Desert Bathing | Shinrin-Yoku Adapted | Botanical Immersion | Daily Yoga | Wildlife & Birding | UNESCO World Heritage
Oaxaca is one of the most botanically extraordinary places on Earth — and one of the least understood. This 10-day journey moves through landscapes that have shaped civilizations: the agave valleys that gave the world mezcal, the columnar cactus forests of the UNESCO World Heritage Tehuacán-Cuicatlán, the cool pine-oak highlands of the Sierra Norte, the karst canyons of the Cañada, and the eroded ochre badlands of the Mixteca Alta.
But this is not simply a botanical tour. It is a journey into the wisdom of dry places. The desert has a way of stripping back defenses so that what is most essential and fundamental can be revealed — unlocking an inner perseverance, depth, truth, and resiliency in those who are receptive to the invitation and observant of the land. In the seemingly barren landscape, there is a way of existing optimally in harsher, exposed conditions. When a connection to the desert is felt and formed, there is often a sense of intrinsic remembering — without illusion, distraction, or fluff. Allow the desert to help you remember who you are.
Each day we practice Desert Bathing — our adaptation of the Japanese practice of Shinrin-Yoku for arid and semi-arid landscapes. Where forest bathing asks you to receive softness, Desert Bathing asks you to receive patience to be shown a fortitude you did not know you had. What happens when the layers peel away? The geometric perfection of an agave rosette. The silence between cactus spines. The geological calm of sitting on a seafloor that is now a hillside. The Green Macaw lifting from a canyon wall at first light.
Daily yoga, guided botanical interpretation, community encounters with indigenous ejido landowners, and evening mezcal tastings weave the scientific and the sensory into one experience. Conservation runs through everything: every site on this journey is protected, monitored, or actively managed by FONCET and its partners — the same organization behind El Triunfo.
This journey is designed to inspire purposeful, positive change through bridging the gap between wellness, conservation, the beauty of nature and self-discovery into one immersive experience.
We believe Travel IS Alchemy — that moving through sacred landscapes, ancient healing ceremonies and living traditions positively transforms the traveler. By weaving together the spirit of the land, culture and community with the conservation of nature and leading self-developmental wellness modalities, our retreats are designed to inspire real and lasting personal transformations that are rooted in something much larger than the self.
As listed above
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All activities listed in itinerary, entrance fees, & local tipping
For more than three decades, I have walked through some of the most extraordinary places on Earth — cloud forests veiled in mist, ancient desert landscapes etched by wind and time, coastal wetlands alive with countless wingbeats of migrating birds. My life's work has been protecting these places. Now, I want to share what they can do for the human spirit.
At Spirit of Alchemy, I bring that conservation experience into a new context: small-group retreats that invite people to slow down, move through sacred landscapes, and let nature do what it has always done — heal, clarify, and transform. My focus is on making Shinrin-Yoku, desert immersion, and cloud forest wandering genuinely accessible — weaving them together with yoga and contemplative practice.
I currently serve as Executive Director of the Alianza Mesoamericana de Ecoturismo (AME), a Boulder-based 501(c)(3) with an eight-country network across Mesoamerica. I hold a BS in Forestry from Colorado State University and an MBA from San Francisco State University.
What drives me today is the conviction that the most powerful thing conservation can do is let people actually feel these places. That is the alchemy we are after.
Shanin Weisberg is a healer, teacher, coach, and wellness entrepreneur whose practice spans the full spectrum of integrative, soul-inspired healing — spirit healing, energy work, shamanic healing, Reiki, trauma-informed yoga, somatic coherence and intuitive coaching. She is the founder of Surrender to Soul Healing & Wellness, serving clients and students locally in Boulder County and internationally.
At Spirit of Alchemy, Shanin designs and facilitates the healing containers that make our retreats transformational — ceremony, somatic integration, shamanic journeying, meditation and soul-level shifts that go much deeper than conventional wellness travel. She teaches weekly yoga at Soul Tree Yoga in Lafayette, CO, and leads her flagship Portal of Light practitioner training, along with other workshops and classes both in CO and online.
Her work draws on deep training and initiation across yogic, somatic, energetic, and shamanic traditions — and her gift is creating the conditions in which real transformation of the soul becomes possible.
She brings to every retreat the same essence that guides Spirit of Alchemy: that when we move through sacred places with intention, reverence, practice and reflection, something in us shifts — and that shift is palpable, lasting and genuine.
