Eco Yoga Park - near Lujan

This post is brought to you from a hammock underneath a pear tree at http://www.ecoyogapark.com/ … it’s a tough life!

After all the heavy celebrating in Buenos Aires, we came here for full on relaxation and clean living.  It is park run by Hare Krishnas with the aim to be fully sustainable through their vegetable garden.  In keeping with their faith it is vegan and they prohibit all bad stuff like alcohol and cigarettes and those well known aphrodisiacs such as onion and garlic! 

(Shirley)Temple



Home for the week



You notice the peace and tranquillity as soon as you arrive; you can hear the wind in the bamboo, birds calling and it all looks out over huge open fields.   The vegetable garden is a treasure chest, rows and rows of tasty vegetables like aubergines, beetroot, sweet corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers … It really is amazing.  

 The days here live up to the relaxation that was promised!  By 6am we’re in the garden weeding, watering or harvesting vegetables for the meals throughout the day.  At 8am the breakfast bell rings and we eat fruits, fresh bread and oats.  And then it’s back to work for another couple of hours.   At the moment it is the height of summer, so by 10.30am the heat is unbearable and it’s difficult to do anything more outside, so after that the day is ours to do as we choose!

Sunrise in the garden

There is meditation in the morning or just lying in hammocks and catching up on reading.  Lunch is at 1.30pm followed by more chilling out.  The next event is music therapy at 4pm and then yoga at 4.30pm.  I had a real reality check sitting in the beautiful temple on the cool concrete listening to the monks and mothers singing Hare Krishna.  In all the thoughts I’ve had about this trip I did not think I’d be experiencing something as authentic as this.  And it reminds me that having an open mind and a desire to experience the weird and wonderful can take you to some pretty amazing places.

Afterwards we are fed again – amazing little, fruity snacks and tea and then more free time.  Sometimes there are talks by the spiritual leader who explains the faith and beliefs of Hare Krishnas and sometimes films to provoke thought on why we’re here and how to make the world a better place.  As far fetched as it all sounds it’s difficult not to be just a little bit inspired by people who practise love and happiness.

And then the final meal of the day – dinner.  For those of you counting, yes, that is 4 meals!  You can understand why I love it so much here!  The food is so good, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from vegan food, but every meal is so fresh and tasty.  They bake their own bread in a wood burning oven and everything else pretty much all comes straight from the garden.  I’m so impressed how each meal is so creative and different to the last – we’ve even had pizza!  And if you’re still hungry after 4 meals, there’s always the peach tree to go to for a snack! With food like this, I really don’t miss meat or dairy. 

Watch out Dominoes - Vegan pizza from a wood fired oven is a taste sensation!

I felt healthy just looking at the food!


There have been a couple of things which have been hard to handle … the lack of coffee and the heat.  Instead of tea and coffee we are served lovely fresh herbal teas, but the lack of caffeine did leave me with the classic withdrawal headache for a couple of days – who knew I was such an addict!  And then the heat!  It has hit 41 degrees since we’ve been here, a couple of days of not being able to cool down anywhere has been pretty tough to handle because your only option is to sweat it out and wait for the sun to go down.  But those are the only things!  The lack of alcohol or nightlife hasn’t bothered me at all!

It really is a dreamy place where you are granted full permission to relax.  It’s easy to get caught up in urgency to see every single thing while you’re travelling and not just enjoy the moment of having very little concern and the ability to do whatever makes you the happiest in that moment.  It’s hard to shake off the work state of mind of trying to be efficient and effective with every minute of the day.  Being here gives you the permission to just be. 

There isn’t anything else to do apart from relax and take your time, the hardest decision is which hammock to choose … under the pear tree or the fig tree?!  You can literally feel the batteries being recharged.

After a week of being at the yoga park I felt completely replenished and fully prepared for the next part of the journey –the Lake District and Patagonia.  Bring on the trekking and outdoor pursuits!