GETTING HEALTHY IN COSTA RICA:
Boutique retreat offers yoga, healthy food
As my husband and I were relaxing in our comfortable room at the Anamaya Resort on the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, I looked up from my book and noticed he was sneakily munching on something. Anamaya is a boutique health and wellness retreat that serves gourmet organic meals and before arriving we had both said we planned to stick to their menu for the entire week. Three days off refined sugar and my husband had sneaked in contraband. “What?” he asked innocently. “It’s a granola bar and that’s healthy.” The fact that the said granola bar was covered in caramel and dipped in chocolate seemed to have escaped his notice.
Wellness tourism is a growing niche in the travel market and many travellers look to kick-start healthy eating and exercise habits, detox, meditate and refresh both their bodies and their minds on retreat-style getaways. The word “Anamaya” is Sanskrit for “good health” and the small boutique resort offers yoga, spa treatments, surfing clinics, hiking and other excursions along with a healthy and delicious included menu made mostly from organic produce grown on their own farm served alongside locallysourced fish and meat.
The resort is built on a cliff edge and though it is surrounded by rainforest, there are beautiful ocean views from the infinity pool and many of the rooms. Three sets of waterfalls are within walking distance and the town of Montezuma is a short drive or walk down the steep hill.
“The Nicoya peninsula was identified as one of the world’s blue zones, or areas in the world where people statistically live longer lives,” said Geoff McCabe CEO and co-owner of the resort. “It just makes sense to have a health and wellness retreat in a place where the environment is pure and where people live long, heathy lives. When you spend time here, your stress levels go way down.”
On our first morning, we had arisen at 7 a.m. to enjoy a prebreakfast snack before heading to the morning yoga class, which is held in one of the world’s most scenic yoga studios. The rainforest and ocean views that stretched out before us from the outdoor yoga deck almost made me forget my nervousness about the fact that we were relative newbies to yoga.
One of my biggest concerns about signing up for a yoga retreat was that I wouldn’t be able to keep up if all the other guests were at a more advanced level than me. My husband’s biggest worry was that he was going to be the only man in the class. As it turned out, neither of us needed to be concerned. There was a mix of men and women of all skill levels during the week we visited the resort. Our certified yoga instructor, Kim Goyette, had a master’s in exercise science and she somehow managed to put together an effective program that incorporated hatha, hatha flow and yin yoga practices for a group of participants that ranged from beginner to advanced levels.
The resort also offers optional excursions and daily surfing clinics on a beach near the tiny town of Montezuma and we decided to check out the surfing clinic during our stay. “We don’t use the word ‘no’ in our lessons,” admonished Mike, my surf instructor when I was about to abandon all hope of actually standing up on my surf board. I have to admit; I was glad I persevered — riding a wave to shore was much more exciting from the standing position.
After seven days of healthy eating, surfing and hiking, spa treatments and twice daily yoga, we were feeling better than we had in months.