Certified Rogue

Monday, December 30, 2013

Adventure Plans for 2014

If you are on this blog, you probably have some idea of who I am and what I am doing over the next 5-6 months. First, I am going to the Sivananda yoga ashram in Nassau, Bahamas. I will be there until February 5, when I will return home to Canada all blissed-out (and tan).

Two short weeks later (Feb 18), I will be flying out again to Mexico. From there I will begin my journey south through Central America. I have been busy reading guidebooks and establishing a route. You can see it if you click the link on the right 'Central America Travels Map' or get to it here.

I have figured out how to get an icloud photostream album set up. This way, any pictures that I take will automatically be uploaded when I am connected to wifi. You can get to this album by the link on the right 'Kelly's rogue adventures photostream' or here is the link. Hopefully the wifi connections will be strong enough for this to work... Right now it has some beautiful pictures of my sister that I just discovered on my ipad. Don't worry Kendra, I will take these down. Soon.

I will also be updating the section in the footer of this blog titled "Stay Tuned For" with my future plans as they are established. Right now, my general plans for my Central America backpacking trip are as follows:

Feb 18: Fly to Cancun
End of February: Mexico (Tulum)
Early March: Belize, for Caribbean cayes ('keys'), and the western jungles and caves
March: Antigua, Guatemala for spanish classes
Early April: Honduras - Bay Islands for scuba diving
April: Pacific coast of Nicaragua for surfing & volunteering
May: Costa rica, for everything there is to do in Costa Rica
June: Panama, flight home in early June from Panama City

For my friends and family reading this blog, if you would like to join me on any portion of my trip, please let me know! I am kind of nervous about traveling alone, so it would be great to have someone to share these awesome experiences with!!!

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Preparing to fly away

Crow, eagle, pigeon, crane, heron, peacock... I think the ancient yogis had a thing for birds.

I'm not sure how many birds I will see in the Bahamas, where I am going for the month of January to do a Yoga Teacher Training Course at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat!! Sounds nice right?

I have been practicing yoga on and off for several years, and consistently for the past year. I picked it up a year ago to improve my strength and balance, as I was still noticing some unsteadiness related to my brain injury from skiing in Dec 2011. I have greatly improved my strength and balance since then, and I have noticed some other great benefits from doing yoga including less anxiety, deeper sleep, better focus, and peace of mind.

Now, it may seem like I am just going to stretch on the beach for a month, but yoga is so much more than the physical asana practice. Of course, I do hope to be able to stand on my head for 10 minutes and bend my body into various contortions, but I am also going to be meditating, chanting, attending lectures with various invited speakers, and doing karma yoga or selfless service. I will learn about the anatomy of various postures, and a bit about ayurveda, or traditional indian medicine. Its going to be busy! Here is an idea of the daily routine I will be following:

05:30 am Wake up Bell
06:00 am Meditation, chanting & lecture or Silent Walk
08:00 am Asana & Pranayama Class (your own practice)
10:00 am Brunch
11:00 am Karma Yoga
12:00 pm Bhagavad Gita/Chanting Class
02:00 pm Main Lecture
04:00 pm Asana & Pranayama (teaching)
06:00 pm Dinner
08:00 pm Satsang

Yogis believe in reincarnation, or samsara (look I know sanskrit already!). So welcome to reincarnation of my travelogue, Certified Rogue, where i will share my experiences doing my own thing, deviating from the norm, and not being like Sarah Palin.

If you are curious and want to be jealous, check out the ashram's website:

http://www.sivanandabahamas.org/page.php?page_id=22

Here is the curriculum I will be following:

http://www.sivanandabahamas.org/files/Curriculum3.pdf

If you are new to this blog, the other posts you see are from my Eurotrip/WWOOFing adventures in Europe with my friend Sarah the summer after we graduated from McGill.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

A wwoofer's paradise

... Or anyone's paradise, really. We have been on the 'farm' in Mallorca now for 4 days, and i still pinch myself every 20 minutes or so to make sure I'm not dreaming. Its the most beautiful place I've ever been, and to be wwoofing here is really kind of ridiculous. Its not a farm but an 8 million euro 'finca' (which technically just means country house) surrounded by 250 acres of mountain and thousands of ancient olive trees, 300 sheep and a bunch of wild goats. Part of the house we are staying in was built by the moors over 700 years ago.

The view

In our courtyard with the farmer's dog. Our apartment is the door up the stairs to the right

We work 5 days a week, for 5 or 6 hours. Its different than other places, because we aren't growing anything for sale. The garden is mainly for the owners or people who rent the property, but there aren't any renters here right now. The farmer, Tolo, is this really bad ass mallorquin who hunts wild goats with a lasso and goes spear fishing, holding his breath for 3 minutes and diving down to spear some fish. Hes also a really funny dude but he gives us pretty lame work. Probably because we would be useless at doing the real work. With all the animals scattered over the 250 acres his dogs are much more useful than us. We spent one day cutting pieces of this strange grass that grows by runners, and then we spent the next day planting all the pieces in another spot. We also weed the garden and pick whatever is still growing there, and the other wwoofer who has been here all summer whipped up some really delicious gaspatcho.

The vegetable garden

The afternoons are much more grueling than the mornings. We have lunch, then lounge by the pool, read, swim, sleep, lounge some more. Intense varsity lounger training. Then we have weekends off, for hiking, going to the beach, going to the market, whatever.

Our afternoons

I really cant believe that we're here, so far from where we started 2 1/2 months ago in Ireland! So much heat and sun. I love it.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Mallorca, Germany

Well, we have come along way from organic farming in Ireland. Pretty much the opposite, at the beach in Palma de Mallorca, which is basically the Spanish Jersey Shore, filled with german and dutch juiceheads. But dont worry, this was just a quick stop and we are off soon for Pedruxella, a remote estate in the mountains where we will be back to farming again, one last time.

In the meantime we have been in Berlin, Brussels, London, Cheshire, London again, and Barcelona! Barcelona is the best city ever. Cool architecture and unique urban planning, great museums, crazy nights. And its legit to nap in the afternoon, and a gorgeous beach is only a short walk away.

Anyway, running out of internet time, but we will be home in 2 weeks so see you soon!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

photo evidence

I had a few minutes to upload some photos, so even though they are not in order, heres some proof of what we've been up to... I dont have any pictures from the farm in holland, they are on sarahs camera, so i will have to add them later.