:: March 2008: Volume 7/Number 2

Jungle Yoga

dreaming of la pura vida on the surfboard & the yoga mat

story & photos by Lori Denman

Finally, I was embarking on a journey to give my body, mind, spirit, yoga mat and surfboard the attention they deserved. In testing the waters of Costa Rica, I followed a few simple rules: turn off my laptop, television and cell phone, unplug and unwind.

My dream: to find the pura vida (pure life); I longed to leave my worries and wetsuit behind. I had visions of toting my surfboard beneath lush greenery filled with monkeys, toucans and iguanas. I dreamt of balmy tropical air and warm surf.

My mission: visit the Nosara Yoga Institute and surf, surf, surf. My mother and brother accompanied me. My brother, a motocross rider, assumed the role of bodyguard and driver (taking full pleasure in attacking the uneven dusty roads).

My unexpected gift: Meeting Don and Amba Stapleton (whom I am pictured with, above), the Nosara Yoga Institute’s creators and directors. Through their example, I learned the meaning of true love.

After landing in San Jose, we hit the road and found Nosara about five hours later. (While another airport is closer to the Institute, we were on the route to adventure, making stops along the way. I recommend the Horizon Yoga View Village and Yoga Center in Mal Pais. It’s a spiritual destination built on stilts offering daily yoga practice, massage and organic meals.)

The village vibe of Nosara, the town where the Institute is located, captured my heart from my first footfall. I strolled down narrow dirt roads gazing at hand-painted signs announcing intimate family-owned cafes. Staying at the Café de Paris was also a treat, with its delicious bakery. Just follow the sign with the frog to find the shortcut jungle trail to the Nosara Yoga Institute.

The roosters and monkeys took pride in playing alarm clock, providing a pre-sunrise wake-up call for a dawn patrol surf session. Some of my favorite moments involved waking up my mother to surf at 4:30 in the morning, surrounded by darkness with the monkeys howling in one ear and The Crystal Method pumping through my iPod in the other. She was shocked to see her little “night owl” awake so early. We quickly reached the coast via a hidden jungle trail where our eyes, barely open, could not believe the sensational sight: One other person in the water!

Here there was time to allow life’s lessons to arrive at their leisure. Walking on this path, my vacation unfolded in the sanctuary for those who live on yoga, created by Don and Amba, shared through laughter and love.

We settled into our own breaks. There were so many waves, I felt like I was disrespecting the ocean for not riding them all. I caught the best wave of my life: a smooth six-footer that peaked and picked up speed as it stretched on for minutes on end.

Surfing for hours, doing yoga, eating fresh pesticide-free foods and breathing delicious, green-tinged oxygen produced by the abundant vegetation created daily shifts in my body and wrung out excess toxins. These activities, experiences and this setting introduced me to the real meaning of being in the present. I realized how addicted I was to being busy in my everyday life. Here there was time to allow life’s lessons to arrive at their leisure. Walking on this path, my vacation unfolded in the sanctuary for those who live on yoga, created by Don and Amba, shared through laughter and love.

They refer to the Institute as: “Inquiry-based yoga education for the multi-dimensional self.” Amba encourages her teacher training students to seek and create their own style of teaching, mixed with influences from the institute. “We are more interested in people doing yoga and learning from their own practice what they would like to teach,” Amba explained. “I teach a vinyasa (movement with breath) style I created, but I do not order others to teach it the same way.”

Why Costa Rica? Don and Amba selected this country due to its brilliance as nature’s classroom; they see it as an international crossroads of evolving yoga practice and they remark on the feel of its electromagnetic energy fields. As I came to understand through personal experience, the cleansing environment is of utmost importance, leading (me, anyway) to personal focus, full awareness and good health.

As they explain, “The pranayama (breath techniques) and the yoga can have a different effect in the jungle. The natural environment adds to the yoga. When you add the two, you are flying.... Yoga reveals to us that attuning to nature, in all her different forms, continually calls us to listen to the natural wisdom inherent within our own being.

My 10-year practice was revitalized after Amba’s daily six a.m. class. I learned new poses and transitions, received attention from three assistants and flourished in the divine group energy. I loved angel pose, which involved standing tall while opening and outstretching our arms and chest toward the sky, while sending loving thoughts to our lost loved ones.

Through practices like angel pose, their teaching and their very presence, Amba and Don modeled love. I exchanged a level of openness with them that I had never experienced in a first-time encounter. Neither their smiles nor their minds were ever forced. They floated across the property, giving and teaching naturally; their efforts seemed effortless. By witnessing this interaction with Don and Amba I realized that I too, was ready for true love. It was possible to live and grow with a partner and build dreams as one.

While this vacation was my heaven on Earth, I learned a valuable lesson: to communicate clearly (again) to my fellow travelers. My brother found our trip too spiritual. He loved hanging on the beach and meeting new friends at the Harbor Reef Hotel in Nosara, where he could dine and drink at leisure. Once we reached Mal Pais (where the nightlife was dead before December), boredom rapidly set in since he neither surfed nor practiced yoga. At one point, we left a yoga retreat in Mal Pais early to hit the village of Montezuma, to indulge in cliff jumping from waterfalls and reggae dancing at nightclubs.

Upon returning to L.A., I unpacked my souvenirs: the love I witnessed, the sense of presence I experienced. Costa Rica has continued to permeate my subconscious through these gifts, even though I am again wetsuit-bound in the Southern California waves.

Lori Denman is a writer, surfer, yogi and traveler searching for the next perfect wave and perfect pose. Snowfish351@aol.com

Don and Amba lead a variety of teacher training programs at the Nosara Yoga Institute: nosarayoga.com. Recommended residential facilities are found down a jungle path at the Café de Paris.

Horizon Yoga View Village and Yoga in Mal Pais: horizon-yogahotel.com

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