THE RETURN OF MEMORY
MAY 2027
A pilgrimage through the Andean mountains, toward the center of the center — Chavín de Huántar.
10 - 25 May, 2027
For thousands of years, people have made their way into this valley to listen. To sit in ceremony. To place themselves in right relationship with the land, the lineage, and the spirit of this place.
The Return of Memory is a sixteen-day pilgrimage through the Andean mountains, toward the ancient ceremonial center of Chavín de Huántar - the place the Quechua know as Chawpín, the center of the center, and the living home of Tsunaq.
We do not come here to acquire something new. We come to remember what has always lived in us.
Over these sixteen days, a small circle of ten will gather in the Cordillera Blanca and move at the rhythm of this sacred territory. Through four Tsunaq ceremonies, daily prayer, visits to the temple, simple communal living, and unhurried integration, we make space for clarity to arrive on its own.
This pilgrimage is built on presence. We sit with the mountains. We make offerings to the land. We let silence do its quiet work. And in that steady rhythm, something old begins to settle back into place inside us.
CHAVIN ~ Ceremonial and Higher Studies Center
Chavín de Huántar has been a place of ceremony for more than three thousand years. Sitting at a meeting point between the jungle and the coast, the valley became a powerful place of exchange - of goods, and of ideas, ritual knowledge, and ways of understanding the world.
The temple complex was built with remarkable precision. Its plazas, stairways, and underground galleries form a ceremonial architecture of sound, shadow, resonance, and light. Carved stone reliefs show figures holding the sacred cactus, a quiet testament to the place of Tsunaq in the life of Chavín.
Chawpín means center. The center of its center.
To walk here is to feel an intelligence held in stone, a field of memory still palpable, still teaching.
TSUNAQ ~The Medicine of Silence
In the Chavín region, the sacred cactus known elsewhere as Huachuma or San Pedro is called Tsunaq.
"Tsu" means silence. Tsunaq is often translated as the one who silences the mind.
The relationship between people and this cactus in the Andes reaches back thousands of years, among the longest-held ceremonial traditions known on Earth. It was always woven into cosmology, into a living system of meaning, responsibility, and learning. To work with this master plant in its ancestral home is to receive it with its context intact.
The variety that grows in this region is steady, clear, and rooted. Tsunaq is a willing companion. It does not impose. It does not overwhelm. It gently invites you toward your edges, increasing your sensitivity to the parts of yourself that ask for tending and care.
In that quieting of the mind, awareness sharpens and presence deepens. What emerges is not an escape from your life, but a way back into it.
MEET YOUR GUIDES
MAESTRA CECILIA
Descended from curandero grandparents in a village north of Chavín de Huántar, Maestra Cecilia carries a living lineage of ritual relationship with Tsunaq and the ceremonial traditions of the Conchucos Valley.
A researcher and teacher of Quechua knowledge and values, she is devoted to preserving and revitalising the ancestral wisdom of her people. For Maestra Cecilia, Tsunaq is no abstraction. It is a cultural inheritance, rooted in land, language, and lived experience.
She is the founder of Yarpakuti Chawpín, an association preserving the Quechua language and weaving bridges between elders and youth.
To sit with Maestra Cecilia is to sit with continuity.
JOAQUÍN
Composer, musician, and community weaver, Joaquín walks with a deep commitment to reconnecting modern people with ancestral wisdom.
After years of researching diverse American cosmovisions, he continues as a seeker of living knowledge, studying the threads that unite land, culture, and consciousness.
Through music, story, and attentive presence, he helps awaken what he calls the essential seed memory of humanity.
His sound carries coherence and depth, opening subtle spaces within ceremony and community alike.
RAÚL
Born into a family with deep Andean roots, Raúl's search for belonging led him to plant medicine and, in time, to a full devotion to Tsunaq and the ceremonial traditions of Chavín.
His path has been shaped by years of practice, by studies in anthropology, and by a growing relationship with ancestral music and prayer.
His approach is grounded and heart-centred. He holds ceremony as a space of remembering rather than transcendence, a return to the wisdom of the body and the intelligence of the land.
As co-creator of Yarpakuti Chawpín, he is devoted to keeping these traditions alive across generations.
PAU
Researcher and apprentice of Andean traditions, Pau serves as a bridge between ancestral wisdom and contemporary life.
For years she has walked in relationship with this land, studying its cosmology, sitting in ceremony, and accompanying healing processes with master plants through presence and deep listening.
She walks beside the people she accompanies, never ahead of them, holding a grounded and clear container where insight can settle into lived life.
It is an honour for her to guide others back to this land, and back to themselves.
THE RHYTHM
A pilgrimage has its own pace, and this one unfolds slowly, with care.
We begin by arriving - not only in body, but in attention. The valley sits high in the Andes, and the first days are gentle ones: time to let the altitude meet us softly and to settle into the simple rhythm of communal life.
From there, the days move in a steady cadence. Four Tsunaq ceremonies are held across the journey, each followed by spacious time to rest and integrate. Between them we visit the temple and other sacred sites, gather in workshops and sharing circles, make offerings to the land, walk, and let silence have its place.
Nothing here is rushed. We close as we began, slowly, gathering what has been remembered and preparing to carry it home.
WHO IS THIS FOR
This pilgrimage asks for a certain readiness. It tends to meet people best when there is already some relationship with ceremony, or with Tsunaq itself.
The door is not closed to those who are newer to the path. Sometimes a first journey is exactly the right one. What matters more than experience is honesty, and a true sense of being called. We come to know this together, in conversation, before anyone joins the circle.
This is a pilgrimage of presence rather than intensity. It will ask you to slow down, to live simply, to spend your days at altitude, and to let the land set the pace.
RECIPROCITY & LOGISTICS
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Ayni is the Andean principle of sacred reciprocity - the circle of giving and receiving in which we always stand.
Contribution: $3,700 USD
A circle limited to 10 participants
Payment plans are available. The full contribution must be completed three months before the pilgrimage begins.
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15 nights of accommodation in Chavín
4 Tsunaq ceremonies
All wholesome, Andean-based meals
Workshops and activities
Offerings to the land
Visits to the temple and sacred sites
Bus transport from Lima to Chavín and back
Ground transport within Chavín
Supported preparation and integration sessions
English, Spanish, and Quechua translation
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International flights
Transport within Lima
Visa costs
Travel insurance (we ask that every participant arranges their own)
Additional accommodation if you arrive early or stay on
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To begin your journey, please email us at connect@colibritemple.com. We would love to hear about you and your intention for joining this pilgrimage. Feel free to reach out with any questions, we’re happy to support you.
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The first step is to fill out a registration form. After that, we will schedule a check-in call to explore your intention for participating in this retreat. Once confirmed, a non-refundable deposit of $500 USD will be required to reserve your space.
We recommend using Wise for all payments.
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Cancellations made more than 90 days prior will receive a full refund, minus the non-refundable deposit.
Cancellations within 90 days of the event are non-refundable. However, if you (or we) find a suitable participant to take your place, a refund may be considered.
Please understand that due to the nature of this work, we maintain a strict cancellation policy. You can read more about it here.
TRUST THE CALLING
To walk into Chavín is to step into a current that has been moving for thousands of years. The work here is subtle, steady, and deeply relational. Nothing is forced. Nothing is rushed.
Throughout the pilgrimage you are held - by Maestra Cecilia, Raúl, Joaquín, and Pau, by the mountains, the land, and one another. We share practices of prayer and offering, along with grounded tools for integration, so that what opens here does not stay a moment. It becomes something you live.
A NOTE FROM PAU
I have been walking groups into this valley since 2019, and returning to Chavín with a circle of people is some of the most sacred work I am given to do. I know the pull of this place.
If you have read this far and something in you has softened, that is worth listening to. A true calling rarely feels like overthinking. It feels like recognition. Something in you simply says, yes.
When that happens, there is nothing to convince. There is only a step to take.