Honoring a life’s work. Rooting our mission
in the land that shaped it.
In the Sacred Valley of Peru, just outside Pisac, there is a property that holds decades of history, a place where thousands of people came to heal, to learn, and to encounter the ancient medicine of Huachuma. It was built, tended, and brought to life by Javier Regueiro.
Javier passed away in recent years, and with no one left to care for it, his center, the Ayaruna, fell silent. The land remains, the walls remain, but the life that filled them has ebbed away. The property now sits abandoned, slowly returning to the earth.
The Huachuma Foundation has identified a remarkable opportunity: to purchase this property, restore it with care and intention, and transform it into our Peru Headquarters. A living center for conservation, cultural preservation, community gathering, and volunteer residence. In doing so, we would also honor the legacy of a man who gave his life to this medicine and to the Sacred Valley.
Born in Lugano in 1965 to a Spanish family, Javier Regueiro came to Peru in 2004 following a deep calling toward plant medicine. He immersed himself in the traditions of both the Amazonian jungle and the Andean highlands, studying under Don Francisco Montes Shuña, a Capanahua plant medicine Maestro whose teachings would shape the rest of Javier’s life.
In 2006, Javier established the Ayaruna Healing Center in Pisac, building the ceremonial spaces, accommodations, and gardens himself. For over a decade, the center served as a home for people from around the world seeking healing and transformation through Ayahuasca and San Pedro/Huachuma.
He was also a prolific author whose books reached a global audience, among the most thorough, accessible, and honest writings on plant medicine available in English.
Our vision for the Ayaruna property goes well beyond renovation. We intend to create a fully operational hub for everything the Huachuma Foundation stands for: conservation, cultural preservation, community, and living relationship with this sacred plant and the people who have tended it across generations.
The center will serve volunteers working with us on our conservation projects, including our Huachuma cactus preservation garden near Taray, established in collaboration with Miguel Mendiburu, providing them a home base, accommodations, and a genuine community. It will also serve as a gathering space for the wider Huachuma Wisdom community, for educational programming, botanical research support, and future ceremonial and cultural programming developed in partnership with indigenous traditions.