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The place we’re at: I’m sharing my journey in 2022, together with this journey to Mexico in February. Are you a blogger who needs to study extra about how I constructed my retreat enterprise? Don’t miss Travelcon, the place I’ll be talking on that very subject! Use the code ALEXINWANDERLAND to get $50 off your ticket!
You recognize, after I first launched Wander Women Retreats in 2018, my inaugural providing, a dive and yoga retreat, appeared so intuitive I used to be shocked that another person hadn’t completed it first.
Quick ahead to 2022 and issues have gotten a tad extra whimsical. Yup, we nonetheless provide our signature combo of scuba and solar salutations, in locations all around the globe. However this journey, in collaboration with my dear friend Brenna Bradbury and her firm High Flying Retreats, was a very inventive one with which to kick off the 12 months — aerial and mermaiding. Sure, mermaiding!
Like aerial arts, for me mermaiding is all about tapping into this sense of play and pleasure and creativity and fantasy that I usually lose contact with as a girl attempting to be taken critically on this world. I sort of laughed after I first thought of pairing them for a retreat however you realize what? It was certainly, magical.
After a beautiful few days in Bacalar getting zen-ed out for the retreat forward, I couldn’t wait to get Brenna to Tulum and present her the place that impressed our subsequent massive journey.
We handled our native retreat workshop hosts to dinner at Asian Bodega to rejoice the subsequent day’s kickoff earlier than ending with a nightcap at, appropriately, the lodge I stayed at on my first ever trip to Tulum. A few years and journeys ensued since — how full circle to revisit simply as I used to be in a position to play hostess to my very own group of first-timers!
Certainly one of Brenna and I’s many shared love languages is gifting, so we actually go wild on our retreat welcome luggage.
These ones had been filled with siren swag like eco-chic Mermaid Straw units, holographic Fin Pin mer-stickers, shell pasties, sea star sun shades and tail hair clips, and naturally our basic Green Blanky Studio print plus a cute little bonus illustrated keychain.
It was a bit of little bit of every part I intention for in our welcome luggage — and at Wander Girls Retreats at giant: supporting small feminine owned companies, being environmentally pleasant, and making folks smile!
Our retreat was based mostly on the really gorgeous Tulum hotspot Holistika, a sprawling jungle compound with an array of gorgeous studios and areas — together with an aerial one!
However for our first night time, as company gathered from across the globe, we first needed to only have some enjoyable and get to know one another. So, I’d invited my buddies and native acro superstars Samm and Ale of Acro Travels to guide a gap workshop for us within the other-worldly Holistika Dome.
For a mere 5 day retreat, you need to turn into quick buddies — and there’s no higher solution to construct belief and break ice than an acro class! Whereas most of our company had by no means tried it earlier than, as aerialists they did have a leg up — pun at all times supposed, duh — with physique consciousness and power, so I’d say everybody took to it like mermaids in water.
Samm and Ale take their very own photographs as a part of their workshops, and I beloved seeing their moody perspective on issues! Whereas I at all times say I’m not going to {photograph} any extra retreats — at this level in my retreat-running profession I’d quite hand that job to a devoted crew member to focus all my consideration on internet hosting — it appears to finish up in my palms each now and again.
When it does, bonus photographs like these are a deal with!
Having gotten up shut and private, it was time to feast! I knew precisely the place to convey everybody for opening night time — a personal dinner at Mamasan, considered one of Tulum Seashore’s hidden gems. On a stretch of sand not precisely identified for its un-snobbery, I like the pleasant faces, scrumptious meals and relaxed vibes of this rooftop restaurant.
I used to be so delighted after I approached them and so they provided to place collectively a multi-course Mexican welcome feast for us within the candle-lit sky!
I won’t be too a lot of a foodie, however you don’t convey a retreat to Mexico and never obsess about what persons are going to eat! It was a scrumptious begin to the journey and an important setting to get to know everybody. I completely beloved each re-connecting with our return company from our Martha’s Vineyard trip, and assembly all the gorgeous recent faces that had been new to me.
The subsequent morning, we had been again within the air! We’d chosen Holistika particularly for it’s lovely aerial shala, and Brenna led us via the primary of two silks workshops proper onsite after a nourishing morning breakfast.
Whereas I’m an everyday scholar of Brenna’s in New York, our retreat workshops remind me why people journey the world to coach along with her. It’s unimaginable the information she will impart in a mere ninety minutes, for these at each stage of their aerial journey.
And might we discuss how gorgeous this house was? I couldn’t get sufficient of our aerial jungle paradise, swinging from the telas — or silks, en español.
Say what you need about Tulum — and um, folks say lots — however the design and inside and architectural element is simply unmatched to every other vacation spot I’ve ever been.
Having labored up a sweat, it was time for the mermaiding portion of the retreat to actually splash off!
Whereas Tulum is spoiled for alternative relating to cafes, I felt I used to be principally legally obligated to convey the women to Hola Mermaid Tulum, a tucked-away little cafe on the town serving up wholesome lovely eats in probably the most instagrammable of presentation.
From taro lattes to spirulina smoothie bowls, these sirens had been greater than happy! The cafe is tucked behind a trio of cute little boutiques, which additionally allowed for some bonus procuring in considered one of my private favourite stretches of Tulum Pueblo.
After lunch we had been whisked again to the jungle for a day at Cenote Cristal with my expensive Carmen of Tulum Mermaid, the place we had been about to bask in her signature Mermaid For A Day program. Having simply accomplished my own PADI Mermaiding courses — also called the Mermaid For Life program, I used to be an enthusiastic assistant as we donned tails and began splashing round!
When the skies opened up and it began raining for the primary time all week, at first I groaned — however shortly turned that angle round after I realized the crowds fled and we had the cenote to all to ourselves.
I beloved watching our aerialists take to this underwater artwork kind and kind their very own little mermaid pod! And, it was the primary of many siren swims — due to my very own new set of two Mahina Mermaid fins, we had been in a position to pack up and mermaid on the go anyplace.
That night time, we had been off to considered one of my favourite Tulum city hotspots, Palma Central.
Contemplating how laborious it’s to nab the nook of a bench seat on a busy night time right here, one may hardly name it a “hidden gem,” and but, it’s loopy to assume what number of Tulum guests by no means depart the seashore and don’t know the excitement of the group and occasions that occur on the town like this! I used to be delighted to point out it to our company.
Actually, I can’t consider a greater spot to convey a bunch. Having nabbed a necessary desk reservation, everybody was in a position to browse the meals vans of their alternative, nab a cocktail from the bar, and benefit from the reside music, the night’s artisan market, and the numerous treats on provide at their very own tempo.
Some may say it was a fiesta, child.
Arduous to imagine how a lot magic we made in simply two days of this offbeat retreat! And the enjoyable had simply begun.
Intrigued about Brenna and I’s subsequent collaboration? Don’t miss our two retreats in Israel this summer season — focusing on aerial and pole arts! Extra on that quickly, however within the meantime…
Keep tuned for Half II, developing this week!
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