Amba Stapleton, E-RYT 500

One of the first things people often want to know about us is how Don and I landed in Costa Rica. Well, let me tell you a little story. Nosara Yoga Institute would never have been born in Central America had the Henderson family not decided to take a summer vacation “somewhere different.” Mom was the advanced scout and located a perfect destination. 

As a member of the Business and Professional Women’s Club of the Florida Keys, my mother and her friends made a fateful decision. The year was 1967. Instead of staying at home and making apple pie, these moms packed their Samsonite bags, left their kids and husbands at home to fend for themselves and split town as diplomats to a developing country.

 

The lucky country was Costa Rica. How much time could the kids and Dad be without Mom? One week was the maximum. So they spent just one short week visiting San Jose, the capital city and some surrounding villages. Her little excursion was to influence the rest my life. Mom came back all excited about this beautiful little country that all of us just had to see.

 So we bought a used Avion travel trailer. This is the one that looks like an Airstream but is not as expensive. We hooked it up to our 1967 white Toronado that had the automatic headlights that went up and down. Traveling from the Florida Keys, we headed north through Florida, west across the U.S. to Texas, and, finally, due south, crossing the border into Mexico. We are talking no man’s land! At least not sane land for our middle class family with four kids and a dog. None of us spoke a word of Spanish. Back then, gas stations were few and far between. There were no campgrounds or trailer parks. Campgrounds? Please understand the picture. The local people were fully extended just to get a roof over their heads. We were a spectacle in the little villages as we drove through in what appeared to be our silver spaceship. But eyes popped out and jaws dropped open when the headlights would magically pop out of nowhere.

 

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