Running an ayahuasca retreat is unlike operating an ordinary hospitality business. It combines accommodation, food service, transportation, ceremony management, emotional support, and land maintenance while serving guests who may arrive carrying depression, trauma, addiction, or disconnection.
In a conversation on The Innsiders podcast, LaWayra founder Sam Believ explained how an ayahuasca retreat functions behind the scenes, why group dynamics matter so much, and how his engineering background unexpectedly prepared him to build a healing center in rural Colombia.
A Hotel, Restaurant, Farm, and Healing Center
Sam describes the retreat as a hotel, restaurant, spiritual center, and mental health environment operating at the same time. The property also includes wellness facilities, gardens, and extensive grounds.
The team reflects that complexity. Kitchen staff prepare specialized meals, cleaning staff manage shared rooms and cabins, facilitators support ceremonies, musicians help guide the atmosphere, and an indigenous shaman oversees the medicine work. Volunteers, builders, and transportation providers add further layers.
Comfort matters, but conventional luxury is not the main goal. Guests are there primarily for healing, and every operational decision must support that purpose.
What a One-Week Retreat Looks Like
A typical week begins with transportation from Medellín to the retreat center. Participants spend their first day settling into the environment, meeting the team, and getting to know the group.
Before drinking ayahuasca, they attend workshops and sharing circles designed to reduce fear and explain how to navigate the experience. Participants need to trust the people and surroundings completely.
The week usually includes three nighttime ceremonies, a rest day, and a final daytime ceremony. Night ceremonies encourage inward focus, while the daytime experience allows participants to connect with the surrounding mountains, plants, and natural landscape.
Why the Group Becomes Part of the Medicine
Many guests initially worry about sleeping in shared rooms or attending ceremonies with strangers. Yet Sam repeatedly sees those same people leave saying the group was one of the most valuable parts of the retreat.
Participants share personal stories, hear others describe similar struggles, and begin recognizing themselves in one another. A group of strangers can become unusually close within a week because the environment encourages honesty and vulnerability.
Shared accommodation can strengthen this community. Conversations continue after workshops, around the fire, and before sleep.
The Challenge of Affordable Hospitality
LaWayra was intentionally designed to remain affordable. Shared dormitories make the experience accessible, while private cabins are available for guests wanting additional comfort.
Keeping prices low is difficult because a retreat still requires staff, food, transportation, maintenance, and ceremony support. The challenge is to remain sustainable without turning healing into a luxury.
The retreat must offer enough comfort for people to feel safe while avoiding costs that would push prices beyond reach.
Special Food and Preparation Requirements
Food service is particularly complicated because participants follow preparation guidelines before and during the retreat. Meals may need to avoid alcohol, excessive salt, dairy products, spicy ingredients, fermented foods, and certain other items.
Some medications and substances are far more serious concerns. Antidepressants and other psychoactive medications may interact dangerously with ayahuasca, while alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, and other drugs can interfere with the process or create health risks.
Guests must be honest about what they are taking and follow preparation instructions. Staff cannot ignore private choices when they may affect ceremony safety.
Addiction and the Pain Beneath It
Many participants come specifically for addiction, while others discover that addictive behaviors weaken after addressing unrelated emotional pain.
Sam views addiction less as the original problem and more as a coping mechanism. People may use alcohol, drugs, work, food, or endless scrolling to escape difficult feelings.
During ceremony, those underlying emotions may become visible. When the pressure beneath the behavior is released, some participants find that they no longer crave the substance or distraction in the same way.
Hospitality Built Around Transformation
The emotional demands are significant. One group may leave feeling joyful and transformed, while another arrives carrying fear and exhaustion. The team must rebuild trust with each new group.
Despite the workload, Sam finds the project more fulfilling than his engineering career. The retreat provides local jobs and allows him to witness people change in a matter of days.
Ultimately, an ayahuasca retreat is not simply a hotel that serves plant medicine. It is a carefully managed environment where hospitality becomes part of the healing process. The meals, rooms, fire, music, staff, group, and natural setting all contribute to whether participants feel safe enough to confront what they have been carrying.
Listen to the whole podcast episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0mGzWXL37FdaQpk5tDCch3