lunes, 29 de abril de 2013

Yoga Retreat Diary


Day #1:
I arrived in Puerto Vallarta from Newark at around 1:30pm local time. I sat next to a NYC retired firefighter whom losted fifteen fire fighters in the attacks of 9/11. He wrote a very nice book about it. I love guys with strong Brooklyn accent. He asked me where I was from after I’ve only said: “Hi”. How can this be? Is my accent really that strong? Of course it is! Anyways, I also watched 2 very cool movies: Before Sunshine, and Before Sunset. The third part is supposed to come out this summer. I can’t wait to see it. I flew with five other girls but I didn’t know their faces. We got together once we reached Puerto Vallarta’s airport. Of course, they were all beautiful and friendly and super energetic. I’m so ready to start an unforgettable adventure.
We got on a tiny boat that the locals call “crucero” (cruise). I’m assuming they are being very ironic. The trip to the resort lasted 45 minutes. The sea was pretty rough. Or at least when you come from NYC where the interaction with water bodies (i.e. sea, rivers, lakes) is not existent a little bit of waves seamed like a tsunami to me (and a nightmare to the rest of the girls).
This place is absolutely amazing. The whole resort is just for the girls from the Yoga retreat. Oh wait, one of the girls came with her husband so we are 15 girls +1 guy.
We did a light yoga class (light in Lauren’s (yoga teacher) terms because the class was hard!) at around 6:15 and then we had dinner in the most beautiful place.
We went to bed at 9 ish…..I slept like a baby.

Day#2:
I woke up at 5am. No alarm necessary. I can only sleep 8 hours straight. At 5am it’s still pitch dark in these latitudes. I had to wait until around 6:30am to be able to see some sort of light. I went to my early swim in the sea and it was the most invigorating experience. Breakfast was super yummy of course! And the fact that you get to sit down with other people to have an actual meal with no rush early in the morning is pretty refreshing too. Yoga class started at 9:30am and it went on for a good hour and a half. I’m so soared. But is the good pain. The pain that you enjoy, that you actually look forward to (you look forward to this kind of pain too right? Please tell me you do!). The yoga room is more or less 600 steps above sea level. By the time you are all the way up there you are already tired. My right knee is not having a good time with all these steps. Oh well, the rest of my body is so suck it up!
I’ve heard that sometimes people cry during yoga class. I usually don’t make fun of people but it’s really funny to imagine someone crying during a yoga class. Well, this time the joke was on me. After a third painful wheel my body couldn’t take it any more and out of nowhere tears start coming down my eyes. I’m not talking about “allergy tears” with no emotions. No, I’m talking about straight from the heart tears. Tears that I couldn’t hold any longer. It was a little embarrassing. It’s OK to laugh with strangers, but to cry? I know at the end of this journey all of these girls will be close friends, but as of now we are just starting to know each other. Crying in front of them is something I wasn’t looking forward to. But it happened. It felt liberating.
After yoga class we went to the beach. Did I mention is a private beach just for the yoga retreat group? (Secretly I’m designing a fools-proof plan on how to stay here forever). Lunch was served at 1:30pm. I can’t tell you enough how delicious the food on this place is. Everything tastes so fresh. My digestive system isn’t attacking me for the first time in months. I haven’t feel bloated and I feel with more energy than I usually have. The afternoon passed by so fast (of course, time goes by faster when you are on vacation, somehow the clock moves faster and you can’t do anything about it).
Our second yoga class started at 6:15pm and it lasted an hour and a half. I cried again. This time not sobbing double pumping crying as in the morning, but a few tears rolled down my eyes. Nothing to be ashamed of.
Dinner was served at 7:00pm. I will stop talking about the food but I just got to say that of course it was beautiful (not yummy, but beautiful, as in paradise beautiful). Then of course, came the wine. Everything is just better when the wine comes and visits. People are more open, everything is funnier, life is perfect, and troubles seam to melt away. I just love wine. I went to bed at midnight after the bottle of wine came to an end. After yoga, swimming, delicious food and a bottle of wine every one sleeps like a baby. And that’s exactly what I did.

Day #3:
I woke up a bit later today (6:00am). I went for my morning swim. Life is good. Breakfast was served at 8:00am. Yoga class started at 9:30am. I didn’t cry today! I don’t know if this is bad or good, but most probably someone else did because the class was hard! After class I went swimming some more. There’s a kayak tied to a buoy a good 500ft away from the beach. I swam to the kayak, got onto it, and used it for an exploratory mission along the coast. My arms are not used to this kind of abuse and they are very soared. I love this pain.
Yoga class in the afternoon was more like a workshop- equally hard- where we learned how to do a pose that I like to call the scorpion. I’ve surprised myself with the things I didn’t think I was capable to do and that I’m doing by listening to instructions and concentrating hard. I get easily distracted, but once I get into “the zone” I can go places. I like that feeling of accomplishment.
Dinner was served at 7:30pm. I can get used to this life style.

Stay tuned for Days #4, #5, #6, #7, & #8

All pictures by me. CoCo couldn't fit inside my bags. I missed her greatly. 

lunes, 22 de abril de 2013

Yoga Retreat 2013

I was lucky enough to go on a yoga retreat with 15 other girls a couple of weeks ago in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I have pictures, and more pictures, a diary and tons of footage. I will not bored you until death with everything, but this video shows pretty much the feeling of the entire trip. So much fun, so much sun, so much love... 
Thanks to these wonderful girls (and one guy!) and the best yoga teacher ever I can say I had the most wonderful trip ever. Love you all!