miércoles, 1 de mayo de 2013

Yoga Retreat Diary Parte Dos


Day #4:
I woke up very early today (5:30am) and waited an hour rolling in bed until the sun came out. My morning swim was good. I’m starting to really like the idea of “showering” in the sea. My hair likes it too. That thirty-minute process of untangling my hair every morning in New York is getting boring. My hair was born to be tangled and wild. Breakfast was superb. I’m addicted to organic granola, yogurt, and fresh fruit -I wonder if the cafeteria of my office can do something about their awful morning menu.
Yoga class started at 9:45am. Today’s class lasted two hours. Holly shit, holly shit…..it was really hard. But I felt so fueled up after it, full of energy, like I can accomplish anything I wanted. I officially entered ninja-mode.
After class we went to our daily catching-rays routine. Two years ago I discovered the best sun-screen over the face of the earth. Shiseido SPF 50. I never get burned and it still allows me to tan just a tiny bit. I’m proud to say that after four days of intense sun I haven’t burned my skin.
Lunch was served at 12:30 or 1:00? I lost track of time in this place. The sea was a bit rough today so I decided not to go for a swim. We got scared with one of the girls being drifted away towards the rocks. Thank God nothing bad happen but it was a big warning to stay away from the water.
A group of girls -me included- decided to do a Temezcal. A Temezcal is a type of sweat lodge, which originated in ancient Mexico with pre-Hispanic people. It gets hot as hell, and not that I’ve been to hell itself but I can imagine is pretty hot.  Imagine a 4 feet high 15 feet diameter “oven” with a tiny door where you get in crawling. Hot rocks or “abuelitas” are brought in and the temperature quickly reaches a good 120F. Once the door in closed is pitched black. Our shaman’s name was Marciano –shocking. It was the most claustrophobic experience my body and my mind had ever experienced. I wanted to leave that place five minutes after the ceremony started. I had to do some serious concentration and mental control to be able to stay for the whole hour and a half. The only thing separating myself from the open outside world has a tiny door made out of a yoga blanket, but I kept thinking that horrible things were going to happen to all of us in there. I started chanting along with the shaman and I’ve got to say that that humming relaxed me so much. The singing was the only thing that kept me from going crazy in that place. I’m glad I did it, but it was a very intense experience. After the ceremony was over, we crawled our way out of that “oven” and went straight to the ocean. For the very first two minutes I don’t think we were in fully control of our bodies. Olivia went for a swim in the ocean not realizing that she was very close to a huge rock. Thank God for Lauren that kept an eye on us like the holly spirit! The Temezcal girls group will forever live inside of me.
After lunch Lauren and the Temezcal girls went downstairs for a drink or two at the bar. Our bar tender left the premises at 10:30pm leaving us wanting more wine. We solved that very quickly by going on an impromptu trip to the kitchen.
Day #5:
The sun decided to give us a break today. It was very nice since our skins needed a very well deserved day off.
Highlight of the day: Li came (new yoga teacher), I didn’t cry, morning class was hard! Lunch was yummy, dinner was awesome, girls are the best. Afternoon class was pretty tough! Ouch ouch everything hurts.

Day#6:
I woke up super early. I went on my morning shower in the sea. Mental note: I haven’t used my shampoo in 2 days. My hair loves the fact that is dirty as hell. My hair was born to be dirty as hell. Morning yoga started at 9:45am. Today’s intention was: stillness. The music was Adele’s. I was fine, no crying until we were one hour and fifteen minutes into the class. I cried as never before. I was sobbing, double pumping, inconsolable. Lauren being the sweetheart that she is stayed with me throughout my whole crying attack. I went on child’s pose for a good twenty minutes. Lauren stood by my side all the time. I had things inside of me that all the yoga poses took out. The fact that ten other people surrounded me with different intentions for being on this yoga retreat helped a lot too. We all go thru difficult things in our lives and for whatever reason we seam to think that we are the only ones going thru challenging periods. I could feel everyone’s good energy being directed at me. At the end of the class some girls hugged me. It’s so nice to feel that there’s hope in human nature and that even though we haven’t been friends forever we share a secret sisterhood. My eyes were puffy the whole day.  A nice reminder that I’m alive and that I can feel emotions.
I went on wild mode with my skin and ditched the spf 50 for spf 30. Wow….
We had a little scare today with Lauren. The sea here is crazy. She couldn’t get out of the ocean. Another big warning of not going to the sea alone.
We had a “salsa party” last night. That was so much fun! We stayed up until 2:30am. These girls are awesome.
Day#7:
Last day of our yoga perfections (Generosity, Kindness, Patience, Joyful effort, Stillness, Wisdom, and Tradition.) Today we talked about “wisdom”. The music today was Nirvana. I did not cry. I found interior strength and went thru the entire hour and a half like a bad-ass ninja. I’m a little tired after the crazy salsa night, but I’ll survive. Daphne and Lauren left today; tomorrow the rest of us will be going back to reality. I never finalized the details of my plan to stay here forever, plus, I think my cats might be missing me by now –probably not, but I like to think that they see me as their mother and not their food source. I have a scheduled massage at five today. Three other girls already had their massages during the week and apparently it’s fabulous. More details to come after.
So the massage was fantastic. I paid a little bit more than $90 bucks to have a man massage all my body for a full hour. When you put it that way is sad isn’t it? In all seriousness, it was really good.
Dinner was served on the beach tonight. After eating we were treated to a beautiful bonfire and wine. It’s going to be so hard to leave this place.
Day#8:
Last day. I took my morning shower –not the sea but I got myself into an actual shower and used shampoo and conditioner- early in the morning. Had breakfast with the girls and waited in the sun for a couple of hours until it was time to leave. Xinalani has no port, so you have to get on the little boats as fast as possible from the beach. Somehow we managed to survive the crazy waves and got ourselves and our luggage on the boat. We left this place almost in tears. I really hope I can come back some day. It was really one of the most fantastic experiences of my life.

Tadaaaahhhh!!
The End.