Yoga Adventure in Patagonia
“I needed this trip more than I realized. I feel healthier, happier, and refocused.” - Rosanne Palmisano, Colorado
Yoga-Adventure in Patagonia with Maria Garre:
Yoga, river rafting, and prana in the pristine wilderness!!!
March 3rd - March 11th, 2009 - $3200 per person
Deepening our health and well-being as we adventure into nature’s playground …
The Retreat:
Join world renowned yoga teacher Maria Garre and Bio Bio Expeditions on our Patagonia Yoga Adventure Retreat - a 9 day immersion into deep yogic practice, delicious food, magnificent nature, and incredible adventure!! This is adventure at its best with a wonderful emphasis on your health and wellness! This yoga retreat meets in Bariloche. Argentina where we spend the night at the beautiful hotel Villa Huinid, on the edge of Lake Nahuel Huapi. The hotel offers full spa services and we will enjoy a “Welcome to Patagonia” yoga session on the vast green lawn overlooking the lake and surrounded by blooming roses. The following day we will drive through the dramatic Nahuel Huapi National Park and stop for lunch in the beautiful town of El Bolson. We’ll take some time to do a little shopping in the crafts market – El Bolson is a delightful “hippie” town surrounded by organic farms. We will sample the delicious jams, gelatos, and artesanal beers made from the local fruits and hops. In the afternoon we cross the border into Chile and our yoga immersion begins as we arrive at our Adventure Spa Base Camp on the Futaleufu River. At our camp in Chile our yogic practices will take place on an outdoor platform on a cliff above the river under a temple of snowcapped mountain peaks. We may also practice inside the beautiful Yoga Pagoda that is warm and cozy with a woodstove. You will be pampered at our camp-retreat alongside the river. With two massage studios, a dry sauna, riverside hot tub, professional chef, delicious, fresh food, and a beautiful bungalow with river views to curl up in each night, you won’t want to leave your home-away-from home in Patagonia. Our Yoga Adventure Retreat is yoga at its best with a wonderful emphasis on deepening our health and well-being as we explore our connections to mind, spirit and body in nature’s playground!
Our Yoga Practices
The yoga practices on our Yoga Retreat in Chile are designed to open your awareness, and your energetic and physical bodies to the abundance of prana (life-force) in nature and in you. We focus on improving our ability to be relaxed, mindful and centered with daily meditations and pranayama (breathing practices). Strengthening and stamina building flow-style yoga as well as gentle and passive practices are used. Although attention to alignment is always given, the emphasis of our practices will be on reconnecting to our essence ~ that lovely and highest aspect of ourselves that is in harmony with all of life and nature. The retreat will include times of meditation as well. One night of the trip, we will let our hair down, turn up the music, and dance our hearts out in a Yoga Trance Dance (in the style of Shiva Rea). We will also have an evening of Chilean and Argentine wine tasting and salsa dancing lessons.
Active Adventures
We bring our yogic sense and our connection to essence into our daily activities on the retreat – galloping on horseback, racing down Class IV and V rivers and silently walking through the wilderness together. We emphasize a balance of high excitement and deep inward attention that leaves us feeling healthy, connected, nourished and amazingly alive inside.
*About the Yoga Instructors:
Maria Garre -
Originally from Argentina, Maria currently teaches Yoga and Ayurveda throughout the Maryland-Virginia area and also directs several 200-hour Shiva rea Affiliate Vinyasa Flow Teacher Training Programs. Maria is a Senior Teacher and Director for Shiva Rea's Prana Vinyasa Flow Teacher Studies Program. Maria holds certifications as an Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist and as an Ayurvedic Lifestyle Consultant/Practitioner. In addition, she teaches workshops, retreats, and teacher training programs worldwide. She is a certified Power Pilates Instructor, has a Masters in Education, and is a Yoga Alliance Registered Teacher (E-RYT 500). Maria will be leading our March 3-11th, 2009 Yoga Adventure Retreat.
Bio Bio Expeditions permanent teachers:
Damara Stone-Goddard – Damara was born into a family who lived and practiced yoga. One of her earliest childhood memories is of sitting with her parents as the silent monk Baba Hari Dass, one of the founders of the Mt. Madonna Center, wrote his teachings on a chalkboard tied around his neck. She grew up in a yoga community and has been practicing asanas since childhood. Her official teacher training came years later, in 2001, under Erich Schiffman at the Santa Barbara Yoga Center. She has also completed a Yoga Trance Dance teacher training with Shiva Rea in 2006. Damara has been teaching at the Bio Bio Expeditions Futaleufu basecamp since 2002. When at home she teaches at the Tahoe Yoga and Wellness studio in Truckee, California. Besides teaching yoga, Damara is also a practicing Registered Nurse. She believes that the physical practice of yoga is an outward expression of your inward state of mind. Sometimes that means vigorous and intense, other times quiet and restorative. Damara’s goal for our guests in Chile is to help them fully embrace the present moment!
Liz McGregor – Liz was first drawn to yoga while living in NYC and attending classes at the Jivamukti Center. She fulfilled her dream of becoming a teacher when she attended the Yoga Teacher Training at the Nosara Institute in Costa Rica. She has since taught at the Bio Bio Expeditions camp in Chile and helped develop the “Futa Flow” that comprises our daily yoga practice. She has spent years in Patagonia, first as a student at NOLS, then as a documentary filmmaker, and most currently as the Bio Bio Expeditions logistics queen. She loves to show people Patagonia, a place that means so much to her, and to practice yoga with our guests in the most beautiful “studio” found anywhere!
Johnny Snyder – Johnny is a world-class kayaker and guide who owned and operated a river kayaking school on Africa’s Zambezi River. He was featured in the PBS documentary “Paddling the Roof of the World”. He teaches Chi Gong and yoga at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health and at the Canyon Ranch, both in the Berkshires. At Bio Bio Expeditions Johnny teaches both Chi Gong and yoga, and often guides us in floating meditations on the calm stretches of the river.
The Cost: $3200 per person
Includes: all lodging, meals, and drinks; all yoga and activities; transportation to/from Bariloche to Bio Bio Basecamp.
Does not include: round-trip airfare to Bariloche, Argentina or massage therapy services (additional cost)
March 3rd - Arrive in Bariloche. Argentina – overnight at the Villa Huinid
March 4 - 10th – Bio Bio Expeditions Futaleufu adventure basecamp. Chile
March 11th - cross border into Argentina and fly from Esquel to Buenos Aires to connect with flight home.
For detailed itinerary please contact Bio Bio Expeditions - (800) 246-7238
For air tickets, call Americas Travel (888) 703-9955 in San Francisco, CA.