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Last Updated: March 9th 2026
If you’re weighing Arkana against Soltara Healing Center, you’re comparing two of the most highly reviewed ayahuasca retreat centers in the Americas. Both work within authentic Shipibo healing traditions, both carry near-perfect ratings across hundreds of reviews, and both have guided thousands of guests through sacred ceremony. These are serious centers run by people who care deeply about this work. Choosing either one reflects a meaningful commitment to your healing.
That said, these two retreats offer fundamentally different experiences: different countries, different price points, different healing philosophies, and different relationships to the land where ayahuasca originates. Understanding those differences matters because the right container for your journey depends entirely on what you’re seeking.
We want to be transparent: this guide is published on Arkana’s website, so please keep that in mind as you read. What we’ve aimed to do here is present the factual differences between the two centers so you can determine which experience aligns best with your needs, intentions, and healing journey. We respect what Soltara has built, and we believe the best decision comes from honest information, not marketing.
Before we go deeper into each area, here’s a quick comparison of the core differences between both retreats.
| Category |
Arkana
|
Soltara Healing Center |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2015 (11 years operating) | 2018 (8 years operating) |
| Location(s) | Peru: Amazon (Iquitos) & Sacred Valley (Cusco). Mexico: Valle de Bravo & Yucatán | Costa Rica: Playa Blanca (Nicoya Peninsula) and Goddess Falls (Diamante Valley) |
| Country & Legal Status | Peru: ayahuasca declared National Cultural Patrimony in 2008 | Costa Rica: ayahuasca exists in a legal gray area (not explicitly legal or illegal) |
| Tradition | Shipibo, Meraya lineage, led by Maestra Justina (45+ years experience) | Shipibo, nine rotating healers from Peru |
| Ceremonies & Medicines | Curated program: Ayahuasca, San Pedro, Bufo/Sapo (optional), Hapé, plus temazcal, psilocybin and peyote in Mexico | Ayahuasca only: no other plant medicines offered |
| Shamans Per Ceremony | 3 to 7 Shipibo healers working simultaneously | 2 Shipibo healers (one male, one female) |
| Healer Relationship | Permanent family; long-term, mission-driven | Nine healers rotating from Peru on assignments |
| Group Size | Avg 15 / Max 18 to 25 by location | 17 to 22 per retreat |
| Retreat Schedule | Weekly, year-round (continuous) | Select dates, a few retreats per month |
| Retreat Duration | 7, 14, and 21 days | 5, 7, and 12 nights |
| Traditional Dietas | Available: longer-duration master plant dietas in the Amazon jungle | Not offered |
| Price Range (USD) | $2,520 to $10,700 | $3,375 to $13,500+ |
| Ayahuasca Source | 100-acre Vencedor plantation; brewed on-site by Shipibo healers | Sourced from Costa Rica-based providers; healers rotate in from Peru |
| Integration Support | 8P Method, 1:1 integration coaching (add-on), peer-led integration circles, monthly integration mastermind, lifetime community | 1-year Nectara platform membership, monthly circles, 1:1 sessions (new for 2026) |
| Guest Reviews | 1,000+ five-star reviews across AyaAdvisors (#1 Peru), TripAdvisor, Google, Retreat Guru (5.0 ★) | 763+ reviews on Retreat Guru (4.98★), 5.0 on TripAdvisor |
| Safety Screening | Medical questionnaire, video call onboarding, selective acceptance, 2-3-week prep diet | Medical questionnaire, therapist consultation, right to decline applicants |
This is the most fundamental difference between these two centers, and it touches everything else: the legal framework, the cultural context, the relationship between the medicine and the land, and even the logistics of getting there.
Soltara operates from two locations in Costa Rica: Playa Blanca, a clifftop property on the Nicoya Peninsula overlooking the Gulf of Nicoya, and Goddess Falls, a newer mountain retreat in the Diamante Valley. Costa Rica offers logistical advantages for North American guests, including direct flights from most major US cities, familiar English-speaking infrastructure, and established tourism systems. For travelers who want the least friction between deciding to attend and arriving at the retreat, Costa Rica’s accessibility is a clear advantage.
Where the conversation gets more nuanced is the legal and cultural landscape. Ayahuasca in Costa Rica exists in a regulatory gray area. DMT is technically controlled under Law #8204, but ayahuasca itself is not specifically scheduled, and no prosecutions of retreat operators have occurred. Soltara holds a permit from the Costa Rican Ministry of Health for “alternative and natural therapies,” which provides an additional layer of operational legitimacy. However, this legal framework could shift at any time, and it does not carry the same weight as explicit cultural protection.
It is also worth noting that Soltara is not located in the jungle. Both properties sit in Costa Rica’s coastal and mountain regions, which offer beautiful natural settings but a distinctly different environment from the Amazon basin where ayahuasca has been used ceremonially for generations.
Arkana operates in Peru and Mexico, two countries where the medicines they work with carry recognized legal and cultural standing. Peru declared ayahuasca a National Cultural Patrimony in 2008, making it fully legal and culturally protected. This isn’t a technicality or a gray area. It’s an explicit governmental recognition that ayahuasca is part of Peru’s indigenous heritage.
Arkana’s Amazon center sits along the Ucayali River deep in the Amazon rainforest near Iquitos, and the Sacred Valley center is nestled between Cusco and Machu Picchu. Arkana also operates two additional retreat centers in Mexico (Valle de Bravo and the Yucatán) that offer psilocybin, Hapé, Bufo/Sapo, and Temazcal ceremonies, though these locations do not serve ayahuasca.
Travel to Peru requires more planning: flights to Lima followed by a domestic connection to Iquitos or Cusco, with total travel time of ten to fifteen hours from most US cities. That’s a real consideration. But for many guests, the tradeoff is worth it. You’re sitting in ceremony in the Amazon jungle, surrounded by the ecosystem that Shipibo cosmology considers part of the healing itself. For those that prefer easy accessibility, Mexico offers a convenient option, hours away from the United States with direct flights into Mexico City or Cancun.
Neither approach is wrong. One prioritizes accessibility and convenience. The other prioritizes working with the medicine in its homeland in the most authentic form possible.
Both Arkana and Soltara work within the Shipibo healing tradition, one of the most well-known and deeply practiced ayahuasca lineages in the world. The Shipibo people have maintained unbroken ceremonial traditions for generations, and their healers train through multi-year master plant dietas: extended periods of isolation, restricted diet, and deep communion with master plant spirits. A healer capable of leading ceremonies independently has typically completed at least 10 years of dietas. This shared foundation of authenticity is significant, because it’s rarer than many people realize in an industry where the word “Shipibo” is sometimes used loosely.
Soltara lists nine named Master Healers who rotate between their communities in Peru and Soltara’s Costa Rica locations, always working in male-female pairs from the same lineage. Each ceremony features two healers, and each guest receives individual icaros (healing songs) tailored to their intention. The healers bring between twelve and thirty-plus years of experience, and several come from multi-generational lineages, trained by grandfathers, parents, and extended family who were themselves curanderos.
Two to three Western-trained facilitators and an assistant support each ceremony, many of them trained in Dr. Gabor Maté’s Compassionate Inquiry methodology. Soltara’s advisory board, featuring Dr. Gabor Maté (trauma and addiction expert), Dr. Dennis McKenna (ethnopharmacologist), and Dr. Bia Labate (Chacruna Institute), lends Western clinical and academic authority that strengthens their trauma-informed facilitation approach.
A structural detail worth noting: Soltara’s healers are not permanent residents of Costa Rica. They rotate in from Peru on scheduled assignments, working on-site during their assigned periods and then returning to their families and communities in the Amazon. This rotation model means the healers are working thousands of miles from their ancestral territory, a distinction that matters to those who believe the land itself is part of the healing container.
Arkana is, at its core, a family. The healing team is not a roster of employees or contractors rotating through on assignment. It is a multi-generational Shipibo family headed by Maestra Justina, a direct descendant of Merayas, the highest-ranked healers in Shipibo tradition. With over 45 years of experience and more than 50 plant dietas completed, she practices shamanic surgery weekly, an extremely rare skill even among experienced curanderos. Her husband, Maestro Cesar (known as Paparahua), brings over 50 years of his own healing practice. Between retreats, he returns to their home community of Vencedor on the Pisquí River to manage Arkana’s 100-acre ayahuasca plantation, the same village where he, Justina, and fellow Arkana healer Eligio were all born and raised.
This family structure extends beyond the healers. Everyone at Arkana, from facilitators to kitchen staff to the leadership team, operates as one big spiritual family with a shared mission, not a corporate hierarchy. When guests choose Arkana, they are not checking into a retreat center. They are being welcomed into a family, during the retreat and long after they return home. Learn more about the people and mission behind Arkana on the About Us page.
Arkana’s shamans operate long-term at the center. They do not cycle through from other organizations or rotate on temporary assignments. All come from the same family and Shipibo lineage, creating continuity in the ceremonial space that guests and healers build together over years, not weeks. Arkana has also invested deeply in Shipibo lineage preservation through a dedicated Shaman School, training the next generation of healers and ensuring that these ancient practices are carried forward with integrity. This commitment to cultural preservation is part of Arkana’s broader giving back mission.
The most tangible difference in ceremony is the number of healers present. Arkana deploys three to seven Shipibo shamans simultaneously in each ceremony at its Amazon location, and reviews consistently describe this as extraordinary. Five shamans chanting icaros for four to five hours creates a qualitatively different ceremonial space than two healers working the same group. Each participant also receives their own personalized icaros during ceremony, which are recorded and provided on an MP4 player to take home, allowing guests to reconnect with the healing energy of the jungle long after the retreat ends. Combined, the healing team brings over 100 years of experience into every ceremony. You can learn more about each healer’s story on our team page.
Both centers bring genuine expertise to this work. One grounds its authority in the depth and continuity of family lineage practiced on ancestral land. The other bridges traditional Shipibo healing with modern trauma-informed clinical frameworks.
Both centers follow the traditional Shipibo ceremony structure: the darkened maloca, the sacred icaros, the purge, and the deeply personal inner work that unfolds throughout the night. If you sit with either center, you’re experiencing an authentic ceremonial container. Where they diverge, sharply, is in what medicines are available and how they think about the healing journey.
Philosophy: Depth through singular focus. Ayahuasca is the sole ceremonial medicine. No San Pedro, no Bufo, no Hapé, no Sananga. Soltara uses the traditional two-ingredient brew of Banisteriopsis caapi vine and Psychotria viridis (chacruna). Their position is that ayahuasca deserves a dedicated container to do its deepest work within the Shipibo tradition.
For guests seeking a focused, single-medicine immersion, this clarity of purpose has produced profoundly transformative results for thousands of guests. Soltara does not offer traditional plant dietas, and their retreat schedule runs on select dates throughout the year rather than continuously.
Philosophy: Breadth within tradition, through a curated program refined over ten years. Ayahuasca remains the centerpiece, but each retreat follows a carefully designed sequence that has been tailored and refined since Arkana's founding. This is not a random assortment of offerings. A typical week weaves together ayahuasca ceremonies, complementary medicine ceremonies (San Pedro, Hapé, optional Bufo/Sapo depending on location), group sharing circles, yoga, breathwork sessions, sound bath healing, and excursions into the surrounding landscape. The order, timing, and spacing of each element is intentional. Restorative activities like yoga and sound healing give the body and mind time to process between ceremonies, group shares create space to integrate insights with your community, and excursions ground you in the land itself. Together, these elements create a comprehensive healing arc rather than a series of isolated ceremonies
A critical distinction: Arkana never combines Bufo/Sapo or other psychoactive medicines within the same ayahuasca ceremony. Each medicine is honored separately, with proper timing and spacing between ceremonies throughout the retreat. This ensures that each tradition receives the respect and dedicated space it deserves. Guests report extraordinary results from having the opportunity to experience both medicines in the same retreat.
What makes this approach distinct is not simply that Arkana offers multiple medicines, but that each one is honored through its own dedicated ceremony. Ayahuasca ceremonies follow the Shipibo tradition. Bufo/Sapo is offered at both the Amazon and Mexico locations, accompanied by a traditional ceremony. Peyote and psilocybin are offered exclusively at the Mexico centers, each within its own ceremonial container. Arkana does not blend these traditions or combine medicines within a single ceremony. Each receives its own space, its own respect, and its own place within the curated retreat program.
Music + Icaros
Arkana also incorporates live music into ceremonies alongside traditional icaros, though the two are never blended together. The icaros are sung during their own dedicated portions of the ceremony, preserving the integrity of the Shipibo healing songs. The shamans may also prescribe specific plant treatments such as emetics, vapor baths, or oral remedies based on what they observe during the ceremony. Explore the full range of sacred medicines we work with.
Personalized Plant Treatments
For guests seeking deeper immersion, Arkana offers traditional master plant dietas of longer duration in the Amazon jungle. These dietas require the jungle ecosystem to source the proper food, plants, and nutrients that traditional practice calls for, which is why they can only be conducted authentically in the Amazon. This is a meaningful offering for experienced practitioners or those drawn to extended ceremonial work.
Year-Round Scheduling
Arkana runs retreats weekly, year-round, with continuous programming that allows guests to arrive on a schedule that works for them rather than waiting for fixed dates throughout the year.
Neither approach is inherently better. One goes deep on a single path; the other opens multiple doorways within a single retreat. The right choice depends entirely on what your healing journey calls for.
At Arkana, we offer authentic ayahuasca experiences at two sacred locations in Peru. Each carries its own medicine, its own teachings, its own perfect timing for different souls.
Peru
1–3 Week Programs • Year-Round
Peru
1–3 Week Programs • Year-Round
How ayahuasca is sourced and prepared is a question worth asking of any retreat center, because it speaks directly to the integrity of the ceremonial experience.
Soltara’s current website describes their brew as “sustainably and regeneratively sourced from trusted providers in Costa Rica.” Earlier published content on their site described the brew as “cooked in the village of one of our healers in Peru.” This suggests the sourcing arrangement may have evolved over time, possibly from importing Peru-prepared medicine to sourcing vine and leaf from Costa Rica-based growers. The exact current arrangement is not fully detailed in their public materials.
What is clear is that Soltara uses only two ingredients with no admixtures, which they position as a safety feature and a point of traditional integrity.
The ayahuasca is grown on Arkana’s own 100-acre plantation in Vencedor, the Shipibo community on the Pisquí River, where Maestra Justina, Maestro Cesar, and healer Eligio were born and raised. The vine and chacruna leaf grow in the Amazon basin, where these plants are native, and the brew is prepared on-site by the same Shipibo healers who lead the ceremony.
The ayahuasca you drink in an Arkana ceremony was likely grown, harvested, and cooked by the same people who will sing the icaros over you that night. That continuity, from soil to ceremony, is something most retreat centers simply cannot offer.
This is a difference each guest will weigh differently. Some may prioritize the brew’s purity and preparation method regardless of origin. Others may feel that the medicine’s connection to its native ecosystem and the hands that grew it matters to the healing experience.
Playa Blanca sits on seaside cliffs overlooking the Gulf of Nicoya in one of the world’s five recognized Blue Zones. Accommodations range from Eco-Tambos (open-air wooden huts with shared bathrooms and no air conditioning) to the Canopy Suite with 270-degree panoramic views, king bed, air conditioning, en-suite bathroom, and private balcony. The property features a swimming pool, star deck with sunrise views, jungle gym, two nearby beaches, fire circles, and an open-air yoga shala.
Goddess Falls spans over 200 acres of private rainforest sanctuary in the Diamante Valley mountains, with luxury glamping tents perched on ridge tops with valley views and proximity to six waterfalls. The food at both locations is organic, locally sourced, and plant-forward, featuring lean proteins and following Shipibo dietary guidelines. Reviewers consistently call it exceptional.
Arkana’s Setting:
Arkana is not a “luxury retreat” in the Western sense. It is an eco-friendly, comfort-forward environment with the hospitality touches (housekeeping, private rooms, on-staff chefs, spa, gym, pool) that allow guests to focus entirely on their healing. What makes the centers unique is that this level of comfort is achieved sustainably, in deeply traditional settings.
Arkana Amazon, near Iquitos, sits along the Ucayali River deep in the rainforest. The center is 100% solar powered with compostable toilets, reflecting Arkana's commitment to operating in harmony with the jungle ecosystem.
View the Amazon retreat details and accommodations.
Arkana Sacred Valley, nestled along the Vilcanota River between Cusco and Machu Picchu, offers a distinctly different energy: Andean mountains rather than jungle. The center operates as a true farm-to-table environment, growing its own food in an on-site garden.
Explore the Sacred Valley retreat details and lodge accommodations.
Arkana also operates retreat centers in Valle de Bravo and the Yucatán in Mexico, offering psilocybin, peyote, Hapé, Bufo/Sapo, and Temazcal ceremonies for guests drawn to those modalities.
The price difference between these two centers is substantial.
Soltara structures pricing in two components: a flat professional services fee ($2,500 to $2,750 for five- or seven-night retreats) covering ceremonies, healers, facilitation, and integration programs, plus a variable lodging charge based on room type. For a seven-night retreat at Playa Blanca, prices range from approximately $3,875 (Eco-Tambo with shared bathroom) to $8,250 (Canopy Suite). The twelve-night deep dive at Playa Blanca ranges from $5,250 (Eco-Tambo) to $12,150 (Canopy Suite), with couples suites reaching $13,500. Goddess Falls seven-night retreats start at approximately $3,625 for shared glamping accommodations.
All retreats include meals, ceremonies, ground transportation from the pickup hotel near San José airport, yoga, breathwork, integration programming, and one year of Soltara Plus community platform membership. Soltara offers installment payment plans, a lifetime ten percent return guest discount, and financial aid for veterans through partnerships with VETS, Inc. and the Heroic Hearts Project.
Arkana’s seven-day Amazon program starts at $2,520 for a shared room and ranges up to $4,500 for premium accommodations. Sacred Valley seven-day programs range from $3,000 to $4,020. Fourteen-day programs run $4,680 to $8,320 (Amazon) and $5,525 to $7,410 (Sacred Valley). Twenty-one-day immersions range from $6,800 to $12,000.
All programs include ceremonies (ayahuasca, Hapé, and San Pedro at Sacred Valley), meals, accommodations, yoga, breathwork, sound healing, integration workshops, excursions, and shuttle from the designated pickup hotel. Optional add-ons include Bufo/Sapo ($300), spa treatments, one-on-one integration coaching, sessions with a licensed psychiatrist, and Machu Picchu excursions (~$200). Arkana offers a lifetime ten percent return guest discount and periodic promotional pricing.
When comparing the total investment for a seven-day experience, Arkana’s starting price of $2,520 versus Soltara’s approximately $3,875 represents the most significant cost difference between the two centers. That’s approximately $1,300 to $1,500 less while including more ceremony types (ayahuasca plus Hapé, and San Pedro at Sacred Valley) and more shamans per ceremony.
Both centers include comprehensive all-inclusive packages, and neither includes international airfare or travel insurance in their pricing.
Soltara employs a thorough intake process that includes a detailed medical questionnaire, reviewed by experienced intake coordinators, and a medical professional consultation. They screen for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, psychosis, heart conditions, and medication contraindications. SSRIs must be discontinued at least two weeks prior.
The center maintains an on-site health clinic with a local doctor who performs physical exams on arrival and departure, staff trained in Wilderness First Response, a certified first responder available around the clock, and walkie-talkies in every room. Soltara holds a Costa Rican Ministry of Health permit for alternative therapies and reserves the right to decline applicants who don’t meet screening criteria. No serious incidents or deaths have been publicly reported.
Arkana is selective about who it accepts. The screening process begins with a comprehensive medical questionnaire, followed by a video call with a member of the Arkana team who reviews the questionnaire in detail and evaluates whether the guest is a strong fit for the retreat. This is not a formality. Applicants are turned away when the team determines that the timing, medical profile, or readiness is not right. Arkana’s position is that protecting the integrity of the ceremonial space and the safety of every participant is more important than filling seats.
Accepted guests then follow a mandatory three-week preparation diet. The healing team, led by Maestra Justina with her decades of experience reading participants’ energy, works alongside trained facilitators who adjust the ceremonial approach based on individual needs. Dosing is personalized, and the team monitors each participant throughout every ceremony.
Over eleven years and thousands of guests, Arkana has maintained a perfect safety record. That record isn’t accidental. It’s the result of a strict acceptance process, experienced healers, and a culture that treats safety as non-negotiable. Review our complete safety protocols.
Both centers take safety seriously. This is a shared strength, not a point of contrast.
This is where the two centers diverge most meaningfully, and where the choice between them may be made for you.
Ayahuasca has real contraindications. Certain medications (particularly SSRIs and other antidepressants), heart conditions, and specific psychiatric diagnoses can make ayahuasca unsafe. Beyond medical considerations, some guests may feel that ayahuasca is simply not the right starting point for their healing journey, whether because of personal readiness, nervousness, or a preference for a gentler introduction to plant medicine.
Because Soltara works exclusively with ayahuasca, if their screening determines that ayahuasca isn’t appropriate for you, the journey with Soltara ends there. This isn’t a criticism. It’s the natural consequence of a single-medicine model. They offer ayahuasca, and if ayahuasca isn’t safe for you, they responsibly say so.
Arkana’s multi-medicine, multi-location model offers additional pathways. Guests who are contraindicated for ayahuasca or who feel it is not the right starting point may, depending on their individual screening results, be able to work with alternative modalities such as San Pedro, breathwork, sound healing, yoga, float tank therapy, or individual consultations with the healing team. Every alternative is subject to the same rigorous screening process that Arkana applies to ayahuasca itself. No medicine or modality is guaranteed without evaluation.
Many guests who arrive unable to work with ayahuasca discover that the medicine they needed was something else entirely, and that the community, the setting, and the support of the facilitators carried just as much healing as ceremony itself. Healing has many doorways. If ayahuasca isn’t yours, we help you find the one that is.
Both centers agree on a fundamental truth: ceremony is the beginning, not the end. What you do with the insights that emerge, how you carry them into your daily life, your relationships, and your decisions, determines whether transformation lasts or fades. Both Arkana and Soltara take integration seriously, and both have invested meaningfully in this area, though they approach it differently.
Soltara has built one of the more comprehensive post-retreat integration programs in the industry. Every guest receives a full year of Soltara Plus membership on the Nectara community platform, which includes:
The 8P Method of Integration
Arkana developed the 8P Method, a structured framework designed to bridge the gap between the ceremonial space and everyday life. Each of the eight principles addresses a specific challenge that guests commonly face after returning home:
Learn more about the 8P Method.
Beyond the 8P framework, Arkana provides several layers of ongoing support designed to keep your transformation alive:
The personalized icaros recording that each guest takes home on an MP4 player also serves as a powerful integration tool, allowing you to reconnect with the ceremonial space and the healing energy of the jungle whenever you need it. Learn more about Arkana’s integration support services and packages.
Soltara’s integration model is more structured in its digital infrastructure and clinical partnerships. Arkana’s model is more rooted in community continuity, personal connection, and a philosophical framework for daily practice. Both approaches reflect genuine care for what happens after ceremony ends.
Both centers carry exceptional reputations built over years of consistent guest experiences.
Soltara holds a 4.98 out of 5.0 on Retreat Guru across 763+ reviews, a perfect 5.0 on TripAdvisor (ranked number one specialty lodging in Playa Blanca), and a 4.9 on Google with 249 reviews. Top praise centers on exceptional facilitator quality, authentic Shipibo ceremonies, a strong sense of safety and support, luxury facilities, and outstanding food.
The most common constructive feedback mentions the premium pricing, the restriction that guests cannot leave the maloca during ceremony, remote access to the Playa Blanca location (approximately four and a half hours from San José including a ferry), and a steep hill between rooms and the maloca. It is worth noting that Soltara does not currently have a listing on AyaAdvisors, widely considered the most independent ayahuasca-specific review platform.
Arkana claims 1,000+ five-star reviews across platforms, holds a perfect 5.0 on TripAdvisor for the Amazon location (265 reviews, ranked number one specialty lodging in the region), 5.0 stars for 188+ reviews on Retreat Guru, and is rated number one on AyaAdvisors for Peru. Common praise highlights the extraordinary power of the shamans and their icaros, the depth of care from facilitators, facilities that exceed expectations for the Amazon, transformative experiences, and strong suitability for solo female travelers.
Constructive feedback notes the higher cost relative to other Peru-based options, larger group sizes at the Amazon location (up to twenty-five), and the inherent intensity of the experience.
Across both centers, the overwhelming consensus is that these are well-run, deeply caring operations staffed by people who take this work seriously. The review profiles are among the strongest in the industry.
The primary difference is location and healing philosophy. Arkana operates in Peru, where ayahuasca has been declared National Cultural Patrimony (fully legal since 2008), and offers a curated multi-medicine program including ayahuasca, San Pedro, Hapé, and optional Bufo/Sapo, with three to seven Shipibo healers per ceremony. Arkana also operates two centers in Mexico offering psilocybin, peyote, Bufo/Sapo, and Temazcal ceremonies (no ayahuasca). Soltara operates in Costa Rica, where ayahuasca exists in a legal gray area, and focuses exclusively on ayahuasca with two healers per ceremony.
Arkana’s entry-level seven-day program starts at $2,520 compared to Soltara’s approximately $3,875, making Arkana approximately $1,300 to $1,500 less expensive for a comparable retreat while including more ceremony types and more shamans per ceremony.
Both centers accommodate first-timers with thorough preparation and experienced facilitators. Arkana’s strict screening process (medical questionnaire plus video call evaluation) ensures only guests who are genuinely ready are accepted. Arkana may also be preferable if you want options beyond ayahuasca or if you have medical considerations, as they can evaluate alternative healing pathways within the same retreat. Soltara is a strong choice if you want singular focus on ayahuasca with no other plant medicines.
Yes. Both work within genuine Shipibo lineage. Arkana’s ceremonies are led by a permanent, multi-generational Shipibo family (Maestra Justina with 45+ years, Maestro Cesar with 50+ years) who live and practice on their ancestral land in Peru year-round. Soltara rotates nine Shipibo healers from Peru to Costa Rica on scheduled assignments, always working in male-female pairs from the same lineage.
Both centers typically offer three to four ayahuasca ceremonies during a seven-day retreat. Arkana also includes Hapé ceremonies and San Pedro ceremony at the Sacred Valley location within the same curated program, while Soltara focuses exclusively on ayahuasca ceremonies.
No. Arkana never combines Bufo/Sapo or other psychoactive medicines within an ayahuasca ceremony. Each medicine is honored separately with proper timing and spacing between ceremonies throughout the retreat. The curated program has been refined over ten years to ensure each tradition receives its own dedicated ceremonial space.
No. Soltara does not offer traditional plant dietas. Arkana offers longer-duration dietas in the Amazon jungle, which require the jungle ecosystem to source the proper food, plants, and nutrients that traditional practice calls for.
If ayahuasca isn't the right fit for you medically, Soltara would not be able to serve you since they offer ayahuasca exclusively. Arkana's multi-medicine model may allow guests who aren't suited for ayahuasca, or who aren't ready for it, to work with alternative modalities such as San Pedro, breathwork, or sound healing, subject to the same rigorous screening process. Arkana's Mexico locations also offer psilocybin, peyote, and Bufo/Sapo for guests who prefer a different starting point.
Choose Soltara If:
Choose Arkana If:
Choosing either of these centers reflects a meaningful commitment to your healing. Both Arkana and Soltara carry genuine Shipibo lineage in an industry where authenticity matters more than ever. The fact that you’re researching this carefully, reading comparisons, weighing your options, listening to what resonates, tells us something important about how seriously you’re approaching this journey. That intentionality matters, and whichever path you’re drawn to, trust that instinct. It’s already part of the healing.
If you’d like to explore whether Arkana is the right fit for your intentions, we’re here to talk it through. Explore our Amazon retreats or Sacred Valley retreats, or schedule a discovery call to discuss which location and program align with your healing intentions.
