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

Curandera (formerly AyaShakti Retreats): An In-Depth Review for Ayahuasca Retreats in Paraty, Brazil

Former name. This retreat brand previously ran as AyaShakti Retreats at the Mayantuyacu center in Peru. Our profile under that name, AyaShakti Retreats, keeps the earlier record.

AyaShakti Retreats is the retreat brand of Tatiana Aya Tupinambá, a self-described Indigenous Tupinambá curandera trained in the Ashaninka lineage of the late Maestro Juan Flores Salazar, and her partner and co-founder Charles D. Johnston. Until April 2024 it held retreats at Juan Flores’s Mayantuyacu center on the “Boiling River” (Shanay-Timpishka), about three hours from Pucallpa, Peru. It has since rebranded as “Curandera” (curandera.co) and moved to a new center in the Atlantic rainforest near Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, which it says is “still being built.” Its first retreat there, ten days with four ceremonies from December 28, 2026, costs $5,000 with a $1,000 deposit. Juan Flores died in October 2025. There are no reviews on any platform, the “licensed medical professionals” it promises are unnamed, no contraindication list or refund policy is visible, and selling healing retreats sits uneasily with Brazil’s rules on ayahuasca. The founders also run a separate ibogaine program, Nekawa, in Paraty. We found no incidents.

🎯 At a Glance

• Locations: A 390-acre property “in the mountains” of the Atlantic rainforest near Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, “surrounded by national park,” according to curandera.co; no address is published. Earlier retreats were at Mayantuyacu on the Boiling River in Puerto Inca province, Huánuco, Peru, not in Pucallpa itself.
• Approach: Ashaninka-lineage ayahuasca ceremonies with icaros sung by Tatiana, a sweat lodge, plant baths, personal master-plant dietas, an integration circle after each ceremony, yoga, breathwork and meditation.
• Suitable For: Medically healthy adults willing to join a founding group at an unfinished center and to obtain screening, medical and refund details in writing first.
• Costs: $5,000 for the ten-day New Year’s retreat (December 28, 2026, to January 7, 2027) with four ceremonies, lodging and meals; a $1,000 deposit, with “the balance due before arrival,” according to its retreat page, which says payments help finish building the center. Individual dietas for two students at a time are offered without published prices. No refund policy is visible.
• Overall Assessment: A documented teacher lineage and very small groups, offset by an unfinished new center, no reviews anywhere, unnamed medical staff and no published contraindications, no visible refund terms or legal entity, a commercial model in tension with Brazilian rules, and a parallel ibogaine program run by a co-founder without shown medical credentials. Directory evaluation: C.

💬 What Guests Are Saying

The positive picture. There are no independent reviews. The operator’s main credential is Curandera, a 2024 documentary produced by Charles Johnston that follows Tatiana’s training with Juan Flores at Mayantuyacu. Our earlier profile said a 2023 Quora post praised “Maestra Rosa’s” icaros, a retreat platform praised the staff in 2024, and a 2022 Tripadvisor review praised Sacred Valley views; no facilitator named Rosa is connected to this operator, it has never been in the Sacred Valley, and those reviews remain unverified.

The negative feedback. None found, because no reviews exist.

Who is writing the reviews. No one, independently. The documentary’s “1.9 million” viewers and festival awards are the operator’s own claims. If you have attended, we encourage you to share your experience through our submission form.

🚩 Incident Report

We searched review platforms and English, Spanish and Portuguese-language news for reports involving AyaShakti, Curandera, Tatiana Aya Tupinambá, Charles Johnston, Juan Flores Salazar, Mayantuyacu and Nekawa.

• Deaths and serious injuries: None found. Juan Flores Salazar died on October 11, 2025, according to a Takiwasi tribute; no cause was given and nothing links his death to a retreat.
• Sexual misconduct: No allegations found.
• Theft and fraud: No complaints found.
• Legal action: No police action, regulatory action or lawsuits found.

Our earlier profile also found no theft, sexual misconduct or crime. With no reviews at all, the absence of reports says little.

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

🔍 Critical Notes

Brazil’s rules. Ayahuasca is permitted in Brazil for religious and ritual use, but CONAD Resolution 1/2010 rejects profit-oriented serving and tourism and bars therapeutic claims not proven by research, according to ICEERS, which calls the status “precarious” because the rules are administrative. A $5,000 retreat sold to foreigners, from a site that cites benefits for depression, PTSD and addiction, sits in tension with those rules. We found no enforcement against this operator.

A new, unfinished center. The December 2026 group is billed as the “founding cohort,” the first to sit on the land, and the November retreat was moved to New Year’s. Group size is given as “no more than eight” in one place and “6 to 10” in another.

The ibogaine program. The same founders run Nekawa, an ibogaine program priced from about $12,000 to $50,000 on what appears to be the same Paraty land, with Charles Johnston, who describes recovering from opiate addiction with ibogaine in 2013, as “Head of Treatment.” Ibogaine carries serious cardiac risks; Nekawa describes hospital-based dosing but names no hospital or physician, and no authorized ibogaine route exists in Brazil, according to a 2026 country review.

Corrections to our earlier profile. The operator is led by Tatiana Aya Tupinambá in the Ashaninka lineage, not by a Shipibo “Maestra Rosa,” and it was never in the Sacred Valley; the Moon Temple visits have no source. It has two websites, ayashakti.com and curandera.co. The current retreat is ten days with four ceremonies, not five or seven days; groups are up to eight or ten, not six. Our earlier profile’s day-by-day Pucallpa itinerary, two to three days of tambo isolation, an eight-day dieta, 24-hour interpreters in English, Spanish and Portuguese, free ceremonies with unsold medicine, replanting of gathered species and brew made with boiling-river water remain unverified.

🆘 Screening & Mental Health Risks

Applications are reviewed “personally,” but no questionnaire, contraindication list or emergency protocol is published. “Licensed medical professionals” are included in the retreat, and a podcast mentions physicians, psychologists and Ayurvedic doctors, but none is named. The nearest hospital to the Paraty site is not stated. 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

The operator describes ayahuasca made from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and chacruna leaves, which supply the DMT, as Erowid explains, in the Ashaninka tradition of Juan Flores. Dieta plants include bobinsana, chiric sanango and ayahuma. Kambo, rapé, bufo and San Pedro are not mentioned.

📍 Location, Setting & Style

• Setting: Mountainside Atlantic rainforest near Paraty, with rivers, waterfalls, a canopy bridge and a viewing deck shown in its Retreat Guru gallery.
• Rooms: Not described on the operator’s site; the gallery shows a private casita.
• Style: An Indigenous-led ceremonial program with Western founders, for small groups.

Practical guidance: Fly into Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo and travel to Paraty, where the center collects guests. Meals are simple: rice, plantains, salad, quinoa and occasional chicken or fish.

Should You Book?

Only with care. Before paying, ask for the names and licenses of the medical staff, the contraindication list and emergency plan, the nearest hospital, the refund terms, and whether the center is finished, and get the answers in writing. Read our guide to verifying retreat facilitators.

The Team & Story

Tatiana Aya Tupinambá says she has served ayahuasca since 2011 or 2012, trained for more than ten years under Juan Flores Salazar at Mayantuyacu, and studies in the Yawanawá tradition of Brazil; she describes childhood trauma and struggles with alcohol before first drinking ayahuasca at 28, according to her biography. Charles D. Johnston, her partner, produced the Curandera and Vine of Souls films. Earlier retreats included a 2022 to 2023 New Year’s retreat at an island resort. We did not independently verify anyone’s training.

Prep & Integration Tips

Before you go: Disclose every medication and condition in writing and plan any change with your own doctor. After you return: Arrange support from a qualified therapist at home. Our guide on how to research ayahuasca incidents can help you check any operator.

Pros & Cons

Book Your Ceremony

The next retreat runs December 28, 2026, to January 7, 2027, in Paraty, booked through curandera.co. Before paying, confirm the medical staff, the refund terms and the emergency arrangements in writing. 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.