Honoring Those Who Came Before

The Legacy

Carlos Nelson

Founder & Steward · Since 2021

Carlos began his own healing and studies with plant medicines in 2008 under the late Javier Reguiero, and completed his first dieta in 2011 with his current maestro, Don Francisco Montes Shuña, a renown Capanawa curandero from the Ucayali region of the Amazon with over 50 years of experience healing and training students from all over the world.

Carlos apprenticed and worked alongside Don Francisco in the Amazon since 2021, becoming adept and proficient with Ayahuasca, Huachuma, Tobacco and carrying on the tradition of Perfumero Toecero, specializing in work with Datura Brugmansia.

Having worked with several other curanderos and medicine centers, he endeavors to keep his view as broad as possible while staying loyal to the practices of his tradition and lineage.

He currently practices plant medicine and curanderismo in the Cusco Valley area and brings several groups per year to the Amazon for shamanic dietas and healing retreats.

He is also founder and steward of the Ayaruna Gardens project, taking over the care of his teacher's ethnobotanical gardens where all of our medicines are sustainably grown and prepared in a way that maintains the continuity of lineage passed down from Don Francisco to Javier, Carlos and other future generations of students.

You can reach Carlos for consultations, requests for ceremony or more info at:

DaturaSpirit.com →

Pedro Panduro

Master Builder · Jungle Guide · Vegetalista

Pedro is our master builder and jungle guide. A vegetalista and curandero as well, he grew up in logging camps deep in the jungle and is a living encyclopedia of Amazonian cures and remedies.

Pedro specializes in Sanango dietas, for deep physical healing and strengthening.

He is also an ayahuasquero, medicine maker, and oversees the care and maintenance of Ayaruna Gardens.

Don Francisco Montes Shuña

Original Steward · Capanawa Curandero

Don Francisco is the original steward of Ayaruna Gardens, once known as Sachamama Botanical Gardens.

Born into the Capanawa tribe, Don Francisco spent the first 20 years of his life in Tamanco, a small village in the jungles of the Ucayali river region of the Amazon.

Beloved to many students worldwide, he is a medicine teacher and guardian of ancestral knowledge. With over 50 years experience as a curandero, he has dedicated his life to preserving the sacred plants, songs, and healing traditions of the Amazon.

His grandmother was part of a lineage of curanderas that goes back further than anyone can remember, and it was at the ripe age of 6 years old that Don Francisco was given his first cup of ayahuasca by his grandmother, along with instructions that he was to open the tradition and teachings up to students from other cultures to assist in the coming global changes humanity would experience.

It was under Don Francisco's guidance that Javier underwent his first dietas and initiations into the profound world of plant medicine. His lineage and teachings continue to form the spiritual foundation of Ayaruna Medicine Gardens.

Don Francisco continues to collaborate on the medicine retreat program, ensuring the authenticity and depth of the healing work.

Javier Regueiro

In Memoriam · Passed October 2021

Javier Regueiro was a widely respected plant medicine practitioner and advocate practicing out of Pisac, Peru who passed on to the other side in October of 2021.

A Spanish national born and raised in Switzerland, Javier moved to Peru in 2004 to study Amazonian plant medicine and shamanism. He apprenticed with various teachers across the Iquitos and Pucallpa regions, but settled into and was deeply committed to the lineage of Sachamama and Don Francisco Montes Shuña, undergoing more than a solid year of shamanic diets with ayahuasca, tobacco, and datura.

His commitment was to make sacred plant medicines available to all people called to use them for personal healing and spiritual guidance. He touched thousands of lives worldwide through his work and teachings.

Ayaruna Gardens is where Javier began his plant medicine pilgrimage and is kept and dedicated to the memory of this beautiful teacher who still lives on in the hearts and songs of his friends and students worldwide.

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