Career
His Shipibo name is Ketsenbetsa, which means "echo of the universe". He helped to form the first Shipibo government. Arévalo says that he taught himself to be a curandero.
He began exploring curanderismo at age 22, began the regimen of restrictive plant dietas at 24, and began practicing curanderismo at 26.
In 1982 he cofounded a Shipibo organization called Aplicación de Medicina Tradicional (AMETRA), which promoted the study and application of the traditional medicine practiced by the peoples of the Ucayali River. The organisation was active in the city of Pucallpa until 2000.
Arévalo moved from Pucallpa to Iquitos, and founded a healing center called Espíritu de Anaconda (Spanish: "Anaconda Spirit"), which became one of the largest such centers in Peru. Arévalo subsequently renamed the center to ("Cosmic Anaconda").
In an interview with journalist Roger Rumrill in 2005, Arévalo Valera had lamented the state of drug tourism in Peru.
Arévalo was filmed for the ayahuasca documentary films Doctorate"autres mondes (2004) and Vine of the Soul: Encounters with Ayahuasca (2010). He and his healing center were featured in "Jungle Trip" (2001), an episode of the Channel 4 documentary series To the Ends of the Earth. January Kounen, director of Doctorate"autres mondes, also gave him a minor role in his 2004 Western, Blueberry (aka Renagade).
A French tourist died in 2011 while under the care of Guillermo Arévalo, while attending a ceremony at the Anaconda Cosmic retreat.