There are still uncontaminated lands on the planet, so authentic and sacred, that nourish the soul in depth and speak of ancient traditions. Chile is one of them! Why have I chosen to experience Wellness & Spa in Chile and in Easter Island, the most isolated place in the world? Because I wanted to pamper myself in the wild and endless nature, in touch with the slowness and hospitality of the “chilean buena onda” and the rituals of Rapa Nui shamans, living many experiences of chilean wellness, like yoga under the sky in the Atacama Desert and having the privilege to confront my knowledge of benefits of herbs as Naturopath with the one of a real Machi, the rare localhealer-woman, with a great expertise in medicine herbs that she picks up spontaneously. Rosita, one of the last Machi in the Pucon area, opened her house and the alchemical lab to me in Liquinie, and gave to me her precious potion of Yerbasmatas that she finds on the slopes of the andean mountains, at dawn, in full moon, with the dew and that she suggested me, to be taken for the next 15 days: Romero, Ruda and Yerva del gato! Then, one of the reasons of this trip was trying the native Maquí-Berries, the powerful super-food antioxidants, rich in anthocyanins, effective for antiaging, found only in Chile, the Aristotelian Chilensis, that I tasted directly from the plants, in Patagonia of the North, because they resist only in this areas, with heavy rain and thunderstorms, a lot of wind and volcanic soil. It’s always fantastic learning new life lessons from traveling around the world and importing new habits. As Maquí changes and extends the life and as it was already my habitual supplement, now it will become serial, not just in capsules but also in food powder, because Chileans do everything with it. I tasted a delicious vegetarian hamburger, whose organic bread had been made of its freeze-dried powder and its fresh juice.

In Chile you could say “VIVA THE NATURE”, because it’s applied its beliefs sustainable, combining nature and culture with a dash of ecology, thanks to the presence of many different biospheres: dry dunes, fertile valleys, high volcanoes, ancient forests, massive glaciers, fjords and all the wonders of our globe, so I could try the forest-therapy, directly in a “green bath”, to regenerate my body and spirit, at Montana Magica, a hotel inside a hill of ground and wood, with a waterfall from the top, surrounded by the Huilo Huilo Nature Reserve, in central Chile. And I felt Lilliputian in its presence. It’s an authentic and lush area of 1000 square kilometers, washed by the Huilo Huilo River and offers unmissable activities of rafting, fishing, kayaking, horseback riding, trekking and lots of Wellness, in contact with the true nature. A must for me was trying an invigorating massage with local forest medical herbs, a mix of Rica-Rica, Copa-Copa, Pingo-Pingo, surrounded by a fairy wood, in a super-natural world, in the Montana Magica Spa. It’s easy to get yourself full of adrenaline because Chile is a ideal destination to practice endless outdoor activities,‍ inside of fantastic natural attractions, as it’s the country of the thousand adventures par excellence, in varied landscapes, breathtaking views and impressive amount of water present, thanks to all the powerful rivers that come from the Andean glaciers, which form crystalline lakes, rapids and indescribable inlets. A stimulus for the senses. The water in Chile will be the precious liquid gold of the future! There’s also the hot water, where I regenerated myself at the Termas Geometrical, near Pucón, one of the largest natural whirlpool in the world, with two cascades of thermal springs that descend from a green canyon, forming 17 pools of water with 43 degrees and a red path that offers the feeling of being in Kyoto! In the same area, I was lucky to be welcomed into the house of a real Mapuche family,‍‍ the Chilean native people, indomitable and now rare, whose name means ”people of the earth”, so I lived an afternoon together with Madame Eliana and Mr. Egidio, learning some musical instruments and local poetries, having a snack with typical food and feeling myself blessed for their hospitality and magic on the shore of a sacred lake.

For the New Year’s Eve, I waited for midnight with a yoga class under the sky,‍ in the Atacama desert, thanks to the chilean and talented Master Kathy, in a circle of stones and cooks-astrologers who then animated with music, bonfire and dinner with Andean food and medicinal herbs. The full moon and the shooting stars were the choreography, in the earthly place with less light pollution, the best one for the “star hunters”, that gives life to an incredible show, so to be considered the natural star-lab in the world for the study of cosmology so to host the most ambitious radio-telescope, the ALMA. The desert is undoubtedly an initiatory place, where one reaches a spirituality that awakens the senses and gives a sense of existence, by contacting the spiritual dimension of life and regenerating the physic and the mind; it’s full of a particular aura and propitious to meditation, to patience, to listening to yourself, it’s a sacred place that helps every traveler to find ignored paths, like a catwalk to happiness. So to start the new year impoverishing useless loads, which clutter me, allows me to enrich my new life, especially climbing up the El Tatio Geyser, at 5 in the morning, a gigantic natural geothermal steam bath at 4300 m s.l.m.

The beauty and the magic of Easter Island, then, made me get so fascinated that I could connect myself from dawn to sunset, in the extreme silence, contemplating in all the archeological sites and meditating in the cave, faced on the Pacific Ocean and on the edge of an ancient crater of the sacred volcano Rano Kau, in one of the most incredible landscapes of all the South Pacific. During my escaping there, I lived an eremitic relax, at Hangaroa Eco Village &Spa, in harmony with the enviroment and in a totally 100% politics of eco-sustainability, where I also appreciated a lot the experience of Bamboo-Therapy, an active treatment to drain, detox and rest deeply the whole body, made by bamboo wood sticks. Rapa Nui island teached me the humbleness to make me get smaller in front of the huge and mysterious ancestors of the clans of the past, figured out in the legendary Moai statues, because to become a big you should start with being small. (Raphaella Dallarda – INSPATIMEBLOG)