|
|
Malapacao
the island is a remarkable ridge of limestone, 565
feet (172m) high with a detached boulder 310 feet (94m) high
and
it assumes the appearance of a double island. The name means 'Land of
the Bigfoot or Foot on the Ground'. Another name is 'Adventure Island'.
Corals are abundant
and
there are still caves not fully explored. One can swim around the island
in about 80 mins or kayak/paddle in about 50. Another worthwhile adventure
is to test your swimming ability. Be dropped off at the Princess
and
swim back. It takes less between 40-55 mins . Our boatman can be nearby
to check your progress.
Accommodation;
(maximum
of 6 visitors)
Partially
hidden in trees are 6 open-plan, very rustic native cottages with beachfront
balcony and hammock, plus attached garden bathroom. Every cottage bathroom
is equipped with a Narra hardwood
Colema board for your self administered colonic irrigation.
Inside
there's a double
and
single bed and an amazingly wonderful view of our Goddess/Princess (Inabuyutan
Island).
In each cottage you will find a Bio-Energizing
Zapper for your use whenever you care to give yourself Chi Energy.
Aside from strengthening your immune system, it kills parasites (don't
worry we all have them). With a stronger immune system, free of many of
your parasites, you'll already on the correct path to rejuvenating yourself
and
the results of this therapy is amazingly fast
.Though I'm not allowed to say it on the Internet, many great benefits
for cancers are being found with these little 'Gifts of God' too.
For
more About Colema boards, bio-zappers and
their benefits click
<fasting detox info> and
<spa therapies>
A
feather duvet is provided for cool night, and all linens are tie-dyed
from the bark of trees, plus extra pillows for comfort can be asked for.
Every little detail has been made with love and care for the simple pleasures.
You'll
enjoy simple open, tastefully
decorated cottage accommodation, only 6 in all, right on the water, in
very quiet serene surroundings. You can take advantage or our secluded
island sundecks for all-over suntans and
healthy revitalizing vitamin D at various times of the day.
Why
come
alone? From experience
we have observed that couples sometimes don't fully appreciate the need
for the quality time needed to be quiet and alone.
Self-Healing, rejuvenation and purification
and
colon cleansing are an individual
and
personal thing.
Truly there is no need of apprehension or fear in coming here by yourself.
By coming here alone (without your partner)
you can
often
better
find yourself and balance what troubles you.
This is what our programs are all about... finding your own identity, growing
spiritually and
learning tips about optimal health to purify your body, mind
and
soul.
Take advantage of a few days of silent retreat too, as this can be very
powerful as well.
'Women
Only' groups
are now the majority.
Mixed Gender Retreat Programs are offered several
times a year. We advise YOU to arrange a few months in advance.
Staff Situations;
Private Island is just our personal home
and
we run our retreat nonprofit, (meaning we're happy just to see the bills
paid).
Most Retreat staff have been working with us for a very long time
and
nearly all permanent staff are women, including Melinda, Elma, Fely, Macring
and Merlie, plus the occasional casual helpers. The life on the island
is generally laid back.
However you only need to ask
and
your wish is their command. Provided you understand the situation it all
works well. Noli, Charlie, Augustine who work as carpenters
and
plus Jessie our boat driver. Our expert coconut tree climbers
and
a few other casual maintenance helpers are male. Ha..ha!! we haven't been
lucky enough to find women able to do these jobs....maybe one day!!
Most staff live in our small fishing village on the other side of the
island
and
they are delighted when you ask to visit their simple village and
meet some of their children. All staff, where possible, try
to be unobtrusive
and
most of them return to their village or nearby mainland after working
hours, which are generally between 7am-11am then 1pm -5pm.
The exception to this is our 'House Elves' who often help with your daily
therapies, treatments and
create 'your simple raw and semi raw food 'meals. When you are eating
of course!! They also co-ordinate with your fasting detox program which
has a very early 6am start.
Apart
from our island staff, there are several others working in my El Nido
town Center,
and
one of them will be looking after you flight tickets
and
will meet you on arrival at the El Nido airport, when you arrive off the
ITI. or SEAir plane.
They will accompany you to our El Nido Center by hired jeepney or tricycle
where we will transfer to our waiting boat to take you to our island 45
minutes away.
In earlier years
we had 30-40 visitors a day
and
employed over 35 staff. Many visitors loved our beautifully displayed
table of foods, served on banana leaves with many flowers. Comments flew
every day about the wonderful food on Private Island.
It was partly this that urged us to change, we too couldn't avoid eating
a small cake, tart or fresh bread when it was baked right in our kitchen.
However views change and we felt that many of our visitors dwelled too
much on food
and
the quantity of it, rather than the quality.
Since developing our Rejuvenation, Purification and Self-Healing Programs,
we now prefer to offer quality time, working with only a handful of visitors
here at any one time.
Don't be surprised if you find only 1, 2 or 3 other visitors sharing this
beautiful paradise with you.
Exclusivity
it what you are paying for, Quiet is what you are coming for, and
Inner Peace is what you can experience if you are ready for it.
|
|
We
encourage a raw food diet while cleansing. Should you have Candida, we
encourage you to eat mostly veggies only, as fruits can
and
do encourage bloating, cravings for carbs
and
sugars
and
can make you feel hungry. All foods would be blended
and
served in liquid form (fruit juices
and
vegetables in a broth).
Our veggie, or seaweed broths can be made to your taste and
we encourage you wait till the end of the day for 1 or 2 bowls of them.
Every day we alternate with a parasite blend or a liver blend, the base
of these are either avocado (if in season) or raw grated pumpkin.
They are served around midday in a little wrap of begonia leaf and you
can eat the leaf too.
If at any time you feel your program to be too rigid, we will do our best
to satisfy your particular dietary requirements.
If you are not fasting, foods may be served whole for you to cut as you
wish, with lots of sprouts, sauerkraut, raw young and older crunchy coconut,
with lots of fresh
coconut cream.
Its all very easy to prepare and
we will be encouraging you to think simplistic when you go home.
If you are thinking that you'll be coming here for many ways to create
raw food and the variety of food we offer, we would like you to be aware
that our table is simple and basic, as was Robinson Crusoe land. Though
I am sure he had much less.
Remember we live on an island, and items are hard to get here and often
we don't have lots of variety.
We do our best with the uncomplicated ingredients of what we have, and
in as close to the natural state as possible.
We encourage you to be open about this
Creating an internal alkaline environment
is the key to assisting elimination during detox.
With this in mind, we prepare many of our dishes with spirulina, garlic,
ginger, chili powder, sea grape seaweed (lato), also another super green
food called malungay (leaves of the horseradish tree), fresh oregano.
We grow various sprouts in our kitchen, and
sometimes wheat grass, thought is a challenge, as it often doesn't
agree to grow for us.
Your detox elimination cleanse will be a nutritional experience in more
ways than you can imagine.
We also offer recipes that you may take home, though we know that many
of the leaves we use in our kitchen you might now get..
|
|
Our
private island is blessed with a very special 'Cool
Micro Climate': Nestled, as the retreat is, between two large
cliffs covered in dense jungle vegetation, plus a wonderful tropical garden
-- our position enjoys a cooler
and
more temperate climate than almost any other bay or island in our vicinity.
Interestingly, our island receives 30% less rain than the nearby mainland,
including the town of El Nido. I regularly see the clouds
and
rain very nearby, but luckily we are bathed in sunshine
and
by added good fortune, often see many double rainbows over
our Goddess.
Temperatures: December
to end of January is classified as our Winter. The sky is sometimes
cloudy
and
some days can be a little windy, though the average day temperature is
between 24-28 degrees & the evening between 22-25 degrees.
With the winds coming from the north (we call it 'Daplak') the sea temperature
at this time is between 25-27 degrees (1.5-2% cooler than at other times
in the year)
and
the visibility is poorer.
February becomes warmer with day temperatures climbing to a semi-hot
30-31 degrees by the end of April, early May. The wind decreases, keeping
now steadily in the East (we call it 'Amihan' )
and
the sky is a brilliant blue. Sea temperature is a lovely 28-29 degrees...hum!!!.......
You can stay in the water for hours.
Because
of our micro climate
and
shady gardens etc., our evenings are mostly cool. Some of us sleep with
a feather duvet on their bed all year round.
A few visitors enjoy to sleep on our sundeck surrounded by water
and
often indulge in sleeping under the stars
and
encourage visitors to appreciate this pleasure.
By
mid or end of May the rains might come but often it may not happen
till mid August. We call this 'Habagat'
and
this is generally when typhoons could start. There is no hard fast rule,
even in the rainy season, downpours normally last only a short time, then
lovely blue sunny skies come out an hour later. Of course storms do come
and
sometimes two or three together, creating 5-10 days of 'on-off' rainy
weather, but this is not often. Typhoons can offer an interesting scenario,
they are mostly short lived 6-8 hours, then good weather returns.
A
pattern that is quite common is that around full moon the weather is often
more stable, only after the moon wanes do storms appear. Bad weather is
however, nothing like bad weather in many parts of the world. We'd go
so far as to say that we live in one of the most beautiful climates in
the world. As the days are warm, rain is not a real bother here. We've
learnt to dance
and
do tai-chi
and
qigong in rain showers on our decks
and
the spectacular phenomena of Goddess Ina (the island just in front of
our island..read more about her in folklore) is that we are blessed with
fantastic rainbows, even doubles, seemingly protecting us by the heavens
above.
Magic is often in the air, colors
and
contrasts abound in our landscape
and
the months between May to October are often my favorite.
Sea visibility is at it's best in these months.
By
November the sea can begin to stir up as the winds try to shift,
but this is the time rain becomes less
and
less. See what
to bring to get a good idea of what not to bother bringing!!!
|
|
Get
yourself up early, the morning is a wonderful time to see birds. It's
the best time of the day. Before 6am you'll probably hear on of us blowing
our Helmet-Conch shell, talking to the nearly islands
and
our higher guides
and
calling forth the new day
and
for swimmers to take a short swim if you want
and
to drink your 1st 'Juice-Detox shake' before we start with breath work,
yoga, meditation
and
some gentle arts. We start with a little "self massage" with
spiked coconut oils. Generally we use a mixture of cinnamon
and
citronella, or turmeric, good to wake up the muscles
and
keep the few stray mosquitoes at bay. If you are really a hard person
to wake
and
if you mention the night before, we'll be happy to offer our "Welcome
to the World" call as we pass and
leave an Augubower lily or another flower on your doorstep.
When the weather is fine which is 90% of the time we workout on our Western
'Rocky Island' sundeck high over the water overlooking the islands of
the bay.
Otherwise we might use our lovely Peace Temple or our 3 tiered 'Stairway
to Heaven' deck. Then we'll sit quietly in meditation pose a few moments,
or call up our Reiki guides for a little reiki healing energies or we'll
share some breath work. Then we might continue on with some gentle Rindo
Karate body-mind warm-ups
and
a little Heart Chi Gong, or Tai Chi-Chi Gong moves. It all depends on
the group
and
their strength at the time.
If
you want, we can progress to some slightly more strenuous Katas or Yoga
poses, or if you prefer just enjoy your own Gentle Arts, teach us something
if you like,we love learning something new, so we can in turn, pass this
on to others.
|
