Ximena Morales

Woman apprentice of the teacher Life, hiker of the mountains, mother, guardian grandmother of the Medicine Forest Casa del Sol in the Valley of Longevity in Vilcabamba, Ecuador.

I was born in Lima during the internal war in my country, which deeply marked the rest of my existence. I studied journalism and before finishing my degree I moved to Mexico where I lived in a mobile home traveling and connecting with different peoples and traditions from North and Central America.

Then I returned to the South and for 22 years I have lived with my husband Santiago Ayala and my family in the mountains of the Vilcabamba Valley in the native forest of the medicine of the San Pedro cactus and the Willka tree. My 4 children and recently my granddaughter were born here, next to a river that sings and heals the soul.

I learned – and I continue to learn – in the Andean mountains with my Q’ero teachers a very old and sweet way of relating to the living altars of Mother Earth and that is the medicine that I walk in love with sharing and giving continuity to that sublime understanding of reciprocity in gratitude through offerings, rituals, pilgrimages and ceremonies. I am also a Vision seeker, Sun Dancer and Pampamisayoq woman.