AYURVEDA MEDICINE & YOGA RETREAT

PEDRO CANO and JULITEA HERNÁNDEZ: “A SENSE OF THINGS”

“A Sense of Things”, a art workshop in Spain guided by artist Laura McKendry, whose work emerges from sensation rather than surface. Laura possesses a the ability to perceive the subtle divinities within her surroundings and translate them into vivid, instinctive marks, revealing the sacred within the ordinary. Her workshop invites participants into this way of sensing: slower, deeper, and attuned to what lies beneath appearances. Blending intuitive listening with explorations of pattern, colour, and collections, the program offers a shared creative framework while encouraging each artist to follow their own path, drawing inspiration from Cádiz’s light, textures, and ancient rhythms.

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The Host

MARÍA DEL MAR VON BORRIES

María del Mar’s life journey runs like a golden thread through the house where this retreat takes place. Born in Spain and shaped by many years living in Germany, she carries within her a rare harmony: the warmth and sensuality of Spanish and Andalusian culture, combined with the clarity, balance, and quiet order of Central Europe. This union gives this City Venue in Cádiz its unmistakable character, soft yet structured, welcoming yet refined.

María del Mar is an environmental designer and artist, known for creating spaces rich in imagination, subtlety, and intricate detail. Her artistic sensitivity is present in everything she touches. Natural textures, noble fabrics, earthy colors, gentle curves, and carefully chosen forms come together to create rooms that feel lived-in, intimate, and deeply human. Here, beauty is not decoration, it is a way of feeling, a form of truth.

But the essence of Casa Palacio Las Marías goes even deeper. María del Mar is guided by a quiet intelligence that emerges when being and doing come into coherence. When she aligns with her inner truth, her creations are infused with something timeless and sacred.

Las Marías is shaped by freedom, inviting guests to express themselves openly and authentically. By respect, honoring both the history of the 18th-century palace and the individuality of each person who enters. By education, understood as learning through beauty, hospitality, shared presence, and lived experience. And by aesthetic harmony, where every detail is chosen with intention and care.

Her vision was to create a place where people from all corners of the world could meet, grow, and reconnect, a home for personal transformation, shared joy, and meaningful encounters. To bring this dream to life.

The Retreat

AYURVEDA IN THE HEART OF CÁDIZ

This vision now hosts a three-day, in-person retreat in the unique setting of Cádiz, one of Europe’s oldest living cities. Guests stay together in the 18th-century urban palace Casa Palacio Las Marías.

It is a place to celebrate life together. To meet, to slow down, to regenerate. To cook and eat together, to learn, to share, and to experience moments that linger long after the retreat ends. Casa Palacio Las Marías forms its own universe, one that invites you to reset your rhythm and reconnect with what truly nourishes you.

During this immersive weekend, participants are guided into the fascinating and profound world of Ayurveda, the Science of Life, through its three essential pillars:

Ahar – Nourishment and Ayurvedic nutrition
Vihar – Lifestyle, daily rhythms, and conscious living
Nidra – Rest, regeneration, and deep restoration

The retreat is designed as a practical, embodied experience, offering tools and knowledge you can integrate into your everyday life long after you return home.

An Experience That Continues Beyond the Weekend

This retreat is a weekend of shared learning, hands-on workshops, and embodied experience. You will receive clear, practical guidance so that when you return home, you can continue caring for yourself with confidence, awareness, and simplicity.

Las Marías is not just a place you visit, it is a space that stays with you. A house where beauty teaches, where food heals, where rest restores, and where connection becomes transformation.

The Retreat Include

THE VENUE

Casa Palacio Las Marías is the creative heart of the workshop, a luminous 18th-century palace where history, architecture, and quiet intuition meet. Hidden in Cádiz’s old town, it feels like a sanctuary, with a peaceful Andalusian courtyard, sunlit rooms, and a rooftop touched by domes and ocean wind. Thoughtful design, natural materials, and mindful objects create a gentle dynamo of inspiration, inviting deeper observation and intuitive expression. Throughout the workshop, the house offers energetic alignment and calm support, helping ideas unfold naturally. Welcoming all artistic levels, it becomes both anchor and catalyst, shaping an immersive experience rooted in beauty and magic.

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THE FOOD

Pedro Cano is a natural-born alchemist, though he humbly avoids the title out of deep respect for this ancient discipline, which he has studied, practiced, and taught for decades. Pedro has served as an instructor of Touch for Health, co-founded Sothis Espagiria, and directed the Spanish Center of Spagyry in Granada. Today, he is the Founder and Director of the Kheper School of Spagyry, devoted to the Hermetic tradition and mediterranean traditional medicine. During the retreat, he introduces the principles of Ayurvedic nutrition in a grounded, experiential way and is responsible for preparing all the food, guiding participants through conscious cooking and shared meals.

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THE PLACE

“Ayurveda in the Heart of Cádiz” will be held in Cádiz, a city that is less a place than a threshold where continents, oceans, and eras meet. Founded by the Phoenicians, it carries its ancient age with luminous ease. Here, the past rises with the tide and vibrates in a light that has long guided sailors, poets, and mystics. Empires shaped it yet never subdued it.
From La Caleta’s ceremonial sunsets to landmarks like Puerta de Tierra, Torre Tavira, the Roman theatre, and the historic puppet theatre, Cádiz feels both earthly and eternal, a living threshold where memory, presence, and the divine quietly intertwine.

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THE YOGA & RITUAL PRACTICES

Julieta Hernández is an educator by vocation, with over 30 years of professional experience in the editorial world in Spain and the United Kingdom. She has worked in marketing, sales, editing, and writing for some of the UK’s most prestigious publishing houses. Following a profound life transition, Julieta chose to devote herself fully to personal growth and holistic wellbeing, training in Hatha Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, Bikram Yoga, Yin Yoga, Trauma-Sensitive Yoga, and Yoga & Ayurveda. Today, she teaches yoga in studios and corporate settings, while continuing her editorial work and nurturing her passion for writing, reading, and illustration. During the retreat, Julieta guides participants through Ayurvedic yoga practices and daily rituals designed to support balance, nervous system regulation, and sustainable self-care—practices that can be naturally woven into modern life.

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