Your Host

Although this retreat IS about you, I know most of us "yoga travellers" tend to travel on our own, so I thought it'd be great if you could know a little bit more about our whole concept, what you can expect from your time with us and about me.

This way, I hope you feel you have a known face when you arrive, and get more of a sense of how the idea for Luxuryoga was born, and what it means. So here I go, wish me luck:

My name is Trinidad, and I created Luxuryoga. I will be your primary host during your stay.

For many years, I worked as a flight attendant. It was an excellent way of seeing the world while going through university. As much as I loved my job, the long hours, the constant travelling and not enough rest, caught up with me eventually. I would work up to sixteen hours a day, from one continent to another, and as soon as I landed, I would join any local activity I could find. Rest, exercise and good food were not really on my agenda.

Eventually, I ended up very sick for an extended period of time. It was during this time that I found Yoga. At first, my body was too sick to move. My mind was always racing, and all I could do for myself was think and breathe, so I started to practice Yoga Nidra, meditation, and yogic, conscious breathing from a hospital bed.

After my release from the hospital, my digestive system was left with some issues, and constantly in pain. The need to digest better, made me start studying organic nutrition and Ayurvedic medicine (western medicine was not helping enough, I felt). I started studying Reiki Healing therapy as a form of pain relief.

The more I practiced yoga Nidra, eat organically, and I gave myself Reiki energy healing, the better I felt. Eventually, my yoga practice became physical, and I started going to Yoga retreats. I found the teachings to be amazing, and I am very grateful (I am now a certified Yoga teacher as well as a Reiki Master) but the former flight attendant/tourism manager in me was personally struggling with many other parts of the retreat experience. For example:

-The accommodation in most of these retreats left a lot to be desired. Beds weren't comfortable. Rooms were cramped, too cold or hot, bright or dark; equipment was not clean.
-I found the food to be "healthy" and organic, but at times very low in energetic value, variety, quantity, and flavour.
-Also, as lovely as most of the teachers were, their job was not to host. I felt there was a huge need for proper customer service. Finding a taxi, a way into town, being told about the local amenities or simply having someone around to ask for a fresh towel or tea was "mission impossible."

I was baffled. I was traveling to expensive places. I was paying thousands of euros. All to: use a decomposing, old yoga mat?. On a dirty tent?. Sharing the tiniest bedroom with too many people?. Trying to shower in a dribble of water with a shower curtain stuck to my body?. No. After that, I could look forward to (please detect the sarcasm that's about to follow): "replenishing" by eating a lettuce leaf. "Sleeping" on the world's hardest bed, to the sweet sound of my roommates snoring a few centimetres away, while blinded by the moonlight or the sun.

Needless to say, it got to a point where I wasn't happy. I hadn't spent all that money and travelled so far on my precious time off, to concentrate on yoga, to then be distracted by constant hunger and discomfort. I didn't appreciate all the hidden costs, some of them unavoidable, like drinking water. I had enough. This yoga retreat experience was the same over and over, with different retreat organisers, in various destinations. Even when I started paying more to have my own sleeping space, I would end up in the tiniest bedrooms or some of the oddest "private quarters,": from glorified tents to wood sheds...

Add to that, the fact that sometimes, these places would have Spa facilities, extra food, rooms, mineral water or towels but all at a very HIGH added extra price. All of these things eventually got to me, and I decided "if what I need doesn't exist, I’m just going to have to make it myself." So, Luxuryoga was born.

Some people find the name contradictory because they think yoga is many things but not luxury. I would have to disagree, on so many levels but right now all |I have to say is:

“The ultimate goal of Yoga is to achieve Samadhi, which means, a pure state of bliss. Isn't that the biggest luxury?”.