TRADITIONAL INDIGENOUS HEALING RETREATS IN THE ANDES OF OTAVALO, ECUADOR

Join us for a healing retreat with Katie Mullan (facilitator, translator, and student) and Mercedes Panama, a traditional indigenous Andean healer and midwife. She is a leader in her community, famous for her healing abilities. She was gifted her healing abilities at a young age when she was visited by a spirit, and learned from her grandmother how to work with herbs and give spiritual cleansings. In addition to this, she is a midwife with 30 years of experience, and is an expert in women's health. 

In this retreat, you will have the rare opportunity to work with this gifted, warm-hearted traditional healer from Otavalo. 

This retreat is great for folks with any type of physical, mental, energetic or spiritual illness or problem. It is great for people wanting to be immersed in Andean culture and nature, and learn about slower, more sustainble, and harmonious ways of living with our Mother Earth.

Join for: 

-- Traditional massages with herbs and oils as needed

-- Womb realignments - this can help with pelvic pain, pain during sex, hip, knee and foot pain, and help fix issues with incontinence 

-- Energetic cleansings

-- Herbal medicines during stay and prescriptions for when you go back home

-- Energy cleansing rituals, including:

   -- Healing rituals in the sacred lake, Mojanda, with herbs, perfumes, fire, and more. This ritual is excellent for cleansing the energy and can assist in healing many different types of ailments, and allows energy to flow more harmoniously so that opportunities come your way, relationships become better, you feel more at peace and relaxed and more.

--- Hikes to beautiful sacred lagoons, mountains, and waterfalls

--- Visit the famous artisan market in Otavalo & Cotacachi (they are famous here for their beautiful crafts)

You will learn about:
--- Andean indigenous culture in the north of Ecuador

--- Herbal medicines for all types of physical and mentail ailments

--- Traditional rituals for energetic cleansings

Immerse yourself in this beautiful culture and give back to indigenous people in this wonderful healing retreat. 

Max 8 guests

You will fly into Quito airport. From there, you can take a taxi or a bus to Otavalo, 2 hours north. For an additional cost, we can meet you in the airport and arrange a hotel for you in Quito if you arrive the night before. 

Otavalo is higher up in the mountains, so bring a warmer jacket, pants, sweaters, hiking boots and possibly a rain jacket. It gets warm during the days usually, and a t-shirt often is fine. 

Bring a bathing suit

Bring change - people will not be able to change $100 or $50 USD bills usually, so bring smaller bills. There are ATMs for international debit and credit cards. 

Tips are gladly accepted by Mercedes and other helpers

Transportation is not included in the retreat price. You will have to split the price of taxis, buses and rides from helpers with other guests. The rides are no more than $25 maximum, and usually are just $5 or so to get around. 

We can arrange a taxi for you from Quito to Otavalo if you'd like, and this should be about $50 USD

If you have to cancel your retreat, we give a full refund (-$100 inconvenience fee) if cancelled 2 months or more before the retreat. If you have to cancel by 1 month before the start of the retreat, we can refund 50%. After this, there is no refund. If you cancel within 3 days of booking (even if it is less than 1 month until the retreat, we give a full refund)

We can accomodate your needs - vegetarian, pescatarian, vegan, GF, etc. We will have healthy, simple meals during the retreat and go out to some restaurants as well. 

Guests will arrive around 11 am. We will get to know each other, have lunch, and then meet Mama Mercdes for massages & possibly limpias (energetic cleansings). Herbal medicine prescriptions from Mercedes. Dinner afterwards. 

Today we will have breakffast and then meet up with Mama Mercedes for a healing ritual in the waterfall. Dinner afterwards. 

Today we will go out to Cotacachi to walk around, have breakfast, and see the beautiful lagoon, Cuicocha. Lunch, and then dinner in the evening with a fire at the house. 

Breakfast, visit the artisan market in Otavalo. In the afternoon we will have lunch and a chat with Mercedes about Andean cosmology and herbal medicines, and recieve more massages and limpias (energetic cleansings). Dinner in the evening. 

Breakfast, and today we will go for a hike at Peguche Waterfall, get lunch in town and have dinner later. Fire ceremony at night. 

We will have breakfast, and depart by 11 am.