Memories of Sunny Mexico.....ahhhh

Just 2 weeks ago we were all together in the Caribbean paradise. Such sweet memories:
the laughter, the fun, the fabulous food, the awesome massages at the Jungle Spa, the ocean and the beach, and best of all, the wonderful friendships. Here are few more memorable photos from our fall Traveling Goddess extravaganza.

 

Traveling Goddesses Snorkeling in Paradise

What could be more fantastic than snorkeling on the world's 2nd largest coral reef?
All of the women traveled by boat just 10 minutes out from shore. In fact, we could see our houses from the reef. 2 of the goddesses went snorkeling for the 1st time and were thrilled beyond their highest expectations. The colors of the coral, the fish, the anemones, the plants, the azure water, all of it was like swimming in an aquarium. At times, the fish and coral seemed so close that we were afraid that we might touch it. All was handled with care and concern by our skilled guides, Paz and Melissa. Melissa, also our yoga teacher for the week, photographed all of it with an underwater camera so that we can go home with a record of our fabulous snorkeling adventure.

 

Unbelievable Spa Day in the Jungle!!!
After starting the day with Yoga on the beach with our expert Yoga instructor, Melissa Bechthold, ( goddess
from Minnesota who actually moved to Puerto Morelos after coming on our Traveling Goddess trip last fall,)
the goddesses headed for the Jungle Spa for a day of Mayan massage.
The Jungle Spa is a non-profit organization and operated by a small group of Mayan women.
These women are highly trained and skilled massage therapists who excel in multiple types of massage,
including Mayan massage. These women are supporting over 100 people with the spa business.

Sandra Dayton, who manages the spa, gave the group a fascinating orientation about the spa's history and about
the benefits of Mayan massage. Each woman experienced a 2 hour treatment that included Mayan massage and
aloe treatment with banana leaf wrap. The relaxation process was enhanced by sipping a shot of Mayan anise flavored
liquer.

All the goddesses agreed that this was the most amazing massage treatment they had ever experienced. In
fact, some who normally have chronic pain reported having no pain at all after the massages. We love the Jungle
Spa and can't wait to return for more healing adventures.

 

Traveling Goddesses Take on the Town Square

News flash from Puerto Morelos, Mexico!!
Seven eager Traveling Goddesses from northern California and Minnesota descended on the town
square of the quiet fishing village of Puerto Morelos today and took the town by storm.
After a quick tour of San Martin, the local grocery store, and a mini class in money exchange
and using the Mexican ATM, they visited the local church and then began their shopping adventure.
Sharon, the local owner of Sofia's dress shop, hosted a wine and appetizer exclusive shopping event for the group.
They spent a delightful afternoon sipping wine, snacking, trying on clothes, and previewing the new designs
for her winter 2013 line of original fashions. They received a 15% discount on all purchases and a gift bag that
included an additional 15% coupon for the remainder of the week.

 

Xcaret Day of the Dead Celebration

Vibrant flowers, fragrant incense, exquisite costumes.talented dancers, singers, performers, and traditional Mexican cuisine. These are all a part of the annual celebration of the Day of the Dead in the Yucatan.

The Traveling Goddesses will be celebrating with the visitors from all over Mexico who travel to Xcaret to experience this unique event in an unforgettable manner. We will be there on Halloween night and are honored to be a part of this ancient and sacred tradition. We will be lighting candles to honor our loved ones who have gone before us and in whose memory we celebrate this beautiful occasion.

Fall Goddess Trip to Puerto Morelos ...countdown 9days

Yes, Goddesses, we leave for sunny Puerto Morelos in 9days!!! Yippie Skippy!!!
Women from Minnesota and California will make their way to our beautiful private
homes on the beach to spend a week concentrating on their own self-care.
That may mean YOGA on the beach everyday,walking the beach, swimming in
the infinity pool or the ocean, snorkeling over the 2nd largest coral reef,visiting
Mayan Ruins and swimming in sacred Cenotes,shopping in the village, reading or
journaling and enjoying the company and support of other amazing women!
Whatever FEEDS her SOUL!


Please follow us on this journey ...Oct.28-Nov.4,2012
and discover if you are a GODDESS!

Traveling Goddesses in SCAN

SCAN is the St. Catherine University Alumnae magazine.  It is filled with articles focusing on the accomplishments of St. Kate's alums whose leadership is recognized globally.

The June 2012 issue, (page 38) reads in part:  Margo Zackoski Hinnenkamp SP '66 has combined her passion for travel with her interest in women's spirituality, co-creating a business called "Traveling Goddesses."  She and her lifelong friend, Connie Scanlan Delgado, lead small groups of women to the Yucatan Peninsula several times a year.  These trips offer a combination of rest, recreation, and cultural exploration.  See www.travelinggoddesses.com for details.

Congratulations Margo!  It was great fun to get home from work late on Tuesday evening and be welcomed by this great announcement in SCAN!



Posted by:  Ginger K. Hedstrom, Marketing and Promotions

AM 950 THE WAKE UP CALL RADIO SHOW

Transformational Travel with Connie and Margo in the studio, Ginger called in to the station from home.

www.thewakeupcallradioshow.com
~Listen to the podcast
~Send it by link to family and friends
~Moving Mountains Retreat the pristine Mount Olivet Retreat Center in rural Farmington, MN, July 21 and 22 presented by Traveling Goddesses:  Transformational Travel for Women, Connie Delgado and Margo Hinnenkamp and GEMS (Guidance for your Elemental Health; Mindful wellness;  Spiritual Connection, Gizelle Erickson. 

To take advantage of the $200 The Wake Up Call Radio Show "SHOW DISCOUNT" visit www.travelinggoddesses.com before June 16 and register for the Fall 2012 or Spring 2013 Goddess Trip.  You can also register for the Moving Mountains Retreat here (PayPal payments are accepted for all registrations)!

www.travelinggoddesses.com
travelinggoddesses@gmail.com

Tune into AM 950 The Wake Up Call

Saturday, June 9, 9:00-10:00 a.m. tune into THE WAKE UP CALL where Connie and Margo, owners of TRAVELING GODDESSES, will be part of the discussion on transformational healing.

Go to: www.thewakeupcallradioshow.com/listen-now to listen to a live stream of the broadcast from anywhere in the world,  call in with a question or comment, send a TWEET or post a question/comment on their FACEBOOK page.

This is a very exciting next step for the Traveling Goddesses.  Congratulations Connie and Margo!

Transformational Travel

Traveling Goddesses ~ Transformational Travel for small groups of women is all about offering self-care and cultural opportunities in the Yucatan bordering the magnificent Caribbean Sea.

Imagine if you can:  Our driver picks you up at the airport in Cancun; the placard he holds reads "Traveling Goddesses." He then drives goddesses to our private villa on the fine white sandy beach on the Caribbean Sea to begin a week of self-care and exploration with every detail carefully planned.  Fresh locally grown food is prepared on site and yoga is offered daily on the beach or at the Infinity Pool.  Optional side trips to snorkel the nearby reef, visit a cenote, Temescal (Mayan Sweat Lodge) or a near by spa are planned to the last detail.

Tomorrow a Minnesota woman leaves her home and returns to Puerto Morelos (PM), Yucatan to start a new chapter in her life.  Her experience of being a "Traveling Goddess" opened a whole new world to her, one that she returned to explore this winter.  It became very clear that PM was where her heart and soul and body had found a new home.  She returned to Minnesota, began selling and giving away her possessions, put her condo on the market and shared with her family and friends that while her love for all them remains deep and abiding, her heart and soul and body had indeed found a new home in PM.

Her condo has not sold, she is going anyway; she had a going away party a week ago for family and friends - all of whom will miss her deeply - she is going anyway; she has some things in place for her life in PM and much remains mystery - she is going anyway. 

That is what transformation is for her.  Nothing can change her love for her family and friends here and, nothing can keep her from moving to PM where she can snorkel the turquoise blue waters of the Carribean, live a more simple life at a much more sustainable pace and continue to build her new community of friends in PM.  She just knows that this is right for her, right now.  And she is living into her dream of moving to this place where both earth and the people are warm, where simple living IS living.

Soar Melissa, woman who dared to take a Traveling Goddesses trip in the fall of 2011 and found a whole new world of simplicity and beauty and wonder, and allowed yourself to be transformed!  Send us pictures and stories.  We look forward to seeing on our Fall 2012 Goddess Trip to PM, October 28-November 4. 

To register for the Fall 2012 trip visit www.travelinggoddesses.com

Happy Mother's Day 2012

From this blog I have been missing for over two months.  That is what happens when life jumps up and demands full attention.  All this is to say -  that I am blessed to have an incredible family and friends near and far -  and a job that is meaningful, fulfilling and at times demanding.  How can I be so blessed?

And now it is Mother's Day Weekend 2012 and where would the first most amazing email describing "A Mother's Love" come from earlier this week?  A congregation of Catholic Women Religious - a congregation from the Midwest who are among the more than 57,000 Catholic Women Religious who are under siege by the Vatican for their alleged radical feminism and attention to the needs of the poor and disenfranchised. 

So dear Traveling Goddesses ~ each of you ~ read this inclusive and expansive and vibrant gift of life that brought tears to my eyes and added a few laugh wrinkles to my eyes in the middle of my work day.  Receive it abundantly and share it with the women in your life who are "A Mother's Love."

 

The Congregation of St. Joseph www.csjoseph.org

Special Edition: May, 2012 - Issue 2

A Mother’s Love

Did you ever think about how many amazing metaphors include the word “mother?” 

We speak of Mother Earth and Mother Nature (no more easily fooled than our own Moms);

Mother Church and Motherhouse (both capture our hearts and spirits);

motherboard and mothership (one holds the crucial components of a system,

the other cradles smaller vessels that operate independently from it);

mother tongue and mother lode (our first language and an abundant, rich source).

The list goes on and on. It seems when we are grasping to express that which

holds together and nurtures, “mother” is our go-to word. 

And no wonder. Mothers carry us for nine months in their bodies,

and for the rest of our lives in their hearts. While babies, we see them as mirrors,

learning who we are by gazing into their faces. As we grow older, we turn our

faces towards the world, eager for the independence that is only made possible

leaning on their love. A mother’s love is made of sacrifice and generosity,

gentleness and a steadying hand. Some mothers come to us biologically or

through adoption. Others are met over the course of a lifetime as teachers,

colleagues, partners and friends. In the best of worlds, it is our biological,

spiritual and “soul friend” mothers who teach us our most critical lessons about love.

How blessed is that?
 

This weekend, we remember all biological and adopted mothers, especially our own.

We thank God for all women in our lives who taught us critical

lessons and offered us the love that shaped us. 

To each of them… 

Happy Mother's Day

And then tell them again on every regular day ... Mother's don't just show up on Mother's Day!

To learn about the Fall 2012 Goddess Trip to Puerto Morelos, Yucatan, www.travelinggoddesses.com  

follow us on FACEBOOK traveling goddesses

Posted by:  Ginger K. Hedstrom, Traveling Goddesses Promotion and Technology

facebook.com/travelinggoddesses

An afternoon for Goddesses

This photo is from the Fall 2011 Goddess trip to Puerto Morleos, Mexico.  The picture says it all!  Floating. Laughing.  Telling Stories.  Under the Caribbean sun overlooking the Caribbean Ocean.

We are thrilled to now have a Facebook page.  Visit us and LIKE our page at www.facebook.com/travelinggoddesses

Traveling Goddesses website:  www.travelinggoddesses.com
Traveling Goddesses blog: travelinggoddesseshighlights.blogspot.com

Time to Finalize Details for the Fall 2012 Goddess Trip

 Friends since grade school

Goddesses have been traveling to the Mexican Yucatan with Traveling Goddesses since 2002.  Over the years sisters, mother/daughter, mother-in-law/daughter-in-law, lifelong friends, members of a book club, women religious, recent widows, a yoga instructor, a woman celebrating her 50th birthday who gave herself the trip as a birthday present, a woman recovering from knee replacement surgery, retired women, women working fulltime (at home and outside the home), caregivers and the list goes on, have journeyed south with Traveling Goddesses.

Traveling Goddesses come from a wide array of professions:  Construction company owner, attorney, educator, massage therapist, wife, mother, grandmother, advocate, professional chef, photographer, author, nurse, and...

Connie and Margo return to Puerto Morelos soon to prepare the way for the Fall 2012 trip, October 28-November 4.  Their checklist is ready:  Finalize
1) Rental of the gorgeous villas on the Caribbean
2) Schedule Goddess driver for airport runs and side trips
3) With Beatriz, Cultural Guide to the Yucatan, arrange exciting side trip options,
     including Day of the Dead at Xcaret   
4) Meet with local shop keepers in Puerto Morelos and negotiate discounts for Fall 2012 Goddesses
5) Meet with Paz, snorkeling guide
6) and ... ... ... find out what is new in Puerto Morelos and surrounding area!

All of this while staying at Casa del Sol, savoring Mexican cuisine, sumptuous sunrises, swimming in the azure blue waters of the Caribbean, strolling the white sandy beach barefoot and making even more memories as they have since they met at St. Luke's Elementary School in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The Fall 2012 Goddess Trip is filling fast.  Visit www.travelinggoddesses.com to learn more and to register.  Give yourself the gift of a magnificent week of restoring your body and soul!  Then, consider inviting your favorite goddess (s) to join you.  The villas are ready ~ the Caribbean is beckoning ~ the sound of waves coming ashore will lull you to sleep for a mid-day siesta or a good nights rest!

Check us out at the 4WOMEN NETWORKING EVENT

Margo & Connie meet a Goddess
Women's Getaway Retreat

February 16, 6-30-8:30
4 Women Networking Event
Ray J's, 9854 Norma Lane
Woodbury, Minnesota
Connie's cell phone:  612.298.0205

Meet: 
~~with us to learn more about how you can join us on the Fall 2012 Goddess Trip to Puerto Morelos, Mexico.
                                                         ~~with other women business owners
                                                         Sign up for door prizes
                                                         Learn about upcoming events
                                                         Join 4Women Network!
                                                         Enjoy great food at Ray J's

www.travelinggoddesses.com
FACEBOOK/traveling goddesses

                                                        

Traveling Goddesses NEWS!

Margo arrived in Minnesota late yesterday afternoon to join Connie, Ginger and more than 65 other women at the 7th Annual Women's Getaway Retreat at Oak Ridge Conference near Chaska.  Oak Ridge is nestled amid serene fields and lakes and walking paths dotted with snow and a thin layer of ice.  Last evening was cool and damp which made the enormous fireplace just inside the entrance an especially welcoming sight.

We are having a great time sharing our love of planning and guiding GODDESS TRIPS for small groups of women to the Mexican Yucatan! Our display includes  full color bookmarks and flyers for the Fall 2012 trip, a slideshow of our Fall 2011 trip.  This is a tremendous opportunity to meet and network with amazing businesses and with incredible women.  After dinner last night it was time to put on the pajamas and get spa treatments from a number of other exhibitors!  While sipping wine, the evening was capped by the effervescent  Barbara McAfee, songwriter and singer from Minneapolis who "was 'the band' for a 15-city Women’s Leadership Revival Tour with leadership author and speaker Margaret Wheatley and she wrote the theme song as well."

NOTE:  The Spring 2012 Goddess Trip has been canceled due to a family emergency.

Posted by Ginger Hedstrom, Promotion and Marketing

Spring 2012 Goddess Trip: 35 DAYS and Counting

The beach waiting for YOU!

The warm inviting Caribbean waters and sky; the serene and exquisite villa; adventerous intriguing women and asumptous meals; snorkeling and cultural tours; journaling and siestas; onsite massage and yoga; all a mere seven block stroll down the white sandy beach to the nearby fishing village of Puerto Morelos and more are a mere 35 days away.

Your chaise overlooking the Infinity Pool
and the Caribbean are waiting for you! 

Join us March 3 - 10 for our Spring 2012 Goddess Trip that is  "more than vacation, not quite a retreat." 

To register for the trip and for more information:

www.travelinggoddesses.com   travelinggoddesses@gmail.com
Posted by Ginger K. Hedstrom, Promotion and Technology

Spring Goddess Trip - March 3-10, 2012

View outside Casa del Sol

January 2, 2012 - it is now 60 days until all that Connie, Margo and Beatriz have planned for the Spring 2012 Goddesses will begin unfolding as each one steps outside the Cancun Airport building and looks for the sign reading TRAVELING GODDESSES held by  Edwardo, Goddess Driver, who will load the suitcases and drive directly to Puerto Morelos to begin experiencing all that has expertly been made ready.

Traveling Goddesses:  Transformational Travel is "more than a vacation...not quite a retreat."  No two trips are the same, each one has its own special opportunities to offer.  This spring will include a style show by shop owners in Puerto Morelos, an opportunity to swim in the Caribbean and in a cenote, snorkel in the Caribbean, savor sumptuous local food beautifully presented, experience a Temazcal (Mayan sweat lodge), enjoy massage/facials/pedicures by world renowned massage therapist and yoga on the beach or at the Infinity Pool depending on the time of day and heat of the sun and... oh yes, there is so much more! 

I took the picture above from my room at Casa del Sol looking out onto the Infinity Pool, the Caribbean and the ever-changing wonder of the sky on my first morning there!  

In the winter of 2002, Connie and I undertook the first Goddess Getaway to Rancho Encantado in the lower Yucatan, 30 minutes outside of Belize.  All we knew when we left Minnesota was what the brochure told us about the Rancho, that getting to the Rancho would require a 5 1/2 hour bus ride and we were ready to be where we could be among the people of the Yucatan immersed in the beauty and simplicity offered there.  No commericalism, just quiet simplicity!  To say this trip proved an adventure would be an understatement!  To say it was an amazing experience that left both of us saying over and over again, that "this trip is a gift women of all ages could savor!"

So here we are 11 years later and more than 100 thirty-something to eighty-something amazing, intelligent, adventurous, dynamic women have climbed the Mayan Ruins in the Yucatan and Belize, swam in cenotes and the Caribbean, snorkeled, visited Xcaret for the Day of the Dead (fall trip), experienced a Temazcal, and spent quiet siesta and journal time, savored healthy decadent meals and ... ...  

We have a room  ready for YOU!  Contact us at travelinggoddesses@gmail.com to learn more or visit our websitewww.travelinggoddesses.com to register.


Posted by:  Ginger K. Hedstrom