Our story
Ayahuma began with a dream.
Actually, three dreams that found each other at exactly the right time.
Maestro Elvis dreamed of his own maloca, a place where he could share everything he'd learned in a way that truly honored his teachers, Shipibo tradition, the local Puerto Miguel community, and most importantly, the plant teachers themselves. A place built on reciprocity and respect, not extraction and profit.
Around the same time, Tanya and Thomas were dreaming too.
They envisioned a healing center that was intimate and felt like family, built with love and care, rooted in plant based medicine traditions. A place where family and friends could unwind, heal and rejuvenate.
A family-run oasis in the jungle that embraced simple, slow, connected living.
When these three dreams met, Ayahuma was born.
We built this place on our shared values of trust, love, support, and transparency. Every decision is guided by respect, for nature, for local culture, for the community that welcomes us onto this land. We are creating something that gives back.
Healing through authentic plant medicine, education support for local children and sustainable employment for the Puerto Miguel community.
The groups are small because that's how Maestro can truly know each person, hold individual space in ceremony and share his knowledge without compromise. We work directly with local families who help us maintain this space using traditional materials and methods.
This is Maestro Elvis’ maloca, held and supported by partners who share his vision.
This is a place built on love, held in trust, offered with open hearts.
Maestro Elvis
Born in the Shipibo community of Tahuayo Chino in 1984, Elvis spent his childhood unable to walk.
His body weakened by polio.
At ten years old, when conventional medicine offered no answers, his grandfather and uncle, both master curanderos, sat in ceremony and asked the plant spirits for help.
The guidance was a six-month dieta with Yana Punga, the sacred Colorado tree.
For the first two weeks of drinking the bitter bark tea, nothing happened.
Then the dreams began. The tree started speaking.
At midnight, spiritual presences would visit, performing what Elvis can only describe as surgery in another dimension.
After six months of strict dieta, he walked for the first time in his life. That's when he understood, the plants had saved him for a reason.
At sixteen, Elvis began his apprenticeship, studying under renowned maestros Luis Panduro Vasquez, Don Alberto Torres and Don Ernesto Garcia.
His deepest training came from his family, his grandfather and uncles Alciviades and Encarnacion, who passed down generations of Shipibo wisdom.
After seven years of rigorous dietas and dedication, the plants granted him permission to serve as a master shaman.
For the past two decades, Elvis has carried this medicine across the Americas, from intimate jungle ceremonies to retreat centers throughout South, Central and North America.
He has learned that healing happens not through force, but through relationship, between shaman and plant, between spirit and ceremony, between guide and guest.
Now, at Ayahuma Spirit Center, Elvis brings his life's work home to the Amazon.
In the forest that healed him, he holds space for others seeking their own transformation.
Every ceremony he leads carries the memory of that eleven-year-old boy who couldn't walk
and the gratitude of the man the plants made whole.
