Gaia Retreats is an honest-to-goodness ecotourism destination in the picturesque seaside town of Dingalan, Aurora, 4-hrs from Metro Manila. The retreat site will consist of shared and simple accommodations, a yoga and wellness platform, and a communal kitchen and dining area. We will host wellness experiences for guests wanting to connect with nature and themselves.

Support this eco-friendly retreat by buying in advance with introductory rates. We are booking select weekends Dec 2017-March 2018! Simply click "Weekend" or "Long Weekend Gaia Retreat" in the rewards section on this page, make a payment, and we will send you a voucher to redeem your preferred dates.

All contributions are welcome! To back our project, simply click the amount you'd like to give or the reward (yoga pass, rice, art) you'd like to receive and follow through to the payment gateway for bank details or Paypal.

OUR STORY

Melissa and Gwyneth (with support from their loving and talented husbands) first started to hatch this partnership in 2015. They met through the Good Food Community and realized they had a lot in common as transnational Filipinas who have actively sought to make a social and environmental impact in the Philippines. Both were directing the operations of small non-profit organizations: Gwyneth’s TCIP with projects in Nueva Ecija and Metro Manila and Melissa’s TIGRA with projects in Bantayan Island and Boracay. They thought, why not combine our efforts and create a social business that can help sustain our shared advocacies?

In 2017, Gwyneth’s mum, Mama J, herself a development worker and environmentalist, agreed to lease their beachfront property for use as an eco-tourism sanctuary. Currently, the 4-hectare property is used occasionally as a family getaway for beach bumming and stand-up paddle board. There is a wood cabin, outside kitchen and basic bathroom. The site is blessed with free-flowing freshwater all-year round.

THE PITCH

We have pooled our money to build a yoga platform so that the space will have a dedicated workshop space that can host affordable yoga retreats with camping-style accommodations. But we need YOUR help to make the site comfortable for overnight guests.

Dingalan Bay is off-grid and needs solar power!

This crowd-funding campaign will raise money for the solar power set up, specifically for lighting, electric fans, phone charging and an upgraded showering facility. If we raise more than our initial goal of 150,000 we will continue our dream by making glamping-style accommodations (ooh glamorous!)

Our goal is to improve the retreat facilities through green architecture, making it comfortable for guests without sacrificing the pristine natural medicine Dingalan offers already. We believe the space can begin to pay for its own upgrades if it is camping-comfortable with group amenities.

Here are Pancho's sketches and renderings for Gaia Retreats:

ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE

Dingalan’s relative proximity to Metro Manila makes it a good contender for weekend warriors looking to retreat from it all. Local tourism consists of trips to Lamao Caves and Tanawan Falls. White Beach is just a short walk from Gaia Retreats. Already, our site is a popular destination on Airbnb. Guests enjoy swimming, snorkeling 20 m from the shore, and eating fresh seafood.

Food at Gaia Retreats will be sourced locally, direct from fishers and organic farms in the area, when possible. Our partner TCIP champions organic farming in Nueva Ecija and offers fresh vegetables, organic meats and rice through www.gaiagardensph.com. Melissa is also a fermenter and culturer (kefir, sauerkraut, cortido etc.) and is excited to share this ancient practice and its modern day science with Gaia guests.

We are passionate about the environment! Your contributions will enable us to build a solar power set-up that will help us maintain the pristine environment of Dingalan, Aurora. Your support means that Gaia Retreats can get up and running!

Gaia Retreats is a social enterprise that commits to giving at least 10% profit to a community fund managed by TCIP and designated for community-based resource management in Dingalan proper.

REWARDS

All contributions will receive our BIG THANKS and a YOGA PLAYLIST

Carefully curated by Melissa, these songs have been put together to accompany your morning yoga routine! Move to new and classic feel-good tunes. Also good for your morning commute to keep you groovin’ and centered at the same time!

For more detailed descriptions of the rewards, please see the FAQs (just below the video).

Limited edition prints - individually watercoloured art works. Collect them all! Contributions of Php1500 will receive a 5" X 7" work, contributions of Php 3000 will receive a 8" X 10.5" work. See the FAQ for more details. If you're interested in commissioning a bigger work, even a portrait with Gaia-themes, please contact us! See more here

OUR TEAM

BE PART OF THE STORY

Follow us on Instagram and use the hashtag #sparkgaia. We will select 1 winner to join our end-of-campaign yoga + brunch in Quezon City to celebrate our growing community for renewable retreats!

Risks and challenges

Philippine summer is wrapping up; it is already starting to rain on a daily basis. We are anticipating the building period right after the crowd-funding campaign ends, before the typhoon season really gets going. Dingalan is affected by a typhoons coming in from the eastern seaboard usually between September-December. The property also sits in a partial cove and is therefore sheltered to a certain extent from the brunt of wind coming off the ocean.

We have taken care to design the major structures such that roofs can come down before major typhoons, or structures are equipped with minimal roof overhang so as not to lose our investments! Gwyneth and family have taken care to maintain a ‘green’ wall of trees to protect the property from wind. There are many large trees near to the shore and more have been planted.

The other weather related challenge is flooding and landslides which may affect tourists coming in and out of the area. Last year, there were major flash floods due to Typhoon Karen, effectively blocking the road into Dingalan. Unfortunately, this kind of disaster has deep historical and socio-political causes, particularly unsustainable and unregulated logging which has damaged the watershed. The short term solution, currently in progress, is a new road with a solid dike in the event of new floodways rushing down from the mountain. The long term solution involves working with the community and the local government to protect the forest and the coastal habitats such that ecological resilience can take root. Gaia Retreats and TCIP intent to contribute to greater resilience and community empowerment so that Dingalan will not be as affected by typhoon season.

One of the big challenges for any tourism business is guest satisfaction. Particularly in our eco-tourism venture wherein energy comes from renewable sources, we anticipate some hesitation on the part of guests. We understand that ours is a niche tourism market. Part of our desire to do this crowd-funding campaign is to give us a chance to work within a community to pilot our retreats and refine the energy requirements needed, particularly for the food & beverage part of the business. We hope that you, as a backer, will help us meet the challenge of a renewable retreat with your honest feedback and suggestions!