Yoga in Paradise: A Yoga Vacation

by Marth Wagner

It was a cold and dreary November day in Portland several years ago when my thoughts traveled from “How am I going to get through another long winter?” to “Aha, I haven’t been on a yoga retreat for years … yoga in a warm climate could be the perfect solution for getting through another cold winter!”

With a few clicks of my computer mouse, I found links for retreats in Costa Rica, Brazil, Fiji, Mexico, Baja and Greece, yoga on a ranch in Arizona, an island in the Caribbean. How would I ever figure out the best location and the most appealing daily program that would fit my budget?

First I narrowed the choices by doing a Google search for Anusara yoga retreats, Anusara being the particular style of yoga classes I’ve been attending in recent years. I found a website that listed many of these retreats, but there were still numerous decisions to make. Did I want to pay for a luxury level vacation? No. Did I want to combine yoga with surfing, singing or some other activity? Maybe.

The key question, however, became: Do the yoga teachers and the students I see in the photos on each website look like my kind of folks? Are the teachers and students young and super athletic-looking or a mix of ages and physical ability?

Fast forward to February, when I arrived on the Big Island of Hawaii for a six-day yoga retreat at a beautiful, but not luxurious, retreat center in a tropical setting a stone’s throw from the ocean. The retreat was led by husband and wife Anusara yoga teachers from California (ages 40 and 50 something). Just as in the website photos, participants ranged in age from mid-twenties to mid-sixties, some very experienced in their yoga practice and others, including several men who were probably once-a-year yogis accompanying their more experienced wives.

Every day I savored the feeling of being in paradise. I was challenged, in a good way, by the twice-a-day, two-hour classes, and I have wonderful memories of our group’s early morning meditation, the superb sunny weather every day, skies full of stars at night and plentiful, delicious meals.