Join the 2024 vision quest in Ecuador August 25 - September 8
or simply email [email protected]
Location: Outside of Mindo Valley, 3 hours from Quito
Price: $300-600 per person (not including transfer fees or transport)
Vision Quest Leader: Paulina Quilla Pakari – Tsunkinua
Price Includes: food, accommodation, sweatlodge, read more below
Weather: Cloudforest between Andes and Coast, cool in evenings, warm days.
Table of Contents
What is a Vision Quest?
In the quiet dance between the seen and the unseen, a Vision Quest is the language of the spirit, an invitation to commune with the special manifestation of the divine power that resides within and around us, echoing the truth of our existence.
The Vision Quest that we lead at our retreat space in the Ecuadorian cloud forest, Nuestra Tierra, is a profound and spiritual rite of passage; one of the most ancient and universal methods for seeking spiritual guidance and life purpose.
Our vision quest date for 2024: August 25 – September 8
All vision questers will be planted in the mountain on August 26.
The vision quest is a solitary and silent retreat in nature, during which you will fast completely from food and water. On Day 1, you are “planted in the mountain” where you sit within a personal, isolated altar.
The vision quest design we follow is 4/7/9/13 days:
Year 1 – 4 days / 4 nights
Year 2 – 7 days / 7 nights
Year 3 – 9 days / 9 nights
Year 4 – 13 days / 13 nights
On rare occasions we will permit individuals to follow the 4 days design 4/4/4/4 if certain health conditions prohibit their participation of the first design.
When you begin your vision quest, you make a commitment with yourself to follow through on the four years. A vision quest serves as a purifying, empowering, humbling, enlightening, and strengthening experience and each year represents a new door, or teaching:
Year 1 – Humility / Humildad
Year 2 – Will / Voluntad
Year 3 – Sincerity / Sinceridad
Year 4 – Integrity / Integridad
Reserve by emailing: [email protected]
Who leads the vision quest?
The vision quest is undertaken with the guidance of a holy person, Paulina Quilla Pakari – Tsunkinua, an Ecuadorian medicine woman with nearly 25 years on the medicine path. Paulina is a leader of the Sacred Fire of Itzachilatlan, a sun dancer, vision quester, and healer of the Chakana altar, Andean table, and Heart of the Carnation altar from the Andean elders. She is recognized by her elders and has received their blessing to lead vision quests.
Paulina’s spiritual journey began at the age of 17 when she first drank ayahuasca and, quite impulsively, went on her first 4 day vision quest. Her life was forever changed. Her spiritual journey took her to Mexico where she completed her vision quests and lived for 10 years, learning in the ways of the Camino Rojo, or Red Path tradition.
In Ecuador, she was adopted by the original peoples of the Shuar nationality (indigenous tribe in the Amazon); their elders gave her the blessing to continue her calling as a healer. She has also shared with and learned from the Shipibo in Peru and the Piaroa in Venezuela. She is an advocate for feminine collectives, an artist, and investigator of ancestral songs and chants.
Vision quest costs
If you come as a vision quester or as support for the vision questers, the cost of our vision quest program is:
- $300 for 4 day questers
- $400 for 7 day questers
- $500 for 9 day questers
- $600 for 13 day questers
If you come as support, you are expected to help out in camp with basic activities in the kitchen, cleaning, in the garden, singing to questers etc.
You will receive:
- 3 meals per day
- Accommodation (shared dorm of up to 12 people, first come first served. When full, you will need to bring your waterproof tent)
- Access to the opening 4 tobaccos ceremony, sweat lodge ceremonies, workshops and talks about sacred traditions, song circles, power walks
- Additional plant medicine ceremonies (ayahuasca, San Pedro, peyote) may be scheduled during the vision quest period. These, however, have an additional cost.
Vision quest program
During the vision quest program, vision questers will commit to their time in the mountain while vision quest supporters will prepare meals in the camp, feed the fire, clean, work in the garden and sing songs at dawn and dusk.
Every day includes 3 meals, unless a ceremony takes place (day or night), in which case only those that do not participate in the ceremony may eat.
Preparation Day
This is the only day when we will organize rides from Mindo to the vision quest location (about 40 mins drive from Mindo). Transport from Quito to Mindo can be organized for you, but the cost is not included in the vision quest cost.
Night time 4 tobaccos opening ceremony
Day 1
Opening purification sweatlodge ceremony to prepare the seeker for the Vision Quest
Plant vision questers in mountain / forest
Support team sings 4 songs at dusk
Day 2
Support team sings 4 songs at dawn
Support team sings 4 songs at dusk
Day 3
Support team sings 4 songs at dawn
Support team sings 4 songs at dusk
Day 4
Support team sings 4 songs at dawn
Support team sings 4 songs at dusk
Vision Quest Locations
This vision quest is held in a pristine, wilderness location deep in the Ecuadorian cloud forest about 3 hours from the capital, Quito, and 40 minutes from the town of Mindo, a mountainous watershed in the western slopes of the Andes. This is a sacred space where you will breathe some of the cleanest air in the world. A clean, glacier runoff river runs nearby.
Small spaces in the forest have been cleared (very small footprint) where vision questers can be planted.
Since the cloud forest is known for its high levels of precipitation, we only hold vision quests during the dry season (summer months). In the forest itself, you will be surrounded by the lush fauna and many tropical birds that will sing you awake.
The exact location is disclosed upon registration.
How to prepare for your vision quest
The Vision Quest unveils the sacred geography of our own being and dissolves the barriers that keep us small and stuck, allowing the divine essence to permeate every aspect of our being. It’s a journey of saying ‘yes’ to our entire existence, inviting the spirit world to weave its wisdom into the tapestry of our souls.
Nothing really compares to spending your first 4 nights in nature, along with yourself, without food and water. Regular food and/or water fasts beforehand can help, as well as a meditative practice, but the experience is as powerful as it is, because you really have to live it to prepare for future years, which are progressively more and more challenging.
It is important to come healthy. We recommend following a clean and nutritious diet in the weeks, if not months, before your vision quest. If facing certain health issues, we may recommend that you do not go to your vision quest. For instance, if you have a UTI, 4 days without water, though healing in its own way, may exacerbate the condition. For the most part, the fasting will heal many ailments.
Ensure you have 1-2 days off work when returning home to integrate your experience with quiet, in a familiar setting.
All vision questers must prepare and bring with them:
- 365 tobacco prayers (red, yellow, black or white)
- 7 flags to represent the 7 sacred directions
- 7 staffs or poles for each of the sacred directions
The 7 sacred directions and their corresponding colors are as follows:
East – Red
South – Yellow
West – Black
North – White
Pachamana, Mother Earth – Green
Father Sky – Blue
Our hearts – Purple
What to bring to vision quest packing list
If you are coming as support, here is a packing list:
IMPORTANT: mosquito repellent, preferably organic
- Bag of tobacco, preferably organic, 50/100g (offering)
- Change of clothes, make sure to bring numerous socks and lightweight long-sleeved shirts as well as lightweight pants because of our friends the mosquitoes
- Headlamp
- Socks – we are mentioning them twice because they are important!
- Sandals and rubber boots (boots can be bought in Mindo for $5-10)
- Towel
- Temazcal dress or sarong
- Water bottle
- Electrolytes
- Camping knife
- Folding camp chair (we happily accept these as donations if you don’t wish to carry it home!)
- Medications and personal hygiene items
- Extra battery to recharge phone/kindle
- Kindle, journal, book to enjoy during free time
- Sun protection: sunscreen, hat
- Swimsuit to swim in the river
- Coffee or herbal tea, tea (there is a self-service station)
- Poncho or raincoat
- Drum and other instruments if you have them
- Warm clothes for the night, it can get chilly
- If the dorm beds are filled (first come, first served), you will need to bring a waterproof tent
What to pack for my vision quest:
- Bag of tobacco, preferably organic, 50/100g (offering to altar and vision quest leader)
- Prepared prayers, poles, and flags
- Mosquito net
- Plastic tarps (1 for roof, 1 for floor)
- 2 warm blankets
- 1 camping or foam mat
- Change of clothes
- Twine to hang mosquito net and tarp
- Items for your altar
- Toilet paper
- Small trenching tool/trowel/stick
- Ziplock bags (just a few) for toilet paper and sanitary items
Vision Quest Plant Medicines
We offer plant medicines on 7, 9 and 13 day vision quests, namely San Pedro or Peyote (Peyote only if available). Note that this depends on certain conditions, such as mental health and whether you have been or are taking medication.
Vision Quest Questions
Please feel free to email [email protected] or send a message on Whatsapp if you have any additional questions regarding the vision quest.
