I have been to Aya Madre twice, first in 2019 and then in 2023 and I spent a total of about 8 months dieting various master plants and participating in ceremonies 2-3 times a week during that time.

I’ll try to give you a balanced view from my experience.

On a positive side, which I liked personally – Estella does three ceremonies a week, two of which are during the day and one night ceremony, that’s how it was both times I was there, which gives a different kind of experience during the day, giving you another perspective and comparison of day vs night and light vs darkness. I don’t know of any other center that offers day ceremonies. To me, this comparison of experiences was very useful and beneficial.

When I came to Aya Madre for the first time in 2019, another medicine was revealed to us called Shamburi which is a lighter and more gentle version of Ayahuasca. Estella described Shamburi as a sister of Ayahuasca, the medicine of light, and as having more of loving, gentle and maternal qualities than Ayahuasca. My experience with Shamburi was very positive – loving, gentle, joyful, it allowed me to heal from a bad PTSD in a very gentle and loving way. Though, there was nothing mentioned about Shamburi the second time I was there about 4 years later in 2023, so I don’t know if she still offers it.

She is great in ceremonies – very grounded and centered while singing icaros and I received a lot of benefits and healing from the ceremonies. I would often cry tears of joy and gratitude and then forgive her for all drama going on outside of the ceremonies.

On the negative side – Estella is known for extorting money from pasajeros. One of her main strategies, which she used on me multiple times is asking for money while I was still under the effects of the medicine. I have also heard the same thing from other people, and others have also mentioned that she is known to do that.

Also, I don’t see her approach to dieta guidance as ideal, far from it. I was drinking 5 different master plants everyday, 1 full cup of each, 3 times a day, which resulted in waking up and going to the bathroom 3-5 times per night, which was very uncomfortable. I have also experienced dehydration resulting in very low blood pressure, and on several occasions, nearly fainting, because of low sodium levels. What I have learned is that it’s best to diet only one master plant at a time and also include sodium and potassium in your diet to avoid dehydration.

There is usually some kind of drama or conflict going on at Aya Madre which makes the delicate process of healing, connecting and dieting master plants difficult. These are just some of the examples – drinking water shortages, food shortages, angry/tired volunteers cooking in the kitchen, people smoking in the kitchen, and other shared space such as as the vapor area. People continuously socializing non stop in shared social spaces, loud talking on the phone late at night, etc…Trying to resolve these kinds of situations with Estella is pretty much a dead end – she isn’t very skilled with conflict resolution and effective communication skills.

I have not had a good experience with other pasajeros that Aya Madre attracts.

Additionally, while I was there both times, there was construction – chainsaw, hammering, machete, which was very disturbing considering I was in a very open, delicate and sensitive state trying to connect with the plants on a subtle level.

The management of construction projects is sort of chaotic – they start building one tambo, abandon it and go to another project such as trying to fix the bridge or move their kitchen to a new area.

The entire Aya Madre environment just feels like it’s in a state of lack and shortages, even though Estella is making good money from people at $3,600/month – used to be $2,000/month when I was there in 2019. All the tambos are built with the lowest quality materials and effort possible, many of them have roof leakages and holes so that all kinds of creatures can get in. I have personally had these visitors: tarantula, mouse, snake, roaches and a lot of mosquitoes. Also, a lot of the tambos have mold, and a few of them are built on top of the shower/toilet water drainage septic system.

I have personally invested a significant amount of money and was promised that a full house would be built for me with a bathroom, kitchen and a shower – the only thing that was built is the initial frame structure for the foundation and it took me a lot of effort, and I experienced a lot of stress, while trying to communicate in Spanish, when I was just starting to learn it, to “make her deliver on her promises with the deadlines that we have agreed on” – which kept being postponed with more and more excuses.

With all of that said – I don’t recommend Aya Madre to anyone, but I am still grateful for Aya Madre and Estella for all the lessons and wisdom, even during the challenging times.

I hope this helps someone with making a good decision.