The Health Advantage Yoga Center
Yoga Vacation in Puerto Morales, Mexico
February 22 to March 1, 2003
Susan in middle next to me
Hosts Jean second from left Jack third from right
In February I went to a week long yoga vacation in Puerto Morelos Mexico sponsored by the Health Advantage Yoga Center with Susan Van Nuys as the retreat instructor. HAYC had been doing the same retreat for several years, but was led by Betsy Downing, the then owner of HAYC. With Betsy leaving and Susan becoming the new director of HAYC, she also inherited the yearly Mexico retreat. The retreat was a week long, arriving on a Saturday and returning the following Saturday and I was really looking forward to going. It was the middle of February, we had had several snows, and it was freezing cold in Reston, what could be better than going to warm sunny Mexico. Yes, I was looking forward to it.
I got up early that Saturday morning, ate breakfast and fed the cats. They would miss me, but I made arrangements for a pet sitter to come feed them while I was gone. I called Dulles Taxi service the night before and made arrangements for a taxi to pick me up at six AM. It’s only a fifteen minute taxi ride from my home to the Dulles airport but I got there plenty early to go through the new security measures put in place since 9-11. The flight took off on time going to Dallas then a connecting flight to Cancun.
Villas Shanti
My room was on the right bottom
Puerto Morelos is about a thirty-minute taxi ride south of the popular tourist destination, Cancun which was the nearest airport. There were a couple of others on the same flight going the same retreat and we connected up at luggage pickup and went though customs then got a taxi to the Puerto Morelos. The yoga vacation was being held at a place called Villas Shanti located a few blocks from downtown Puerto Morelos town center. The taxi stops at a door set in the middle of a block long white wall. We unload our luggage from the taxi and ring the bell and within a few minutes an older gentleman opens the door, introduces himself as Jack, the owner, and invites us in where we find a most beautiful courtyard with a clover shaped pool in the middle, potted trees, and flowering shrubs. Jack was a most jovial man, very pleasant as he welcomed us. Along one end of the enclosure was a veranda with an old-fashioned cooler, like you would find an old store, waist high with sliding doors on top, where Jack said we could find soft drinks and beer anytime you want.
Appropriately named Shanti, being the Sanskrit word for peace, Villa Shanti was owned and operated by Jack and Jean Lowe who were an older American couple. Jack and Jean lived in New Hampshire in the cooler summers during the New Hampshire winters they lived in and operated Villa Shanti in Mexico. Operating Villa Shanti as a yoga retreat center was mostly Jean’s idea as she had taught yoga for many years and was a certified Shiatsu therapist. But Jack was the heart and soul of Villa Shanti, a retired math teacher from Long Island, NY, he loved to meet and greet people, and was full of stories to tell.
My
Room
My
private patio
Jack then asks our names and pulling out a clipboard, looks up our names and tells us which room were in. Along two sides, overlooking the pool, were two story buildings each with four rooms, two on the ground floor and two on the second floor. Jack then tells us to put our luggage in our rooms and come back to the cooler and he would give us a tour. I go to my assigned room and find it to be very nice, the door enters into a small kitchen. Off the kitchen was good sized bedroom with two beds. I paid extra for a single room so I put my suitcase on one of the beds. In the front of the bed is a double sliding glass door opening onto the pool deck. At the back of the bedroom were two doors, one opened to a very nice bathroom, the other opened to a private enclosed patio that had a small table and a couple of chairs.
The Yoga room
After checking out the room and putting away my
luggage I return to the cooler where I find Jack who suggests I get
something to drink from the cooler so I slide back the lid and find it well
stocked with beer so I grab one, some Mexican brand I never heard of, then
sit on a stool to wait for the others. Jack, a very talkative man, asks
where I’m from and I tell him about myself. Shortly the others arrive back
from their rooms and Jack begins the tour. Next to the veranda was a
bathroom we could use. On the opposite end of the pool from the veranda was
a wall with a door which he explained led to his and his wife’s private
residence.
We
then followed him through a passageway between the two lower rooms which
opened into a nicely landscaped area with a large palapa with several
hammocks hanging underneath. We follow Jack next to a building which
he opens the door and tells us this is the yoga room where we will be doing
yoga. The room, about twelve feet wide and twenty deep, had several washing
machines and dryers and piles of towels and sheets in various stages of
being cleaned. Don’t worry, Jack said, the laundry would be put away before
yoga class. This was when we first learned that Jack loved jokes and kidding
around. Jack tells us he’s just kidding, and we follow him down a short path
to find the most wonderful yoga palapa. Thirty feet wide, sixty feet long
with a vaulted palm thatched roof. Around the walls at head height were
horizontal windows. The floor was concrete but painted grass color green.
Puerto Morelos Town Center
Church bell tower in background
By this time several others, including Susan, had arrived and we all decided to walk into town at get a margarita, it was only about 1 o’clock but, hey, we were on vacation. Puerto Morelos is a small fishing village on the gulf coast that has two main streets that run north and south parallel to the beach. Villa Shanti is at the north end of the village situated within a walled compound between the two streets. Exiting Villa Shanti on the beach side street there was a vacant lot which you could look across and see the beach. From Villa Shanti it is six blocks, a six or eight minute walk, to the town center. At the time, Puerto Morelos was somewhat of a poor looking village, a few modern hotels and places to stay interspersed with many run-down, often half finished, local homes often many with a scrappy looking dogs in front of them. The dogs were mostly friendly enough, but they were kind of mangy looking and not dogs you wanted to pet. The street was filled with potholes, some big enough to swallow a small car but it was a pleasant walk with glimpses of the ocean between the houses and hotels on the beach and soon arrived at the Puerto Morelos town center.
The town pier looking back at the town
Note the orginal leaning light house. New light house to the right
Common of many cities in Mexico, the Puerto Morelos town center was a civic park with a playground for children, a pavilion for events, on the west side of the town center is a large Catholic church. On the north and south sides are shops and restaurants. Unlike inland towns, Puerto Morelos being on the ocean, the fourth side was open to the beach with a pier extended out into the gulf. Susan, who had been on the retreat with Betsy Downing in previous years, directed us to the restaurant Pelicanos (Spanish for pelican) which was right on the beach, and I do mean right on, you can literally step out of the restaurant onto the beach. We got a table overlooking the beach and ordered a round of margaritas, grande of course, and several of us ordered the shrimp cocktail which was absolutely fabulous. What a way to begin a week vacation.
Margaritas and shrimp coctails at Pelicanos
Town pier in background
included a buffet dinner the first evening which had an amazing selection of authentic Mexican cuisine and was an opportunity to meet the other people in the retreat that I didn’t know.
The following morning was the first yoga session at 7:30-9:30 which was a perfect time, not too early and not so late that it got hot which was an odd thing to say as it was freezing back in Virginia when I left. I had been taking regular classes with Susan for two years now and really liked her teaching style although the yoga at the retreat was more toned down than the level 3 class that I had been taking with Susan due to there being less experienced people at the retreat. But even so Susan provided options for the more experienced students.
Fillin
gour plates at brunch
Good
conversation while eating brunch
After the morning session was brunch which was included in the retreat. Brunch had a fantastic buffet of Mexican cuisine, always some sort of egg dish, fresh baked breads and muffins, a fantastic selection of fresh fruit, and several vegetable dishes. One day there was some unusual green vegetable which we found out was catus. After piling our plates with food we all sat around tables that were set out in the shade by the pool. After a leisurely, which often lasted for over an hour, was free time until the afternoon yoga session that begin at 4 o’clock. People went off in small groups or individually to go to the beach or go explore the town and shop. There was really no need to each lunch after having such a large late brunch but sometimes early afternoon some of us would get a snack and the seemly required margarita.
Villas
Shanti entance at night
Everyone would meet up at 4 o’clock for the afternoon yoga session which often included a longer relaxation at the end of the session. The afternoon session ended and 6 and people then would go to their rooms, freshen up and change before meeting by the pool to go into town for dinner. Other than the first and last days, people were on their own for dinner which actually was quite nice as we got to experience some of the local restaurants which in 2003 there were only about three or four other than Pelicanos. Some evenings the whole group would go to the same restaurant, other evenings people would break up into smaller groups and then report back then next day to the others about where they had dinner. After dinner we usually would walk back on the beach to return to Villa Shanti well after dark.
Me at Talum
Wednesday was adventure day in which there was a shorted yoga practice in the morning then the group went to Talum to see the Mayan ruins. Jack, the owner of Villa Shanti, arranged for a couple of vans to take us to Talum which is about an hour and half drive south of Puerto Morelos. At the ruins we hired a local guide to walk us around and tell us about the ruins which I found quite fascinating. After the guided tour, we had a couple hours to explore on our own. On the way back to Puerto Morelos we stopped at a restaurant that was right on a bay for a late lunch. The restaurant had sand floors, picnic tables set under a thatched roof and there were chickens running about the grounds. Several chicken items were on the menu and I wondered if they just went out and grabbed one as needed.
The remainder of the week was pretty much the same, two yoga sessions and the afternoon to go to the beach, explore the town, shop, or my favorite thing, just sit around the pool. There were a list of activities that could be arranged in the afternoon, one day a group us went to a cenote to go swimming. In Florida we called cenotes sinkholes but unlike Florida sinkholes, the cenotes in Mexico were filled with crystal clear fresh spring water and were quite beautiful to swim in.
On the last day, Friday, there was a final buffet dinner that was even more spectacular than the first night. Jack, a wonderful host, had got everyone’s departure flight times and made arrangements for taxi’s to take each group back to the airport. Some had afternoon flights and, though they had to be out of their rooms, they were allowed to hang out by the pool until they had to leave.
I had a most wonderful time and looked forward to going again next year.
Updated: 06-03-2024