Day 1: Meet at a shopping mall in Santa Marta with the rest of the group. Get a bus transfer to Tayrona National Park (where you pay entrance fee to park which is additional). Once you reach the beach, you get into a small boat to go around a couple of bays to your final destination. The accommodation is shared rooms. I shared with two other girls. We had a drink and something to eat while we relaxed. That evening we introduced ourselves and did a yoga practice for around 1-1.5 hours (time is difficult to keep track of!). Afterwards we had dinner and I had an early night.

Day 2: Wake around 530-6am (sunrise) and have around 30 minutes to get a hot drink or water and be ready for morning yoga practice. The yoga is always done on the front verandah. Afterwards we had breakfast and then the middle of the day is free time. Most of our group chose to walk over to the next bay (20 minutes) to swim and snorkel. Around 4pm in the afternoon we all sat around and discussed some of the philosophical aspects of yoga. This was a little bit difficult for me as it was mostly discussed in Spanish, so I also chose to read one of the many books about yoga during these times. After the discussion we had our evening yoga practice and then dinner. Again after dinner I chose to have an early night but others stayed up chatting. The electricity gets turned off about 11pm, there are lots of candles but you need a torch too.

Day 3: Similar to Day 2, except today we went to another bay. The snorkeling all around here is fantastic! It was three of our birthdays so they had a cake for us and in the evening we had lots of singing and dancing.

Day 4: Similar to Day 2, except today we had the option to take a boat ride to a nearby island. I didn’t go, instead choosing to stay in the hammocks and swim at the local beach. In the evening we discussed what we had gained from this experience and we had a picnic dinner.

Day 5: After the morning yoga session and breakfast, we packed up and left around 10am. We took the boat and then the bus back to the shopping mall, arriving about midday.

Price includes accommodation, food and transfers to Santa Marta.

• There can be mosquitos so take long trousers, socks and good mosquito repellent.
• It is dark at night time, a torch or headlight is very useful
• Snorkeling gear would be great to take, or at least goggles
• There is a big water filter so bring your own water bottle to fill. They provide one but they are all the same so better to have a unique bottle
• Have some cash on you as Lulu (the organiser) also has yoga clothes, bags and jewelry for sale that she makes herself
• The food is all vegetarian and almost vegan. Everyone enjoyed it so I don’t think you need to take any food with you
• They didn’t provide towels, having a beach towel and a bath towel would be helpful
• The shower water is slightly salty and cold but it is so warm that it doesn’t matter
• Spanish is spoken as the first language on the retreat. The instructor and most of the other guests spoke English. I was the only person who had only a little Spanish. They kept asking me if I wanted it explained in English and I said no. They would speak more English if you asked.