Co-hosting My First Retreat in The Sacred Valley Of Peru
Photo by: Metamatrimony
Excitement flowed through my veins & I knew this was about to change everything. I was about to dive into this new experience with people I didn’t even know with their full trust… what an honour. I was about to co-facilitate a week-long healing journey for 10 amazing human beings. I was so honoured to do this with Soul School Yoga. This experience was held at the amazing Munay Sonqo, a retreat centre located in the heart of The Sacred Valley, surrounded by enormous mountains, & Inca graveyards. Exotic flowers, fruits, & vegetables fill the soil & earth around me. Bees, butterflies, & birds singing & flourishing in the ecosystems around the land. This place feels so sacred, I couldn't explain the feeling if I tried. I knew instantly that we made the right decision to choose Munay Sonqo as our sacred container.
This retreat was a dynamic & intentional experience that was designed to assist the participants in healing, growing, & expanding the mind past internal & external limitations. We focused on detoxing the mind, body, & soul in preparation for the optional Ayahuasca journey at the end of the week.
Photo by: Metamatrimony
We started off the experience with a traditional despacho ceremony (Gratitude ceremony) led by the elders of the land. A despacho ceremony is a Peruvian tradition brought down from high in the Andean mountains, a despacho is a ceremonial offering of our intentions & prayers to Pachamama, & the Apus (Mountain Spirits). In the spirit of Ayni (meaning reciprocity), it’s about being in harmony with nature, & giving an offering in order to receive; a powerful & lovely way to “dispatch” our prayers to the powers that be. I was extremely honoured to be part of this ceremony & to be able to converse & connect with the elders. They so generously blessed us & some of our ceremonial items. This really started off the week with a powerful & exquisite vibration.
As the week progressed we started to dive deeper into the detoxification process, peeling back layers of conditioning & beliefs that were holding us down. We did this through intensive shadow-work, vulnerability workshops, full embodied expression, intentional movement, meditation & breath-work, clean eating with plant-based meals, connecting to nature, & detoxing our physical bodies in the saunas, salt cave, & cold plunges.
Photo by: Metamatrimony
We also experienced a divine Temazcal ceremony with a Peruvian family that has devoted their life to this sacred practice & ritual. Temazcal is an ancestral ceremony in a sweat-lodge that connects us to the four elements of nature. This ceremony detoxifies & balances the body, mind & spirit. Symbolically it is a process of rebirth, arising from the cleansing sauna as a child does from the womb. The mother & daughter guided the ceremony & the father held the container as he gently shovelled in the steaming hot stones that would ignite the intense sauna-like effect of the Temazcal. We sang medicine songs led by the Mother & set intentions for what we wanted to release & transform. I felt so encompassed by the love of Mother Earth after this ceremony & was so grateful for the experience.
We embarked on a day trip to the one & only Machu Picchu. We woke up at 3:30am to get in a private shuttle (2 hrs) then we hopped on the Machu Picchu express train (2hrs) & then we stopped for a snack in a nearby town. After that we had to take one more bus up to the top of a mountain, the views were breath-taking (literally). Finally we made it! It was quite the journey from The Sacred Valley & took about five hours to actually get to Machu Picchu. It was so worth it, like nothing I could have ever imagined. Photos do not do it justice, it's truly ‘other worldy’. I wanted to just sit in the grass all day & stare at the beauty of the mountains, I felt like I was in a dream. We walked through the ancient runes & I felt like we were traveling back in time. As the guide was explaining everything in detail I was in awe of the fact that humans resided here & did it in such a sustainable & smart way. The Andes mountains have very intense weather conditions & the fact that humans adapted to them & built such extraordinary civilizations really makes me wonder why they chose this place. It really must be a sacred portal & I can not deny that I felt its magic!
Day trip to Machu Picchu - $350 USD per person (Train, bus -both ways- guide & lunch)
When the day came for the participants to sit with the sacred Mother Aya my heart was so joyful. I could tell that they were ready & that it was time. They felt so safe, loved, & held by the medicine. Everyone had such an amazing experience, everyone's experience was so unique to their own intention. I got to hear some of the women explain how it felt, what they saw, & what they learned. A full embodied transformation was taking place with-in each & every soul involved. I was able to understand the medicine deeper & see why she is such a great teacher. I feel so honoured to be a part of these women's transformation, healing, & growth.
With Love,
Jia. xx
