Draft - Metamorphosis - 8-Day Transformational Plant Medicine Retreat with the Huni Kuin Indigenous Tribe | Ayahuasca & Huachuma | Yoga & Meditation | Libelula Retreat Center

Kene is one of the founders of Libélula, originally from England. His early life was marked by addiction and deep struggle, and after many conventional approaches failed to create lasting change, it was through plant medicine, meditation, yoga, and grounding practices that a profound shift occurred. This path did not save him — it taught him how to save himself. The passing of Kene’s father from cancer was a pivotal moment that planted the seed for Libélula. His father’s memory lives at the heart of the retreat, inspiring Kene’s devotion to creating spaces where others can find safety, clarity, and transformation. Kene walks this work with humility and responsibility, deeply committed to honouring Indigenous lineages and holding ceremony with integrity. His role at Libélula is to help create a grounded, loving container where people feel safe enough to meet themselves honestly and remember who they already are.

Maisie is one of the founders of Libélula, originally from England. Her journey has been shaped by a deep love of nature, creativity, and holistic living from an early age. She is an avid gardener, forager, and creator, and trusts deeply in the intelligence of the natural world as a guide for healing. Nature has been Maisie’s greatest teacher, informing every aspect of Libélula — from the food and gardens to the pacing and care woven into each retreat. Together with Kene, she dreamed of creating a sanctuary that honours Indigenous traditions while offering a deeply safe, inclusive, and nurturing environment. Maisie’s role at Libélula is to ensure that every detail reflects the centre’s core values: safety, integrity, beauty, and heartfelt support. She is devoted to walking alongside participants with warmth and presence, creating a space where transformation can unfold gently and naturally.

Originally from Argentina, Fito has walked the medicine path from a young age, guided by lived experience, travel, and a deep listening to life’s unseen currents. Leaving home at twenty-one, he spent many years travelling through Brazil, often living simply and working on the road, gradually being drawn into relationship with sacred medicines. A profound life-changing event marked a turning point, leading him into deeper study with the medicines in Brazil and later in the Amazon, where he lived and learned alongside different Indigenous tribes. His path eventually carried him to Peru, where he connected deeply with Huachuma and the spirit of the Condor, spending over a decade in the Sacred Valley holding ceremonies, living in community, and weaving medicine work into daily life. Fito’s journey has included powerful spiritual initiations & deep inner transformation. With the guidance of trusted teachers, these experiences were gradually grounded into disciplined practice, purification, and humility, shaping a steady and embodied way of working with the medicines. He later trained with Shipibo teachers and continued his path with the Huni Kuin, supporting ceremonies with quiet presence, care, and respect for lineage. For Fito, the medicines are teachers rather than experiences, and ceremony is a living relationship rooted in responsibility and devotion. At Libélula, Fito brings the wisdom of a long and deeply lived path, offering grounded support within ceremony and holding the space with integrity, warmth, and reverence.

Txua is a Txana of the Huni Kuin people from Yube Nawa village, carrying a lineage of deep relationship with the plants, the forest, and the unseen worlds they reveal. For Txua, this work is not something learned in theory or chosen as a role. It is something listened for, something remembered & something that grows through years of devotion and discipline. His first teachers were his grandmother and the elders of his community, who passed on both the knowledge of the plants and the permission to work with them. In Huni Kuin tradition, becoming a pajé is not a title that can be trained for or claimed. It is a calling that unfolds through long diets, prayer, and direct relationship with the medicine itself. Txua will tell you that the training never truly ends with these works! Txua began drinking medicine at a young age, entering more deeply into the work as a teenager. Over the years, he has completed two major dietas working with the plants for very long extended periods of time; these dietas span years. He continues walking the path toward the third, a stage in which the medicine itself reveals which role a pajé is meant to carry. In his tradition, there are different ways of serving: those who pass the medicine, those who heal through spiritual work during ceremony, and those who work intimately with the plants themselves, understanding their qualities, spirits, and teachings. Txua regards the plants as professors who teach how to care for the body, how to restore balance & how to work with the spirit world in service of healing. During ceremony, he works closely with specific plant spirits, including the spirit of the muca plant, which is the spirit of a specific potato which guides his prayers and songs. His icaros (Sacred chants) are living tools used to cleanse, protect, and hold people through different stages of their process When someone’s journey becomes difficult or intense, Txua listens carefully to what is needed in that moment. Different icaros serve different purposes: some clear heavy energy, some protect, some soothe, some help restore balance. What Txua hopes guests carry with them after ceremony is not just insight, but realignment. A return to the heart. A sense of happiness, protection, and right relationship with their path in life. For him, the medicine is ultimately about reconnection: with oneself, with others, and with the joy of being alive. Beyond ceremony, Txua also carries a deep responsibility to his family and village. While the forest holds abundance in plants and knowledge, there is often scarcity in practical resources needed to support healers and connect communities, such as tools, instruments, and transportation. His work is rooted in service: helping his people, supporting his home, and bringing prosperity back to the village so the tradition can continue. He describes his village as holding an essence of the desire to help - help humanity transform & move closer to the path of love in all they do. Txua walks this path with humility, gratitude, and devotion. He does not claim to know how long he has been with the medicine. In his words, the medicine has simply always been there, guiding the work as it continues to unfold.

Kaya Isa carries the path of the Txana as a living relationship with the spirit of the medicine, the ancestors, and the joy that moves through song. For him, this work is not learned in the mind, but remembered through listening: to the plants, to prayer, and to the guidance of those who walked before him. His journey with the medicine began at a young age, first drinking alongside his brother Txua and his uncle. Like all his brothers, his grandmother has been his greatest teacher, transmitting the lineage through presence, prayer, and lived experience rather than instruction alone. Kaya Isa understands the medicines as teachers that work through vibration, sound, and feeling. When he sings, he channels the spirit of the Txana itself: the spirit of music, play, joy, and healing. His songs are guided by ancestral presence and arise in direct response to what is needed in the moment. In ceremony, Kaya Isa meets each person with attentiveness and respect. When processes feel intense, he first listens deeply, sensing whether support is needed or whether the medicine is already doing its work. From there, specific ícaros are offered to cleanse, hold, or restore balance, always guided by the spirit. What Kaya Isa hopes guests carry with them is an open heart, happiness, and a renewed sense of alignment. His focus is alegria: a joy that comes from reconnection with oneself and with life. A prayer often heard in ceremony, Eskawata Kayaway, reflects this understanding: the healing is already happening. The cleaning is already working. Everything is in motion, and everything is well. Kaya Isa feels deep honour to share the ancestral knowledge he carries alongside his family, offering this work with humility, devotion, and love. Eskawata Kayaway, Kayaway Kiki - Constant Transformation Through Love.

Syriani carries the medicine of the feminine force of the forest. As a Txana, her role is to bring balance, sacred geometry & the wisdom of the serpent into ceremony, embodying the receptive, intuitive, and deeply listening current of the medicine. She works in relationship with the jiboia which is the great boa constrictor spirit & is a living intelligence that moves through geometry, breath & sensation within the body. Through this connection, Syriani listens to what is unfolding inside each person who has received the medicine, allowing her songs to arise directly from the process being lived For Syriani, the serpent is not symbolic. It is a presence felt within the body itself. By attuning to this spirit, she can sense where energy is moving, where it is held, and what is ready to be softened or released. Her ícaros help guide guests back into their centre, anchoring them through breath, slowness, and embodied awareness. When someone’s process becomes intense, Syriani meets them gently. She first asks whether support is needed, honouring choice and consent. If assistance is welcomed, her songs work to calm the nervous system, reconnect the person with their core, and restore inner rhythm. In keeping with tradition, women support women and men support men, preserving safety and energetic integrity. Syriani hopes guests leave with a deeper sense of happiness, peace & alignment with their life path. Her wish is that the strength found in ceremony continues long after the retreat, supporting each person to walk their path with clarity and heart. She carries deep gratitude for her family and the Great Spirit & for the opportunity to share the knowledge passed down through her lineage. Her journey with the medicine began at the age of eleven alongside her father. She has been working ceremonially since her teens and continues to walk a lifelong path of learning, dietas, and devotion For Syriani & the other Txias this work is never finished. It is a living relationship with the forest, the ancestors, and the unfolding wisdom of the medicine — offered in service, song, and alegria!

Mikhail’s journey into healing began after reaching the limits of strength, discipline, and external success. Formerly a soldier and entrepreneur, he experienced profound burnout that redirected him toward deeper self‑inquiry and embodied healing. Alongside his ceremonial path, Mikhail holds advanced academic training in the study of the human body, including doctoral‑level education, which informs his precise, grounded, and highly skilled approach to bodywork. His work bridges scientific understanding with somatic awareness, allowing him to meet the body as both a physical system and an intelligent, communicative whole. He received initiation and training with the Huni Kuin and Katukina tribes, learning to work with sacred plants as living allies rather than tools. He later deepened his path through Andean traditions, integrating ancestral wisdom with embodiment, structure, and inner clarity. Mikhail does not seek to heal or fix. Instead, he creates a steady, respectful space where people can reconnect with themselves, transform inner pain into strength, and remember their own inner support. His work is guided by presence, responsibility, and a deep honouring of both the body and the spirit.

Viiktoria’s journey into healing began in 2012 after severe illness left her without effective conventional options. Refusing to accept a lifelong dependence on medication, she began studying the human body, nutrition, and healing through direct experience. Through this process, she restored her physical health and discovered that healing extends far beyond the body alone. Her path led her to the Amazon jungle, where she and her husband lived for several months, receiving initiation from the Katukina tribe with permission to work with sacred plants including ayahuasca, kambo, and rapé. She later spent several years in Peru studying Huachuma and deepening her understanding of Indigenous ceremonial traditions. Alongside her ceremonial work, Victoria is trained as a nutritionist, supporting the body through nourishment that complements deep inner work. Her approach integrates plant intelligence, nutritional wisdom, and embodied awareness, helping guests transform inner pain into clarity, vitality, and self‑connection. Viiktoria’s work is guided by humility, responsibility, and a deep respect for both the physical and spiritual dimensions of healing.