We met Juan Manuel during our last day in Cusco. Originally from Málaga, Spain, Juan ManueI studied cabinetmaking in Spain, with specialties in engineering, craftsmanship and design in wood structures in Milan (Italy).

He came to Peru in 1995 to work for four years in a development project linked to international cooperation, focused on disadvantaged young people and adults with emerging potential artisans.
It was during those years when he discovered Ayahuasca and his first experience was in 1997, in Puerto Maldonado, staying for three years with the teacher Ignacio Duri from Comunidad nativa Infierno (Tambopata).
Juan Manuel started working in the jungle about 10 years ago, coordinating with volunteers in research projects originated by “Crees Foundation” in the buffer zone of Manú National Park. He works also with manufacturing handcrafts with leather where he expresses his transition in this life.
Now, back in Cusco, Juan Manuel keeps giving Ayahuasca. “Reaffirmed more than before in my perceptions and understandings about the use of this plant, while still linked to social work from different perspectives.”

He would like to clarify the following: “I do not use ayahuasca as medicine that cures diseases; that already do others and some of them do very well. My point of divergence is to face the source of these evils, the social component as a condition of them; competitiveness, fear of not being, loneliness or emotional isolation, etc.”
He doesn´t accept the dogmas that have been created around the Ayahuasca, nor beliefs regarding the so-called “powers” that claim to have supply sides, this having seen many of them lost in the lattices of the ego (power, money, fame, etc.).
“I think the first step for any type of healing, whether physical or emotional, is to open the Pandora’s box of each person, and then, after individual and common truths are revealed, go to the steps that everyone feels deep inside their being.”

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People can join and follow Juan Manuel´s group “Ayahuasca: La soga desatada” on Facebook. For private contact with him, send us an message and we will connect you with Juan Manuel via e-mail.