your guide to outdoor yoga in la ventana

This season La Ventana's social scene has shifted to the mornings and early evenings because there is less of a nightlife due to COVID and social distancing. This has brought a lot of people to the mat, and with La Ventana’s outdoor beachfront yoga spaces, it is a special way to spend your mornings and evenings. 

Being a kiteboarding town, yoga is popular here because it is a great way to restore and strengthen our bodies after hours on the water. You could say that about half of the people in La Ventana practice yoga at home or go take a yoga class with an instructor regularly. Some hotels that have added private yoga classes for their guests, like our friends at Hotel Todo Bien, a new hotel in La Ventana. There are also a lot of visitors who keep up their yoga Zoom routines from home too. Yoga definitely complements kiteboarding, and La Ventana has a blossoming yoga community. 

Jessica Withington (left) attending Vera Ramos' (right) yoga class at
Hotel Todo Bien, now offering private yoga to their hotel guests.

There are three great outdoor yoga spaces that you will want to check out when you visit La Ventana. This season La Ventana’s yoga centers prefer that you bring your own mat, if possible. Otherwise, there are mats and disinfectant available. If you go to any of these three yoga places you are guaranteed quality instructors, fresh air, and a great yoga experience. 

The first place you want to check out for yoga is Casa Tara Retreat, located on the beach in El Sargento, just past the gas station.  Casa Tara is home to a yoga shala with one of the best views It is a circular outdoor palapa overlooking the Sea of Cortez, with Isla Cerralvo right in front of you. Besides the views, the actual grounds are very pretty too. 

Casa Tara Retreat is a boutique hotel with a restaurant, spa and yoga shalas.

The owner, Marcela, is certified under the Yoga Alliance with a 200 hour training in Ashtanga Yoga, with Michael Ganon and a 200 hour training at the Vinyasa and Prana Yoga Center of California. The rest of the instructors have different certifications from yoga studios throughout the world. Marcela keeps the Casa Tara yoga schedule interesting. This season, classes offered include meditaion, vinyasa, power flow, restorative, and animal flow. We recommend looking up their schedule a week before arriving and picking a couple to make plans around. You can also stay for breakfast, Casa Tara has a great menu and healthy options (we recommend their oatmeal pancakes). Their Casa Tara Kahla Spa offers massages, facials, and other body pampering services, and you can also book private yoga classes at Casa Tara by contacting them. Classes are $230 pesos for a drop-in and $1,800 for 10 classes.

Marcela (right) in warrior II pose. This is the shala above the La Moringa Restaurant at Casa Tara.

Next we have Casa Verde, providing yoga to La Ventana for over a dozen years now. They have been a steady studio throughout the years. If you are staying in La Ventana you can easily walk to Casa Verde, located on the beach about 500 yards south of Playa Central. You will have the pleasure of being lead in a Vinyasa-Flow practice by Emily, Casa Verde’s owner. She and her family live in the hotel and she teaches three times a week: Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8:30 AM, and normally (as in, non-COVID times) there is yoga five days a week at Casa Verde. 

Casa Verde’s beach front hotel and yoga studio, just 500 meters from Playa Central. Offering
outdoor yoga Monday, Wednesday and Fridays at 8:30 AM.

Emily is a certified Ashtanga teacher. She usually feels the group out to see what people want to work on, and gives several modification options throughout the class. Generally, you can expect a restorative and strengthening class instead of a hot flow class from Emily. Casa Verde’s yoga studio is on the beach, on the rooftop and under a palapa, completely open and outdoors. The birds are a big part of the morning noise at Casa Verde. Lessons are eleven for $75 USD, or $10 drop in. You can visit their website for more info. 

Emily (left) and company doing a headstand at the Casa Verde yoga studio. Emily teaches
classes three days a week right now, usually being five times a week during non-Covid times.

Do you prefer spur of the moment yoga? Try Baja Joe’s, daily morning yoga, you don’t even have to know which day of the week it is. If it is 8:30, there is a class.They vary in yoga styles, depending on the day. There have been two consistent yoga instructors over the past few years, KayKay and Molly, who offer different types of yoga. Between them, they cover the 8:30 AM daily classes. KayKay is a 500 hours Yoga Alliance teacher, and also offers private hatha, restorative, prenatal, and mantra yoga lessons- here is KayKay’s website. Molly took her teacher’s training with Donna Farhi in 1993. Molly’s style is lyengar based, therapeutic and focuses on breathing. Molly has worked with Gary Kraftstow’s Viniyoga a fair amount and is passionate about the NIA technique. 

Baja Joe’s yoga space located on their hotel rooftop.

The yoga area is on the rooftop of Baja Joes, under a palapa and completely outdoors, with the palms reaching eye level. Pretty similar to Casa Verde’s set-up. Prices are $230 pesos for walk-ups, and $1800 for ten clases. 

This year Baja Joe’s Yoga Schedule for their 8:30 AM daily class is:

• Monday: vinyasa with KayKay

• Tuesday: yin with KayKay

• Wednesday: VinYin with KayKay

• Thursday: Molly’s Viniyoga

• Friday: Vinyana with KayKay

• Saturday: Yin with KayKay

• Sunday: Molly’s Viniyoga

Now that you know about the three best yoga places in La Ventana, you can decide which places makes more sense for you to check out, depending on where you are staying or what type of yoga you prefer. When you pack your bag for La Ventana, remember to throw your mat in there. You could also think of your trip to La Ventana as a yoga trip, and between all three places, get the best of it all - you could clock up to 20 hours a week, if you wanted.

We hope that when you are able to come to La Ventana, you enjoy the yoga scene and build onto your yoga community. If you are new to kiteboarding and have not picked up yoga yet, we recommend check it out, you may get a lot of benefits from it. Either way, stop by Playa Central when you’re in town or on your way to or from your outdoor yoga. You can get coffee and breakfast, check out our kite shop and kite school, or just say hello. We hope you get to spend some time on your mat while you are in La Ventana and that you found this post useful. Namaste!