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

Arkana Spiritual Center: An In-Depth Review for Ayahuasca Retreats in Peru and Mexico

Arkana Spiritual Center, which also trades as Arkana International, is one of the largest commercial ayahuasca operators in Peru. It was founded by José Sáenz, a Mexican former investment banker, and its ceremonies are led by the family of Justina Cerrano, a Shipibo healer from the community of Vencedor on the Pisqui River. It runs four sites: an Amazon lodge on the Ucayali River reached through Iquitos, a lodge in the Sacred Valley near Urubamba, a hacienda in Yucatán and a psilocybin program in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, with Costa Rica announced. A seven-day retreat costs $2,520 to $4,500 in the Amazon and $3,000 to $4,020 in the Sacred Valley, and it rates 4.9 to 5.0 across more than 1,400 reviews on Retreat Guru, Tripadvisor and AyaAdvisors. The trade-offs are scale and opacity: groups of up to 18 to 25, bufo (5-MeO-DMT) sold as a $300 add-on, unnamed ceremony medical staff, no published emergency protocol, no legal entity on its sites, and deposits that become non-refundable credit 24 hours after booking. Independent journalism confirms the founder and the Shipibo family behind the Amazon center. Our earlier profile needs correcting on several details, including the founder’s name, the ceremony count, the preparation diet and what Mexico now offers.

🎯 At a Glance

• Locations: The Amazon lodge sits on the Ucayali River near the village of Libertad and is reached through Iquitos, according to the center’s Amazon retreat page. The Sacred Valley lodge is listed at Tarabamba s/n, Urubamba, on the Urubamba River below Maras, about 1.5 hours by shuttle from central Cusco. In Mexico, the Yucatán retreats run at a 16th-century hacienda near Izamal (Sudzal on Retreat Guru) and a psilocybin program runs in Valle de Bravo. Arenal, Costa Rica, is listed as “coming soon.”
• Approach: Shipibo ayahuasca ceremonies with icaros, four a week in the Amazon and three a week plus a San Pedro (huachuma) ceremony in the Sacred Valley, with hapé (rapé), plant baths, yoga, breathwork, sound healing, individual consultations with the healers and integration workshops. Bufo is an optional add-on. The Mexico programs now center on bufo, peyote and psilocybin with Huichol and Mazatec practitioners.
• Suitable For: Travelers who want a polished, comfortable, well-reviewed retreat with Shipibo healers and a structured program, and who are comfortable in larger groups. Less suited to anyone who wants an intimate ceremony, named medical cover or flexible refunds.
• Costs: Seven days cost $2,520 to $4,500 in the Amazon and $3,000 to $4,020 in the Sacred Valley; 14- and 21-day programs run up to $10,700 in the Sacred Valley and $12,000 in the Amazon, according to the center’s retreat pages. Bookings through Retreat Guru add a $100 plant-medicine fee paid to the center. Bufo costs $300 extra. Mexico retreats start at $3,960 on Retreat Guru.
• Overall Assessment: A large, active and highly rated operator with an independently documented Shipibo healer family, a published contraindication list and comfortable lodges, offset by groups of up to 25, bufo sold alongside ayahuasca, unnamed medical staff, no emergency protocol, no disclosed legal entity, strict credit-only cancellations and heavy self-published marketing. Directory evaluation: B-.

💬 What Guests Are Saying

Here is how Arkana rates across review platforms in October 2026:

The positive picture. Recent Retreat Guru reviewers praise the support they received from facilitators during ceremonies, the icaros, the food, clean rooms and the warmth of the staff, and several thank the founder, José, by name. Our earlier profile reported guests praising Maestra Justina and returning for further retreats, hot showers and comfortable beds in the Sacred Valley, and wildlife excursions in the Amazon. It also quoted a guest calling Arkana “the Beverly Hills of ayahuasca experiences” and another calling it “a bit of a hippie place”; both quotes remain unverified.

The negative feedback. No review below five stars is visible on Retreat Guru, while AyaAdvisors shows five reviews of three stars or lower. A two-star Tripadvisor review from a September 2022 Sacred Valley stay calls the center “a tourist trap,” describes chaotic ceremonies and says the owner “took my money without any thought of a refund.” Another 2022 reviewer says Arkana cancelled their dates for “resort maintenance” and offered a refund, then saw the same dates sold out. Our earlier profile described a one-star Tripadvisor review in which a guest said the room did not match the center’s videos, the booking staff became “very hostile” after payment, the promised integration email never arrived and the founder did not reply. It also cited an AyaAdvisors review describing another guest behaving inappropriately during a Sacred Valley ceremony, which facilitators reportedly handled, and older reports of unanswered refund and complaint emails. These accounts remain unverified.

Who is writing the reviews. Retreat Guru’s perfect 5.00 across 217 reviews shows no complaint signal, though Tripadvisor and AyaAdvisors carry a handful of low ratings among overwhelmingly positive ones. The center publishes its own “Arkana vs Soltara” and “Arkana vs Temple of the Way of Light” comparison pages and cost guides, written by the founder and marked as “medically reviewed” by Dr. Arturo J. Sáenz Quintanilla, its medical director, who shares the founder’s surname; many carry the same “last updated October 14, 2026” stamp. Its pages cite stale figures, such as “188+” Retreat Guru reviews and 265 on Tripadvisor; its claim of “1,000+ five-star reviews” is plausible given roughly 1,450 reviews across the platforms. The AyaAdvisors listing does not support the center’s claim to be “number one for Peru.” If you have attended, we encourage you to share your experience through our submission form.

🚩 Incident Report

We searched review platforms, English and Spanish-language news and Peruvian press for reports involving Arkana, José Sáenz, Justina Cerrano and the center’s named healers and medical director.

• Deaths and serious injuries: None found involving Arkana. A 2024 report published by the Pulitzer Center discusses deaths at other Peruvian retreats, including a New Zealander who died after a tobacco purge and a British man killed in self-defense by a companion during a psychotic episode, neither linked to Arkana. In June 2025 an American guest died after ayahuasca at a different lodge in Loreto, the region of Arkana’s Amazon site, as iHeart reported. Our earlier profile also listed the 2012 death of Kyle Nolan and a 2024 death at the Ayahuasca Foundation as regional context; neither involves Arkana.
• Sexual misconduct: No allegations found against the center or its staff. The AyaAdvisors account above concerns another guest.
• Theft and crime: No reports found.
• Legal action: No lawsuits, police action or regulatory action found involving the center or its people.

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

🔍 Critical Notes

Big groups, many medicines. The center’s retreat pages give an average group of about 10 in the Sacred Valley and 14 in the Amazon, with maximums of 18 and 25; its own post on support ratios speaks of “15 to 25” guests per ceremony with a staff ratio of about one to three and three to seven Shipibo healers. Bufo, the most powerful of the medicines on offer, is sold as an optional $300 ceremony during the Amazon week. A January 2024 first-person account in Mountain Weekly News describes a Sacred Valley week with 16 guests, more than ten staff and four Shipibo healers. Our earlier profile said groups of 14 to 16 were common and listed kambo among the medicines; we found kambo on none of the center’s current program pages.

Credit, not refunds. Retreat Guru’s event pages state “Deposits are non refundable 24 hrs after registration” and that cancellations receive a credit for any Arkana retreat “valid for two years,” with the percentage depending on timing; no percentages or deposit amount are published. The center’s homepage says early-departure refunds are handled case by case. Read the terms before you pay.

Who is the company? Neither the center’s website nor its Retreat Guru pages disclose a legal entity, Peruvian tax number (RUC) or registered address; the footers read only “Arkana Spiritual Center.” The center calls itself a “private company” and has contact numbers in Peru and Arizona. The founding year is given as 2015 on its site and as 2016 in the founder’s bio and the Pulitzer report.

The Vencedor connection. The Pulitzer Center report describes how Arkana’s Amazon operation is built around Justina Cerrano’s extended family, with villagers in Vencedor paid to plant some 50 hectares of ayahuasca vine and given a motorboat, tools and Starlink internet; the center itself describes a “100-acre plantation.” The report also called a $2,280 week “high” by local standards.

Mexico has changed. In 2023 the Yucatán program combined ayahuasca with psilocybin and peyote; the center’s current pages describe Yucatán as “Bufo, Peyote, and Psilocybin” and say its Mexico retreats have no ayahuasca, while a Retreat Guru Yucatán event is still titled “Ayahuasca.” Its Mexico landing page still carries placeholder “Lorem ipsum” text and an agency contact. Psilocybin and peyote are controlled under Mexican law, which exempts traditional ceremonial use by Indigenous peoples; that exemption does not clearly cover commercial retreats for foreign guests.

Corrections to our earlier profile. The founder’s surname is published: he is José Sáenz, and his current title is “Founder & CEO” (older listings used “Chief Dharma Officer”). He came to ayahuasca after a breakdown in 2013, not 2012, according to the Pulitzer report. The Amazon program has four ayahuasca ceremonies a week, not three. The preparation diet lasts three weeks, not two. A Machu Picchu trip is a paid extra of about $200 to $250, not built into the week. The 21-day maximum is $12,000 in the Amazon, not $10,700. The Mazatec healer’s name is spelled Jazmin Pinedo Casimiro on the center’s pages. We found no source for the Valle de Bravo venue name “Khungi Espacio,” the hacienda name “San Antonio Chalante,” a three-hour drive from Cancún, or the staff members Alcides, Valeria and “Pepino,” which remain unverified. The center does publish a detailed contraindication list, which we note below.

🆘 Screening & Mental Health Risks

Every guest completes a medical intake form and an onboarding medical call before arrival, according to the center’s health and safety page. It excludes people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, a history of psychosis, seizures, arrhythmia, severe heart disease, chronic high blood pressure, severe liver or kidney disease, pregnancy or breastfeeding, and its ayahuasca guide sets a washout of two to six weeks for SSRIs, SNRIs, MAOIs, tricyclics, antipsychotics, stimulants, tramadol, St John’s Wort, sleeping pills and benzodiazepines. The center names a medical director, Dr. Arturo J. Sáenz Quintanilla, described as a board-certified neurosurgeon; we have not verified his licence, and the pages do not say he is on site. They also state that “trained medical staff” are present during all ceremonies, without names or credentials. No written emergency protocol, named hospital or travel time is published. The Amazon lodge is a road and boat journey from Iquitos, and the Sacred Valley lodge is near Urubamba. Integration includes on-site workshops, peer circles, WhatsApp and Facebook groups and paid coaching. 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. 5-MeO-DMT carries its own cardiac and psychiatric risks and is not a traditional Shipibo medicine. Never stop a psychiatric medication to qualify for a retreat without your prescriber’s guidance.

🧪 Brew Substance

Arkana’s Amazon ayahuasca comes from vine grown by Justina Cerrano’s community in Vencedor, according to the Pulitzer Center report, and the center says dosing is personalized. Traditional ayahuasca combines the Banisteriopsis caapi vine with a DMT-containing leaf such as chacruna, as Erowid explains; the center does not publish which leaf it uses or who cooks the brew. The Sacred Valley program adds San Pedro (huachuma), and both Peru programs include hapé. Bufo (5-MeO-DMT from the Sonoran Desert toad) is offered separately on day five of the Amazon week. Mexico uses peyote with a Huichol marakame and psilocybin mushrooms with a Mazatec healer.

📍 Location, Setting & Style

• Setting: The Sacred Valley lodge sits in an Andean canyon on the Urubamba River, cool at night, with rooms heated by electric heaters; the Amazon lodge is warm and humid jungle on the Ucayali, which the center says runs on solar power with compostable toilets.
• Rooms: Shared and private rooms and suites with private bathrooms and hot water in the Sacred Valley, and “Jungle Suites” in the Amazon. The Sacred Valley lodge has a spa with massage and a float tank, an open-air gym and a ceremonial temple; the Yucatán hacienda has two pools.
• Style: Resort-style lodges with a structured program, Shipibo family healers and a long menu of add-ons, including spa treatments, integration coaching and sessions with a psychiatrist. Meals are farm-to-table and follow the dieta, with no dinner on ceremony nights.

Practical guidance: Fly to Lima, then to Iquitos or Cusco. A free shuttle runs from a designated hotel in each city (Hotel Tierra Viva Centro in Cusco); airport pickup is not included, and private transfers cost $50 each way in Cusco and $250 in Iquitos. For Mexico, fly to Cancún or Mexico City.

Should You Book?

Arkana may suit you if you want a comfortable, well-organized retreat with a Shipibo healer family, a published contraindication list and lots of support activities, and you are happy in a group of 15 or more. The trade-offs: large ceremonies, bufo sold as an add-on, unnamed medical staff, no emergency protocol, no disclosed company behind the brand and credit-only cancellations. If you go, get the group size, the names and credentials of the medical staff, the emergency plan and the cancellation terms in writing, and read our guide to verifying retreat facilitators.

The Team & Story

José Sáenz describes himself on his author page as a former Lehman Brothers investment banker with a Harvard MBA, a real-estate developer, an initiated Bwiti practitioner, a Siddha Yoga initiate, a bufo “maestro” and a father of five. The Pulitzer report says he worked in Mexico’s hotel sector, went to Iquitos after a depressive breakdown in 2013 and opened Arkana in 2016. The lead healer, Maestra Justina, is identified by the same report as Justina Cerrano, a Shipibo healer of about 65 with some 40 years of practice (the center says 45-plus and calls her a “Meraya,” a high Shipibo rank). Her son and apprentice Luis Pérez Cerrano also works at the center, and the report says her husband, other children, a son-in-law, a nephew and grandchildren work alongside her. The center’s pages also list Maestro Cesar, Maestro Eligio and Maestra Ada, described as Justina’s daughter and lead healer in the Sacred Valley. Our earlier profile described Cesar as Justina’s husband and listed further relatives (Grimaldo, Herminio, Margarita and Idael); those details remain unverified. In Mexico the center lists Marakame Juan, a Huichol elder, and Maestra Jazmin Pinedo Casimiro, a Mazatec healer from Huautla de Jiménez. A Mexican musician, Ivan Jagdish, describes himself as a facilitator at the Sacred Valley site. We did not independently verify anyone’s credentials.

Prep & Integration Tips

Before you go: Complete the intake honestly, disclose every medication, plan any washout with your own doctor, and follow the three-week preparation diet. Decide in advance whether you want bufo at all, and ask how it is screened. After you return: Integration circles, online groups and paid coaching are offered. 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 arkanainternational.com and its Retreat Guru pages, with an application, a video call and a deposit. Retreats start every Sunday year-round in Peru, and the center advertises summer dates in Mexico. Before paying, confirm in writing the group size for your week, who provides medical cover, the emergency arrangements and the cancellation terms. 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.