We are located in the middle of the pristine Mayan jungle, less than 20 minutes driving from the pueblo Felipe Carrillo Puerto in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. Felipe Carrillo Puerto is the Mayan cultural capital of the Yucatan, located 45-minutes south of Tulum and a little more than an hour north of the Belize border.
It is possible, but not recommended for the first time. Please know that getting to Kumankaya is a 3-hour drive from the Cancun International Airport or a 60-minute drive from Tulum, and there are some deviations along the way. It’s easy to get lost if you don’t know your way in México.
Vaccinations for visiting the Yucatán peninsula are not required. If after staying with us you are planning to visit a country where vaccinations are required, please make sure you get your vaccines at least 10-day before arriving in Kumankaya. This applies for those undergoing traditional medicine therapies.
Visitors from the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and most Latin American countries don’t need a visa to enter Mexico. Please visit this link to make sure your passport is valid for entering Mexico without a tourist visa.
For the moment, electricity with solar panel systems is available only in our main house. All the cabins and the maloka need candle light during the night. WiFi is not available yet. In the second half of 2020, we will install our own antenna and WiFi signal will be available in the property. There is no cell phone signal at Kumankaya, so please have this in mind when you visit us. We do make regular trips to the nearest town during the week and can bring your cell phone with us if you need to send and receive messages, or bring you with us if it’s imperative. However, we invite you to take this time to disconnect, rest and focus on your own process.
Our water comes from an underground rivers system that runs through the peninsula, so it’s quite clean and suitable for human consumption. However, it’s so loaded with minerals, so after some days of drinking it your body will not be able to process the heavy minerals. As a result, you will begin to feel fatigue, lethargy, and possible headaches. Our water is safe to bathe and clean, but for drinking we recommend you to use the purified water available in all common areas.
We don’t offer laundry service on-site, but we can bring your laundry to a local lavandería in town and pick it up the following day.
It is possible, but it’s not common. Being located in the middle of hundreds of acres of pristine jungle, we are practically guests of this harmonious ecosystem that thrives with life and diversity. Our facilities and its surroundings are always being cleaned to prevent unpleasant encounters, although we can’t prevent the occasional spider, scorpion, caterpillar, mosquito or any other insect that lives in our land. At Kumankaya, we don’t use aggressive chemicals to fumigate, and our dogs and cats are a great way to keep big and/or potentially dangerous animals away.
Unfortunately, our facilities can’t accommodate guests with physical disabilities that are in constant need of a wheelchair or walking assistant. For the moment, all of our cabins and the maloka are located above the ground and climbing stairs is needed to get there.
For the moment, we work with the medicines of ayahuasca, rapé and cacao.
Ayahuasca is an ancient medicine that has been used by most Amazon tribes for millennia. We have learned to work with it under the lineage of the Shipibo tradition, in which formerly, only the curanderos would drink the medicine in order to see the root of the problems affecting the patient so as to provide a proper healing. In time, curanderos of many tribes received a message: It was needed to share the medicine with others so that people would remember what modern lifestyles were making them forget.
The safety of drinking ayahuasca depends on many factors, as it’s a substance that opens the doors of perception and makes you physically and energetically vulnerable. At Kumankaya, we honor the precious gift of being able to serve this sacred medicine and accompany others in their healing journey, by making sure that all details are taken care of, and that you can experience the medicine without external or energetic disturbances. During the first ceremony of a retreat, a low dose will be served that shows us how everyone will react to our medicine. Afterwards, everyone will find a proper dose that allows them to work and be safe at the same time. We are an experienced team that has worked over hundreds of ceremonies with groups of 20+ people, and there will always be someone there to help you during the ceremony.
Ayahuasca is not safe for people with certain medical, psychological or emotional conditions, which is why we ask you to fill an intake form that will allow us to find the best option for your needs.
Although we’ve seen many cases in which the person doesn't purge, it is most likely that you do and this is good. One of the great benefits of Ayahuasca is that it cleans your physical, energetic, emotional and mental body, through different types of purges. Vomit and diarrhea are the most known, but other ways of purging as excessive sweating, releasing tears without crying, burping, uncontrollable shivering, and constant yawning, are as effective.
We don’t recommend anyone to drink Ayahuasca alone, unless you’re an apprentice who has undertaken a long-term dieta de plantas maestras of at least 6-months, and your maestro curandero has agreed for you to drink on your own.
No. Guiding and facilitating Ayahuasca ceremonies is a big responsibility that should only be assumed by those who have undertaken long-term dieta de plantas maestras of at least 1 year, and practiced next to a maestro curandero enough times to be ready to take the responsibility on their own. Remember there is much more to care for than the physical integrity of the participants, as the spiritual, energetic and emotional dimensions of the space and the people are as —or, in some cases, even more— important and deep training is needed.
Many plants are known in the East and West for their physical, emotional and/or psychological medicinal properties. In the ancient traditions of South America, there are a specific group of plants that have extremely strong medicinal properties, and these have been used for thousands of years to heal and teach people. During a master plant dieta, the dieter will be given a master plant based on an individual's intention, and, in addition to Ayahuasca, it will help him/her to facilitate the healing and/or learning process. The dieter will bathe with and/or drink the master plant, receive a connection Icaro during the ceremony, and then the participant is invited to develop their own personal relationship with the teacher plant.