Supay Chacra

The Quechua word ‘supay chacra’ (translated literally as ‘Devil’s Garden’) is also referred to by anthropologist L.E.Luna as ‘Chullachaki Garden’. Unique to the Western Amazon, it refers to a jungle area resembling a chacra – e.g. an agricultural plot – without human intervention. This is believed by local people to be a power-spot, and Ayahuasca rituals held in this place are believed to deliver powerful and vivid visions to the participants. Richard Evans Schultes, the father of modern ethnobotany, describes the “Supay Chacra” as “an interesting and unsolved ecological enigma” (R. E. Schultes, Where the Gods Reign – Plants and People of the Colombian Amazon, Synergetic Press, London 1988, p. 90).