We are collaborating with several organizations and individuals located here in the Sacred Valley through a shared vision of developing a certified laboratory space for the production of remedies and natural products. This lab will also serve as a platform for investigations and work with local groups who can benefit from this resource for educational programs and workshops, continuing their traditional practices with the native plants, and expanding their opportunities through the framework of modern facilities and equipment.
The idea is to support the further development of the work of these local groups and projects in order to go beyond artisanal production and reaching international standards, while initiating collaborations that can sprout into a type of university setting for educational and scientific discovery and exchange. The following is a brief description about some of the collaborators involved in this laboratory project and a little about the work they do to benefit the education, health, and wellbeing of people in this region and beyond:
The idea is to support the further development of the work of these local groups and projects in order to go beyond artisanal production and reaching international standards, while initiating collaborations that can sprout into a type of university setting for educational and scientific discovery and exchange. The following is a brief description about some of the collaborators involved in this laboratory project and a little about the work they do to benefit the education, health, and wellbeing of people in this region and beyond:
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Cipriana Quispe Oscalla - Andean Medicine Woman
Cipriana was born in Puno, Peru and has been living in Cusco practicing traditional healing as a medicine woman for the past thirty years. She is dedicated to working at both the spiritual and physical levels, by connecting with the five elements of nature and utilizing medicinal herbs of the region. Additionally, she makes traditional coca readings and dispacho offerings to Pachamama and the sacred apus (the mountains), offers therapeutic massage and reflexology and practices traditional diagnostics with pendulum and dowsing. |
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Vincente Quispe Sonqo - Medicine Man, Q´ero Nation of the Andes
For the last ten years, Vincente has dedicated himself to recording and transmiting the traditional knowledge of his people in the high-mountain communities of the Qéro nation. Observing that most of his people have abandoned their ancestral ways of the healing arts, he has begun to collect and document the medicinal plants of the Andean mountains and the vision of healing of the past generations. He has created a herbarium presenting the characteristics and medical uses of the native keystone plants, and set up a laboratory facility and a garden area in Ogongate. In response to the over-harvesting of native plants which endangers the biosphere, he initiated a seed bank to preserve these precious plant species. Caring for future generations, he has implemented educative workshops about medicinal plants and healing to fullfill the dream that his people can live and transmit their traditional culture and relation to Pachamama. |
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Jessica Simmons - Novalis
Jessica is a community leader at Novalis Center for Cultural and Ecological Preservation. She studied Anthropology, Herbalism, and Women's Health with several medicine people of the Americas. Proficient in the extraction of essential oils and processing Amazonian, Andean, and temperate plants for various therapuetic and cosmetic uses. Motivated to contribute to the assimilation of ancestral modalities of working with medicinal plants in conjunction with scientific techniques in order to extend the viability of these traditions and bring more grounded and heart-centered personal relations of substance to the scientific approach. |
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Carol Cumes - Willka T'ika
Carol is the owner of Willka T'ika, a premier luxury resort in Urubamba, Peru, with active presence in the Sacred Valley for over 20 years. She is a supporter of many educational efforts to help empower local children and their families through financial and social programs to maximize their scholastic and vocational opportunities. She is trained in herbalism and flower essences, master gardener, and author. Carol has sparked the flourishing of some of the most beautiful gardens in the region, orchestrated in her 7 chakra gardens and additional gardens of native Incan plants and alimentary vegetation for her guests. She collaborates with Willka Hampi and Jessica Simmons on essential oil production, and is host to groups and workshops related to medicinal plants. |
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Alejandro Trevisan - Hampi Ayllu
Alejandro is an Argentinian Permaculturist and founding member of Seed Guardians of the Sacred Valley (a project that focuses on the conservation of seeds in the region of Cusco) and Hampi Ayllu (a local natural medicine and botanical cooperative in the Sacred Valley). Ale is a seed activist, and he works with essential oils, natural medicines, and biodynamics. He has various connections with the Queros people related to land protection, he hosts seminars on natural medicine and seed activism, and is passionate about education and working with indigenous people. |
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Joaquin Peña - Hampi Ayllu
Joaquin is originally from Lima, Peru, and he has been living and working in the Sacred Valley for many years. He works with essential oils, tinctures, and spagyrics, and is particularly interested in hermetic alchemy. Joaquin is especially passionate about working with indigenous Andean relations and education systems involving natural medicine. As such, his primary emphasis is to connect with local people and their traditions, to support and expand the vitality of these ways that can easily fade away with younger generations being drawn to the modern urban lifestyle. |
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Taki Runa
Taki has a rapidly developing project based in Huaran, Peru, centered around medicinal and edible mushroom cultivation and investigations (Reishi, Shiitake, Oyster, etc). He is passionate about mycological wildcrafting and scientific discoveries, and accepts apprentices for mushroom cultivation in his center.He is self educated and works a lot with the Quechua people and language. He is prominently involved in and focused on supporting and working with with local Andean community projects. |
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Dr. Dennis McKenna - Symbio Life Sciences
Dennis is an author and ethnopharmacologist who received his doctorate from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and is a consultant to several companies doing research in plant medicine. He has conducted extensive ethnobotanical fieldwork in the Peruvian, Colombian, and Brazilian Amazon and has recently completed a four-year project investigating Amazonian ethno-medicines as potential treatments for cognitive disorders and schizophrenia. He has been connected with Willka Hampi since 2017, visiting and advising the lab in our work with natural medicine, and he is passionate about studies and uses of novel plants of the Amazon and Andes. |
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Dr. Eric Allen - Independent chemist based in Peru
Eric received his PhD from Indiana University, Bloomington, and is currently living in Huaran, Peru. He has a background in Organic Chemistry, Product Development, Pharmaceutical Research, Chemical Manufacturing, and BioEngineering. He is consulting with Dennis on projects related to natural derivatives of medicinal plants, as well as networking with Willka Hampi, Hampi Ayllu, and Willka T'ika to consult on their projects and provide support through his expertise and background in biochemistry and laboratory procedures. Eric is passionate about natural and indigenous medicines, and excited to put his extensive experience to use for benefitting nature and humanity. |
