Jungle Yoga & Plant Medicine Ashram Week in Puerto Morelos, Mexico

One Breath of Yoga was founded over a decade ago by Corinne "Coco" Lepage and has operated ever since as a residential yoga ashram. The site is inland from Puerto Morelos, set in jungle about 30-40 minutes' drive from Cancún International Airport, on the Riviera Maya between the airport and Playa del Carmen. The property is built around a wooden shala large enough for a full retreat group, a dedicated ceremonial space, a communal dining palapa, and a cluster of sleeping cabañas set among the trees. Cenotes and jungle trails are within walking distance; the beach town of Puerto Morelos, with its reef, restaurants and dive shops, is a short drive away.

The week runs on a steady rhythm. Mornings are Ashtanga — Mysore self-practice for those who know the sequence, led classes for those who don't, both taught by Coco, who has practised in the Ashtanga lineage for decades and teaches without the militaristic edge some shalas have. Breakfast follows at the communal table. Midday is unscheduled: swim, sleep, read in a hammock, walk to the cenote, take a taxi to the beach. Afternoons bring workshops — pranayama, yoga philosophy, breathwork, sometimes a hands-on adjustment clinic — plus optional massage with Ale, who works on site. Dinner is early. On ceremony nights, the group gathers in the ceremonial space for ayahuasca, cacao or temazcal, with Pamela and Coco holding the space and the musician team playing live. Non-ceremony evenings are quiet: kirtan, a fire, or people just talking until they get tired.

What separates this from the dozens of other yoga-and-medicine retreats on the Riviera Maya is that it's an actual community rather than a rotating cast of contractors. The core team — Coco, Pamela, Alex, Foko the chef, plus long-term volunteers and the resident dogs — is the same group that guests write about by name in reviews, and many of them were once retreat guests themselves. It also runs the full range of programmes under one roof: a one-week Yoga & Medicine retreat, a ten-day Dieta Noya-Rao plant-medicine immersion with full integration support, and a four-week, Yoga Alliance-certified Ashtanga teacher training. That means guests on any given week are sharing meals with YTT students and dietistas, which changes the feel — you hear about other people's processes over breakfast.

The ashram also hosts outside facilitators and teachers who bring their own groups. The chef, the ceremony space, the shala and the support team are all part of what gets rented, so the community is present even when the programme isn't the ashram's own.

Coco herself is the anchor. She teaches Ashtanga with an emphasis on integration rather than athletic achievement, threads Mayan and Amazonian traditions into the ceremonies, and is the reason a large proportion of reviews describe coming once and then returning — for YTT, for another dieta, or simply because the place became a fixture in their year. The food, cooked by Foko, is vegan and consistently cited by guests as a highlight; there's no meat or alcohol on site.

What's included

- 7 nights accommodation on site in the jungle ashram - Three vegan meals daily, cooked on site - Daily Ashtanga yoga classes (Mysore or led) - Pranayama, meditation and philosophy workshops - Scheduled plant medicine ceremonies (cacao, temazcal, ayahuasca) - Integration circle and post-ceremony support - Access to the shala, ceremony space and grounds - Use of the cenote and jungle trails

What's not included

- International and domestic flights - Airport transfers (can be arranged, usually at extra cost) - Travel and medical insurance - Massage and bodywork with Ale - Optional excursions to Puerto Morelos and the beach - Personal expenses and additional snacks - Laundry