Have you ever considered practicing yoga in one of the most beautiful Aegean villages, under an imposing castle while gazing at the endless blue sky?
Have you ever imagined a place where you can combine your everyday yoga practice with the beauties of an island with stunning beaches, unique food, tradition, full of a special serenity and simplicity?
This hidden treasure is somewhere between the Dodecanese and the Cyclades, and if you look at it from above, you see the shape of a butterfly. That’s why its name is the Aegean’s Butterfly. Astypalea was still an unexplored place for many of us and was inviting us to explore it.
The Yoga Retreat that I organized in September 2018 was something unique. I set up an outdoor yoga room of 100m2, with a special floor and tent, for 30 yogis under the walls of the castle next to Panagia Portaitissa, just as I imagined it. To breathe, practice and see this unique beauty of Greece, this combination of the white of the houses and the clean, unfiltered blue of the sea.
The island and the people are simple in a way that they made you feel like you are walking in your own neighborhood. Within two days everyone on the island had learned about our retreat, they were greeting us, and many were passing by to see us, as if it were a theatrical play played every morning and afternoon on the island.
Every day we chose a different beach, Steno, Kaminakia, Vatses, Livadi – we wanted to explore the entire island’s corners and seas, even the most remote ones that we needed to drive on dirt roads, in a landscape full of wild beauty. In many we did not have time to go. Many canteens, nestled in the salt-trees, to our surprise, were as good as a gourmet restaurant filled with local cheese, vegetables, meat and fish. This place produces everything!
The revelation for us was the day we traveled to the islands of Kounoupi and Koutsomitis. Unparalleled beauty with turquoise waters and a beach bar at the Kounoupes, truly untouched by time.
Our day closed with a walk in the windmills and alleys and a romantic dinner or a drink in Chora and Pera Gialos, always overlooking the illuminated castle.
The island’s energy is unbelievable, combining alternative and elegant, and this is way it was for me the absolute yoga destination
I would like to thank Blue Star Ferries for the support of BODYTALK for dressing me all of these days.
Fotini
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