Mindfulness in Spain Oct 2017

We begin the day with a hearty breakfast in the main dining room before the OCTOBER 17 – 24, 2017 What’s included: day’s hiking adventure unfolds. In the evening we will enjoy lovely home-cooked dinners prepared by the owners of Fuentes de Lucia. In between, we walk MINDFULNESS IN SPAIN • All transportation during beautiful mountain trails, averaging approximately 8 miles per day, accompanied retreat by friendly and knowledgeable guides who will fill our days with a soulful blend of scenic hiking, historical insights, traditional experiences and wonderful food. • 7 nights of hotel Savor local Asturian cuisine, sample aromatic cheeses and sip the traditional accommodations with beverage, Sidra Asturiana, a cider made from locally grown apples. Trek through private bathrooms (limited scenic gorges and alongside babbling brooks; dine in local taverns; explore single rooms available) 10th-century churches and relax under Spain’s oldest yew tree, El Tiexo, planted • Guided walks in the more than 1000 years ago in a sacred meadow. surrounding mountains & No matter what your level of fitness, or mindfulness experience, you are river valleys with bilingual welcome on this active holiday. Grab your hiking boots, something to write with, guide and a sense of adventure and join us on this unique journey in the mountains of Northern Spain! Pack your small day-pack and away we go! We will follow local • Healthy breakfast hiking trails along established footpaths, ancient trade routes, through narrow • Delicious & creative dinners canyons, and over mountain passes. Plan to hike approximately 8-miles per day. with wine More and more people are turning to the practice of Mindfulness. Mindfulness • Opportunity to learn and can be defined as the awareness that arises when we pay attention on purpose, apply multiple Mindfulness in the present moment, nonjudgmentally, to the unfolding of experience practices moment to moment. Every part of our day can be an opportunity to build stress or bring joy. Mindfulness gives us the ability to choose. • Mindfulness Journal and Color Pencils Anyone can cultivate and grow this critical skill — the skill of ‘mindfully attending to’ — and this cultivation is at the center of our retreat experience. Connecting with like-minded individuals as you walk through quiet, charming villages, forests, farmland, high altitude summer pastures and beaches, is a supportive, nurturing, and gentling environment in which to begin to learn the everyday mindfulness Does not include: practices that will, over time, give you the confidence to trust your own inner voice, • Round-trip airfare your own inner knowing. • Daily lunches We will begin our retreat on the evening of Oct 17 before our first evening meal, for an introduction session. Each day will include all the wonderful activities that are • Tips and gratuity part of this week – see details below – beginning with a Mindfulness session before we leave for our day’s hike, coming together for a second session before our evening meal, and concluding with a short meditation session before bed. Our morning session will help us set our intention and practice for the day, as we connect with ourselves, others, and the beautiful nature around us.

During each session you will explore one, everyday mindfulness practice: mindful breathing, mindful eating, mindful listening, mindful movement, mindful feeling, PRICE: $1,730USD mindful coloring, mindful appreciation, to name a few, through working with your LEARN MORE OR BOOK IT AT body, writing, dialoguing, tapping into your ﬁve senses and more. Whether you are a beginner, a veteran, or anywhere in between at Mindfulness, you will reap many BounceTravels.com beneﬁts from this retreat.

Asturias, Spain’s best kept secret and home to Hotel Fuentes de Lucía, is the Limited to the first 16 people location of our adventure. This gentle but powerful retreat, which combines (double occupancy) mindfulness and hiking, is staffed by local hiking guides and surrounded by Cancellations prior to 7/01/17 are dramatic peaks, deep gorges and crystal clear rivers. There is nowhere better to subject to a $500 cancellation fee breathe in the pure mountain air and stretch your limbs. Nonrefundable on or after 7/01/17 We begin the day with a hearty breakfast in the main dining room before the day’s hiking adventure unfolds. In the evening we will enjoy lovely home-cooked dinners prepared by the owners of Fuentes de Lucia. In between, we walk “To practice beautiful mountain trails, averaging approximately 8 miles per day, accompanied mindfulness is a by friendly and knowledgeable guides who will fill our days with a soulful blend radical act of self love of scenic hiking, historical insights, traditional experiences and wonderful food. Savor local Asturian cuisine, sample aromatic cheeses and sip the traditional and self acceptance. beverage, Sidra Asturiana, a cider made from locally grown apples. Trek through ‘Attending’ in this way scenic gorges and alongside babbling brooks; dine in local taverns; explore is the greatest act of 10th-century churches and relax under Spain’s oldest yew tree, El Tiexo, planted more than 1000 years ago in a sacred meadow. generosity towards ourselves.” No matter what your level of fitness, or mindfulness experience, you are welcome on this active holiday. Grab your hiking boots, something to write with, — Jon Kabat-Zinn and a sense of adventure and join us on this unique journey in the mountains of Northern Spain! Pack your small day-pack and away we go! We will follow local hiking trails along established footpaths, ancient trade routes, through narrow canyons, and over mountain passes. Plan to hike approximately 8-miles per day.

More and more people are turning to the practice of Mindfulness. Mindfulness can be deﬁned as the awareness that arises when we pay attention on purpose, in the present moment, nonjudgmentally, to the unfolding of experience moment to moment. Every part of our day can be an opportunity to build stress or bring joy. Mindfulness gives us the ability to choose.

Anyone can cultivate and grow this critical skill — the skill of ‘mindfully attending to’ — and this cultivation is at the center of our retreat experience. Connecting with like-minded individuals as you walk through quiet, charming villages, forests, farmland, high altitude summer pastures and beaches, is a supportive, nurturing, and gentling environment in which to begin to learn the everyday mindfulness practices that will, over time, give you the conﬁdence to trust your own inner voice, DAILY ITINERARY Day 1 : Fuentes de Lucia - QUIROS your own inner knowing. Bounce Travels will meet you in Oviedo at 5PM. We will then head south We will begin our retreat on the evening of Oct 17 before our ﬁrst evening meal, for through the Trubia river valley basin in the Ubiñas Mountains, part of the an introduction session. Each day will include all the wonderful activities that are massive Cordillera Cantábrica Mountain range. There we will follow (by car) the part of this week – see details below – beginning with a Mindfulness session Senda del Oso (Bear Trail), a 50 kilometer footpath recently converted from rail before we leave for our day’s hike, coming together for a second session before tracks into Via Verdes, or Greenways, for the pleasure of walking in nature. Our our evening meal, and concluding with a short meditation session before bed. Our basecamp, Hotel Fuentes de Lucia, a recently converted farmhouse in the morning session will help us set our intention and practice for the day, as we hamlet of Faedo, will be our home and learning center for the week. It is set on connect with ourselves, others, and the beautiful nature around us. a hillside of this lovely, green valley surrounded by tall peaks. Dinner included.

During each session you will explore one, everyday mindfulness practice: mindful Day 2 : QUIROS – 8 miles breathing, mindful eating, mindful listening, mindful movement, mindful feeling, mindful coloring, mindful appreciation, to name a few, through working with your A narrow footpath out the back door of the hotel will be the start of our morning body, writing, dialoguing, tapping into your five senses and more. Whether you are walk. Along the way, we explore three mills, each one over 200 years old. This a beginner, a veteran, or anywhere in between at Mindfulness, you will reap many chestnut lined trail leads us from village to village with spectacular views of the benefits from this retreat. valley. After lunch, we’ll follow the Senda del Oso back to Fuentes de Lucia. Breakfast & Dinner included. Asturias, Spain’s best kept secret and home to Hotel Fuentes de Lucía, is the location of our adventure. This gentle but powerful retreat, which combines mindfulness and hiking, is staffed by local hiking guides and surrounded by Day 3 : SENDA del OSO – 7 miles dramatic peaks, deep gorges and crystal clear rivers. There is nowhere better to From the hamlet of Caranga, we will follow another branch of the Senda del breathe in the pure mountain air and stretch your limbs. Oso to the small town of Terverga. From there, a drive to the top of a pass will reveal the spectacular views of Puerto de Ventana. If the Cave of La Huerta is BOUNCETRAVELS.COM open, we will visit it. From the top of the pass, it is all downhill into Quirós. Breakfast & Dinner included. DAILY ITINERARY Day 4 : SOMIEDO – 7 miles A 45 minute drive will take us into the heart of Somiedo National Park, a seldom visited park sharing its border with Castilla y Leon. The complete isolation of this area makes it seem as if time were actually standing still. This area was declared a natural park in 1988 due to its diverse landscape of flora and fauna and it is recognized today as a wildlife reserve for its environmental variety and preservation of tradition. We will explore one of the many mountain trails up to Los Lagos. Breakfast & Dinner included.

Day 5 : OVIEDO El Mercado de Fonton (market) is where we will start our day in the capital of Asturias, Oviedo. The streets in El Casco Antiguo will be packed with stands of fresh fruits, home-made cheeses, hand-crafted goods and an assortment of everyday items, new and old. We will have plenty of time to photograph the sights or just take it all in from one of the many cafes that line the streets of this medieval university town. After a delicious lunch of tapas in one of the local sidrarias (cider bars) we will meet a tour guide who will take us on a visit of the city’s monuments. Breakfast & Dinner included.

Day 6 : LAS XANAS – 7 miles In the town of Villanueva, we will follow a route up and into a gorge called El Desﬁladero de Las Xanas. Climbing steadily, a well-planned path hugging the sides of this canyon will take us up to the hamlet of Pedrobayo where we’ll feast on a lunch of the famous Asturian bean stew, Fabada. After a short siesta under a tree (weather permitting) we’ll follow another path that leads us back to the start of this trail. Breakfast & Dinner included.

Day 7 : BERMIEGO to CORTES and SAN MELCHOR – 5 miles From the hamlet of Bermiego, famous for its decorative horreos (corn cribs), we will set out on an adventure through the Urbino mountains to the small village of Cortes. This is the birthplace of San Melchor, a humble missionary, later a bishop, who in 1858 was martyred in Vietnam. Breakfast & Dinner included.

Day 8 : Return to OVIEDO BOUNCETRAVELS.COM After breakfast, we will drive you to Oviedo bus or train station to arrive by 10am. DAILY ITINERARY PLEASE NOTE: » This itinerary may (is highly likely to) change slightly due to weather, festivals, group dynamics and spontaneous side trips. » After each day’s description, you will see a number indicating the amount of miles we cover. There are days when we are hiking in the hills and may not have easy access to the support van. We will try to provide an optional hike if you feel that the hiking in the hills maybe too diﬃcult. This is not an endurance race; we want you to have a great time! We are able to adjust the hikes based on the group’s abilities.

TENTATIVE TUESDAY OCTOBER 17 DAILY SCHEDULE 5:00 pm Pick up at train station in Oviedo and travel to Retreat Center 7:00 pm Mindfulness Introduction session 8:00 pm Dinner

DAILY

8:00 am Daily Mindfulness Session 9:00 am Breakfast 10:00 am Hiking 4:00 pm Personal reﬂection/rest time 6:00 pm Daily Mindfulness Session 7:30 pm Dinner 9.30 pm Mindful Breathing Practice before retiring

BOUNCETRAVELS.COM MOST How many miles do we hike per day? Is a gratuity for local guides expected? We average between 5-10 miles per day. A lot depends on the group dynamics This is a very common question clients ask. As a person working hard in the service COMMONLY and how much you would like to walk. industry to please the traveler, a gratuity is much appreciated by the staﬀ members ASKED at the end of the tour. Common industry standard is approx. 8 euros per day from each guest per guide. QUESTIONS What is the hotel like? Our base-camp for the week will be a newly restored farmhouse in the tiny hamlet of Faedo located in the county of Quirós, south of Oviedo in Asturias. Visit What is the terrain like? www.quiros.es for a tour of this beautiful, mountainous area. All bedrooms have There will be some long, slow climbs through farming areas but not Himalayan or private bathrooms, TVs, phones and either a balcony or patio. Visit the hotel’s Rocky Mountain like terrain. The paths are well worn and are not diﬃcult. We walk website for more information: www.fuentesdelucia.es along a lot of secondary farming roads, through forests of chestnuts, hazelnuts and apple orchards. Is there WIFI at the hotel? Yes, free WIFI is available in the hotel rooms and the main house. Is a single room available? All accommodations are priced on double occupancy. Some people would like to be matched with a roommate. I cannot guarantee a match but will try to place you What meals are included? with someone if there are any requests. All breakfasts and all dinners are included. Please be sure to let us know in advance if you are a vegetarian or have special dietary needs. Lunches are at your own The price of the single supplement is $600 USD per person. Single rooms are expense. Each day we will either stop in a local village to buy picnic supplies to eat limited. If you are intererested in a single room, please contact Toni Muraney at on the trail or walk to a restaurant to have lunch. [email protected].

How does one get to and from Oviedo? Do you have references? There is an airport near Oviedo (OVD) with regular ﬂights from Madrid, Barcelona We would be delighted to share some references of former clients who have and other points in Spain and Europe. There are international ﬂights from London walked with us. If you would like to contact any former Bounce Travel participants, and Paris. For train travel information within Spain, visit: www.renfe.es. For bus let us know by calling us. service, visit: www.alsa.es

We strongly recommend you sleep one night in Oviedo. For more information: You can ﬁnd us online at www.BounceTravels.com. Our site contains lots of photos and information about our retreats — our Camino in Spain and Resilience Retreats What equipment is needed? in Guatemala and Spain. I will supply you with an equipment list of basic items to pack. There is really no baggage limit on this tour since we are staying for one week at our Hotel Fuentes de Lucia. Comfortable trail/walking shoes will be your most important items to pack. Please be sure your shoes are well broken in.

How much spending money will I need? Most expenses are already built into Bounce Travel trips. Extra snacks and beverages at the cafes and stores are additional. A meal in a café will cost you between 8 and 20 Euros. Most people travel with an ATM card. Money machines are everywhere in Spain but be sure you know your PIN number (not letters) before departing the US or home country. Traveler’s checks are not easy to cash, and are not advisable to travel with.

What is the average age of the group? The average age of the participants on Bounce Travel trips is around 50 years old during the spring and fall months but younger during the summer months. Most trips are a mix of a 40/60 ratio of men to women.

BOUNCETRAVELS.COM How many miles do we hike per day? MOST Is a gratuity for local guides expected? We average between 5-10 miles per day. A lot depends on the group dynamics This is a very common question clients ask. As a person working hard in the service and how much you would like to walk. COMMONLY industry to please the traveler, a gratuity is much appreciated by the staﬀ members ASKED at the end of the tour. Common industry standard is approx. 8 euros per day from each guest per guide. What is the hotel like? QUESTIONS Our base-camp for the week will be a newly restored farmhouse in the tiny hamlet of Faedo located in the county of Quirós, south of Oviedo in Asturias. Visit What is the terrain like? www.quiros.es for a tour of this beautiful, mountainous area. All bedrooms have There will be some long, slow climbs through farming areas but not Himalayan or private bathrooms, TVs, phones and either a balcony or patio. Visit the hotel’s Rocky Mountain like terrain. The paths are well worn and are not diﬃcult. We walk website for more information: www.fuentesdelucia.es along a lot of secondary farming roads, through forests of chestnuts, hazelnuts and apple orchards. Is there WIFI at the hotel? Yes, free WIFI is available in the hotel rooms and the main house. Is a single room available? All accommodations are priced on double occupancy. Some people would like to be matched with a roommate. I cannot guarantee a match but will try to place you What meals are included? with someone if there are any requests. All breakfasts and all dinners are included. Please be sure to let us know in advance if you are a vegetarian or have special dietary needs. Lunches are at your own The price of the single supplement is $600 USD per person. Single rooms are expense. Each day we will either stop in a local village to buy picnic supplies to eat limited. If you are intererested in a single room, please contact Toni Muraney at on the trail or walk to a restaurant to have lunch. [email protected].

BOUNCETRAVELS.COM DAILY Deﬁning ‘Mindfulness’ » What is it? MINDFULNESS » Why cultivate it? TOPICS » How do I practice it?

The Practices – Formal and Informal » Mindful Breathing » Mindful Walking » Mindful Eating » Mindful Listening/Mindful Chatter » Mindful Bodywork » Mindful Writing/Coloring » Mindful Dialoguing » Mindful Loving Kindness

Mindfulness and Perception Lenses » Acceptance/allowance, non-judgment, non-striving, patience, trust, openness, letting go, empathy, generosity, gratitude, gentleness, loving-kindness

The Mind-Body Connection » Making peace between our Mind and our Body » The Head Brain and the Stomach Brain

Stress and its Impact on the Body » Useful and not so Useful Stress » Stressors as Indicators

Experiencing Our Wholeness » Tapping into My Inner Blueprint » The Drive to Balance and Wholeness

Mindfulness as a Way of Engaging with Life » Choosing Response over Reaction » Self – Compassion » Daily Practice Plan

BOUNCETRAVELS.COM