Fresh Start Retreat (2022)

Day 1

Arrival

Arrive at Tambor airport, where you will be picked up and taken to Natura Loft Garden.

You will meet your travel mates poolside in the early afternoon for a light lunch. You will hear about the activities lined up and options available for the coming days.

This afternoon will be at leisure by the pool or on the beach. The accommodation is just steps from a lovely beach. Santa Teresa boasts several of the most beautiful beaches in Costa Rica and annual temperature range is consistently between 77-87 degrees. Optional Jet Lag massages will be available.

Tonight, you will walk down the beach for dinner at Manzú, a beachfront restaurant offering a nice selection of Costa Rican and Latin American specialties, including vegan options, with stunning sunset views. Sunset is at 5:38 pm.

Day 2

Montezuma Falls

Join a guided sunrise meditation at 5:55 am (sunrise is at 6:01), followed by yoga on the beach at 6:30 am.

After breakfast (from 7:30-9:30 am), you will partake in an Intention Discussion. You will be setting your intentions for the trip as part of the work with your dreams and improved sleep. You will also discuss the process of Lightning Dreamwork, which allows those who desire to share their dreams over breakfast throughout the trip. Breakfast is a perfect time for this as people are gathered and they often can still remember dreams from night before. Your guide, Krista, will be tracking dreams visually throughout the trip by creating a collage of visuals, which will show how the dream reality interacts with the waking reality. What you can learn from your dreams is amazing!

At 10:00 am, you will be picked up to head out on the Montezuma Falls Quest – an optional first stop is the zip line canopy tour in Mal País, where you can go from treetop to treetop while enjoying the great views of the tropical forest and the Pacific Ocean. The adventure continues as you head through the mountains and along white sand beaches. Upon reaching Montezuma, you will take a short walk to these stunning waterfalls. There are three falls in total, the largest of which is 24 meters (79 ft.). Below the falls are large pools where you can swim and cool off.

Afterwards, you will get to relax and enjoy a Costa Rican lunch in an excellent local restaurant. After, walk around the town of Montezuma to visit some local artisans in their shops before heading back to Santa Teresa to enjoy some downtime by the pool or at the beach.

Tonight after sunset, Krista will lead a trance session to Meet Your Spirit Guide(s). After this mind-blowing experience, you will walk over to Katana Asian Cuisine, a local favorite, for an Asian inspired dinner. Following dinner, Shawna will guide you in relaxation techniques including the introduction of gratitude journaling, sleep stories, sound bath meditation and best practices to help induce restful and restorative sleep, which is so important for longevity and health.

Day 3

Water Activities

After a guided meditation at 7:00am and yoga at 7:30am, you will enjoy breakfast during which Krista will lead dreamwork discussions and Shawna will discuss her top expert tips on best sleep hygiene so that you can sleep more deeply, to repair and restore your brain health and improve your energy levels.

Appointments will be available from 10am-12pm for a personalized Trance Mediumship session with Krista or a private coaching session with Shawna. You will grab a light and refreshing lunch at a nearby favorite with the group.

Santa Teresa is one of the most beloved surfing areas in all of Central America. This afternoon, you can choose to challenge yourself with an optional activity in and around the water such as taking a surfing or stand-up paddleboard lesson, snorkelling in a tidepool or going on a horseback ride on the beach.

Later this afternoon, you will head out for a sunset dream discussion with Krista followed by cocktails/mocktails and dinner at Habanero, a beachfront Mexican restaurant and a local favorite.

Day 4

Discovering the Blue Zone Life

After a guided meditation at 7:00am and yoga at 7:30am, you will enjoy breakfast and continue the dreamwork discussion lead by Krista. Shawna will also teach you why food is the most powerful medicine you can use. You will learn why diets don’t work, how to eat intuitively and how to use food as one of your greatest healing modalities for sleep, disease prevention and improving your quality of life.

Today, you will be taken on a full-day adventure that will help you better understand why the Nicoya Penninsula is considered one of the five regional Blue Zones. Blue Zones is a concept used to identify a demographic and/or geographic area of the world where people live healthier and longer-lives, suffer a fraction of the diseases that commonly kill people in other parts of the developed world, and enjoy more healthy active years of life. In Nicoya, most people live into their 90’s and many reach 100 or more!

This tour of a traditional farm will allow you to participate in the daily life of a typical Costa Rican farmer. The recipe to achieving such high quality of life is based on strong family ties, faith, plant-based diet, constant physical activity, sunshine, no smoking and no alcohol. Some of the activities you can take part in include milking cows, making traditional fresh cheese, and the entire process of making raw sugar (from harvesting the sugarcane to extracting its sweet juices and then cooking it). This tour includes lunch, made with fresh ingredients from the farm.

Upon returning to Santa Teresa, you can choose some free leisure time or set up a personalized Trance Mediumship session with Krista or a personal coaching session with Shawna.

This evening, Doni will lead a Sunset Gratitude Ritual. Dinner will be a relaxed affair poolside with Shawna leading you in a Blue Zone cooking class using local, fresh ingredients and further discussing how food is one of the best healing modalities. Following dinner, you will have the opportunity to enjoy a sound bowl meditation with an expert.

Day 5

Cabo Blanco National Park

This morning, you will grab your breakfast to go and head out at 7am to visit Cabo Blanco National Park. The early start is meant to improve the chances of seeing animals during their most active time. Enjoy a short and easy walk through Cabo Blanco National Park with a naturalist who will help identify and point out some of the animals and birds in their natural habitat.

Cabo Blanco has its own special place in the history of Costa Rica, becoming the first National Park in Costa Rica in 1963. The forest provides refuge to a large variety of animals such as white-tailed deer, pacas, armadillos, anteaters, howler and capuchin monkeys, coyotes, porcupines, raccoons, coatis, and wild cats like ocelots, jaguarundis and margays. More than 240 species of birds have been recorded in Cabo Blanco. Along with seabirds, you can also see magpie jays, motmots, long-tailed manakins, egrets, crested caracaras, black-headed and elegant trogons, chachalacas, ringed kingfishers and various types of parrots and parakeets. The most abundant tree in Cabo Blanco is the Pochote (Spiny Cedar) with some specimens over 120 feet high. Other impressively tall trees are the Ceiba (Silk Cotton Tree), which can tower up to 180 feet, and the fast growing Espavel (Wild Cashew).

Enjoy eating like a local with a stop for lunch in a local “soda” (a mom & pop open air restaurant) on the way back from Cabo Blanco.

The afternoon will be spent back in Santa Teresa where you can spend time on the beach, exploring the tidal pools, practicing your surfing or lounging by the pool.

Tonight, you will celebrate the wonderful trip with a farewell dinner in honor of new friends made, as well as with gratitude for your body and mind, which are returned to you relaxed, refreshed and ready for a powerful, positive, and healthy 2022! You will celebrate with great food and live music at the Banana Beach Restaurant.

Day 6

Departure

Unfortunately, the retreat has come to an end! After morning meditation and yoga, enjoy breakfast before departing to the airport.