Find 'Reju-Vacation' at Ultimate Yoga Retreat in Banderas Bay Meghan Jessiman - Vancouver Sun
go to original November 14, 2014

A hop, skip and icy Corona from the Puerto Vallarta airport is the water taxi that takes me 45 minutes up the Bay of Banderas to Xinalani Retreat, the site of a weeklong, 12-person reju-vacation.

Though the pre-Hispanic word Xinalani translates to “seeds,” (pronounced she-na-lah-knee), it should mean tropical paradise. Just down the beach from the sleepy village of Quimixto, this European-owned eco-chic resort is built right into the side of a mountain and surrounded by lush jungle foliage.

As our boat approaches the secluded hillside dotted with the thatched huts, dining room and yoga studios, my companions and I can’t help but stare at each other in disbelief. When did we sign up for a visit to a luxurious version of Jurassic Park?

To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what I had signed up for when I enrolled in Nelson-based yoga instructor Jennifer Steed’s Return to Your Source yoga retreat. Steed has hosted 57 excursions of this type around the globe to date, and coined the term “reju-vacation” in response to the desire she observed in her students to experience something more on their vacations.

In other words, while chilling on the beach and sipping margaritas could certainly be part of the daily agenda (both those activities were an aspect of most of my days, to be sure) the souvenirs from this kind of Mexican holiday are more of the recharged spirit and personal epiphany variety, rather than a sombrero or gift-shop shot glass.

So it was that I become one of the dozen participants of various ages, physical fitness levels and walks of life who had stumbled across this offering in search of a different kind of escape.

Xinalani offers a variety of accommodation from shared palapas to private eco-chic suites. The rooms are simple and straightforward (nothing more than comfortable beds with white linens and airy mosquito nets, a few pieces of furniture in light wood and a crocheted hammock in the suites), but thanks to the no-fourth-wall concept overlooking the bay, visitors can’t help but be hypnotized by the views and lulled peacefully to sleep by the crashing waves from the beach just metres below.

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