YOUR AD HERE »

Local yoga teacher offers pandemic-friendly spring yoga retreats

Two of Chelsea Winters’ favorite things to do are practice yoga and travel the world. Now that world pandemic conditions are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, thanks to lower numbers and vaccine rollouts, she’s ready to combine those two loves once again.

“It’s my favorite thing to do,” she said. “It’s truly living a yogic lifestyle, which is hard to do in an everyday setting. Nourishing yourself with really good food, spending a lot of time practicing yoga, meditation, the connection with everyone and being able to go deeper than you can in just an hour class format.”

The owner of Anahata Yoga & Wellness in Minturn is offering several social-distancing friendly retreats this spring, summer and fall. For those looking for a sooner getaway, Winters could accommodate one or two additional yogis in Sayulita, Mexico and Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, taking place from April 24 to May 1 and April 3 to April 10 respectively.



Lake Atitlán in Guatemala is several hours away from Guatemala City in the countryside, facilitating a deep immersion in a yogic lifestyle.
Special to the Daily

Looking ahead, Winters is also offering a local retreat at Rancho Del Rio, a repeat of a camping and social-distancing retreat she ran last summer. This one, designed as an affordable weekend away from life’s hustle and bustle from June 13-15, encourages participants to connect with nature by camping (though cabins are available at extra charge), floating on the Colorado River, and hiking through surrounding trails.

And for another full immersion abroad, two spots are left for a luxury retreat in Panama, from Oct. 2-10. All retreat prices have inclusive meals, with local, healthy and often plant-based options, lodging and twice-daily practice with Winters.

Support Local Journalism




The April 2021 retreats were supposed to happen in 2020, but were rescheduled naturally. Rancho Del Rio and Panama came recently, as Winters missed traveling and wanted to creatively find a way to offer a retreat experience with smaller group sizes, open-air accommodations for the most part and appropriate safety measures, which will comply with local guidelines in respective countries.

More than just traveling, practicing yoga and eating good-for-the-soul food, Winters hopes that her retreats are able to offer the same thing they’ve offered in the six years she’s been organizing them. And now it’s more important than ever.

“I think right now we need connection so much. Now more than ever, we need that. And we need to get away from our devices and our computers,” she said. “It’s been a really hard year. And we still have a lot of really hard months ahead. To be able to safely practice in nature, it’ll be really, really, really nourishing, I think.”

For more information about each of the retreats, visit anahatayogaco.com.


Support Local Journalism