Camino al Sol

I first encountered Camino al Sol in August 2018, when I attended a retreat in Southern California. The experience with the group was so positive that less than a month after this retreat, I accepted their invitation to visit Columbia, and traveled with them for 18 days to visit the elders of their community and do ceremonies in the jungles of Putomayo, the mountains above Medellin, and the jungles of Santander. Below is my more detailed review of this incredible community.

Disambiguation: Fundacion Camino al Sol (a.k.a Camino al Sol), is actually the formal name given to the Carare community’s outreach efforts in North America. It is also associated with their retreat center in Santa Elena, above Medellin. Elsewhere within Colombia, the community members are known simply as practitioners in the traditions of the Carare community under the leadership of Taita Orlando Gaitan. For some reason, on this site, there are two separate listings for Fundacion Camino al Sol and Camino al Sol: but these are the same folks.

I had been waiting for the right opportunity to work with ayahuasca for literally twenty years (ever since reading The Cosmic Serpent, by Jeremy Narby, in college), and I felt strongly that it was NOT something to chase after, and I would wait until it came to me in the appropriate way. This group was first recommended to me by two close and trusted friends who had worked with them earlier in the year. Their ceremonies in the US are now being held at a site in SoCal that is already sacred to me, where I have been attending retreats and doing deep transformational work for years. Taking this as the sign I was waiting for, I signed up for the full length of their US stay in August 2018, which encompassed 7 nights of ceremony across 10 nights, total (essentially, 3 separately held retreats, all back to back). This was a profound and, as it turns out, very courageous way to meet the medicine, but was exactly the right move for me. I do not necessarily recommend that other first-timers consider attending so many nights of ceremony at once – my wife and I were the only 2 people to do so – UNLESS you take it quite seriously, and do all the necessary preparations – follow the strict dieta, learn as much as possible (Highly recommend these 2 books: Ayahuasca: Soul Medicine of the Jungle, by Javier Reguiero, and The Ayahuasca Test Pilots Handbook, by Chris Kilham)., and, at the same time, drop all expectations, hopes and fears, and enter the ceremony with as much equilibrium as possible. It also helps if you have some kind of meditation experience, because the context of mindfulness, awareness and spaciousness, or just a background of working skillfully with your own mind, greatly helps to navigate the profound experiences of the medicine. I don’t think I could have handled these 7 nights so well if it weren’t for the groundwork of more than12 years of meditation and study I’ve done.

Now, as for the close-knit team that is Camino al Sol: Samuel, Martine, Diego, Andrea, and Camilo – they are family to one another, and now, are family to me. They are all beautiful, careful and caring, a cohort of genuine, dedicated, and expert shamans (though they would not necessarily use this term themselves – because they would say, for example, that after as many as 27 years of walking this path, they are still learning its ways!). These five people are specifically responsible for bringing the plant medicines of the Carare tradition to North America, and they hold all the Camino al Sol retreats in the US and Mexico. Samuel is the main holder of the retreat center in Santa Elena (he lives there), and the others all hold the ceremonies there with him. The wisdom, knowledge and experience of this group can be traced to their main Taita, as well as directly to their elders in Putomayo, several of whom I was introduced to when they brought a group of us to Colombia in September.

Through the ceremonies of the circle of word that would precede drinking the cups each night, and in the morning gatherings after breakfast, Samuel and Martine would freely answer whatever questions that any of us had, offering context, perspective, and useful teachings to help us assimilate our experiences, enlarge our understanding of the plants as both medicine and teacher, and, to generally support us on our continued personal journeys of healing.

Healing is, after all, at the center of this. While of course occasionally people show up who are just looking to ‘try’ ayahuasca, or have an ‘epic trip,’ they quickly find out that it is far more profound than that. As Andrea explained to me, the medicine works first by healing ourselves, then by healing our family, and finally, extending that healing into the world. It is deep work, it is very hard work, and it is also beautiful work. I cannot imagine undertaking it with any other group. The container they create is impeccable.

In Colombia the next month, my experience (again) exceeded every expectation, shattered every concept, accomplished more healing, integration, and transformation than I have encountered through any modality prior, and left me planning to return soon and often. I will be back to the next US retreat in November, and am clear that ayahuasca is a newly integral part of my own journey of spiritual healing and growth. I am so grateful to have found this community to heal and grow with.

One finla note: there is a huge difference between medication (what we are used to in the West, whether through prescription or self-medicating), and true medicine. Ayahuasca is the latter. It is a profound paradigm shift to reverse supposedly ‘incurable’ conditions through a medicine that can actually rewrite the biology of your mind and body, and I wish everyone could have the strength and circumstances to experience it, at least once. Especially with the community and team of Camino al Sol!

TL;DR: These people are the real deal, offering a supportive, open, welcoming and safe environment for the messy work of true inner healing to take place. Both at their US retreats and in traveling with them for ceremonies throughout Colombia, I was cared for and supported exquisitely. Highly recommend, with no reservations, for anyone looking to encounter and work with the sacred plant medicines in a scrupulous form, with greatest respect and rootedness in the traditions of the Carare community of Colombia.