Vinyasa & Yin yoga retreat, Spain

Planet

We own 25 acres at the base of the Sierra Espuna mountains back in 2000 it had been over farmed , excessive pesticides used and hunting for sport. We started an initiative with some local farmers and the town hall to open the area up to walkers/bird watchers. The area is steeped in history from roman roads & viaducts to La Bastida a bronze age settlement inhabited over 4000 years ago. By this road we managed to get the town hall to designate the area as a no hunting zone, so the public can hike and enjoy the amazing scenery also allowing the wildlife to return. Along with the work we do at the retreat, composting loos, growing our own veg,recycling our grey water, wildflower meadows for the bees, bugs in the trees for the birds.
The natural cycle has returned to the valley.

On our guided walks can show you golden eagles, wild goats, boars, these are just but a few of the local wildlife. They are shy so fingers crossed you will get a glimpse, now that we are working with them not against.

We are self sufficient producing all our electrical needs by solar. When installing this we spent time contemplating when we most needed power, in the world today we expect everything whenever we want. A system to supply that off grid would be quite large and over our budget. So we decided to look at ourselves first and change our approach and utilise that fact we live in Southern Spain, which baths in 345 days of sunshine every year.
Washing machine, kitchen equipment, swimming pool all these heavy duty pieces need only be used in the day. It was as simple as that looking at ourselves and adapting to our surrounds that has enabled us to be self sufficient in electrical power.

We belong to a water cooperative there are 4 of us and we share the water from a natural spring. This is run by us having monthly meetings, discussing water flow this changes every month dependent on the rainfall we have had. The oldest person in the coop is 92 he is a 3rd generation member, so his knowledge is priceless. We have 16 days water flow every 21 days , we harvest the water in the flow period in tanks.It is then fed to the site in over 12kms of pipework through gravity fed solar water heaters.

We use only organic cleaning kitchen products/ homemade soaps all our grey water goes directly back on the land or in the heat of the summer is recycled for showering. Both our electrical and water systems were designed and installed by us. There is nothing better for us when guests want to see how it all works…….

People

Our goal is to produce as much of the food we need, however this is not always possible. We have 2 markets 1 in Totana and 1 in Aledo these are the only places we purchase extra veg, spices and other dry goods. This is a good day for guests to explore the local town and experience the local restaurants, meet local traders. As we are an artesian center it’s a great time for guests to go to a local potter with the opportunity to purchase their crafts.

Our masseuse, reiki, reflexology practitioners are local people who practice one day each retreat, we give them the dome and cabin as work spaces and encourage them to join in with the yoga.

Being here only 19 years we are well aware that we have lots to learn when it comes to building on the side of a mountain. The local builders are a valuable resource along with local building suppliers, we never go further than Totana for this.

We only use the internet to research things, then we use local shops. One of the joys of this is that shopping can involve many shops chatting with the owner, sharing a box of lemons when the harvest is good, they share local advice, order things we need and best all a little of the local gossip.