What is a Casita? Jungle Luxury.

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Straight out of Jungle Architectural Digest, the secluded two-story treehouse casitas (828 sq. ft) possess the tropical allure that most seek,  steps from the most beautiful beach on the Osa.

Downstairs Bedroom in a Luxury Casita at Iguana Lodge.

Downstairs Bedroom in a Luxury Casita at Iguana Lodge.

Upstairs Bedroom in Luxury Casita with porch and hammock at Iguana Lodge

Upstairs Bedroom in Luxury Casita with porch and hammock at Iguana Lodge

Upstairs Bedroom at a Family Casita at Iguana Lodge

Upstairs Bedroom at a Family Casita at Iguana Lodge

Upstair Bedroom in a Family Casita at Iguana Lodge.

Upstair Bedroom in a Family Casita at Iguana Lodge.

Set on pillars and crafted thoughtfully with indigenous hardwoods, furnished with tropical bamboo furniture and exotic outdoor showers, it’s challenging to find a more exquisite place to spend a few nights of your life.

As Lonely Planet says, “This alluring place has the most architecturally memorable lodging in the area.”

Each of our two-story luxurious yet rustic casitas has large, airy private screened bedrooms with a queen and single orthopedic bed, mosquito netting (more for the romance than the bugs – bugs are minimal here in paradise), Egyptian cotton sheets, soft pillows, spa robes, good reading lights, and hefty fans.

Each casita has its own stone floored exotic hot-water shower (a rarity on the Osa); some casitas have semi-outdoor garden showers. Perhaps best of all is your own enormous private, shaded deck where you can sprawl peacefully in a swaying hammock or read a good book in a plush lounge chair as you overlook the magnificent Golfo Dulce and the lovely and fragrant tropical gardens of Iguana Lodge. Some Casitas are Duplex Casitas and others are Family Casitas.

Two excellent meals a day (breakfast and dinner) are included in the price of your stay, and lunch is always available should you choose to lunch with us here – we hope you do.

Iguana Lodge’s Beach House – Robinson Crusoe’s dream house.

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The Beach House

Iguana Lodge 3 story Beach House

Iguana Lodge 3 story Beach House

is a spectacular three-story villa which we built up in the canopy.

Third Floor Master Bedroom at Beachhouse with wrap around porch and hammock at Iguana Lodge

Third Floor Master Bedroom at Beachhouse with wrap around porch and hammock at Iguana Lodge

Third Floor Master Bedroom in Beach House at Iguana Lodge

Third Floor Master Bedroom in Beach House at Iguana Lodge

The Beach House has a fabulous master suite on the top floor which consists of a gorgeous “Bedroom with a View,” a sprawling deck overlooking the ocean and jungle, and a luxury bathroom with a cantilevered shower and bidet.

On the second floor there are two bedrooms that share an enormous deck, again looking out over the jungle to the beach, and a two room bath area with a shower and separate toilet room. The ground floor has a huge open living area, complete kitchen, and powder room.

The house has all the amenities that Iguana typically offers its guests, such as Egyptian cotton sheets on orthopedic mattresses (two beds in each room, a queen and a single), reading lights, hot water showers, spa robes, etc.

We offer all the services of Iguana Lodge such as arranging adventures, travel and taxis.  Fabulous food is always available and if you like you can choose to purchase a meal plan (breakfast and dinner).

 

Iguana Club Rooms – modern and chic.

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Club Rooms offer a modern, chic twist on jungle lodging.

Club Room looking out to beach at Iguana Lodge.

Club Room looking out to beach at Iguana Lodge.

Light and airy, these 360 sq. ft. rooms have in-house designed bamboo furnishings, lofted ceilings, marble/travertine bathrooms w/ industrial frosted glass french doors, and individual outside balcony seating.

Club Room with view of the Bath at Iguana Lodge

Club Room with view of the Bath at Iguana Lodge

King, Queen, or two twin beds options. A marvelous breakfast for two is included in the price. The Club Rooms are more “hotel like” and enclosed. Great for people who worry about “jungle creep” – one doesn’t often find a tree frog in their Club Room bathroom (which can not be said in a Casita or the Beach House – where many showers are located in exotic outdoor garden structures).

Rooming options at Iguana Lodge? Three choices to meet anyone’s needs.

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We have three great lodging options at Iguana Lodge:

Club Room inside view at Iguana Lodge.

Club Room inside view at Iguana Lodge

Third Floor Master Bedroom at Beachhouse with wrap around porch and hammock at Iguana Lodge

Third Floor Master Bedroom at Beachhouse with wrap around porch and hammock at Iguana Lodge

 

 

 

 

 

 

All are located on our gorgeous, six mile long sand beach – Wahoo! (Not to boast but FYI,

Iguana Lodge is the only high end lodge on the Osa that is on a swimmable beach.)

All rooms include Egyptian cotton sheets, Orthopedic beds, fluffy towels and bathrobes, beach sarongs, organic shampoos, soaps, and other goodies for the global traveler, as well as free WiFi.

A lot of living in the tropics, of course, involves enjoying outside living – so no matter where you opt to lodge, all rooms include plenty of outdoor living as well, such as balconies, porches, terraces, porticos, pavillions, verandas, arbors, gazebos, and outdoor garden rooms – and hammocks of course…welcome to the tropics.

In case of emergency, Call Andy…

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By Andy Pruter.  Owner and Operator of Everyday Adventures in Matapalo, on the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica.  Everyday Adventures has been providing exciting heart thumping tours to Iguana Lodge’s guest for over 12 years.

“Carlos came walking down the trail swearing at himself for being so stupid, so blind.  Walking next to him was my lead guide, Scrappy and 3 tourists. They all had a look of consternation, to say the least.

Carlos is a well respected professional Costa Rican guide that works for a local hotel in Matapalo.  He had just made one of those mistakes that he never makes.  Not looking before he placed he his hands, Carlos had been bitten by a poisonous snake, a Fer-de-lance.

 

Mating Season. Pair of Fer de Lance snakes in Matapalo. These are big ones about 5 feet long. Photo by our wonderful Iguana Lodge guest, Lisa Ayers

When informed that Carlos had been bitten, I immediately told them to call our home to begin an evacuation plan.  Imagine my sense of pride and relief when seconds later my wife, Terry, pulled up on the quad having been forewarned via VHF radio, and loaded up the unfortunate victim, ushering him toward medical assistance.  While Fer-de-lance bites are dangerous, they are rarely fatal.  Fortunately for Carlos after 10 days in the hospital he is fully recovered and is back guiding for the local hotel.

Andy Pruter with his wife Terry and their son Talon and a local boa. As a biologist one of Andy’s fascinations is with the local snakes.

The Osa Peninsula is the real thing. It is a jungle with incredible beauty, exotic animals and flora and attendant dangers.  It can get heavy really fast out out in the rainforest and if you own and operate a company that prides itself on the motto… “Muddy, bloody, bruised and sweaty,” you best be prepared.  From snakebites to sutures to trauma, we are prepared to deal with the unexpected.  Our guides are certified in wilderness first responder, CPR, and basic ropes and rescue.  The best way to avoid misfortunes is to anticipate them by using caution, experience and common sense.  On our tours we see so many different sights of interest but stop and look to avoid creatures underfoot or uneven terrain.  When climbing 300 year old strangler figs or rappelling over 100′ waterfalls, checklists have been reviewed and safety logs completed before putting anyone in a harness.  Guides always go first to ensure no loose rocks or limbs are in the staging area or that water flow isn’t too extreme.”

You can contact Andy at his website or on facebook.

 

Walk through the park…

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Another one under the belt!  My third annual Corcovado Marathon hike; 30 miles, one day  through Corcovado National Park.  Every hike is a different adventure.  The first was incredibly animal filled, dry trails and hot.   The second was incredibly rainy, torrential for at least half the time, and was a test in endurance, tantamount to navy seal training. It wasn’t even the rainy season.

For this third hike, we chose the rainy season.  People looked at as if we were crazy.  And we opened it up to our co-workers (and anyone else wanting a free ticket to adventure.)  11 intrepid Iguana Lodge workers took the challenge.  Even though all had grown up on the Osa Peninsula, none had ever hiked the park, let alone in one day.  The challenge was on.

Unlike our previous hikes this one had been planned to actually work with the tides.  There is part of the hike that is tide dependent.  If you miss the right tide you can wait up to 5 hours until you can pass.

We crossed our fingers that there would not be much rain.

At 4 in the morning, Alfredo, the taxi driver, picked us up at the lodge.  As we headed to the park we picked up groups of workers along the way.  The truck was full of chatter as every one was excited to start the hike.  While the there were stars out (unusual for this season) I couldn’t help but notice lightening in the direction we were heading.  This might be a long day.

Even the hike to the Park Entrance is beautiful with the fog hanging in the trees highlighted by the rising sun.

Our truck finally turns and starts the climb up to the park entrance.  This is our first real challenge because depending on the river it can take 20 minutes in a dry truck or and hour or two by foot, slugging through a swollen river, crossing it at least 30 times.  Things are looking good as the truck successfully starts crossing the river, once, twice, three … until finally at about the 7th crossing the truck can’t cross.

The beginning of our hike. Just beautiful.

So now our hikes begin.

Sidnar our naturalist and guide holds a meeting.  It is 5:15 and he wants to get to the Los Patos ranger station by 6:00, to Sirena Ranger Station by 11:30 and to Carate by 5:00.  This is a very ambitious time table and I am wondering if we can really make this pace.

One of our 25 or so river crossing just to get to the park entrance at Los Patos.

Off we go as we cross the river for the first of what seems countless times.  Everyone is in good spirits and the pace is fairly brisk.  Light is finally coming up and the trees are emerging out of a beautiful fog.  The sky is bright blue.  I am trailing the pack.  We arrive at the Los Patos at 6:15 and sign into the park.

Someone ask the guard the quickest he has ever walked from Los Patos to Sirena.  2 hours and 45 minutes.  I think he ran it.

A little snack and bathroom break and off we go to Sirena.

We all know that the next 2 to 3 hours will be the most physically challenging part of the hike.  There a series of ups and downs and at this time of year the trail is going to be slick and slippery.  We are not disappointed.  The younger people move along like mountain sheep completely oblivious of  how slippery the trail is.  In some places the mud is deep as well.  Fortunately the weather is perfect and everyone is in great spirits.  We see occasional troops of monkeys, hear lots of birds but really don’t come across much else.

It is becoming clear that our time table is not going to happen.  You can only move through mud so fast.  Even when the trail flattens out, it is slippery and mud ridden.  We are actually making really good time but there is no way we are going to make Carate by 5:00.

The group is spreading out as well.  Fortunately there is only one trail and for the people behind a very clear foot prints to follow.  There are four of us at the end and we are having a great time.  Taking photos. Checking out the unusual flora

Beautiful Pinuella flower

and seeing lots of fresh animal prints, one of a huge tapir that was between our group and those of a herd of  peccaries that had crossed the trail. You can actually smell them but we don’t see them. We saw lots of Curacaos (a resplendent turkey).

We occasionally catch up with the rest of the group as they wait for us but as soon as we start off again, the front part of the group disappears.  Finally we find our guide Sidnar waiting by himself at a river to tell us that Sirena Station is about 45 minutes away and just go straight.  He then runs ahead to the rest of the group and leaves us at our pace.

What a great view, coming out of the jungle to Sirena Ranger Station our halfway point

It is 1 pm by the time we get to Sirena Station.  The front part of the group is relaxed and well rested.  We take our shoes off, fill our water bottles and eat some lunch.  Sidnar our guide wants to get going in hopes that we can get to Carate by 6.  One of group has decided to fly out from here because he is having problems with his feet.

Taking a break at Sirena Ranger Station. A little lunch and then on to the second half of our adventure

As Blad and I are putting our shoes on the group leaves.  Fortunately our spouses wait for us at the turn off for Carate.  The trail is great.  It is hard pack sand with little mud.  The weather has been incredible, not a drop of rain.  We can actually move quickly and the four of us try to catch up to the group.

45 minutes of fast moving on the trail we arrive at a river.  I call up to Blad, who is ahead of me, that he missed the turn to the river (it is not obvious).  We emerge on the river bank and see the rest of the group cooling off in the water, waiting for us.  As we approach, Sidnar ask where three of the women in our group are.  We had never seen them once we left Sirena.  It becomes clear that girls had missed the turn off and followed the main trail which eventually would take them back to Sirena.

Sidnar tells us all to go to the next trail entrance and  wait for him as he follows the other trail to get the girls.  45 minutes later Sidnar returns but no girls.  He is going to back to the Sirena and see if they are there.  He returns after another 45 minutes and again no girls.  We now start to plan on setting up search parties when out of the trail appear the three girls.  They are exhausted.  The trail they took runs up into the hills and fortunately they had decided to turn around, knowing that they should be along the beach.

Finally with missing members found, we head off for the final leg of our journey. Another 5 hours to go along beautiful beaches and the crashing pacific.

It is almost 4pm and everyone knows that we will not be in Carate by 5pm.  New plan.  Keep the group together.  Off we go again.  The slower part of the group is growing in numbers.  Not only are the three women worn out by their misadventure but another is having knee and calf problems.  Fortunately the tide and the weather are with us.

It is now starting to get dark and everyone pulls out their flashlights.  Our injured party is becoming progressively worse until finally we devise a way to carry her with a long stick carried by four of our stronger guys.

Already tired from hiking 12 hours, Iguana Lodge’s determined group carries a injured co-worker for the last hour and half of the hike.

Most of our hike is now on the beach.  It is pitch dark out but  beautiful as our flashlights catch the giant waves crashing.  We are actually starting to come across sea turtles laying eggs on the beach.  How awesome.

One of 7 sea turtles. this one an Olive Ridley, we found nesting on the beach during our last hours of hiking at night.

I think we saw 7 in total.

We finally arrive at Carate with our patient taxis waiting for us.  It is 8:30PM.  Everyone is relieved and  happy.  Beers in hand we had back  to Puerto Jimenez along the long and bumpy road.  I feel little of it, asleep for most of the ride with another great adventure under my belt.

 

Don’t Swallow the Seed

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Truck filled with Mamon Chinos

Mamon Chino season is coming into full swing in Costa Rica. Trucks filled with Mamon Chinos (Rambutan) are parked everywhere selling these tasty fruit snacks.

Native of the Malay Peninsula, this odd hairy looking fruit is extremely popular in Costa Rica.  There is in fact a golden variety that seems to have developed in Costa Rica known as the “wild” Rambutan.  Mamon Chinos are close related to the Lychee.

Peeled and ready to eat

Mamon Chinos are a great fruit snack. You can carry the around and then peel them when you want to eat them. The fruit is sweet and sour with a large seed in the middle that you spit out. It is a wonderfully refreshing fruit to eat on hot tropical days.

This has been a great year for seasonal tropical fruits at Iguana Lodge. The Mango harvest in July and August was incredible. We had more pitayahs than ever. The lemons are going off. And it seems like every truck is overflowing with Mamon Chinos.

Turtle rescued! Fingers Crossed for a Quick Recovery

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Thanks to the quick thinking of Francisco and Jose, Iguana Lodge’s staff, a sea turtle was rescued from local dogs on our beach.

One of the tough parts of living where there is so much wildlife is to see injury and death to its members. Even harder is to see the damage caused by human activities.

Bad encounter between local dogs and a nesting sea turtle on Playa Platanares

These are the dogs that were found attacking the sea turtle

This morning, our valiant gardeners found a Pacific Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas listed as endangered by the IUCN and CITES) being attacked by some local dogs on the beach close to Iguana Lodge. This is nesting season for the sea turtles. The female sea turtles come out of the ocean, usually at night but some times during the early morning, and lay their nest. They dig a hole about 16 inches deep, lay about 100 eggs and then cover the nest with sand. This process that takes about 30-45 minutes and makes them extremely vulnerable to land animals. In Costa Rica, the natural land predator of the sea turtles are the big cats like the Jaguar and the Puma. With human encroachment, even in remote areas such as the Osa Peninsula, more and more often, man or man’s best friend, are responsible for turtle deaths and injuries on the beach. A turtle is defenseless against a pack of dogs.

Moving the sea turtle into our neighbors state of the art marine facility to recover from the dog attack.

Our staff quickly responded, chasing the dogs off, protecting the sea turtle form further attack and keeping the turtle moist with sea water until we could get it in a safer environment. Lucky for the sea turtle, our neighbor has a state of the art marine facility for fish development and made it available to help the turtle. Within in a short time we moved the turtle into a large holding tank where it will be cared for. Our neighbors have already contacted turtle experts in Florida and have set up a regime to maximize its chances of recovery. Fingers crossed, everyone hopes that in 3-7 days the sea turtle will be returned back to the Golfo Dulce.

Releasing the sea turtle into a great holding tank to recover.

Injured sea turtle definitely in a better spot than earlier this morning. Fingers crossed for a quick and good recovery

Adventures of Spike, Iguana Lodge’s Intrepid Dog

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Many of our guest have fallen in love with Spike and a number have even asked if they could take him home. We smile and politely say no; Spike is an Iguana Lodge dog who lives the happiest life on our beach in Costa Rica. Almost everyone has a Spike story and his “tails” are growing to mythical proportions. One of our guest even created a Facebook page for Spike where you can follow his adventures. Below is from the personal journals of our guest, Bobi, who recounts to us of perhaps Spike’s most harrowing adventures … Spike’s kidnap and rescue ….

One of the many faces of Spike, today posing as Spike “the Bashful” taken by Laura McDaniels.

And now (10:15a, April 20, 2009) we’re most of the way back to DIA, having flown from Puerto
Jimenez back to Pavas in the Twin Otter with . . .

Dr & Mrs Bozo! (I don’t know their real name, but they’ll always be Bozos to me. Just as an
introduction to this pair, Andrew (10) and Grace (8) report that while enjoying an ice cream in
La Perla earlier in the week, they saw Bozos in there being extremely rude to Luis, one of their
staff favorites.)

Well, see, there are lots of dogs on the beach, around the hotel. Nondescript mostly, not the
AKC type, but perfectly friendly, willing to play with and be petted by the kids. They run
with each other up and down the beach, in and out of the water, or just hang out. One is sort of
German Shepherd-y. Couple of Lab mixes. They’re all just dog dogs. The smallest, mostly
Scottish Terrier, is Spike. Little black guy. Follows the kids all over.

So, it’s Thursday. Midafternoon. I’m on the beach, reading under one of the big thatched hats.
Andrew & Grace are here and there; David, Erin, & Kay off somewhere, biking maybe. Spike
plops down beside me in the shade. I give him a scratch and go on reading. Up comes this dude,
my age, ball cap, scraggly beard, paunch, loops a belt around Spike’s neck and starts to drag him
away. Spike digs his feet in, tries to shake out of the belt. The dude picks him up and walks off.

Now, as I later piece this together, Grace and Andrew witness this little scene and report it to
David and then to Lauren at the hotel. At drinks I learn that this guy’s wife, a large unpleasant-
looking woman on the order of Mrs Olsen in “Frazz,” [Denver Post comic strip] has seen Spike
and decided she absolutely must have this adorable little dog. So they have taken lodgings at a
neighboring hotel, and prevailed upon its owner, Niko, to ask Lauren about Spike. I guess she
said something like, “Oh, hell, you know, he’s a beach dog. He kind of belongs to everybody.”
So Bozo has decided that Spike is a stray, there for the taking. He and the missus have now
showed up with an animal carrier and have Niko trying to get Spike to ride in it. The story is
that they’re going to take Spike back to Connecticut. Well, over Lauren Cleaver’s dead body.
It’s really her goddam dog, given or sold to her some years ago by a friend. Had she had any
inkling that Niko was in cahoots with the Bozos she would have made that real clear.

Anyway, Lauren and David and the kids go next door that afternoon, and I’m told Lauren gives
old Niko a real Colorado ass-chewing. Friday, Lauren and Toby go to the local cops. It takes a
while to get the story across, and the Cleavers miss most of the salsa party Friday night.

Well, Friday and Saturday pass and we don’t see Spike. I’m told the cops did come to Iguana
Lodge where they interviewed everybody (except me, but including Andrew and Grace if you
please), but took no action. Sunday we pack up and check out and hug and tip everybody in
sight and get on a truck to the airport.

We unload our bags onto the Nature Air baggage cart and show our passports for the flight
manifest and sit around and–wait a minute! Here come the Bozos lugging a big box with
wire grating on either end and a green plastic rope foolishly looped around it, marked all over

“UP ↑ LIVE ANIMAL ↑ UP”. They plunk it down on the baggage cart.

We know it’s Spike even before the kids check. The atmosphere in the waiting area instantly
turns ugly, thick with animosity. The Bozos are sitting in self-consciously affected nonchalance,
well aware of the tension. Kay and Erin explain the situation sotto voce to another waiting
family, who react with appropriate, if silent, expressions of horror and sympathy. Nobody
confronts the Bozos, but if looks can kill they’ll go back to New England in pine boxes. A rumor
goes around that Nature Air will fly Spike (whom the Bozos are said to have renamed “Huck,”
which pisses people off nearly as much as the abduction itself) to San Jose, but will then fly him
right back to Puerto Jimenez. Kay and I don’t buy it. Once the plane leaves PJ we think Spike’s
in Connecticut.

So we’re all standing around angry or weeping or both, and suddenly I don’t see Andrew or
David. Where the hell have they gone? Well, turns out that they have gone around the corner
to a souvenir shop and prevailed upon the owner to let Andrew–Andrew!–make a phone call
to Iguana Lodge. Which he does. He gets Martí and asks her to have Lauren call him there at
the shop right away. Which she does. The shop guy answers the phone, looks around, and says
to Andrew, who at the ring is just jumping out of his skin, “I guess is for jou.” Andrew makes
a quick but pithy report. He and Dave return to the waiting area without telling anyone what
they’ve done.

So we’re still standing around in agony when around the corner come five or six guys with
Toby and Lauren. We’re told they are friends of the Cleavers who were at the Lodge for a baby
shower. They do not look like baby shower guests. They look like solid twenty-somethings.
The cavalry! They all light into both Bozos at full volume. The issues raised are both legal and
ethical:

“HE’S NOT YOUR GODDAM DOG!!”

“What do you mean, papers? Jesus Christ, beach dogs don’t have papers.”

“I guess you think you can get away with this just because you have a lot of money.”

“Oh, sure, steal him and take him 2,500 miles away from his home.”

Lauren is in raging attack mode. “I want my fucking dog,” she shouts in Bozo’s face, furious.
Toby is quiet, standing behind the line of baby shower guests, which David and I have joined.
Bozo, visibly uncomfortable, is telling Mrs B not to say anything. She’s sitting stone-faced,
silent in her thousand-loop-and-pocket safari vest hung with flashlights, bug dope, jackknives,
whistles, compasses, sun screen, wine openers, who knows what, staring fixedly down at a
magazine.

It rapidly becomes apparent that the matter will not be resolved by discussion, and the same
thought occurs to David and me at approximately the same moment: “Why don’t we just unload
the dog?” The muscle moves immediately on this suggestion. Bozo does not lift a finger as
Spike is removed from the carrier (I am mildly surprised that there is no lock or even latch–
somebody just lifts the grill.) and handed to Lauren. She, Toby, the cavalry, and Spike disappear

amid cheers and thumbs-ups. We all hug and high five, grinning and laughing. Nobody says
boo to the Bozos who, to give them credit, do get on the Otter with ten other, unanimously and
vocally pro-Spike, passengers.

Wow. I am grinning all the way back to Pavas, where the Bozos take pictures of the empty
dog box in the Otter’s luggage compartment, and demand from Nature Air a refund of Spike’s/
Huck’s air fare from PJ. We don’t know how they make out, but imagine the Nature Air agent
saying, “You paid us to get the crate to San Jose. Here is the crate in San Jose.”

April 25, 2009. Well. We’re still talking about this whole thing a week later. I’m still getting
details that I missed the first time around. It is said that the Bozos are threatening suit against
Nature Air. I’d like to hear Lauren (like Toby a lawyer in her previous incarnation) testify at that
one. It’s still wonderful, and a wonderful lesson about taking action when you know that what’s
happening isn’t right. The kids get it. And, boy, do we.

You’re in Marco’s World Now

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I stole this line from a blog at Rate Your Burn on Marco Rojas. I wanted to write about a yoga retreat we are having at Iguana Lodge in Costa Rica and especially about their leader Marco Rojas. I was looking on the web to see if other people felt the same way I do about him and came across this blog that nailed it.

Ok so its day three and I am sore. Everywhere. Today is a day off so we can survive the rest of the week. I am actually a yoga neophyte and with a group that clearly is way beyond me in ability and strength. However everyone is sore and tired today. It does not matter how good you are … Marco is tuned in and and pushes you to your limits. What is incredible is that you feel like you have your own personal instructor. There is no hiding in the group here. It is not unusual to have him next to your ear or in your face prodding you into something you never thought you could do. And he is really tuned into you. He seems to know how far he can take you. I love it.

The calm before the storm

This is the third time Marco has come to Iguana Lodge and every time he leaves I can’t wait for him to come back. The NY Post recently described him as a yoga “deity” regarding his break up with Pure Yoga in NYC. I personally find the “deity” description offensive and takes away from who Marco is. He is a humble man who has found his calling teaching yoga. He is sincere, honest, and enthusiastic. He teaches you only what you want to learn. Like I said, I am a yoga neophyte and barely know the yoga vocabulary let alone the intricacies of yoga philosophy. In spite of my limitations Marco makes me feel welcome and inspired.

If you can measure a teacher by his students and assistants, Marco really shines. Every group of people that has come to our lodge has been exceptional. Wonderful people you like instantly. They are interesting, caring, and fun. We have great conversation on almost any topic. Then there are the assistants. We have been lucky to have Ralph Craig and Matt Giordano as Marco’s assistant. These young men are the future of yoga and are truly inspiring. It is not just their incredible athletic ability but it is the way they conduct themselves. It really gives me hope about the human race when I meet people such as these two men.

Time to take a nap and prepare for tomorrows adventures. It will be hard and I know that the end of the week I will be looking forward to Marco Rojas’ next visit.

For further information about Marco Rojas, check out his website at http://marcorojasyoga.org or his Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/marcorojasyoga.