La Luna del Amazonas

La Luna del Amazonas sits on the banks of the Amazon River outside Iquitos, and it stands out for one thing above the rest: its safety documentation is among the most detailed we have read from a small center. Add a strong review record, a low price, and a strict ayahuasca-only approach, and this becomes one of the genuinely serious alternatives to our top pick. For a first-timer who wants clear protocols without a big-center price tag, it deserves real consideration.

What La Luna del Amazonas offers

Two core formats anchor the program: a 7-day retreat with four ayahuasca ceremonies at $1,150, and a 14-day "Disconnect & Reconnect" retreat with up to eight ceremonies at $2,100. Groups are capped at ten. Every guest gets a private room with a private shower and flush toilet, and the all-inclusive price covers transport from Iquitos, diet meals, a preparation guide, group sharings, one-on-one consultations, workshops, nature hikes and canoeing, cultural visits, and post-retreat correspondence with the shamans. English and Swedish translation is offered, with shamans working in Spanish and Quechua.

The center's history is unusual. It began in 1987 as a local village clinic serving the community and expanded into its current retreat form around 2015 and 2016, led by Maestro Don Guido Rimachi, a shaman with decades of ceremony experience. The lineage is traditional Amazonian, with some sources citing Shipibo influence, though the shamans themselves work in Quechua and Spanish. One thing the center is firm about: it keeps strictly to ayahuasca and does not mix in other plants or energies, brewing the medicine on site from vine and chacruna leaves alone. Getting there means a roughly one-hour boat ride from Iquitos, with a faster route available in an emergency.

What people are saying

The independent record is strong for a center this size. On AyaAdvisors it holds a 5.0 across about 67 reviews, with recent, detailed entries. Jessie, in March 2026, wrote that "Don Guido is an exceptional shaman" and that "the entire team is experienced, attentive." CarlyStar13, in September 2025, described "a small group of 5" and a shaman "on this path for 40 years." Reddit accounts are similarly warm, with one first-timer calling it "a great place to drink for the first time" and praising its work with trauma (thread).

The praise is consistent: Don Guido, the warmth of the staff, the small groups, the purity of the medicine, and the sense of a traditional experience that is still well organized. We found no pattern of complaints, and no incidents on record.

The honest read

The safety page here is genuinely reassuring, and it is specific rather than vague. La Luna states that every guest completes a detailed health questionnaire, that contraindications like heart conditions, psychiatric challenges, and incompatible medications are reviewed, that staff are trained in first aid and CPR, that a minimum of two facilitators (one male, one female) are present at every ceremony without drinking, and that transport to an Iquitos hospital runs about forty to sixty minutes with a medical doctor on contact. Its own wording is the kind of thing you want to see: "In over 10 years of operating, we have only needed to transfer guests to Iquitos twice, both times due to mild allergic reactions." That is a documented track record, not a promise.

The honest caveats are modest. The group cap of ten is larger than the most intimate centers, so you will be one of up to ten rather than a handful. The lineage description is a little mixed across sources, traditional Amazonian with some Shipibo framing, so if a precisely defined indigenous tradition matters to you, confirm it directly. And the setting is a real boat ride into the rainforest, with the isolation that implies. None of these is a strike against the center; they are simply the trade-offs. If you want help judging whether ten guests or a boat transfer changes the fit for you, ask us before you book.

La Luna del Amazonas vs AyaSelva

This is a close, respectful comparison, because both centers do the fundamentals well and the differences are real but narrow.

La Luna's genuine edges: its safety protocols are documented in unusual detail, including a stated evacuation record; its AyaAdvisors record of 5.0 across roughly 67 reviews is deeper than AyaSelva's roughly thirty; its seven-day, four-ceremony price of $1,150 undercuts AyaSelva slightly; and its strict ayahuasca-only purity, with the medicine cooked on site, will appeal to anyone who wants the brew kept simple. On documented safety and review depth, it genuinely competes at the top.

AyaSelva's edges are intimacy and explicit screening detail. Its cap is six guests against La Luna's ten, the tightest in this set, and it publishes a named contraindication list, SSRIs, MAOIs, antipsychotics, cardiovascular disease, epilepsy, a history of psychosis, and pregnancy, alongside its questionnaire and a personal intake call. Both centers cook a vine-and-chacruna brew on site; both keep male and female support present. What tips most first-timers toward AyaSelva is the six-guest ceiling and the fact that our team has personally vetted it. But we will be honest: if you are comfortable in a group of up to ten and you weight a documented safety-and-evacuation record heavily, La Luna del Amazonas is an excellent choice and picking it over AyaSelva would be entirely defensible. Read our full AyaSelva review to compare directly, and see La Luna's own site for current dates.

How to proceed

If La Luna feels right, confirm the next open dates, ask about the exact group size for your retreat, and read their safety page closely against your own health history. If you are choosing between a documented-safety center with up to ten guests and a six-guest family center with an explicit screening list, that is a fine call to talk through. Start with our AyaSelva review, or ask us and we'll tell you honestly which fits you better, including when the answer is La Luna. It costs nothing and we have no stake in where you go.