Welcome

Casa la Sangapilla, situated at the southern edge of the town of Lamas, San Martín, Peru, greets you with a riot of colors in its many gardens with bougainvilleas draping a two storied house, overlooking the Escalera mountain range. In the distance one has a lovely view of the city of Tarapoto down in the valley. The delightful tropical climate here always brings a fresh breeze to this peaceful environment where one hears only bird calls. Casa la Sangapilla has several buildings besides the brick two storied big house; there are an additional three buildings in the indigenous architecture with earthen walls and palm leaf roofs. The hostel has a total of 13 rooms, some with attached bath and others with shared baths and showers. It also offers rental of a fully equipped apartment with three bedrooms, a living-dining room, a kitchen and an ample terrace with its own sitting areas and hammocks, ideal for a large family or a group of friends.
Casa la Sangapilla specializes in offering the visitors a peaceful atmosphere to de-stress, relaxing in one of its many hammocks, as well as natural cures utilizing the many vaunted Amazonian medicinal plants found locally. Casa la Sangapilla also offers you healthy and tasty meals prepared freshly with locally grown organic produce many of them grown in our organic vegetable garden and prepared carefully following strict hygienic procedures. We have an ecological brick and clay oven where we bake whole grain breads, corn breads, and cakes. There we also roast organic peanuts making home made peanut butter, as well as bake pizzas, various meats and many other delicious dishes. Casa la Sangapilla also offers natural cures utilizing many of the well known Amazonian medicinal plants of the region, some of them used for inhalations in our sauna, as well as flower and plant baths, therapeutic massages, and the possibility of consulting with local healers. Those visitors who would like to participate in shamanic ceremonies can also be directed to reputable local shamans or have them come to La Sangapilla to perform the rituals.
Casa la Sangapilla can also offer to interested visitors private lessons in Spanish or Quechua as well as workshops in Kichwa indigenous crafts taught by some of the most well known artisans of Wayku, the indigenous part of the town of Lamas; crafts such as: ceramics; weaving; basket weaving; dance; music; medicinal plants; native cooking.
Casa La Sangapilla offers to interested guests the possibility of learning about as well as participating in the recreation of a pre-Columbian permanently fertile soil called terra preta de indio (Black earth of the Indians) recently discovered by archaeologists in the whole of the Amazonian basin. This project hopes to offer an alternative to the local form of subsistence agriculture which is slashing and burning a patch of rain forest to grow food. Those fields are only fertile during 2 or 3 years and then have to be abandoned and the process started again somewhere else in the forest. Given the current land tenure, this form of agriculture is no longer sustainable as well as being ecologically damaging by producing a great amount of C02.(For more information on this project please go to: www.centrosachamama.org)
In addition Casa la Sangapilla has developed a close relationship with a native community on the banks of the river Mayo at some 30 minutes drive from the inn. We offer guided visits to this native community with the option of swimming there in the river in a natural pool with sand beaches as well as crossing the river in a “wayru” a cable platform pulled by people. Outsiders cannot normally come into native communities by themselves.
Casa la Sangapilla can also give you information on various local sites of interest such as waterfalls, rivers, or archaeological sites and organize your transport there, taking with you if you so desire a healthy and delicious pick nick meal.
Lamas is one of the oldest towns in the eastern part of Peru, in the high Amazon region. It distinguishes itself by having on its territory two different cultural groups: an indigenous Quechua speaking group, the Kichwa-Lamistas living mostly in the part of town known as Wayku and the Spanish speaking mestizos, living in the rest of Lamas. This cultural and linguistic duality has made of Lamas a very unique place where the ancestral indigenous and mestizo customs and traditions live together.
The Kichwa-Lamistas have continued many of their ancestral practices such as their beautiful crafts and their festivals, especially the Patron Saint’s Day of Santa Rosa toward the last week of August. Kichwas from many small villages in the district of Lamas all converge in Wayku for a great reunion that lasts a week where one can see many different kinds of dances, games, wrestling and other lively and fascinating rituals. Wayku is one of the very few indigenous inhabited centers where visitors can observe and enjoy authentic ancestral customs celebrated not for the tourist but for themselves.
The mestizos of Lamas are also well known in the whole region for their festivals. The most well known are: the month of carnival in January and February, lasting until the first week of March where neighborhood groups of youths dance in the streets wearing striking masks; Holy Week with its celebrated theatrical performance of Christ’s passion; San Juan on the 24th of June when everyone cooks the famous “juanes” steamed in large leaves and taken to a river or stream and eaten there; its patron Saint’s Day of the Cruz de los Motilones from July 11 to 16 where each neighborhood in town offers free food and drink to any visitor and people dance in the street the “pandilla” till the wee hours.

In order to enjoy all the many cultural riches that Lamas and Wayku offer, one needs to stay a few days. The city is situated on the crest of a series of mountainous crests between 2400 and 2500 feet of altitude which gives it a wealth of breathtaking views of the surrounding valleys and mountains as well as a most pleasant climate year round.