Conexión Latinx: Salento Workshop Recap
It took us 8 months to finally recap on our amazing trip experience in Salento, Colombia with Scarlet Macaw Trips, but better late than never! Our first and so far only TL workshop collaboration trip was both a learning experience and a success. The following is a summary of TL’s role in the trip.
Our main objectives: Womxn were brought together for networking, womxn supporting womxn, healing, connecting with ancestral roots, using the fertile earth of Salento as a metaphor, and goal-setting during this space while exploring a new area together.
TL offered 3 workshops in order to complete objectives and build relationships:
Yoga Improvisation: Cici, a yoga-certified instructor, was unable to join the trip in the end, so Alexandra replaced her. Ale has more dance teaching experience, but she does like to incorporate Meditation and Yoga with dance. She didn’t know the names of poses, but she did great with everyone’s help! The important part is that the yoga session most definitely flowed. Ale made sure to do a lot of heart openers, bringing awareness to the fertile land with physical grounding exercises while on our bare feet or while our hands touched the ground, and releasing tension from our hips.
Ancestral and Meditation Exercise: Ale lead into the grounding exercise where everyone was organized in a circle in order to face each other, and also the ancestral altar was organized with everyone’s items together in the middle. First, she lead them to close their eyes and perform a grounding exercise with the group where we imagine energy replenishing us from Pachamama with roots coming out of the bottom of our bodies, energy from above, and then we increased interconnectedness by passing the energy around the circle several times and counterclockwise too. After that, we each introduced ourselves and introduced each of our ancestors we wanted to bring on our journey. It was surprising to see each and every person share very intimate stories, therefore it was was wonderful to see that people felt it was a safe space to be vulnerable with each other. Due to unforeseen circumstances in the land of some of the greatest quantities of exotic flowers, we couldn’t find any sold in Salento! Next time: flowers and other ofrenda are a MUST!
Example of a flower ofrenda we can organize for the next Ancestors & Meditation exercise
****Major Observations From This Exercise****
Adriana brought homemade essential oils for each person attending, like palo santo or lavender.
Lorena pointed out that there was exactly 11 of us together on the trip in total, a very spiritual number!
Michelle brought zodiac astrology sign erasers to share with everyone.
Two white butterflies entered our circle and flew through the middle, a symbol of purity (or a clean slate) and transformation.
Coincidentally, a total of 4 people who were in attendance are Therapists/Psychologists
3. Speed-Dating, Elevator Speech, & Goal-Setting Workshops: it was inspiring to see what people’s passion projects and future entrepreneurial goals were. Everyone shared, and also provided feedback for each other. We invoked our Ancestors in order to help further our goals. Some people even came-up with ideas during the workshops, including the recent #Healing4Healers trip initiative. Saturday, March 31st, coincidentally a Full Moon, people had to start reflecting on and writing their goals for a specific goal-setting workshop the next day Sunday. The full moon is a time to reflect on things that are blocking you from your goals. The new moon is perfect for setting goals, while the full moon is best for letting things go.
Saturday, March 31st Full Moon
~*Nature Observations*~: There were two white butterflies that entered our grounding meditation circle and flew through the middle. Later on during that trip, Ale saw a white dove flying over us in the Salento pueblo plaza, a bird she had never seen in real life. Coincidentally, we had a full moon the night we had to reflect on what goals we wanted to set, reminding us that we needed to focus on letting go of the blockages. A lot of rainfall was observed, which served as a metaphorical cleansing for the group, and then finally on the last full day together, Sunday, we had the most amount of sun out of all of the days. Sahara kept saying she wanted to see a hummingbird the whole trip, and we finally saw one at the finca coffee tour. It was magical!
Our trip was unforgettable. Between the hike at Valle de Cocora, the leather making workshop, the finca coffee tour, and much much more, we had a wonderful time! We hope to work with Scarlet Macaw Trips again in the future, and/or provide more workshop collaborations.
Testimonials:
“Through this workshop I was able to dedicate 5 days to myself and to support other women, no help create a no-judgement space and to be comfortable speaking my passions, dreams, fears, out loud. The workshops and the conversations with all the women help me realize that I can achieve certain things that seem unrealistic and silly before. Since the trip, I’ve been more verbal and enthusiastic about my intentions to start a business in Colombia, and people have been more receptive to this idea.”
“It was wonderful to meet others with similarities in background and identity markers and who also shared similar values. I appreciated the chance to candidly share about my personal and professional journeys and receive support from a group who really “got” it. I’m taking away a greater sense of confidence after experiencing that kind of support.”
“I think there was a perfect balance of planned activities and free time. I appreciate your efforts to make it fun and yet fruitful. I think there is so much potential for future workshops and other traveling ideas. Ale and Sahara, I have so much faith in your projects and cannot wait to see them blossom, I admire your work, tenacity and dedication to your passions and projects. This trip and all of its fruits are thanks to you […] THANK YOU.”
“It was really affordable which is great, I hope that you also get to make so profit from future trips because you are putting A LOT of labor into in. But in general the experience and the relationships I built no tiene precio!”
“You’ll see me at some of your future trips and I hope that we also get to meet in other countries for workshops Thank you for making this trip a reality! That’s in itself an inspiration to see a passion project modelled!”
