MONSTER VORAX
Ayahuasca, Iquitos, and Monster Vorax is a multimedia book series that weaves together ethnographic research, literature, photography, and audiovisual storytelling to explore the extraordinary phenomenon of ayahuasca in Iquitos—a shamanic mecca where local traditions intersect with global currents. In this page, you'll find a limited selection of the documentary pieces featured in the books, along with additional materials—such as extended interviews—that couldn't be included due to length constraints. If you enjoy these fragments, you'll find the full books even more compelling.
Read-watch them HERE
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Ayahuasca, Iquitos and Monster Vorax | Official Trailer
This trailer introduces the most significant characters and topics of Ayahuasca, Iquitos and Monster Vorax, first installment of the multimedia book series of the same name. From Juan Curico, a Cocama curandero who laments the disappearance of a tradition, to Ron Wheelock, the gringo shaman and one of the most productive ayahuasca cooks in the world.
Benigno Dahua, the village healer
Benigno treats neighbors for problems “that the hospital cannot cure” and aspires to set up his own natural medicine center. He says “my friend, that's right, my friend,” chatty like a little forest genius, laughing all the time and never saying no.
Harry and Sam's experience
At the end of their retreat at the Nihue Rao spiritual center, and after taking ayahuasca four times in one week, Harry and Sam, whom we could consider typical visitors to this type of establishment (professionals, financially well-off, spiritually curious), tell us about their experience.
Buying ayahuasca in the market
In Paquito passageway, in the heart of Belen market, ayahuasca and all kinds of herbal remedies are offered in the most varied forms: fresh or macerated plants, barks, sprays, tonics... The vendors explain that each day it is a little more difficult and expensive to get that bark, and there is no more of this other one.
Joe Tafur, shamanism, and epigenetics
American family doctor Joe Tafur founded and directed the Nihue Rao ayahuasca lodge in Iquitos between 2010 and 2017. Today he is president of The Church of the Eagle and the Condor, in Phoenix, where he continues to work with ayahuasca. According to Joe, it is possible that spiritual healing operates at epigenetic levels, where the expression of the genetic code is determined.
Ron Wheelock on witchcraft
Ron Wheelock, the “gringo shaman,” has immersed himself completely in the ayahuasca shamanic system. Thirty years in this world have made him an authority on aspects that are not normally mentioned to Western tourists: the omnipresent witchcraft.
Alan Shoemaker, a pioneer of ayahuasca tourism
Alan Shoemaker was one of the first “gringos” who settled in Iquitos to learn ayahuasca shamanism under the guidance of a native maestro. For decades he witnessed how the modest work of the healers became the big business of the lodges. In this interview he warns that the ayahuasca business can degenerate into abuse or scam; he underlines the importance of the placebo effect in shamanic healing; he reflects on the growing scarcity affecting ayahuasca and chacruna plants... And much more.
A Cash Crop | Official Trailer
In A Cash Crop, the second installment of the multimedia book series Ayahuasca, Iquitos, and Monster Vorax, we delve into the thriving business of planting, harvesting, processing, and exporting ayahuasca in Iquitos. As a result, a plant species that was once abundant and had no commercial value has become an increasingly scarce and expensive consumer product.
Preparing ayahuasca with Juan Curico
The Cocama healer Juan Curico and his friend Abraham Guevara, owner of an impressive ayahuasca plantation, teach us how to prepare ayahuasca the traditional way.
Preparing ayahuasca with Elizabeth Bardales
Agricultural engineer Elizabeth Bardales is dedicated to the processing and sale of products based on medicinal plants, including ayahuasca. She has developed a way of cooking ayahuasca that reduces it to a paste, making it much easier to export than in its liquid state.
The neighbors of Llanchama
Nihue Rao is an ayahuasca-based traditional medicine center that receives hundreds of visitors every year. Llanchama, the village next to Nihue Rao, benefits from this movement, as one of the residents explains in this video.
Juan Curico, an old-style curandero
Cocama healer Juan Curico learned under the tutelage of his grandfather. Although he has worked for tourists, most of his activity is dedicated to the locals. In this interview, he recalls his learning process and addresses some controversial issues. Should patients take ayahuasca? Can a Westerner learn this knowledge? Is this cultural knowledge being plundered? “When I started to diet, the dreams are very wonderful, you enter worlds you have never known.”
