We love the Spanish word for butterfly, “Mariposa“. We are also very fond of the friendly blue morpho butterfly who appears every sunny morning like clockwork, always flying from the southeast corner of the yard, right up to our porch then making a quick left turn around the house out into the valley. Sometime he returns with a friend, just long enough for me to run for the camera, but always too late, they’re gone.
You will see many beautiful butterflies here in the jungle. The butterfly has always been a symbol of transformation, something we all want. We seek to recover the power and vitality of youth and to unleash the beauty in our lives.
We want you to keep this whimsical metaphor in mind during your time here. A retreat is like the butterfly’s cocoon, preparing you for the next phase, the new you. The butterfly’s metamorphosis is shared by all who marvel at their enchanted beings in flight.
We live in a magically interconnected universe and we’ve all heard of the ‘butterfly effect’. A butterfly flutters his wings in South America which ultimately produces a cyclone in China. Small changes produce massive effects downstream. Your energy, your health, your peaceful state of mind, your metamorphosis, affects not just you but the whole world.
Changes always begin with the first step, a moment. We see something, read something, meet someone, or have a conversation and we take an action just as when the mariposa flutters its wings, years later we might remember that moment, when the momentum began.
For me, Costa Rica Jungle Retreats started one evening on vacation in Puerto Viejo. Todd, Sage and I sitting around eating chips & avocados after a day at the beach, loving the tropics in February and the Costa Rica "Pura Vida",, Just talking about what might be possible…
“…The Greek name for a butterfly is Psyche, and the same word means the soul. There is no illustration of the immortality of the soul so striking and beautiful as the butterfly, bursting on brilliant wings from the tomb in which it has lain, after a dull, groveling, caterpillar existence, to flutter in the blaze of day and feed on the most fragrant and delicate productions of the spring. Psyche, then, is the human soul, which is purified by sufferings and misfortunes, and is thus prepared for the enjoyment of true and pure happiness.” ~ Bullfinch’s Mythology
And so that’s why we call it the Mariposa cleanse!