As a summary, I am 67 yo, retired from N. California white male. I?ve taken around 200-300 hits of strong Owsley LSD in the ?60/70?s, and been meditating for over 40 years using a modified Zen technique. I still smoke MJ every day. I recently went to Peru specifically to take Ayahuasca with a Shaman, via La Familia Medicina at the ?Way Inn Lodge? in the mountains of Huaraz in central Peru around 11,000 ft. As promised, here?s my Ayahuasca experience.

I talked the wife into coming to Peru with me, so we left two weeks earlier ? Cusco, Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca ? all going beyond our ?wow? expectations. She returned to California and I took the night-bus north to Huaraz. This is the second time I?ve been to Huaraz, the first time in 2001 with my older son where we did the Santa Cruz trek crossing a pass at 15,600 ft. I didn?t really want to return to Huaraz but instead wanted to take Ayahuasca in the Amazon jungle. But since the Amazon had especially high flood waters this year, the Ayahuasca jungle retreats originally scheduled were cancelled ? so I switched my itinerary. For mountain exploring Huaraz can?t be beat. Unfortunately, more people don?t consider Peru for vacations and trekking ? I?ve been there three times and it?s been magical every time. I went up to ?The Way Inn Lodge? a few days early and stay as a guest. The staff is always positive, helpful and eager to answer questions. I immediately felt completely at ease, confident that I was in good hands. The physical location itself is profound and inspiring with the wide-open valley and the rising snow-covered mountains above. The facilities are excellent, and they are constantly adding new projects and expanding. They have water diversion, compost, bee hives, they are reforesting, have ponds, organic gardening, are hugely involved with the local community ? everything effective and practical one could expect from a group of visionaries.

Saturday arrived, and by mid-day all 12 participants were gathered for meetings. The rules and regulations of La Familia Medicina are many ? no sex, no street drugs, no pork, piranha, or crocodile meat, no using soap or toothpaste during the retreat, and a special ?dieta? would be imposed and limited to a small variety of ingredients with no salt, we would drink tree-bark tea each afternoon, head over to the Ayahuasca Lodge and drink Ayahuasca after dark, trip for 3-4 hours and crash on the comfortable mats in the Lodge, or wander back to our rooms in the dark. Meditation, Yoga and other new-age techniques were also used effectively. The strangest to me is their constant insistence that Ayahuasca is a medicine, not ever referred to as a psychedelic or drug. After experiencing the awesome powers of Ayahuasca I?m slowly coming around; it should be considered a medicine. This was an 8-day retreat, with 5 Ayahuasca trips (ceremonies) scheduled. Ayahuasca is different from other psychedelics ? there?s a kind of telepathy with the drug, Ayahuasca is probably twice as strong LSD, and, Ayahuasca is very feminine. My first night I drank five solid gulps of the vile-tasting liquid. The Shaman singing, breathing, whistling, and blowing tobacco smoke on the ceremonial cup before the person walked up and drank it down, moving around the circle of people. By the time it got to me people were already throwing up into the provided buckets, some projecting violently. After I drank a half hour later I was on my back unable to move even the slightest finger- still no vomiting, but I could feel the ?poisons? moving through my body horribly assaulting my organs and into my intestines, then my anus complaining that things just weren?t right down there. I?ve done lots of Peyote so I?ve had experience with anus communication. The visions are very cartoon-like, non-stop, filling all space with eyes closed or open – it doesn?t matter. It?s psychedelic Disneyland, every space filled with dancing cartoons and especially dancing snakes. It was great and reminded me of the one time I did Opium and had similar cartoon dreams. These visions were unlike powerful LSD trips that seem to have more mandala-type visions instead, with multi-dimensions and cascading insights. But after two hours of cartoons I started asking, ?Is this all it is? This isn?t what I was expecting?? My expectation was to receive intense insights to the three questions (or intentions) I was bringing to Ayahuasca medicine. So I kept asking my questions over and over, but never got any answers. What I did get was to be transported to all the people that I love and felt them in a gently loving embrace. Even my dead parents were available for a hug and communication. I was instantly transported to anyone that I wanted to hug. At three hours into the trip my anus said it was time to drag my body to one of the three toilets. My body felt awkward, heavy disconnected and barely able to get off the cushion ? but somehow I found myself in the bathroom with my flashlight. It was a diarrhea party and I suppose the entire group heard my explosions ? but honestly there is no embarrassment, and everyone is very non-judgmental. Afterwards my body felt horrible, as if I just ate arsenic or something, and survived by the slightest margin. I lay in physical agony for the rest of the night, sleeping fitfully and waking to go back to the toilet several more times. At sunrise I somehow stumbled back to my room. It was an excellent first Ayahuasca trip, but the next day I felt horrible, couldn?t eat, and spent the entire day sleeping. The staff calls this purging the body of poisons, but my old body was barely hanging on.

We were to take Ayahuasca again the second night, but I was feeling very weak and considered skipping the second night ceremony. By evening I felt moderately well enough and drank only two good gulps this time. One-half hour into it and I was heavily tripping again ? cartoons and horrible body feelings that just wouldn?t go away. The pain was relentless, the annoying cartoon visions wouldn?t go away, and my physical body discomfort ? yet, still no throwing-up, only serious intestinal distress, my breathing became labored and shallow. I tried taking deep breaths and it helped immensely. I finally went to the bathroom and saw blood in the diarrhea ? but learned later it was from the beet juice drink I had earlier – pretty freaky thing to experience when stoned on Ayahuasca, however. I lay back down on my mat and listened to the Shaman singing his songs letting myself be carried away by the medicine again. But no matter how hard I tried to ignore the signals, my body was telling me that I was physically dying ? not something to take lightly at the age of 67. This was not the psychedelic ego-death, this was my actual physical death. I wasn?t willing to accept death and fought against it. Suddenly and unexpectedly my heart chakra exploded with loving energy, I felt like I had reached a plateau where I was one of the focal points of the universe to channel loving energy. My body/mind/ego was gone, it was amazing. Exhausted, returning from the toilet I lay back down, thinking this is really not working out for me physically. My kidney couldn?t seem to process this foreign ?poison? like the younger participants were able to? I remembered them recommending us to ?ask Ayahuasca? so I said, ?should I stay or should I go?? and suddenly an image of a stern, regal, beautiful woman appeared on a balcony. She wore all black with some white clothing peaking out underneath, and lots of ornate silver jewelry. She looked down at the large crowd of people gathered below, then looked right over at me, pointed her index finger at me and said ?Gooooooooo!? Immediately I relaxed and realized that I?ve tripped on enough psychedelics and I?ll just stick with smoking Marijuana from now on. One of my questions was answered: To die as a warrior, one must live each day as a warrior.

I had absolutely no problems with the staff or the programs, or the rules. Great bunch of people and I would absolutely recommend La Familia Medicina to anyone and everyone. You will get your moneys-worth and more. But if you are old like me, understand that your organs will not process the chemicals as well and take that into consideration. Their Shaman is especially cool, continually singing and directing the energy. A very compassionate and aware dude that I have tons of respect for ? at some points he walked around blowing tobacco smoke my way, a few times closely directed at my forehead and the crown of my head where I immediately went to new dimensions. He is secure as the person he is, one of the most open people I have encountered? I?m regret that I was unable to remain there, but I felt I had to get out of Dodge and left on the third day. I?m not blaming anyone and the staff tried to get me to stay – just chalk it up to an old hippies adventure that didn?t work out the way I originally planned. As the Rolling Stones said: ?You can?t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need.?

TL;DR ? 67 yo hippie goes to Peru to take Ayahuasca with Shaman at La Familia Medicina. Doesn?t work out as planned and leaves after only two ceremonies.