Cue dreamy music and blur to flashback: November 2015 
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​We are racing to submit our incentives application. A critical factor in our financial planning for MINUVIDA rests on getting a government incentive that would reimburse us for up to 70% of construction costs. 

After extensive research and our consultants’ expert opinion, we are certainly a shoe-in for the funding, as ours is one of the best projects they’ve seen. 

Our application is IN! The first one in that year´s round. 

We start construction with bullish confidence, a massive renovation project to transform a dilapidated villa into Quinta Minuvida. 

But something wasn't right.

We were supposed to receive an answer in "about two months" from our application. But nothing. When we inquired, government bureaucrats informed us that our application needed extensive revisions due to new, stricter program requirements. So we scrambled to resubmit information, which ultimately wasn't deemed satisfactory by the program deadline.

Instead of receiving 70% of our construction costs back, we were not going to receive a dime.

I felt like the rug had been swept out from under us.

Meanwhile, construction continues. We sold everything, including our condo in Boston, liquidated mutual funds and invested our life savings. We went to local banks and applied for a construction loan. No one cared about our past successes. They wanted three years of operating history. Tough luck.

This was truly rock bottom, I thought. (My post-pandemic self is now giggling) 

However, we had planned for this possibility.

This was "worst-case scenario".

So we changed a few things in our construction plans. Value engineering. Ah, now I get this term.

We started small. We made our own decorations with driftwood and lots of love. We started with the basics and reinvested as we grew. We only put the fancy local wood floor in the yoga studio nearly two years after opening.

We had some really amazing first guests who didn’t mind the bare rooms and minimal furnishings. It was the experience that mattered.

Maybe that’s how it should be. 

Andrea Fotopoulos is keeping with the middle road through the pandemic.

One of the biggest silver linings of the pandemic has been an increase in the responsibility of the yoga student -- a step toward “studentship”, Andrea shares. She cites the pandemic as enabling an evolutionary growth of the student-teacher relationship, which expands on the “who is my teacher” question. 

She also shares from her own personal experience this past year: “We can’t see the light if we didn’t have the dark... it’s the recognition that these things live side by side and the sitting with what IS for me, instead of what I wish it was... Reflection is possible only when we see one with the other.”

We talk about the “ISness of things” and how it applies to our yoga practice and specifically what it means to be “strong” in your practice. 

​Plus, Andrea shares how she gets her “personal hits” and builds her kula as well as making yoga accessible to all. We can’t wait to welcome Andrea and her retreaters in November!

Post by João

AFTER OUR FIVE-YEAR GLORIOUS JOURNEY came to a screeching halt in 2020, we figured it was time to turn inside.

We've helped scores Discover and Feel the Azores, a driving vision for the MINUVIDA AZORES operation of lodging, outdoors experiences and retreats since 2015. But all along we wondered if that was all we were doing or could do. We started noticing that what people really need, now more than ever, is to turn inside, awaken their consciousness. Elevate.

So, after many in-confinement stream of consciousness sessions, we ultimately settled on a new vision (the why) and tweaked our mission (the what and how). We evolved our look and are set on changing travel. (We kind of had plenty of time to do all this...)​

What a pleasure it was interviewing Cyndi Bulka and hearing her many gems of wisdom for us all.

As a yoga teacher, retreat leader and certified coach Cyndi talks about how the pandemic gave her a chance to consider her “legacy” as she reinvented herself (yet again!) at 60.  “I knew I had to sit with all the difficult emotions first... I didn’t deny myself that, and I knew that if I gave myself the time to process all that, I’d actually have the energy to decide what I wanted to do next, to have the clarity of the heart and mind to move forward. And that proved to be a good decision," she says.

Cyndi shares with us a powerful exercise in shifting emotion and getting out of anger and fear. Cyndi is launching her Wise Woman Wellness, an on-line holistic weight management program starting Feb.1. ​You can find out more about Cyndi and about her offerings at: www.zaktihealth.com/ and join her Wise Women Facebook group. 

​We look forward to receiving Cyndi here to the Azores! 

As 2020 blurred by we sorely missed our groups, whose retreats were postponed. We missed group hikes, conversations and songs by the firepit, our amazing meals together and the knowledge exchange between participants and teachers from all over the world. We thought, how can we help support this incredible community?
​
So the Highlighting Guest Teacher Community series was born!

We hope you enjoy meeting the leaders who will be hosting upcoming retreats at MINUVIDA and find inspiration for your own practice, journey and maybe future trip here. ​

Post by João

You never see it coming. It's been true throughout history. Think Roman empire.

But Hemingway once wrote, and I paraphrase, "Rather be ready than lucky."

So, as the bottom fell from under our feet and MINUVIDA AZORES operations came to a halt, with five spring yoga retreats cancelled, I'm happy to report that we are fine.

Mainly because we were ready.

Over the last three years, we grew our business using a measured, sustainable approach, and that includes business finances. We saved when we could have splurged. We kept our aging econobox yet another year when we could have bought a shiny new one. We invested wisely in enhancements to the business, not luxury "I have to get that to keep up with the Joneses" outlays. We focused on the things that matter first.

Then shit hit the fan. Then all the phases of mourning. And now we are moving on and planning for the future. 

We are enjoying our orchards, eating tasty, fresh food and spending time with our animals, and even stepping out into nature, with ample social distancing (no one's around)!

As a small business with three full-time employees, we have been forced to institute a layoff. But thanks to government emergency aid, we will able to pay their salaries and have them back when a new version of normalcy returns. 

The thing is that "our way of life" before Coronavirus may not be worth it.

Consider this:

We are a problem to our planet (really, ultimately to ourselves, as the planet will recover and go on after we exit the scene). Every pandemic is a picture of humanity at a given time, I read recently. Our global economy, our consumerist mindset, with the "i" first is taking its toll.

As we have come to a halt, carbon emissions have dropped drastically – fewer factories, fewer cars, no planes, less coal production and so on. The virus is doing something world leaders couldn't. The waters in Venice are now transparent and the fish are returning. All over the world signs are emerging that while we are struggling the Earth's ecosystems are celebrating.

As members of the travel industry, we have a responsibility to think about the future differently:

• The huge carbon footprint left by air travel on a whim.
• The huge waste created by the hospitality industry to meet our ever-increasing thirst for amenities, newness and luxury.
• The urge to create new things out of thin air to attract more visitors, sell more useless stuff, and indulge the wildest fantasies.

​Are you still with me?

I propose that after this is over – and it will, I am sure – we focus on making travel a journey of discovery. Maybe then our lives will become more balanced, and those urges for extreme experiences and behaviors will subside.

• Let's rethink our priorities. Do we really need all the things we think we need.
• Let's not isolate ourselves with the noise of distraction and resume meaningful social contact when we actually can. Get to know your neighbors for real this time. A healthy community is a healthy society.
• Let's be generous. It's great to be rakin' in the dough, but are we aware those resources could be used better than and livin' the life?
• Let's engage in more healthy, balanced lifestyles. Do we REALLY have to work 60 hours a week to get that promotion, to climb the corporate ladder, so we can rake in the dough and live the life?
• Let's become more resourceful, self-reliant and self-sufficient. After all, if you become all of the above, you are likely to be healthier and more likely to survive the apocalypse.
• Let's travel with purpose. (Given our line of business, I had to insert this one here.) Go travel to beautiful destinations to get away from it all, but let it be a journey of discovery, not a journey of debauchery.

If you come to us, you will find me indulging in cooking a meal, getting drunk on plants, cliffs and waterfalls, finding luxury in afternoon naps on grassy surfaces and livin' the life, MINUVIDA style.

Join us on a journey of discovery when times allow.

See you then!
​