Sacred Roots
A Pilgrimage Through Sacred Time, Living Landscapes, and Ancestral Wisdom
Lake Atitlán • Cloud Forests • Ancestral Cacao Lands • Maya Cosmovision
FEBRUARY 18-24 2027
There are moments in the turning of the year when the veil becomes thin.
Moments when the old cycle is complete, yet the new one has not fully begun.
In the Maya tradition, this sacred threshold is known as Wayeb'—five days outside ordinary time. A period of reflection, purification, remembrance, and preparation before the arrival of a new cycle of life.
It is within this sacred portal that our journey begins.
Sacred Roots is a pilgrimage into the living heart of Guatemala, where ancient wisdom traditions continue to guide communities in relationship with the Earth.
Together, we will gather with Maya elders, cacao guardians, and wisdom keepers. We will walk volcanic shores, sit around ceremonial fires, share cacao at its source, and journey deep into the jungle where rivers, mountains, caves, and forests become our teachers.
Our invitation to step into remembrance of what it means to belong to a living world.
Perhaps you feel it too
A quiet ache beneath the surface of modern life.
A knowing that despite all our technologies, conveniences, and achievements, something essential has been forgotten.
Our ancestors always knew that humans were never separated from the rivers, forests, mountains, and stars.
We belong to a living community of life.
Yet many of us inherited a world built upon separation.
Separation from the Earth.
Separation from community.
Separation from the sacred.
And somewhere beneath that separation lives a deeper longing.
Not to escape life.
But to come home to it.
Home
on
Earth
This journey is an invitation to remember
For seven days, we will walk alongside Indigenous wisdom keepers, cacao guardians, regenerative farmers, and Earth stewards.
Beyond tourism and consumerism, we step into those lands as humble students of relationship.
Together we will explore:
- What it means to live in reciprocity with the Earth
- Ancient ceremonial traditions that continue to guide communities today
- The biocultural heritage of cacao and its role as medicine, food, and sacred relative
- Practices that restore our connection to body, community, and land
- Ways of being that honor both personal transformation and collective responsibility
This is your moment to STEP IN and REWEAVE a kinship worldview rooted in reciprocity, animacy, and unity.
Our Itinerary
February 18th
Wayeb - Time out of Time
We gather on the shores of Lake Atitlán during Wayeb', the sacred threshold before the Maya New Year.
Surrounded by volcanoes and ancestral lands, we begin by slowing down.
Listening.
Remembering.
Together we will participate in ceremonial spaces guided by Maya wisdom keepers and elders who carry living traditions passed through generations.
Around the fire, we will reflect upon the cycle that is ending and prepare ourselves for the one that is about to emerge.
February 19th-20th
Sacred Remembrance
Through cacao journeys, ceremonies, teachings on Maya cosmology, ancestral wisdom, storytelling, and time spent in nature, we begin cultivating a deeper relationship with the living world around us.
Our home during these first days is a beautiful sanctuary garden overlooking Lake Atitlán—a place of beauty, rest, and reflection.
February 21-22
Cacao Jungle
Leaving the lake behind, we journey eastward toward the ancestral cacao territories and lush rainforests of Alta Verapaz. As the landscape changes, so too does the invitation.
Here, the forest becomes our teacher.
We will spend four days immersed within the jungle, walking alongside rivers, entering sacred caves, listening to the songs of birds, and learning from the mountains that have witnessed countless generations.
February 23-24
Reciprocity
As we receive so much from the land, a natural impulse to serve and give back arise from the depth of our gratitude and recognition of our interconnectivity. To close this portal, we will sit with the land, hear the voices of the elders and offer back in ceremony and prayer. We will close this journey by planting the seeds of the legacy of our presence on this soil, and offer it back to the benefit of all living beings.
Why Guatemala
At the roots of cacao.
Guatemala holds some of the oldest living relationships with cacao on Earth.
For thousands of years, cacao has been honored as a sacred bridge between humans, nature, and the cosmos.
Sacred Roots invites you into direct relationship with these lands through:
Visits to ancestral cacao regions
Encounters with local growers and wisdom keepers
Ceremonial practices rooted in respect and context
Immersion in living ecosystems and sacred sites
Conversations around regeneration, culture, and the future of our planet
This pilgrimage is about listening deeply, walking humbly, and remembering that we are part of nature — not separate from it.
A unique journey into the heart of nature where Earth wisdom, Ix Cacao, and ancient Mayan spiritual teachings converge.
Lake Atitlan
Lake Atitlán, often called the Belly Button of the Earth, lies cradled within the Guatemayan highlands. Surrounded by majestic volcanoes —San Pedro, Atitlán, and Tolimán— and vibrant traditional Mayan villages, it sits atop an immense bed of obsidian, the sacred volcanic glass. This unique landscape forms a potent energetic portal, inviting healing, deep transformation, introspection, and a profound connection to ancestral wisdom.
Semuc Champey
A hidden gem tucked deep in the Guatemayan jungle — where turquoise waters cascade gracefully over ancient limestone bridges, forming a natural stairway of crystalline pools. This sacred river is a site of deep purification and spiritual communion with the water spirits. For the Q’eqchi’ Maya people, it holds profound spiritual significance. Countless ceremonies and ancestral rituals have been performed in these sacred waters, honouring both the spirits of the land and those who walked it before.
The Spirit of Cacao
Cacao is far more than a drink or a passing trend in the wellness world — it is a revered plant teacher, a sacred bridge to the heart, and a potent ancestral medicine.
On this journey, you will be guided through deep cacao ceremonies and teachings rooted in Maya cosmology. Together, we’ll explore the ethnobotany and origin story of cacao, connecting with it not merely as a substance, but as a living spirit — one that has walked with humanity for generations.
You’ll learn to work with cacao as a powerful ally for emotional healing, heart awakening, and spiritual connection, honoring the ancient wisdom she carries through time.
Held with integrity and reciprocity, this experience is deeply woven into the worldview of the Indigenous peoples of this land, whose sacred relationship with cacao is both ancestral and alive today.
From seed to cup, you will have the opportunity to connect with cacao’s full expression — from her fruit and leaves to her ancient ceremonial drink — a vessel of myth, memory, and medicine. This is a journey into the mystical origins of her spirit, and the shamanic practices that reveal her enduring significance for humanity.
WHAT YOU WILL EXPERIENCE
What Sacred Roots weaves together
Ceremonial Cacao
Experience cacao within its ancestral and relational context — not as a trend, but as a sacred plant ally that invites presence, openness, and connection.
Earth-Based Ritual & Practice
Daily practices rooted in embodiment, nature connection, meditation, movement, sound, and ritual.
Regenerative Living
Explore the relationship between personal healing and collective regeneration through conversations around animism, spiritual ecology, and reciprocity.
Storytelling & Myth
Reconnect with the deeper stories that shape how we relate to life, the Earth, and one another.
Sacred Sites & Nature Immersion
Journey through lakes, forests, waterfalls, and sacred lands that awaken awe, reflection, and reverence.
Community & Kinship
Gather in intimate circles with people who are seeking a more rooted, meaningful, and conscious way of living.
As part of our commitment to aligning words with actions, we travel with intention and responsibility. This journey is designed not only for personal transformation but also to support the land and communities that welcome us.
As such, a portion of your contribution goes directly toward impact tourism initiatives — supporting local regenerative projects, Indigenous-led efforts, and environmental restoration, ensuring that our presence nurtures rather than extracts.
*Not included: Flights to/from Guatemala, personal travel insurance, tips
Please Note:
We are not including the shuttle from the airport to Lake Atitlán, as participants will be arriving from different locations at different times.
However, if you’d like assistance arranging your transport from the airport, feel free to contact us directly — we’re happy to help coordinate it for you!
Logistics
Retreat Details
Dates: February 18 – February 24, 2026
Location: Lake Atitlán & Semuc Champey, Guatemala
Includes:
- Accommodations
- Local transportation
- Meals
- Ceremonies
- Workshops
- Community visits
- Cacao experiences
Investment:
Early bird: 2000 USD / 2500USD (private room)
Full price: 2552 USD / 2771 USD (private room)
Sacred Roots Retreat
This retreat is for you if…
- You long for a deeper connection with nature and spirit
- You are seeking grounding beyond performative spirituality
- You feel called to remember slower, more reciprocal ways of living
- You are navigating transition, healing, or personal transformation
- You want to experience cacao in its cultural and ecological roots
- You are a creative, healer, leader, or seeker wanting to align your life with deeper integrity
- You value authenticity, depth, and meaningful conversation
You do not need prior experience with ceremony or spiritual practice. Only openness, humility, and willingness to listen.
YOUR FACILITATORS
Charlotte Nieuwenhuis
Charlotte is an Earth guardian, regenerative systems designer, and biocultural philanthropist, as well as the founder of Heart to Earth.
She has dedicated her life to bridging the ancient with the emerging, cultivating a deeper bond with the Earth, and reestablishing the sacredness of life through reciprocity, integrity, and responsibility.
Over the past decade, Charlotte has journeyed across four continents, living among Indigenous communities whose wisdom and ways of life have profoundly shaped her. These experiences have led her to embrace a worldview rooted in animism — where all of life is seen as sentient, interconnected, and worthy of reverence.
She holds a deep reverence for plant spirits, and through Heart to Earth, she upholds a vision where the biocultural heritage of cacao is preserved and its ancestral seeds honored and celebrated.
She brings this pilgrimage to light as a way to share the deep heritage of cacao, in the hope of inspiring greater respect for this plantcestor and honoring the cultures and peoples who have shaped her path.
Doña Elsa y Don Hector
Doña Elsa and Don Hector are stewards of an ancestral lineage rooted in the sacred relationship between cacao, Earth, and community. As Maya wisdom keepers and dedicated cacao growers, their life’s work is a living expression of cultural revival — tending to the seeds of tradition while guiding others back into connection with the land and the heart.
During this Sacred Roots pilgrimage, they offer teachings that awaken our awareness of the web of life we are part of — deepening our sense of interconnectivity with nature and inviting us to remember our sacred role within it. Through their grounded presence and ancestral wisdom, they remind us what it means to walk this Earth in right relationship — in reverence, humility, and reciprocity.
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