Atmosphere

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

Ascension Journeyz: An In-Depth Review for Sessions in Morelos, Mexico

Status note (October 2026): We could not confirm any Ascension Journeyz retreat dates for 2026. Its website, ascensionjourneyz.com, shows only “Site will be available soon,” the most recent listed retreat we found ran December 8 to 13, 2025, and its Tripaneer listing is marked fully booked with no dates. The operator also appears online under its founder’s name, Tapovan Tamas, or simply “Tapovan.” Best Retreats keeps listings for centers that pause, close or rebrand so their history stays on the public record. If you have current information, please contact us.

Ascension Journeyz runs six-day ayahuasca retreats at an eco-center in the forest outside Tepoztlán, Morelos, about an hour and a quarter from Mexico City’s airport. Ceremonies are led by a Shuar curandero from Ecuador and framed by a busy wellness schedule of yoga, breathwork, temazcal, ice baths and ecstatic dance. Its reviews are uniformly positive but sit entirely on commercial booking sites, it has used at least four names across platforms, and we found no independent reviews on Tripadvisor, Google, Trustpilot or AyaAdvisors, and no press. Our earlier profile also needs correcting: the town is Tepoztlán, not Tepotzotlán, which is a different town near Mexico City, and the $1,170 price and “48+ reviews” we cited could not be traced.

🎯 At a Glance

• Locations: An eco-center in Valle de Atongo, Tepoztlán, Morelos, according to the operator’s Tripaneer listing, which gives the address as Temachtiani, 100B Antiguo Camino a Sto. Domingo Ocotitlán. Its Retreat Guru page places the site inside the Chichinautzin Biological Corridor and Tepozteco National Park. A separate Retreat Guru listing advertises an “Ayahuasca + Kambo + Bufo” retreat in Tulum; we found no venue for it.
• Approach: Shuar-led ayahuasca inside a wellness retreat. The six-day program includes two overnight ayahuasca ceremonies (22:00 to 07:00 on days two and four), plus yoga, meditation, breathwork, chi gong, temazcal, an ice bath, ecstatic dance, shadow and inner-child work, hikes, sacred tobacco and live music, according to Tripaneer and the Third Wave directory, which also mentions locally grown psilocybin mushrooms.
• Suitable For: Beginners and intermediate guests who want a structured, activity-heavy week close to Mexico City with a mid-sized group. Less suited to anyone wanting medical staff on site, a purely traditional ceremony, or certainty that retreats are currently running.
• Costs: Listed prices have ranged from $1,250 (Psychedelist, 2023 to 2024) to $1,550, discounted to $1,450, for the December 2025 retreat on BookRetreats. Retreat Guru shows “from $1,350” for Tepoztlán and “from $1,890” for the Tulum retreat with kambo and bufo. Airport transfer from Mexico City costs $80 per person, per Tripaneer. Deposit and refund terms are not published.
• Overall Assessment: An experienced team and consistently positive guest feedback, offset by no medical staff, a medication-stopping instruction with no mention of doctor supervision, reviews only on booking platforms, shifting names, and no confirmed 2026 dates. Directory evaluation: B-.

💬 What Guests Are Saying

Here is how the operator rates across review platforms in October 2026:

The positive picture. Guests praise the caring facilitators, the ceremony music and harp, the sweat lodge, the vegetarian food cooked by local women, and the forest and mountain setting. The earliest dated account we found describes a retreat in January 2022. Many reviewers describe the week as transformative, and several mention feeling safe. The only recurring caveat is basic lodging: Retreat Guru reviewers describe the rooms as “minimalist” and say there “may not be hot showers.”

Who is writing the reviews. Every rating we found sits on a commercial booking platform. Retreat Guru shows only five reviews, all five stars, against a 4.88 average, so some reviews are hidden; our earlier profile’s “4.86 from 48+ reviews” could not be reproduced. BookRetreats shows two different review counts for the same page, a “Free Gift” booking badge and a “6 people are interested” urgency label. The operator has used at least four names (Ascension Journeyz, Ascension Journeys, Ascension Journey Healing Retreats and Tapovan), which splits its reviews across listings. Several pages appear to be self-published for search visibility, including a Blogspot blog, an about.me page and an event page on Akashic Remedies with no disclosure. Its Psychedelist profile makes unsupported claims, such as ayahuasca restoring “cells’ memory.” If you have attended, we encourage you to share your experience through our submission form.

🚩 Incident Report

We searched review platforms, Mexican and English-language news, and legal sources for reports involving Ascension Journeyz and its named facilitators. We found none. Given how thin the independent record is, that is an absence of reports rather than a clean bill of health.

• Deaths and serious injuries: None found.
• Sexual misconduct: No allegations found.
• Theft and crime: No reports found.
• Regulatory action: None found. The Retreat Guru listing places the site inside a protected biological corridor and national park; we do not know what land-use permissions apply.

If you have experienced or witnessed an incident with this operator, please report it confidentially.

🔍 Critical Notes

Status and names. The website is in maintenance mode, the December 2025 retreat is the latest date we found, and the operator now appears on several platforms under its founder’s name, Tapovan Tamas, rather than Ascension Journeyz. We cannot tell whether this is a rebrand, a pause or simply inconsistent naming. Confirm directly which entity you are booking with.

Medication instructions. The operator excludes guests taking SSRIs, SNRIs, MAOIs, anticonvulsants and other neuro-psychiatric medications. Its Psychedelist profile asks guests to stop these six to eight weeks before the retreat without mentioning medical supervision. Any change to psychiatric medication should be planned with the prescribing doctor.

Mexico’s legal context. Ayahuasca contains DMT, which carries legal risk in Mexico; in April 2024, AFP, via TVN, reported the arrests of Indigenous South American ayahuasca carriers in Mexico, with one prosecutor seeking 25 years. For the Tulum retreat’s bufo, Mind Medicine Law reports that 5-MeO-DMT is not federally scheduled in Mexico but that the Sonoran Desert toad is a protected species under NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010, with harvesting restricted without authorization. See our country-by-country legal guide.

Corrections to our earlier profile. Our earlier profile described an “ecological sanctuary in the jungle”; sources describe a forest eco-center beneath the Tepozteco mountains, not jungle. It mentioned cacao, a cenote tour and an “energy vortex,” which we found no source for at the Tepoztlán site; cenotes point to the separate Tulum listing. It also said the intensity suits experienced guests better, while Tripaneer lists the retreat as suitable for beginners and intermediates, and it included a general statistic about 55% of ayahuasca users with no source, which we have removed.

🆘 Screening & Mental Health Risks

According to the Third Wave directory, the operator uses a consent form, a medical assessment and a medical history review. It excludes people taking SSRIs, SNRIs, MAOIs, anticonvulsants and other neuro-psychiatric medications, warning that these “are not compatible with Ayahuasca and are therefore dangerous.” A psychologist and integration therapist is listed on one directory, but we found no medical staff on any page and no emergency protocol. ICEERS notes that combining ayahuasca’s MAOI component with SSRIs or other serotonergic medications is contraindicated, and that ayahuasca is contraindicated for people with severe psychiatric disorders, particularly those prone to psychosis. Erowid warns of extreme, possibly fatal reactions with some prescription drugs, and DanceSafe notes a higher risk of psychological distress for people with a personal or family history of mood or psychotic disorders. If psilocybin, kambo or bufo are offered alongside ayahuasca, ask how they are spaced and screened. Never stop a psychiatric medication to qualify for a retreat without your prescriber’s guidance, and ask who on site handles medical emergencies and how far the nearest hospital is.

🧪 Brew Substance

The operator says its ayahuasca combines the Banisteriopsis caapi vine with chacruna (Psychotria viridis) and draws on Shuar knowledge; Third Wave says the medicine is sourced from the Shuar of Ecuador. As Erowid explains, the vine’s MAO inhibitors make the DMT orally active, which is why medication interactions matter. Ceremonies also use sacred tobacco (rapé). Third Wave lists locally grown psilocybin mushrooms, and the Tulum listing adds kambo and bufo (5-MeO-DMT). Ask which medicines are part of your retreat, in what order, and whether you can decline any.

📍 Location, Setting & Style

• Mexico: A forest eco-center outside the town of Tepoztlán, below the Tepozteco mountains, with rooms with private bathrooms in eco-built “thermal houses” with mountain views, according to Tripaneer. Reviews describe the lodging as minimalist, and Retreat Guru’s checklist of a pool, spa and hot tub does not match any guest account. Forest Rustic.
• Style: Structured and activity-heavy, with groups of 3 to 18. Days mix ceremony recovery with yoga, breathwork, temazcal, ice baths, ecstatic dance and hikes. Meals are three vegetarian dishes a day, home-style Mexican cooking by local women. The language is English.

Practical guidance: Fly into Mexico City (MEX). Tripaneer lists an airport transfer for $80 per person, and Retreat Guru says the drive takes about an hour and a quarter. Confirm the retreat is running before booking flights.

Should You Book?

Ascension Journeyz may suit you if you want a guided, activity-rich ayahuasca week near Mexico City with a Shuar curandero and a team guests describe as caring. The trade-offs: no confirmed 2026 dates, a website in maintenance, shifting names, no medical staff, an instruction to stop psychiatric medications without mention of medical supervision, and reviews that exist only on booking platforms. If you go, confirm the operating entity, dates, price and refund terms in writing, and read our guide to verifying retreat facilitators.

The Team & Story

The founder, Tapovan Tamas (also listed as “Tapo Van”), is described as a yoga and meditation teacher with 12 years of teaching and 20 years of practice, a “Tantrik initiate,” and co-founder of a Tryambaka Yoga School; we found no independent trace of that school. Ceremonies are led by Mano Uwishin, described as a Shuar curandero from Ecuador with more than 20 years of plant medicine work, who also leads the temazcal and massage. Le’ Jai’ La (also “Jai La”) is listed as a medicine woman, Akashic Records coach, Reiki master and herbalist. Directories also list a psychologist and integration therapist, a holistic therapist, a harpist and an assisting ceremony healer. All of these descriptions come from the operator’s own listings. The earliest dated evidence of the retreats is a review describing January 2022.

Prep & Integration Tips

Before you go: Confirm the retreat is running and which entity you are paying. Follow the operator’s two-week preparation diet, disclose every medication and supplement, and plan any medication changes with your prescriber, not by the retreat’s timetable alone. Bring layers for cool mountain nights, closed shoes for hikes, swimwear for the temazcal and an eye mask. After you return: The operator describes post-retreat support and mentorship. Arrange support from a qualified therapist at home if difficult material comes up. Our guide on how to research ayahuasca incidents can help you check any operator.

Pros & Cons

Book Your Ceremony

The operator has taken bookings through ascensionjourneyz.com (currently in maintenance), BookRetreats, Retreat Guru and Tripaneer. The most recent listed retreat, December 8 to 13, 2025, cost $1,450. Before paying, confirm that retreats are running, which entity you are booking with, the full price, the deposit and refund terms, the medication policy, and who handles medical emergencies. 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.