Via Yoga’s surf and yoga week in Sayulita Mexico is a perfect retreat for thrill seekers in search of a little reflection with their recreation.
I flew in to the airport with just enough time to check in and get to the gate. Fighting the unforeseen lines at LAX early on a Sunday was enough to challenge the most balanced of yogis.
Aside from the crowd, there was an army of boards. A sea of surfers, mainly male, was heading to Mexico to get their wave on. According to the ex-hippy, now exec, still surfer in front of he, his buddies, his son and his son’s buddies do a men’s-only surf retreat every year in an undisclosed, remote location in Mexico. No addy’s were mentioned for fear that a flurry of females would crash their Iron John-meets-Beach Boy retreat.
When I disclosed my soon-to-be surf oasis in Sayulita, he confirmed that it was a very cool, remote fishing village, a longstanding fave of the serious surf community. That very day the paper ran a huge story on just how hip Sayulita is. I needed to catch this wave before the inevitable commercialism comes crashing down.
As I arrived in Puerto Vallarta, I had no idea who was going to be on my yogi retreat. I assumed a bevy of overly serious crunchy granola yoga enthusiasts, talking karma and counting calories. As I stood at our designated meeting point, our group slowly took shape. I could spot them from a mile away. No one mentioned caloric activity, but the group was very yogi-esque.
An hour after we pulled away from the busy Puerto Vallarta airport, we slowly crawled in to the edgy and interesting center of Sayulita. The sun was just setting as we bounced along the unpaved dirt road. At the end of this seaside journey was the appropriately named Villa Amor. It was a slice of Mexican heaven right on the water’s edge, away from the beach bustle and the center of the tiny town.
I didn’t know what to expect, but upon arrival, it was just what you would imagine. It felt like a fit. Michelle Gantz, the Seattle-based proprietor of Viayoga, and her long, flowing sinewy limbs were waving us warmly in to the private gate at the end of the dirt road. After a quick check-in to the expansive, authentic Mexican villa, we all met in the open-air yoga studio down the dusty road for our welcome and intro.
It was a larger group than I expected, an eclectic and interesting group of 19 or 20 people. The group was largely women with three men thrown in for good measure. There were a few BFF’s, girl duos, female friends turning 40 together, two married moms reclaiming independence while rekindling a friendship, the other duo of girlfriends, one a mom, one not, an older hip couple dealing with their now-empty nest, a flurry of singlets, mainly gals and few guys coming off, in or in search of a relationship and, of course, our yoga instructor for the week Matt who brought his lovely wife Amy with him.
