Cal Simó
** This retreat was postponed as a result of COVID-19, however we are in the process of planning an updated retreat, details of which will be posted here when available. **
Back to Health Retreat in Cal Simó Spain, over 5 nights (4 full days) and a morning from 10th to 15th May (2020)
Rediscover for yourself just what it would take to regain your health, not by being a gym bunny, but exercising in more interesting, eco-friendly and fun ways that has an impact and eating the right food that is tasty and nutritious and not boring or bland and learning how to cook it.
In this Back to Health Retreat we’ll be
- Getting Back to health coaching sessions
- Dancing to music
- Taking long walks and hikes along the coast and the mountains
- Doing QiGong on the beach with the locals
- Going to local markets and the country side in the fresh air
- Taking part in healthy cooking lessons
- Learning Zen Meditation and Zen Shiatsu bodywork on each other
- We will also hit the local villages and enjoy Tapas and enjoy the magical rehearsals for the Human Towers
You will leave the retreat going forward with your health, you will be lighter, fitter both in body and mind and fully relaxed and recovered.
The retreat will be available for vegans, vegetarians and carnivores and the cooking lessons will be tailor made to all those diets but taught separately in the same classroom.
Our base for the retreat is Cal Simo, a traditional Catalan farmhouse built in 1850s, which is just 1 hour from Barcelona’s Airport (BCN) in the Catalan country side of Spain and the perfect location for this retreat.
From 1st February 2020 retreat costs you £695 per person sharing (+£100pp extra for single accommodation).
Airfares from UK The Best way to get there is by flying with EasyJet from Gatwick. Please book as soon as possible both airfare and the deposit so your flight costs at this peak price time would be as low as possible.
For details and bookings please contact Ken Hettiarachi 07736 392100 or ken@exotictravlesadventures.com
Introduction
This retreat is an opportunity for you to rediscover for yourself just what it would take to regain your health, not by being a gym bunny, but in more interesting and fun ways of exercising that has an impact and eating the right food that is tasty and nutritious and not boring or bland.
In this Back to Health Retreat, we’ll be dancing to music, taking long walks and hikes along the coast and the mountains, doing QiGong on the beach with the locals, going to local markets and the country side in the fresh air, and we’ll teach you how to turn fresh food into healthy non-fattening delicious food that feeds your soul and leave you healthy in our many cooking lessons. We will also practice Zen Meditation and Zen Shiatsu bodywork on each other and we will also hit the local villages and enjoy Tapas and enjoy the magical rehearsals for the Human Towers. You will leave the retreat going forward with your health, you will be lighter, fitter both in body and mind and fully relaxed and recovered.
The retreat will be available for vegans, vegetarians and carnivores as you can eat healthily or unhealthily in any of those dietary choices and the cooking lessons will be tailor made to all those diets but taught separately in the same classroom.
Our base for the retreat is Cal Simo, a traditional Catalan farmhouse built in 1850s, which is just 1 hour from Barcelona’s Airport (BCN), just 15 minutes by car from Vilanova I La Geltru and 25 minutes’ walk from the village of Canyelles in the Catalan country side of Spain and a perfect location to set ourselves up for this retreat.
Teresa Peres Carasco, who is helping us with the local knowledge and logistics of the tour said to me when she walked into the venue, Cal Simo, which is an 1850’s farmhouse, and the area, she thought it was an amazing venue for a retreat, which is why we decided to collaborate to bring you to this oasis of tranquillity and calm and the energy of the mountains, to give you coaching and physical and mental support you need to be free of negative mindsets that creates the need to eat unhealthily and give you a simple practical philosophy of exercising and healthy eating that will help you to get back to health in your life, weather you have diabetes or heart disease or you just feel out of condition or just stressed and weather you are in your 20+’s or 50/60’s.
This is a 6 day, 5 night retreat, we will all be arriving at the venue in the evening of Sunday 10th May and the retreat will finish on Friday 15th by 11.30am, in UK Monday 25th is the spring bank holiday weekend, which gives you a chance to either head back to Barcelona and make the rest a long weekend there and return back to UK on Monday 25th May. Or book into another place nearby in the village and spend the rest of the weekend free doing nothing and coming back on Monday or you can return back on Friday night.
The accommodation is including dinner on Sunday 10/5 and breakfast on Monday11/5 and the rest of the time mostly self-catering while we are in the base and we will also be eating out when we are away on excursions (not covered by the fees). We encourage you to come with a friend or share with another person in the retreat, so your experience of the retreat can be better and cheaper.
The costs include meditation and bodywork sessions, coaching sessions, cooking lessons, dancing workshops, all guided hikes and walks, accommodation and all ingredients (in retreat), meals and drinks in the retreat.
The costs do not include air fares, taxi fares from and to the retreat, drinks and meals when we are out, personal purchases, tips and gratuities to hotel staff or other helpers we’ll meet while on excursions
The retreat costs you £695 per person sharing (please add £100pp extra for single accommodation). Early bird price for bookings by 31st January 2020 is £625 (please add £100 extra for single accommodation). To book, please pay a non-refundable deposit of £200 and the balance is due by 15th April 2020.
Airfares from UK The Best way to get there is by flying with EasyJet from Gatwick. Please book as soon as possible both airfare and the deposit so your flight costs at this peak price time would be as low as possible.
How to get to Cal Simó from Barcelona airport:
1. By train from the airport to Sitges (4.20Euros) and then a taxi to the venue (30Euros)
2. By taxi straight from the airport to the venue is around 75E/80E, best if we send a taxi from Sitges as Barcelona taxis at the airport operate under Barcelona rates and can be more expensive.
We will coordinate groups to share the cost if at all possible.
You can have a look at different options here:
https://www.rome2rio.com/map/Barcelona-Airport-BCN/Fondo-de-Las-Alzinas-109-08811-Canyelles-Barcelona-Spain
Rules for the back to health retreat
As this is a health retreat and the purpose of the event is to help you to lose weight and feel fit while eating sumptuous food and doing exercise that doesn’t feel like exercise but is fun, we are asking you to follow the following rules while at the retreat. We will fully explain the reasons for these in our Sunday night workshop (10/5) so you understand them fully.
- No smoking or drinking alcohol for the duration of the retreat
- We’re asking you to give up medium to hi GI (Glycaemic Index) food, such as sugar, bread (wheat flour), pasta, rice (inc rice flour), potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins and squashes, onions, carrot, beetroot, sweet corn and fruit other than what’s on offer when in the retreat.
- No eating of fried food or added fat/oil or processed meat or processed fish
- No dairy products, ie milk, cream, cheese and butter
- And no caffeine ie coffee
Also, in this retreat we’re asking you to not take any self-prescribed medicine for the duration of the retreat. This means any medicine you take orally that is not prescribed by a doctor.
We will provide your main meals as listed in the itinerary while in the base which are mostly cooked by ourselves as a collective.
And, on this retreat, we will have 2 days (Tuesday and Wednesday) we will ask you to not eat after 6pm until 8am next morning. You can drink water, herbal eta or soup if you are very hungry, but try not to eat anything solid until next morning.
But when we’re in town for lunch/tapas, we will have no rules lunches (as it is highly impractical to stick to all these rules, except smoking and alcohol).
The menus at the retreat are amazing, varied and nutritious, they will taste amazing, so, we ask you to not eat too much. Just one bowlful/plateful of your choice of food and as much water as possible and teas and healthy juices on offer.
Itinerary
Sunday 10th May 2020
In the evening (from 7pm), arrive at Hotel Can Simó, near the village of Canyelles, our base for the 5night retreat. Please note, we will have to wait till after dinner to check into our rooms, but you will be able to leave your luggage in a safe room until then.
8pm a welcome dinner with a coaching session
Back to Health workshop, which will explain in detail what we will be upto on this retreat and why
and will also give you an overview of the plans for the rest of the retreat till Friday. We will also
ceremonially weight you at this time after you eat so we know your starting weight.
After dinner check in and retire to our rooms.
Monday 11th May 2020
7am Zen Meditation and Zen Shiatsu bodywork session.
We will start with Taiso, which is a shiatsu meridian stretching exercise. Then we will learn how to sit for Sa Zen meditation and the posture. And then into the meditation itself. We will mediate for 20 minutes seated and do 10 minutes walking meditation.
After meditation, pair up for a lesson in how to do Zen Shiatsu, the practice itself is like a meditation
for the practitioner and blissful for the receiver. After 10 minutes of instructions each person will be
learning to do the practice of giving Zen Shiatsu for 20 minutes and then switch to receive the
Shiatsu treatment for another 20 minutes.
8.30am A leisurely communal breakfast where you will learn mindful eating practices. As this is our
first breakfast, it will be cooked for us, as was the welcome dinner previous night, by the hotel
according to our specific recipes and instructions observing our rules, but after this, following
breakfasts will be cooked communally by us to teach you how to cook healthily and as a communal
exercise itself.
After breakfast we will spend a little time cleaning the kitchen and the utensils we used as a community in true monastic style and of course as an exercise.
Midday, walk to the village of Canyelles and surrounding areas. While in town, have lunch, again at eat leisure, not hurrying.
After lunch we will head back to base and the rest of the afternoon you can
have private time to do what you want.
6.00 – 8.00pm Back to health cooking lesson, you will learn how to cook a delicious healthy meal
using natural ingredients that is healthy, ie low glycaemic index and also tasty using our healthy
eating principles
8.30pm Communal dinner
Tuesday 12th May 2020
6.30am Communal breakfast cooking lesson and practice
8.30am Communal breakfast
10am After breakfast get taxis to the beach for a qigong session at 10.30am
After qigong relax on the beach and have lunch out locally
After lunch, relax and spend some quality time with others from the retreat community.
We will get taxis back to base by 4pm to prepare our early evening light meal
At 5.30-6.00pm Early dinner
7.30-9.30pm Dancercise workshop to help you to come out of your head and connecting with the
music with your body and mind and letting the music carry you in a physical movement. There will
be plenty of water for the session but please wear loose, comfortable clothes.
After Dancercise retire to rooms.
Wednesday 13th May 2020
6.30am Zen meditation and body work session
8.30am Communal Breakfast
Followed by after breakfast cleaning up chores
After breakfast we will embark on a 90-minute mountain walk to Castillo de Olerdola.
After the walk get a taxi back to base in time for the cooking lesson for lunch and supper
Lunch in the afternoon
Dinner between 5.00-6.00pm
After dinner we will relax at base and then later in the evening take taxis to the old town to see the rehearsals of Human Towers performers watch their amazing feats.
Come back and retire to our rooms for the night.
Thursday 14th May 2020
6.30am Mediation and bodywork session
8.30am Communal breakfast
After the communal clean up, we will take taxis the coast and do a 90- minute coastal walk to Sitges and have lunch. No cooking!! No cleaning!!!
After lunch relax and spend afternoon in town before returning to base to cook dinner, our final cooking lesson from 4.30-6pm
6.30-8.30pm We will have our final 2-hour dancercise session before sitting down for our final communal dinner at 9.00pm our final meal as a group
Friday 15th May 2020
6.30am Final meditation and bodywork session.
8.30am Communal breakfast and completion and celebration session, we will weigh you after you
eat your final breakfast, so we know how well you progressed in your weight loss.
9.30am After breakfast final clean-up and relax with a cup of tea
11.30am Checking out