Central America Adventure

YOGA School by DJ

djnlacey — Sat, 8 Jan 2011 04:45:00 GMT

It's amazing, when you plan something out for almost a year, but yet you still have no idea what to expect. I really had no idea what to expect from School Yoga Institute, in fact, I never even took a look at their website before I showed up at Aqua Resort at Redonda Bay, Nicaragua. Luckily, I had a year of preparation before I showed up, and I needed it. Yoga school was more than just a physical exercise and method of teaching. Yoga school was a spiritual experience, a constant questioning of your true self and the world around you. One of the hardest things to do is to really look inwards, to drop your cultural belief, your love of your living body, even drop your love for people, in order to ask yourself deep questions: Who am I? Where do we come from before we are born? After we live? Who are we before we are given a name? Can nature talk?

So many internal emotions came up for everyone at yoga school. Most people weren't expecting to break down and cry or make so many friends, face their deepest fears, and let go of the burdens that they carried. But everyone did laugh, cry, get upset, frustrated, and even throw their burdens into the fire (literally we threw stuff in the fire representing things we needed to let go of.) We learned about spirituality from many fronts, even shamanic spirituality which is something I have always respected and wanted to learn, also one of the many great surprises that School Yoga had in store for me. Below I am going to put some quotes from my journal at yoga school. Three weeks may not seem like a long time, but 24 hours a day of self reflection can seem like a lifetime of learning. I will quickly thank the facilitators and the participants in making this experience one of the most remembered life experiences I expect to have. NAMASTE!

"And yet to be able to distance myself from all of it, with months on the road and end up on the gently sloped hill that gives itself away to a virgin beach, surrounded bu people who are open to experience things as they come in their interpretations."

"I'll never understand the selfish, greedy people of the world, so concerned with self entitlement, that they don't realize we are all related to one another."

"isolated island meditation, I had to open my eyes to make sure I wasn't alone."

"cultivate the stillness."

"total lack of concentration, total lack of lack of thinking...a great flow snapped me back into the mode."

"took a big siesta in a hammock after lunch, zoned me out big time!"

"immediately you could tell satsung was set up differently, candles lined the edges of the yoga shalah and music was tranquilly playing on the speaker, tribal music. A chakra dance..."

"...gathering everyone around the fire...we invoked the spirits of the directions...gave thanks to mother earth and father sky...we offered our talismans to the fire, destroying a memory or feeling, intention, ego, jealousy, death, we dumped our secrets into the fire."

"The journey not the destination - "if you don't know where you are headed any path will take you there." "

"...in the calmness, that forms a wave, that incredible silent energy that builds in a wave before it crashes, harnessing that silence gave me the feeling of preparing for a duck dive as the wave grows larger and larger before your eyes, the silence as you take a breath, and dive under the pounding energy of the ocean, the wave passes with a soft whoosh, as you glide silently back to the surface."

ORIGINAL POEM

"Sitting on a barnacle covered rock near the sea, watching the tide slowly pull away from me, Listening to the chirping of a sea bird, following it's movements, caught on every word

Sitting in deep contemplation on this long journey looking to let my thoughts flow freely As the energy of the ocean fills and surrounds dropping the cultural barriers that bound

The waves slowly fill in the empty spaces I see past lives, but recognize the faces The animals crawl, swim, and fly I let me thoughts slowly drift by and by

Seated on a barnacle covered rock near the sea All these things that are myself and me." THE END

"what a fun beautiful day filled with lightness."

"INEFFABLE, Gift show!"

"Maria had a kick ass gift. literally. YES! I didn't knwo she had that much energy. :)"

"Snow White and the 7 yoga instructors...there was Guru, Doc, Turiya, Prana, Bliss and Santosa, it was a riot had by all."

"got two amazing barrel rides, right off the gecko!" -while surfing

"Last day, taught vinyasa this morning, was really fun, liked being able to go through the flow, physically with my student, at my pace, ended savasana with the panchamama song, was perfect."

Photos: Yoga School

djnlacey — Fri, 7 Jan 2011 06:06:00 GMT

School Yoga Institute

Copan Ruinas, Honduras

djnlacey — Tue, 4 Jan 2011 13:15:00 GMT

After losing a day due to civil unrest in Guatemala we catch a 4 am bus and make it to Copan Ruinas, Honduras by noon. Having limited time here, we put our tiredness aside and go on a horseback ride up into the mountains. The ride is nice, the scenery is beautiful, and our sixty year-old guide is afoot chasing our famished horses with a stick. We ascend the mountain and come to a small indigenous Mayan village of maybe fifty inhabitants. We demount our horses and walk one km to the Mayan ruins of Los Sapos. Los Sapos means "the toads" and there are some very large stone carvings of toads at the site. Los Sapos is thought to be the birthing site for Mayan women. When the woman where ready to give birth they would be transported to this site to give birth on the rocks. Our guide decided to give us a demonstration of how the women gave birth. He also showed us three horizontal parallel lines carved on the rocks thought to be used to tell the time of day, if the sun hit the first line it meant the baby was born in the morning. Pretty intense to think that this was their baby hospital.

The next two days are full travel days making our way to the southern end of Nicaragua.

Photos: Copan Ruinas, Honduras

djnlacey — Tue, 4 Jan 2011 01:31:00 GMT

Horseback ride to Los Sapos

On our way to Honduras and Civil Unrest

djnlacey — Mon, 3 Jan 2011 13:04:00 GMT

We left San Marcos in a collectivo heading to Honduras. At midday we where suppose to switch vans in Antigua and then head across the border to Copan Ruinas, Honduras. An hour before we reached Antigua we came to a complete traffic jam on the highway. We thought it was just a car accident blocking traffic. People were lining the highway so we got out to investigate. The bus driver kept telling us it was because of "manifestos," we are sitting there thinking what in the world is a manifesto? Manifesto in spanish means protests. The roads were blocked because the veterans of the Guatemalan army were trying to make a point, they were due wages from almost a decade earlier and they were tired of waiting. After about an hour and a half the protesters started letting some cars through, which they did every few hours. When we finally got to Antigua, we were told that we couldn't make the last five hours of our trip to Honduras that day, the border was closed and we would have to wait untill 4 am the next morning!

Photos: Civil Unrest in Guatemala

djnlacey — Mon, 3 Jan 2011 01:14:00 GMT

veteran roadblock

Lago Atitilan

djnlacey — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 11:33:00 GMT

From Chichicastenango, we took a windy bus ride heading south to the volcano flanked Lake Atitlan. From the bus stop in Panajachel, we took a launcha (small motor boat) to San Marcos, a small town known for it's mystical feel. We checked into the Unicornio hotel, where we had our own little cabana, and unpacked our bags for what would be the longest stay of our trip yet. After unpacking, we watched an amazing sunset on the lake, the sun set right between two volcanoes and the sky glowed orange. There was an abundance of fresh produce and we had our first home-cooked meal in a month.

The next day we spent all morning on a sun deck that is built into the cliffs of San Marcos. The deck was built 30 feet above the lake and has a platform to jump off of into the 1000 foot deep, refreshing water. In the afternoon, we went to a yoga class at La Paz retreat and hotel, and spent the night chatting with other travelers at Unicornio.

The third day, we took a launcha to the town of San Pedro, the most touristy of the twelve villages on the lake. Our mission: to hike the San Pedro volcano that towers above the lake. Our hike started off on the coffee and avocado covered slopes of the volcano and continued straight up and up and up for four hours. One of the hardest hikes of our lives, but the locals who lived around the volcano were gathering fire wood and hiking back down with almost 50 pounds of fire wood strapped to their backs. Sometimes they where over 60 years of age and still handled the 40% incline with ease! After finally summit-ting the volcano, enjoying the spectacular view, and eating a well deserved lunch, we headed back down which took almost just as much time as the hike up. When we finally got to the entrance to the national park the volcano was in, we unfortunately found out there was no Tuk-Tuks or taxis to take us back down to the lake. So we had to hike an additional hour and a half through the real village section of San Pedro. We got to the docks just as the last launcha was preparing to leave for San Marcos. Phwew! Exhausted!

On our fourth day in San Marcos, we woke up early so we could give a yoga lesson on the sun deck to a couple we befriended. Afterward, we took a launcha to the small village of Santa Cruz, where we hiked along the lake to the village of Jaibalito. Jaibalito is the smallest of the villages but has three four star hotels built right on the water. We spent the day at an infinity pool and jacuzzi that is built over the lake. Great way to sooth our sore muscles from the hike up the volcano the day before.

Day five, new years eve, at the lake started off with another yoga session on the sun deck and some more awesome cliff jumping. We wanted to head to a town named Santiago to go to a big market they have there every Thursday. In order to get to Santiago you have to go to San Pedro, walk through a maze to the other side of town, and then take a large ferry to Santiago. We barely made it to Santiago with enough time to shop around before the last ferry back to San Pedro. This time, instead of walking through the maze we took a crazy Tuk-Tuk trip through the maze like streets of San Pedro, needing to reverse in one section of a narrow alleyway after barely avoiding a head-on collision with another Tuk-Tuk coming around a blind turn. Getting back to San Marcos, we prepared for new years eve and headed out to a cool roof top lounge named Ganesha. Just before midnight, we headed down to the beach with a large crew of about 25 people, built a bonfire and watched the incredible firework displays that each village around the lake had. Each firework show was timed to start about five minutes apart and Santiago had the largest display. A nice mellow new years eve in Guatemala, bienvenidos 2011!

New Years day, we headed out to an early breakfast and ran into a guy who owns a tour company that we had met the day before. He was taking a tour group on his pontoon boat to San Juan, a village known for its many artists and unique weaving styles. We went to many local artist galleries, took a tour of the town's many murals, watched a group wedding and parade, and got a weaving demonstration from an indigenous woman's co-op. The village of San Juan with its strong indigenous culture, has the least amount of tourists, and is also the cleanest of the lake villages. Its the cleanest because it has its own waste disposal system and a community based clean up project which requires each citizen to donate two days out of the year to cleaning up the streets. Launchas don't normally stop at San Juan so we had to take a Tuk-Tuk around the lake back to San Marcos. Our young Tuk-Tuk driver was very knowledgeable and turned out to be an excellent tour guide. When we got back to Unicornio we arranged to have a session in the Mayan sauna, a clay hut with a bench and a fire place, where we "sweat it all out."

Our last day in San Marcos and at Lago Atitlan, we rented a kayak for two. We kayaked close to shore and found some new cliffs to jump off of. Lacey jumped off her first cliff of the trip and DJ dove off the highest dive he ever dove off before. They were so brave! The wind picked up on the way back to San Marcos and we rode the building surf back to shore. We spent our last night at the magical Unicornio hotel.

Photos: Lago Atitlan

djnlacey — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:53:00 GMT

The beautiful Lago Atitlan and the many villages that line it

Chichicastenango, Guatemala

djnlacey — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 21:25:00 GMT

Market day, in one of Guatemala´s most Mayan towns in the Western Highlands, is like being immersed in a wave of colors, patterns and textures. It is sensory overload and¨Chichi¨ is just one very interesting place to be. It has twin churches that face each other opposite of a big square where the market is located. You can see Mayan rituals being performed on the steps of the church, as the local Mayan cling to their traditions and still attend church masses. The market is normally small but twice a week Mayans flood into the city streets erecting stalls made of wooden poles and sell everything from the most intricately embroidered textiles to ceremonial incenses.

We spent the night in a hotel overlooking the brilliantly colored cemetery that ChiChi hosts. We took a little time the next morning to explore Chichi while it wasn't in tourist mode and then headed out on a chicken bus south to Lago Atitlan.

Photos: Chichicastenango, Guatemala

djnlacey — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 09:22:00 GMT

market day in Chi Chi

Antigua, Guatemala

djnlacey — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 20:46:00 GMT

Antigua is the first colonial style town that we have visited in Guatemala. It´s perfect grid of cobblestone streets and many plazas would have you thinking you were in Spain. Antigua is surrounded by at least three volcanoes, a few still active, and you can see plumes of smoke rising out of their craters often. It is a beautiful charming little city and a great place to spend the holidays. Antigua was alive with many tourists and tons of Guatemalans, who came to Antigua for the festivities. We arrived in the early afternoon and after checking into a hostel we all ran to the first wine and cheese shop we could find before they all closed for the holiday.

We went out to a fancy Christmas Eve dinner with our traveling companions from Lanquin and then returned to the hostel to enjoy the rooftop bar they had. All night fireworks where being shot into the skies all over the city. After hearing rumors of a finale at midnight DJ decided to stay up and see if it was worthwhile. Everyone abandoned him except for one crazy old British guy who basically scared everyone he came in contact with although he was harmless and extremely funny and cynical. Sure enough at ten to midnight the city exploded with thousands of fireworks. The whole perimeter of the city seemed to be armed with as many fireworks as any fourth of July celebration. But, as we would soon find out, this was only the beginning.

Christmas day begins with a trip to the local artisan market and a stroll through the city. Then we regroup for a wine and cheese picnic on top of the mountain with a great view of the city. Our friend Sailor was staying in a part of town called ¨la Colonia¨ and he claimed that there was going to be a big fiesta and parade with more than 15,000 people that evening. We weren´t disappointed. Sure enough, there was a huge celebration complete with floats, a band, and all the cheap tacos, popcorn, tortas, corn on the cob, and waffle covered sausages you could eat. Oh, and there was a huge fireworks show too. But even more interesting than the fireworks show was a game being played in the streets. A man would put a huge metal frame shaped like a bull over his head. The frame was rigged to shoot fireworks in all directions. Similar to the ¨running of the bulls,¨ people would run up to the guy when the fireworks where being lit, and run for hell when the fireworks finally started shooting right at them. The closer to the fireworks you got the more the crowd cheered. We were the only group of travelers we saw the entire time we were at the street festival and it was quite an interesting spectacle.

Photos: Antigua, Guatemala

djnlacey — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 09:21:00 GMT

xmas in Antigua

Lanquin and Semuc Champey, Guatemala

djnlacey — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 19:57:00 GMT

After leaving Flores, we take a nine hour bus ride, in which DJs seat is a nice comfy bucket (only for the last couple hours :)), to Lanquin. It is high up in the mountains and our hostel has awesome 360 degree views, a river, and puppies! We get settled in, make some friends, and all sign up for a tour of the Kan´ba Cave and Semuc Champey Natural Reserve for the following day.

The next day we are up with the sun and watch the sunrise from our tree house loft. The group packs into the bed of a truck that has metal bars around it to hold onto as we ascend the mountain roads up to the Kan´ba caves going through the mountain village of Lanquin. Forty five minutes of bouncing and we reach the entrance to the Kan´ba caves. Our guide quickly picks up a certain type of seed pod that has soft red seeds in it. He squishes the seeds and paints stripes on our cheeks to protect us from the evil spirits in the cave. Unlike ATM cave, where we had headlamps, in Kan´ba you hold candles as you navigate through the cave, climbing waterfalls inside, and swimming through tunnel-like passages. After chanting our way to the end of the cave where we jumped off rocks into a deep pool, we headed back out to the daylight and the natural wonder of Semuc Champey.

Semuc Champey is a natural limestone bridge floating over a raging river that cuts through steep jungle walls. On the bridge are descending idyllic turquoise pools. Our guide takes us on a hike to the viewpoint or ¨Mirador¨ and then leads us back down to explore the pools. He has us swimming, going down natural water-slides, and diving off rocks. A full day of swimming and hiking, and then a very bumpy ride back down to our Hostel, and the whole group was ready for some beers and hot food.

The next day was Christmas Eve and mostly everyone in our group to Semuc Champey: two Aussie sisters, two Germans, a China man named Sailor, a New Yorker, and us, wanted to head down to Antigua for the holiday. But it is very hard to find a travel company willing to drive 9 hours on Christmas Eve. So after some swift negotiations we hired a collectivo to take us down to Antigua at 6 am the following morning. That night we played a rousing game of giant Jenga (literally made out of 2x4s) that was converted into a drinking game.

Photos: Lanquin and Semuc Champey, Guatemala

djnlacey — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:33:00 GMT

Flores and Tikal Guatemala

djnlacey — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:59:00 GMT

Yay, crossing borders is interesting! Our taxi driver in Belize that was taking us to the border crossing warned us, ¨People in Guatemala are crazy! They put black beans on everything!¨ So of course we were very concerned. We where lucky to catch the last collectivo (shared van) heading to Flores three hours away from the Belize border. We crossed into Flores, which is a very small island in the middle of Lake Peten, during the night but the full moon would have you thinking otherwise, as it was so bright it seemed as though it was daytime. Although there was a lunar eclipse that night, and it was the night of the winter solstice, we still fell asleep early due to a full day of caving and traveling. Nonetheless, we were able to wake up early the next morning for a day trip to Tikal on the Mayan New Year which falls on the winter solstice. Guatemala has the largest indigenous population out of all the Central American countries. The Mayans gathered at Tikal on December 21st to make offerings to ensure that everything would go well the next year and to celebrate their heritage. We were able to witness an authentic Mayan ceremony, filled with song and dance, that included different tribes from all over Guatemala. Plus, we got to explore all the ruins and see more spider and howler monkeys. The highlight of the Tikal ruins is Temple IV, which towers above the jungle canopy giving you an unobstructed view of the jungle and several other temples.

Photos: Flores and Tikal

djnlacey — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:25:00 GMT

Winter Solstice celebration in Tikal

San Ignacio, Belize and ATM CAVE

djnlacey — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 11:24:00 GMT

From Caye Caulker, we hitched a ride with some locals to San Ignacio to go to the Actun Tunichil Muchnal Cave. This is a pretty intense tour of a newly discovered Mayan sacrificial site, set deep inside a spooky cave. In Belize 95% of caves (and there are hundreds) have some artifacts left over from the Mayan culture as caves where thought to be the gateway to the 9 levels of the underworld. We followed our Garifuna guide, headlamps and all, as he led us into the river and through the cave. We were swimming, climbing, slipping, squirming and squeezing our way through stalagmites and stalagtites for 2 hours before we reached the artifacts. Sometimes we were going through spaces so small that only our neck and heads would fit while the rest of our body was submerged in water. Quite an adventure. The artifacts themselves were haunting as well. You had to watch your step as to not crush pottery left over from thousands of years ago. The culmination of the trek through the cave was a crystallized skeleton of a woman and a young boy.

Photos: San Ignacio, Belize, Actun Tunichil Muchnal

djnlacey — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 10:51:00 GMT

Spelunking through a Mayan cave

Caye Caulker, Belize

djnlacey — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 22:26:00 GMT

From Orange Walk we headed south to Belize City in order to take a water taxi to the island of Caye Caulker, a very small island that was actually cut it half by a hurricane a few years ago. We stayed right on the water at a place called Miramar. Our first night in town was a Thursday, we spent the night relaxing, took a yoga class on the roof at sunset and fell asleep to the hustle and bustle of the streets below our room. It was really cool to hear the buzz of the street, Garifuna, Spanish, English, and a blend of them all, could be heard all through the night.

The second day I was on a fishing mission and after some rooftop sunrise yoga, we circled the town getting supplies and bait. We went down to ¨the Split¨ where there is a bar, a beach and a good place to fish. The only fish I caught was a small grouper, so no cheap fish taco lunch for us. The rest of the day we lounged and that night we went to a super cool outside restaurant away from the main tourist strip named Wish Willy´s, probably the most relaxed and local place we ate at the whole time.

The third day in Caye Caulker was a big day. After a 3 dollar breakfast burrito, we headed to the docks to go on a snorkeling trip to the protected reef that lines the east side of the island. We got to see tons of fish, and even got to swim with nurse sharks and Southern Caribbean sting rays. On the way back to the island from the reef we where lucky enough to run into a school of feeding bottle nose dolphins, an unusual spot for them to be. After the snorkeling tour we decided to go rent a kayak so we could paddle around the northern part of the island across the split, most of the northern island is protected land.

So we paddled out and I decided I wanted to troll for fish, earlier I couldn´t find any sardines for bait so I was forced to buy shrimp. After about 5 minutes of trolling I was fixing something and my spool of line went flying over board, I of course went flying overboard after it, nearly turning over the kayak and completely ignoring the fact I had my hat on and my sunglasses on my hat. After climbing back into the kayak to a very upset partner (i almost took our bag with me when I dove over) I reeled in my fish. The fish looked good enough so I kept it. Two more hours of fishing with no more fish we paddled back to the southern part of the island. When we pulled up the local Rastas we rented the kayak from asked if we caught anything. I responded, ¨Yea but I´m not sure if its any good.¨ When I pulled the fish out everyone was completely shocked. It was a black snapper one of the best local fish you can get, much better than it´s red cousin, and it was a decent size. The Rastas asked me where exactly i caught it, then when we where walking through town trying to find someone to cook it two more people came up surprised and asked where exactly I had caught it, so I´m thinking it was a pretty good catch. It was definitely one of the best tasting fish we both ever had.

Three days in paradise was enough and we where off to San Ignacio near the border of Guatemala.

Photos: Caye Caulker, Belize

djnlacey — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 11:14:00 GMT