In just a few years, what began as a small ayahuasca retreat in the Colombian countryside has developed into one of the most recognized affordable retreat projects in the region. For Sam Believ, founder of LaWayra, the journey has not simply been about expansion, but about proving that plant medicine can remain accessible, grounded, and deeply human even while growing internationally. The latest chapter of that story shows how quickly things can evolve when healing, purpose, and persistence meet at the right moment.
From Early Retreats to a Permanent Home
When Sam first began organizing ceremonies, the model was simple: small groups, a rented property, and a clear focus on providing a safe and serious ayahuasca experience in Colombia.
At the time, larger ambitions were already forming. There had been plans to acquire a much larger piece of land in another part of Antioquia — something expansive, remote, and dramatic, even including a waterfall. But reality eventually pointed toward a different decision.
Instead of chasing a huge undeveloped property, Sam bought the very retreat center where ceremonies had already been taking place.
The land itself may have been smaller than the original dream, but it offered something more valuable: continuity. Guests already felt connected to the place, and over time that emotional bond became part of the retreat’s identity.
What had once been temporary became permanent.
Why Staying in One Place Changed Everything
Remaining in the same location created trust.
As participants began leaving reviews, that trust became visible publicly. The retreat accumulated hundreds of five-star ratings, which gave future guests confidence long before arriving.
This also allowed the project to grow steadily rather than restart from zero in a new location.
Instead of beginning again elsewhere, improvements could happen directly where people already knew healing was happening.
Cabins were added. Infrastructure improved. New facilities appeared one piece at a time.
What had once felt like a modest retreat gradually became a complete healing environment.
Growth by the Numbers
The growth itself has been substantial.
What began as one retreat week per month expanded to three retreats per month, covering nearly two and a half weeks continuously.
The average group size settled around twenty participants, a number that Sam now considers ideal.
Too few people reduces the group dynamic. Too many weakens intimacy.
At around twenty, something unique happens: people begin mirroring each other’s stories.
Participants often discover that someone else in the room is carrying pain remarkably similar to their own. That shared recognition creates a kind of emotional acceleration that individual healing alone cannot always produce.
Over time, more than one thousand people have passed through LaWayra’s ceremonies.
Why the Group Matters as Much as the Medicine
Ayahuasca often receives attention for its individual visions, but Sam repeatedly emphasizes the importance of the group itself.
After ceremonies, participants gather in sharing circles where insights are spoken aloud.
This is where many breakthroughs happen.
Someone describes childhood abandonment. Another recognizes the same emotional pattern in their own life. Someone speaks about addiction, and another suddenly sees their own behavior more clearly.
The medicine opens something internally, but the group often helps interpret it.
That collective reflection has become one of the retreat’s strongest tools.
Why the Name Changed to LaWayra
Originally, the project operated under a very descriptive identity: Ayahuasca in Colombia.
That name worked well online because it clearly matched what people were searching for. It also performed strongly in search engines, which remains important today.
But over time, it became too broad.
Guests would say they had done ayahuasca in Colombia, but there was no clear retreat identity attached to that experience.
The new name, LaWayra, introduced something more specific and symbolic.
The word refers to a cleansing instrument used by shamans during ceremony and also carries associations with air and wind within indigenous linguistic traditions.
The shift marked a movement from descriptive branding into a deeper identity.
Healing Addiction by Treating the Pain Beneath It
One of the most striking stories emerging from recent retreat experiences involves people overcoming long-term addiction.
Sam often returns to a principle strongly associated with trauma work:
do not focus only on the substance — focus on the pain beneath it.
In many cases, addiction is not the root problem but the strategy someone developed to survive emotional suffering.
Cannabis, alcohol, compulsive habits, even work itself can become forms of escape.
At LaWayra, people frequently discover that once the original pain becomes visible, the addictive pull weakens naturally.
Not because they force discipline, but because the internal pressure behind the habit begins dissolving.
Why Childhood Still Shapes Adult Suffering
A recurring theme among participants is the rediscovery of forgotten childhood experiences.
Not dramatic events in every case — sometimes small moments that were emotionally overwhelming at a young age and then buried deeply.
Sam openly shares that some of his own strongest emotional patterns were linked to very early separation from his parents, when he was sent away as a small child for an extended period.
At the time, he did not consciously label it trauma.
Only later did ayahuasca reveal how strongly that early feeling of abandonment had shaped adult emotional responses.
This kind of delayed understanding is common.
Many people arrive knowing they feel pain but not knowing why.
Why Trauma Is Often Hidden Until It Becomes Visible
Trauma rarely stays as a clear memory.
Instead, it becomes emotional structure.
It influences reactions, relationships, anxiety, trust, and even identity without always announcing itself directly.
During ceremony, buried material often appears not as narrative but as sensation, memory fragments, body emotion, or symbolic insight.
What matters is that the person finally feels where something began.
Once that happens, healing becomes more practical.
A painful memory may remain, but it loses emotional dominance.
Building Beyond Ayahuasca Alone
The retreat is now expanding beyond ceremony itself.
The longer-term plan is to create a place where people stay not only for ayahuasca, but for healthy living more broadly.
A dedicated medicine house is planned.
Additional cabins are under development.
A sauna, expanded workspaces, healthy food areas, and longer-stay facilities are part of the next phase.
The idea is simple:
come for healing, but stay for lifestyle.
Because many participants no longer want to leave immediately after ceremony.
The community itself becomes part of the medicine.
A Different Kind of Retreat Model
What makes LaWayra unusual is that it has remained intentionally affordable despite growth.
In a field where many retreats have become expensive luxury experiences, Sam has consistently tried to keep pricing reachable while still improving infrastructure.
That balance is difficult.
Retreat work requires staff, food, transport, facilities, facilitators, and land maintenance.
Yet keeping entry accessible remains central to the philosophy.
A Project Still Expanding
Perhaps the strongest message in this stage of the story is that the retreat is no longer an experiment.
It has become a living project with real momentum, real responsibility, and clear direction.
What began with one rented space now supports a growing team, international visitors, and a larger long-term vision.
And beneath all of that remains the same original idea:
that healing should feel real, practical, and available to ordinary people — not reserved only for those already inside spiritual culture.
Listen to the whole podcast episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhLasE4jQeM
Sam Believ is the founder and CEO of LaWayra Ayahuasca Retreat, the best-rated Ayahuasca retreat in South America, with over 520 five-star Google reviews and an overall rating of 5 stars. After his life was transformed by Ayahuasca, he dedicated himself to spreading awareness about this ancestral medicine to help address the mental health crisis. Sam is committed to making Ayahuasca retreats affordable, accessible, and authentic, with a focus on care, integration, and the involvement of indigenous shamans. He is also the host of the Ayahuasca Podcast.