Messenger of the Sacred — Seventh-Generation Kichwa Otavalo Yachak
Who is Tayta Willak?
His birth name is Jorge Guillermo Santillán Santillán — the name his family gave him and the name he carries in everyday civil life. But the name by which he is known in his spiritual work, and the name given to him by his teacher, is Willka Willak. In the Kichwa language, Willka Willak translates as “Messenger of the Sacred” — and it is as Tayta Willak that he has walked his path as a yachak for nearly three decades.
Tayta Willak is a yachak — what English speakers often call a “shaman” or indigenous wisdom keeper (Kichwa: The one who knows). He was born into a Kichwa Otavalo indigenous family in Agato, a rural mountain community just above Peguche waterfall near Otavalo, Ecuador. His journey to becoming the wise, distinguished yachak he is today involved twists of fate that led him to travel the world.
Tayta Willak’s yachak mother was a midwife who did spiritual energy cleansings for people. She shared her experiences with him, but like many young people he did not take seriously what his mother taught him. He countered her ideas about the spiritual energy of rainbows, rivers, and other aspects of nature with the scientific explanations he learned in school.
Tayta Willak’s change of heart began with a trip to Belgium when he was thirteen years old. He and his brother had been given an opportunity to perform traditional Kichwa Otavalo music in Europe. A man who had been taking photos of the young musicians introduced himself, then invited the boys to visit his home. Jack and his wife Simone later asked them if they would like to stay, and Willak ended up spending the winter with the couple in their Belgium home.
Simone taught Willak how to speak French, and Jack taught him the importance of eating healthy food. The couple encouraged him to learn the history of the Incas, a topic not taught in Ecuador schools at that time. It was his experiences in Belgium that first prepared Tayta Willak to work internationally as a yachak in cultures unlike his own.
Returning to Ecuador with an opened mind and new respect for his mother’s experiences, Willak began asking her about her work and special abilities. His mother decided that at the age of fourteen, her son was ready to train with an experienced Hatun Tayta (master) Yachak.
Before traveling to meet the Hatun Yachak in Cotapaxi for his training, Tayta Willak and his younger brother hiked up the Imbabura volcano while fasting. During this fast on the mountain, Tayta Willak had a dream whose message still provides definition for his work today.
In this dream, Tayta Willak met a man with long loose hair who was dressed all in white and wore a red necklace. This man brought him to his home, where a long table was laden with abundant food. The man’s wife also had long hair and wore a white blouse with a dark green anaku, a traditional long wraparound skirt worn by the Kichwa Otavalo women of the Imbabura province. The couple told him that it was essential to always leave nature just as he found it. During the dream, Tayta Willak realized that the man was the spirit of Tayta Imbabura and the woman was the spirit of Mama Cotacachi — two large dormant volcanoes that tower over the cities of Cotacachi and Otavalo.
A second dream while fasting on the mountain also influenced Tayta Willak deeply. In that dream, he had a clear vision of the house he would later design and build from organic materials with his brothers, atop a sacred hill in their community. This building became Pakarinka Ushay — the original ceremonial center he founded in Agato, in the heart of the indigenous Kichwa community.
As the boys returned home, Tayta Willak and his brother stopped to eat the fruit of a Shanshi tree. In small amounts, Shanshi fruit is safe. However, in large amounts it can cause nausea, vomiting, an itchy rash, and hallucinations. Since the brothers were coming off a fast and very hungry, they ate too much and became ill.
When the boys finally arrived home very sick, their mother asked a local yachak named Tayta Pedro to come help her sons. Tayta Willak’s body had broken out in a severe rash. He didn’t believe Tayta Pedro’s ancestral medicine could help him. The yachak did a cleansing ceremony including a sauna treatment. To Willak’s amazement, the rash disappeared. This experience was sufficient to change his former opinion about the validity of ancestral medicine. He was now ready to be trained as a yachak.
Tayta Willak’s older sister introduced him to Hatun Tayta Alberto Taxo, a “master shaman” in Cotopaxi and a highly-respected leader of Ecuador’s 1990 Hatariy (levantamiento). Hatun Tayta Alberto told Tayta Willak that he had two choices: he could stay as a paying guest, or he could live there like his son, helping out in the home and on the land while receiving training at no cost. Not having much money, Willak chose to stay as his son. For nine years, he lived and trained with the renowned Master Yachak in his Cotapaxi home.
Tayta Willak first began working as an independent yachak after some guests came to their home for a healing ceremony with Hatun Tayta Alberto. Hatun Tayta Alberto was out of town, but over the phone he encouraged Tayta Willak to perform the healing ceremony himself. He did so and it was successful.
Along with other apprentice yachakkuna, Tayta Willak worked for another two years with Hatun Tayta Alberto, building a house and school. When the house and school buildings burned to the ground under mysterious circumstances, Hatun Tayta Alberto decided it was time to send Tayta Willak and the other young yachakkuna out into the world to work independently. He asked them to build their own ceremonial centers and teach others what they had learned.
Tayta Willak returned to Agato and built the ceremonial center he had seen in his dream: Pakarinka Ushay, which became a place of ceremony, healing, and education rooted in the living traditions of the Kichwa people.
For two decades Tayta Willak worked at Pakarinka Ushay, alongside his yachak brother Tayta Oscar, and raised his two children.
A New Chapter: From Pakarinka Ushay to Kinti Yaya
After more than two decades of work at Pakarinka Ushay in Agato, 2025 brought a significant turning point in Tayta Willak’s life and work. Shaped by personal developments and a deep sense of calling, Tayta Willak made the decision to move the center to a new home — La Ruta Escondida in Perucho Centro, Pichincha, one hour from Quito Airport.
With this move came a new name: Kinti Yaya — meaning “The Hummingbird Mother” in Kichwa. The name carries a new energy, one that reflects both the continuity of Tayta Willak’s ancestral tradition and the evolution of the work into something broader and deeper.
Kinti Yaya continues to be firmly rooted in the wisdom traditions of the Kichwa people — the same ceremonies, the same relationship with Pachamama, the same principle of Randi-Randi (reciprocal balance) that has guided Tayta Willak’s work from the very beginning. But the center has grown. It now integrates the therapeutic work of co-facilitator Maja Krauss, an M.Sc. nature-based therapist and psychedelic integration coach, bringing a new dimension of professional preparation, integration support, and nature therapy to every retreat.
The move to Perucho also brought Tayta Willak to a new landscape: a rual sanctuary surrounded by medicinal plants, fruit trees, and sweeping views of the Andes — a place that carries its own ancient energy and invites deep connection with the natural world. Here, in this new home, the work that began in a dream on the slopes of Imbabura continues to unfold.
When asked about the guiding principle of his work, Tayta Willak’s answer remains the same as it has always been: “to be present.” He hopes that his legacy will be leaving behind happy people, grateful for what life gives them — people who have learned to heal nature and to heal with nature.
Experience & Qualifications
- Born into a Kichwa Otavalo indigenous family in Agato, Ecuador. First learned ancestral wisdom and spirituality from his own parents and grandparents, all acknowledged by their community as authentic yachakkuna (Kichwa “The ones who know”).
- Spent nine years training in the home of Hatun Tayta Alberto Taxo in Cotapaxi — one of Ecuador’s most respected master yachakkuna. His teachings emphasized respect, gratitude, and reciprocity with healing nature, and the Native American prophecy of the reunion of the Condor with the Eagle.
- Nearly three decades of experience teaching, counseling, and performing thousands of public and private Andean ceremonies — including all four major annual Raymikuna; shutichiykuna (naming ceremonies); wayrapichaykuna (spiritual energy cleansings); wasipichaykuna (house blessings); sawariykuna (wedding ceremonies), and hundreds of Ayahuasca and other plant medicine ceremonies.
- Speaks five languages: Kichwa, Spanish, English, Italian, and French.
- Leader of a national network of indigenous yachakkuna from Imbabura, Cotopaxi, Napo, Cañar and other regions of Ecuador. The network’s primary mission is to keep the traditions and practices of indigenous yachakkuna firmly rooted in ancestral cultures, at a time when “shamanism” and plant medicine ceremonies are being culturally appropriated for commercial purposes.
- At Kinti Yaya, Tayta Willak and his partner Maja host indigenous healers from other nations and cultures who together share ancestral wisdom and ceremonies.
- Served four years as a member of his Agato community’s cabildo (governing body), including one year as community president.
- Sometimes makes himself available to people seeking guidance on their personal journey to becoming a yachak.
- Tayta Willak has two adult children, who are studying at University in Quito. He lives with his partner Maja at Kinti Yaya. They are invited to travel to (indigenous) communities in Canada and Germany annually.
