Iquitos, Peru: Ayahuasca tours boon for economy, double edge sword

theguardian.com reported according to research by Carlos Suárez Álvarez, Amazonian studies expert and author of Ayahuasca, Iquitos and Monster Vorāx, in Iquitos, the largest city in Peru’s Amazon, 10 of the 40 biggest camps reap nearly £5m annually by hosting foreigners for more than £1,000 per stay. This has led to prices of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, which is the raw ingredient in ayahuasca, to more than triple just in the past six years. Surging consumption from foreigners has seen the cost of the DMT-rich brew skyrocket, a familiar situation for locals already struggling to afford quinoa prices because of western demand.

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Demand is such that even in the ayahuasca trail’s more traditional jungle heartland of Iquitos, shamans are having to reach out further and further into the wild to cater to tourists. Read Full Article