Bob Balaram Testimonial (Yelapa Retreat 2021)

It is not often that a place and experience once only defined by words becomes embedded in one's heart.
My wife and I decided, almost on a whim, to attend the December week-long  Wandering Warrior Within Yelapa Experience  retreat.  We knew Kimberly and thought it might be a new and interesting experience, an opportunity to visit Mexico, a place neither my wife or I had visited before. Little did we know that events would intervene.
In late October, I suffered a minor heart attack - a rude wakeup call if there ever was one! Stress at work, brought on as much by success as anything else, had left me feeling adrift. What would come next? Would I work at the same intensity, or would I slouch off into retirement? The laser like focus provided by a tiny stent in my heart forced me to confront everything. My dear wife, was even more stressed. She hid it well, but suddenly our 38 year partnership  looked as fragile as a spider web - ready to be disrupted by the tiniest twists of fate. Yelapa proved to be our salvation - a much needed and glorious reset..
I liken the Yelapa experience to a hidden gem, multifaceted and shining in a distant land. The delightful water taxi ride to Yelapa, a place that no paved roads have  yet discovered, gave it a time-out-of-time quality. On its twisty cobbled stone pathways and sun caressed beaches were the Yelapans - a most kind and welcoming community to us and all the expats who called it home.
It was within this gem that Kimberly and Katie crafted the retreat. Any one element would have been delightful - the yoga, the guided meditation, the singing bowls, massage therapy,  fresh locally sourced vegetarian food, the writers workshop, equine therapy, singing on the beach by the fire, fine restaurants, folk dance performances by the local high school kids, the eccentric expats, a most beautiful waterfalls, and yes, even somatic dance! Taken together, like facets of a finely cut gem, it was outstanding.
With Katie and Kimberly's nurturing and loving touch, this gem brought a healing to both me and my wife. We came out from Yelapa - me with a more mindful  appreciation of my actions in the present - no mental blocks, and my wife healed of the heart-ache brought upon by my heart attack.  An unexpected bonus, our new friends, fellow wandering warriors bound within by our shared experiences, that will last a lifetime.
We will be back, to experience what else Kimberly and Katie may conjure up in that magical place, and to be once again among the warm and welcoming Yelapans!