AYAHUASCA HEALING CENTER

Don Francisco Montes Shuna  is a peruvian Maestro Vegetalista - a traditional shamanic herbalist that uses the Ayahuasca vine, Perfume and many other medicinal and sacred plants, as well as a visionary painter, that depicts his intricate Ayahuasca visions and the magical world of spirits through widely recognised works of art.

He is coming from the ethnic group of Capanahua, an indigenous amazonian tribe that up to this day live secluded in the heart of the amazonian rainforest in Peru. In the Capanahua tradition, women consume Ayahuasca up to four months of pregnancy, so Don Francisco's first contact with the sacred medicine plant was in the womb of his mother. The legacy of his ancestors was taught to him by his grandmother, considered to be one of the most gifted shamans in their culture. It was his grandmother, in accordance with the indications received from the spirit world, that chose him out of 42 grandchildren  as being the one who would succesfully continue her wisdom and medicinal work and knowledge, while bringing healing and benefit for the world.

At the age of three his process began, his grandmother preparing him through special indigenous rituals and sacred plant baths. At six years of age he drank Ayahuasca for the first time, together with his grandmother, and at eleven years old he already began his Dieta, the learning process that one needs to undertake in order to aquire the wisdom and the knowledge of a shaman.

Don Francisco dedicated all his youth to the process of dieting and learning , and in the age of 33 received from the celestial realms the title of Maestro Vegetalista, allowing him to practice as a  traditional shamanic herbalist and a healer, as well as a teacher .

Complying to  his grandmother's wish, that he is to offer to anyone who wishes to receive and to teach anyone who wishes to learn, irrespective of where they come from,in 1990 he opened the Sachamama Ethno Bothanical Garden, a healing center and a school for learning the native indigenous medicine tradition; the center has been functioning continuously up to present day, although today it is known as Sachamama Lodge.