So I sent off my email on 10 February requesting a spot for a retreat that starts on 15 February...as always I am optimistic.
Despite the fact Ive very new to yoga and have not tried any of the other activities listed for at the retreat (except high school art, which from the description tells you how long ago that was...!) and have emailed so late...the organisers welcome me with open arms...hmm, this is a good thing right? Im learning more and more, some things are just meant to be.
Anyway regardless, Im in, pay my deposit and away we go..! The Bamboo Yoga Play Website describes the retreat as
“Get wild and come alive in the Jungles of Costa Rica’ Join us on a 5 day exploration; fuelling our authentic expression through movement, yoga, drumming, singing and visual arts.”
A perfect addition to a Costa Rican Jungle Adventure.
Now some of you who know me best may be a little nervous that I think there is a wild woman inside to awaken...with stories such as the “jack daniels incident”, “the espresso martini” incident, the “green drink” incident, riding Thomas the Tank engine unaccompanied by children, playing on the trampoline with my great nephews (and being first on), a thing for capes and underpants on the outside, giving up my job and home and going to live in a country Ive never been to before etc...you get the picture!
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| One View from La Parcela |
So Tuesday 15 February came around very quickly. As Dominical is only 40 kms away, Holly (my landlady) kindly offers to take me there and suggests we try out La Parcela for lunch which is a restaurant in a beautiful location near there. Donna, another local expat, joined us and we had a fun time.
On arrival, I was taken to my accommodation which was just a short walk down the road. I hung out at Bamboo Yoga waiting for the others to arrive. Here I first met Lyndsey who had arrived on the Sunday. There were 13 attendees including the 3 facilitators, Sofia Thom, Una Viggiana and Cheri Shanti. These 3 had a great combination of skills all provided with different approaches. We kicked off the retreat with an “opening circle” which gave us an introduction of some house rules, what to expect and who we were , the usual. The retreat was mostly held at Bamboo YogaPlay in Dominical except for one day when we had the full moon ritual that was spent mostly at Selva, a property not far from Dominical.
We had dinner together that first night at Maracatu, a fabulous vegetarian restaurant (but they do serve fish, including THE best fish burger I have ever had ...). This became a regular haunt for meals during the retreat.
There were 4 of us staying at Posada del Sol and we soon formed the “Smoothie 
Sisterhood” starting each day at Cafe el Sueno with the biggest, freshest, tastiest smoothies ever. The timetable was full with the schedule running from 8am until 9pm. There were significant breaks during the day though. A typical day would start with an hour available for journaling and/or beach time, 1.5 hours of yoga, a half hour snack break which was usually fresh fruit, then an hour of an awakening activity such as wild painting or wild dance expression. The lunch break was 3 hours which was good as it gave us time to try things like “flying yoga” which I will write about separately. Then there was a two hour playshop such as wild write journaling, 2 hour dinner break and then 2 hour evening playshop which could be drumming around a bonfire on the beach or musing. In addition we also had a day where we hiked to a waterfall and played and meditated there, a full moon ritual, complete with full moon.
Now there are some things that happen in Costa Rica that stay in Costa Rica. I will say though that, yes, I drummed, I painted, I journalled, I danced and I participated in the full moon ritual. While I write this quite flippantly, there was a great deal of depth to each of these sessions from preparation to guidance for being present in the activity and the creation of a safe environment to explore.
I also learnt something from each and everyone that attended, be it a word, an attitude, an activity, and it also gave me time that you dont usually give yourself to develop further. I received some disappointing news on the first morning of this retreat, but I am grateful for the timing as I was in the perfect environment to deal with it. If anyone reading this has an inkling, even if its just in their little pinky toe to try something like this, I would highly recommend it.  |
| The waterfall at the end of our hike |
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| Venue for Full Moon Ritual |
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