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Our Family

What We Do

Our mission is to facilitate the space so that each person can connect and develop from their own heart their relationship with the creative SPIRIT and return to their nature, to their home, to a sacred relationship with life.

We aim to foster and live within a deep, healing relationship with divine creation. In the mirror of these times, what we are experiencing as a society reflects the tremendous imbalance that we have generated with nature. This healing process is not just a personal experience, it is in BEING TOGETHER where the power of the miracle that our united hearts is manifest. For that reason, the medicine of Casa del Sol is the family, the tribe, and the spiritual communion.

Our family shares practical experience in nurturing conscious, loving human beings that live in harmony with their enviroment.

Sharing our ancestral knowledge helps us to connect to your authentic self, service our community and protect the natural environment.

 

What We Value

Connection

We believe in nourishing the family & community through compassionate connection.

Gratitude

Giving thanks for our life, our natural environment, our roots and all our ancestors

Safe Space

Creating a safety within a home setting to nurture the seeds of self love and acceptance

Our Shamans

Santiago Ayala and Ximena Morales are certified Curanderos (healers) from Ecuador and Peru. They have lived in the sacred San Pedro Valley, Vilcabamba with their family for over 20 years. Their family rituals weave the rich traditions of North Native American and South American lineages to awaken our spiritual connection and expand consciousness. Together they have over 20 years of experience cultivating sacred space for physical, emotional and spiritual healing with shamanic medicine ceremonies. Their family & many staff are fluent in the english language.

Santiago Ayala
(Ecuador 🇪🇨)

Santiago is a highly respected Shaman and a gifted healer. He has learned sacred teachings from many ancestral traditions. Santiago carries the blessings of his tribal chiefs, family and many indigenous elders. He is a Sun dancer, carrier of the sacred Chanupa (sacred pipe), and holds space for Vision Quests.

Santiago devoted his life to the shamanic path at age 26 after overcoming a serious illness. He is the guardian of one of the last San Pedro and Willka trees forests in southern Ecuador, preparing it in the traditional way to be used for healing purposes. His medicine songs, prayers and blessings carry a powerful intention to heal the heart with the sacred spirit of San Pedro.

Ximena Morales Gamarra
(Perú 🇵🇪)

Ximena is a mother, vision seeker, and co-founder of Casa del Sol. Her childhood was spent during the bloody internal conflict that occurred in Peru during the 80’s and 90’s, which profoundly marked her spiritual search from early on. She has lived in nature since the age of 21, next to rivers and mountains which feel like family for her in the Sacred Valley of the Longevity, Vilcabamba. Here she welcomed her children into the warmth of her home. Becoming a mother of four was her most sacred spiritual INITIATION, both challenging and sublime.

Ximena is initiated  as a Pampamisayoc (Andean Priest) within the Andean Q’ero cosmovision and in the Turpo lineage -guardians of the relation with the Apu Ausangate- in the high Peruvian Andes. She also walk the red path of the North Native traditions such as Sun Dancer and Vision Quester.

Our Support Team

Our family Shamans and support staff are available from dusk till dawn to assist any needs throughout your stay.

Female and male staff are present throughout the retreat to ensure all participants feel safe and comfortable.

Mateo Buki
(Ecuador 🇪🇨)

Since a child Mateo has been close to the ancestral shamanic practices of the Americas as the son of Santiago and Ximena. He is a great enthusiast of the spiritual contemplative traditions of the East, particularly the Buddhist tradition, where he feels at home. This led him to be currently studying Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan language at the Kanying Shedrup Ling monastery in Kathmandu.
His fields of interest are the exploration of genuine well-being and its causes as well as contemplative tools for the cultivation of mental health.

Lalita Vega
(Colombia 🇪🇨)

Lalitā is a yoga, meditation, and mindfulness teacher. Her spiritual inclination started very early on in her life and later became the full-time passion that brought her to deepen her studies in Asia. She studied yoga in various schools and ashrams in India (YA 900h+), and also immersed herself in Buddhist monasteries in Thailand and Myanmar.

Her passion for mantras and devotional chanting led her on a journey to discover her own singing potential, and to study the energetics of the voice and nada yoga (the yoga of sound).

Currently, she is training with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield to become a certified mindfulness teacher. And she teaches and hosts workshops, retreats, and trainings.

Suzannah Ohlune 
(Canada 🇨🇦)

Suzannah is our tribe’s holistic wellness advocate at Casa del Sol. During the retreat, she supports the medicine’s integration with conscious cuisine, yoga, Kirtan and soul centering rituals. She is also available for one on one private counsel and emotional support.

Suzannah co-founded Cancion del Corazon center in Vilcabamba, Ecuador in 2013. She shares her vast experience in Permaculture, holistic wellness, and ancestral wisdom traditions. Suzannah assists our community in reclaiming sovereign self-empowerment to live a masterpiece of embodied spirituality, creating a deeper connection to nature and belonging to the whole.

Natalia “Nati” Lanchi 
(Ecuador 🇪🇨)

Nati is our center’s master cook. Her delicious cuisine reflects her heart’s nourishment and love. Nati’s pure heart is felt through her bright attitude and her caring attentiveness.

Nati and her family hold a traditional connection to the land passed down for many generations. Their ancestral knowledge of agriculture practices keeps their family closely connected to nature by following the cycles of the moon for planting, harvesting, and pruning. They plant family crops on the hills without chemical use, raise their own animals in natural settings, and harvest seeds for planting the next season. Nati and her family are beautiful examples of how to relate to our Mother Earth.