Lovers of the Wild Earth
An Andean Pilgrimage into the Sanctuary of Apu Ausangate
Guided by Maestro Rufino Turpo and Mama Julia of the Turpo Lineage with Andean initiations of Illapa & Yanantin - Empowerment of the Lightning and Blessing of Sacred Union
September 5th - 12th, 2026
The Sacred Valley, Peru
Invitation
On behalf of our beloved teachers, Rufino Turpo, his wife Julia Condori, and their son, Jose Turpo; the founders of Evolutionary Journeys – Brian Dunham and Karo Munay – invite you to join our pilgrimage into the heart of the Andes, the sanctuary of Apu Ausangate.
In all our travels around the world, sitting at the feet of great masters and sages, Julia and Rufino are two of the most wise, powerful, and beautiful humans we have ever had the blessing to call a friend.
Their essence is the spirit of the Andes – of mountain, laguna, eagle, condor, vicuna, and puma. They are bridges between the kingdom of the Apus – guardian spirits of the mountains and emissaries of Hanaq Pacha – the celestial kingdom — and the world we humans call home.
They are direct descendents of the Incas, and civilizations far more ancient, and carry within their prayers, language, culture, and rituals the wisdom of thousands of years living in harmony with the lands and waters that they were born from, protect, and will return to.
While they carry great power and healing gifts, they are also two of the most humble and loving people you will ever meet.
In that lies their true medicine, the purity of their hearts and their love for the wild Earth.
We have been given the honor to call forth an intimate tribe of twelve voyagers to join us on this pilgrimage, and the permission to bring these seekers into the family home of Rufino and Julia at the base of Ausangate mountain.
There we will open our prayers with coca leaves and ask for permission with a traditional Andean offering in the temple of Rufino’s father and grandfather, a gateway with a direct energetic line – ceque – into the heart of Ausangate. Rufino is the guardian not only of the Ausangate sanctuary, but the direct descendent of the Turpo lineage.
His father and grandfather were Andean priests, paqos, renowned for their healing gifts and visionary leadership. They served as sacred activists for the indigenous campesino community, fighting for human rights, dignity for all people, and indigenous stewardship of the land. This is the noble lineage from which we will be learning.
We will then begin our walking pilgrimage, step by step, offering our sweat, breath, and tears as we enter ever deeper into the mysteries of the mountain. We will hike by crystalline streams flowing from the glaciers, ascending higher and higher to 15,000 feet where we will camp by the lagunas, holy lakes that are fed by subterranean sources where the spirit of the serpent, the Amaru, resides on her throne.
We will receive two ancient spiritual initiations from Rufino and Julia – the energetic transmission of Illapa and Yananatin.
Illapa is the energy of the rayo, the lightning, which is born in Hanaq Pacha and activates inner power and awakens spiritual capacity. It is one of the purest forms of salka energy – energy that is wild, pure, and undomesticated.
Illapa is what opens the path of the healer, teacher and spiritual leader, and in the Andean world the great masters, such as Rufino, must receive the actual lightning strike to be initiated as a paqo. We will receive the transmission in the sacred stones where the lightning has blessed with its energy. The intention is empower each of one of us with this pure salka energy to enable our relationships, our service, our spiritual path, and our life to flourish.
In this time of confusion and disharmony, with so many elements of modern society that drain our life force, Rufino and Julia believe it’s essential to strengthen our will and capacity to live with commitment and integrity – which is why they gave permission to share this very special and sacred initiation.
We will also receive the karpay of Yanantin. Yanantin – a concept with many layers of meaning including sacred duality, balanced polarity, and the holy union of the masculine and feminine, light and darkness, penetrative and receptive.
It is one of the foundations of the Andean cosmology and the intention is to bring the divine feminine and divine masculine within us into harmony, to call in a soul aligned life partner for those who feel this desire of the heart, and to nourish the bonds of union if we are already in a relationship.
Out of respect for this tradition – where the most important form of teachings is through embodied experience and only offered to those who come with reverence – we can share that there will be many unexpected blessings, gifts, sacred altars, and experiences that will be woven into our time on the mountain.
Our time with Rufino, Julia, and their family will be the heart of the journey, and we will prepare ourselves for the pilgrimage at Villa Magica retreat center in the sacred valley, purifying the temple of our body and refining our intentions.
We will then close the journey at the same retreat center, in the sweetness and warmth of the fertile lowlands, grounding and integrating the gifts of the mountain. This preparation and integration is an essential part of the container we have created, reflecting our personal experience of how much energy is moved while in the sanctuary of Ausangate and the importance of community and safety.
We close this invitation by inviting you to listen to the guidance of your heart. For this journey, it is essential that you are in alignment and feel the sincere call to this pilgrimage – as well being prepared for the rigors of this journey.
Apu Ausangate is honored by the indigenous people as the grandfather of the Andes, the king of the entire cordillera blanca. He is the origin of the sacred headwaters that nourish the Amazon rainforest and the birthplace of Rio Urubamba, which coils around the temple of Machu Picchu on its journey into the Peruvian jungle.
As such, his medicine is very potent, a pure distillation of the sacred masculine. He requires respect, reverence, and most importantly, humility.
His lessons and teachings can demand a great deal from us and activate deep processes of evolution – but they are always given with immense grace and compassion and the strength to walk through the fire.
He will open the path for your life, remove obstacles that you have been struggling with for years, awaken gifts you may have never known your soul carries, and serve as a guardian angel for all the steps you take on Earth.
And so with immense love for these lands and the beauty of the Andean highland people, we open our arms and invite you to apply for the inaugural Evolutionary Journey in the sanctuary of Apu Ausangate – Lovers of the Wild Earth.
What to Expect on this Journey?
The Alchemical Weaving
Pre-retreat Preparation
(August 23 - Sept 4)
We will open an online community for Lovers of the Wild Earth on August 23rd as well as have a live virtual gathering on that same Sunday.
This preparation phase supports you in arriving grounded, prepared, and ready to safely receive the depth of the journey experience.
Pilgrimage
(September 5 - 12)
7 Day Andean pilgrimage into the sanctuary of Apu Ausangate, including preparation and integration in the Sacred Valley at Villa Magica retreat center.
This phase is the heart of the journey and will balance rest and fellowship with demanding hikes and spiritual initiations.
Post-Retreat Integration
(Sept 13 - Sept 27)
To support you with embodying the wisdom of our journey in your life back home, we will continue in our online community and have another live virtual circle together (Sunday Sept 27th).
Though this will be our final official gathering, we are excited at the possibility of deeper unfoldings as part of the Evolutionary Journeys family.
The Sanctuary: Apu Ausangate
Holy Mountain, Living Waters & Grandfather of the Andes
Apu Ausangate is not a destination in the ordinary sense.
He is a living mountain, a holy presence, and one of the great spiritual guardians of the Andean world. Rising from the Cordillera Vilcanota, crowned with glaciers and surrounded by crystalline lagunas, highland pastures, vicuñas, alpacas, pumas, condors, and the prayers of Quechua communities, Ausangate is revered as a powerful Apu — a mountain spirit, protector, and teacher.
To enter his sanctuary is to enter a field of ancient relationship.
Here, the Earth is not treated as scenery. The mountain is not an object to be conquered. The waters are not resources. The stones, winds, lakes, glaciers, animals, and stars are part of a living cosmos in which human beings are invited to remember their place with humility, reciprocity, and reverence.
Ecologically, Ausangate is a world of thresholds.
His glaciers give birth to waters that flow through high Andean valleys and nourish life far beyond what the eye can see. His slopes hold puna grasslands, wetlands, herds of alpaca and llama, wild vicuña, Andean birds, medicinal plants, and the resilient communities who have lived in relationship with this landscape for generations. In this high mountain sanctuary, climate, water, animal life, human culture, and sacred practice are woven together as one living tapestry.
Geographically, he stands as one of the great snow-crowned beings of southern Peru — a radiant presence rising above the altiplano, visible from afar, yet only truly known through relationship. His beauty is immense, but also demanding. Thin air, cold nights, changing weather, long trails, and the raw exposure of the high Andes invite each pilgrim into humility, discipline, and surrender.
Cosmologically, Ausangate is not separate from life.
In the Andean world, an Apu is not merely a symbol. He is a living intelligence, a guardian presence, and a sacred relative. The mountain watches over the valleys, receives offerings, protects the waters, guides the communities, and participates in the great web of reciprocity known as ayni — the sacred balance of giving and receiving that sustains harmony between humans, Earth, and the unseen world.
To walk with Ausangate is therefore not to “visit nature”. It is to enter into right relationship with a holy being.
Apu Ausangate asks for sincerity.
He asks that we come prepared in body, open in heart, and humble in spirit. His medicine is powerful, clarifying, and deeply masculine — not in the sense of domination, but in the sacred sense of strength, protection, discipline, and blessing.
For those who feel called, this pilgrimage can become a profound threshold: a return to inner power, sacred purpose, and right relationship with Life.
Our Retreat Center: Villa Magica
A Sacred Valley Home for Preparation & Integration
For the first and final movements of our pilgrimage, we will be held by Villa Mágica, a peaceful retreat center in Lamay, in the heart of Peru’s Sacred Valley.
Surrounded by mountains, gardens, and the quiet rhythm of Andean village life, Villa Mágica offers a gentle place to arrive, exhale, and begin leaving ordinary life behind. Before entering the sanctuary of Apu Ausangate, we will gather here as a circle to acclimate, share nourishing meals, clarify our intentions, and begin opening ourselves to the living spirit of the Andes.
Lamay is a small village in the Sacred Valley, known for its pastoral beauty, local culture, mountain views, agricultural life, and connection to nearby Quechua communities. This part of the valley carries a more intimate and village-centered feeling than the larger towns of Cusco or Ollantaytambo. Here, the presence of the Andes is close: terraced hillsides, cultivated fields, flowing waters, traditional foodways, and the daily life of families who continue to live in relationship with the land.
After our pilgrimage to Ausangate, we will return to Villa Mágica for two final nights of rest and integration.
This closing time is essential. The mountain may speak in ways that are powerful, subtle, and difficult to understand all at once. Villa Mágica will give us a warm and grounded refuge to sleep deeply, share stories, receive reflection, and begin weaving the blessings of the pilgrimage back into our bodies, hearts, and lives.
Who is this for?
This journey is for men and women who feel called to:
- Experience the power of Andean spirituality with reverence, structure, and safety
- Learn from esteemed indigenous elders in the Andean highlands
- Begin walking the initiatory path of the Andean wisdom keeper (paqo & pampamesayuk)
- Reconnect with the sacred, the Earth, the mountains, and their true essence
- Step into a new chapter of their life with clarity and purpose
- Awaken their highest creativity & visionary potential
- Embody beauty in all aspects of their life, both inner and outer
- Heal emotional, physical, or spiritual wounds
- Engage in a deep, guided transformational process
This journey is ideal for seekers, leaders, facilitators, healers, creatives, guides, and people navigating life transitions who feel called to deepen their relationship with themselves and the sacred.
Whether you are...
Awakening
Seeking clarity, connection, and remembrance
Rising
Stepping into deeper leadership, authentic power, and purpose
Healing
Releasing old wounds, burnout, or emotional stagnancy
Rebirthing
Navigating change, grief, rite of passages, or identity transformation
this journey was designed to support you.
Does your heart feel resonance with this invitation?
The Path of Pilgrimage
The Sacred Arc of Initiation
This journey unfolds as a sacred arc.
We begin in the Sacred Valley of Peru, where the beauty of the land, the warmth of our circle, and the rhythm of Andean life will help us soften, arrive, and prepare. These first days are not simply a prelude. They are a necessary threshold — a time to acclimate, clarify our intentions, and begin entering into relationship with the living cosmology of the Andes.
From there, we journey toward the sanctuary of Apu Ausangate, one of the most revered holy mountains of Peru and the spiritual heart of this pilgrimage.
At the base of the mountain, we will be welcomed by our beloved indigenous teachers and elders, Rufino Turpo and Julia Condor, together with their son Jose Turpo. Their family has lived in intimate relationship with this sacred landscape for generations. They do not simply teach about the mountain. Their lives, prayers, ceremonies, and ways of being emerge from the mountain itself.
To walk beside them, to be welcomed into their home, to witness the way they relate to the mountains, the coca leaf, and to one another, is itself one of the deepest initiations this pilgrimage offers.
With their guidance, we will ask permission to enter the sanctuary.
Then, step by step, we will walk into a world where the boundary between human life and wild earth begins to dissolve. Glaciers, rivers, stones, stars, animals, winds, and sacred lakes become part of the teaching field. The body becomes the prayer. The mountain becomes the temple. The pilgrimage becomes a path of remembrance.
Throughout our time with Apu Ausangate, Rufino, Julia, and Jose will share traditional Andean teachings, ceremonies, and initiatory practices that have been entrusted to them through their lineage and their lived relationship with the land. Some of these mysteries can be spoken of in advance. Others must be received in the right place, with the right preparation, and in direct relationship with the mountain.
After our time in the sanctuary, we return to the Sacred Valley to rest, integrate, and honor what has been received. This closing phase is essential. A pilgrimage of this depth continues to unfold long after the walking is complete.
Dear friend...
Do you feel the ancient call to pilgrimage as you read these words?
Are you ready to liberate the karmic forces that have kept you from receiving your birthright — a life that is deeply inspired & guided?
If something within you feels awakened by this invitation — a quiet inner knowing, a whisper of the soul — we invite you to trust that call.
This journey is for the those who feel ready to step beyond the chaos of the world and return to the sanctuary of their heart, the embrace of true friendship, and the sacred relationship between Spirit and the holy mountains.
If your heart recognizes this path, we warmly invite you to walk it with us.
As Pilgrims of the Beauty Way
As Lovers of the Wild Earth
What's Included?
- 7-day / 7-night Andean pilgrimage in Peru (Sept 5th – Sept 12th)
- Accommodation at Villa Magica retreat center in the Sacred Valley (4 nights total)
- Camping gear, tent, and support during the Ausangate pilgrimage (3 nights camping)
- All meals during the official pilgrimage
- Teachings and ceremonies with Rufino Turpo & Julia Condor
- Traditional Andean offerings and prayer practices
- Sacred woven bundle (mesa) for the Illapa initiation
- Guided hiking pilgrimage into the sanctuary of Apu Ausangate
- Spanish to English translation services (Munay & Brian are bilingual)
- Pre-retreat preparation circle and online community
- Integration circle after the pilgrimage and online community
- Support from Brian and Munay throughout the preparation, pilgrimage, and integration arc
Investment
Prices listed below are comprehensive of the entire 5 week journey: preparation, pilgrimage, and integration (including support from the Founders of Evolutionary Journeys, Munay & Brian, 2 Tribe Zoom calls & online community + 7 day pilgrimage in the Sacred Valley of Peru).
Please reference the What’s Included section above for a complete description and the FAQ section for more details.
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Shared room in Villa Magica/shared tent in Ausangate $3,444
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Private room in Villa Magica/shared tent in Ausangate $4,222
Ayni
From our humble beginnings, Evolutionary Journeys has made a steadfast commitment to honor the Andean indigenous principle of Ayni – sacred reciprocity and heart-felt generosity.
When joining the Evolutionary Journey’s community as a voyager, you also become an integral part of our mission of sacred activism. You will support an organization that has assisted multiple families and indigenous lineages, founded scholarships for the healing and growth of activists and conscious leaders around the world, and generously donated to the protection of our sacred Mother Earth – home of humanity in a process of divine remembrance.
Through its Founders, we have donated over $45,000 to support the regeneration of Life on Earth. One of primary recipients has been Pachamama Alliance and the Alliance for the Sacred Headwaters, a visionary prayer of renewal and rebirth led by 30 indigenous nations of Ecuador and Peru who serve as guardians of the Northwest Amazonian rainforest – one of the most bio-diverse ecosystem in the entire world.
We have experienced first hand the infinite blessings that flow into our lives when we give back, and we believe that this is the most noble pathway to ensure a safe, beautiful, and life-changing pilgrimage.
Testimonials
Andean Wisdom Keepers
Rufino Turpo
Paqo, Ceremonial Elder & Guardian of the Apu Ausangate Lineage
Rufino Turpo is a renowned Andean ceremonial elder, paqo, and guardian of the sacred relationship between his lineage and Apu Ausangate, one of the most revered holy mountains of the Andes.
Born into the Turpo lineage, Rufino is the son of the legendary paqo Nazario Turpo and grandson of Mariano Turpo, both remembered as powerful spiritual leaders and guardians of ancestral wisdom. Through this family inheritance, Rufino carries a living tradition of prayer, offering, healing, and communion with the Apus — the mountain beings of the Andean world.
From his home near the slopes of Ausangate, Rufino continues to guide ceremonies of reciprocity with Pachamama, the sacred waters, the lagoons, the lightning altars, and the wider family of mountains that surround the great Apu. His work is rooted in a lifetime of relationship with the land, the spirits, the animals, the elements, and the Quechua communities who have lived in devotion to this landscape for generations.
For this pilgrimage, Rufino will help open the path into the sanctuary of Apu Ausangate, offering traditional Andean teachings, prayers, ceremonies, and initiatory transmissions from the Turpo lineage.
Julia Condori
Master Weaver, Ceremonial Elder & Keeper of Andean Wisdom
Julia Condori is a beloved Andean elder, master weaver, and wisdom keeper of the Ausangate region. Together with her husband, Rufino Turpo, she helps carry and transmit the living knowledge of the Turpo family lineage in relationship with Apu Ausangate.
As a teacher weaver, Julia embodies one of the most profound art forms of the Andean world. In the Andes, weaving is not simply craft. It is cosmology, memory, prayer, and relationship made visible through color, pattern, animal fiber, and the hands of generations. Through her presence and her work, Julia carries the beauty, discipline, and spiritual intelligence of a tradition rooted in the living Earth.
Her wisdom emerges from daily intimacy with the mountain: tending family, animals, textiles, offerings, food, prayer, and the sacred responsibilities of life in the high Andes. She represents the feminine strength of the lineage — grounded, generous, devotional, and woven into the rhythms of Pachamama.
For this pilgrimage, Julia will help welcome us into the heart of the Ausangate sanctuary, sharing teachings, ceremonies, and the quiet power of a life lived in deep reciprocity with the wild Earth.
Lead Guides
Brian Dunham
Brian is an activist, artist, explorer, and guide whose greatest passion is to weave elegant chrysalises for the evolution of human consciousness with a life-changing journey embedded in the heart of the experience.
He is the founder of Evolutionary Journeys, a social enterprise startup that has brought to life the visionary pilgrimages – A Celebration of Sacred Convergence, A Prayer for the Sanctuary of the Sacred Headwaters, The Way of Alchemical Beauty, and The Gift of Inner Peace – and migrates between the ecosystems of the San Francisco Bay, Mt. Shasta, and Latin America.
Brian is a graduate of UC Berkeley, Coactive Coach Training, Marysia Miernokowski’s Apprenticeship to the Sacred Wild, Chloe Rain’s Wisdom of the Four Directions, and Pachamama Alliance’s Game Changer Intensive training in evolutionary activism.
He is currently walking the initiatory path of the Turpo and Q’ero indigenous lineages of the high Peruvian Andes, studying Sufism, as well as remembering the wisdom of his Celtic ancestors.
His most sacred apprenticeship was living at the base of Mt. Shasta in 2021: spending his days in a prayer of rewilding and right relationship, learning from plant allies, studying the books of visionary elders such as Arkan Lushwala, Lynne Twist, and Bill Plotkin, and communing with the rivers, lakes, and forests of this holy mountain that serves as the guardian angel of the sanctuary of the sacred headwaters.
In response to his love for our planet and the intertwined ecological and social justice crises facing humanity, Brian has made one unifying commitment to serve as his north star: the evolution of human consciousness and the awakening of a 21st century renaissance of Life on Earth.
Karo Munay
Munay is a human in love – an explorer of the art of living – born in the Andean mountains of Ecuador. She is a multidisciplinary woman in sacred service, offering gestalt, corporal and emotional psychotherapy and holistic mentoring. Her core guidance in her life is her relationship with God rooted in deep devotion. With a Master’s degree in Gestalt Psychotherapy, she specializes in psilocybin-assisted healing and has over 14 years of experience with ancestral medicines, including extensive experience learning and collaborating with teachers in the Amazon rainforest.
Her path started at a young age, and she embodied her gifts for service nourished by a spiritual pilgrimage that unfolded over a decade exploring the world. Guided by her intuition and inner call for self knowledge, she has trained with masters of diverse lineages and indigenous elders, and has received multiple initiations, leading her to be invited to guide and share her presence and experience on retreats, ceremonies, and one-on-one sessions in many countries.
She is the founder of Vida Munay, an initiative that bridges healing arts, social activism, and spiritual ecology. Co-creator at NunAndes, a conscious startup of botanical beauty for women. Leader of Dances of Universal Peace, yoga teacher, body worker, sun and water dancer, vision quester, student of Sufism, Buddhism, the Turpo & Q’ero lineages and many other spiritual, healing, and meditative modalities.
This diverse experience allows her to hold space for transformation in a very unique way, weaving together art, ritual, and science with grace and beauty. A devotee of Love, Life, nature, music, art and meditation, her life is one of continuous coherent practice and devotion – and empowering others to remember their true essence through love in action and presence.