“We want to tell the world that Casa Cuadrau exists, a home in a hidden paradise at the foot of Monte Perdido, where it is possible to retire, connect with nature and cultivate harmony in our lives”. This is how Dani, one of the creators of Casa Cuadrau, tells us about his project, a very special accommodation in the Aragonese Pyrenees, located in Vió, in the incomparable surroundings of the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park.
What does a retreat experience at Casa Cuadrau consist of? “It can help you learn and remember how go beyond the ideas that limit us and lead a more balanced and fulfilling life. The basic principles of it are movement and exercise, proper breathing, relaxation and rest, mindful eating, meditation and connection with nature.
Doesn't sound bad at all, does it? Well, this is also a place where you can do trekking retreats (they call them 'pilgrimage'), multi-day yoga and meditation in the mountains, sleeping under the stars. “Increasingly, people need to disconnect from their routine, technology and constant stress, to delve deeper in the wild nature, Katya explains to us, who is the 'second leg' of this wonderful place.
Facade of Casa Cuadrau.
"Need return to the simplicity of life in nature and the transforming power that traveling through wonderful and wild corners during several days with only a backpack on her back”, is her bet.
In addition, they offer withdrawals with vegetarian cooking workshops –normally for the bridge of the Constitution–. “And, of course, a great success is our New Year's Celebration, very different from all the conventional celebrations. we continue celebrating life, friendship, health and joy, but we also cultivate it, with healthy food, meditation, yoga and movement classes, snowshoe excursions… adding moments of silence, contemplation and reflection”.
They are also a success family yoga, art and nature vacations, which are usually scheduled for the last week of July. “The house is filled with people and little people who really want to have a good time, cultivate joy, love, gratitude, kindness and many other seeds that are so important to care for, from very early ages, if we want these qualities to be breathed into the world”, Katya and Dani explain.
Dining room in Casa Cuadrau.
The idea of creating a yoga, art and nature center in the Pyrenees was revealed to them in 2004. “It was then when I first arrived in Vió, after an excursion through the Añisclo canyon”, Danny recalls. “On that first visit, I had a hunch that this was the perfect place. However, it took three years visiting this little village again and again, until the opportunity arose.”
It was in December 2006 when he saw at the door of the barn of Casa Cuadrau a small handwritten sign that read 'For sale'. "Gave me heart sank. My dream was to rebuild one of those houses that I often found in ruins in one of many almost uninhabited villages in the Pyrenees , with the purpose of bringing him back to life.
And he continues: “That day, in front of that ruin, this adventure began, the most important trip of my life. From that moment I did not stop for a moment, I got down to work. First to formalize the purchase, then to design and write the project and to present papers here and there”.
Yoga class.
In August 2008 Dani organized the first volunteer retreat in which, without money, they offered a week of yoga, meditation and hiking, in a rustic barn located in an incredible place, surrounded by mountains, in exchange for help to move stones and clean the debris of vegetation to start the works.
“Six people came and it was an unforgettable experience. In 2009, as soon as we had the permits, we started the works. It took us almost four years to complete the first phase of construction, which occupied a third of what the current building is," explains Dani, a man from Zaragoza who inherited from his parents the passion for traveling, exploring mountains and getting lost in a forest.
“This year I turn 50 and I want to celebrate it this winter with a 50-day pilgrimage in the Pyrenees –He tells us, out of curiosity–. My idea is to leave Cap de Creus, and travel to Cabo de Higuer walking and skiing. If the weather is good and I feel like it, once there, I will consider if I continue towards Finisterre by bike or leave it for another time”.
Meditative walks in the mountains.
What was the most complicated part of moving Casa Cuadrau forward? "Build up an ecological house integrated into this incredible landscape starting from a ruin, obtaining financing over and over again in the different phases, completing the bureaucratic procedures to make the project viable as we conceive it…”, they reply to Condé Nast Traveler. "Though all complications fade to insignificance when you find your purpose in the life".
THE PERFECT TANDEM
"I have to give thanks to life because it has allowed me to travel a lot", sentence Dani, who studied Technical Architecture in Barcelona. “During the race I traveled as a volunteer to Nicaragua and, as soon as I graduated, I looked for a first destination far away. I wanted to discover the world and a job offer arose in Kazakhstan, where I lived for a year and a half”.
Later he returned to Barcelona and, As a result of a very important personal crisis, he began to dedicate himself to theater, contemporary dance, yoga and meditation. “These practices and the teachings of the mountain have helped me completely transform my life. When we opened Casa Cuadrau, I realized that if I wanted to guide the participants in our retreats, I would have to go back to school. That same winter I returned to the classroom to do my training as a mountain guide”.
Sunset in Vió.
Dani has lived and traveled through Morocco, Europe, India, Nepal, Mexico, Canada, Taiwan... “The theater has taken me to places as hectic as Lebanon and Israel and as unknown as Georgian and Armenian. I did my first yoga teacher training in Tyrol and have made five trips to India, all with the purpose of continuing to study yoga and meditation and learn from mother India and her mighty mountains. On my third trip there, I met the love of my life and the mother of our daughter Uma, who will soon be six years old,” he notes.
It was in the winter of 2012 when Katya and Dani met at an Ashram in South India. “Back then I had the intention of officially opening the doors of Casa Cuadrau. We understood that the universe had united us to collaborate on this project”, Dani tells Condé Nast Traveler.
Katya studied Business Administration and Marketing and had worked in advertising in Mexico City, her hometown and where she lived until she was 24 years old. “At that age I went to do a master's degree in marketing at lyons Y later to work in Buenos Aires. Life turned me around. I dropped everything to go deeper into yoga practice and listen to my deepest interests and did my first yoga training in Brazil”, remember her.
Dani and Katya, creators of Casa Cuadrau.
Unexpectedly, Katya stayed in Canada for two and a half years, in an Ashram. "It was a great experience. Then she wanted to open a yoga center focused on children in Mexico. and before starting, I went to do another training in India, where I met Dani. Life has taught me to let go of plans, to flow and be open. I never imagined living in such a remote place, in the middle of a beautiful and wild nature like that of Vió, put down roots here and have a family.”
THE JOURNEY AS LEARNING AND SERVICE
“Whenever I have traveled I have done it to live in that place for a while. Even now, when we plan a trip, we focus on study something, serve or learn”, Katya adds. “For example, on the last big trip we took before the mobility restrictions due to the pandemic: we went to Taiwan and we took a Zen and Tea course with Master Wu De, in the center of the Tea Sage Hut”. The trips nourish them on a personal level and, in turn, nurture the Casa Cuadrau project.
In summer 2022 It will be 10 years since the doors officially opened of Casa Caudrau. “People of all ages and nationalities attend. Our retreats are for everyone, regardless of practice level or age. Everyone is welcome!” sums up Katya.
Yoga room.
Both the yoga classes and the walks are progressive and inclusive options are always given. “People in wheelchairs with limited mobility have come and we have taken them to the top of the mountain, They have been able to enjoy nature, the meditations and the warm and friendly atmosphere that we have learned to create here, retreat after retreat, with each group.”
Casa Cuadrau is a corporate society of social interest which is made up of five workers. Dani and Katya are in charge of the direction and management. Also, Dani is a mountain guide, yoga and meditation teacher and takes care of maintenance. "Being a technical architect, he is always aware of the necessary improvements," he says. Katya, who is also a yoga and meditation teacher.
“She loves doing rituals and ceremonies of ancient cultures that connect us with nature and with ourselves and she, being Mexican, she shares a bit of the cosmology of the Toltecs. In addition, she takes care of communication, networks, management of reservations and office tasks”, Danny emphasizes.
Tea ceremony, at Casa Cuadrau.
Leandro Sancholuz –Lean, as he is affectionately called– has been working on the project for more than seven years. “He is a mountain guide and also helps with maintenance, the garden and whatever is needed. Getting a permanent team in such a remote place is complicated, they point out. So they pass through our kitchen beautiful souls that are enriching the project and the experience. Anna Carboneras, Raúl Crespo and Bárbara Pañeda are some of our regular chefs, who delight us with excellent and very healthy food, following a line of vegetarian, ecological, local and seasonal food”.
“The same thing happens with the managerial position. Right now, Silvia Sampere and Sara Viola take turns so that the house is always very clean and tidy, and they coordinate the team of volunteers who help us make this possible.” Although there is harmony and happiness between them, from 2022 they would like to create a resident team that provides more stability, so soon they will start a chef and manager recruitment campaign (stay tuned!).
Outdoor yoga, a balm for the soul.
The team has an extraordinary relationship with the people around. “We have made great friends. El Sobrarbe is a very special region, with a very interesting balance between tradition and innovation, between the original people of this place and those that we have been repopulating these towns where, for half a century, many inhabitants were forced to migrate”, they tell us
Dani admits that the location of the project was not exactly a choice, but fate. “The first time I arrived in Vió I crossed the town on foot, I felt that my heart was beating very hard. It was as if it didn't fit in my body, as if it were going to leave me. I remember that I climbed on a holm oak tree and started to cry. That day I understood that this was the place”, explains Dani.
“Both Katya and I feel that we have not chosen anything, we have worked very, very much, but everything has been presented as the challenges and needs have arisen. We feel mere instruments or vehicles of this project”.
ART, ANOTHER KEY TO THE PROJECT
From the beginning, both knew that art would be one of the pillars of Casa Cuadrau. Dani practiced contemporary dance for many years and she studied painting for several years, so for both of them art is an essential part of life.
“We see art as a form of expression that all people should explore. Art is not for a few, it is for everyone, we all have a creative capacity, although many times we do not nurture it or we hide it”, analyzes Katya.
Theater workshop at Casa Cuadrau.
And she adds: "It's amazing to see how after connecting with nature, with its true essence, with silence and calm, people can express themselves from another point of view, from that depth they have found. Thus, naturally, art arises. We call it the art of living, to connect with it and allow ourselves to express it.”
During these nine years of Casa Cuadrau, artists have passed through there, many of them unaware of that potential. “Music lovers who have been inspired to write and compose songs, artists who have left us paintings, sculptures, poems, dances, recipes... and much more. we have also had retreats focused on art therapy, photography, dance, theater, and some artistic residences”.
Cuadrau House in winter.
“We want Casa Cuadrau to be full of life all year round, beyond the retreats we offer. We open our doors to new projects such as renting the house for events and artistic residencies, seasonal co-living, recording set/locations and even collaborative projects of social interest”.
If you want to delve deeper into the philosophy of Casa Cuadrau, on the blog of their website they share yoga classes, meditations, relaxations, cooking recipes and everything that is part of the project. “We believe that it is a duty to share what we learn, nourishes and transforms us. “In addition, we are getting into the idea of write the Casa Cuadrau book, in which we leave a record of the experience what it means to come to one of our retreats.”