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.