Rufino from the Cofán-Dureno tribe in Ecuador is a Taita (shaman) knowledgeable in the science of Yagé. 

He is originally from an ancestral lineage of Taitas Curacas and since childhood he was prepared for the mission of healing and guiding with Yagé.

From a very young age he was taken into the wildest jungles, isolated from the community to protect him from miscegenation, thus maintaining the purity of the seeds that his uncles and grandparents sowed in his knowledge. It was not until those seeds bloomed that he began to go out and share his medicine with the world.

Today he is 76 years old and he continues to walk as his elders taught him: with love, humility, respect, with deep involvement with humanity, and working in close relationship with his Yagé, which he grows, harvests and cooks himself to then share it with his patients.

Rufino is a grandfather jaguar, with immeasurable spiritual strength, with a purity like that of the jungle itself and a smile that is a balm for the heart.