You said yes to an ayahuasca retreat, or you are close to saying it. Here is something the brochures rarely say plainly: the retreat does not begin when you arrive. It begins the moment you decide. The weeks before ceremony are part of the work, and people who prepare well tend to go deeper, land softer, and carry more home. This guide walks you through how we prepare guests at Lunita, from the traditional dieta to what to pack for the jungle.
If you are still deciding whether an ayahuasca retreat is right for you, start with what ayahuasca is and our complete guide to an ayahuasca retreat in Mexico, then come back here when the answer is yes.
What preparation is actually for
Ayahuasca meets you where you are. Preparation is not about earning the ceremony or performing purity. It is about arriving clear enough that the medicine does not have to spend the night cutting through noise. A rested body, a settled stomach, a quiet mind, and an honest intention give the ceremony somewhere to go.
In the Amazonian tradition that Edgar carries, preparation is considered part of the ceremony itself, not a chore before it. The dieta is how that tradition asks you to make space.
The dieta: making space, the traditional way
The dieta is a period of simplifying what you take in, in every sense. When you book a retreat with us, we send you preparation guidance with the specifics for your retreat, and your intake conversation makes it personal. What follows is the shape of the tradition, so you know what you are saying yes to.
Food becomes simple. The tradition asks you to eat plainly in the time before ceremony: fresh, lightly seasoned food, and less of the heavy things. Alcohol is set aside completely. So are recreational substances of every kind. Many guests tell us this alone changes how they arrive.
Stimulation quiets down. The dieta is not only about the plate. The tradition invites you to fast from noise: less news, less scrolling, less of whatever you use to avoid being alone with yourself. Sexual abstinence in the days before ceremony is part of the traditional dieta as well, asked as a way of gathering your energy rather than as a moral rule.
Intention takes shape. Somewhere in those quiet days, a question tends to surface. You do not need a polished intention, and the ceremony often answers a different question than the one you brought. But sitting with "why am I doing this" before you travel, perhaps with a journal, is preparation of the most important kind.
How long the dieta runs and exactly what it includes varies by tradition and by person, which is why the honest answer lives in the guidance we send you and the conversation at intake, not in a blog post written for everyone.
Medications and your health: one conversation, before anything else
Some health conditions and some medications are not compatible with ayahuasca ceremony. This is the one part of preparation that is not traditional but simply necessary, and it comes first: if you take any medication or carry any diagnosis, speak with your own doctor, and tell us everything at intake. Our screening exists exactly for this. We will be honest with you if ceremony is not advisable, because we would rather lose a booking than hold a ceremony that should not happen.
Nothing in this guide is medical advice, and no blog post can replace that conversation.
Preparing the mind and heart
The body prepares through the dieta. The rest of you prepares through attention.
In the weeks before, guests often find it helps to spend time in nature, to write, to sit quietly for a few minutes a day even without a meditation practice, and to tell someone they trust what they are about to do. Saying it out loud makes it real.
It also helps to hold your expectations loosely. Reading hundreds of other people's ceremony stories tends to fill the imagination with someone else's night. Your ceremony will be yours. Arrive curious rather than scripted.
And arrive rested. The single most practical thing you can do in the final days is sleep well, drink water, and not schedule yourself to exhaustion before flying. The ceremony is a long night; do not begin it depleted.
What to bring to the jungle
Lunita is a retreat center in living jungle, about 40 minutes from Cancún airport, and packing for it is simpler than most guests expect.
Bring loose, comfortable clothes you can sit and lie in for hours, with a warm layer for the ceremony night, because the small hours get cool even in the tropics. Bring a journal and a pen, because the mornings after are when things want to be written down. Bring a water bottle, walking shoes for the jungle paths, and a swimsuit for the pool, which is fed with cenote water, and for the private cenote ten minutes away that guests visit during the retreat.
Leave behind the things the dieta already asked you to set down. Many guests choose to leave their phone in the room during ceremony days, and none of them have regretted it yet.
Your booking guidance includes the full list for your specific retreat.
The last piece of preparation: how you arrive
Plan your travel so you arrive with margin rather than adrenaline. Most guests fly into Cancún and are at Lunita before dinner, which means the jungle gets an evening to slow you down before anything begins. The intake conversation, the land, the plant-based meals, and the quiet do a surprising amount of the preparation for you once you are here.
From there, the ceremony has its own guide: read what to expect in an ayahuasca ceremony so the shape of the night is familiar before you sit. And remember that preparation has a mirror on the other side: the integration days after ceremony are where the work lands, and they deserve the same respect as the dieta.
Ready when you are
If you are preparing for a retreat you have already booked with us, your guidance is on its way and every question belongs at intake. If you are still looking for the right container, tell us your intention through the inquiry form and we will shape the retreat with you. Preparation begins with that first honest message.