Ape Advisers
Astrid BösserDisenchanted with traditional sports and workout routines, and frustrated with persistent back pain, Astrid designed a more wholesome approach to conditioning that brings back the joy of movement and can be practiced anytime, anywhere — in the city or in the jungle. She integrated over 20 years of experience as a physical trainer, Budokon & Yoga Teacher, MovNat Level 2 Instructor, and practitioner of Taekwondo, Wing Tsun, parkour, somatics, psychology and neuroscience. As a reminder to stay playful and not take anything too seriously, she decided to call it MonkeyFit. It’s a way that allows you to constantly expand your skills, outgrow your limitations, and become more confident in the process. It’s like a trail that lures you onwards because the next little sparkling success is always just around the next bend. Its essence is to explore, play, connect, and learn — to consistently evolve and grow in all areas of life. She particularly loves working with the elderly to become more mentally sharp and physically nimble by playing outdoors. Check out MonkeyFit.de.
Amy SchriftAmy earned her degree in Economics from U.C. Berkeley before embarking on a ten-year journey around the world, visiting over 45 countries. While pursuing a career as a trumpeter in NYC for over 7 years, she underwent a profound transformation and embraced a 100% living foods diet. Her newfound connection with the natural world led her to Costa Rica where she began homesteading on seventeen acres. She spent the first six years alone on the land and gained a profound new perspective on living in harmony with nature. With her partner, Bill, she is now creating beautiful, elegant and open structures so that others can come and also experience tranquility, close connection with nature and the natural healing powers of the earth. Learn more at her Healthy Homesteads page.
Dr. Aris LaThamAccording to the 2004 Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink, "the raw food movement owes much to Aris LaTham, a native of Panama. He is considered to be the father of gourmet ethical raw foods cuisine in America. He debut his raw food creations in 1979, when he started Sunfired Foods, a live food company in Harlem, New York. In the years since he has trained thousands of raw food chefs and added innumerable recipes to his repertoire."
Aris LaTham spent his early higher education years at the University of Legon in Ghana, as well as New York University, and graduated from the College of Staten Island with a degree in Education and Spanish. He completed graduate studies at California State University Fullerton, with majors in Linguistics and Bilingual Education, where he was a polyglot scholar of Kiswahili, Sanskrit, Italian, Arabic, and Ebonics. As an educator, professor LaTham taught several languages at the secondary school level in New York City and New Jersey. He was also an administrator at the Tanganyika International School in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Dr. LaTham was honored as a keynote presenter to the 36th World Vegetarian Congress in Florianopolis, Brazil and in 2005 at the European Vegetarian Congress in Riccione, Italy. Check out his Sunfired Foods page for a world of raw vegan inspiration! 
Ashley Clark, HHCAshley, aka Naturally Ashley, is a Holistic Health Coach, artist and photographer from Saskatchewan, Canada. She loves to nourish her body with positive thoughts and ripe seasonal fruits. Known for her raw recipes and food photography, Ashley inspires others to enjoy more raw fruits and veggies creating a happier and healthier lifestyle. Ashley received holistic health coach training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and has been following a fruit-based diet for over three years. She found the fruit lifestyle after trying a variety of dietary approaches, including the Paleo diet. Raw foods have played a large role in her healing many health conditions. She now feels lighter and brighter, with abundant energy to live her highest truth and spread the love. Learn more at NaturallyAshley.com.
Carly FraserCarly has a degree in Neuroscience and is the founder of Live Love Fruit. She currently lives in Manitoba, Canada, with a determined life mission to help inspire people to critically think about what they put in their bodies and to find balance through nutrition and lifestyle. She has helped hundreds of thousands of individuals to reconnect with their bodies and learn self love through proper eating habits and natural living. She loves to practice yoga, dance, and immerse herself in nature. Learn more at LiveLoveFruit.com.
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Chris Kendall, RHNChris is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, 100% Raw Food Lifestyle Coach, and a competitive raw vegan athlete and amateur skateboarder from Saskatchewan, Canada. As a teenager, after years of poor lifestyle and food choices, he awakened to the connection between nutrition and fitness. He underwent multiple cleanses, read dozens of books, gained knowledge from various natural health practitioners and enthusiasts, and was very fortunate to learn directly from Dr. Doug Graham. Having learned from his experiences, successes, and failures, Chris began helping others understand and embody our natural species-specific diet. His focus is on transitioning to a highly raw, low-fat, raw, vegan lifestyle in the easiest, most healthful and straight-forward way possible. He has dedicated his life to helping others and has served as Head Chef and featured speaker for many of the major raw food festivals around the world. Chris offers several raw recipe books, a free iPhone app, and consultations by donation. Learn more at TheRawAdvantage.com.
Ellen Livingston, MA, RYTEllen loves to share her passion for authentic, heart-centered, healthy living. On a low fat raw vegan path since 2002, Ellen works from her home and yurt while stewarding community on 5 beautiful shared acres in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She happily and successfully unschooled her three children and offers intensive mentoring in one-on-one sessions to those interested in living a truly authentic, alive journey. Ellen has led powerful transformational raw retreats in the Diamante Valley of Costa Rica for the past 5 years, as well as in Michigan and Florida. She has published a book on raw lifestyle, several DVDs, and many articles and interviews. Learn more at EllenLivingston.com.
Jake IremongerJake, aka the Durian Ambassador, hails from Newark, California, with a passion for natural health and our fellow primates, traveling the world in pursuit of exotic seasonal fruits (such as red durian), and sharing the powers of the plant-based diet and transformational plant medicines. Learn more on his YouTube channel.
Jenée Louise HallickJenée "The Fruity Gypsy" Hallick, author of Rawlicious Magic, featuring more than 40 recipes, has enjoyed a raw vegan diet since 2010. Since attending her first Vipassana meditation course that same year, she has been devoted to her practice ever since. Jenée facilitates Hatha yoga, ecstatic dance, mindfulness meditation, and empowering workshops and retreats for women. Contact Jenee via email to learn more.
Jimmy GilkerJimmy is the author of The Raw Food Traveler and has lived on a raw food diet since 2000, sampling some of the world's finest fruits in places like India, Thailand, Borneo, Hawaii and Australia. When he is not busy building websites, he can be found running in the mountains of Costa Rica, swimming in the rivers, frolicking at the beach, lying in the hammock or playing guitar or drums. Learn more at TheRawFoodTraveler.com.
Jordy "Tarzan" VinkAvid adventurer and natural lifestyle enthusiast, Jordy “Tarzan” Vink grew up in the Netherlands and embraced multiple sports disciplines from an early age. His passion for movement led him to study sports management in college. During this time, he founded his own movement education center. Over the course of a decade, he expanded his skillsets as a movement coach and entrepreneur.
As the result of a powerful spiritual experience, he decided to close his business in chilly Holland and move to warm Costa Rica. There he was introduced to the aerial trapeze and an exciting new range of movement styles. Soon he manifested the new life he envisioned, filled with greater movement and adventure. Currently based in Southern Costa Rica, he continues teaching others about natural movement, nature connection, and healthy lifestyle habits. He’s now gearing up to host retreats and workshops to help others grow, stay true, and expand into their highest potential. Jordy’s a playful rebel and a peaceful warrior, here to shine a bright light, in service of our beautiful planet. His mission is to empower others to be true to themselves. He is delighted to support Perma Vida by planting trees, building the soil, leading movement workshops, and bringing the fun! |
Liana Elizabeth, RYT, CPTLiana is a certified yoga instructor since 2015, with over 300+ hours of training in vinyasa, asana, pranayama, Ayurveda, anatony, raw plant-based nutrition, and meditation from the Yoga Mala School of Light. She is also a personal trainer, certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine, specializing in calisthenics, interval training, and functional mobility.
Liana first began a whole-foods plant-based diet at 21 years old, without much knowledge on how to eat optimally. She found herself with chronic inflammatory disease of her intestines and skin. Over time, she developed severe anxiety and panic disorder. Like many people, she tried modern medicine and found herself taking anti-inflammatory drugs over 20 pills per day) and steroids, getting enemas and colonoscopies, and making frequent trips to the hospital. Years later, when she discovered the raw food lifestyle, she knew the truth had found her. Over the course of 10 years, she experienced profound healing, started her own health coaching business, and launched several fruitarian groups in Israel, the US, and Costa Rica. She has fasted with just water several times (for up to 60 days at a time, cumulatively for over six months) with professional supervision. She studied fruit-based diets consisting of mono fruit meals and salads with minimal overt fats. Her greatest motivation for maintaining a high level of health is unlimited freedom through movement -- especially improv dance, intuitive yoga, and deep mobility training. She loves to channel her movement and create films depicting the many astral travels she has experienced since detoxing her body, mind, and spirit. Her exuberance and passion for thriving health radiates from her every expression. 
Travis BritzkeTravis is dedicated to personal and planetary wellness and the subtle relations between people, culture, and nature.
His experiences Include: 12+ years living in tropical communities (intentional, indigenous, and/or subsistence farming); 8 years managing and designing organic farms and volunteer programs from Guatemala to Bolivia; 3 years Peace Corps Panama agroforestry program and volunteer support network; university thesis on SocioBiology, Positive Psychology, and Culture of Wellness; 5 years facilitating Hatha Yoga classes. Travis served as social worker with immigrant families, tutor and mentor to "at-risk" youth and peace mediator. He has great passion for the wild and weedy “thrival” plants. Learn more at Regenesis2020. 
Zander HathawayZander strives to co-create a thriving and joyful world by living in harmony with nature and sharing regenerative solutions. He lives in the Diamante Valley of Costa Rica, where he works as a teacher and natural health coach.
Born in the Silicon Valley of California and raised on a standard industrial diet with a very sedentary lifestyle, he developed a number of health challenges at an early age. At the young age of 19, he was diagnosed with osteoarthritis. Conventional allopathic medicine only made things worse, but over time he found natural healing modalities that helped. During this exploration, Zander realized that some of the most holistic practices -- like rewilding, eating a raw plant-based diet, barefoot walking, earthing, grounding, meditation, yoga, calisthenics, breathwork, sunbathing, permaculture, natural building, and communal living -- share a common thread: Our closest relatives in the wild are modeling the essence of these activities naturally. After researching great apes further, he concluded that by understanding our fellow apes, we can better understand our own "inner great ape" nature. By living in alignment with our natural biological design/adaptations, we can enjoy greater health, happiness, and freedom. However, he observed that the greatest challenge to this approach to health was that most modern humans live in places that are very different from our ancestral habitat, tropical fruit forest. Since the relatively recent (on the evolutionary timeline) advents of cooking and agriculture, humans have migrated to colder and dryer regions, and now most live in cities and other highly modified environments. This motivated him to launch Perma Vida Foundation, a social benefit enterprise that supports regenerative projects, such as Free the Food (planting freely accessible fruit forests along roadsides, on public lands, and private properties with agreements to allow public foraging), and other local sovereignty initiatives like the Diamante Bridge Collective. Zander currently offers Ape Living retreats and health services at Casa Perma Vida. Learn more at PermaVida.org and contact Zander directly here. |