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Atmosphere and feature ratings above are based on Best Retreats research (October 2026). They will be updated if Ananda Lodge submits its own information.

Ananda Lodge: An In-Depth Review for Retreats in Playa Grande, Costa Rica

Ananda Lodge is a small, family-run plant medicine lodge in the jungle above Playa Grande, on Costa Rica’s Guanacaste coast, founded by Jason and Kimberly Ocaña. It runs Shipibo-led ayahuasca immersions alongside San Pedro, psilocybin, kambo and cacao programs, all wrapped in a “trauma-informed” somatic framework with long integration support. Its reviews are near perfect: 4.99 from 81 reviews on Retreat Guru and 4.94 from 17 on BookRetreats, and we found no incidents. The open questions are legal and structural. Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health warned the public against ayahuasca healing rituals in January 2025, while the center’s own site says ayahuasca is not a controlled substance there. No medical staff are listed, refunds are paid as credit rather than cash, and the published group size changes from page to page. Our earlier profile also needs correcting on prices, medicines, healers and airport transfers.

🎯 At a Glance

• Locations: A hillside jungle property in Playa Grande, Santa Cruz canton, Guanacaste, near Las Baulas Marine National Park. The center’s lodge page puts it 5 minutes from the beach, 15 minutes from a hospital and about 75 minutes from Liberia airport (LIR).
• Approach: Shipibo healers from Peru lead the ayahuasca ceremonies, with a Western “guardian” team providing somatic preparation, breathwork, art therapy, yoga and up to 16 weeks of integration, according to its ayahuasca retreat page. Separate programs offer San Pedro, psilocybin, kambo, cacao and online microdosing.
• Suitable For: People who want a comfortable, small-group ayahuasca or San Pedro retreat with structured preparation and integration, and who are willing to come fully off antidepressants and other contraindicated medications at least four weeks before arrival. Less suited to anyone who needs medical staff on site or a cash refund guarantee.
• Costs: From $777 for a San Pedro weekend; $3,795 for the 6-day kambo and ayahuasca program; $5,295 plus a $150 plant medicine fee for the 8-day ayahuasca immersion; up to $7,995 for the couples psilocybin retreat. Payment plans and two partial scholarships per immersion are offered, according to its retreat calendar. Our earlier profile said rates were available only on request; they are now published.
• Overall Assessment: A well-reviewed, comfortable small lodge with a clear medication policy, a hospital close by and unusually long integration, offset by a legal claim that contradicts the Ministry of Health, no listed medical staff, credit-only refunds and marketing details that do not agree with each other. Directory evaluation: B.

💬 What Guests Are Saying

Here is how Ananda Lodge rates across review platforms in October 2026:

The positive picture. Retreat Guru and BookRetreats reviewers describe compassionate, personal support from the first call through integration, feeling safe and seen, facilitators who let them go at their own pace, excellent food, comfortable rooms and lasting change. One reviewer calls the screening “thorough,” and BookRetreats reviewers say the program works well for beginners. A retreat leader who rented the lodge in July 2024 wrote on RetreatsMap that the land was “stunning” and the hosts attentive.

The negative feedback. We found no critical reviews on any platform.

Who is writing the reviews. Nearly all independent feedback sits on two commission-based booking platforms, and the near-perfect average across 81 to 90 reviews comes from a center that appears to have opened around 2023 or 2024. That is a lot of reviews in a short time, though plausible for a lodge running small groups most weeks of the year. The two Retreat Guru pages showed different review counts on the same day. The center’s own site shows 12 curated testimonials. We found no review incentives or affiliate program. If you have attended, we encourage you to share your experience through our submission form.

🚩 Incident Report

We searched review platforms, Costa Rican and English-language news, and legal sources for reports involving Ananda Lodge, Jason Ocaña and Kimberly Ocaña.

• Deaths and serious injuries: None found. Searches surfaced only unrelated Costa Rica cases.
• Sexual misconduct: No allegations found.
• Theft and crime: No reports found.
• Legal action: No police, regulatory or court action naming the center found. See the legal position below.

If you have experienced or witnessed an incident at Ananda Lodge, please report it confidentially.

🔍 Critical Notes

The legal position. On January 27, 2025, Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health issued a public alert against advertising or using ayahuasca and ibogaine for therapeutic purposes, as CRHoy, El Mundo and Delfino reported. The ministry said ayahuasca’s DMT is on national and international control lists, called healing rituals an unauthorized practice, said healing is a medical act that requires a licensed facility and registered professionals, and asked the public to report promoters. Ananda Lodge’s ayahuasca page says ayahuasca is not a controlled substance in Costa Rica. A lawyer writing in La República in February 2025 argued that plant-based ayahuasca is not illegal and called for clear rules, so the question is contested. We found no closures or raids against retreats. Still, a center that markets trauma healing without licensed clinicians sits squarely within what the ministry described. We did not find a clear source on the status of psilocybin or mescaline in Costa Rica. See our country-by-country legal guide.

Group size depends on which page you read. The homepage says “10 Guests maximum” in one place and “10-12 guest maximum” in another, while the FAQ says the center will “never hold more than eight guests.” The ayahuasca page and Retreat Guru say 10. The couples retreat takes eight couples, or 16 people, and the 3-day November 2026 intensive is described as 3-day, “4 Day/3 Night” and “3 day/2 night” on the same page. Ask how many people will be in your ceremony.

Refunds are credit, not cash. The center takes a 50% deposit or full payment and offers payment plans. Its Retreat Guru terms give a 100% credit toward a future retreat if you cancel 90 or more days out, a 50% credit at 60 to 89 days, and case-by-case treatment inside 60 days. We found no cash refund policy. Get the terms in writing before paying.

Other inconsistencies. The homepage says all rooms are single occupancy, but several programs sell shared twin rooms. Kimberly Ocaña’s coaching experience is given as 15 years on the homepage and more than 20 years on Retreat Guru. Retreat Guru’s amenity checklist includes a spa, sauna, hot tub and fitness center that the center’s own lodge page does not mention. None of this suggests wrongdoing, but it makes the marketing harder to rely on.

Corrections to our earlier profile. The lead ayahuasca healer is Maestro Wilder Rojas Nunta, not a group of “Shipibo maestras,” though Maestra Orfelinda Sanancino Cauper leads the November 2026 intensive. Kambo and cacao are offered as well as ayahuasca, San Pedro and psilocybin. The medication washout is four weeks, not a “two-week MAOI diet.” A Liberia airport shuttle runs on arrival day, though it costs extra on most programs. We found no source for the 3,300-square-meter property size or the claim that the center has helped “thousands,” so both remain unverified.

🆘 Screening & Mental Health Risks

Ananda Lodge says it conducts “thorough health and psychological screening” before enrollment, and that guardians review each guest’s history before arrival. Its ayahuasca page lists SSRIs, MAOIs and “several other medications” as contraindicated and requires guests to be fully off them at least four weeks before the retreat; people who cannot comply are not accepted, with case-by-case review and referral to specialists. That is a clearer policy than many centers publish. What is missing: no physician or nurse is listed, and the care team is trained in somatics, not medicine. Jason Ocaña’s career as a firefighter and paramedic is presented as past work, and no current license is stated. No emergency protocol is published, though the center says a clinic is 10 minutes away and a hospital 15 minutes away, and it does not name the hospital. ICEERS notes that ayahuasca’s MAOI component makes combinations with SSRIs and other serotonergic medications contraindicated, and that ayahuasca is contraindicated for people prone to psychosis. Erowid warns of extreme, possibly fatal reactions with some prescription drugs. Kambo carries its own risks and is offered as an add-on after intake; ask how it is screened and supervised. Never stop a psychiatric medication to qualify for a retreat without your prescriber’s guidance.

🧪 Brew Substance

The ayahuasca follows the Shipibo-Konibo tradition, served by Shipibo healers from Peru who sing icaros and give each guest two individual consultations, according to the center. It does not publish its recipe. The 8-day immersion includes three ceremonies, three floral baths and a traditional vomitivo (purge). Other programs use San Pedro (huachuma), a mescaline-containing cactus, and psilocybin mushrooms, with no lineage stated for either. Kambo, a frog secretion applied to small skin burns, is offered as an optional add-on and in a January 2027 kambo and ayahuasca program. The center has also run cacao ceremonies and an online microdosing course that follows the Fadiman protocol. We found no evidence of bufo (5-MeO-DMT). Ask exactly what is in each cup and how doses are set.

📍 Location, Setting & Style

• Setting: An eight-room lodge on a jungle hillside with ocean views, a natural stone pool, a maloca (ceremony house), a healing hut for massage and sound work, a rancho and a fire pit, according to the center’s lodge page. The beach is about 5 minutes away, and Tamarindo 20 to 30 minutes by car.
• Rooms: King ocean-view suites with private balconies, air conditioning and open-air teak and rock showers, plus a jungle casita near the maloca. Some programs offer cheaper shared twin rooms. The center’s website calls the lodge “eco-luxury.”
• Style: Traditional Shipibo ceremonies inside a modern therapeutic program. Expect somatic preparation sessions, breathwork, a sound bath, art therapy, yoga, a Shipibo market visit and a beach outing, with a private chef cooking plated or family-style meals for vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and other diets. Everything is in English.

Practical guidance: Fly into Liberia (LIR), about 75 minutes away, rather than San José, about five hours away. The 8-day schedule includes a 2:30 PM shuttle from LIR on arrival day, but it is not included in the price except on The Empowered Path program; confirm the cost when you book.

Should You Book?

Ananda Lodge may suit you if you want a small, comfortable retreat with Shipibo healers, a clear medication policy, a hospital nearby and months of structured integration, and you are comfortable with the legal uncertainty in Costa Rica. Its reviews are excellent, if concentrated on booking platforms. The trade-offs: the center’s statement that ayahuasca is not controlled conflicts with the Ministry of Health’s 2025 alert, no medical staff are listed, cancellations earn credit rather than refunds, and group sizes vary by page. If you go, get the group size, the emergency plan, the name of the nearest hospital and the cancellation terms in writing, and read our guide to verifying retreat facilitators.

The Team & Story

Kimberly Ocaña, co-founder and “Guardian,” is a former corporate executive and certified coach with somatic trauma training through The Embody Lab, according to the center’s about page. Jason Ocaña, co-founder and onsite lead, is described there as spending nearly two decades as a firefighter and paramedic; his Retreat Guru bio describes a surfer who first came to Costa Rica in 2000, moved to Playa Grande in August 2023 and has more than 20 years of experience with psilocybin. The center says Hurricane Ian in 2022 prompted the move. No founding year or legal entity is published. The ayahuasca healers are Maestro Wilder Rojas Nunta, described as having 23 years of experience, and Maestra Orfelinda Sanancino Cauper of Pucallpa, Peru. The guardian team includes Michal “Sanken Koshi” (lead guardian), Emma Alexandra (co-lead guardian and guest experience), Hannelore Brandt (somatic movement), Nikki Szeghalmi and Chase Moore (San Pedro) and Dana Mistretta (Reiki and microdosing). The lodge is also rented to outside retreat leaders. We did not independently verify anyone’s credentials.

Prep & Integration Tips

Before you go: Complete the health and psychological intake fully, list every medication and supplement, and work with your own doctor on any taper well before the four-week cutoff. Attend the virtual orientation and the two somatic preparation sessions, and follow the dietary guidance you are given. After you return: The 8-day immersion includes two integration sessions, a group call, monthly community forums and three months of support, and The Empowered Path extends to 16 weeks. Arrange support from a qualified therapist at home as well. Our guide on how to research ayahuasca incidents can help you check any center.

Pros & Cons

Book Your Ceremony

Bookings are made through anandalodgecr.com, its Retreat Guru-hosted booking pages and BookRetreats, usually after a discovery call. The next open 8-day ayahuasca immersion runs March 13 to 20, 2027, with enrollment closing February 20; a kambo and ayahuasca program runs January 23 to 28, 2027, and San Pedro weekends start at $777. Before paying, confirm in writing the group size, which medicines will be served, the emergency arrangements and the cancellation terms that apply to your booking. Best Retreats does not take bookings; learn more about our mission.

Last reviewed October 2026.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Consult a qualified medical professional.