The End...

Here I am at the end of my trip. I am at a hostel by the airport, and I fly out tomorrow at noon. Its hard to believe I have been traveling since the middle of February and now it is the middle of June. I have done a lot, but it has also been a very long time and I am ready to go home.

The last couple of days I have been in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. I really liked it there, and I would definitely go back sometime during the high season because it was quiet and rather rainy the whole time so I didn't really see it in all its glory. The World Cup has started, and that seems to be the main activity for most of the people here. There are 3 or 4 games a day so if you wanted to that could take up your whole day! I did watch the first half of Costa Rica's match against Uruguay. They ended up winning, but I missed the second half in favour of going on a tour of a chocolate farm and factory. 

I didn't spend any time on the beach in Puerto Viejo, despite my objective to spend some time in both oceans before going home to ocean-less Ontario. I did hang out with some cool animals though! I went to a wildlife sanctuary in Puerto Viejo and saw lots of snakes, monkeys, a couple of sloths, an ocelot, a crocodile... It was so cool. I know they were in captivity but I definitely thought it was a better experience than wandering around the jungle and not seeing anything! I did that as well and of course it was beautiful but all the green got a little boring after a while when I didn't see any animals. 

Yesterday I went to the sloth sanctuary near Cahuita and that was AWESOME. Saw a couple babies, a few older ones, learned the difference between two-toed and three-toed sloths, and went on a cool canoe ride where we saw a few sloths in the 'wild'. They were not that wild because they had previously been at the sanctuary so they were comfortable around humans, but it was still cool to see them moving about in the tree. Apparently sloths are the most common arborial (tree) mammal in Costa Rica. More common than monkeys. They are just so good at what they do (camouflage, moving slowly) that they are impossible to see. Many of the sloths were rescued, they had some sad stories. One of them electrocuted himself on a high-voltage power line and then fell to the ground and broke his arm in a bunch of places. He now only has one arm. Another one was paraplegic because he fell and got hit by a car. Not sure how you could hit a sloth with your car, its not like they can run across the road very quickly!

Well its about time for me to say goodbye to the caribbean. A geographic regular in my life over the past 6 months (bahamas, mexico, guatemala, honduras, Costa Rica) I don't know when I will be back again... I definitely want to come back to visit the Corn Islands in Nicaragua, I heard from so many people how amazing they are. I really wanted to go diving one more time before the end of this trip, but while there is good diving on the Caribbean in Costa Rica, there has been two much rain which limits the visibility so it wouldn't be worth it.

Onward to San Jose and then Toronto!

Rainy season in Costa Rica

"Winter" has arrived. Winter down here means rain... every day. Its good in the sense that it is making me eager to get home for the summer! But not so great for enjoying my last few days on the beach. After Monteverde I went to the Pacific coast, to a little town on the Nicoya peninsula called Montezuma. Like a number of other places I have visited, the guidebook made it out to be a much more interesting place than it actually is. I can imagine during the high season it is different, but now it is low season so it was very quiet. And the humidity, when it wasn't raining, was very very high so I went out on a nice hike along the coast and ended up soaked without actually going swimming. All of my belongings are damp and my backpack smells a bit funky... Ugh.

Yesterday I spent the whole day traveling from Montezuma across the country to the Caribbean and I arrived after dark in a town  called Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. Yesterday was a beautiful day. Of course  I was in a bus. So far today it has been raining really hard and unfortunately I lost my rain jacket in Monteverde so I have been hesitant to go out and explore. I have a few days here, and there are quite a few things that I would like to do (besides lie on the beach) so hopefully the weather improves.

Reflections on packing

One thing is for sure, every time I have to travel from one place to another I am always cursing myself for packing such a heavy bag. There are some things that I am happy that I have, other things I have used maybe once or twice so I definitely wouldn't pack them again. Generally, I packed erring on the side of "maybe i will need this" but when you are backpacking I think you should only pack things you are definitely going to use.

Some things were a nice idea, but I have not used them enough to warrant packing them.

1. Mosquito net

I was grateful for this at Surfing Turtle, because they provided me with a net but it had a lot of big holes in it so I didn't think it would work very well. However, I didn't use the mosquito net once otherwise.

2. Hiking boots

It was definitely good to have these for the couple of hikes I went on, but next time I will bring something more lightweight, like some off-road running shoes or something.

3. Sleeping bag

This one is tough. On the nights that I used this, I was happy to have it. However, I didn't use it enough for the amount of space it took up in my bag.

4. Extra toiletries, medicines, etc

It ended up being much easier than I thought to buy just about anything I needed in Central America. I didn't need to pack so much of everything.

5. 5 pairs of socks

I just didn't need so many socks. Otherwise, I did a pretty good job with clothes I think. Maybe I brought 1 t-shirt and 1 pair of pants too many, but generally I was ok, especially given the variation in climate from Guatemala to every subsequent country! I did end up buying a couple of things, and I repurposed a pair of leggings into shorts, but I don't think I would pack any more or less clothing next time.

6. Rain jacket

Ok, I have needed this since I got to Costa Rica, but I maybe used it once before that. My rain jacket is pretty light, but to save even more space and weight next time I would bring just one of those pocket ponchos. Sadly I lost mine in Monteverde.

Some things I was really happy about having:

1. Keen "amphibious" walking sandals

I bought these thinking that they were quite ugly, but that they would be super handy on my travels. Boy was I right. On both counts. I still think they are ugly, but I was so thankful to them when going through the cave in Semuc Champey. Going through the cave we were going to be in and out of water, and up and down rocks and ladders, so we all wore swimsuits, but most people only had flipflops. The solution was to tie a piece of string around their heel to keep the flipflop on their foot in water. This was not ideal. Meanwhile I had these nice walking shoes with decent tread that would get me in and out of the water and across the slippery rocks much better. 

2. A skirt and a nice shirt

As a backpacker in Central America you get used to being dirty and sweaty, so it was really nice on occasion to get clean AND have some nice clothes to wear. It made me feel like a real person instead of a dirtbag packpacker.

3. Thermarest collapsible pillow

I didn't use this a ton for sleeping, except once in a while when the hostel pillow was quite ratty looking. I did use this on long-distance shuttle rides, and it made sleeping a lot more comfortable.

4. Eye mask and earplugs

Necessities when you are sleeping in a room with a bunch of strangers. 

5. 2 towels/1 towel & sarong

Traveling to beaches, lakes, etc. it is really nice to have one towel for showering and another towel or sarong for the beach. This way one stays relatively clean. I started with a towel and sarong but I guess somebody really liked my ratty old sarong and decided to take it off the clothesline where it was drying. Then I bought a second towel, which has not been as ideal because it takes up more space in my bag.

6. Waterproof cover for my backpack

Sometimes your backpack gets put up on the roof of a shuttle bus, and then it rains. You will probably be happier if you have one of these.

7. Small portable speaker 

This was really nice to have just for hanging out in hostels or on the beach.

8. Probiotic tablets

These came in very handy for dealing with the 'digestive roller coaster' as I called it, that is travel in Central America.

10. iPad

I was amazed at how ubiquitious wifi is here, even in the most remote places I have been able to keep in touch with friends and family at home. It has also been great to be able to research other places and make future travel plans. I wouldn't travel without some internet device. There are still Internet cafes, but from what I hear they are becoming extinct. And some remote jungle/beach hostels have wifi but no public computers so you would be out of luck there.

The only thing that I frequently regretted not packing was a yoga mat. I had a special towel to use when I wanted to do yoga, but a lot of the time I made up excuses like the ground was too dirty or too hard or too uneven. If I had a mat I would have no excuse not to practice my yoga. I was going to bring it but decided not to because it was going to be too bulky, but I think I should have made it a priority. I had so many goals and ideals for keeping up a yoga practice, but basically after I left guatemala I all but abandoned them. 

The reason it all began...

I am now in Monteverde, Costa Rica, which (ironically) was the original place i had in mind before it quickly expanded into an all Central America trip! I had first thought that I would come here and volunteer in the Quaker school. Now, being here, I kind of wish I had done that. Ok I don't wish I had done it, but I wish I could still do it. My track coach from Westtown is here teaching and he told me they are looking to hire a social studies teacher and would I be interested! I thought about it for two seconds before remembering how excited I am about going back to school in September. However, this is a really awesome place and I would love to stay if circumstances were different.

Costa Rica is more expensive than the rest of Central America so I had a bit of sticker shock when I first got here. $2 for a beer instead of $1. Ugh.  But I feel like its getting me ready to be back in Canada so I guess its ok. Costa Rica is a lot more developed than anywhere else in Central America. It deffinitely doesn't feel as "third-world". 

Anyway. Monteverde. Where ecotourism all began. They definitely have the tourist game down. So many hotels and offices selling tours for the cloud forest, coffee farms, canopy tours.. Its a bit overwhelming in such a tiny town. I have been busy trying to make the most of my few days here. First I did the zipline canopy tour, and that was pretty awesome. 14 cables with a total distance of 4 km! It was so fun. The best part was the Tarzan swing where they clip you into a rope and you just drop and swing back and forth over 40 meters or so of jungle. Then the Superman zipline was pretty great. You fly facing down over the valley on one of the longest cables. It was great.

Last night I went for a guided night tour and I saw a couple of snakes, a porcupine, and a sloth! That was really cool. I have no idea how the guide knows where to look for stuff because hes just swinging his flashlight around and suddenly hes like "Everyone over here!" and then we all scramble over to look at something in the light of his flashlight. The sloth was definitely the highlight.

Today I went for a hike through the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. I didnt see any animals but the vegetation was incredible. And being in the clouds was really cool. After that I hiked down to the village of Monteverde to meet my old track coach Jonathan. He showed my the Friends' school and told me a bit about the history of the area and the quaker community here. We had a nice lunch.

Now I am sitting drinking delicious coffee and writing this while looking out over the valley and the slightly larger town of Santa Elena. Not bad.

Oh and I nearly forgot, one of the best things about being here was my sleeping situation. The last two nights I have been in a "dorm" that is supposed to sleep 4 people but I was the only one! I forgot how nice to have privacy like that. And the temperature here is perfect for sleeping, its so fresh and cool and also quiet. I am having the best sleeps. Especially after being active in the day. Today there are more people in the dorm but I don't mind. I am very well-rested.

One more day here then back to the beach!

another beach, another island

I am so bored of beaches. And islands.

Just kidding. I spent the last 5 days at another surf lodge where my friend Harriet is working. Her place is so much better than where I was. Its up on a big cliff but has a great beach down below, the food is awesome, and the lifestyle there was a lot less self-destructive. People actually exercised. There was a yoga master class with a celeb yoga teacher from LA so I went to that and came to the realization of how out of shape I am. We were working on mostly inversions, and I have no upper body strength. It was good though, I feel like I needed a good kick in the butt to get back in gear health-wise.

There was a great group of volunteers and guests that I hung out with, and there were a number of other places down the beach so it didn't feel quite as isolated. Apparently the surf was top notch, but I wasn't tempted to go out. I had my one experience of surfing, and it was quite rough. Maybe I will try again in Costa Rica.

Today I traveled to Isla Ometepe, a big island with two volcanos in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, a large freshwater lake. The island is all about ecotourism so there are a lot of farms and stuff where I was thinking about volunteering.. alas time is ticking! There are a lot of interesting birds. And lots of bugs. I rode a horse to a natural mineral spring pool. It wasn't hot though, lucikly. I went to a hot one near the last place but we had to go at night because its so hot there during the day. Then I walked back from the pool and was sufficiently sweaty that I needed to go swim again! Its a hard life. I will leave tomorrow to go to Costa Rica... Its calling to me and I don't have much time left.

Travels through Nicaragua

I am happy to report that in the past week I have made a full recovery! I spent a night in Granada. Granada is a lovely town, more touristy than Leon, and so its a bit more spruced up. Its a much more pleasant city to walk about. Thankfully there is more of a breeze than Leon. Granada is right on lake Nicaragua and surrounded by volcanos so there are nicer views as well. I ran into some people who had been at Surfing Turtle. Its so nice to meet the same people randomly on your travels. I think its inevitable here because all the backpackers are roughly following the same 'gringo trail' but it still gives you the feeling that the world is not such a big scary place after all. Not that I have ever been really scared on my travels, i have had such a easy time of it.

The following night (tuesday) I spent at a hostel in the trees just outside of Granada. I thought it was going to be cooler actually, it was a bit disappointing. But understandably it was not at its operational prime, because when I got there I learned that the owner is in a nicaraguan prison! He was driving his truck and hit some drunk man on a motorcycle. Or so the story goes according to his 70 year old mother and aunt who are now running the hostel in the middle of the Nicaraguan jungle. I am very impressed by them, to come down from Texas and run this hostel in the trees for an unknown length of time while their son is in jail. Ugh I don't want to imagine what a Nicaraguan prison is like.

Early in the morning yesterday I set out for San Juan del Sur, a surf town in the south of Nicaragua. I arrived by 930 am and got organized to get a surfing lesson. I am very excited to say that I can stand up!! I definitely need more practice but it was such a rush to be standing on moving water! I was watching the surfers and I couldn't really understand the appeal of it. They spend 10-15 minutes paddling around and waiting for a good wave and then if they get it they only have 5 or 10 seconds riding it and then they crash. Its a lot of work for little reward I think. But when I did actually stand up for a few seconds it felt so great that I kind of understand. The ocean is pretty brutal though, the same big waves that they want to catch coming in they somehow have to paddle through going out.

I am in a race against my visa expiring so I am moving on today again. I like San Juan, it would be nice to stay another day or two. But its also a big party town and I am not feeling like partying too much. I am going to go to another isolated beach hostel where my friend fro Utila is volunteering. It looks like a way nicer place than Surfing Turtle. I will spend 2 or 3 days there, then go to isla Ometepe, a volcanic island in Lake Nicaragua, then leave Nicaragua for Costa Rica!

On the move again

With a heavy heart (or, rather, a heavy gut) i decided to leave Surfing Turtle Lodge. After over a week of feeling shitty I decided I needed to take some action. Something about that place (or some combination of things) was making me ill. I took a night off a couple of days ago and came to Leon to sleep in an air-conditioned room. Wow. I was overwhelmed by the luxury of it. A double bed, a room and bathroom to myself, and AC!!! Wow!!! I arrived around 4 and fell asleep almost immediately. I woke up hungry around 730 and wandered down the street for a light dinner of yogurt and fruit. I forgot how much I love dairy. The next day I felt so much better that I decided not to go to the doctor after all. I went back to the lodge in the afternoon, prepared to leave for good. I talked to the manager and he was disappointed of course, but I told hi about how I had been sick for so long and I just needed to get away to get better. And since I only had another week left I was just going to leave for good. He understood. I worked my last shift, once again in pain, and it felt like an eternity. I was so ready to get out of there. The next day I woke up normally and started packing. Then as I prepared to leave I noticed the manager and a few other people were not around. Apparently they had gone fishing. So i sat around the whole day doing waiting for them to come back so I could say goodbye. Finally they came back and we had a tearful parting (not) and i got in my charriot and disappeared into the jungle. Hasta la vista baby!! If you can't tell, I am quite happy to be out of there. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice place, and the people were great, but something was off. I would have liked it as a visitor for a few days, but working there wasn't great for me. The nothingness, the food, the drinking... well at least it has shown me that I can't live that kind of life, as appealing as it is from the outside. Cheers to the people who thrive like that. They have had some long-term voluteers. I don't know how they do it.

Tomorrow I continue my journey! Onward to Granada! 

Island hangs

I've been here at Surfing Turtle for 10 days now. Hard to believe. On one hand I feel like the time has flown by, but on the other hand the days here feel long. I am working one 8 hour bar shift every day and other than that I am just hanging out. I have neither surfed nor seen any turtles, two things I was realy looking forward to. The waves have not been great for surfing, and turtle season is in the fall and early winter. But besides that disappointment, I am really enjoying it here. Its not a lifestsyle I could maintain forever, but for a month it is really quite pleasant.

I am loving getting to know new people every day, and I am practicing being an extrovert. I think traveling alone and working in hostels has made me a lot better at meeting people. I was a little nervous about that aspect of traveling, and in the first couple hostels I was a bit shy, but now its really easy. Working behind the bar is an advantage too because people are approaching me to order drinks, and I have to learn names because everything is on a tab system. And in this place there is really not much to do besides getting to know people. A couple more familiar faces have been coming through, and thats been a lot of fun.

I have been a little homesick here though. I have just over one month left in my trip and then I will be home! I am homesick because there are so many Canadians coming through the hostel. Probably more than any other country. Canadians, then Aussies and Brits. I have met people from all over Canada, from Victoria to Newfoundland. Not too many from the GTA, but I did meet one guy from London, Ont! Unfortunately he had his wallet and passport stolen on his way here, so he had to leave for the capital right away to sort that out.

One of the daily fixtures is a serious volleyball tournament. The losers get 'iced'. That means that later in the evening they have to get on top of the bar and chug a smirnoff ice. I was on the losing team three days in a row, but luckily my streak of bad luck ended yesterday. I am very bad at volleyball. I don't remember being this bad in high school. But that was the last time I played. I guess with 2 more weeks here I will get better.

In the afternoons there really is not much going on because it is the hotest time of the day. People just sit around the lodge or lounge in the hammocks. I try to go swimming but the sand, which is nearly black, gets so hot that you have to sprint from the path to the ocean. The waves are really strong but the water is quite shallow so its not scary. In the evenings, in addition to the ice-ing of the losers, we always have some activity. We have had a dance contest, a talent show, various drinking games, and a movie night.

I am a lot happier here than i was when I first arrived. This is a special place and I am so fortunate to be here.

Somewhere on a deserted island in Nicaragua...

I have been at Surfing Turtle Lodge for 3 days now. Its a very chill spot. Literally on a deserted island beach that you have to get to by boat and horse carriage. Really, its only half an hour from Leon, but it feels a world away from anything.

I came here with the intention of teaching yoga, but the construction of the yoga platform is a bit behind, so I have just been helping out on the bar along with the other volunteers. Most nights there are about 20 or so guests, and some people have stayed here several weeks, just hanging out, not doing much. Thats pretty much how it goes here. People hang out all day, and then when night falls people start drinking. Right now I am having a hard time adjusting to the lifestyle, but I try to run and do yoga in order to keep a little bit more active. There are things to do.There are surf lessons, you can go horseback riding, and every evening there is a big game of volleyball. I havent had a surf lesson yet but hopefully tomorrow. 

But I haven't written in a while so I am going to backtrack. I left Honduras at 4 am, crossing first into Guatemala, then El Salvador. I arrived in El Tunco, a surf town in El Salvador around 9:30. I met a german guy in Copan who had previously been in El Tunco and he convinced me to stop there in order to break up the trip to Leon. Not much in the town besides surf shops and bars, but this was my first time on the Pacific so a big event in my travels. The beach was black sand, which I have never seen before. Very hot in the middle of the day. I watched the surfers for a few hours and went swimming but the waves were a bit too strong to really swim. 

The best thing about being in El Salvador was that I got to eat pupusas in the country that invented them. I love pupusas, they are my favorite Central American street food. They are made by forming a ball of dough and then stuffing the ball with cheese and beans and fillings, and then squishing it out flat into a slightly thicker than usual tortilla. They are served with a spicy sauerkraut called curtido. So good. 

In Honduras the most common street food was Baleadas. A baleada is a a large tortilla made from wheat folded in half and filled with a small portion of beans, meat, egg, and veggies. I ate baleadas nearly every day in Utila at a spot called Mama Rosa's. Some friends and I began using baleadas as our price comparison for everything else on the island. Baleadas always won. Mama Rosa also made pastelitos which were like empanadas for 50 cents. Almost everywhere in Central America you can get a filling meal for under $3. Not necessarily a healthy one, but it does the trick. The Main Street food in Guatemala was tamales which are banana leaves filled with a mixture of maize dough, cheese, beans, and other things. Seeing a pattern here? Every country has had their variation on the same 3 or 4 ingredients. Not sure what the street food is here in Nicaragua because when I got to the hostel after  hours of driving I didn't feel like exploring and instead had the most amazing pizza I have had in the past few months in the hostel restaurant. 

I have a feeling I won't have too much to write about while I am here at Surfing Turtle Lodge, so I am going to save that for the next post at least.

Crossing Honduras

I decided to leave the jungle lodge after the first night. I met this Canadian couple who were going in the same direction as me, and we all decided the lodge was a bit on the pricey side. Not compared to Canadian prices of course, but just relative to how much we could be spending elsewhere in Honduras. We took the lodge's transport to the mega mall where I again availed myself of a frosty and fries from Wendy's. My new friends were a little to enthusiastic in their order and they ended up not  feeling great all evening. We spent an evening at a hostel in the Garifuna part of town. We didn't have much desire to go exploring there, especially because the entrance of the hostel was very air conditioned and that wasn't a delight we had been exposed to in a while. So we sat around, played cards, and drank weak Honduran beer. As the evening went on, a few more groups of travelers came by, most of whom were Canadian! I haven't met a ton of Canadians on my trip, just a few here and there, but everyone else always tells me that Canadians are everywhere. So it was fun to have a bunch of Canadians to hang out with. We left the hostel early the next morning to get the bus to Copan.

I have been in Copan for 2 nights, staying at this lovely little hostel just on the outskirts of town. Copan is a colonial mountain town, so it feels a little like Antigua or San Cristobal, but much much smaller. Like those two cities it also has amazing coffee, so I have been drinking a lot. The coffee in Utila was horrible. However, unlike those other two cities it is HOT. I thought I was used to the heat from Utila but its different somehow, more opressive. I guess because you don't have the breeze off the ocean. But also there are no sand flies, so its a trade off I guess. Most people come to Copan for the ruins. I hadnt seen any mayan ruins in over a month, so I figured it was about time to see some more, before I leave Mayan territories for good. The ruins in Copan aren't particularly spectacular, but the carvings are pretty awesome. Its incredible to think about people carrying these giant blocks of stone over any distance. I also visited a bird sanctuary where they are working on reintroducing macaws and other parrots back into the wild. They had a huge collection of birds in a beautiful park. Some of them we could hold! Today I went to the butterfly sanctuary, which was pretty unimpressive compared to the one in Niagara Falls, but it was still nice. I learned a bunch of new words in Spanish.

Tomorrow at 4am I am leaving on a shuttle for El Salvador. I wasn't going to go there, but I have a few days before I have to start my job on the beach in Nicaragua so I think I will check it out. People who have been there have raved about it. I was going to take the shuttle directly to Leon, Nicaragua, but it would take 16 hours and the shuttle goes through El Salvador so I figured I am paying the entrance and exit fees anyway, I might as well take a break from traveling for a few days. I am going to stay over in a surfing town called El Tunco with another friend I met in the hostel here.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle

I wish I could say I saw a lion but that would be a lie. Apparently there are jaguars here though, but they are understandably hard to see. They are probably sleeping. Just kidding I don't know. I am in the middle of the jungle, but its only 30 minutes from the town of La Ceiba so its not that wild. I am in one of Honduras' national parks, this one is called Pico Bonito. It features the beautiful Cangrejal river passing through the mountains on its way to the Caribbean. Yesterday I went white water rafting! It was awesome. The river is full of enormous smooth grey boulders and I jumped off of them into the river. Apparently during and after the rainy season the water rises to cover these boulders, which are 15+ meters high. Rafting at that time of year is much more intense. But it was still exciting for me, fast water, rapids, beautiful scenery. The water is really warm too! I have never been in such a warm river before.

After the rafting I went for a hike in the national park with this guy I met from Houston. I figured we would see some wild animals. At least a snake. But no, only spiders and geckos. Probably for the best that there were no snakes. I'm not sure how I would respond to a strange snake. Probably not well. Anyway it was a great hike through the jungle. I swung on some vines. Seemed like an appropriate thing to do. When we got back to the lodge I was exhausted so I had dinner and went to sleep. Today I am going to hang around for the morning, resolve some things over the internet that I haven't had a chance to do, then this afternoon I am going zip lining! I will leave tomorrow for Copan. There is a Canadian couple here who are also going that way so it will be nice to travel together.

I was sad to leave Utila, but I was ready to leave the "farm". I did make a significant contribution there - the holes I dug will allow them to bring in electricity! I did some actual gardening in the last day I worked with them. We planted a bunch of seeds. I am not too sure if any of them are going to come up though. The farmer didn't quite think things through, so if anything sprouts it will be a credit to his optimism. 

I felt bad about leaving early when I had committed to two weeks, but the couple didn't seem to mind. The farm felt really isolated even though it wasn't that far from town (about 45 min walk) but because of the lack of electricity the farmer frequently went to a friend's house in town and his wife was working for the Semana Santa (a massive holiday, leading up to Easter) at a bar in town so I was alone a lot. I had been spending the occasional night in town through the week. I made some friends in the dive school who were still around so I went in after work in the evening and then crashed in any empty dorm bed because I didn't feel comfortable walking back to the farm in the dark. I could take a taxi to the airport, but then from there it was still a 5 minute walk through the woods.

I was planning on staying in the jungle lodge one more night, but I am realizing how much money it is costing me so I think I will leave this afternoon. Its not expensive, but because its in the middle of nowhere they can charge whatever they like for food and drink. I was going to do ziplining today but that is also $40. I will find another place to do it in Central America I think!

Scuba and Gardening

I finished my scuba course on Wednesday with an amazing dive out on the North side of the island. The reef there is more diverse and populated with more fish species. It was beautiful. Then the boat captain got word of a whale shark sighting just a bit further north, so we took off to find it! The  best clue of a whale shark is a school of tuna feeding on plankton near the surface. This was cool to watch in itself. After 30 minutes of (nausiatingly) slow navigating around the feeding frenzy finally the captain started yelling at us to jump in the water. I jumped in with my fins, mask, and snorkel and when I opened my eyes the whale shark was directly below me! Probably about 15 meters or so, so not very close, but it is really hard to determine distances in the open water where you have no points of reference. Shortly after the whale shark appeared, it disappeared into the depths. But I am super psyched that I got to see it! 

After the dive I had to get my stuff together and make my way to the farm I am volunteering on. Well its not really a farm. And I haven't been doing much even in the way of gardening. I am working for and staying with an American couple, about 40 years old I would guess, who have been on this little (1/4 acre) of land in Utila behind the airport for 4 years. They built 3 mandala gardens, round gardens with pie-shaped segments, and planted some trees. The goal is to make it into a forest garden, but it looks to me like they are moving pretty slowly on getting other plants. Of course, its difficult to buy plants here, but still. So the main 'farm' project is building the soil up with organic matter, or compost. So every day I go out on the trails around the farm (there are no roads here) and collect several wheelbarrows full of fallen leaves. These I bring back and dump on one of the pie-shaped garden plots. I have also done a bit of weeding and a lot of carrying water. They do not have running water because they do not have electricity, so I have to go fill jugs with water from a nearby well. This is not water to drink, but for watering the plants and showering and washing dishes and such. 

I really like the couple. What they lack in acreage the make up for in enthusiasm and idealism. They have big plans to spead permaculture around the island, then around Honduras, then Central America. Utila is a beautiful place for it, apparently the island used to supply the mainland with lots of its food. And then the United Fruit Company did its banana research here, I have been told. It would be great to see the island embrace permaculture and become food secure, because the veggies you can buy in town that come in on boats are pretty sad looking. Anyway its just not clear to me if the two of them really have a plan to achieve their dream. They have lots of ideas, but not much in the way of implementation. I understand that they don't have much and whatever they need is hard to come by on the island, there is no Home Depot after all. But I just thought in 4 years they would be farther along. Their website implies that the operation is a bit more established than it is, www.fincatresanillos.com

I was originally going to stay here 2 weeks but I have decided to move on after just 1 week. I will be heading west, first going to the ruins at Copan and then onward to Nicaragua!

Island style

I love islands. I realized when I arrived at the dock in Utila that it has been over 6 weeks since I was on an island, and it feels good to be back. En route to Utila I stopped in Livingston, Guatemala for one night. It is also an island on the Caribbean at the mouth of the Rio Dulce but I didn't really like it there. Utila is great! Its not really authentic Honduras, there are tons of backpackers and expats here. The main reason for coming to Utila is that is has the cheapest PADI scuba diving courses in the world. Under $300 for the open water certification which allows you to dive up to 18 m, anywhere around the world. I am starting my course this afternoon, we will watch a few videos first. Apparently the videos are really bad, but everyone has to watch them. I imagine they will be similar to the videos I had to watch for my first aid training or my ski instructor training. Tomorrow morning we get in the water, not too deep yet, just in the shallows to learn how the equipment works and how to breathe and such.

I've made a friend/dive companion. Her name is Sarah and she is Irish, but she has been living and volunteering in Guatemala for the past few months. We were on the same bus from Semuc Champey, then the same boat down Rio Dulce to Livingston. In Livingston we figured out that we were doing the same thing so we booked the shuttle to La Ceiba together. We got to La Ceiba on Wednesday afternoon to discover that the ferry to Utila would not be running due to high winds. Along with the 3 other people in the shuttle we found a cheap hostel to stay the night. Not much to do in La Ceiba, so we went to the mall! A very american mall with all sorts of american fast food. We ate at Wendy's because there is no Wendy's in Europe, so it was a noveltly. I shared my childhood love of Wendy's french fries dipped in a chocolate frosty. I know it sounds gross, but it was yummy when I was a kid and its still yummy now. The next morning we got to the ferry, about 2 hours early because the guy working at the hostel said we would need to be there very early. We didn't. Anyway I forgot my motion sickness medication until just when we boarded the boat, so the first 20 minutes were rough. It was all good in the end though.

When the ferry arrived in Utila we were accosted by representatives of all the different dive shops, because as I said, this is why people come here. Sarah and I walked down the Main Street checking out different dive shops. It was impossible to choose so we just went with the one that we thought had a good 'vibe' haha. But after we were second guessing out choice... I'm still not sure we went with the right one. We had some issues with the price because they quoted us a price and neglected to tell us about the tax that was on top of that price. Then the exchange rate they use from dollars to lempira (honduran currency) was really high. So we had to argue with them and deal with some awkwardness, but we had already signed a 'contract' (which surely is not legally binding) so we couldnt really get out of it completely... anyway we got them to drop the tax so it all worked out.

Today we borrowed some snorkel equipment and walked down to the end of the island where the reef begins. Scuba diving is going to be so awesome.

Moving on...

Today I left Semuc Champey. I have to make my way to Utila, Honduras. I passing through Rio Dulce, and Livingston and then getting a boat down the Caribbean coast. I will miss El Retiro. I admit, it has been pretty challenging. Waking up, teaching yoga, eating a free breakfast, reading in a hammock, eating a free lunch, floating down the river in a tube, teaching again, eating a massive free dinner. If you can't tell, I am being sarcastic. It has been super relaxing. 

Today was a rude contrast, enduring the roughest van ride to date. Going up and down, winding/ around corners, being rattled all over the place. I take Dramamine, an anti-nauseant, but it makes me uncontrollably sleepy, which is usually a good thing because sleeping makes the ride pass by a bit quicker. But since the ride was so rough I obviously couldn't sleep so it was even more unbearable. And there was so much dust coming in the windows which were wide open because it was a really hot day so I ended up covered in a centimeter of grime. But I arrived in Rio Dulce at my hostel right on the river, quickly jumped in the water, and since then all has been well again.

Last night was a great night because my friend and classmate from the yoga teacher training course came to El Retiro! Ana has also been traveling, and she emailed me saying she was in Belize so I asked her if she could come and take over my job when I left! It worked out really perfectly, sadly we had just last night to hang out. It was really amazing and totally unexpected to see her in the middle of the jungle in Guatemala!

One of the unexpected benefits of teaching was that after people did my class they would sometimes approach me with questions about my experiences with yoga and with the philosophy and theory behind it. I really enjoyed these conversations. Even though I was a complete stranger, it was nice that they felt comfortable talking to me about these bigger questions, not that I had answers, but it was also nice to recall some of the lessons from the ashram and I cracked open my electronic copy of Swami Vishnu's Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga on a few occasions. I also occasionally had another yoga teacher take my class, and I always liked to ask for their feedback on my teaching afterwards. Now after this successful experience I have organized to teach for the month of may at a hostel on the Nicaraguan island of Ponoleyo, in the Pacific. Check it out: www.surfingturtlelodge.com

I don't like caves

I learned something about myself yesterday. I don't like caves. Isn't that a good thing to know? I think it will come in handy as I continue my trip. Yesterday I did the tour of the pools and waterfalls at Semuc Champey and a candlelight tour of a cave. The pools were stunning. I didn't bring my ipad but I have pictures on my little camera, which I will upload and share at some point.

Then the went for a tour of a cave. I think if i had been told what to expect I might have not gone in. I admit, it was really awesome at first. You walk into a dark cave with water up to your waist (you have to wear a bathing suit) and there are lots of cool stalactites or whichever the ones are which come down from the ceiling. Then you come to a really sketchy looking ladder which you have to climb, and you keep walking or swimming depending on the depth, then there are parts where you have to climb up the rocks a little bit or lower yourself down a ledge. I was really happy to have my Keen sandals because they made it much easier to step across the slippery rocks. Other people just had flip flops tied to their feet with some twine. So I am glad I bought those shoes, they are functional though they are not cute. Anyway we continued for an hour and then it was time to turn around and go back! I was quite tired and really scared I would slip. I was happy to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!!

After I got back to the lodge I had about 30 minutes before my 530 yoga class so I walked around telling people that I was going to do a headstand workshop and 12 people came! It was awesome. I have only had 3 or 4 people in my class the other times. I am getting such great practice teaching twice a day. Every time I do a little bit different, but I feel like it is becoming more natural - the commands, the corrections, the flow of the class. I am loving it. It brings me the same joy that I had teaching ice skating in university. Who knows, maybe that will be a vocation in my life.

Something that will not be a vocation in my life but that I have been doing a bit more of here than previously in my travels is drinking. Every night there is a massive buffet dinner and the bar area is full of people, then as the food is eaten and cleared away the drinking takes over. It has been fun to participate in the backpacker party scene a bit, but I am glad I have the yoga to balance it out. Alcohol is the main thing I am spending money on here because I get my room and food for free. Oh looks like the wifi is about to be shut off, until next time! Namaste

Teaching Yoga in Paradise

If you have been following my blog reguarly (as I know you are) then I am probably starting to sound like a broken record. Every place is very different but so many of the places I have been lucky enough to visit are just so beautiful. I am in another one of such places, Semuc Champey, Guatemala. I am staying in a hostel/lodge that is nestled in a vibrant green hillside on the edge of a small river. And I get to be here for free! I emailed around about two weeks before I decided to come to inquire if any of the lodges were interested in me coming to teach yoga in exchange for a room, and this place El Retiro accepted me, and they are even giving me 3 meals a day! I feel super lucky. I am hoping I can work out similar arrangements as I travel through Honduras and Nicaragua. Its also nice to be here knowing I have some time to get to know people and I don't have to rush off on any tours of the caves or the rivers which are the main attractions in Semuc Champey. Its a bit strange to meet other travelers who I really connect with, and then the next day they leave! Its a good practice of non-attachment! Last night I had a great time hanging out and playing Cards Against Humanity with a group of about 8 people. We played in teams because a lot of the cards have to do with American pop culture or contain slang that non-English speakers are unfamiliar with, so we tried to have each team with one English and one non-English speaker. There were two Dutch people who qualified as English speakers, because Dutch people speak really good English and they get a lot of our movies and pop-culture in English rather than Dutch. Anyway we played this game for a few hours, and then someone decided to have a beer pong tournament. Besides me, there was one American girl. All of the others were not "native" beer pong players. And I'm not usually very good at it anyway. So needless to say the games dragged on and on because everybody kept missing the cups. I went to sleep before it finished but not before drinking a lot of beer. I was worried about missing my yoga class in the morning, not because I was drunk but because both my ipad and my phone were out of battery life and I had nothing besides the birds to wake me up. I am happy to announce that they were succesful, and I didn't miss my class.

Post retreat shopping spree

Ok... the persistence of the Guatemalan women finally wore me down. I left the yoga retreat this morning for Panajachel. Panajachel is the largest and least pleasant town on Lago de Atitlan... what is there to do here? I asked myself when I arrived. I opened my guidebook and guess what it said? Shopping! Apparently the prices and quality of crafts and weaving products are very good here. So, at first I thought I would just browse. Then I decided I needed something to use as a yoga mat next week when I am teaching so I bought a piece of weaving that the lady told me could be for a table/a bed/a towel/a yoga mat... I'm sure she would tell me it would be good for a trip to the moon as well. Anyway I bought one for a decent 150Q, which is about $22. Then I saw a beautiful jacket that I had to buy even though I won't be needing it for the rest of my trip... And at 400Q or $57 it wasn't that cheap either but its SO nice. Hopefully I still feel that way when I finally get to wear it next fall. Then I came and sat down in this cafe courtyard and I guess the owners are ok with women coming in and selling stuff because they kept coming at me. Maybe they could sense my vulnerability like coyotes... haha. Anyway I spent a decent amount of money. Everything is cheap of course, but it still adds up. And it is going to add up in terms of weight in my backpack. Ugh. 

I spent the past two days in silence. Ok not totally in silence, I cheated when I needed to go buy food or cross the lake to visit the ATM. But I did pretty good. I definitely felt the benefits of going inward. I may try it again sometime. I mean its not like I talk that much most of the time, but it was nice to be intentional about it. I felt like it really helped in some of my meditations, and the general stillness of my mind after the two days was quite remarkable. I don't know if I could do a 10-day Vipasana retreat, not to mention there were people in San Marcos doing 40 days of silence, I dont think I could do that!!! There was even a retreat centre with a dark room that was supposed to be like a cave, so people go and meditate in this dark cave for whatever number of days.. yikes! But I guess thats what serious yogis do in the himalayas.

Last night we came out of our silence and had a bit of a debriefing/closing discussion. It seemed like it was a powerful experience for everyone, in different ways. This morning the facilitator of the retreat invited me to teach the morning asana class. So now thats two classes under my belt! And I will have many more by this time next week! I am not sure if I will be teaching once or twice a day. I'm open to either, more experience is always better. 

I am not looking forward to the van ride... Gotta bring back my friend Dramamine. But I am ready to be in a different place, and everyone has told me that Semuc Champey is absolutely amazing. I will let you know in a few days.

Yoga, juice cleansing, and magic chocolate

I have been in San Marcos La Laguna now for 3 full days. It is a very strange place. Cool, but strange. The main touristy part of the village has no streets, only footpaths. Scattered through this forest are a large number of places to do yoga, get a massage, or any other alternative treatment you can think of. Most of the restaurants are vegetarian, and there are people who live here known as "keith the chocolate guy" or "dan the bread guy", and its not that they are selling illegal substances and using bread or chocolate as a front, no they just are the guys to find if you want either bread or chocolate. Which i did, obviously.

I am doing one of the many yoga and meditation retreats available in this tiny place. This woman runs it out of the eco hotel/hostel i am staying in, and we do morning and evenings yoga, meditation, and discussion. In addition, for today and tomorrow we are doing a juice cleanse and lucid dreaming workshop. I am doing ok so far, but right now I am sitting in the hotel's cafe because that is the only place to get internet. It is a bit of a challenge to be surrounded by people who are eating real food, knowing that the next thing I get to put in my mouth will be more juice. But I am not hungry, just missing the act of eating! Its a good practice I think, its making me realize how normally I just eat whenever I feel bored, not that I am actually hungry. Like in the yoga class this morning I found myself day dreaming about what I was going to eat for breakfast, just because my brain didn't want to be in the meditative state it was supposed to be in, not because I was actually hungry.

We learned about fasting in the TTC, and one of the supposed benefits of it was that it frees up your mind from thoughts about food. I think it might be the opposite, when I dont eat I think about food more. But maybe my brain will relax by tomorrow and i will feel the benefits.

When I got to San Marcos I had been hearing about this chocolate shaman who conducts chocolate ceremonies with psychedelic chocolate or something and anyway apparently these chocolate ceremonies are one of the must-do things in this town. So I went to one that was held last Sunday in his home. So he makes us these drinks of the raw cacao and water, and we were invited to add hot sauce, raw cane sugar, and this blended liquid made from a type of verbena. After we doctored up our drinks, he told us a bit about how he came to be a chocolate shaman. He came across a native community nearby to Lago de Atitlan and they were growing cacao. He had a vision of the cacao spirit and she told him to try some of this cacao. He did, and he had some powerful experiences and he decided to invite other people to share in his cacao ceremonies. There was nothing really ceremonial about it, we drank the cacao, he told us the story, and then 45 minutes in he said we were supposed to be feeling it. I felt my heart racing and my head pounding because of the caffeine, but nothing too crazy. He said the cacao is not like a drug, it simply heightens your experience if you let it. Well, yeah, I suppose caffeine heightens your experience. So a discussion of various new-agey topics ensued, including topics such as past lives, energies, auras, and more. Then some women started crying and it turned into a group therapy session. And this lasted about 5 hours in total. A bit long for me, expecially after the caffeine rush went away I felt really tired. Apparently every ceremony is different, and it depends on the group, so yeah I would recommend doing this if you are ever in San Marcos. Who knows what the effect will be?

I am hoping the second day of the lucid dreaming workshop will be better than the first. Better in that I hope I do not fall asleep right away. But the lack of food is making me really lethargic, even though I slept a lot yesterday. What happened to the burst of energy these juice cleanses are supposed to bring?

Successful day!!

I just finished teaching my yoga class, it was a resounding success! I was nervous that either I would have no students or I would have too many students, but I had 6 and that was the perfect number. I know I messed up a lot of my verb conjugations, because I wanted to try to use the ustedes (3rd person plural) and the nosotros (first person plural) of the subjunctive and I definitely got confused. But I did a good job of remembering all the new verbs and the different parts of the body, and best of all I didnt forget the sequence of postures or the commands for the sun salutation!

I have been having a great time in Antigua over the past 2 weeks, I can't believe I have only one more day! I am really happy with my improvements in Spanish and generally I feel more confident and prepared for the rest of my travels! I have the next month pretty well planned. I am leaving Saturday to go back to Lago de Atitlan for a week-long yoga retreat. Then from there I am going to Semuc Champey, an area in the jungle with caves and rivers to go tubing on, and just to connect more with nature because I have to say Antigua is really dirty and smelly, even though its not that big. Also there is a drought going on so its not very green. Looking forward to some nature at the lake and then at Semuc Champey. From there I will make my way up the Rio Dulce to the Caribbean coast of Guatemala and from there out to Utila, one of the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras. I am going to take a scuba diving course, and then after that I have arranged a helpX placement at a permaculture site on the island! I am very excited!

I am also feeling really good today because I found out I was accepted to the University of Toronto! I have also been accepted by NYU, Guelph, and York, and I am still waiting on Mcgill and Ryerson. So funny, last year I only applied to U of T and was rejected, this year I get to do the rejecting! 

Week 2

I am midway through my second week of Spanish school, and I feel like I am really improving! I am having conversations with my teacher, Cesar, on a variety of different subjects, from politics to culture to religion! He is very devoted to his evangelical christian faith and I have been trying to explain the basic tenets of yogic philosphy to him. In spanish, of course, so it makes even less sense! I have even more respect for my classmates in the TTC who had a different first language other than English. The concepts are so much bigger than the words used to describe them, and the translation of just the words doesn't really capture the meaning of the concepts.

I am enjoying getting to know other students in my school, although of course we are speaking English with eachother, despite my best intentions in the first few days I was here! Each afternoon there is a different activity, so today a woman demonstrated how to make buñadas, which are like a round donut that is eaten only during this time of year, lent. Yesterday the activity was a hike up to a nice lookout point over the city, but it was quite foggy. Last week, as I said, I got married one afternoon. Another afternoon I went to a macadamia farm, and another afternoon I had a tour of the city. 

Tomorrow afternoon, I am offering an activity! This week with my teacher I have been learning the imperative verb tense, which is the verb tense you use when giving instructions. So I had the bright idea that I should learn how to teach yoga in spanish and offer a free class to other students as practice! I sort of regret it now, because it sounds like a lot of people are going to come.... So I am getting nervous. Time to get back to rehearsing that. 

Busy Weekend!

I have been seeing some of the sights around Antigua. Friday I went with Juan Carlos on a hike up an active volcano, called Pacaya. It just errupted 2 weeks ago, so we were able to hike over the field of volcanic ash that was still warm, and roast marshmallows on a particularly hot spot! We were there in the evening so we got to watch the sun set and the lights of Guatemala City come on. It is pretty much cloudy all of the time here, so the sunset wasn't much, but it was still nice. You can see my pictures in the link on the right sidebar. Then I bid farewell to Juan Carlos, who is headed home and then back to the ashram. It was amazing to travel with him through Mexico but now its time to do my own thing! I am in Antigua one more week, after which I will be completely fluent in Spanish (not) and ready to continue my journey!

Early Saturday morning I got up to get a tourist shuttle to Lago de Atitlan. Rodana, who is a student at my school staying in the same home, came with me. We had been talking about taking the public "chicken" bus to get there, but in the end decided on the more boring but also more comfortable and safe tourist shuttles. There are inexpensive tourist shuttle vans to pretty much anywhere you could possibly want to go. The van to the lake was $10. We arrived in the town of Panajachel, the biggest town on the lake, and wandered down the Main Street which is the usual assortment of restaurants and handicraft shops. I don't understand how all the vendors make money selling the exact same things, but I suppose they don't need much to survive here. At the bottom of the Main Street is the dock where you can take "lanchas", little speed boats, to the other towns around the lake. We made our way to San Marcos La Laguna, known for being full of hippies, yogis, and other alternative types. Its a small town, but the vibe is evident right away. Every other shop is offering a different sort of alternative therapy and at least 1/4 of the foreigners have dreadlocks.

This morning we woke up early again to get the boat back to Panajachel and on to another shuttle. This one took us to Chichicastenango, the famous handicrafts market. It was dfinitely an experience. Both Rodana and I had the idea of just to bring a minimal amount of cash for the weekend so we wouldnt be tempted to spend anything at the market, but I must admit there were a few things I wished I could have bought...

When we got back to town we remembered that there would be a parade happening. Every sunday in the month leading up to Easter and the Holy Week there is a procession to one of the many churches in the city. It wasn't much of a parade, but I hear the celebrations and parades during Holy Week itself are unreal. Thousands of people come to town for it. I am kind of happy I won't be here. 

i'm a married woman!

Today the school had an optional field trip to a Mayan weaving cooperative in a nearby village of San Antonio so I decided to go. We learned about their weaving techniques and how they teach their 8 year old daughters how to weave and by the time they are 4 they are weaving super complex patterns. Then they said they needed a couple of volunteers, two men and two women, so I stood up. Then I learned that I would be getting married! And i didn't even know my fiancees name (I still forget)!  They dressed us up in the ceremonial clothing, and we danced for 12 hours... just kidding only like 1 minute but apparently in the real deal they dance and party for 12 hours straight. and its pretty boring dancing if you ask me. I would probably fall asleep. Anyway then I had to make an offering of a weaving to my mother-in-law and we exchanged other gifts. Apparently there is a whole year between the engagement and the wedding because the bride has to weave all these things for her husband's family. 

Then I had a baby! They strapped a doll onto my back and i had the experience of trying to balance that plus a ceramic jug on my head. It was impossible. I think the point was to make us understand how much work it is to be a mother in this tradition. It is a lot of work. And back in the day they used to have lots and lots of babies. Apparently they still have lots because I met these ob-gyn surgeons who are here to work on prolapsed uteruses (uteri?) in women who have had a lot of babies. Anyway I am very grateful that my life is very different.

Antigua, day 2 of spanish class

After an uneventful 12 hour bus ride, I am in Antigua, Guatemala! The spanish school arranged a homestay for me, and the family is quite lovely. I have a nice big room and there is another student from the school living there. She is American, from Oregon, but I agreed that we should speak Spanish with eachother because that is the reason that we are here! My only complaints about the house are that the shower water is heated with an electric heater so the tap shocks me if I touch it a certain way. Also the food is less than inspired, although i am paying $65 a week for the room and food so i cant complain too much. There are lots of restaurants and a big market where I can buy some other food if I need to.

I am taking private spanish lessons 5 hours a day with my teacher Cesar. He is an older man, and hes really funny. I have learned a lot about his life in the first 2 days. He was happy to find out that I understand Spanish really well, so we have been talking about different topics. Also working on grammar of course, I completely forget a few verb tenses. But I think I am already getting better. Or at least I am more comfortable speaking and my sentences flow out of me much better. The school has a lovely garden where classes take place. I would guess there are 30 or 40 students, each with their own personal teacher. I have met only a few people so far. This afternoon I am going to a macadamia farm with other students from the school.

Just kidding, still in San Cristobal

Woke up nice and early to pack up and wait for the shuttle service that would take us to Guatemala. Just after the driver picked up the last person he got a phone call informing him that there are two road blockades on the interamerican highway in Guatemala. So he turned around and brought us back to our hostel. Luckily it seems like they still have space for us for one more night. Tomorrow we try again! This is travel in Central America I suppose. The traveling has been really easy so far, on modern comfortable Mexican buses and shuttle vans, with the exception of the car sickness. But apparently the transportation outside of Mexico is a lot worse. I was prepared for that, but I didn't think we would be prevented from travel by a blockade! At least we found out before we had left the city. So, one more day in San Crstobal! Its not a bad thing at all. Not sure what we will do today, maybe go to the coffee and chocolate museums. I kind of want to go back to sleep though. 

San Cristobal de las Casas

I have been taking it easy in San Cristobal de las Casas for the past few days. Tomorrow at 6 am we get picked up by a van that will take us to the Guatemala border where we will get another van to Panajachel, on the shores of lake Atitlan. I am not looking forward to the journey. The van trip through the mountains around Palenque was enough to make me really, really car sick. My mom prepared me a great first aid kit with lots of medicines, luckily I have not needed it except for some tylenol once or twice. One drug that I have realized is going to be essential and that I did not have is dramamine for motion sickness. Riding in vans and buses up and down hills  So I bought some here.

San Cristobal is truly a magical place. It was built by the Spanish in the early 1500s and because it has become such a tourist destination the buildings are beautifully maintained. Tourism is the main industry today, but I suppose when it was founded it was the city from which the Spaniards ruled over the local people and extracted the natural resources from the ground. Juan Carlos says that Chiapas is the richest state in Mexico in terms of natural resources, but it has the poorest people. There are a lot of mayan people selling crafts in the market or on the street. Its hard to imagine they make too much money at it when there are at least 50 other market vendors selling the exact same things to the exact same tourists.

San Cristobal has great coffee and chocolate, both of which are grown in this region. We were happy to know that Starbucks does not have an outlet here. Actually there are very few American chains. I saw one Subway and one McDonalds and one Dominos Pizza. We have been eating really well, for really cheap. I was feeling the absense of vegetables though, so one night I made a stir fry of lots of things. One of the best places we found is a shop called Lacteo Maya. They make all these dairy products, and dairy products are my favorite. The yogurt is also excellent. 

We didn't do any trips out of the city except a short ride to San Juan Chamula which is famous for being a Catholic Church where the local people practice a hybrid of christianity and traditional practices. So there are statues of saints all around, but then the floor is covered in pine needles and people are lighting candles and praying in their native language. San Cristobal is a great town to walk around, lots to see. There are two churches on hilltops on either side of the city, so we walked from one to the other and went up to see the views. Each neighbourhood has its own church, and I also learned that each neigbourhood is known for a particular product or occupation. I went to one free museum on the history of the city. It was small, but I learned a bit about the neighbourhoods and the development of it. Also things like bicycles used to be a very popular mode of transportation. This is hard to believe because of how steep the hills are, but bicycles certainly would make more sense on the narrow colonial streets. I am curious to know more about this city. The region has an interesting history with the Zapatista revolutionaries but I didn't get to learn about this.

Holbox to Merida to Palenque

A couple days of whirlwind travel, but now I am settled in for a bit in the charming colonial city of San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, southwest Mexico.

Let me see, I last wrote from Isla Holbox. We sadly had to move on from there on Saturday. We were thinking we could just stay one more night, but every hostel/hotel on the island was fully booked! I guess because of carnaval and also because it was Saturday. We left on the ferry and transferred to the first of 3 buses on our way to Merida. We arrived in Merida at 10 pm, to a fantastic hostel right on the main plaza. The architecture is old colonial spanish, and Merida is a much larger city than I had been in thus far. The hostel was called hostal el zocalo, and it was in one of the old buildings. I really loved this hostel, I think we were spoiled by it. It was like $8 a night for a really comfortable bed, a good shower, and the most amazing breakfast. Usually hostel breakfasts involve bread and coffee, maybe a juice or piece of fruit. Not this one. They had a massive buffet of every kind of fruit, then cereal, bread, yogurt, coffee... and they made us omletes!!! We probably ate $8 worth of food. 

There was another carnaval happening in Merida, and we considered going. It happened on a fairgrounds outside the city, and they had free buses from the centre. We went to the bus stop and saw hundreds of people waiting there. So we decided against it. Apparently the fairgrounds capacity was 50,000! The city was crowded enough for me. But because of the carnaval parts of the city were completely empty, so we had a lovely walk down an avenue lined with massive colonial mansions, and through the colonial centre. 

The next day we took the bus to the ruins of Uxmal, about an hour and a half away. These ruins are about 1500 years old, as opposed to the 3000 year old ruins at Coba, so a lot of the carvings were still visible, and the structures were less crumbling. It was very impressive, because the pyramids and other  buildings were close to one another, so you could climb to the top of one pyramid and see the whole site. We spent the afternoon relaxing in the courtyard of a cafe, and then we prepared for our night bus to Palenque.

Palenque is another ruin site, but it is in the middle of the jungle. We arrived at 4 am to our cabana site near the Palenque park, and we couldn't find anybody so we prepared to sit on a hard bench outside reception for 3 or 4 hours. Then we heard snoring, but we couldnt figure out from where. We looked into the dark reception office and saw someone sleeping on the floor! We woke him up and he got us to our cabana where we slept for 3 hours. Well I probably slept one hour. The birds and howler monkeys started to make a racket around 5. We had breakfast in "El Pachan" which is the collective name for the assortment of hostels and cabanas near the park. There was a tour office there advertising tours to some waterfalls so we went to ask about it. They told us they could take us to some waterfalls and then on to San Cristobal, our next destination. So we decided to do this. The tour left at 12 which gave us 2 1/2 hours to tour the ruins of Palenque, which were the reason we were there. These ruins were even more impressive and picturesque because of the location in the jungle. When you climb the pyramid you can see a great distance because the city was built just at the edge of the mountains. 

From Palenque we visited two waterfalls, one called Agua Azul had very blue water. Hence the name. I am not sure why it is blue, but I intend to look it up. The tour bus met up with a large coach bus and a number of us switched over to get to San Cristobal. The bus ride was supposed to be 5 hours, but in the end it was about 7. The roads are very narrow and very steep, and a trailer had overturned on one curve of the road. So we sat there for almost two hours. We arrived in San Cristobal at 2 am, and rolled into our hostel and fell asleep. Thankfully, no more buses for a few days.

Isla Holbox

This is my new favorite beach place. Well i will probably say that a lot this trip, so it is my favorite thus far. Its a teeny tiny island 3 hours north of Cancun, right off the tip of the Yucatan penninsula. It has about 1000 inhabitants and the tourist industry is not heavily developed so while there is a large presence of tourists they only have small hotels and hostels. Hilton hasn't made it here yet. Although apparently there are plans in the works by some Mexican millionaire to build a huge resort on the island and turn it into another Playa del Carmen. I hated Playa del Carmen. Tulum also is developing really quickly, and as much as I loved Tulum, it doesn't have the magic of this little island.

We are staying in a little cabana hostel/campground establishment. Its incredibly cheap, only 110 pesos a night for the dorm room. And its really beautiful and clean with a nice garden and hammocks and space to do yoga. Last night we went out for dinner at an italian restaurant, and there was a table of really drunk people who were singing along to a guitar player, very loudly and not very well. But it didn't bother me, it was just funny. Juan Carlos joined in with them and then the whole restaurant sang a mexican soccer song together. It was great. Juan Carlos learned that these people are from the same city that he is from! So that was a funny coincidence. We saw them again today, and one of the people who had not been at the restaurant was Juan Carlos's neigbour from home!! Small, small world.

When we arrived we had to take a ferry across the bay from the town of Chiquila, but the boat was full before we managed to get tickets so we climbed in a "lancha", a small boat, with 5 other men. Juan Carlos was talking to them and I was understanding bits and pieces, but they said the were musicians and they come here to perform at a bar called 'Mescalito'. They offered some advice on places to stay and eat on the island, and then we said we would see them later at their show. They played amazing cuban/carribean music, a 6 piece band. The guys we met played the trumpet and trombone.

This morning we went for breakfast and I had these amazing mexican eggs, 'huevos motulenos'. It was like a layer cake with tortilla, beans, egg, cheese and ham. Mmmm. We walked around one end of the island to a protected area where some kind of bird lays its eggs. The beach was deserted, it was only us. Very peaceful and quiet. When we felt like re-joining civilization we walked back to the main beach and passed a lot for sale that had a run down house and an open platform which we decided would be perfect for Juan Carlos to use as a beachfront yoga studio. 

There is a carnival in town tonight, so that should be fun! I guess its that time of the year, all the places I visit are having the pre-lent carnivals.

Leaving Tulum...

Getting ready to go to Playa del Carmen to meet Juan Carlos. I like Tulum, but I am ready to continue my adventures! 

The last two days have been low-key, mostly hanging out around the hostel talking to fellow travelers and getting their advice on other places to go! The hostel I am in is nothing special, but its clean and the people are friendly. I have slept and showered and organized my things. Now my backpack is back in its cage and ready to go!!

I am not sure how to edit my google map from my ipad... It seems there is no editor fuction in the google maps app. Anyway Juan Carlos and I will make our plans together so I am not sure where I will be. All I know is I need to be in Antigua, Guatemala by March 10. Either we will go through Mexico via Campeche, Palenque, and San Cristobal, or we will go south through Belize via Caye Caulker, San Ignacio, and Flores. We will see.

I think my spanish is improving a little bit, its nice that the local people are patient and helpful when I try to communicate in spanish. Unlike French people who immediately discover that you are not a native French speaker and switch to English.

It is really hot. I am ready to head to the highlands in a few days and cool down.

Ruins, turtles, and carnaval!!

The past couple of days in Tulum have been eventful! On Friday (i think) we went to the ruins at Coba. Coba was a mayan city of 50,000 people at its peak. It also was the intersection of a number of mayan "highways" so clearly it was important. I can't believe the maya built roads out of sandstone, one goes from here to Chichen Itza, which is about 200 km away! The archaeological site is huge, apparently they have only uncovered 5% of the city. If you look into the woods and see trees growing out of odd, geometric looking mounds, those are more ruins. Coba has the only pyramid in Mexico that you can climb, so we wanted to do that for sure. It has 120 steps and is very steep. We walked around with a guide in order to actually learn something, as there aren't many plaques that explain what you are looking at.

On Saturday we did a snorkel trip to Akumal, where the sea turtles come really close to shore, and the reef is not far either. I think we probably saw 10 turtles, all different sizes. It was amazing. They just swam around, munching on sea grass, not appearing bothered by all the tourists floating over them. They reminded me of my dad's cows.

Yesterday we had our last day in Zazil Kin, the beach cabana spot. I have been waking up really early due to the sun and the birds, so I went to the beach and did yoga for a while. It was windy, so there were a couple of kite surfers out on the water. We packed up and moved me to a new hostel, because Chris left early this morning. I am really getting a good taste for budget accomodations in Tulum! I could practically write a guidebook! I am going to look at whether I can link from this blog to my trip advisor profile, so if you are interested you can see the places I have stayed. Tulum accomodations are fairly spread out, but we found it was all close enough if you have a bike. We got free bikes from the first hotel, then we rented bikes for 90 pesos ($7.50)/24 hrs one day after that. I would advise people coming here to choose a hostel keeping this in mind. The first hotel advertised dorms for 190 pesos ($16) and they had free bikes. Other hostels are 150 or 160 but the you have to rent a bike for another 90. Taxis from town to the beach are 70 pesos ($6) and the bike ride is probably about 3km from the town to the beach and ruins. In the afternoon we biked to a nearby cenote. A cenote is a sinkhole/cave in the limestone and its filled with beautiful fresh water so its lovely to swim in. There are a lot around Tulum, they were sacred to the Maya because they were considered access points to the underworld. Understandably. Last night there was a carnaval parade and dance show in the main square of the town. Dance groups of all ages dressed in sparkles and feather headdresses put on a great show. The best of it was the young dancers, they were the most enthusiastic and also uncoordinated. It was great fun. I guess the mexicans in this area have borrowed these traditions from their Caribbean neighbours.

Today I am resting, doing laundry, and catching up on my blog! Tomorrow I will have another low-key day in Tulum, maybe go to the beach one last time (though not the last for this trip!), and then Wednesday I am going to meet up with Juan Carlos, my new friend from the yoga ashram, in Playa del Carmen!

Tulum

It is my second full day in Tulum. Chris and I just moved lodgings from a nice-r hotel near town to a cabana on the beach. This is the real Tulum, I have been told. The hotel was great to get our bearings, I had been told that a lot of cabana establishments on the beach cannot be booked online, so we took the free bikes from our hotel and visited a couple of different ones yesterday.

 

Tulum is amazing, full of interesting things. Its a tourist town, so a lot of things seem overpriced (like all touristy beach places) but its still cheap by Canadian standards. Yesterday we visited the mayan ruins that are located on a cliff above the beach. These ruins were cool, but they were also overrun with tourists. We want to go to Coba, a larger ruin that is about half an hour away. I am hoping to go on a snorkel tour of the reef and also to visit some Cenotes (freshwater sinkholes) or the Sian Kaan biosphere reserve, but we havent booked anything yet. I am also ok with just hanging out, because I will have more opportunities to snorkel or see monkeys, but I wont be able to spend time with Chris.

Tulum is a really easy town, its basically just 10 straight blocks along the highway which turns into the main street. Lots of tourists, also lots of expats, so its easy to get by in English although people have also been tolerant of my slow, broken spanish. I think it was a good decision to start my tour of Central America here, because I am generally understood when I speak a mix of spanish and english, because there are a range of amenities for foreigners, and also because it is just a really chill place!! I am really happy to be here.

Time to go again!

My time at home has coming to an end. On to the next adventure!! I am so lucky to have the opportunity to do such exciting things this year. If I had been accepted into the one Master's program I had applied to, I would be doing that right now! Everything happens for a reason I suppose. Sure, if I had been smarter, I would have applied to more than one school. But maybe part of me knew that there were other things to do this year besides going to school!!

While I was in the ashram doing the Yoga Teacher Training Course, I felt like that was exactly where I needed to be. The skills I learned in my TTC will be so useful to me over the rest of my life, and they will be more immediately put to use in my journeys through Central America. My "yoga of travel" includes:

1) Non-attachment to possessions : I packed a few days ago, but I am thinking of unpacking and eliminating 1/4 of what I have and then re-packing because I know I will be grateful to myself for packing a light backpack! But I have to also be prepared to lose things along the way. Of course I will take every precaution that this does not happen, and I shouldn't be overly preoccupied with this, but I need not hold on to everything with an iron grip. I only have two hands so thats a little tough anyway.

2) Non-attachment to plans : Not everything is going to go the way I plan. Its still worth making plans, but I have to be ok with them not always working out. It will be good for me to practice going with the flow, and to adapt, adjust, accomodate.

3) Maintain a practice : When you are traveling, every day is different. I think it will help me to stay grounded if I have some practices that are consistent every day, no matter where I am. Not that I will be able to do an hour and a half of yoga practice every day, but I can try for at least a couple rounds of sun salutations and 15 min of meditation.

4) Live in the present : Traveling is the best time to practice being present, because everything you do is new and different from what you did the day before. Especially backpacking and touring around, travel teaches you that it is about the journey, not the destination.

5) Practice loving kindness : When you travel you are always meeting new people, so its a great opportunity for me to practice seeing and honouring the divine in each person. I hope to volunteer as I travel around, but one thing I am cautious of is "volunteer" opportunities that really just take the foreign volunteer's money and gives them a warm fuzzy feeling in return for not doing much at all. So I will look around for better opportunities. I am aware the "eco-tourism" in Central America is sometimes not as environmentally-friendly as it sounds, so loving kindness also applies to the activities I undertake in my travels, loving and respecting the land and the people who make their living off of it.

I have collected a range of tips from friends who have traveled through this area, but I am always looking for more suggestions so if you have any, let me know! Also, if any of my TTC classmates have other reflections on yogic travel, please share!!

So what is yoga anyway?

I am reviewing the notes that I kept over the past month and I have a number of lines that start with "yoga is..." 

Yoga is mystical hinduism

Yoga is union with the divine

Yoga is the distinction between the real and unreal, the unchanging and the changing

Yoga is divine evolution

Yoga is the goal and the process

Yoga is knowledge (realization) of the truth

Yoga is serve, love, give, purify, meditate, realize

The 'highest yoga' is to bear insult and bear injury

Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodha : yoga is controlling the thought waves with the mind stuff

Yoga IS NOT just a form of physical exercise : Asana is one step along the path of raja yoga, the path of meditation. Control of the body and breath --> control of the mind --> samadhi (superconsiousness)

((I never made it to the end of my notebook, but if you have any other definitions of what yoga is, please help me with my collection!!

Take home messages

I was so lucky to have 4 days after the course. I got to relax on the beach, go to a couple of interesting workshops of my own choosing, visit Atlantis and Nassau, and practice my spanish in preparation for the next adventure!

I also got to have some nice reflective conversations with other friends from the Teacher Training Course who were still around. I felt like all the knowledge of the course was starting to slip away, so I wrote down my "take home messages" from the month. Not everything we learned is directly relevant to my life right now, although it is all valuable material to have tucked away in a back corner of my brain. My main goal for this TTC was not to become a yoga teacher but to learn some skills that would prepare me to face the inevitable challenges that life brings, and I think I achieved that. I also wanted to be able to meditate FOR REALZZZ but I still don't quite know that would mean. One teacher told me that when he is "meditating"for 30 minutes he is only actually in a meditative state for the last 5 minutes. The rest of the time he is just trying to calm the mind and concentrate. That made me feel better. These points were the ones that resonated with me the most. Some of them are not exactly as we were taught, but I have adapted them. Many thanks to my classmates who contributed to this list.

1. Don't be a slave to your mind (EGO) - practice self discipline

The ego seeks pleasure and avoids pain. It will always look for the easy road, or the most comfortable one, which is probably not the best one for me in the long run. In the TTC we had a lot of imposed discipline but the challenge comes now that we leave the structure of the ashram. I'm not doing so great with it so far, as I sit here drinking my iced coffee in the airport.... Not that I planned on giving up coffee after the ashram, but its crazy how quickly I slipped back into an old habit. I will have to be more mindful of this. I need to work on some strategies to maintain some of the good habits I developed here, and to not let the bad ones come back. The ego doesn't like to be told what to do, and it never sees its own defects. Discipline helps us to observe the ego rather than to identify with it and appease it.

2. Cultivate balance

The keyword in the ashram is sattva. Sattva is one of the 3 gunas or, the qualities of creation. Sattva is purity, peace, tranquility. The other two qualities are rajas and tamas. Realistically I know that many things I enjoy are rajasic or tamasic. But I can definitely say there are times when I have had too much of either. So I think going forward I will continue to enjoy running and dancing (rajas), as well as eating junk food and watching tv (tamas). But I will try to balance them out, and make a concerted effort to bring in more sattva. Nothing in the world is perfectly sattvic, so my keywords are balance and harmony.

3. Don't be attached

I am so attached to things, people, my expectations, my principles. Our ego defines itself through raga dvesha, attraction and repulsion. But these are the cause of suffering. If I don't get (too) attached, I won't suffer (as much).

Another aspect of attachment is attachment to the fruits of actions. This is one of the main theses of the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita tells the story of the warrior Arjuna and his charioteer, Lord Krishna. The Gita explains the 4 paths of yoga: karma, bhakti, raja, and jnana. Arjuna is conflicted because he has to fight this war against his cousins, and he doesn't want to kill them he just wants to run away to the forest and become a sadhu (monk). Krishna tells him that the essence of karma yoga is action without attachment to the fruits of action. This is so contrary to the way our modern capitalist world works. It is strange to think of doing something when you don't stand to benefit from it in some way. Arjuna must fight because it is his duty as warrior, because he is fighting for righteousness. I wish I could say that I know my duty after this month, but I don't. Swami Ridiananda (I still don't know how to spell her name) told me to be open to opportunities to help people, and to always act out of love. 

4. Examine your intentions. Be an observer, but don't judge.

Everything starts with an intention, but I dont often think about what my intentions are. Why did I just buy this coffee? Did I really want it?? I'm not sure. There was a chant that we sang a few times. Swami Sivananda wrote it. One stanza of it goes like this:

I am not this body

I am not this mind

I am not these emotions

These emotions are not mine

Observe yourself and your actions. Observe your interactions with other people. Mindfulness is being able to pinpoint exactly what is going on in each moment. This is really hard. I am going to have to read a little more about mindfulness to be able to practice this. We had a few evening satsang speakers talk about mindfulness, and it is an incredibly powerful practice. 

The judgement part is also hard. If you know me, you will know that I am very judgemental. Of myself and of others. I guess this judgement is ego again. 

5. 95% of our thoughts are about the past or the future. We don't really live in the present.

This was a major AHA moment for me at the beginning of the course. Of course, it makes sense that we mostly think about the past or future because the present is so fleeting and often seems boring or unimportant. But we can do nothing about the past or the future, so why do we waste energy regretting things that have happened in the past and being anxious about things that are yet to occur? 

6. Love selflessly

I am still figuring this one out. We had a lecture about bramacarya one morning. Bramacarya is celibacy. Spiritual aspirants are told to maintain celibacy because sexual energy and spiritual energy come from the same place, and you don't want to deplete your spiritual energy through sex. Ok, fine, but what about romantic love? The lecturer said that romantic love is objectificiation, and we should work on loving the divine in all people. But he has been married twice so I don't really get it. I understand the principle of loving without attachment, but in practice I don't see how this works. A related lesson was to always act out of love. This sort of got burried for me, but my classmate reminded me of it yesterday. Loving is to share and to serve.

7. Consider every experience a learning experience

We learned so much in this month, but I think that was inevitable, given our purpose for being in the ashram. But the swadyaya or self-study must continue. If we are being a non-judgemental observer of our lives we can learn from each experience. This is the point of karma. We may experience the same lesson again and again, and each time it gets harder, until we finally learn it. So its important not only to observe but to learn. Its also important to do things you are afraid of, as this is where we learn the most. 

8. There are no accidents

I thought about my accident a lot this month. Especially in terms of karma. Its some pretty intense karma to have nearly died or wound up paralyzed, and then to recover completely. This lesson goes with #7, there are no accidents, therefore we must learn from our experiences. A good lesson from the accident itself was to slow down, and stop rushing through my life like it is a race from the top of the hill to the bottom. The lesson from the recovery was in realizing the power of single-minded determination and positive thinking. I can do anything if I set my mind, body, and spirit on it.

9. We are all one

I figured I had to include this one, although this was not new. The thesis of Advaita Vedanta, which includes many the scriptures upon which yoga is based, is "Brahman (the divine) is real. The universe is unreal. The individual soul is divine." There is no duality, we are all one, and that oneness is divine. A wave is not separate from the ocean. I don't know how to believe this in practice, but I think it all comes down to love. Love of self and other. Swami Sivananda bowed to everyone, and every creature, because he recognized the divine in them.

10. Change is the only constant 

Everything changes, this is the only thing we can count on for sure in this world.

Om Shanti!

Best and Worst of TTC

A quick summary of my most favorite and least favorite things:

BEST

- evening satsang guest lectures and musical performances
- chanting

- chocolate

- philosophy lectures

- practicing advanced asanas

- homemade yogurt and granola

- early morning walking meditation

- anything on the beach
- thai yoga massages

- mantra initiation

- advanced pranayana

- karma yoga

- getting to know people from around the world

WORST

- lack of sleep (this was supplemented with naps)

- morning lectures (hard to pay attention due to the above)

- emotionally eating bread (bread is the junk food of the ashram. most of us did this)

- kriyas (while they were interesting, my overall experience was unpleasant)

- sitting 8 hours a day

- running from one class to another

- sand in my tent

- internet not working

- karma yoga (at first it was bad, but by the end it was one of the best things)

- not getting to know a lot of people

As you can see, it was the little things that would make it or break it. The good outweighed the bad, in the end.

Advice to new students

The February Teacher Training students arrived yesterday, they have their orientation and initiation today. I have been remembering what it was like when I arrived and thinking of the advice that I wish someone had shared with me before my TTC. Not wanting to scare them, but trying to help them prepare themselves, I have been offering the following tips:

1. Surrender

This was key advice that someone told me when I arrived, and I would pass it on to anyone beginning the training. Even though it sounds intimidating and foreboding. Surrender to what? But it really is a good word. You have to submit to the process and the teachings. The more you resist, the more difficult it is. 'Surrender' also applies to the asanas. Paschimothanasa is the pose of ultimate surrender, the seated forward fold. But Surrender does not mean to give up. Surrendering to the process or to the asana means to relax into it, to go with the flow. It was most challenging to relax into the structure and discipline of the course. To having no control over my day. In a way we also had to surrender to the teachings, and just absorb them rather than analyzing them and critiquing them right away. Sit and relax with them, and they will start to make sense.

2. Prepare to sit a lot, and take steps to make it easier on yourself

If you have read the earliest posts from my time here, you will know that this was the hardest thing for me. Discipline was hard, but it was familiar to me from my time as a competitive figure skater. Sitting 8 hours a day was new. We probably sat on the floor more in this month than we did in all of kindergarten, or ever since. Some things that made it better:

- going early to satsang to make sure I got supportive cushion to sit on

- doing my own hip opening stretches in my "free time"

- getting a massage on my day off
- running to lubricate the joints

And when I was sitting, the key was to move as little as possible. To a certain extent, physical discomfort is in the mind. Your mind is bored of sitting and trying to concentrate, so it looks for easy distractions. The more you give in to your mind and give it attention, the more you move. The more you move, the less focused you are, and you want to move more. Eventually you just want to move the whole time and you get completely focused on the discomfort and you have failed at calming the mind. Agitation begets more agitation.

3. Don't expect to become a wicked strong and flexible yogi

Actually for that matter, don't expect anything. Of course, everyone comes with expectations. For many of us it was "Yay! A month of relaxing on the beach and stretching to become super fit, strong, and tan". One of the first philosophy lectures was on the topic of the barriers a spiritual aspirant must face, and one of them was the barrier of preconceived notions. But about the physical practice. This was a very small part of the course. Because, as we learned, asana is a very small part of yoga. It is just one step in the 8 limbs of Raja yoga. I was pretty disappointed with this lack of exercise, in fact it is likely that I have gotten physically weaker being here rather than stronger. But stronger in the mind I'm sure.

4. Take time for yourself

This was key for me, but maybe not for everyone. I found it challenging to be constantly surrounded by people so I tried to go do my own thing at least once a day. I was lucky, because of my karma yoga I had all 3 breaks in the day. So I would go running, take a nap, sit in my tent and eat chocolate...whatever I really felt that I needed on that day. The course is really challenging, and I needed to get a real break. Sometimes after dinner I would go to the beach in the dark and, with my ipod blasting a dance music playlist from summer 2011, I would run and dance and jump around with complete abandon. I felt very joyful and free and alone. But don't tell anyone ok?

5. Logistical advice

There are a few little things that make ashram life and the TTC easier.

 - Don't go to Starbucks, at least until the end of the course. Even if you are not having caffeine you will become obsessed with going there, and its even more expensive in the Bahamas than in Canada. Some people were going every day by the end of the course. I didn't go until the study day before the exam, but since then I have had to resist the urge to go back.

- Don't wait for the day off to do laundry, and don't bother with the dryer. The laundry room was packed on the day off, and some people spent their whole day there. Better to find time another day, even though you can't wash both uniforms because you will need one to wear that day. Also the dryers don't work very well so its better to just hang your clothes. I used the dryer once when it was raining a lot.

- If you are late to breakfast and there is a huge line, just try to politely grab a bowl and spoon and go to the other part of the buffet where the bread, oatmeal, cereal, and YOGURT is. Eat the yogurt and granola, its delicious. 

- If you plan on keeping a journal, you might have difficulty finding time for it. Bring your notebook to satsang, then if the speaker does not interest you, you can just pretend to be madly writing notes but actually writing your journal instead.

- Don't waste time trying to use the internet after meals. Everyone tries to get on at this time, and the connection is either deteriorated or completely out. You don't have time for this.

So there you have it! My advice for incoming or prospective Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training students.