Yerbatero: Eight Years with a Maya Healer

​

Eight years. One extraordinary healer. A world of ancient knowledge.

Come walk the jungle paths of the Yucatán.
Come discover the plants, prayers, and rituals of a Maya healer.
Come meet a remarkable man who opened the door to a world few outsiders ever see.

​

Yerbatero: Eight Years with a Maya Healer tells the story of an unexpected friendship between an American writer and a traditional Maya healer whose knowledge had been passed down through generations.

For eight years, I had the extraordinary privilege of spending time with Don Evaristo, watching him work, asking questions, and gradually discovering a world of healing that was unlike anything I had encountered before.

 

This is not a textbook about Maya medicine. It is a collection of true stories, personal experiences, and discoveries gathered over years of friendship, shared laughter, and countless hours spent together.

Inside you'll find:

 

• The Beginning — how an unlikely meeting brought me into the life of a traditional Maya yerbatero.

• The Healer — the man behind the medicine, his family, his humor, and the generations of knowledge he inherited.

• The Jungle — a living pharmacy of hundreds of plants, gathered and prepared according to traditions passed down through his family.

• The Healing — firsthand accounts of limpias, prayers, herbal remedies, and the mysterious stones he used to see what ordinary eyes could not.

• The Mysteries — extraordinary experiences, unanswered questions, and glimpses into a world that continually challenged what I thought I knew.

• The Friendship — the conversations, laughter, misunderstandings, and moments of trust that grew between two people from very different worlds.

• Looking Back — reflections written years later, adding memories, discoveries, and a deeper understanding of the experiences I originally recorded.​

• ​

• Some stories begin in the jungle, searching for medicinal plants. Others unfold beside a small altar, where candles burn, copal smoke rises, and a healer peers into a stone.

​

There are moments of wonder, moments of confusion, and moments of unexpected humor.

​

And there are questions that remain unanswered.

​

Throughout the book, you'll find the original stories I wrote as these experiences unfolded, followed by reflections from the perspective of someone who has had years to think about what she witnessed and learned.

​

You don't need to know anything about Maya healing to enter this world. You need only bring your curiosity and a willingness to follow a story wherever it leads.

​

Come meet Don Evaristo.
Step into the world of a Maya yerbatero.
And discover what eight extraordinary years revealed.