Costa Rica-Summer Kirtan Camp with Jai Uttal & Guest Teachers Nubia Teixeira & Visvambhar Sheth.

Costa Rica Summer Kirtan Camp is a week-long kirtan retreat at Blue Spirit Retreat Center in Garza, Costa Rica, led by kirtan artist Jai Uttal with guest teachers Nubia Teixeira and Visvambhar Sheth. It is for people who want to spend extended time singing call-and-response chant, and to learn about kirtan and Bhakti, the yoga of love and devotion, in a tropical setting by the ocean.

What to Expect

The camp runs from a Saturday afternoon to the following Saturday morning. Much of each day is given to singing kirtan, alongside time set aside for learning about the ancient practices of kirtan and Bhakti. The organizers describe it as a place to go inward and expand outward "in song, celebration and invocation," in good company and with shared meals.

Jai Uttal is joined by Nubia Teixeira and Visvambhar Sheth as guest teachers. The week is framed as an invitation into Jai's long-standing Bhakti family, a community built around his music and devotional practice, and an opportunity to explore the deep emotion that kirtan tends to stir in the heart. The closing call of the camp is "Vamos Cantar," Spanish for "Let's sing."

About Jai Uttal

Jai Uttal was born in New York City and grew up in a home filled with jazz, rock and world music. That early exposure gave him an eclectic style and a deep sense of music as a form of expression and connection, and it eventually led him to the spiritual path of kirtan.

For nearly five decades he has been a prominent figure in the world music scene, leading kirtan and teaching the ancient practice of chanting. His work is less a performance than an invitation for participants to take part in a communal experience of devotion and joy.

The Setting

Blue Spirit Retreat Center sits in Garza, Costa Rica, between the tropical jungle and the Pacific shoreline. The organizers describe the landscape as ever blooming and the ocean as sweet, warm and always changing. Both are part of the atmosphere of the week, which pairs time outdoors with the intensity of daily chanting. Food at the camp is described as delicious, and the setting is meant to make it easy to meet new friends and settle into the rhythm of the retreat.