Sacred Altar presents
where every breath is an offering
Sacred Valley, Peru · March 2–9, 2027
The Breath
SamayBreath; breath carried with intention is the Quechua word for breath: not only air, but life force, gratitude, and spirit. In the k'intuA ritual offering of three coca leaves ritual, three coca leaves are held close and blessed with the breath before being offered to the ApuA revered mountain spirit, the mountains, and PachamamaMother Earth, the Earth that sustains us.
This is ayniSacred reciprocity; mutual giving and receiving: sacred reciprocity. The yogic path recognizes this living energy as prana. Through breath, mantra, and movement, the two traditions meet in one attentive practice of receiving life and offering it back.
“Receiving the life of the land with gratitude, and offering our own breath back to it.”
breathe with us
Q’enti, the hummingbird: messenger of the Andes.
Who This Is For
You come for living ceremony and culture, not to turn away from the world. You meet the people who carry these traditions, begin each morning in practice, and make room for community, landscape, and time to listen.
Morning yoga & movement classes welcome beginners, and every adventure and ceremonial element is optional. For those who do not feel called to something specific, the experience remains complete in itself.
Munay Sonqo sits at roughly 2,900 m / 9,500 ft. Cusco is about 3,400 m / 11,150 ft; Ausangate goes much higher. Arrive rested, hydrate, and consult your doctor if you have health concerns.
Oxygen is available on site.
The grounds have stone paths and stairs, and some expeditions involve walking at altitude.
March is the end of the rainy season, when the valley is at its greenest. Expect mild days, cool nights, and possible afternoon showers. Pack layers and rain gear; expedition days call for preparation for changing mountain conditions.
The optional plant medicine ceremony is discussed personally with each guest beforehand. Preparation, individual consultation, and integration are part of the conversation; specific plants, health considerations, and medication interactions should be discussed before deciding to take part.
Between 20 and 40 guests, depending on how rooms are shared. We gather as one circle while respecting each person's need for rest, quiet, and their own pace.
Wi-Fi and mobile signal are available at Munay Sonqo.
Your transportation away from the retreat center to your next destination is included.
Eight Days
Eight days of Kundalini practice and living Andean ceremony with Q'ero wisdom keepers, at Munay Sonqo in Peru's Sacred Valley. You arrive, listen, walk, and gather. Each day offers a different way to meet the land — and yourself.
The Rhythm of Each Day
You begin with practice and return to shared meals. Between them, your day follows the teaching, the mountain, or the road. The confirmed itinerary includes a 4:00 pm gathering on arrival day and a 9:30 am departure for Ollantaytambo on Day Five.
You land, you set down your bags, and the valley begins to slow you.
Check-in at 1pm. At 4pm we gather in the main yoga shala, where Paola and Joshua introduce themselves and the shape of the days ahead.
Printed guidance for the week, a walk through how the journey unfolds, and a sharing circle to open with intention. A guided meditation closes the afternoon.
This day belongs to arrival — landing in the body and in the altitude before the arc of the immersion properly begins.
The worldview first, then the ceremony that opens the door to it.
Morning Kundalini practice, breakfast, and an open spa window.
Octavio Dávila Solari leads the first workshop of the immersion: Andean cosmology, and the relationships that hold it — the tone-setting session for everything that follows.
In the afternoon, the opening ceremony with the Apaza Q'ero family. Gentler and smaller than the ceremony at Ausangate, so the group is rested and ready for an early departure at dawn.
The high lagoons, the Karpay initiation, and the mountain that teaches most of this journey.
A full-day expedition to Apu Ausangate — among the most revered mountains in Andean cosmology, and the ground of much that is taught here.
The major opening ceremony and the Karpay initiation are held on the mountain. The walk passes through high lagoons; horses are available for anyone who wants a gentler pace.
An optional plant medicine ceremony opens the day, practitioner-facilitated, with guidance beforehand and decompression time built in on both sides.
Food is a mountain gathering — tea and warm food prepared by chefs who join the group for the day. Jose Alcantara documents the day, so you can leave your phone behind.
A full day with Tito La Rosa — ancestral sound, flowers, and deep listening after the mountain.
Tito La Rosa, the Peruvian musician, composer and instrument maker, leads a complete, day-long experiential workshop — quenas, pututos, ceremonial flutes — spanning breakfast through lunch and into the evening.
Not a performance and not a sound bath: a contemplative journey where vibration, silence, storytelling, and ancestral instruments become pathways for inner listening.
A flower ceremony is woven through the day, with sauna sessions available in between. This is where the body naturally decompresses after Ausangate.
Received by a community, then down into one of the valley's great ceremonial sites.
Morning Kundalini practice, breakfast at 9am sharp, departure at 9:30 toward Ollantaytambo.
We walk the town briefly to take in the space, then continue to the community, where we are received directly by them: their projects in their own words, hands-on contact with the work, a light lunch of choclo con queso, tea and cookies, and a look at their crafts.
From there we descend to the major ruins of Ollantaytambo — a central sacred and ceremonial site of the Sacred Valley, and the reason this day is shaped the way it is. Dinner back at Munay Sonqo.
The body is opened, lightened, and made attentive before the evening.
Morning practice and breakfast. The temazcal opens the body's layers, leaving it lighter and more aware.
Floral baths with Maestra Elisa Vargas Fernández. The day's theme is the body: compression and release, journaling, and walking the medicine wheel as a compass.
In the evening, an optional plant medicine ceremony is held within the Shipibo-Konibo tradition, preceded by individual consultation for those taking part.
A quiet day of presence, ending in a joyful celebration of our time together.
Integration and the closing celebration dinner, prepared by a Cusco chef.
One last breakfast together, then the road home.
Breakfast, farewell and 10:00 am check-out. Your Cusco airport transfer is included; book departures after 1:00 pm.
Kundalini yoga and meditation, guided by Paola and Joshua.
Breakfast at 9:00 am on the Ollantaytambo day.
The day’s workshop or departure; Ollantaytambo departure is 9:30 am.
Shared meals at the center or food during the expedition.
Teachings, community visits, ceremony, or rest according to the day.
A vegetarian meal and time together.
Meditation, ceremony, or quiet integration according to the itinerary.
March 2, 2027
Check-in at 1:00 pm. Airport transportation from Cusco (CUZ) is included; allow about 90 minutes to two hours for the drive into the Sacred Valley. Settle in, then gather at 4:00 pm for orientation.
Aim to arrive at Cusco airport (CUZ) by 2:00 pm at the latest on March 2, if possible.
March 9, 2027
Share breakfast before farewell. Check-out is 10:00 am, with your transfer to Cusco airport included. The drive takes about 1.5–2 hours; book flights leaving after 1:00 pm.
Ayni: what is received is given back.
Those Who Hold You
Your hosts
Born in Peru, Paola is a Kundalini yoga teacher, energy medicine practitioner, and artist creating immersive experiences rooted in ceremony and the living traditions of her land. For more than two decades she has built relationships with wisdom keepers, families, and artists across Peru, including the Apaza Q'ero family.
For 25 years, Joshua has walked with the Andean culture. Developing a fair trade business with artisan weavers in the highlands of Bolivia, while standing tall beside a children’s home in the Sacred Valley. Joshua is trained in the healing arts & a devotee of Kundalini yoga. He is a builder of living systems and a lifelong student of consciousness, intuition & sustainable living. He guides you into Peru not as a tourist, but as a longtime friend of the valley.
Q’ero wisdom keeper
Maestra María Apaza is the last Alto Misayoq of the Q’ero lineage. Together with her family, she receives us at Apu Ausangate and shares the Karpay initiation.
Q'ero wisdom keepers
Maestra María Apaza is the last Alto Misayoq of the Q'ero lineage. Together with her family, she receives us at Apu Ausangate, opens our journey in ceremony, and shares the Karpay initiation. Personal collaborators of more than twenty years, the Apaza family carries its traditions into the opening ceremonies on Day Two and on the mountain.
Q’ero context
Two Q’ero elders seated in woven clothing.
Ceremonialist · Apaza family
Benito walks with us through several of the sacred places of the journey. His despachos, the offerings through which each place is greeted and honored, are part of his ceremonial work with the Apaza family. His presence accompanies the group's encounter with these living traditions.
Pampamisayoq · Andean cosmology
Octavio is an Andean priest initiated with the Paucar family, of Q'ero priestly lineage, and an astrologer for more than a decade. He has taught Andean cosmology across Peru, Argentina, and Europe. On Day Two, his workshop opens the ground for the ceremonies and experiences that follow.
Musician, composer & instrument maker
Tito La Rosa is a Peruvian musician, composer and maker of musical instruments whose work brings the ancestral and the contemporary into conversation. His sound world draws on instruments of Inca and pre-Inca cultures — bamboo quenas, conch shells, clay panpipes and water vessels — alongside contemporary instruments. His recordings include Munay: El Poder del Amor, Pachamama and Kintu. He collaborated with Kitaro on Thinking of You, the album that won the 2001 Grammy for Best New Age Album, and with Mary Youngblood on The Prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor. At SAMAY, Tito leads Day Four, Sound, Symbol & Tradition: a full day of ancestral instruments, storytelling, silence and a flower ceremony. After the pilgrimage to Ausangate, the invitation turns toward listening — not simply to music, but to what becomes perceptible when we give it our full attention.
ME
Shipibo-Konibo ceremonial leader · Day Six
Born in the Shipibo-Konibo community of San Francisco, in Peru's Ucayali region, Maestra Elisa has dedicated her life to the study and ceremonial practice of Amazonian medicinal plants. Central to her tradition are the ícaros — sacred healing chants received and cultivated over years of practice with the plants, which guide, protect, and accompany the ceremonial work. Her voice reached wider audiences through the collaboration “Cura Mente,” featured on the official soundtrack of the film Tár. She founded Sanken Nete, “The Wonderful World of Plants,” a center in her home community dedicated to sharing and preserving Shipibo-Konibo wisdom. She offers one-to-one consultations and floral baths ahead of ceremony for those taking part.
JA
Artist, photographer & filmmaker
Jose travels with our circle so you can set your phone aside and give yourself fully to each day. His contemplative eye attends to light, gestures, and the feeling of being somewhere, holding the memories with care. Documentary photography is included in the journey.
Ceremony · Sound · Sky
In the Andes, even the dark spaces between the stars have names.
Where You’ll Rest
Munay Sonqo means “loving heart” in Quechua. Between the Andes and the sacred rock of Apu Pitusiray, on land farmed for centuries, you find a home for seven nights. About 90 minutes from Cusco, the Mesa campus opens onto a wide mountain horizon.
Built mostly from local stone, adobe, timber and clay tile, the center belongs to the land around it. Most of the team grew up in nearby villages: they cook, drive, guide and host, and they are the reason groups return.
Here we gather in a round temple crowned by a glass dome, warm wood underfoot, facing the sacred mountain Apu Pitusiray. Hidden beneath the floor, rings of selenite crystal quietly hold the space as you breathe, move and listen.
On the campus
Spaces to gather, return from an expedition, and let a day settle.
Life in the gardens
At Our Table
Three vegetarian meals are served daily, largely from the center's organic gardens. Much of what's on your plate is grown here. Our table is a place of conversation and care: the familiar rhythm of breakfast before a day's teaching, a meal shared after an expedition, and dinner as the valley grows quiet.
Vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free needs can be accommodated when noted at reservation. Please share allergies and dietary requirements in your guest details so your needs can be discussed ahead of travel. A closing celebration dinner prepared by a Cusco chef marks our final evening together.
Housing
Share a room, settle into your own, or make an apartment your home as a couple. Timber, earthen walls, woven details and natural light give the houses their character.
Private bathrooms are included except in the Chullpa stone houses, where a shared bathroom is a short walk away.
Explore rooms and prices ↓Qhalilla Spa
Qhalilla Spa
At the foot of the mountain, an open-air spa looks out across the Sacred Valley. A two-minute walk from your room, Qhalilla is reserved for guests on retreat.
Here, holistic wellness and healing arts weave together with the wisdom of the Andes. All products are 100% natural.
Relaxation and contemplation areas are yours to enjoy without booking a treatment.
Air
Rest in an active salt cave, where a halogenerator releases microscopic salt particles into the air. The salt is harvested at Maras, here in the Sacred Valley: the first salt-cave experience in the Cusco region.
Rest, meditate, stretch gently, or practice breathwork. With every inhale, the air carries salt.
Here, even the air is an offering.
Sessions about 45 minutes · Up to 10 people
Water
Two outdoor jacuzzis are wrapped in gardens, with a cold plunge nearby. By day, sunlight rests on shimmering water and you settle into the garden lounge. At night, hot water holds you beneath the Milky Way.
Fire
The dry sauna is wood-built, with high heat and low humidity. In the wet sauna, steam and high humidity create a different kind of warmth.
The infrared cabin feels like being warmed by the sun on a cold winter's day.
Infrared sessions 20–25 minutes · Up to 4 people
Earth
Four massage rooms make space for the healing arts, with time to soften into stillness.
A foot soak, salt exfoliation and massage with mint and eucalyptus or fresh-picked local leaves. A welcome ritual after a day of hiking.
A foot bath with local plants, exfoliation, then attentive pressure-point work.
The house signature, intuitively tailored to you; it may include reiki and subtle energy work. Often chosen after ceremony.
Light touch on or above the body, inviting a meditative, peaceful state.
Gently heated Andean stones placed along the body: a deeply nurturing embrace.
Acupressure with gentle stretching and rotations.
Focused, deep pressure for tight, tired muscles.
Spa & massage sessions are optional. They are booked and paid for directly at the retreat center.
Testimonials
Your Room
Rooms are assigned by Munay Sonqo within your category; photos show the houses in each category.
$2,350 per person
A round stone house for two with its own fireplace. Two twin beds. Shared bathroom a short walk away. Fireplace included.
Two twin beds · Fireplace · Shared bathroom a short walk away
Only 6 places
$2,795 per person
Share a room with two others (same-gender roommates, matched by us).
Private bathroom. Pitusiray rooms have balconies over the valley.
Spaces are limited
$3,295 per person
For couples, or two friends sharing.
Private bathroom. Sawasiray has a large fireplace and lounges on both floors.
Spaces are limited
$3,750 per person
$7,500 per couple
A private apartment with its own living space. Couples only.
Two floors · Lounge with fireplace · Kitchen · Two bathrooms, one with a bathtub · Balcony with views
Only 2 available
$3,795 per person
A room all to yourself.
Your own room and private bathroom.
Only 3 available
Before & After
Come early or stay on. These experiences are arranged directly by Munay Sonqo.
Questions
From $2,350 per person for Chullpa Stone House, with only 6 places. Choose your room and reserve directly.
Private bathroom in every room except the Chullpa stone houses. Chullpas have two twin beds and a shared bathroom a short walk away. Fireplace included.
No. Morning Kundalini practice welcomes beginners, and every ceremonial element is optional. The journey remains complete for guests who do not choose plant medicine.
The Sacred Valley is about 2,900 m / 9,500 ft, and Ausangate goes higher. Arrive rested, hydrate, pace yourself gently, and discuss health concerns with your doctor.
Read the preparation detailsFly into Cusco (CUZ), typically connecting through Lima. Airport transfers to and from Munay Sonqo are included. Check-in is March 2 at 1:00 pm; farewell and check-out are March 9 after breakfast.
You'll receive an orientation to the journey and how each day unfolds, the agreements and waivers we share as a circle, and an invitation to a welcome call.
Seven nights, three vegetarian meals daily, daily Kundalini practice, all ceremonies and guest teachers, Cusco airport transfers, day expeditions including Ausangate and Ollantaytambo, and documentary photography by Jose Alcántara.
Full payment reserves your place. All payments are final and non-refundable. If you can no longer attend, you may transfer your place to another person. We strongly recommend travel insurance with 'cancel for any reason' coverage. If Sacred Altar cancels the immersion, you'll receive a full refund. If travel restrictions or events outside our control prevent it from going ahead, your payment becomes a credit toward a future Sacred Altar journey.
Between 20 and 40 guests, depending on room sharing; no more than 40.
We strongly recommend travel insurance with 'cancel for any reason' coverage. Ask your insurer about your itinerary, altitude, activities, and individual circumstances; do not assume every policy covers every part of the journey.
Three vegetarian buffet meals are provided daily. Vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free diets can be accommodated. Share allergies and dietary needs when you reserve.
Yes. Triple rooms use same-gender roommates matched by the hosts. Double rooms suit couples or two friends sharing; Single rooms offer your own space. Deluxe Apartments are for couples only.
Entry requirements depend on nationality and may change. Check the official Peruvian immigration authority and your own government’s travel advice before booking.
Official Peruvian immigration informationBring layers for mild valley days and cool nights, plus rain gear for March showers. [FILL: confirmed packing list for the mountain, ceremonies and daily practice]
The valley is waiting.
Your place is here.
Make It Real
Every guest is welcomed personally — reserve directly.
02 Your details