Press Release
Vanity Fair: A Costa Reset at Hacienda AltaGracia
There are experiences Hacienda AltaGracia offers guests that are truly unrivalled. Before your trip, you are consulted on what you’re looking to gain from your stay and what activities appeal most to you. Without question, I was looking to recalibrate somehow. I was travelling by myself, somewhere unblemished by consumerism and commercialism, with Mother Nature as its mascot. If I was ever going to calm down a little, this was the place to do it. And that’s what I told Health Coach Lauren Ferioli during my pre-visit Zoom.
She listened. On day one I was sent into the jungle, where I was met by just two people on the banks of a river, just downstream from a waterfall. Here, I was centred. There is something about standing barefoot on the rocks, the sound of the water and the wildlife and the jungle around you, that transcends voodoo-ish scepticism. You can’t help but succumb to it. This isn’t a concept or a credence—it’s nature, in its rawest form. You need to dive into it, and I did, into the river. After placing the (invisible) things blighting my mind into a gold bowl of water and upturning that into the stream, I exfoliated with coconut and braced myself for the freezing volcanic waters. Once you’re in, you don’t feel the cold. The water is crystalline. I have never felt cleaner. From there, you move to a fire-heated separate pool where you’re encouraged to languish for as long as you like in the warm waters (served cacao, citrus water and fresh fruit).