See a Slideshow of Linda's Yelapa & Huichol Photos:
Click Here: Slideshow on Youtube


Join us for our 5th annual
Women's SACRED CIRCLE/YOGA Retreat
in Yelapa, Mexico
Circle facilitated by Linda Wolf (For Linda's bio, click here)
Yoga practice led by the sublime Kayla Black)

"Women's Circles are a place where the collective wisdom of each woman surfaces from the inside out principally
because each participant contributes to the creation of a safe space, where each member knows she will be heard
and whatever she has to share will be honored." Peacexpeace

Since 2005, we have been offering our Women’s Sacred Circle Retreats to rave reviews! We hold them at Casa Isabel, long considered the Jewel of Yelapa, and a magnate for Huichol Shamans and artists, long supported by the late Isabel Jordan, creator of this magical place. Casa Isabel is a garden paradise guesthouse & retreat center, which sits at the edge of a tropical jungle on a cliff overlooking an ocean with dolphins, whales, and manta rays. Sitting together in circle in the open air, under our Palapa roof, on balmy days and nights, we have a view of nature that is unparalled in Yelapa. The songs of birds and the sound of breezes flowing through the branches of giant avocado, mango, and strangler fig trees surround us. Because of its unique natural setting, open, flowing, and warm ambiance, secluded beach, and opportunity for privacy and comfort, Casa Isabel is the perfect location to do the inner work of Compassionate Listening and Sacred Circle.

Sacred Circle is one of the ineffables - what is most important and essential about Sacred Circle comes from shared feelings, emotions, life stories, and experiences developed in a deepening relationship to ourselves and each other, created by honoring everyone's humanity and agreements we make to hold confidentiality, non-judgment, complete support for the other, and take radical responsibility for all our perceptions. This is how we create "safe space" -- a space within which we can be intimate, authentic, and share even that which we feel will turn people away from us. It is there that we discover total self-love and the experience that we are whole, beautiful, worthwhile, and wanted exactly for who we are and where we're at. This is one of the most healing experiences we can give each other on this planet. Out of this, we discover that we are worth everything and truly have the power to choose what serves us, and recognize what our hearts truly long for.

Compassionate Listening™ is one of the most important skills we teach in all our circles. C.L. is a life-long spiritual practice that will alter your experience of all your relationships, starting with yourself. It is a skill you can take back home with you and use for the rest of your life. Compassionate Listening opens us to engage with ourselves, others, and the world in a vastly more positive, healing, and transformational way -- where suddenly what we fear, what triggers us, or what we feel ashamed of can become seen as gifts to help us grow. Doing Compassionate Listening in Sacred Circle is the heart of our Sacred Circle Retreat.

Offering Yoga as an integral part of our Women's Sacred Circle Retreat has long been a dream of ours. This ancient practice of centering and caring for ourselves brings it all home and anchors in our bodies all the health, wholeness, and vitality we receive from doing Circle and Compassionate Listening. Thus, we not only carry ourselves with new energy and consciousness, but also with more physical strength.

This year, we are fortunate to have one of our favorite yoga teachers and long-time friends, Kayla Black, join us to lead a daily morning yoga practice in the open air glade at Casa Isabel. Kayla is a treasure - no matter what level of yoga you practice or even if you've never done yoga before. Kayla's background in over 20 years of teaching includes Iyengar, Anusara, Vipassana meditation, and Therapeutic yoga. We are thrilled have her as a participant and a yoga teacher for this retreat.

Special Adventures: On days we’re not in circle, or taking time for ourselves, we’ll have special adventures. We plan to visit the neighboring village of Pizota, which is an even smaller fishing village (only 26 families) just around the southern point of Yelapa, 10 minutes by boat. There we’ll be treated to a delicious lunch and possibly to a lesson in preparing corn tortillas from scratch and cooking them on an adobe stove. Conditions permitting, we will take you on a guided hike to "the secret waterfall," where the water is truly clean and we are totally secluded! We also plan to travel with our boatman and guide, Sev, to the beaches of the uninhabited Marietta Islands, one of the last two nesting grounds of the Blue-Footed Booby. (Bring your waterproof cameras!). Snorkeling there provides one with endless delights, and swimming there is quite a thrill for those who love the water. If we're lucky enough to have the beach to ourselves, we can even skinny dip! (We have always been able to make these trips, but occasionally conditions may call for an alternate adventure.)

Basic Package: The basic package allows you to arrive a day later if you choose and your schedules allow. (Your plane must arrive by approximately 3:30pm in order to catch the last boat to Yelapa at 5:30pm). With the basic package, you are invited and encouraged to join the day trips with the group at a cost of $50 per trip. You may also choose to spend one or both days of the group trips relaxing at Casa Isabel, getting body work, swimming, and exploring Yelapa. Does not include cost of one dinner out (approximately $12).

• Seven nights lodging at Casa Isabel
• Meals prepared by our on-site chef
• Daily yoga classes with Kayla
• Sacred Circle facilitated by Linda Wolf
• Presentation on the Huichol indigenous people of Mexico

Deluxe Package: The Deluxe Package includes everything above, plus arriving a day early in Puerto Vallarta and being met in town by a member of our team for a special dinner. The next morning, we'll all go as a group to Yelapa by water taxi and have lunch at the famous Cafe Bahai, on the pier in Yelapa, upon arrival.

• First night in Puerto Vallarta at a small, family-run hotel (double-occupancy rooms)
• Family-style Mexican dinner in Puerto Vallarta at a local restaurant
• Water taxi fare from Puerto Vallarta to Yelapa
• Brunch at our favorite cafe in Yelapa upon arrival Friday
• Day trip to the Marietta Islands (uninhabited wildlife refuge, pristine beaches, home of the Blue-Footed Boobie. Our guide and friend Sev catches local fish and prepares fresh ceviche for our enjoyment!)
• Day trip to our favorite waterfall. Tucked into a little-visited jungle ravine, this beautiful waterfall forms an ideal swimming hole--wide, deep, cool, and clean. Includes fresh fish lunch with handmade tortillas in the fishing village of Pizota.
• Baggage transfer from the boat to your room
• All tips for guides, porters, and housekeepers

Our Meals in Yelapa are lovingly prepared and come from local providers. We use as many organic products in our preparations as possible. Fresh fish, homemade black beans and rice, fresh corn tortillas, salsa, guacamole, chili rellenos, salads, steamed vegetables, and an array of delicious choices of natural fruits, nuts, juices, coffee, teas, and local desserts, all made with care, love, and patience. Vegan, and vegetarian options, as well as all attempts to work with your particular dietary constraints, are availabe as well.

Packages do not include the following extra costs: airfare; taxi / transfer to / from airport to the pier in Puerto Vallarta; special tips; most alcoholic beverages; one dinner out in Yelapa; massage / bodywork; Sweat Lodge; Huichol shamanic healing treatments; water taxi / baggage transfer (other than group arrival with deluxe package). As departure and arrival plans vary, we will work with you to arrange baggage assistance and water taxi transportation, as needed. We'll give you all the information and assistance you need to get from the airport to Yelapa and back! Please use the contact link above if you have specific questions or concerns.

Fitness Requirements: Both Yelapa and Casa Isabel, as well as our day-trip adventures, require you have good to excellent health and stamina, including the capacity to walk up and down as many as 200 steps per day, sometimes more than once or twice. Howver, we've had participants from 18 - 80 years old in our circles -- even one woman with two artificial knees! If you've been wanting more exercise, you'll surely get it! However, if you're feeling sore or even if you're not, you can avail yourself of one of the many talented local bodywork practicioners whose prices are far better than we're used to in most North American cities. For people signing up for the Full Package, you will receive a 1/2-hour treatment from one of the most sought after practicioners in Yelapa, as part of your stay.

Yelapa also offers us tremendous opportunities outside our scheduled times -- through resting, reading, hiking, swimming, dancing, paragliding, and simply being, we revitalize. There are kayaks and snorkeling gear availble for our use and a beach right at our doorstep.There is a great Internet café, but dial-up connections are slow! If you're someone who enjoys speaking Spanish, the locals love conversation and even make an effort to understand our worst efforts!

At night, in Yelapa, there is much to do to shake out our bodies and rattle our souls! Always dancing and music! And walks on the beach under the stars or a midnight swim in the phosphorescence. Then, sleep to the sounds of the crickets and tropical forest creatures and the music flowing across the Bay. In the morning you'll wake to the sounds of dozens of birds, the hooves of horses on the stone paths, the calls of the fishermen, and the children playing or on their way to the school "upriver," where an hour hike will bring you to Christina's Vegan Restaurant --- itself quite a novelty locate on the river, with a bathroom & toilet up in a funky treehouse! And further on the waterfall in Yelapa.

Yelapa, nominated by Sunset Magazine as "one of the top ten places to see before you die," has long been a favorite destination for artists, musicians, hippies, backpackers, beatniks, and other counter-culture folks who were drawn by the "back to nature" reality of no electricity, no cars, no streets, no roads, and the easy-going attitude towards all things free. Now Yelapa has electricity (most of the time!), but there is still the same free-flowing feeling and no cars, no streets, no roads, plus an indigenous Mexican culture where you can still find indoor adobe tortilla stoves, and a natural environment with the greatest bio-diversity, second only to the Amazon Rainforest.

Huichol Shamans and Artists: The Huichol or Wixáritari (or "peyote people," as they are often called) are an indigenous ethnic group of western central Mexico, living in the Sierra Madre mountain range in the Mexican states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango. Over the past 40 years, the late Isabel Jordan, founder of Casa Isabel, befriended and supported many Huichol shamans and artists by purchasing their artwork and jewelry, as well as participating in their religious and spiritual rituals at sacred sites in the Sierra Madre Mountains. I, Linda, was privileged to attend a sacred ceremony in the San Andreas Mountains with Isabel one year, and given the right to photograph it. You can see some of these images on the slideshow listed below. Today, Casa Isabel has a virtual museum, a gift shop where you can also purchase these works, and, if you are fortunate, meet a shaman or artist, or possibly purchase a shamanic treatment from a shaman, if one happens to visit while we're there. However, during your stay at Casa Isabel, we will most likely be able to participate in a presentation about the Huichol and their artwork and rituals, as we have every other year.

Traveling in Mexico is easy.  Most locals either speak English or make a great attempt to understand poor Spanish. The peso is 13-14 to the dollar (tipping with US or Canadian dollars is a kindness to the locals). Airlines are offering great deals, and there are many direct flights to Puerto Vallarta. According to the latest figures we could find, there have been no recorded cases of H1N1 flu in or around Yelapa. The number of confirmed cases of H1N1 in Puerto Vallarta is 3 - the number of people in P.V. is 6.75 million.

We hope you will join us for another unforgetable experience in Circle in Yelapa. If you need to speak with a real person or two about this, don't hesitate to call us at 206-842-3000. You can also email Cathy, who will be glad to help you figure out the details - cathy@teentalkingcircles.org.

Warmly, Linda, E, Kayla, & Cathy

See Slideshow of Linda's Yelapa & Huichol Photos: See above or click to watch this YouTube Movie

"I realized how much I'd changed when I looked in the mirror on the airplane after leaving Yelapa, and saw how much I loved myself."
-- Jenny G, Seattle