DIASPORA SACRED PLANT MEDICINE RETREAT | CAHUITA, COSTA RICA | October 21-26, 2024
LEADING BLACK AND AFRICAN COMMUNITIES BACK TO HOLISTIC WAYS OF HEALING
When we started, we had one location in Southeast Asia. But because we know the diasporic community touches every corner of the globe, we've opened a location on the west side of the world. We want to do our best to meet you where you are.
Plant medicine, although transformative and effective, can seem like a daunting experience for some. "What will it be like? What will happen, is this safe," etc. We are committed to creating a space where folks within this community feel held and safe enough to surrender to the experience and be exactly as they are.
Day 1 (October 21)
12 PM– Check-in Begins
5:30 PM– Orientation (very important)
7:00 PM– Meditation and Intention Setting
7:45 PM- Dinner
Day 2 (October 22)
8 AM– Beach Yoga
9:30 AM– Brunch
12 PM– Cahuita National Park Hike
3 PM– Rest
6:30 PM– First Ayahuasca Ceremony
Day 3 (October 23)
9:30 AM– Brunch
12 PM – Rest, Time for Self
2:30 PM– Group Share #1
4:30 PM– Breathwork
6:30 PM– Second Ayahuasca Ceremony
Day 4 (October 24)
10:30 AM– Brunch
1 PM– Rest, Massages, Time for Self
2:30 PM– Group Share #2
3:30 PM— Light Snack, and
Mingle
4:30 PM– Blue Lotus Ceremony and Kemetic Yoga
7:30 PM– Dinner and Bonfire
Day 5 (October 25)
9:00 AM– Brunch
12 PM– Huachuma Ceremony
2 PM– Sloth Sanctuary Excursions
6:30 PM– Light Snack
7:00 PM– Sound Bath
8:15 PM– Dinner on the Beach
9:30 PM– Live Band
12 AM– Closing Ceremony
Day 6 (October 26)
9:30 AM– Breakfast
11:30 AM– Integration Circle and Final Group Share
1 PM– Farewell
YOUR INVESTMENT
FULL RETREAT
SINGLE ROOM 2,900 USD
DOUBLE ROOM 2,600 USD per person
15 Spots Available. Reservation requires a 350 USD deposit.
SAN PEDRO DAY ONLY
SINGLE ROOM 380 USD per person
DOUBLE ROOM 350 USD per person
To make a reservation, a 350 USD deposit is required. You can also pay in full.
Deposit- 350 USD
2nd Payment - 350 USD
3rd Payment- 350 USD
4th Payment-350 USD
2nd, 3rd, and 4th Installment Payments are due every 30 days. The remaining amount is due 30 days before the first day of the retreat.
The initial deposit (or any amount paid) is non-refundable after 7 days, however you can transfer payment to another In Bloom Therapeutic event or DSPMR location. Please note, any reservations made within 30 days of the first day of the retreat must be paid in full.
We strongly suggest that patrons purchase travel insurance in the case of sickness or change of plans. In the case that you can’t attend after you’ve reserved your spot, please contacts us.
THE PLAN
Day 1
You arrive, either the night before or the day of the retreat into the San Jose Airport. Transportation is included and will leave San Jose Airport @ 12PM. To catch the shuttle please arrange your flight to coincide with he departure of the van. If you cannot do so or want to take your own, we will work with you to arrange transportation to the retreat center, however, you will cover the costs. Check-In begins at 12 PM; settle in, get some rest after your travel journey, meditate, and prepare your mind for the next 5 days. Then, we’ll move into our opening group share where you’ll meet your retreatmates, facilitators, and hosts. You’ll also be briefed on some necessary information about the ceremony, about Mama Ayahuasca, and some rules to observe during your journey. We’ll then head to the beach to set our personal intentions and begin to prepare our minds, hearts, and spirits for ceremony with a group meditation. Dinner follows.
Day 2
We’ll begin our day with some gentle yoga on the beach. Breakfast follows; refresh yourself with an Ayurvedic, plant-based meal before we begin fasting for the day. Afterward we’ll embark on an easy nature hike through the Cahuita National Park, where we’ll connect with the ecosystem and wildlife of the forest. We’ll return to the center, and after a few of hours of rest, we’ll commence with our first Ayahuasca ceremony.
Day 3
Breakfast commences at 9:30 AM the following morning. Shortly after breakfast ends, you’ll have time to yourself to relax and process on your own. At the top of the afternoon, we’ll go into our first group share to process the first night of Ayahuasca.
Shortly after the group share, we’ll begin our breathwork. During this simple, yet transformational session, we’ll guide you through a special breathing technique which releases your body’s natural DMT. You’re also encouraged to observe your intention once again, as we’ll commence with our second Ayahuasca ceremony.
Day 4
Brunch begins at 10:30 AM the following day. Afterward, you’ll have some free time to spend with yourself or with others or treat yourself to an in-house massage (this is not covered in the retreat costs). Next, we’ll begin our second group share to process the second night of Ayahuasca. Afterward, we’ll provide you with a light snack. In the early evening we’ll begin our Blue Lotus Ceremony with Kemetic Yoga. The ancient Kemetic civilization held grand parties and celebrations with this psychedelic flower, brewed into tea or wine. It helps open/balance the third eye, induces relaxation and euphoria, and aids in REM sleep. We will give you some general facts and ancient history about the sacred blue lotus. About 30 minutes after ingesting the tea, we’ll begin an intimate and grounding Kemetic yoga session led by our guest instructor, Ngozi Burrell. We’ll follow this with a dinner and a bonfire to end the night.
Day 5
On the final, full day of the retreat, breakfast starts at 9:00 AM. Our Huachuma ceremony begins at the top of the afternoon. We’ve opened this day of the retreat to other folks of the diaspora who would like to attend this one-day experience. This includes an opening group share to give you valuable information about the history of the grandfather plant and its heart-opening effects. We’ll also brief you on our excursion. About 40 minutes after ingesting the medicine, we’ll be whisked away to the sloth sanctuary for our nature adventure, where we’ll explore Costa Rica’s abundance and animal spirits. Once we return, you are free to take some time to yourself, opt for a massage, or go for a dip in the pool. After this, we’ll immerse ourselves in an intimate, rich soundbath, led by our Minister of Sound, Gigi Baker. We’ll commence with a family style dinner on the beach. To end the night with a bang, our live band, Kawe Calypso, will lively up the place with their blend of AfroLatin, Calypso, and Reggae sounds as we dance and celebrate into the night. We’ll end the Huachuma ceremony day with a closing prayer of gratitude.
Day 6
Breakfast begins at 9:30 AM on the last day of the retreat. Following breakfast we will begin one last group share to further process our 5-day experience and give more information about integration after plant medicine. We’ll end our retreat with a closing prayer and meditation followed by pictures and goodbyes.
Integration
After the retreat ends, we'll hold a four-week integration circle once a week via Zoom to help you further process the experience and navigate plant medicine aftercare. Attendance is optional.
THE TEAM & GUEST TEACHERS
Nneka Osueke (she/her)
Co-Facilitator/Steward
Nneka Osueke is a creative, medicine woman, globetrotter, and the founder of Diaspora Sacred Plant Medicine Retreat. With a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology and almost half a decade in the mental health field, Nneka is passionate about art, plant medicine, and creating access to holistic wellness for BIPOC communities. At five years old, she found her way to painting, dancing, drawing, poetry, and writing as an outlet to navigate a home where she often witnessed domestic violence. Nneka heeded the calling to plant medicine, specifically psilocybin and Ayahuasca, to accompany folks through the facilitation of their inner child and intergenerational healing. Along with this, she studies/practices West African spiritualities and enjoys immersing herself in other Indigenous practices through travel and experience.
Gigi Baker (they/them)
Minister of Sound/Steward
Minister Gigi is a sound minister, facilitator, shadow worker, and sex shaman. Growing up singing in the Baptist church, Minister Gigi learned very quickly that sound and healing are one and the same. They would later on find out that the connection they felt to their body and their senses, in church services, was not too far from what they felt during erotic intimacy. After radically getting fired from two different churches, Minister Gigi found themselves on a journey with plant medicine. Throughout this journey they would go on to complete their certification in Tibetan Singing Bowl Sound Healing Therapy at the Tibetan Singing Bowl Center in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Although Minister Gigi had the education and skills to share with others they took their time to go inward, integrate the lessons, and self heal. Having made the connection between sound, eroticism, and medicine, Minister Gigi has personally found a path to healing that has been transformative and is honored to now serve their community with these modalities as well.
Safiya Broadwater (she/her)
Steward
Safiya Broadwater has been working with plant medicine on a personal level for almost a decade. Although she's explored the traditional path of acquiring knowledge through education and work systems, incorporating the spiritual components into her reality changed her life. The insight she's gained from this has been transformational. Throughout Safiya's continuous journey of knowledge on the human experience, she's obtained a Masters in Clinical and Counseling Psychology and accumulated over 20 years of service in the mental health profession. At some point, the act of creating her own inner peace and joy took precedence over any other pathway, which led her here: working with the medicine, working with the people, and allowing it all to unfold in unexpected yet profound ways.
Paya Warmi Sonqo “Paya”
Facilitator & Shaman
Paya Warmi Sonqo (which, in the Quechua language, means THE GRANDMOTHER WHO HEALS WITH THE HEART or THE WISE OLD WOMAN) is a Colombian-born holistic and spiritual therapist whose work spans over fifteen years. She focuses on the processes of emotional and physical healing, leading her clients back to their inner being supported by the medicine of plants, dance, womb healing, singing, and women's circles.
Through the therapies and rituals her spirit guides allow her to access and share, she guides folks in search of their own self-knowledge, healing and spiritual evolution.
She studied sacred plants extensively with Taitas from the Cofan, Kamentsa, Huitoto, and Siona cultures, from the Colombian jungle, among others.
Paya also offers womb healing, family lineage healing, reconnection with sexuality as a sacred source, healing of the inner child, harmonization with the medicine of Rapeh, ritual ceremony of Ayahuasca (Yage), and dance and movement, among other things.
Ngozi Burell (she/they)
Kemetic Yoga Instructor
Ngozi is a goddess, mental health advocate and cosmic guide specifically focused on ancestral transmutation and trauma therapy. They teach sexual intelligence to their community traumatized by hyper sexuality and miseducation, and is a Christ Conscientious consultant on grief, rage, and guilt in Oneness using breathwork, qigong, kemetic yoga and spoken word artistry as an upcoming author. They look forward to publishing their memoir on life as a neurodiverse black womxn who evolves in real time into god and their experience facing international human trafficking. They are an award winning tech entrepreneur who unifies nature, technology and wellness. They normalize rage for black women through their platform @hashtagnahday on Instagram and their wellness efforts through the Holy Human House.
Kawe Calypso
Guest Band
Kawe Calypso is a band from Cahuita, Costa, Rica, formed by Donald Williams, Otilio Brown and Alfonso Goulbourne, who have a great trajectory as composers, interpreters and teachers of calypso. Danny and Alfonso grew up in Cahuita and learned to make music in the 1970s with the defunct “Buda Band,” one of the most famous Calypso groups of all time in Costa Rica. Otilio is a high-quality guitarist who began his career in Turrialba, and later joined the Cahuita group, with which he has been with for almost ten years. Today they are dedicated to teaching and disseminating the genre that for many years has served them to express themselves.
In addition to composing and interpreting calypsos, the members of this group have dedicated themselves to teaching rhythm to children and young people of the Cahuita community, through a "Calypso Cahuita Youth" project, whose objective is to give continuity to the Cahuiteño and Costa Rican calypso.
Members:
Donald (Danny) Williams: Director and lead singer
Alfonso A. Goulbourne: Quijongo and vocals
Junior Emilio Álvarez: Banjo and vocals
Marvin Mailland Watson: Congas and vocals
THE LOCATION
The retreat takes places at Goddess Garden Yoga Retreat Center, where the rainforest meets the Caribbean Sea. Goddess Garden is a pulsating, serene sanctuary known for its relaxed vibe, engulfed in lush greenery. We were quite intentional about hosting the experience on the Caribbean coast; the energy of the earth and water resonates with a part of the diaspora's history.
