This is my story of InanItah.
A “volcano retreat”. A spiritual retreat is hidden amongst the undergrowth and nature on the side of a volcano, on the island of Ometepe in Nicaragua.
Here is my journey of how this place changed my life (and many others)
Content
I came across InanItah after googling “spiritual community”.
I had not known anything about InanItah or Isla Ometepe beforehand.
But I was about to learn a lot.
Facts About InanItah
Inanitah was created or started many years ago by 2 people who had a vision and looked to create a safe and sacred space for community, in a location that was allowing personal growth and development.
Inanitah is now equally shared between the 2. 6 months of the year.
The place in primarily made up of part volunteers who come for a season to learn and work. There are a lot of backpackers and travelers that stay anywhere from a day to 6 months. Some even longer. Even a few repeat visitors. The daily running of Inanitah was divided into tasks amongst volunteers and guests. Groups were assigned the tasks for the day.
The space itself is immersed in heavy forestation and nature. That kind of nature includes huge pythons and tarantulas.
Power is sourced via solar panels to provide electricity, power and basic wifi needs. The water is sourced from a spring and also from the rain for gardening purposes.
There is even a pool and a fire heated small steamed pool.
There are several outhouses where visitors can stay. All of the buildings are made from adobe and these practices of self-sustainability are also taught here.
And there are lot of little spots dotted around where you have experienced your own little space of freedom
Living accommodation is divided between several
90% of the food cooked and prepared there is grown on the land. Its a healthy plant-based diet.
Many classes are held there. Either external facilitators come in to share and educate. Experts from yoga, dance, medicine, body have created safe space for people to explore themselves on a level that that doesn’t exist at home. So volunteers can create there own service workshops on yoga, spirituality, massage, dance, movement join
And its also fine to read, relax, explore local excursions, spend time with others, eat healthy food, wonder to a few other local establishments
First Visit
After waiting by the wrong bus stop for an hour and then eventually flagging down a taxi, I got dropped off at a fork in the road.
I asked a few locals and directed in a direction on a main road. When getting to a stone that had some kind of symbol painted on it, I took a left-hand turned and proceeed to hike up this path for almost an hour.
After a long old jouney, the path opened up into a personal community. The secret heart of Ometepe.
Community is this thrown about word nowadays that we certainly use to describe who we often surround outselves. Being amongst out people.
And though it was the case here also, it really was the traditional sense of community. Communal living. Everyone working together for a common goal.
This is not to be confused with a spa or retreat center. Nor a church or cult. No God was thrown around here in a religious context. This was a simple, homely yet rustic group living space amongst nature. that promoted eventually got pointed to a log
Biodynamic Breathwork Workshop
In a practice session with Paul, the workshop facilitator, I was exposed to the powerful technique of Biodynamic Breathwork
His fingers under my back jarred into the center point
Group Meditation
Meditation takes many forms. I used to think it was all silence in a room, trying to focus on inner peace. And even though it IS that, it is also so much more.
Latin American Travels
There is was a good 4.5 months between my first and second visit. When the opportunity came up for me to attend the 3 week Tantric Way retreat I jumped at the chance.
I was in Colombia at the time and I was about to take a flight from Cartagena to Guayaquil in Ecuador via a 2-day stay over in Bogota. Then from Guayaquil, I was going to “overland it” to Lima in Peru and stay in Peru for 3 weeks.
I had also planned to try Ayahuasca again, after my first time in Medellin had not really had the desired effect.
The trip itself was fine, but I was approaching the end of the year and I was keen to reconnect with Gaia and the spiritual support center that was Inanitah.
I took a flight back from Lima to Panama. From there, I bussed it from Panama City, through Costa Rica
Second Visit
It felt great to be back. And I knew that this time I was back with a purpose. I’d had a taste before of the powerful potential of this place to heal me. The final few steps on an intentional journey I had made to connect the dots from my life, to recalculate the incorrect formulas from which I had been living my life.
Gaia had told people that I was a practicing Astrologer and I was inundated with requests at my time there, which was also part of my own journey into reading 300 birth charts for free to “test” myself and see if Astrologer was a viable way in which I could make some kind of a living.
And I was happy to oblige. Astrology has taught me so much, I was only happy to share.
The Tantric Way
I was on the 3-week program. Each week really had a different intention, but all of them as powerful as each other.
- Self & Source
- Lover & Beloved
- Community & Collective Consciousness
For more information, you can check out an overview of what the Tantric Way Series here program entails on Gaias personal website. https://www.gaiagasm.com/the-tantric-way-series/
I won’t share too much about that here, but lets just say that the yoga and meditation classes were really just scraping the surface of the transformation service that you go through.
When I was NOT doing work with the program, there was free time to serve others, join practices and services of other people’s skill sets.
To be present
Summary
InanItah is a jewel which really only the soul knows of its true value. I look back on my time there as a key point where really healing, growth and transformation happened. The world needs more places like this, and more support from people like Gaia.
Of course, the yoga classes and meditation classes are fine. But they serve as a gateway to internal vision, wisdom and freedom for which we all subconsciously seek.
In a world where we want to create real human contact, create real value, it’s a must do.