CEREMONIES
Ceremonies will take place on the TUESDAY, THURSDAY, and SATURDAY during the seminar. Buses will leave the hotel a little after 5pm, arriving at the ceremony locations by 6pm at the latest. Seminar participants may then have to get on a boat or hike a short distance to the different ceremony huts being used for this seminar. Once you arrive, you will have about an hour or two to get aquainted with the facilities, to get to know the people with whom you'll be sharing this experience, and to find your spot and get settled. At around 8pm, the curandero will begin to speak, explaining the format for how the ceremony will be run. A seminar facilitator will be present at the ceremony to translate and assist the during the ceremony.
At around 8:30pm, the curandero will pass around cups of ayahuasca to each person who chooses to drink (it is possible to attend ceremonies and not drink, if you would prefer) and by 9pm the lights will have been turned off and the ceremony will begin to take shape as the effects of the sacred brew set in. A ceremony may go as late as 3 or 4am, however, they usually end at around 1:30am, sometimes earlier. The curandero opens and closes the ceremony according to his own determination.
At the end of the ceremony, there is often an hour or two of discussion amongst the participants and the curandero, questions are answered and experiences are described. Thus, the buses will leave when each group collectively decides it's time to go, though the facilitator will also help with this decision. It is likely that participants will return to the hotel by 2am, but possibly later. You should be able to get at least 7 hours of sleep before getting up for the morning meal from 9am to 12pm.