river boat excursion. Look for rare species of flora and fauna. After dinner participate in an Inka fire ceremony to invoke the spirit world and offer our intents to Spirit.

8th Day / Monday
Morning - Final Meeting
Afternoon – Q&A with Hamilton Souther Rest & Relax
Evening - Sacred Ayahuasca Ceremony
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Apprentices will prepare the group for their return home. Learn how to bring the spirit world into your everyday lives. In the afternoon prepare for our last Ayahuasca ceremony through our final discussion of universal spirituality and shamanism. This ceremony will bring closure to our work. The shamans will offer individual venteadas (blessings and protection) to each guest. Bask in the glory and infiniteness of Spirit cleansed and transformed.

9th Day / Tuesday
Return to Iquitos
Morning - Pack and prepare for return, Group photos and photos with shamans, San Juan Arts and Crafts Market Excursion
Meals: Breakfast

In the morning, bathe to release the last effects of the previous night’s ceremony. After breakfast, pack and prepare for return. Take group photos and individual photos with the shamans. Depart the Shamanism Center at 10:30 a.m. On the way back to Iquitos stop to see and purchase local jungle arts and craft at the San Juan Arts and Crafts Market. Arrive in Iquitos at 12:30 p.m. renewed after an amazing 9 days with Blue Morpho. Busses leave guests at the Hotel Dorado.

Blue Morpho as a Business:

Blue Morpho was birthed out of Ayahuasca and the practice of Ayahuasca medicine. The principles of the medicine teach responsibility, love, acceptance and honesty and we have extended those principles into how we interact as a business. We stand behind our professionalism and commitment to integrity in the practice of medicine.

• The majority of our staff are locals
• Pay above standard wages including overtime
• Offer part time employees the same benefits as full time employees even though it is not obligated by law.
• Provide health care
• Double salary for Christmas and Independence day holiday
• Pay Severance
• Offer interest free loans to employees
• Provide transportation to and from work

Blue Morpho Charity:

Blue Morpho has offered charity from our inception. We have worked with local communities to donate

• Clothing
• School Supplies
• Medical Supplies
• Dental Hygiene Supplies
• Treat locals free of charge

Guest Feedback:

We have spent the last seven years making Blue Morpho a very professional operation. We have looked into the needs of our guests and have responded developing a camp environment and style that matches those needs. The positive feedback from our guests stands out. They have said that Blue Morpho

• Is like a second home
• That it saved their lives
• That they were no longer depressed
• That they were physically healed
• That they got a lot more out of it than expected
• That it showed them divinity and unconditional love
• That it brought them forgiveness and healing of past traumas
• That they found trust
• That all their needs were met
• That they felt safe and well taken care of

It is so beautiful to see someone shine after ceremonies finally relieved of their pain and suffering. It is fully rewarding to see someone that finally comes back to into their body and opens their heart having been through extreme traumas. It brings tears to the eyes to see someone finally freed of a life plagued with depression. Satisfaction is felt witnessing someone find “their life purpose” after realizations in a ceremony. These are all common results in each of our workshops. I have personally guided hundreds of people through these kinds of transformations. They learn that shamanism is not about ideologies, dogmas and belief systems but rather personal experience. It is about an exploration of love and life. They explore their essence of being alive.

We opened our hearts to our guests and freely shared the medicine. We share what it is and how it works, what we have learned and how we use it. Ayahuasca is not just drinking a tea made of different plants. The drinking of the plants opens the door to a whole world of spirits and medicine.

Our growth was dictated by demand. More and more people wanted to come and experience Ayahuasca with us. We built and grew to continue to share our medicine with the people that asked to come.

Many have decided to return to further their exploration of Ayahausca and themselves. They found Blue Morpho to be a place that was safe, where they could participate in this kind of shamanism and get out of the experience what they needed. They come back because they found that the experience at Blue Morpho is unique and not like any experience they ever had in their lives. It is a personal joy to get to see them again and continue to guide them through Ayahausca. It has allowed us to develop friendship with our guests. The larger groups have allowed our guests to develop friendship among themselves too. They have formed their own online forums staying touch and supporting each other through the transitional stages of change in the weeks and months after our groups.

Blue Morpho was born out of the medicine and is our love and passion. We have dedicated our lives to Amazonian shamanism and living the medicine. We hold over 100 ceremonies a year and I drink in every one. We live in the medicine and share it with those that come to our center. Blue Morpho is the living of my dream that started seven years ago with a vision to apprentice in Ayahuasca medicine.

We stand behind our professionalism and successes. We offer authentic, deep, and powerful personal experiences in an environment that is safe and comfortable. We do everything we can to make sure that each guest leaves Blue Morpho safe, sane and positively transformed through our work.

Sincerely,

Hamilton Souther

"With BM, when any questioning or less than positive statement appears, folks just come out of the cracks as if they were a network of supporters on standby with an intense mission to put down any negative comments or questions anyone makes about the place and its leader. I've seen it happen at least three times on this Tribe in the last couple of years, and when it does, rightly or wrongly, it reinforces my first impressions of the place and the man every time. "

Yeah Pluma, you hit the nail on the head....like I said before, I'm not knocking on BM or the work they do, it's just weird that everytime their name comes up all of a sudden this hoard of satisfied voyagers comes out of the woodworks, always with profiles they made purely to endorse the place.....strange.....

I notice you made no recommendations.
I thought the thread was about recommendations. Not bitching about someplace you know nothing about.

"With BM, when any questioning or less than positive statement appears"...

Notice that there were no questions or less than positive statements made about BM.
On a thread about recommending where to go, one person from BM offered theirs.

"Intense mission"? That's supposed to be insulting right?

And were your impressions of BM based on any actual knowledge of the place? Ever been there?
Ever met the people who do ceremony there?

Long term members of this tribe?
Does this distinction bestow you with special privileges?
Should your voice hold more weight than others.

Is your opinion more valuable when discussing a place you've never been and have no knowledge of, as opposed to someone who's actually been there?

Prepare for the flood? Maybe, and maybe not. Here's a prediction for you though, I'm in a mood, so go ahead and bait me with unfounded mean spirited comments and see how well they hold up.... Or we can just get back to making recommendations.

But, language aside, la Madre Aya always finds a way to communicate, doesn't she..."

indeed!

Looks like it worked out ok! Thanks for being willing to open up and share with us. Truth is there's nothing more prone to speculation than the unknown, so it's nice to have someone who is willing to be a part of this community, and who has been to Blue Morpho. Thanks again Victoria, and welcome!

glad it worked out. lovely image

Here's another approach to this Mari.

If your concerned about someones behavior, you can just ask them what the source of it is. That way you can discover how it is they came to be behaving that way. You could ask the Maestro's who work there about it to see if they know about it, and if not or if so, you can ask how they feel about it.

Instead you choose to make the accusations you did above without any qualifications as to weather you personally heard the things you claim are being said.

Why not start a Aya tribe where people in the business openly state what it is they do and how much of their livelihood is made from it, and then tell all the rumors you want about each other there, while leaving this Aya site to those who participate with the medicine, occasionally or regularly, and want to talk about their experiences without being pushed or pulled by the bickering and rumor mongering of business owners.

Or, just make all the unfounded remarks you want and don't listen to mine at all. :)

I am not sure that the behavior described by Richard and Mariella is limited to Blue Morpho people.

In my experience -- for whatever it's worth -- *everyone* in Iquitos is constantly discussing which curandero is really a brujo, who has harmed whom under the guise of healing, who has put a pusanga on whose spouse, whose bad luck or business troubles are due to brujeria, and who purchased the services of a brujo to seduce or corrupt or destroy someone else. Under the surface politeness, beneath people calling each other hermano and hermanita, there is a huge gossip mill in Iquitos -- all about sorcery.

And this is simply a reflection, I believe, of a preoccupation that exists throughout the Upper Amazon.

We talk about celebrity sex and celebrity drug addictions. Loretanos talk about sorcery.

For whatever that's worth.

-- Steve
singingtotheplants.blogspot.com/

Gossip is 2nd and 3rd hand, not first hand.

In my experience, when the shamans make money, they buy more land to protect it from the loggers and to try to help preserve and grow medicinal plants. None of them are building mcmansions, driving bentleys - or even chevy's. There's only a couple I know of who are making what could be considered in the US a moderate amount of money, most are struggling just to get by.

"It's this mentality that's bringing the planet to its current phase of destruction. Ayahausca is supposed to heal us from this madness."

This "madness" as you call it is LIFE and has been going on for eternity and will continue to go on for another eternity. We are the beauty and light of god in everything we do (although I too am challenged at times to see it). Ayahuasca invites us to view the word in a different way, in a positive way so that we may be free of the negativity that rules many our our earths inhabitants. Mansions and Bentleys are all beautiful expressions as are palm thatched huts and bicycles. The judgment is in your head as to the positivity or negativity of each. The land at Blue Morpho is not hunted and is set up to protect the natural flora and fauna which has been driven out by the natural expansion of civilization. Forgive yourself for you part in what you call "destruction" and forgive those who honestly seek to make our world a better place though their work albeit shamanism or otherwise. There is no "right" path only the path you are on.

Good luck,

David

Sorry, Omarsky, but if you think you're going to get anything but a lot of mumbo jumbo and self-serving explanations on these sites, you're going to be disappointed. Mostly what you see around here is inflated egos and New Age orientation. No one, except yourself and I, is going to agree with you regarding the poison that is being channeled to the jungle. They just do not see it, being well indoctrinated into the system of Capitalism and greed. Beauty, light of God, ad nauseum.

Hi chullachaqui. I see truth in your soul. I'm not as eloquent as you in your words. I thank God for people in this "Tribe" that can see beyond the creations of ego and fear. Mr. Dave sees beauty in cash, bentleys and other riches. He promotes BM and talks as he knows your friend. He does portray your friend as a quasi-beggar, a kind of waiter, or someone "waiting" for the gringos to kick him some coin he deserves for opening the doors of perception, a gatekeeper for the truth... like he is running some kind of dry cleaner business. I'll be blunt. Dave, you're full of shit.

I'm glad to hear that and I hope he accepts the invitation as well.
Sometimes I lose sight of it, but I really believe that all of the ayahuasqueros need to be in friendly communication and even more need to put aside unhealthy competition.
United we stand and all that.