TEACHERs:
Monica King

Monica King is a Curandera (Latina Medicine Woman) and Yogini with a passion for healing and stirring people to come alive. She offers personal therapies, lectures, ceremonies and retreats in various group settings including universities, clinics, churches, retreat centers, and addictions facilities. Since her university studies at Bastyr University of Naturopathic Medicine, she has worked in 13 countries with various indigenous tribal elders to deepen her understanding of healing modalities. Her style of teaching yoga, meditation, and movement is a deep somatic exploration of self awareness. She incorporates her knowledge of nutrition, herbal medicine, dance, psychology, sound therapy, women's medicine, mysticism, and ritual into her work with individuals and groups. Monica has been a Yogini for 20 years, and taught for over a decade, with certifications in Kundalini Yoga, Prenatal Yoga, NIA Movement Therapy, & Nutritional Herbology. 

clara macy

Clara Macy eats, sleeps and drinks Ayurveda & Yoga. The life long obsession began in 1998, when she completed her 200-hour yoga certification. She then continued to study all over the world with top yogis, but uncovered something more. She learned that Ayurveda, the sister science to yoga was a huge component to proper lifestyle management, not just yoga. After many books and seminars later, she decided to apply for Ayurvedic practitioners’ program and began her life-long studies in Ayurveda through Kerala Ayurvedic Institute. Clara has taken the teachings of Ayurveda and integrated them into her yoga classes. She also offers Ayurvedic consultations and is a certified Ayurvedic Therapist. Her passion in this ancient preventative medicine is so huge, she decided to start her own Ayurvedic Wellness center. Seeing how Ayurveda changed her life and her family, she dreamed of opening a wellness center that would be a place to meditate, practice yoga, receive Ayurvedic therapies and get everything you need for an Ayurvedic lifestyle.

the yoga:

Classes will range from powerful and strengthening, to deeply relaxing and restoring. During active practice, key muscle groups will be realigned and strengthened, focusing on basic postures and breathing. The yoga asanas, or postures, are designed to peel back the residue of our daily lives, and reconnect us to the primal flow of energy occurring naturally within us. During restorative practice, the body is supported by bolsters and other props so that muscle activity can be surrendered, and the benefits of the postures can happen passively as guided meditation helps the nervous system shift gears into the relaxation response, slowing the brain waves to a healing Alpha or Theta frequency.  

art

Fabrica de Arte

The brainchild of Afro-Cuban fusion musician X-Alfonso, this is one Havana’s finest new art projects. An intellectual nexus for live music, art expos, fashion shows and invigorating debate over coffee and cocktails,

Jose Fuster

Fuster has made a major contribution over 10 years of work of rebuilding and decorating the fishing town of Jaimanitas in the outskirts of Havana, where he lives. Jaimanitas is now a unique work of public art where Fuster has decorated over 80 houses with ornate murals and domes to suit the personality of his neighbours, he has built a chess park with giant boards and tables, The Artists’ Wall composed of a quilt of dozens of tiles signed and donated by other Cuban artists, a theatre and public swimming pools.

music/dance

Buena Vista Social Club

Since 2006, successors of the Buena Vista Social Club have played regularly at the Plaza Américas Salon Plenario in Varadero. Special musical guests such as Eliades Ochoa, Guajiro Mirabal, Salvador Repilado, Barbarito Torres, Hugo Garzon, and Aguaje Ramos sit in occasionally; this is a superb opportunity to hear the legendary music of this golden age. 
 

Calle De Hamel Rhumba Festival

Aside from its funky street murals and psychedelic art shops, the main reason to come to Havana's high temple of Afro-Cuban culture in Centro Habana is the frenetic rumba music that kicks off every Sunday at around noon.

excursions

Vinales

Viñales is a small countryside town west of Havana, and even though it is just two hours away, it feels like a world apart. Here, everything goes at a very slow pace. It is common to see people trotting up and down the street on their horses, but if you walk just a few hundred meters outside town, you’ll feel surrounded by farm lands. Cigar-chewing guajiros drive their oxen and plow through the rust colored tobacco fields, farmers tend to their current crops, and workers sit in sheds and farms, drying and rolling the famous Cuban tobaccos.

Santa Maria Beach

Only a short drive from Havana, Santa Maria Beach is a beautiful mixture of Caribbean blue, thatched palapas and the occasional coconut vendor. Its the perfect place to unwind and enjoy the untouched, pristine beaches of Cuba.