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

Ayni Retreats: An In-Depth Review for Ayahuasca Retreats in Paute, Ecuador

Ayni Retreats was an ayahuasca, San Pedro and temazcal center on a historic estate in Paute, Azuay, near Cuenca, Ecuador, offering 5 to 12-day programs, according to its NuMundo listing, and its AyaAdvisors listing rates it 5.0 from 15 reviews, all from June to November 2019. Against that, its healers were never named, no screening, medical staff or emergency plan was published, a listing made unsupported health claims, and nothing in Ecuador is dated after February 2020. Since 2023 the Ayni name, website and Instagram have promoted US ceremonies led by another facilitator.

🎯 At a Glance

• Locations: A restored estate in Paute, Azuay, Ecuador, per a 2020 GringoPost notice; directories list it under Cuenca.
• Approach: Ayahuasca, San Pedro and temazcal sweat lodges with rest days between ceremonies; the 12-day program had two ayahuasca and two San Pedro ceremonies plus two optional ayahuasca nights.
• Suitable For: No one at this location until it shows current activity. Not suitable for people taking antidepressants or with heart or psychiatric conditions.
• Costs: $185 to $1,580 for retreats, per AyaAdvisors, and $60 for a single ceremony in February 2020; no deposit or refund terms were found.
• Overall Assessment: Consistently praised 2019 retreats on a historic estate, offset by unnamed healers, no published safety information, unsupported health claims and no activity in Ecuador since 2020. Directory evaluation: C-.

💬 What Guests Are Saying

All 15 AyaAdvisors reviews give five stars and praise the estate, clean rooms, vegetarian food, kind staff, translation and feeling safe in ceremony. No reviews of 3 stars or lower exist. All 15 were posted within five months, several on the same days, which may reflect groups posting together. No reviews exist on Psychable, NuMundo, Retreat Guru, Tripadvisor or Google. If you have attended, we encourage you to share your experience through our submission form.

🚩 Incident Report

We searched review platforms and English and Spanish-language news for reports involving Ayni Retreats, Ayni Retreat Center and Freddy Larrosa.

• Deaths and serious injuries: None found.
• Sexual misconduct: No allegations found.
• Theft and fraud: None found.
• Legal action: None found.

The healers who served in Paute are not named, which limits this search.

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

🔍 Critical Notes

Screening and medical support. No medical questionnaire, contraindication list, medical staff or emergency protocol was published; a 2020 notice only encouraged the ayahuasca diet. The Psychable listing calls ayahuasca “neuronal regenerative” and says it treats addiction, without evidence. Cuenca’s hospitals are about 40 kilometers away (estimate).

Who runs it. No owner or healer is named on any listing; the 2020 notice mentions two unnamed healers. NuMundo describes a 45-hectare property founded in 1980, and reviewers describe a restored 16th-century estate. No company was found.

Name reuse. In 2023 the ayniretreats.com domain and the @ayniretreats Instagram promoted a huachuma and kambo weekend in Massachusetts led by Freddy Larrosa as “Ayni Healing retreats”, per Soluna Medicines; he also led an ayahuasca weekend in New Hampshire in 2021, per Pachamama Sanctuary. Whether he served in Paute is not established. DMT is a Schedule I drug in the US outside narrow religious exemptions, per Wikipedia. A separate AYNI Healing Retreat near Quito and Mindo, on Retreat Guru, has no confirmed link.

Status. The last dated activity in Ecuador is a $60 public ceremony on February 8, 2020; a Psychable listing added around April 2021 gives no dates. No closure notice was found.

Legal context. Ayahuasca is treated as legal traditional medicine in Ecuador, per HealingMaps, but no specific regulation of retreat centers was found.

Corrections to our earlier profile. Our earlier page said the center was potentially closed and being monitored for rebranding; no activity in Ecuador after February 2020 was found, but closure is not confirmed, and the name has since been reused rather than rebranded. Our Cuenca location is the nearest city; the center was in Paute, per Paute Canton data. The 1480 price has no source; AyaAdvisors gives $185 to $1,580. Our earlier grade was C; the grade is now C-.

🆘 Screening & Mental Health Risks

No contraindications are published. ICEERS notes that ayahuasca’s MAOI component makes it dangerous with SSRIs and other serotonergic drugs and that it is contraindicated for people prone to psychosis. Never stop a psychiatric medication to qualify for a ceremony without your prescriber’s guidance.

🧪 Brew Substance

Ayahuasca and San Pedro of undisclosed recipe, with temazcal sweat lodges. Ayahuasca combines the Banisteriopsis caapi vine with a DMT-containing leaf such as chacruna, as Erowid explains.

📍 Location, Setting & Style

• Setting: An Andean valley at about 2,300 meters with a temperate climate.
• Rooms: Shared or private rooms on a restored estate, with an on-site vegetarian restaurant, per NuMundo.
• Style: Ayahuasca and San Pedro with sweat lodges, yoga and meditation.

Practical guidance: Fly to Cuenca and travel on to Paute by road; directions were given by email.

Should You Book?

No retreats are listed in Ecuador under this name. For US ceremonies using the Ayni name, confirm in writing who leads them, how guests are screened and what legal risk applies. Read our guide to verifying retreat facilitators.

The Team & Story

Dated activity runs from June 2019 to February 2020; no founding story is published. We did not independently verify anyone’s training.

Prep & Integration Tips

For any ceremony, ask in writing who serves the medicine, what it contains, how medications are screened and what happens in an emergency, and plan any change with your own doctor. Our guide on how to research ayahuasca incidents can help you check any center.

Pros & Cons

Book Your Ceremony

No current dates are listed in Ecuador. Best Retreats does not take bookings; learn more about our mission.

Last reviewed November 2026.

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