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I love challenging people’s expectations about what El Salvador is like. This was my third time visiting the country, and every time I am more impressed by the kind people, natural beauty, and travel experiences that it has to offer. If you’ve ever raised your eyebrows, gasped, or felt uncertain when you’ve heard about travel to El Salvador—and of course, we all want to be safe and every country has its dangerous areas—I beg you to question your assumptions!

For the past three years, I’ve been joining Surf Sweat Serve, a fitness and adventure retreat company founded by my friend Pixie Acia, as the yoga teacher/translator/coordinator slash “whatever you need since we’re a two-person team.” Each time I’m even more grateful for the people we meet and the opportunity to come return.

Here’s what a typical day in retreat life is like:

Morning

Almost every day starts with a morning yoga class, followed by the best coffee and breakfast. The hotel staff is always accommodating and even created a special menu for vegan guests this year.

The adventures, surfing, and workouts are incredible, but I think it’s the food and the community built at mealtimes that keeps everyone coming back! After breakfast, it’s usually time for a surfing lesson. The instructors take us up to the academy gym to go over the fundamentals, then we drive to a spot about 10 minutes away where the waves are good for beginners. Depending on the group’s experience levels, there are different spots with varying conditions.

You’ll always find black sand beaches and plenty of waves. After about 2 hours of surfing and beach time, we come back to the hotel for lunch.

Afternoon

Ceviche is a crowd favorite. I usually make my own combination of traditional rice and beans, tortilla, and avocado. Plus lots of spicy salsa.

Every day is a little bit different. Sometimes the mornings and afternoons are for an excursion, like hiking to a waterfall and jumping in:

Or taking part in the “service” part of Surf Sweat Serve by doing a beach cleanup:

And sometimes (usually towards the end of the trip) it’s nice to relax by the pool:

Evening

It starts off with a perfect sunset over the ocean.

Then Pixie leads one of her #DOITFORTHEDOPAMINE cardio and strength classes.

Each night, we gather together for dinner. Sometimes we’ll go to a nearby hostel like we did for Taco Tuesday, but usually it’s in the hotel dining room. There’s a full menu of items from typical El Salvadorean dishes to good old American cheeseburgers. Here is the traditional dish they made us for pupusa night:

(What is a pupusa?)

Don’t forget drinks and dessert:

We often end up talking around the table for hours, making it to bed just in time to do it all over again the next day. Any questions? If you’ve been on a yoga or adventure retreat, what was your favorite part?

Cheers!