Instituto Terra Luminous

Seventy kilometres from São Paulo, in Juquitiba, Instituto Terra Luminous looks after 270 hectares of Atlantic Forest, with 15 springs and 13 streams, next to the Serra do Mar State Park (Núcleo Itariru). It calls itself a Base of Regenerative Culture: an environmental NGO, an ecovillage and a retreat centre on the same ground.

The pieces arrived in sequence. The retreat centre dates its work to 2013. The ecovillage community has shared purpose and land since 2015, and the socio-environmental institute has worked on the forest since 2016. A research and monitoring centre has operated with universities and scientific institutions since 2020. Since 2021, cameras in the forest have helped identify nine threatened or vulnerable species, among them the onça-parda, the jaguatirica and the gato-maracajá.

The guest house has ten rooms for up to 35 people, and a restaurant with a library and a fireplace. There is a 66 m² Mandala Room for courses, a tipi with a central fire pit in the woods, a lake for swimming and more than 10 km of trails. Waterfalls are about an hour's walk away. The water comes from the land's own springs and is treated afterward with root-zone systems. Food comes from the gardens and local partners, and organic waste is composted on site.

Residents and visiting facilitators in health, arts, human development and permaculture lead retreats here. Offerings include forest bathing, Nonviolent Communication workshops and corporate day-use immersions. The Beija-Flor volunteer program runs eight windows a year, set by the equinoxes and solstices. The performance artist Marina Abramovic is quoted on the site calling it "the most perfect place I know in Latin America to hold my workshops."