Bric-a-Brac 45
The Cure Edition, Part 1: Checking into a holistic healing farm in South Africa and a Yucatan spa-hotel rooted in Mayan mysticism…plus how to take your first “sēfari”
Our spring print issue of Yolo Journal comes out next week, and we’re calling it The Cure. It’s an issue devoted to wellness and our obsession with the best places to go to find it—from hot spring hotels to Swiss medi-spas, Ayurvedic cleansing clinics to jungle yoga retreats. In today’s and our next Bric-a-Brac (in two weeks—next week is our Spain Travel Planner!), we’re sharing a few more of our favorite finds–sort of an extended playlist of the magazine, and then some. Plus a comprehensive list of every single place on our health radar, whether you’re into detox cleanses, temazcal ceremonies, nature retreats, or hiking boot camps.
GUEST BOOK: Sterrekopje, Cape Winelands, South Africa
By Marta Heine-Geldern
Date of stay… February, 2023
Best for… Personal transformation on a fairytale farm
The look and feel… Sterrekopje calls itself a “healing farm,” but it is so much more. On a restored 17th-century farm in the foothills of the Franschhoek mountains an hour from Cape Town, it is an aesthetic feast for the senses: heritage farmhouse buildings, fanciful painted murals, and medicinal gardens and orchards to wander around. The vision here is about transformative rest and creative play, and the owners, Nicole Boekhoorn and her wife, Fleur Huijskens, take care to shape a profound sense of calm for each guest from the very first morning. Wake up to the sound of roosters crowing and the chef humming songs while cooking amazing dishes straight from the garden, while the smell of freshly ground coffee guides you to the communal table under the olive trees.
The rooms… Sterrekopje’s focus on rest begins with just 11 guest rooms, most in Cape Dutch-style cottages. Choose between rejuvenating suites and “abundant” or “intimate” sanctuaries that are all completely different, each one an homage to art, culture and creativity in earthy palettes. I fell for their immaculate handcrafted furniture and truly spectacular taste in textures and fabrics.
The wellness… The program begins when you disconnect from your usual life and routines and let yourself slowly connect with the self and surrounding nature. The 2- to 7-night journeys held in the spa include a mix of therapies that include: ritual of touch (body therapy, meridian alignment, reflexology); alchemy for the soul (reiki, energy balance, hypnotherapy); sound awakening (sacred vibration, tribal sound bath); vital movement (yoga, qigong, flexibility); and sleep rituals (mineral salt & wildflower bath, deep sleep massage). The spa also has a large tiled hammam for massages.
When not in treatment, you can hike, bike, or play (paint, draw or throw pottery in the atelier, which has its own wheels and kiln). Or walk the fragrant chakra garden, designed to reflect and stir the body’s own chakras.
The food… Sterrekopje believes that joyful indulgence and conscious consumption can coexist. It all starts with being committed and holistic custodians of the fertile ground they tend on this historic farm. Plants are heroes here. They grow, harvest and raise many of their ingredients and source other local produce from nearby biodynamic farms. And the kitchen/bakery, located in the historical Main House, is as inviting as in a family home, a space in which to eat, read, or just take in the sounds and smells.
Extra tip goes to… Josefine, the kindest and sweetest therapist, who started my journey at Sterrekopje. She made me feel so secure and well cared for—and very much at home, hundreds of miles from my actual one.
Be sure to… Start your journey with the cleansing ritual in their beautiful hammam. I would also consider their Wise Women Retreats, a dream for anyone who would like to build a deeper connection with her innate feminine power.
Parting words… I truly doubt I will ever find a place in Europe that will come close to competing with the magic of Sterrekopje. It has set a new bar for travel.
Marta Heine-Geldern, the founder of Voyage Provocateur, has been traveling the last ten years mainly around Europe. Together with her family, they’ve been discovering South Africa for the last month, before they set off to Maldives for another three weeks.
GUEST BOOK: Chablé Maroma, Riviera Maya, Mexico
By Alex Postman
Date of stay… January, 2023
Best for… A quiet and easy beach-spa retreat with Mayan flavor
The look and feel… Along meandering white paths, 1- and 2-story limestone cubes are hidden behind tangled jungle foliage and set back from a wide sandy beach. It feels sort of restrained at first—no Mexican fiesta banners in sight! But then you realize understatement is the point and frankly a huge relief in contrast to the uncha-uncha swim-up-bar style resorts along the Riviera Maya between Cancun and Playa del Carmen. One of three sister hotels (Chable Yucatan, the original, is in a restored hacienda near Merida; the newest, Casa Chable, is just 10 rooms in the Sian Ka’an biosphere south of Tulum), Chablé is known for its Mayan-inspired wellness programming and sustainable approach. Thanks to all that greenery and a curved semi-private beach, Chablé Maroma manages to feel very secluded.
The rooms… There are 70 villas, but it feels like fewer. The rooms are made with local zapote (moisture-resistant) hardwood, and most have tall windows, indoor-outdoor showers and a plunge pool. Ours was a bit dark inside (jungle facing), but you’re not really going to spend much time in there (and if you do, there’s A/C and TVs, which we didn’t touch).
The food… Unexpectedly great. The resident chef Luis Quiroz interprets contemporary Mexican menus conceived by chef Jorge Vallejo, chef/owner of Mexico City icon Quintonil, with Yucateco ingredients. Big Mexican breakfasts at Kaban (with coffee produced for Chablé by small growers in Chiapas) are fantastic; the rotating dishes of butters (guava, fig, papaya) and salsas (roasted habaneros in olive oil, arbol chiles and tomato) alone are so good. Lunch is tasty too, but since the prices are expensive for Mexico, we wound up skipping lunch in favor of a mountain of fresh guacamole and chips each day. There is also a raw bar and fine-dining restaurant, Bu’ul, and though I don’t generally love to eat Michelin-style, our tasting menu including venison tziik and tlayuda, creamy rice and blue shrimp from Campeche, and duck with black chichilo mole was admittedly really good, especially downed with Mexican wines from Valle de Guadalupe and Chihuahua. All the fish are locally/sustainably caught and the wines lean into the organic, biodynamic and natural.
The wellness… When you arrive at the hotel, you are brought to the spa for a copal ceremony—a Mayan ritual with smoking scented resin that serves as an “energetic spiritual check-in.” It burns off the stale airplane juju and sets the tone for your stay. The spa area’s hot and cold plunge and jet pools are open to soak in during a stay, not just if you have a treatment—most of which are inspired by traditional Mayan healing methods, and the ocean. I did the “Pure Soul” treatment with Juan, a reiki specialist and energy healer, which begins with massage of the physical body then moves to treating your energetic body in a bath of hundreds of quartz stones and obsidian to absorb negative vibes.
Extra tip goes to … Michael the sommelier, whose knowledge of world but especially Mexican wines turned into a 3-day tasting workshop; get him going about the red wines of Chihuahua. And Luis, who moved our poolside umbrella inch by inch all day to keep us out of the sun.
Be sure to... Do sunrise yoga on the beach with Juan, and sunset drinks at the upstairs bar (they make all of their bitters and dried garnishes and their custom-made tequila blanco is 100%). They can also arrange for pyramid and cenote tours with a local tour operator with private access to certain locations, so you won’t be cramming onto a bus with the neon-tee crowd.
Parting words… This place nails it for a long weekend from the East Coast—you can fly from JFK at 6 or 7 am and be on the beach by lunchtime. And in a region that feels like an environmental tragedy with its excess of enormous flashy resorts, I appreciated how Chablé Maroma was built to respect the contours of the land and displace as little vegetation as possible, does regular dune and mangrove remediation, recycles grey water, and protects sea turtles in season.
Alex Postman is the deputy editor of Yolo Journal
TRAVEL WELL
Jobi Manson, founder, Sēfari
I met Jobi Manson through my friend J.J. Martin of La DoubleJ, who she called a “highly attuned water whisperer.” Since then, I had a chance to do one of her elemental immersions at The Well in NYC, and it was a transporting deep-dive through imaginary landscapes accompanied by sound (plus I loved that she arrived that night carrying a huge sack of rocks). We featured a short Q&A with Jobi in The Cure issue of Yolo Journal, but—as with the water she works with—it’s hard to contain her to just one page. So here’s the extended interview! —A.P.
Tell us about Sēfari.
To sēfari is to bathe in the nature of being – it’s a practice of creating space for deep intuitive listening.
Sēfari comes from a fusion of two of my favorite words, sea and safari. Safari is Arabic, originating from “Safar,” meaning "to journey." A sēfari is a journey that explores our inner nature, the emotional landscape, the ways in which we see, think, feel and behave. I like to think that sēfari exists to help people remember how to embrace the nature within.
How does it work?
There are many ways in which I share the ritual practice of Sēfari, both in 1:1 settings, group facilitation and virtually. Regardless of how I am connecting with someone, I always begin with a consultation where we survey the landscape, both inner and outer—together we explore and map their physical and emotional terrain. Immersion programs are bespoke and employ many different forms of ecotherapy, art practice and guided self-discovery, depending on a client’s intentions and goals. All the tools I utilize are designed to help someone connect with their sense of purpose and presence.
What is an “elemental meditation journey”?
I define elemental meditation as the practice of cultivating intentional connection with the natural world. When we immerse into a landscape, we enter space that is alive. This dialogue between our bodies and the environment is experienced through our senses and expressed in our nervous system. When we sink into nature, we become what we absorb. The sights, the sounds, the scents awaken the hidden wonders of the body. The elements remind us that we do not come into this world, we come out of it – and we too, are beautiful bodies of organic matter.
With this understanding, I created “Bathe in Nature,” a guided, 30-minute meditation journey that uses the power of touch and presence of sound to attune the body and soothe the senses. This recorded meditation can be used while literally immersed in the bathtub, and it is designed to support the balance of our stress. I listen before sleep to quiet my mind, wash off the day and begin to dream.
How does your work connect to travel or a sense of place?
When I craft a listening journey, I am working with specific sounds that emerged from a particular place: rainfall in an old growth forest, crashing waves shaping the Cliffs of Moher, an Amazonian tribe performing a ritual. Sound has immense power to conjure memory and more than any other sense, sound governs our attention. Through sound we travel and as we listen, we absorb a unique sense of that place.
You can do it anywhere, right?
Yes! Personally, I prefer to listen in the bath—I love the way it feels to completely let go while I take everything in. There are also significant physical benefits to practicing meditation in water, specifically warm water. Sēfari journeys can be wonderful tools to use when we find ourselves in noisy environments, in transit, for jet lag, to aid in sleep, etc.
Recently we have teamed up with a few very special hospitality partners, including Auberge, to offer this experience as a complimentary in-room DIY wellness service to welcome guests and help sink into presence.
Do you have a travel uniform?
In the world of fashion, Nili Lotan is my spirit animal. I love most things she creates, but an all-time favorite would be her Paris pant. I love the classic summer shoe by Feit, which feels modern and handmade. I am really inspired by their sense of craftsmanship and love the way these slippers have patinaed over time. Rarely do I leave without a hat, and my go to is a Takataka woven South American horse-rider hat. Lastly, a basic tee is a must – I love the silk noil tee created by Ozma!
How do you stay healthy and grounded when you travel?
I keep an organic relationship with time—rising with light is very important for me to remain in sync with my morning routine. Additionally, I pack a ritual kit of sorts, and always begin the day putting pen to paper. I travel with my own coffee cup and prioritize physical movement first thing. Vitamin C is also a game changer; I rarely leave home without it.
An additional shift I have made recently was inspired by both my partner and Dr. Mindy Pelz, author of “Fast Like A Girl”– in learning how to eat for my body & my cycle. Dr. Mindy is a pioneer in the space of women’s hormonal health and through her work, I have become hooked on intermittent fasting and monitoring my ketone and glucose levels. This is a very new practice for me (within the last 2 months), but I share because I have never felt better or had more energy.
Strategies for dealing with jet lag?
I love to find a local bathhouse for a soak or steam room followed by a cold plunge or cold shower. A balance of hot and cold water to really help activate circulation and immune response—water gets things moving. Essential oils help (I love the ones sold at Naxos Apothecary in Athens), and as a last resort, a WYLD gummy can work miracles.
What are a few things you always pack for your beauty/wellness/self-care routine?
Annee de Mamiel – First Fix Stress Response
Wonder Valley – Hinoki Body Oil
Keto Mojo – Blood Sugar & Ketone Monitor
Takazawa Nanao Candle and Stand
What are a few of your favorite spiritual/wellness destinations and why?
For the past two summers, I have spent time on the island of Hydra. Often overlooked by those favoring neighboring Cycladic islands, Hydra—or Ydra, as the locals say—is known as the island of longing. Sunkissed, slow, hot. Hydra has no cars, only donkeys, and one walks from place to place. Bells chime at sunrise, freddo espresso is served lazily around 10:30, and time stands still. June and September are optimal for a visit to this European masterpiece. If you are visiting for a short time, the best spot to stay is called Bratsera; it is an industrial and nautical space, originally a local sponge factory. If you’re planning a longer stint, which I highly recommend, you will find a plethora of beautifully curated authentic abodes on Airbnb. There are three top notch restaurants in my opinion: Techne (Greek word for artist), Il Casta, and a small local gem owned and operated by a formidable woman named Tassoula. I don’t know the name of the restaurant, but if you ask around for Tassoula, I promise you will discover the best fava of your life.
A few additional places I feel at home in the world: Sea Ranch and the Sonoma coast; Kaealakakua Bay on the Big Island of Hawaii (at my favorite Airbnb); and Casa Orgullosa in Oaxaca.
Where are you dreaming of going next and why?
Italy – I can hardly contain my excitement! I have been asked to collaborate with my friend J.J. Martin of LADoubleJ for a special private event on Lake Como at the one and only Passalacqua!
Japan – I have never been, and more than anywhere else, I deeply admire the Japanese aesthetic, their celebration of materiality, and honoring the power of ritual. I have begun a running list of all the onsens I will be visiting, come November.
Scotland – A not-so-secret passion of mine lies in the exploration of neolithic stone circles. I want to get lost in the Scottish Highlands and have a full-on outlander moment.
What is the best way for people to find you?
Website / iamsefari.com
Bi-monthly newsletter / Sefari.substack.com
Upcoming Workshops:
“Delta” – A Virtual 8 Week Workshop Exploring “Work As Art” / April 2023
“Stone Studies” – A Healing Arts Immersion on Hydra / Summer Solstice / June 2023
MOODBOARD
Our favorite instagram account of the week.
A new, renewable-energy powered outpost of Spain-based SHA Wellness clinic is opening in Quintana Roo, Mexico.
Elmore Court in Gloucestershire is opening 6 new treehouses above their woodland, so guests can immerse themselves in the estate's rewilded acres.
For their 30th anniversary, The Datai Langkawi is launching Serenity, a well-being series that will bring top holistic practitioners from around the world to their Malaysian rainforest retreat.
Our friends at Air Mail just launched their new monthly beauty & wellness magazine, The Look, with Allure founder Linda Wells.
This collection of cozy Scottish Highland getaways has options for those who want to stay in a country farmhouse, treehouse, or 1950s showman’s wagon.
Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempten’s Spotify account has tracks to transport you to an Atlantic sunrise in Cape Cod, or to the Aspen trees on the banks of the Methow River.
Hello I am looking for recommendations in Tangier. Thank you
I’m trying to find some recommendations for bali thank you 💚