Experiential Bamboo Workshop
October 29 - November 1, 2026
In a world where the demand for wood increases daily, while at the same time it becomes increasingly scarce, bamboo emerges as a comprehensive solution to the problem of the need for timber resources. In concrete terms, planting, processing, and using bamboo is the only thing that can stop the indiscriminate logging of ancient forests.
The Bamboo Workshop will take place from October 29th to November 1st in our Bahuaja Conservation Area , located near the city of Puerto Maldonado, in the Madre de Dios region of Peru. In this workshop, we will share knowledge through hands-on activities where we will learn about bamboo, how to plant it, how to treat it, and finally, how to use it for construction.
*** 4-Day Program ***
DAY 1
10am: Departure from Puerto Maldonado (Hostal la Fauna)
11am: Arrival at the port
* A little brunch on the way*
3pm: Arrival at the Bahuaja Conservation Area
3:30pm – 5pm: Walk around the area / cabin preparation
5pm – 6pm: Installation and free time
6pm - 7pm: Dinner
7pm – 8pm: Discussion and presentation of the workshop
DAY 2
7:30am: fruit and coffee
8am – 10am: Identification of bamboo species and reproduction
10am – 11am: Lunch
11am – 2pm: Harvest and Transformation
2pm – 2.30pm: Break (fruit juices)
2:30pm – 5pm: Bamboo processing and can making
5pm – 6pm: Dinner
6pm: Documentary screening
DAY 3
7:30am: fruit and coffee
8am – 10am: Construction of mold for manufacturing structural beam
10am – 11am: Lunch
11am – 2pm: Mold Construction
2pm – 2:30pm: Break (juices)
2:30pm – 5pm: Placement of arches and circle of the demonstration structure
5pm – 6pm: Dinner
6pm: Screening of the film The 4 Altars
DAY 4
7:30am: fruit and coffee
8am – 10am: Workshop Closing / Conclusions
10am – 11am: Lunch
12pm: Departure from the Bahuaja Conservation Area
2pm: Arrival at the port
3pm: Arrival in Puerto Maldonado
*** Collaboration and how to register ***
The required contribution to participate in the Bamboo Workshop is $500. This contribution will cover all costs for the 4 days of the workshop: round-trip transportation from the Conservation Area to the city of Puerto Maldonado, lodging in a single or double cabin, meals, practical workshop activities, and materials.
*The workshop fee does not include: flight/transport to the city of Puerto Maldonado and accommodation in the city of Puerto Maldonado
This contribution is essential to cover the costs of running the workshop, including the upkeep of the Bahuaja Conservation Area, its caretakers, and the infrastructure that will host the workshop. Your contribution will also allow us to create scholarships for participants from local communities who cannot afford this cost and among whom we are very interested in sharing this knowledge.
.
***If you would like to support this event but cannot attend, you can also make a donation to help us increase the number of scholarships for low-income local residents. Your donation is very important.***
TO PARTICIPATE IN THE WORKSHOP, IT IS ESSENTIAL TO WRITE TO US AT: alonsodelriotaray@gmail.com
Bahuaja Conservation Area
The Bahuaja Conservation Area is a 132-hectare piece of land located on the Tambopata River in the department of Madre de Dios in the Peruvian Amazon dedicated primarily to the conservation of the Amazon ecosystem and related projects. In it we carry out diets, retreats and workshops. Our facilities were built with 90% reclaimed wood (naturally fallen trees). It was a big cost overrun but now we know it was worth it.
We have 2 wells from which we extract pure water through solar pumps. All the electrical energy in the place is photovoltaic and it is our goal that in the near future we will change the outboard motor to gasoline -that transports us to the area- for an electric outboard motor, cutting all dependence on oil and reducing our carbon footprint carbon to ZERO.
With the aim of making our food also carbon neutral, we grow a wide variety of crops in-site, such as plantain, cassava and other tubers. We also have avocados, cocoa, pineapples, coffee, papayas, coconuts, lemons, sugar cane, guava, camu camu, mango, carambola, arazá, noni, moringa, anona and other exotic fruits, all grown organically. We also have a significant amount of ayahuasca, tobacco and coca planted as well as other medicinal plants. It is good to see with your own eyes what is happening in this hidden but very important place on the planet.
Carlos Marcos
Guardian of the Conservation Area
Although the place was fairly well preserved when we arrived, it was thanks to the gifts and perseverance of its main guardian, Carlos Marcos - who intuitively began feeding a small group of monkeys that used to cross the area - that today, after many years, we can enjoy the company of more than five different species of monkeys and see local fauna such as deer, tapirs, capybaras, agoutis, jaguars and pumas, among others.
OTHER PROJECTS in the conservation area
The Bamboo project seeks to disseminate the planting and use of bamboo in order to reduce the pressure on the felling of primary forest. Our intention is to provide bamboo seedlings to promote bamboo planting projects in the more than 40,000 de-forestes and contaminated hectares as a result of mining. Bamboo is a magical plant. Its easy adaptation to different environments, its rapid growth and its many uses make it one of the most unique and amazing plants on our planet.
The most relevant advantages are:
-
Counting in the short term (5 years) with a noble and resistant material capable of replacing wood in the construction and furniture industry, thus reducing the demand for wood and consequently avoiding the destruction of the Amazon forest.
-
Secondly, it is capable of absorbing 30% more CO2 from the atmosphere than any other species in the plant kingdom, thereby contributing to reducing greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
Some uses of bamboo: Human food, architectural structures, furniture, construction material, musical instruments, textile fiber, animal feed, baskets, mats and other types of fabric, mat boards, cables, brush handles, chopsticks, cellulose, paper, medicines, etc. In addition, this self-sustaining project will create many decent jobs, both in its cultivation phase and in its transformation phase. Nature gives us once again a plant, capable of helping to solve our serious mistakes.
“Repowered Module Project”: Experimental project that tries to quantify the economic value of an area of primary forest to which some species of greater commercial value have been reintroduced with the aim of promoting conservation among local people.
"Medicinal Plants Project": This project seeks to gather and cultivate in a small area the main medicinal plants present in the Amazonian ecosystem.
The Conservation Area is a sanctuary for mineral, plant, animal and human life. It is a space where human beings can live in harmony with all the kingdoms of nature and evolve.
The Bahuaja Conservation Area does not receive funds or aid from the Government and/or institutions
and it follows to be sustained only thanks to the activities of Ayahuasca Ayllu and donations.
If you want, you can help us keep this beautiful piece of the Amazon alive thanks to a donation.
Church of the Amazon
The Church of the Amazon is founded on the idea that there is a divine principle that manifests itself as existence, consciousness and love and that it is our responsibility to recognize, respect and celebrate divine intelligence in all its material, organic, psychological, social, systemic and cosmic manifestations. Our objective is therefore to re-establish the sacred cult of Mother Nature, recognizing our responsibility and the importance of each of our interactions with nature and all living beings, promoting human evolution in harmony with nature, promoting and practicing all way of life and practices that support ethical and healthy forms of development.
We believe it is important to reassess and disseminate the ancestral knowledge of native peoples and knowledge that helps people to become aware and develop awareness, as well as to investigate and incorporate all scientific advances and discoveries that help us better understand nature and live in a different way more aware.
The Church promotes and supports all of Ayahuasca Ayllu's projects and all kinds of activities that go in the direction of conscious evolution: conservation projects, ecological initiatives, community projects, research, sustainable technology, festivals, workshops, audiovisual projects, among others. The Church is a non-profit association that allows us to have legal representation as an institution.
Wiñaypaq School
Located in the district of Pisac, in the farmer community of Huandar, in the Sacred Valley of the Cusco; The Wiñaypaq Intercultural School provides free and quality initial and primary education to 80 children of Quechua and mestizo origin from different farmer communities.
Intercultural education is an opportunity for children from the native cultures to acquire a solid base of learning about their own culture and then be able to include beneficial contributions from other cultures. The children are learning to read and write, science, using new technologies and languages without having to give up their culture of origin. Instead they learn to use this new knowledge as a tool to strengthen and bring positive changes to their families and communities
DAILY LIFE - PERMACULTURE
Besides this we promote productive activities with the participation of the learners themselves and their parents in the fields of Arts, Natural Food Bio, Traditional Medicine and Music. We published an educational game based on the old inkas drawings named "Tokapu". We make stamped polo shirts with drawings made by children and also cereals bags full of coca flour and other native ingredients and jars of peanut butter and chocolate for breakfast, etc.
FINANCING
The institution is being financed thought donations from individuals or groups of people. So far we don't have any kind of stable financing from institutions, foundations; NGOs, etc. In 2014, due to an urgent need for funding, we created the 1st Medicine Music Festival with the objective of raising funds for the school. This event is consolidated as a bi-annual event in order to maintain the continuity of the school.
To receive more information about the school you can visit the website www.winaypaqperu.org, follow the school on Instagram, or get in touch at winaypaqperu@hotmail.com