Our mission
Paojilhuasca‘s Roots
The curandero Don Gardel and the entrepreneur and biomedical researcher Fabrizio Beverina founded the Paojilhuasca Amazonian Medicine Centre in 2018 in order to make the curative power of Amazonian medicines (kambo and ayahuasca) available to everyone.
The living facilities have been designed to be simple, with an architecture creating a balance between solitude and community living, completely immersed in the incredibly beautiful surrounding nature. Prices are kept very affordable so everyone can have access to these powerful medicines.
Research is at the heart of Paojilhuasca’s way of approaching ancestral medicines, using learning and teaching through doing as a means for everyone to acquire independence on their healing journey. This takes the form of preparing the medicines together as a group,
Amazonian plants and healing
According to the book One River by Wade Davis, 70% of the chemical medicine used in western cultures come from Amazonian plants. Ethnobotanists from Europe and America have been coming here for years to learn from medicine men (curanderos) how to treat people with plants. The plants are then sent to sophisticated laboratories abroad to extract the active compounds and subsequently produce synthetic drugs.
When doing this, many aspects go overlooked. These plants are complex entities with far more to offer than one or two molecules. When consuming them whole the effects are more balanced. Different parts from the plant can have different overall effects, and with some plants the time of day they are picked can influence the overall effect. It is also important to have a comfortable, safe, and natural setting to work within, and plenty of time for the changes to happen. Western allopathic medicine considers none of this, caring only for the active compounds.
When you take Kambo, Ayahuasca and/or Sananga in our center, you take them in the context where they were born. Our center uses a traditional approach which has been passed down for generation to generation by curanderos supplemented by modern knowledge. During our healing retreats, we don’t just give you a pill and hope for the best. We provide healing ceremonies, research based protocols for the body and mind to process the experiences, high quality food to nourish the changes, and a supportive community to share wisdom and help contextualize the work.
At the Paojilhuasca Amazonian Medicine Center, both your body and your soul are taken into account, for deeper and long lasting results.
Paraíso and the local community
We have many ways of sharing and spreading the value being created at the healing center with the locals. The money brought in by retreats allows Paojilhuasca to provide free medicine to the locals. We offer well paying work opportunities and invest in improvements to the community. We do language exchanges with and teach technology skills to the local youth.
Volunteers
We welcome all volunteers. We always have ongoing projects to work on and welcome those with initiatives of their own to bring their ideas and skills into the project.
Meet The Team
Don Gardel
Ayahuasquero, kambocero, and co-founder
Don Gardel comes from long lineage of shamans: his grandfather was one, and his two brothers are shamans as well. In his young age he had the chance to live with the Matses, an indigenous group, on the Brazilian border. There, he learned to work with kambo and rapé. Later on, he fell ill, and La Maestra Alicia cured him by finding an old spell that his grandfather had put on him when he was just a kid, a spell to become a shaman. Don Gardel started to train, dieting plants with Alicia and has since become a shaman. Working and traveling around Peru, he has worked under the tutelage of other curanderos. Gardel has since founded the Paojilhuasca Amazonian Medicine Camp along with Fabrizio.
La Maestra Alicia
Ayahuasquera, Vegetalista
La maestra Alicia comes from a long lineage of curanderos: both of her grandfathers were tabacceros, meaning shamans that work with the plant of tobacco to cure. As is often the case, she became a shaman after a serious life crisis that made her abandon her family and live in the street. After being cured by ayahuasca, she felt called by the medicine to treat other people. She is self taught, but when asked, she says that the plants teach her. She lives between the Paojilhuasca center and a very remote area along Momon River near Iquitos. This special isolation in nature makes her power even stronger thanks to the deep connection with the environment.
Fabrizio
Co-founder, manager, and researcher
Fabrizio Beverina’s background is in biomedical research. He was an expert in brain-computer interaction and emotional computing. He secured a patent for the creation of a brain computer machine and a number of his articles have been cited more than 900 times as a result of this ventures. He fled the scientific world and studied meditation in Asia, spending 12 years in China and then traveling to Tibet and India to study with Tibetan Buddhist monks.
He founded RiShi Labs Dali, an anarchist community for musicians and artists in Yunnan, China. There, he used the alias Kandido Burenson to pursue his creative side. He created comics, experimental theatre, ink paintings, and interactive video installations. He later founded Artha LTD in Hong Kong, one of the eight more cutting-edge firms invited to participate in London Techcrunch in the field of AI-assisted education.
He is currently conducting research on shamanic cures while maintaining a scientific perspective, all with respect to the tradition and the spiritual side of life. He has lived with several shamans in Colombia, Peru, and Brazil, where he learned a great deal about therapeutic plants. Along with Don Gardel, he co-founded Paojilhuasca, where he also teaches meditation and qikung and assists in making a variety of ancestral medicines.
Caterina
Doctor, alternative healer
Compassionate and dedicated medical professional with specialized expertise in general and emergency medicine, and knowledge in physiology, gynecology, oncology, neurology, and psychiatry. My journey in medicine, driven by curiosity and a holistic approach, led me to explore yoga, meditation, conscious breathing, spirituality, and the medicine of Amazonian indigenous culture and find out how to blend scientific knowledge with alternative healing methods.
Currently focused on integrating conventional medical practices with holistic health approaches to promote overall well-being and self-awareness; committed to patient-centered care, emphasizing prevention, health, and personal growth and fostering strong patient relationships through empathetic communication.
Through breathwork and psychonautics, I connect with patients, supporting their healing journeys and helping them achieve balanced, healthy lives. I lead workshops and retreats focusing on self-recognition exploring consciousness, promoting personal growth and unlocking potential.
My goal is to blend traditional medical knowledge with alternative healing methods, creating a holistic approach that addresses the physical, mental, relational and spiritual needs of patients, promoting sensitive self-regulation and exploring possibilities beyond standardization.