Devotional School of Yoga and Life
Ancestral Retreats
Ancestral offers immersive trainings and retreats for those who seek more than a conventional certification or spiritual escape. We unite rigorous practice, embodied depth, ceremonies, music, and community into a refined and more complete vision of yoga education.
The Hearts Behind Ancestral
Founded by Carolina and Marco
Ancestral is guided by the shared vision of Carolina and Marco, partners in life and in their work. Together, they bring years of teaching, study, practice, ceremony, music, and lived devotion. Their intention is to create spaces where yoga is not simply taught, but experienced in its fullness.
Our Vision
We envision a world in which people no longer seek truth, authority, or belonging outside of themselves, but are guided back to the wisdom already alive within. Ancestral exists to support the remembrance of that inner truth through a path of yoga that is embodied, devotional, rooted, and deeply human. We are here to cultivate a new generation of self-led leaders: people who do not teach from imitation, hierarchy, or spiritual performance, but from lived experience, authenticity, and service. Rooted in the living land of Colombia, and informed by the wisdom traditions of yoga, Ancestral is devoted to creating spaces where transformation is not about becoming someone else, but remembering who you have been beneath the layers all along.
Why We Created Ancestral
We believe the ancient wisdom of the yogis and the ancestral traditions of South America must be shared in ways that remain alive and relevant within the modern world, creating bridges to the realities of life as it is lived now. We are not here to create a spiritual bubble, a cult-like atmosphere, or followers dependent on external authority. We are here to support the unfolding of compassionate, creative, discerning, and self-aware human beings who can walk through life in deeper harmony with their social world, with nature, and with the greater intelligence of the universe. Just as important, our spaces are designed to foster real community, where people from different backgrounds can meet in truth, form meaningful friendships, and experience the support of walking this path together.
Our Mission
Our mission is to create transformative trainings and retreats in Colombia where yoga is lived as a path of remembrance, embodiment, and service. By integrating physical practice, breath, meditation, philosophy, music, devotion, ceremony, community, and deep connection to the land, we hold spaces that support each person in shedding what is not truly theirs and returning to the truth already alive within.
Your Hosts & Lead Teachers
E-RYT500 Yoga Teacher
& Founder
Carolina
Carolina is originally from Colombia, a land of vibrant colors, deep contrasts, and ancestral wisdom that continues to shape her path. She spent several years in Southeast Asia and India, where she trained as a Certified Holistic Therapist and immersed herself in ancient traditions for the expansion and evolution of consciousness.
She is Yoga Alliance certified (E-RYT 500) with over 1,000 hours of training, with a focus on Himalayan Kriya Yoga, advanced pranayama, sacred rituals, and ancestral ceremonies. She is also trained in Reiki and energy healing, practices that support deep transformation and connection with the subtle body.
Carolina is passionate about Ayurveda, a sacred relationship with the elements, and the everyday magic of ritual and mysticism. Her work reflects the soul of her homeland, embodying the fire and devotion that define the spirit of Colombia.
As the founder of Ancestral Retreats & Academy, she has created a sacred space to explore the vast universe of yoga and holistic healing. With every offering, she walks her dharma with devotion, supporting the awakening of collective consciousness and the elevation of global vibration.
E-RYT500 Yoga Teacher, philosopher & Founder
Marco
Marco is a graduate philosopher, passionate musician, and experienced German yoga teacher. After completing his first Yoga Teacher Training in India, he began teaching immediately at the Berlin-based school Yoga on the Move. He is the co-founder of Ancestral Retreats & Academy.
As a Yoga Alliance certified teacher (E-RYT 500) specializing in Hatha, Kundalini, and Vinyasa Yoga, Marco has completed four training programs in India, Italy, and Colombia, accumulating more than 1,080 hours of study and practice. In his classes, movement and breath are woven together to guide students into a meditative flow or into a deeper experience of steadiness and ease within each posture. His teaching supports beginners with clarity and encouragement, while also offering more advanced practitioners challenge, depth, and refinement through posture, pranayama, and the timeless wisdom of yoga.
For more than a decade, Marco has explored questions of integrative and embodied ways of being in relationship with the world. He brings the rational depth of Western philosophy into dialogue with the lived, practice-based wisdom of Eastern traditions such as the Bhagavad Gita, Patanjali, Taoism, and Zen Buddhism. This union of inquiry and experience informs his teaching, offering students a path that is intellectually grounded, spiritually alive, and deeply relevant to modern life.
As a musician, Marco is proficient in a range of instruments, including the Indian harmonium, guitar, percussion, and flutes. He brings music into each day through mantras, medicine music, and beloved songs that naturally bring people together. In this way, he creates spaces of joy, devotion, and connection that invite participants not only to practice together, but to truly meet one another.
Guest Teachers
E-RYT200 Yoga Teacher & Physiotherapist
Anabel
Anabel is an internationally teaching yoga instructor and a state-certified physiotherapist who blends modern anatomical knowledge with the holistic wisdom of yoga.
In her own Yoga & Pilates studio, she shares a multi-style approach — combining dynamic and fluid movement with grounding practices like Yin yoga, always guided by what the body and the moment genuinely need. With her background in physiotherapy, Anabel sees the human being as a whole – not a collection of symptoms to be managed. She invites students to listen deeply to their bodies, to trust their inner voice and to explore what supports growth, balance and well-being in their own lives — a practice that can gently open the doorway to transformation.
This philosophy shapes the way she teaches: supportive, empowering and always grounded in the intelligence of the body. Having completed over 600 hours of certified yoga teacher trainings in different countries she brings a rich international perspective into both therapeutic and energetic practices.
In her classes Anabel weaves together asanas, pranayama, meditation, kriya, intuitive touch, hands-on assists and elements of ceremony and ritual. She creates a safe and nurturing space where students can reconnect with their inner wisdom, expand their awareness and step back into their own embodied strength.Her offerings are more than movement – they are invitations to trust yourself fully, to feel deeply and to return to your essence.
E-RYT200 Yoga Teacher, Anatomy & Acro Yoga Specialist
Nico
Originally from Colombia, Nico is a passionate explorer of movement as a path for healing, transformation, and self-discovery. His journey has taken him across eight countries, immersing himself in diverse traditions and philosophies that inform his unique approach to teaching.
Nico has more than 600 hours of formal training completed in Cali, India, and Thailand. He has also trained extensively in Acroyoga, completing teacher trainings in both Mexico and Colombia, where he discovered the power of trust, connection, and playful embodiment.
His teachings blend the depth of traditional yoga with the creativity of contemporary movement practices. A lifelong student of the body and spirit, Nico is also certified in Reiki Level 1 and Thai Massage, weaving elements of energetic healing and therapeutic touch into his classes.
Fluent in four languages and deeply rooted in global experience, Nico shares a grounded yet expansive perspective on yoga. His mission is to awaken personal power and presence through conscious movement, guiding others to reconnect with their essence and move through life with grace, strength, and freedom.
E-RYT500 Yoga Teacher & Anatomy Specialist
Anesu
Anesu is an adventurous and driven medical doctor with 10 years of yoga teaching experience and 800hr Yoga Alliance accreditations in various yoga disciplines including vinyasa, yin, restorative, hatha, breath-work, meditation, sound healing, Ayurveda and yoga therapy.
She is the founder and co-owner of an inclusive wellness center – The Nest Space, based in South Africa which focuses on providing yoga and healing modalities to all, regardless of race, culture, gender, sexual orientation, age, and physical ability.
As a lecturer on numerous teacher trainings, she enjoys drawing upon her medical background to teach Anatomy & Physiology while also highlighting the importance of inclusive yoga and celebrating African Indigenous Knowledge and its fusion with the yoga practice.She also provides key note talks around the issues of integrative medicine, women’s health, mental health advocacy and holistic wellbeing.
RYT200 Yoga Teacher, writer & musician
Aimee
Aimee is a writer with a background in psychology and behavioral science who discovered yoga and ancestral practices as powerful tools for transformation while navigating her own healing journey.
She learned yoga and meditation in India, Cambodia, and the U.S. and completed two 200-hour yoga teacher trainings in Colombia. As part of her bhakti yoga path, she plays the harmonium and shares mantra as tools for expanding awareness and opening the heart. Her specialties include chanting, meditation, shamanic practices, and integration techniques, with an emphasis on approaches that help regulate the nervous system and access inner wisdom.
As a former academic, she spent over a decade researching various aspects of well-being while teaching courses at Duke University and the University of California on using psychological insights to live a better life.
At Ancestral Retreats & Academy, Aimee creates a supportive container for students to discover their innate capacity for healing and transformation. Her approach weaves scientific knowledge with spiritual wisdom, guiding others to connect with their inner light and the love that always surrounds us.
E-RYT500 Yoga Teacher & Physiotherapist
Trish
Trish is a US licensed doctor of physical therapy (physiotherapist), an anatomy professor, and a highly skilled power vinyasa yoga teacher now based in Lisbon, PT. She has a unique way of making anatomy fun, easy to learn, and applicable to yoga practice.
She is the founder of the Yoga Anatomy School which offers online yoga anatomy courses. She is a Yoga Alliance certified teacher (E-RYT 500) and did her first YTT in 2011 in Houston, TX. After discovering that her most inspiring teachers studied power yoga with Baron Baptiste, she started training with him in 2013. She’s completed over 1000 hours of training with the Baptiste Institute and has had the honor of assisting their trainings. Trish has also studied Hatha Yoga, Hot Yoga, Vinyasa Flow, Forest Yoga, and Rocket Yoga.
Her classes offer a combination of skillful alignment cues, empowering philosophy, and a meditative state of flow.
Collaborators
RYT500 Yoga Teacher
& Web designer
Irem
Irem has been following the call of her heart, a journey that has led her to different countries such as Colombia, India, and Turkey, where she immersed herself fully in the unique magic each place holds. This path has not only given her valuable tools, but has also reminded her of the power, knowledge, and wisdom that she, and each of us, already carry within.
Naturally, she began dedicating herself to guiding people back to their own powerful source. Her tools include asana, pranayama, kriya, meditation, the power of sound, and Shakti Attunement.
Alongside this work, she is also a web and graphic designer, helping give online expression to people and projects that speak the language of the soul.If you want it, I can also make it a bit more refined, spiritual, or premium in tone.
RYT200 Yoga Teacher,
Consultant & Entrepreneur
Steffi
Steffi is an entrepreneur and creator from Germany. Inspired by human creativity, she launched her career in Berlin’s vibrant startup ecosystem. With a keen interest in innovation, leading to influential roles in startup consulting and fundraising, areas in which she remains actively involved up till today.
Discovering a deep passion for mindfulness and spirituality, she adeptly blends these realms with business. Steffi is now the driving force behind “SpiritBabes,” a brand that embodies sustainability and versatility, showcasing her unique fusion of entrepreneurial spirit and mindful living.
Within Ancestral Retreats, she serves as the ambassador for the Portuguese market, having chosen this beautiful country as both her home & business hub.
She continued her Yoga Education with Sound Healing Certification in 2023 in Nepal and dedicated this year to dive into Indias rich Ayurvedic Wisdoms.
Yogini, Visual Artist, photographer & illustrator
Maria Paula
María Paula is a Yogini from Colombia. She has employed communicative, artistic, and audiovisual languages to create spaces for exploration, reflection, and collective self-knowledge.
FOTOCURANDERA, her personal project, is a work methodology that uses photography and drawing to re-signify life and support healing processes through creativity.
María Paula is a teacher and a student of yoga and Ayurveda. At Ancestral, she is dedicated to documenting what we build as a community in each retreat, gathering, and training.
Certified Healing Practitioner & Systemic Therapist
Alessandro
Alessandro is a certified healing practitioner specializing in human psychology and an experienced life coach. His diverse education and extensive experience form the foundation of his unique approach. He has completed a 500-hour Tantra Teacher Training, a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training, and a certification in systemic therapy.
His approach integrates spiritual practices with scientifically grounded knowledge from systemic therapy and human psychology based on the ICD-10. By combining these disciplines, he helps individuals achieve holistic well-being. Through mindful movement, breathwork, and therapeutic techniques, he guides others in regulating the nervous system, processing emotions, and creating space for personal growth and transformation.
A School for Those Ready to Go Deeper
Ancestral is for those who seek more than information. It is for those who are ready for transformation, for sincere practice, for intimate community, and for an education that honors both structure and soul. We are here to offer more than a training. We are here to offer a path.
Contact
Don’t hesitate to reach out to us!
We are happy to hear from you!
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