"The Retreats and Dietas with Don Gino have changed my life in the best possible way ever! I have now so much knowledge about myself and my issues, and that is a profit every minute in my daily life. Everything in my life is now so much better. I feel so much energy and light in me, and I am so grateful to the Mother and deeply humbled by the power of the medicine. Thank you! Love you. From the bottom of my heart."

"Don Gino holds such an incredibly safe and powerful space. I so appreciate the flow of these ceremonies. Not only this but Gino is a humble and down to earth shaman after so many years of this work... I am blown away by the insights and realizations Plant Medicine has brought to me. I feel safe to relax deeper and deeper with this medicine thanks to Gino always knowing the right thing to say at the right time. My life will never be the same after the past 9 ceremonies I have had the completely privilege to sit with the mother and I will continue this work. Excited to attend my first Dieta in 2022. From fear to FREEDOM. Deep gratitude."

"Don Gino makes all the difference in the world. His ceremonies are safe, focused around healing and human centered. He can make the group come together while each doing his part. My favorite by far."

"I can't say enough good things! Not only is Don Gino a true Maestro in every sense of the word, he also deeply cares about each member of the Chaka-Runa family. One of the best aspects of these Dietas is that he really is bringing together a family. Don Gino always bridges us to The Mother in a safe way and brings us back with deep healing, new insights and joy in our open hearts. Thank you so much, Don Gino and the team! Much love!"

"My Dieta journey in the Peruvian Amazonian Rainforest with Don Gino was incredibly powerful and you can feel his deep knowledge and his love. I felt guided throughout my journey and I could let go of my unnecessary protections.
His work includes all the shadows, dark spaces, the lights and divine energies that each one of the group can heal and discover what is there for each and everyone.
Thanks so much for your unconditional presence, for the work and for your powerful Ikaros you share in each and every session.
If one wants to work with the medicine, I recommend to work with Don Gino."

"Like every time I worked with Don Gino I felt save and guided by him and his team. Even though I had a very difficult process, the light was always around me so I could go through. His passion is able to ignite a fire in my heart so I can continue to walk the path of a humble, peaceful, noble and fearless warrior that I am. Thank you Don Gino, thank you Chaka-Runa family for all the support and love."

“My experience with Plant Medicine along with masterful guidance of Don Gino found me deeply surrendering and learning to heal from within. I had significant physical restriction going into the weekend retreat. My brain and my body found time to integrate and reconnect. Following my time in ceremony there was much healing and more movement than I had found in the last 5 years. I am so grateful for this life changing experience with a truly loving, supportive guide in a safe environment where I felt held as I purged the past and stepped into the now."

“I participated in a retreat with Don Gino and it certainly has changed my life. I feel my confidence and sense of self-worth has risen to indestructible heights. I have grown closer to Mother and though this was my first ceremony with Plant Medicine, I feel Mother has been with me my whole life. I can see without a doubt the divinity in every one I encounter and especially in my loved ones. It has been a week since the ceremony at the time of writing this, but it has been as if I am reborn. I see with new eyes and I am ready for what I set myself out to accomplish. I am ready to serve."

“My experience working with Madre, Don Gino and his assistants is truly indescribable! But I will do my best to put it into words. I have sat in ceremony around 12 nights in total with a facilitator before being introduced to the Chaka-Runa tribe. My previous experiences were good, some moments of intensity, but it was like scratching the surface of how deep you can really go. Having Icaros and live music during the entire ceremony other than moments of silence, is so powerful and really took me on my journey. Don Gino and his assistants hold a deep respect for this medicine that is very much palpable. This experience took me far deeper than all of my previous ceremonies. Don Gino is truly a shaman that really can see you very clearly and provides what is needed to you on an individual level and able to simultaneously provide what is needed on a group level. Most importantly, I felt very safe and trusting in his presence as this medicine can be intimidating at first, so I think it’s really important for me to feel safe. I am forever changed from these experiences and truly blessed to have had the opportunity to sit with this medicine and being bridged by Don Gino to the other realms of this sacred life we are all experiencing. If you ever have the opportunity to sit with the Chaka-Runa team then I would definitely take the jump as you never know when an opportunity to sit with such sacred medicine and share sacred space will be presented again! Thank you with all my heart!!!"

“I feel beyond honored to have sat with Don Gino. He's truly a gift: humble, authentic and powerful. The way he holds ceremony made me feel safe and I would not sit with anyone else after experiencing him and the space that he holds for all participating. His awarenesses is magical and I will be forever grateful for him guiding me to the Mother."

“I want to thank Gino and the Chaka-Runa Community for helping me let go of dark stuff, and for being just so supportive, loving, respectful and caring. You helped me when no one else could, you saw me when no one else did, and you helped me rise from the ashes with The Mother. I’m forever humble and grateful. I’m so blessed to know you and the Mother and your crew. Blessings.” 

“Working with Mama Aya alongside Don Gino is truly a life altering experience. I have had a number of wildly tough, wonderful, and impactful entheogenic experiences, but when I got a little (ok, maybe a lot!) too deep and was having trouble after the closing of my last ceremony, Don Gino recognized it, and very skillfully helped me push through. A less in-tune leader may have left me on my own, but he could see that I truly needed help, and rather than leaving to rest himself after a hugely long weekend, he lovingly took me to the bathroom and helped me purge some deep energies as I was bent over the sink. He really knows when to allow and when to intervene. I trust him, his wonderful team, and the medicine he provides implicitly, and look forward to sitting with him and La Madre again soon! Thank you Mama, Don Gino, and the Chaka-Runa Team."

"Some of the most incredible days in my whole life! My dear Plant Medicine brothers and sisters... in February, I completed a Dieta in Peru with Don Gino and the Chaka-Runa Community, and what a blessing it was...If you feel the call from The Mother, I highly recommend him to you all... he does his work with total respect, humbleness and is a complete solid strong rock whilst taking you deep into the realms of the Medicine. With all of the charlatans around now, we must be so careful who we drink with. Gino, thank you for your work, a true warrior in service of The Mother!"

"By far the most profound experience of my life in working with Plant Medicines with Don Gino, one of the most authentic, genuine humans I've met... Very, Very Happy with the Work done at Chaka-Runa's retreats."

"I came for getting help with a 12-year long addiction on smoking weed every day. I have now been free from that bad habit for 11 days. But there was so much more healing going on. I could see episodes in my life of how my own actions led to one happening after another. Some of them really hurt others and myself. I met sacred beings and the Sacred Medicine raised my vibrations in my hole body and brain, an experience beyond my wildest fantasies.

Very good life lessons. I know there is more healing to be done and I am looking forward to come back for more healing and inner work. I have so much respect and humbleness for the work Don Gino and the Chaka-Runa Community are doing. I felt 100% save and taken very good care of. The love and light this sacred plants and Gino with the Chaka-Runa Community are bringing into the world is amazing. I bow my head in love, humbleness and gratitude.”

“Thank you dear Gino, for your magical cooperation with all the Spirits, for your infinite love. Thank you for your beautiful Icaros; every time I hear them my soul starts to dance to your profound music. Thank you, dear Gino for asking the Mother to release me from deep sadness.”

"I have attended a Plant Medicine Dieta with the Chaka-Runa Community in the Peruvian Amazon Jungle in February 2020. Don Gino is grounded, wise, humble and has calm, confident leadership holding the healing space for a large and diverse group of people. I have learnt so much and have huge respect and gratitude for Gino. If anyone wants to do deep inner healing work, I recommend a Dieta with Don Gino without hesitation."

“Sharing the joy of an amazing retreat by Holistic Self in Spain, with such a beautiful group of lovely people who really seriously did their inner work, cleansed so much and let their heart shine. Happy faces, delicious food, nature, beautiful hosting house. Thank you for this loving, healing and deep connecting experience. Thank you infinite source of energy, thank you Rob, thank you Gino, thank you Mother."

“I found his 3-day healing ceremonies to be ineffable and life changing. I felt the wounds of lies of my ancestors, the dams and walls made of lies told to children, came tumbling down. Very liberating. She is wise, Don Gino Chaka-Runa has wisdom, intuition and lots of experience.”

"On January 28th 2020 I took a long flight from London to the jungle in Peru to experience healing and transformation though the power of Sacred Plant Medicines. Previously I had gone through three nights (an introduction level) ceremonies in Europe with Don Gino which were still life changing. However, eventually I felt a strong calling for an authentic Master Plant Dieta in the Mother’s House (where the plants and the tradition originate from).
 

For thousands of years the Master Plant Dieta has been an integral component in the healing traditions and plant medicine ceremonies of the indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon.
 

Fasting on Master Plants in conjunction with Plant Medicine Diet under the guidance of an authentic experienced curandero (healer, shaman) is viewed as a tool to achieve the altered state of consciousness that permits the plant teachers to catalyze personal growth, to experience and empower the true self, and to find the authentic path. It happens along with deep detoxification of the body, healing from emotional traumas and de-conditioning of the mind.

The Dieta involves singing songs, chants, learning and taking part in creating medicinal brew and enhancing the participants' artistic skills. Outside the ceremonies, everyone was encouraged to self-isolate to deepen the overall experience.

In the time of an enforced isolation, in the following posts I will share my experiences in the majestic jungle and the teachings of maestro Don Gino Chaka-Runa.
Thank you and bless you all."

"Since my return in Italy from the jungle and in this time in particular, not a day goes by that I don’t thank infinitely the Universe for giving me the opportunity to do the work I did with Don Gino Chaka-Runa. At first, I was almost sorry that I didn't stay longer to keep working on me. With Loredana we kept telling ourselves that it would have been nice to stay for the second Dieta, and if we had our baby with us we would have stayed in Peru for more time.

The integration at home went immediately well, beautiful energy, new opportunities, happy to continue my growth path with a greater awareness and a deep work inside, which I will never forget and that I will certainly repeat as soon as possible.

I have to integrate even there at the best, protect my thoughts all the time, protect my body, my temple, without doubt, without fear and with the certainty that everything will be for the best. 

The world needs change and probably all this is necessary. And finally I stopped to smoke! I thank each of you infinitely for what you have been able to give me with a loving look or a smile, my gratitude to you will be eternal.

Thanks to Don Gino, for everything, you gave me the opportunity to do my work in the best way, I will always follow you and you can always count on me. Thank you also for giving me two Arkanas for protection, I really needed them as you said.

Thanks to Liesbet, wonderful woman; to Manuel, sincere and present brother; to Giancarlo, for his blows and his energy; and thanks to Silvio, for his music and the beautiful person he is! And again thanks to the Chaka-Runa Community, to the Peruvian family and to mother jungle, who welcomed and snuggled us without missing anything, indeed, giving us just what we needed.

I have no doubt, Pachamama loves us! Thank you mama! I love you brothers and sisters, I hope to see you again very soon. In the meantime, I wish you health, serenity and blessings. I hug you hard!"

"Hello Don Gino Medicine man. Thanks for this time in the jungle; so many teachings and lessons learned! Just the Dieta in itself, offline, no overeat, so powerful! Then the Plant Medicine... words are cheap! Some chapters are very difficult to close and shouldn't be joked with, there is so much more before the end, it is a shorter book, but still writing :)

Anyway, this is with lots of love. It really affects positively my kids, parents and people around me and I'm loving it. My smallest kids walk around singing "Cura cura, sana sana" like I saw in one of my visions in one of the ceremonies in the jungle. Beautiful and full of life... yeah loving it. Anyway, I know you are a busy man so here it goes: Love you man, the Medicine is unreal but you deliver it beautifully, powerful and painful with no drama and a true heart. I hope you are feeling amazing and maybe see you soon."

"I hope you're all well. I just wanted to say I'm very grateful to have received all of your warm energies of love and happiness. I'm so grateful to have been exposed to free spirits seeking to heal and to grow in this life. You've all touched my heart. And thank you for taking care of me during my time of low energy. I do still imagine what that midpoint chicken pit stop would have been like.

I'm so grateful to the Mother for helping me to see the way. I've never experienced such a powerful Medicine. I found the child in me, and I tend to his wounds with love and tenderness. I found the warrior inside me; the one who fights the darkness, and the one who taunts whatever challenges lie before me. And I found my people; my brothers and sisters from all over the globe, all doing great things, making stories, painting, singing songs that will echo on for eternity.

I am grateful to Don Gino for guiding us on our journeys and for doing all that he does to keep these sacred traditions alive today. A massive respect to him for his motives and humbleness. I am grateful to David. he has a good heart, full of good intentions. He is my best friend.

​

I fear there is more work to be done on this soul. I still see the fowl creature in me curled up in a ball, plagued with fear. When the time is right I will return to the Mother and continue my work. Perhaps I will see some of you soon I hope.

I hope that in this lifetime or the next I am able to return the favor to you all, and to the Mother who has radically transformed my life. One Love."

"My Dieta was a healing trip, in the region around my womb, the connection between my safety zone and heart is restored.

In my work, meditation (breath work) and being in nature, there was no doubt about it, my safety and self worth is there.

Now I realize something magical happened, I played the song 'Viejo tambor" almost everyday, it resonated with my heart and that was enough, until today that I found the translation of this Spanish song.

​

In my visions during the Dieta, after surrendering and fully accepting myself and my high intuition, and that there was nothing wrong with that, all my ancient parents were on a line. Happy that I gave up the fight to fix others with their truth, and that there is nothing wrong or right with that. But it's important to connect with your own values, self worth, and love. That's the only way to your own happiness.

Two things from the song happened in the Dieta.
"Since the times that my grandfather dreamed that one day I would die to give you my heart"
"For the streams I see My condor fly and I feel old. Already opening my heart as in its wings."

This weekend, my eagle protected me and showed me the way. The eagle was every day with me in the song. The results of the Dieta made me choose for self worth, without doubt. Today everything falls into place through the translation of this song.
I don't have any role in somebody else's live who wants to wear a mask, and tells me that can only love me if I disconnect from my values and inner truth. Then I fly away like an eagle and follow the way of my heart.

Don Gino Chaka-Runa thanks so much for this healing, I spent a lifetime searching for this confidence. I needed help for this, thank you for all the work you did, showing me how to surrender. I know it was really hard work for you ;)"

"It was the journey of a lifetime for me. The loveliest group I was ever part of - courageous, strong and flexible individuals, with an eye out for each other and focus on themselves. We were all spoiled to our heart’s content, every day: the setting was uplifting, the staff flawless, accommodation picturesque, the sites inspirational, the food healthy and tasteful, the rites and rituals aesthetic and deeply impressive and the painting course joyful and instructive.

The ceremonies for me were mostly extremely hard, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way! Not that I’m a sucker for hard work; I love it when life is easy, but this is about doing the Work, and working for the Mother, so I feel blessed to have been permitted to work as hard as I could and to contribute to other people’s processes when required.

I cannot express my love and admiration for Don Gino Chaka-Runa - just know that you are safe with him, that’s all you need to know. His sense of humor and musicality are a bonus. If I could go back again, I would. Right now. Love to you all, give yourself this gift - you will not regret it. And when you get there, please remind me to the staff and blow a kiss to Grandfather Wind for me."

"Hola Dieta family, I can so much agree with every word Ping so beautifully wrote! The ground for this work is safety and trust, and Gino has the big gift to provide this! Love this man and I am grateful for everything I've learned in this Dieta."

"Yes Gino, we will come to you. The doors are wide open now, you have done such beautiful work in this world, now it is time to rest and recover. Thank you for coming to the US, the Mother has been planted and she will grow with wild joy! I look forward to another journey soon. Aho!"

"Aho Gino! Thank you so much for doing YOUR work. You have changed so many lives by bringing the Mother to foreign countries. May God bless you and give you only wonderful experiences in the coming years. What a beautiful thing you have done and what a beautiful story you have just told."

"Thank you for the good deeds on behalf on those who has never had an honor to be lead and taught by you- we are all connected by the invisible although profoundly powerful string of love and gratitude to All That Is since the time of Creation. Thank you."

"It's an honor to be in the passing of your knowledge and wisdom which will continue to ripple onto our descendants. Thank you."

"It was an honor to meet you and experience your wisdom Gino. Will meet you soon in Peru. God Bless You Don Gino Chaka-Runa."

"Reading this makes me happy, It's time, my dear friend. So many people you have serviced... At the cost of your own health and strength. I look forward with joy in my heart to laughing with you in the Sacred Valley - young and old - bridging the gap of time through love and dance. One final Eagles flight, before he ventures home to rest. The closing hunt of the lone wolf, fore the pack gathers to share in his wisdom.
Aho,
AOOOUUU!"

"Gino did a healing on our son who struggles with Lyme disease and many other infections as well as autism-like symptoms from mold/mycotoxin poisoning. He has been doing so much better after working with Gino. My husband also did a 3-day ceremony with Gino and received amazing healing. Please go see him."

"Thank you for bringing Mother’s light to the dark shadows of so many souls my brother."

"What a gift! My life is forever better thanks to you and this powerful experience. Thank you for your ever present support and guidance. May your travels continue to be blessed with the light of Mama."

"Thank you so much Don Gino for your work, your presence and bringing the awakening to America in such a beautiful way."

"Thank you for your presence, your magic, your guidance! Many blessings until we meet again."

"Safe travels Gino! Endlessly grateful for your work and for The Mother. Until next time friend!"

"I am eternally grateful to have worked with you, your assistants and every person present at the gathering. I was able to witness just how the foundation can always grow stronger as one puts in the work. It also opened me up to the music inside of me that I had been searching for! Gracias Don Gino Chaka-Runa."

"Never Forget! This wasn't definitely my last journey with you Gino! Can't wait for the Amazon! One of the most amazing days in my life! Sending so much love towards your group for the rest of your tour around Europe!  So you can bring more love also to others as much as you did to us!"