Ever since I graduated college and moved away from family, I usually spent all my holiday time visiting with family. Though we all love family, we all know how stressful it is during holidays with travelling busy roads to dealing with different personalities. I decided for a Christmas / New Year's holiday that I would go on a solo travel trip. I wanted to use the time to self-reflect, find self-love, do things I wanted to do, and set goals for the upcoming year. I also wanted something active and to try things that I haven't tried yet. I needed to find joy in my life again. Now, my family was quite upset with me taking a solo trip during the holidays but, at this time in my life, I really needed to do something for myself and ignore the judgement from family and friends.
I had been on several REI Adventure trips but wanted something different this time. After long hours of google searching, I found a yoga retreat in Costa Rica. My first visit to Costa Rica was amazing, so I figured that this trip would be similar. Also, I had never been on a yoga retreat. The retreat was at a boutique hotel and transformation health resort called Anamaya in Montezuma, Costa Rica. Rightfully so the hotel means "good health" in Sanskrit. I was specifically attracted to the open-air showers, the breathtaking views, the beautiful yoga shalas (open pavilion, in sanskrit = "house", "home", "abode"), and the crazy busy itinerary of all the things that would happen during the week. Plus, the resort was mostly vegetarian cuisine with chicken and fish thrown in at times, which was different for me.
With this trip, I flew out on Christmas Eve and would return on New Years Eve. Once off the big plane from the US, I had to find an adjacent airport to fly on a tiny prop plane to the peninsula on the west side of Costa Rica. Last time I was in Costa Rica we flew in a tiny plane like this one. The views from the windows were spectacular. We landed in the tiniest airport I have ever seen. They had a covering and two benches and checked you in at a folding table. At this tiny airport, I waited for my taxi to Ananmaya. So, while I was waiting, I got myself a yummy, homemade empanada and fresh juice from the local vendor (selling out of two red coolers). The taxi drive was super bumpy. Most of the roads were not paved and quite curvy. I arrived at Ananmaya wide eyed. The place was beautiful with great views. I checked in and headed to my shared room. A first for me, I stayed in a shared dorm with five other ladies. It was equipped with 3 toilets, 2 showers, lockers to store our stuff, and twin beds for each person. That night we had a huge Christmas dinner. I gorged myself on plantain chips and guacamole. What a great way to start this trip.
If you know me well, I'm quite an introvert (some still question this) and I'm very awkward at meeting people for the first time. This yoga retreat had 25 people in attendance and one yoga instructor, Rony. I was very weird introducing myself to my bunkmates as well as others on the retreat. Most of my time during the holiday when we didn't have activities, I spent it either by the pool or in my secret hammock location reading. I was not much in the mood for social interaction and just wanted to lose myself in a good book. Eventually, my super secret hammock location was found by another person so I had to fight for my spot for 2 days which was not fun.
On Christmas Day, we started the day with breakfast, a yoga class, and an opening circle. This was a first for me...I wasn't even sure what an "opening circle" was. Well, all the retreat participants sit in a circle and introduce themselves and tell why they are on the retreat. This will be easy...I thought. By the third person's share, I was in tears. Each individual was on this trip for so many reasons. But one thing is for sure, we all came to heal and find a path to move on toward the future. I was truly in the right place, at the right time. After a great lunch, the group headed to do a zipline canopy tour. This was so much fun, everyone was laughing and joking and having a good time. Every night we had candlelight yoga and dinner. The sunrises and sunsets were spectacular. Just after the first day, I realized that I had found my place and my peeps...this place was starting to be quite magical.
Let's talk yoga. The yoga instructor for the week was a woman from California named Rony. She had visited Anamaya a few years prior to this and was burnt out selling houses in Los Angeles and the trip changed her mindset and life. I felt connected to her after the circle share about being burnt out in her job (because I sure felt the burn in my own life). The yoga practices were some of the best I've ever had. It was different type of yoga than I did at home and I loved it. Now, my body, not so much. I was so sore the majority of the time I was in Costa Rica. I was enjoying myself so much that the body pain was there but didn't bother me. I was glad to be moving my body and doing things that were new to me and my body. The daily yoga was fast paced, hot (because it was 90 degrees), and enjoyable (even though I cursed in my head a lot). The nightly yoga was so relaxing with pillows/bolsters, slower paced, more breath work, with longer holds in each pose. The practices not only helped me better connect with myself but allowed me to connect with other retreat participants. I go on a few more retreats with Rony in the future (you will see in future blog posts).
One of my most favorite things I tried was aerial yoga. The resort had set up silks and beds (just in case we fell). We were taught different poses to get into. Boy was it HARD! I was so proud of myself because I was able to do all the moves and realized how strong I really was. Rony also held a separate class to learn to get upside down in head stands, hand stands, and other asana poses like scorpion. I wanted so bad to get into scorpion and it is still on my list to one day conquer. I at least learned some tips to get into it. I did successfully get into head stand, which was an accomplishment.
Let's talk the food. I thought I would have an issue with an all vegetarian (plus chicken and fish) diet. Ananmaya opened up my eyes as to how yummy vegetarian food can be. I was detoxing from refined sugar, red meat, and cheese/dairy. It was good for me to clean up my eating habits and start the new year cleaned out (literally). Now, I'm not going to lie to you, but I did eat at a burger place in Orlando once I landed in the US. One of the activities was a cooking class with the chef of the resort. A few years later my sister gave me the Ananmaya cookbook for Christmas. We also visited the eco-farm where the veggies and fruits came from for all the meals. They had all kinds of farm animals and plants. It was the first time I saw a cacao seed, which is what chocolate is made out of.
Let's talk activities. This place had so much to do. The itinerary was full; however, we did have a lot of down time as well. As spoken to prior, we had the zipline canopy tour on the first day, aerial silks yoga, cooking class, yoga inversion workshop, farm tour, and morning / evening yoga. I tried surfing for the first time in my life. For me, it was super hard because my leading foot would not hit the board in the correct spot to get up on the board easily. I did get up two times which was a lot of work. I was so proud of myself. Other things we did was a beach day with bonfire, waterfall hike, butterfly garden, salsa class (dancing not food), cardio boost workshop, optional horseback riding on the beach, and a circus performance on the last day. The waterfall hike was quite difficult, but the resort had the hiking trail starting at the resort. Many people got into the water and jumped off the waterfalls/rocks. I did not, I had way too much fear going on. A few years later, I'm back in Motezuma and I jumped off that darn rock, so the fear eventually got conquered (boy did it haunt me for a few years). The beach day was great with fresh coconut water and a beautiful sunset. The activities were one of the main reasons that I wanted to go to Ananmaya. It was a perfect mix of relaxation with adventure.
Last but not least, let's talk animals. Like my last Costa Rica trip, this trip also had a good number of animals to see. At the resort they had these animals called a coatimundi. It is a mammal and are the raccoon of Central America. They were always getting into trash or trying to get fruit that fell on the ground. You could hear the howler monkeys from the resort. It always made me laugh hearing them in the open shower in our room. They kind of sound like a dog that may be hurt and they are LOUD.
When I tell you that Ananmaya is a magical place, it truly is. There were so many people hurting at the beginning of the trip. I'm not going to say we were healed in five days, but the trip did help people see the future more clearly and jump started their healing journey. I owe a lot to this retreat. It is the MAIN reason that I planned to get out of corporate America and open Glamp GVL. At the time I didn't know what glamping was, but I did know that I was not going to sit at a computer all day, for the rest of my life.
My surf instructor gave me an anklet made of string that had "LOVE" in a metal charm. It broke after three years and the next time I was in Motezuma, I hunted down something similar. I ended up with a tattoo on my wrist from a local tattoo artist in Costa Rica, but that is a story and blog post for another time. What is the significance? It reminded me every day to love...love myself, love others, love my life, love _________ (fill in the blank).
Yoga can help heal a person's soul. The trip made me realize that I wanted to help others heal and find joy in their lives. Later down the road, I found enough courage to get my yoga teacher license. I didn't think I could teach others yoga because I couldn't get into some of those bendy poses. Yoga is so different for so many people. I want to teach people the "yoga" their soul needs to be joyful and full of love. After this trip, my soul was joyful, and I was on a healing path.
What did I learn on this trip:
Going on a trip during the holidays solo is not "sad" or "lonely". Ignore the judgement of others and do what you need to do for your soul to find joy.
We know so little about people's lives. Refrain from judgement. The person you meet maybe hurting and just need someone to adventure with in order to help kindle the healing process.
Vegetarian food can be tasty. Living without dairy, especially cheese, will not kill me.
It is okay to be an introvert. It is okay to be an extrovert. Instead of labeling yourself, love yourself.
What I want to bring to Glamp GVL:
So many people are hurting and miserable in their lives. I want Glamp GVL to be a place where people can come and be themselves. I would love for it to be magical for glampers. I want it to be a place where people can come and heal their soul.
Activities - Glamp GVL will have so many activities that glampers can choose from. Just like Ananmaya, I want it to be a full itinerary but also enough time to relax.
Garden - Eventually I would love for Glamp GVL to have a garden. Fresh fruits and veggies taste so much better than grocery store bought foods. We would love to teach glampers to have their own gardens and grow their own food.
Holiday travel - Glamp GVL will be open during the holidays. I would love for Glamp GVL to be a place where people can go to find family/friends and celebrate special occasions and holidays.
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