Colleen Ariel walks a path of deep gratitude, guided by the ancient wisdom of her beloved Shipibo maestro/maestra elders from Peru, Teo and Mariana. Their songs, prayers, and gentle teachings have touched her spirit in ways beyond words, awakening remembrance, humility, and devotion.
She has also been blessed to share many sacred moments in ceremony and in the preparation of the medicine with both these elders and her dear sister Lydia. Together with Teo and Mariana, their work flows as one, rooted in love, respect, and service to the healing of all beings.
With a heart full of reverence, Colleen is deeply honoured to offer Master plant Dieta retreats and ceremonies in sacred union with these luminous souls, Teo, Mariana, and Lydia, in the healing lands of Peru and Costa Rica.
We invite you to read their biographies below and to listen for the quiet call within your heart. If you feel drawn to join in ceremony with Colleen, Lydia, Maestro Teo, and Maestra Mariana, please reach out to us. It would be our joy to share details about the retreats and gatherings that continue to unfold.
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Peru Retreat
May 1–8, 2026
With Colleen, Lydia, Maestro Teo & Maestra Mariana
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Ongoing ceremonies, master plant dietas & medicine ceremonies & preparation take place monthly, please email us for more details.
Marina Sinti Reategui was born in the Yarinacocha district of Pucallpa, in the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon jungle. She is the daughter of Elias Sinti Magin Doña Exilda Reategui, and her grandmother and mother were both excellent shamans. She learned the medicine work of ayahuasca from her mother, and works with her husband Teobaldo help heal people together, both within their community and in bringing the medicine abroad. She has knowledge of many different medicinal plant remedies, and embodies the feminine aspect of the medicine in order to bring balance to the ceremonies. She and her husband are united together in ceremony and work as a team to balance the feminine and masculine energies, such that the medicine of Mother Ayahuasca and Grandfather Tobacco can work through them. Marina is also a highly skilled seamstress, making and embroidering beautiful indigenous and ceremonial clothing, tapestries, and other art.
Marina has been on the shamanic path for the last 14 years, and before Soltara has brought her work with the medicine to multiple countries around South and Central America. We are honored to be working with such a strong team at Soltara, and look forward to bringing the laughter, love, and light of such skilled and compassionate shamans to you, both in and out of ceremony.
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Teobaldo Ochavano Lopez was born in the Ronuya district of Iparía, in the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon jungle. His father, Teobaldo Ochavano Mahua Doña Luisa Lopez Maynas, was the first bilingual teacher and shaman in his community, and his mother used plant medicines to cure and heal. All of his grandparents, on both sides, were also shamans. His entire family was very familiar with plant medicines, particularly ayahuasca, and from a very young age Teobaldo was surrounded by this medicine work. After witnessing its immense healing power, he chose to continue on the path himself, particularly since he had the experience and knowledge to navigate within the shamanic realm of healing. He felt that since the most important thing was to understand how to handle and navigate within this space, and he had been given the tools and knowledge to do so by his family, he was called and equipped to continue on this path. He apprenticed under 4 different Maestros – his father, his uncle, his cousin, and another teacher, and has been working with the medicine for 30 years.
In his community, he has treated many patients for a variety of illnesses, helping people who need to be cured with plants. In doing this he has been able to provide education for his children as well as help orphaned children in the village. He also has a strong desire to save the plants and sustain biodiversity, and so works with local native communities to replant ayahuasca vine and chacruna (the two ingredients used in our ayahuasca brew), among other permaculture projects. In 2017 he has planted over 5000 seedlings of the Ayahuasca vine, as well as several dozen chacruna shrubs, near his village. He believes this is imperative to ensure the sustainability of the ayahuasca vine, as well as have botanical variety and medicinal plants on hand in order to continue healing and helping people.
Teo received his diploma in Pedagogy, the method and practice of teaching, and was a professor for 19 years, overlapping with shamanic work in his community. He has been retired from teaching for the last 5 years, and now devotes his full time to Soltara and his family. We are honoured to be working with Teo and his wife Marina at our center, whose devotion, love, and infectious laughter will lift your spirits both in and out of ceremony.
Lydia Turco is a French/Italian, traditional practitioner and teacher. She has trained since 2000 in the Shipibo/Conibo tradition of sacred plants of the Peruvian Amazon. Her training is in two different lineages, first with maestro Don Benito Arevalo then with maestro Teobaldo Ochavano Lopez with whom she created a retreat center in the Amazon Jungle. Prior to her first trip to the Amazon, she worked in the Lakota tradition of sacred Inipi (sweat Lodge). In 2008, she personally retrieved an ancient crystal technology named SIBA and has been working with both SIBA and the traditional medicine since then. She became maestra, teacher-healer in the Ayahuasca tradition in 2013. Lydia is in regular contact with medicine men and women from Peru, Brazil and Mexico who honor the beauty of Nature and consider themselves the guardians of the balance of life. They all recognize her as a messenger of their culture and a carrier of their vision. She particularly likes to accompany women and men into their very depth to truly discover their sacred feminine and masculine. This deep journey helps each participant contribute to the respect for the feminine dimension of life and its necessary integration into our society. Her therapeutic approach is holistic, taking into account all dimensions of being: physical, mental, emotional, family, social, cultural and spiritual. She is also trained in Western techniques such as foot reflexology and art therapy. The different techniques that she uses aim to support the participant in finding a sense of well-being, a coherence, a harmony of the inner world in order to live better in the outside world. Her treatments combine a full range of natural, preventive and curative therapies. She leads internships, retreats, gives conferences and organizes initiation trips to Peru, Mexico and Egypt. She is the author of The Oracle of the Mother Goddess (L’Oracle de la Déesse Mère) published in January 2022, Guy Trédaniel editions, France, done in collaboration with film director Marc Caro. It is presently available in French.