As I write this article I am sitting on a hotel bed in Cottonwood Arizona. In the queen bed next to me is my dear Reiki buddy Kate Cook. Yesterday was the final day of the 2017 International Reiki Retreat, a 3 1/2 day retreat at the amazing Mago Retreat in Sedona Arizona. We are in Cottonwood because we decided that after the Retreat we needed a few days to play in Sedona and Cottonwood before returning to the real world.

Sedona is an amazing town, it’s one of my favorite towns to come and visit. There have been times when I have said I would love to live in Sedona but the truth is I prefer to come and visit. When you live somewhere you always have tomorrow to do something and sometimes tomorrow never comes. I don’t mean that in a negative way at all, but when you live somewhere your day to day life tends to get in the way of the stuff that makes vacation so exciting.

The moment you see Sedona for the first time

The Retreat was amazing and I will be doing some brain dumping but for right now I thought I would just share some pictures.

The accommodations at the Mago Retreat

The retreat was held at the Mago Retreat. Our room, which consisted of two queen beds was very comfortable. Since the whole idea of a retreat is to unplug from the world the room had no TV or coffee pot (yikes). Strangely enough we did not miss the TV. The evenings were spent reading and doing self reiki and meditation. The coffee however was a problem (Haha) but they had coffee in the dining hall so we got our caffeine fix for the day.

The first full day we did some exploring and the grounds were so beautiful. We walked everywhere and there was a lot of uneven pathways so we took our time.

The Healing Gardens were simply beautiful. A large pool of water with mediations areas all over the place. Tranquil is the best way to describe it.

The Healing Garden at Mago Retreat

Kate sitting quietly at the Healing Garden

Walking a little further we came across this beautiful waterfall and stream.

The very first day as we were walking to the dining hall the sunrise was beautiful. It was still cool out with a slight breeze. A beautiful morning.

One thing I was worried about was food. The resorts website said it was Pesco Vegetarian. Pesco means fish and I don’t eat fish. I was immensely surprised at our first meal. The buffet table was filled with cheese tamales, shrimp, veggies, and all kinds of yummy stuff. The rest of the meals did not disappoint, so Kudos to the Mago Retreat Chef. Well done!  Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the first nights dinner but I did manage to grab one from night two! Before I left I shared that I was concerned about what I would eat and that I was sure that the only thing I would find would be watermelon. Although they had watermelon and it was super sweet there were lots of other wonderful things to delight my palette.

Dinner was excellent even if it was Pesco Vegetarian!

Funny thing though…. they did not serve dessert. By day two I was craving sweet so I bought some organic dark chocolate (at $5 a bar, Holy Moly) from their gift shop. That night at dinner, as we were sitting outside eating a whisper started to spread that “they had cake”. We all rushed inside to grab our share of a decadent coffee flavored cake. It was so funny to hear “they have cake” being the main focus of conversations the rest of the evening. I guess I wasn’t the only one missing sweets!

If you ever need to do a complete unwind I recommend this Resort.