yoga forest

one of the more unique places we visited in a trip full of unique places was the yoga forest.  this is a sort of natural yoga “retreat” in the mountains above san marcos at the lake.  the best description is “yoga and permaculture.”

working at the yoga forest

 

it is really a combination of three things:  yoga practice, natural building, and a food forest.  i don’t know much about yoga, but they offer a holistic approach encompassing different styles of yoga.  guests and volunteers meditate, work for the community, learn technique and philosophy, hold discussions, explore their inner selves, and practice many different aspects of yoga.  they also spend 4 hours a day working on and in the forest.

Charlie, a friend of ATC who taught us about natural building, is the technical director at the yoga forest and has led construction of all of their buildings.  he uses the same sustainable hardwood, bamboo, stone, and mud resources we did in our bajareque walls.  together with adobe, palms, and thatch, he has built the main

palm branches are the whole roof

building plus a couple of cabanas for sleeping, and is in the middle of building a natural canopy.  this new structure uses trunks of wood that have been stacked together in a way that keeps them woven together, even if the whole roof were to be taken down off of its supports.  it will eventually be covered in vines and plants and will serve as an outdoor space oddly immune from the elements.  this style of building is exactly in line with the tenets and practices of the people at the forest.

structure of the canopy

the “food forest” aspect is most interesting.  in this endeavor, they also have technical assistance from Shad (discussed in an earlier post). 

“A Food Forest is a gardening technique or land management system that mimics a woodland ecosystem but substitutes in edible trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals.  Fruit and nut trees are the upper level, while below are berry shrubs, edible perennials and annuals.  Companions or beneficial plants are included to attract insects for natural pest management while some plants are soil amenders providing nitrogen and mulch.  Together they create relationships to form a forest garden ecosystem able to produce high yields of food with less maintenance.” --

http://beaconfoodforest.weebly.com/

in addition to soon being self-sufficient for all their own food, they have an elaborate irrigation system that takes water coming down from the mountain top and shunts it directly to the roots and aquifer system under the plants.  this not only provides water for the whole food forest, but also ensures that the water will continue to flow down into the water tables of the communities below them.

it takes a long and steep hike to get to the yoga forest.  there are nothing more than footpaths and flowers painted on rocks to guide you there.  there is no electricity and certainly no modern “conveniences” like cell phone reception or internet.  (which is really part of the point, isn’t it?)  there is a gravity-driven, solar-heated shower.  and there is a small outdoor “rocket stove” for anyone who wants to cook.  did I mention it’s so out of the way that they had to carve steps into a virtual wall of rock to get there?

rocket stove for all cooking                    solar heater for showers             

I have never tried yoga and I (obviously) know very little about it, but if you do, this would be an amazing place for you.

view from the yoga forest