Meditation and yoga in Vilcabamba, Ecuador

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Vilcabamba



Known as the ‘Valley of Longevity’, Vilcabamba is a small town in Southern Ecuador famous for the age and health of its residents with one resident reportedly being 120 years old. Situated about a 90minute drive from the nearest airport of Loja (“Loha”), Vilcabamba is nestled in a valley surrounded by gorgeous Ecuadorian mountains, with clear springs and crisp mountain air.



The town has become a mecca for Western health enthusiasts worldwide and attracts thousands of tourists each year looking for respite from the 9-5 daily grind. As I don’t mind a bit of meditation and yoga, I decided to spend a week in Vilcabamba before heading to the Galapagos Islands. To get there, I left the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires at about 5am, to fly to Loja airport via Guayaquil, Ecuador where I took a taxi to Vilcabamba. Stepping off the plane in Loja, I immediately noticed the cooler, clearer, mountain air.



I stayed in the town’s ‘Centro de Meditacion’ (Meditation Centre), a lodge run by ‘Bernie’ a Canadian/American expat who has made Ecuador his home for some years. It really was a beautiful place to stay, very modern, clean and peaceful. I had a private room, with a Queen size bed, desk and private bathroom for 7 days, and it cost me just over $100. Bernie offers rooms for the night, week and longer – another visitor had been there for some months and was looking to stay for more. The room rate included breakfast, which was cooked in their outdoor kitchen and consisted of fresh fruit, yoghurt and oats; eggs (from the chickens who live on the property), bread, coffee and freshly squeezed juice. It was delicious and very nutritional way to start each day.



In addition to the private rooms, the meditation room and outdoor kitchen, the centre has a huge outdoor garden area with a chicken coop, herb garden, meditation area and fruit trees. Each room is allocated a hammock outside the room and has outdoor table and chairs for sitting. I’ve accidentally skipped over the best bit of all, the Centre faces out over two beautiful mountains, which greet you each time you walk out your bedroom door. I am having a bit of trouble describing exactly how beautiful and close they were. It was so lovely to open my door each morning and look out at the beautiful scenery and know that I there was actually nothing else I had to do for the day…



The Centre runs 1 to 2 meditation classes a day (12-1 every day of the week and 7-8 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights) and Bernie asks all residents to attend at least 3 classes a week. They also have monthly sweat lodge ceremonies, held outside, where everyone piles inside a small sauna tent heated with stones from the fire and stays there for some hours, sweating, chanting and meditating.



My first night, I arrived in the middle of the nightly meditation (whoops) so I snuck out to have some dinner. The town centre is quite small and has a pretty town square with fountains, a (Catholic) church and various restaurants, convenience stores (Ecuador-style) and juice bars. I went to a number of restaurants while there, but the first night tried a little café on the corner of the square and had a chicken soup for $2.95, which came out with lots of vegetables, a beautiful broth and huge chunks of chicken. It was actually very tasty. I also tried a tortilla (because I didn’t know how substantial the soup would be for that price) which was a little disappointing because it was just drowned in cheese and sauce. I mainly stuck to the soup. Other days I went to the local gringo café, the Juice Factory which had daily $1 soups and very cheap smoothies and green juices.



My first morning, I woke up to a clear blue sky, warm spring-like weather and crystal fresh air – its not hard to see where the town got its health reputes from. I went to a meditation class, and the style of meditation was Vipassana, which I wont go into here, but was actually really good. The meditation sessions were quite well attended because people from around the town came along and not just the Centre residents.



I met a lovely girl after the session, Chelsea, who invited me to a Sacred Yogic Sound journey class the next day. It was $25 for 4 hours at a famous resort about a 15 minute walk out of town, called Madre Tierra (Mother Earth) and run by a local Yoga instructor and musician. Chelsea picked me up the next morning and we walked to Madre Tierra, just down the highway. Madre Tierra is actually quite famous in the region for winning the ‘Best Spa in Ecuador’ a number of times in a row and having great restaurant. The class was held in a little function centre, complete with sound chamber. Basically, we performed various yoga poses and meditation which was accompanied by the musician who played various notes, mantras and pieces designed to clear our chakras….I’ll leave it there because I can sense some people rolling their eyes…but safe to say, I walked out feeling a million bucks and had a great workout surrounded by really lovely inspiring people. We had lunch in the restaurant, a $5 gratitude bowl filled with kale, quinoa, salad and topped with a gorgeous dressing and followed by a vegan raw brownie which tasted like cake mix….and was goooooood.



I met a lady at the yoga class who ran health treatments using sound, aromatherapy and massage. I booked a treatment (she was actually fully booked but had someone cancel the next day so I snuck in) which was probably one of my favourite things I did in all of Vilcabamba. It was about $25 for a 90minute treatment and was absolutely amazing. It was basically a full body massage, with different aromatherapy oils for different parts of the body and she used tuning forks with different vibrations for my chakras. Seriously, it was awesome and I would recommend anyone who go here in future give her a call.



A few days later, I booked a hair treatment (to try and tame the rats-nest afro I have managed to develop) and a facial at Madre Tierre, supposedly the best spa in Ecuador. I arrived to a surly lady who pointed to a chair and proceeded to slather stuff in my hair, without washing or brushing it. Then she gave me a facial, although was clearly not very happy to do it and rinsed my hair off and pointed me to the door, without brushing or drying my hair. All in all, a pretty basic treatment delivered by an angry little therapist who clearly did not enjoy her job. Comparison with the former treatment was like night and day.



While in town, I also went to a few other yoga classes, one held on the side of a mountain overlooking the town square, went hiking in the woods (got lost) with a really nice Russian girl (Lilly) I met at the meditation centre, skinny-dipped in an ice-cold mountain creek and went for a random walk one day to find myself at a water park (complete with water slide (WTF!)) and a zoo. Didn’t go into the zoo, didn’t think I’d see anything very happy there.



Unfortunately, like most places in this world I gather, crime is never far away, no matter how tranquil and peaceful the setting. The night before I arrived, a girl was attacked while walking home at night by three masked boys who stole her ipad, iphone, wallet and jewellery. They dragged her into a creek bed and stole her things and ripped off her jewellery. Other than a few scratches, particularly on her wrist where they couldn’t get her bracelet, she was physically unharmed although quite shaken (obviously) from the incident and scared to leave the Centre for a number of days. Vilcabamba as a whole was quite shocked at the incident and we had strangers visiting with replacement cheap laptops (fairly dodgy but it’s the thought that counts) and offering her free ‘readings’ as she wasn’t’ sure if she wanted to continue her trip in South America. While I was at the yoga class, there were announcements about upcoming events at the end of the class, including one meeting to discuss ‘town safety and recent events’. All in all, I got the impression this was a fairly random incident which everyone took quite seriously and it didn’t tarnish my impression of Vilcabamba in the slightest.



In sum, a lovely restorative and peaceful week. Wonderful respite from the madness of Rio and B.A. I left with a very heavy heart after spending such a lovely week focusing on my health and serenity… but still happy, because I was off to see some giant turtles in the Galapagos with my beautiful sister!!!





L

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Photos

These guys were EVERYWHERE
and crowed morning, noon and night.

Comments

[Annette Adams]

stayed at the meditation center 5 times for 3 months
LOVE THIS PLACE...WISH I COULD CONNECT WITH BERNIE BUT I HAVE AN OLD EMAIL ... TERRIFIC EXPERIENCE ... HELLO BERNIE...HOPE YOU ARE WELL