Great Surf Camp in Montañita
Who started the Balsa Surf Camp?Great Surf Camp in Montañita
Balsa Surf Camp, a wellness village!
Who are we ? RASTY & YUYU
Rasty (Cesar Moreira’s nickname for having had dreadlocks a long time ago!) and “Yuyu” (Ecuadorian support of his French name Julie and his nickname “Juju” difficult to pronounce here). They are at the origin Balsa Surf Camp, a beautiful guest house dedicated to wellness, with its surf school, its spa, its restaurant, its yoga classes, fun activities and its magnificent jungle garden!
For Rasty & Yuyu, the Balsa is a dream come true! It was designed by the two of them, Rasty a great carpenter and Yuyu an artist and detailer, with a good team of honorable local workers to pay homage to the ancestral culture and to nature itself, the Pachamama. Its beautiful garden, its typical local architecture using bamboo, wood and cade, its statues and pre-Inca tribes theme, all that fused with a lot of art from artists and traveling friends. All this makes the Balsa a unique place, a village where it is good to live.
They started first as an inn to become little by little a village where many people come back every year to spend some time here among friends, to enjoy life, its simplicity and its beauty. It is more than an accommodation, it is a special, magical place, where you live a unique and real experience, sharing… Where we feel happy and welcomed!
Rasty
Rasty, born in Manabi, is well known in the surfing world for his past as national and Latin American champion but also as a cultural manager, leader in community volunteer work, founder of surf club and association.
Rasty has always proudly represented his country Ecuador, surfing his own handmade boards made with Balsa wood. He says that Ecuador has the best Balsa wood in the world and, from the seed, Rasty makes those trees grow until he creates the surfboards, and takes them to the waters of the whole world. To date, there are more than 1000 boards made with love!
Yuyu
Yuyu was born in France and arrived here in 2004, to fall in love, at the age of 22, with Rasty and Ecuador itself, with its natural quality of people, life, nature, food, its air of freedom?
She is a vegetarian and passionate about nature, surfing, yoga, dance, therapies and spiritual sharing, and you can feel her imprint and affection throughout the Balsa. Be it through the details in every corner, the decoration of the place, the plants, the attention to the serene atmosphere of the place. But also the quality of all services and human relationships that they managed to weave here over the years.
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