yoga and forest fires

What better weekend to attempt starting my long-intended blog of living in Ecuador – 2.5 years in…

 

To sum up the past couple years in Ecuador:  

 

If you drive a few hours, you will find yourself in a whole other season.  Better yet, spend a day in Quito and it’s guaranteed you will experience at least three.  If you drive a few hours, chances are you will pass oneactive volcano, as a minimum.  Chances are, your car may get covered in a dusting of fine volcanic ash.

 

The fruit juice is amazing.  Just know that.  It is reason enough to travel all the way here.

Nothing is ever as it seems, is expected, or is planned.  Keeps life fresh this way.

 

Never underestimate the power of the equatorial sun.

 

I may have one time woken up in a hysterical fit about an empanada.  All because my newly-discovered empanada place was even more newly-discovered to be relocating to Europe.  Yes, the empanadasde verde are that good.

 

…these are just to give you a little taste.

 

Which brings me to this past weekend – Ecuador Yoga Fest 2013

After a few minor setbacks, Friday night finally found me accompanied by some great company in a van winding its way out of the cold Sierra and to the coast of Esmeraldas to the 2nd annual Ecuador Yoga Festival.  After roughly 6 hours of increasingly creative attempts at sleeping positions involving me and my sleeping bag in the cold, gusty back van corner, we pulled into our weekend home.  Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised by what greeted us (aside from our unbelievably disorganized host – “oh I cancelled your bus from quito just this morning” – We sat for 3 hours on a floor of a shopping mall.  Which, if you were wondering we were NOT allowed to eat on, the floor I mean.)

Not to get sidetracked, the resort was a welcoming array of straw-woven roofed buildings, just cozy enough in their bamboo-hut appearance yet airy enough in their open stature.  As tired as we were, we walked right over to a pitch of grass and set up our tents in the midnight moonlight.  I myself spent a fantastic night of sleep bundled up in my hammock (thanks, sis!), which I woke to find was amidst the compost heap (explained the smell) and alongside the resorts clothesline.

Thus began a jam-packed weekend of “reconnecting with our deeper selves” and a blur of vinyasa, ashtanga, thai massage, mantra and belly-dancing classes.  Not to forget a truly intriguing symphony of “los cuencos” (singing bowls), as my mind was carried through a colorful meditative journey of my chakras.  I heard quite a few “make-you-think”-ers from the experienced gurus present at the festival.  Among which were some nutritional factoids (same some room, save some energy!), getting “energized” (yoga makes your body an efficient machine, open to receive energy from your surroundings – sleep, who needs it!), and yoga’s a metaphor to life (your reaction to an uncomfortable pose -> your reaction to an uncomfortable life situation)..

Oh, and I learned how to put out a forest fire.  And I learned that

50 yogis/resort staffers + soup bowls + cooking pots + trashcans/ice-tray-makers/you-name-its + a camp shower + 1.5 hours + a few pass-the-bucket lines

can definitely put out (yes - put out!) a forest fire (yes – a forest fire!) faster than the Atacames firefighters can arrive.  Talk about reacting to an unexpected life situation.  The outcome – tents safe, hammock safe (was def in the fire zone!), bamboo-straw-resort safe, community bonded.  Way to go yogis!

Needless to say, it was an eventful weekend- topped off by the best coconut milkshake I have ever laid eyes on.