Who are the ayahuasca tourists, and why do they come?
Of all the topics this article covers, this was the most difficult section, for very few people are willing to speak up about their South American drug adventures. Those that organize the tours are also reticent when it comes to talking about their customers, for in doing so they must deal with tricky issues concerning their former clients’ privacy. For a great deal of this section I am indebted to Kim Kristensen for supplying me with a very small survey he put together in early 1998. His survey included two trip leaders and ten clients he networked with through them. As Kristensen is quick to point out, “this is not a large sample” (1998:10). In his survey, Kristensen found that there were four main reasons that people became ayahuasca tourists: self-exploration and spiritual growth, curiosity, physical and emotional healing, and the desire for a vacation to an exotic location (1998:15). As far as education goes, only half of those surveyed held anything beyond a high school diploma,
