# Why I Traded My Sydney Office for the Amazon: What 18 Months of Ayahuasca Tourism Taught Me About Business **Related Articles:** [Journey Within: Exploring the Transformative Power](https://abletonventures.com/journey-within-exploring-the-transformative-power-of-ayahuasca-ceremonies-in-peru/) | [Why Peru Should Be on Every Traveller's Bucket List](https://thetraveltourism.com/why-peru-should-be-on-every-travelers-bucket-list/) | [The Ayahuasca Gold Rush](https://www.travelpleasing.com/iquitos-and-the-ayahuasca-gold-rush-what-nobody-tells-you/) The email came at 2:47 AM on a Thursday. "We're closing the Melbourne branch." Twenty-three years building operational systems for mid-tier consulting firms, and it all ended with a Microsoft Teams notification whilst I was debugging a client's inventory management disaster. Six months later, I was sitting in a maloca in Iquitos, Peru, wondering how the hell a forty-something logistics consultant ended up [discovering ayahuasca retreats](https://topvacationtravel.com/discovering-ayahuasca-retreats-in-iquitos-peru/) as my next career pivot. Here's what nobody tells you about the ayahuasca tourism industry: it's absolutely booming, completely unregulated, and desperately needs proper business infrastructure. After visiting seventeen different retreat centres across the Peruvian Amazon, I've seen operations that would make your average food truck look like IBM. ## The Numbers Don't Lie (But The Operators Sometimes Do) Between 2019 and 2024, ayahuasca tourism in Peru increased by roughly 340%. I know because I started tracking it after my third retreat when I realised this wasn't just some hippie trend - this was a legitimate industry with serious cash flow problems. Most retreat centres operate on what I call "the shoebox accounting method." Cash in, cash out, pray the shaman doesn't get arrested. The successful ones - and there are more than you'd think - are the ones that figured out basic business fundamentals. Take Temple of the Way of Light near Iquitos. They've got proper booking systems, insurance coverage, and even a bloody customer service team that responds to emails within 24 hours. Revolutionary stuff, apparently. The cowboys running operations out of shipping containers with a WiFi hotspot? They're the ones giving the industry a bad name. ## What I Got Wrong About "Authentic" Experiences For my first three retreats, I was obsessed with finding the most "authentic" experience possible. No English-speaking staff, no modern amenities, definitely no air conditioning. I wanted to suffer properly, like some sort of spiritual masochist. Complete rubbish. The best retreat I attended had a proper medical screening process, translators who understood both Shipibo healing traditions AND basic customer service, and yes - air conditioning in the accommodation blocks. [Real talk about ayahuasca retreat travel](https://hopetraveler.com/real-talk-everything-you-need-to-know-about-ayahuasca-retreat-travel/) includes acknowledging that comfort doesn't diminish the spiritual experience. "Authentic" doesn't mean primitive. It means the shamans know what they're doing, the supporting staff understand duty of care, and someone's actually checked whether the water's safe to drink. ## The Iquitos Gold Rush (And Why It's Actually Good) Everyone complains about commercialisation ruining the sacred nature of plant medicine. I disagree entirely. The influx of international visitors has created legitimate employment for thousands of indigenous families. Proper retreat centres pay fair wages, provide healthcare benefits, and invest in local infrastructure. The Shipibo communities I visited are sending their kids to university now. Yes, there are dodgy operators taking advantage. But the solution isn't to shut down tourism - it's to support the businesses doing it properly. Nihue Rao Centro, for example, employs over forty local staff year-round. They've built a school, funded a medical clinic, and train their shamans in basic English so they can communicate directly with guests. That's not commercialisation destroying tradition - that's tradition adapting to create sustainable prosperity. The alternative is what? Keeping indigenous communities in poverty to preserve some Western fantasy about "untouched" cultures? ## What Business Consultants Can Learn from Shamans After eighteen months shuttling between Peru and Sydney, setting up booking systems and training programs for retreat centres, I've noticed something interesting. The best shamans understand customer experience instinctively. They read the room. They adjust their approach based on individual needs. They follow up afterwards to ensure people are integrating well. They build long-term relationships rather than focusing on single transactions. Sound familiar? The worst retreat experiences I witnessed were always at centres where shamans were treated as interchangeable service providers rather than skilled practitioners with their own methodologies. Just like how the worst consulting projects happen when clients view consultants as generic problem-solvers rather than specialists with particular expertise. ## The Infrastructure Reality Check Here's where most retreat centres fail spectacularly: basic logistics. Transportation from Iquitos airport shouldn't require three different boats, two taxis, and a motorcycle ride through mud that would challenge a Land Rover. But somehow, 60% of operations still haven't figured out coordinated transfers. Food safety protocols shouldn't be optional. Neither should backup generators, satellite communication for emergencies, or properly trained support staff who understand that "purging" doesn't always mean ayahuasca-induced vomiting. The centres that invest in proper infrastructure charge more, but their repeat visitor rate is roughly 400% higher than the budget operations. Funny how that works. ## Integration: The Missing Business Model Most retreat centres focus entirely on the ceremony experience and completely ignore integration support. It's like selling someone a car without teaching them to drive. The smart operators are building subscription-based integration programs. Monthly video calls, ongoing support communities, annual reunion retreats. [Inner transformation](https://usawire.com/ayahuasca-retreat-healing-in-the-peruvian-amazon-a-journey-to-inner-transformation/) doesn't happen in five days - it's an ongoing process that people will pay to support properly. I've helped three centres implement integration programs over the past year. Revenue increased by an average of 180% within six months, and customer satisfaction scores went through the roof. ## The Regulation Question Peru's approach to ayahuasca regulation is basically "if it's traditional, it's legal." Which sounds progressive until you realise there's no oversight, no quality control, and no recourse when things go wrong. Costa Rica and Colombia are implementing certification programs for retreat operators. Ecuador requires tourism licenses. Peru is still operating like it's 1995. This isn't sustainable. The industry needs proper regulation, not to restrict access, but to protect participants and ensure quality standards. The retreat centres that embrace this early will dominate the market long-term. ## Why This Matters for Modern Business The ayahuasca tourism industry is essentially a case study in how traditional practices can scale sustainably when approached with proper business fundamentals. Customer screening, quality control, infrastructure investment, staff training, safety protocols, integration support. These aren't foreign concepts - they're basic business practices that happen to apply to an unconventional service. The operators who've figured this out are building legitimate, profitable businesses that benefit everyone involved. The ones still operating like it's Burning Man in the jungle are struggling to survive. After two years of splitting time between boardrooms in Sydney and malocas in the Amazon, I can tell you the fundamental principles are identical. Understand your customers, deliver consistent quality, invest in your people, and build systems that scale. The setting might be different, but business is business. --- *These days I split my time between helping retreat centres professionalise their operations and running integration workshops back in Australia. Turns out there's significant demand for both. Who would've thought?*