Journey Into the Amazon with Cristina & Dean

A Transformational Cultural Immersion with the Achuar People

Step into one of the most biodiverse places on Earth and experience the Amazon Rainforest through the eyes of people who call it home.

For over 25 years, Cristina has been welcomed by the Achuar as family, a sister, auntie, mother, and advocate for their way of life. When we return, the Achuar open their homes and hearts to us, and you are welcomed as family too.

What You’ll Experience

• Deep cultural immersion with the Achuar
• Ceremonies, traditions, and daily life in the rainforest
• A powerful disconnect from the hectic world
• Insight into medicinal plants, nature’s rhythms, and indigenous wisdom
• Daily coaching conversations with Dean, a Certified High Performance Coach, to help you integrate the experiences and transformations unfolding each day
• Space to reconnect with your clarity, purpose, and inner strength

This is more than a trip.
It’s a rare, guided journey of cultural connection, personal growth, and meaningful transformation.

Come with us.
Feel the forest.
Remember who you are.

About Cristina Serrano

Born and raised in Ecuador, Cristina’s connection to the Amazon began in childhood as she accompanied her father, an economic advisor for the Ecuadorian government, on visits to the rainforest. It was there that she fell in love with the land and the people who call it home.

With a Biology degree from the University of Cuenca and more than 25 years of experience working closely with indigenous communities, Cristina is welcomed by the Achuar as a sister, auntie, mother, and advocate for their way of life. Her deep relationships open a rare and authentic window into the rainforest—offering travelers a sense of belonging that few ever experience.

About Dean Jacobs

Dean Jacobs is a global explorer, educator, and guide who has spent nearly a decade traveling the world, learning from landscapes, cultures, and moments that challenge how we see ourselves and life. Having explored more than 58 countries, Dean brings a rare blend of lived experience, reflection, and humility into every journey he leads.

Together with his wife, Cristina, who brings deep cultural connection and heart to Ecuador and the Amazon, Dean leads immersive rainforest experiences that go far beyond adventure or tourism. These journeys are intentionally designed to combine exploration with coaching, helping people slow down, listen, reflect, and reconnect with what matters most.

Dean’s approach weaves storytelling, presence, and thoughtful conversation into the rhythm of the jungle itself. The rainforest becomes the classroom, the mirror, and the teacher. Participants often find that something subtle but profound shifts in how they think, how they feel, and how they relate to their own lives.

This is not a trip you simply take.

It’s an experience that stays with you.

• Late arrival to Quito-Ecuador
• Transfer to your hotel in the city of Quito

• Breakfast and departure towards Puyo city located south east of Ecuador. This ride takes approximately 6 -7 hours. 

• Travel day to Shell. Visit Salasaca town and Lunch with Alonso Pilla. Clenasings with Julita. Dinner and overnight in Puyo.

• Arrival to Hostal El Jardin in the city of Puyo for dinner and accommodations. 

• Early breakfast and drive for 15 minutes to the town of Shell. 
• Take the 1-hour flight deep into the Amazon Basin and the Achuar Territory. 
• Arrival to  the community of Sharamentza. Visit one of the chief houses for welcoming and talking. Sharamentza is a very well organized community with an ecotourism project, drinkable water and other health projects.  Take a walk around the town knowing about these projects. 
• Depending on the time of arrival to the community, we can have an extra activity in the afternoon before having dinner and overnight.

While in the Achuar territory, we will have a great array of activities to do. The activities will depend always on the weather and availability of the members of the community.  The list of activities to do while in Sharamentsa are:

• Cultural and Community activities: 

Mingas: communal work for fixing bridges and land strips maintenance, harvesting, etc.Garden Crops and medicinal plantsHandicrafts: pottery, weavingFishing, hunting, etcCosmo vision of the Achuar Indigenous People,Dream sharing Customs and lifestyle, Challenges to protect their forest, among others.

• Nature activities: 

Thematic Hikes: rainforest ecosystems, tallest trees, ecology of the forest, Medicinal plants of the forest, Waterfall visits, etc.Night hikesWildlife spottingBird watching

• Educational activities: School visits, activities with children and teenagers.

• Canoe ride to Kapawi Lodge. Lunch at Kapawi. Afternoon activity kapawi.

* Full-day visit to Tsekuntsa. Lunch in the Village. Volleyball with the

community. Return to Kapawi.

* Claylick Birdwatching. Breakfast.

*  Natem with Rafael Taish.

• Debrief with shaman. Canoe back to Kapawi. Free afternoon for water activities (kayak, swimming,etc)

Flights back to Shell. Transfer to Banos. Overnight Luna Volcan

• Small community and natural volcanic hot springs are a great way to help transition from the rainforest.

• Morning, breakfast in Banos.

• Travel back to Quito lunch on the way. Dinner and lodging.

• An early dinner will be served in one of the valleys near the city of Quito.  

• City tour of Colonial Quito.

• Farewell and Transfer OUT for international flights back home.