Healing in the Sacred Valley

Hacienda San Lucas

In the town of Copán Ruinas, Honduras, there is a special place called Hacienda San Lucas. Today, it is a small hotel for travelers and a retreat center for those leading retreats and seeking healing and transformation in their lives. It is a quaint and unassuming space from the outside looking in. Hacienda San Lucas has a way of drawing people to it that are in need of healing in their lives. The energy there has transformed the lives of so many others from around the world. In fact, it was the catalyst in my life that led to meeting my husband.

This land, and the original dwelling, has been in the Cueva family for over 100 years. There is a rich history of the Maya people that once inhabited the valley. To this day, travelers and visitors alike continue to experience the sacred energy infused into this land by the Mayas many centuries ago.

Hacienda San Lucas, as it is now, was brought back to life in 1999 by Flavia Cueva, the oldest daughter of Dr. Cueva, the owner of the property. It all began in 1995 while she was visiting Copán for the opening of the Sculpture Museum at the Maya Archaeological Park. One day while in town, Flavia was sitting on the ground in the town center and felt a visceral energy flow up through her and it was in that moment she knew that she needed to return to her father’s hometown, Copán, from the U.S where she had been married, raised a family and taught highschool for almost thirty years.

It would take her two years to make her way back to fulfill her soul’s purpose to bring the energy of the land back to life and build Hacienda San Lucas as it is today. In 1995, she did not know that her pull to Copán would be for that reason. She just knew she had to trust the feeling and knowing that she had to return.

In 1998, Flavia returned to Copán to live. At this point, she did not know what was in her future. She first got a job managing a hotel where she worked until later that year when Hurricane Mitch devastated much of Honduras, including Copán. This drastically reduced tourism and conditions in the town fell apart and broke down. At this point, Flavia decided to fix up the family house, which would eventually become Hacienda San Lucas, outside of town so that she could have a place to live. It was during this time that she fell in Love with the property that had long been in her family and formed a new connection with the land and the energy. She knew it was her purpose to take care of the land and the people and finally understood the pull that she had had in 1995 to move to Copán.

In 1999, Flavia and Hector, her soulmate, began renovations using some of the Maya stones that were on the property and part of the original family home, bringing her vision of Hacienda San Lucas to life. During the renovation of the home, it was not uncommon for people to hear about what they were doing and show up to offer their assistance. It was a labor of Love for Flavia, Hector and the community that supported them on this journey. On December 31, 2000, Hacienda San Lucas opened its doors for their first guests in the original house with its two rooms.

Between the years 2000 and 2005, several articles were written about Hacienda San Lucas by the Washington Post Travel, LA Times, American Airlines Travel Magazine and Travel Guidebooks, bringing awareness to people around the world of this sacred place. This, along with the opening of the new sculpture museum at the archaeological park, continued to bring more visitors to Copán, increasing the bookings at Hacienda San Lucas. One of the things they became known for was the food with their authentic Maya cooking. I can attest to the delicious food. To this day, it is still some of the best food I have had anywhere I have traveled.

With all of the notoriety shining a spotlight on the area, more and more tourists wanted to stay at Hacienda San Lucas. Flavia realized that she needed additional room to accommodate this influx of people wanting to experience the magic of San Lucas and Copán. So, in 2005, six new rooms were built on the property on the hill above the original house.

As Flavia and her team continued their work, she had the vision of building a yoga pavilion and ceremony space on the hill overlooking the sacred valley and river that would be called Gaia. In 2006, Flavia, along with her friend Leah Glatz, created Gaia and infused it with the energy of Mother Earth and the Divine Feminine. Gaia, as all of the Hacienda San Lucas property, was created out of Love with a sacred mission and purpose to share this magical energy with others.

One of Flavia’s greatest wishes and intentions for Hacienda San Lucas, and all of its magic, was to share it with the world. The creation of Gaia created a new burst of energy and an influx of spiritual tourism, along with the beginning of many groups coming specifically for the healing that the land held. Flavia was the steward, the activator, and the mother of this space in the sacred valley of Copán. Without her, Hacienda San Lucas would not be what it is today, a place of healing and awakening for all.

In the twenty years that Flavia spent cultivating and maintaining the sacred energy at Hacienda San Lucas, many transformative ceremonies were performed at Gaia. I have my own story about my first time here, and how it led to me meeting my husband less than a year later. This truly is a magical place.

This land is one of the wombs of Mother Earth and brings the opportunity for new beginnings and birthings in our life, whether literally or symbolically. The energy here is a catalyst bringing us what we are ready for in our lives. Hacienda San Lucas is a portal of spiritual energy that is here to bring healing, transformation and awakening to those who find their way there.

It is important to acknowledge we are here as guests on this sacred land, and that we receive this energy with respect and reverence for the land, as well as the local people.

In the forest behind Hacienda San Lucas are Maya ruins known as Los Sapos. Directly across the valley from San Lucas is the main Maya archaeological park in Copán that is a UNESCO world heritage site. There are lines of energy that connect the acropolis in the main park to Hacienda San Lucas and Los Sapos that create a powerful portal and vortex of energy here.

Researchers from Harvard did studies at Los Sapos in the 90s that proved the structures that can still be seen above ground today, date as far back as the preclassic period. To this day, many of the structures of Los Sapos remain buried under the ground which prevents Hacienda San Lucas or any others from building anything on top of what is still buried there. In fact, many of the hills and peaks that you will see around the area are actually temples and structures that have been buried and taken over by Mother Nature.

The local people believe that Los Sapos was used as a birthing place for the Maya people, as well as a ceremonial place for fertility. There are many stories from the past 20 years of people getting pregnant after visiting Hacienda San Lucas and Los Sapos. Some people come to Hacienda San Lucas, specifically for Los Sapos, to help them with their fertility struggles.

Los Sapos has been used as a space for meditation to connect deeper into oneself, as well as a space to give offerings and gratitude to this sacred land. It is important to honor the sacredness of the Maya people and the ceremonies that have been conducted here through offerings and giving back. I can confirm that the energy of Los Sapos is palpable and is like stepping into another realm.

Now, allow me to share the story of my first visit to Hacienda San Lucas, in February of 2018, while I was there on a yoga retreat that was being led by Kim Johnson, an international Ashtanga Yoga teacher. It literally changed my life and set me on a new course. This is the magic that is available to all of us at this sacred space of healing.

This was the first retreat that I had attended as a participant instead of as a leader. During my week of being there, I got to spend a lot of time with myself. Not having to lead or be responsible for others gave me a chance to fully receive the sacred energy of Hacienda San Lucas and Los Sapos.

I had many powerful experiences during the retreat. The mystical energy of the land moved and shifted old patterns around how I saw myself, bringing those wounds to the surface so that they could be healed. I remember on the last day of the retreat reflecting on the main message and theme of what I had experienced and received. I heard my inner voice say emphatically, “I am beautiful.” It brought tears to my eyes, as I had never really seen myself as beautiful. At that moment, I found myself believing that it was possible for others to see me as beautiful as well. This was the catalyst for me to see the magic of my humanness in a way that I had only ever seen in my spiritualness.

After the retreat, I went home on a high from this realization and felt like I was floating for weeks after. At the time, I had no idea of the magic that was going to continue to unfold throughout the remainder of 2018.

The next few months after the retreat, I continued to reaffirm that knowing and belief that, “I am beautiful.” I started noticing the ways I wanted to hide less and less. I felt my energy more open and available. I did not feel the need to figure it all out. I simply allowed myself to be in the flow and enjoy it.

Fast forward to September of 2018, I went to San Diego to teach a Channeling course. The night before the course began, my client, Michael (not my husband), who was hosting me, invited me to one of his friend’s house who wanted to share wine and snacks with us and some other participants.

When we arrived at the home and his friend opened the door, I had this immediate knowing and remembering that I had Loved him before. Throughout the night, the memories of a lifetime in Greece that the friend and I had as husband and wife continued to come into my awareness.

Over the next few weeks, I continued to get more clarity about this lifetime in Greece and the impact that it has had on me for the last 2500 years in every lifetime since then.

In this current life as Matt, my core wound has been abandonment. Through the many past life regressions I have experienced on my own healing journey over the past 15 years, I learned that my abandonment wound goes very far back and was anchored deep into my consciousness.

The memories that were surfacing from this lifetime in Greece eventually showed me that this was where my abandonment wound began. I remembered stealing food to feed our children because we were poor and starving. I got caught and was thrown in jail, never to see my family again and I died a few months later. I believed that my family felt abandoned by me and I felt immense guilt and shame.

That guilt and shame, mixed with a lack of self-forgiveness, catapulted me on a path through many lifetimes of self-abandonment before I began incarnating into lifetimes where others, primarily parents, were abandoning me, including in this current lifetime as Matt.

This is fundamentally how the Law Of Attraction works. Because I was first abandoning myself, I would eventually align with others who would abandon me.

These memories consumed me from that September to the middle of November of 2018. In November, I decided after leading a retreat in Kauai that I would return to San Diego to visit those friends. There were some disappointing moments on that trip that were very sobering and helped me realize that I needed to do some deeper healing work around that past life in Greece and the karmic trauma I still carried.

After a few days in San Diego, I went up to LA to spend a few days with my best friend and his Love before returning to Kansas City. One day while I was there, I laid on their couch, got into channel and went into meditation. I asked Spirit to guide me through the healing of the trauma my consciousness still carried from that lifetime.

I was clear that 2500 years of carrying this pain with me was more than enough and that I deserved to free myself up from the guilt, shame and self-abandonment. In that moment of healing, I chose to forgive myself for all the judging, shaming and wronging that had been keeping that wound alive in me for over two millennia. I chose to rewrite the story that I had done something wrong in leaving my family behind. I allowed myself to remember that what I really did was try to feed my family the only way I knew how and I was punished for it. When I chose to view it without my pain, that was the reality. I continued to move the energy through my breath as I forgave myself and rewrote that story that I had carried for far too long.

When I opened my eyes after I felt complete, I felt lighter and freer than I ever remembered feeling. I felt the healing that had happened. I felt the forgiveness in my heart and knew that something in me changed for the better that day.

A couple of days later, I returned home to Kansas City and had this desire to go on dates and make some romantic connections. This was huge for me. All of my adult life, I had been so focused on myself, my healing, my purpose and my spiritual work. Dating and romance was not at the top of my list. I dated here and there over the years but never anything serious that felt like deep romantic Love.

Literally five weeks later, I met my now husband. Our Love was almost instant. There couldn’t have been a more aligned time for us to meet. I had healed the unhealed parts of me that created my walls to Love. I found my courage to let Love win, instead of my fear of abandonment.

I am grateful that my husband and I did not meet sooner because I don’t know that I would have been ready to carve out a piece of my heart for another. It was the healing that I did that year that brought us back into alignment with one another.

I know that the healing that began for me at Hacienda San Lucas on that yoga retreat was the catalyst to prepare me for that Divine alignment with my Love.

The sacred and Divine energy that flows through every part of Hacienda San Lucas is available for you too. There are many stories from people all around the world that have experienced profound healing over the past 25 years that it has been receiving guests.

I will forever be grateful for what I received at Hacienda San Lucas. It will always hold a special place in my heart.

I hope that you say yes to opportunities and find yourself in all the magical places that you are meant for. If this story resonates with you, I highly recommend a visit to Hacienda San Lucas in Copán Ruinas, Honduras, whether for vacation or on a retreat.

Interested in visiting Hacienda San Lucas, check them out here!

Want to experience the magic of a retreat at Hacienda San Lucas? Join me for the Healer’s Expansion Retreat 2025!