The constant search to achieve a lifestyle with more awareness in physical, mental and spiritual aspects gave way to an entrepreneurship that begins with Isabella Ribadeneira, its creator. While studying architecture she was looking for “something” she felt she needed. She changed her lifestyle beginning with her diet, cleaning her body with detox juices, and at the same time started practicing yoga. Without realizing it, she went deeper and deeper into a world that would end up being her true passion.
Nicolás Muñoz e Isabella Ribadeneira
Isabella came back to Quito and shared her new lifestyle with her friends, who soon enough started requesting her detox juices. The recommendation was to start as she did: one-week detox treatments (one juice per day), to free the body of toxins. Friends of her mother joined in, and without knowing how, she found herself preparing detox plans in her own kitchen for friends and strangers.
Juices fulfilled one step, but there was much more to do in this journey. The next step was to make almond butter and peanut butter, and almond and coconut vegan milk to complement the weekly detox plan that increasingly attracted attention. She took charge of buying the ingredients, always fresh, to transform them into juices and deliver them to her clients doorstep.
It was a great success. The house kitchen soon became too small but she found a bigger space at La Floresta neighborhood and turned her hobby into a business. She created Bhumi with three founders, her sister Camila and her cousins Lorena and Emilia. Bhumi means goddess of mother earth, and that is exactly what she wanted to transmit, “from the soil to the soul”.
Imagination was let loose to create the image around the concept and market it along with new products and personalized detox programs. They launched the website to sell Bhumi products with home delivery, thus going back to the personalized attention strategy of the first days. She had more space but kept expanding her horizons, looking for a way to connect yoga with food, studying other areas to complement the brand purpose. At this point she decided to study ayurveda and included it as the pillar of her concept.
Massage workshops, Ashtanga (yoga) and cooking classes were involved in the business and Bhumi became the nucleus of a small community. And so, moving forward so fast made the space too small again. She found a bigger house in the same neighborhood, the perfect one, which opened new possibilities as to what she could offer: a holistic center that nobody expected.
Bhumi is truly a house. A cozy atmosphere, full with dedication and detail, lots of space, and a decoration that combines stone, wood and plants with perfect lighting. Her mother, Paulina, was in charge of the interior design.
The restaurant is open Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 7:00 pm. It offers breakfasts at approximately $10 and $5 lunches that include appetizers, entrees and soft drinks. Snacks are available to enjoy during the day. The proposal is organic food based on ayurveda and its six flavors (sweet, spicy, bitter, astringent, sour and salty), using every color in order to create the balance that feeds every part of the body.
40% of the products are homemade and include a variety of spices to treat different imbalances. “We want to close the cycle, you can find most of the things we recommend right here, or we can make them and deliver them at your home,” she says. They use herbs to create infusions with different purposes, such as calming pains, being digestive, energetic or relaxing.
Equipo Bhumi
Ayurveda is a key player in this story, as it is the basis of every recipe in Bhumi. “Everything depends on your dosha,” Isabella explains, as she shares lots of information about who you are physically and temperamentally. This information can be found on her website: www.bhumi.ec
In the first floor of the house the restaurant connects with a store full of handicrafts made by different entrepreneurs: tongue cleaners, honey, chocho cheese, lunar calendars… to name a few. Everything is in harmony, from the pleasing service to the furniture made by Nicolás Muñoz (@bambu.lab), which are handmade works of art that we all would like to have.
Although it seems enough, this is really only the environment that welcomes you when you arrive. The floor above hosts a space that opens consciousness through a different path. A room to practice yoga, another one to receive ayurvedic massages and attend workshops focused on different purposes, from family constellations to akashic records.
Bhumi is a holistic center that generates consciousness by offering different means to reach a more awake and more connected life with oneself. This is a space where Isabella has embodied her essence of self-knowledge, and has continued evolving to offer what is necessary to satisfy the thirst for introspection.
