Back at Inanitah (www.Inanitah.com) teaching another basic intercultural massage course. There is a lot less work for me this time due to already having done it once, just in November of last year.
I have found myself gliding through the processes without having to do a lot of preparing outside of the class time, which runs 7:30-3 p.m, M-F for 2 weeks.
We will be done with class this Friday, April 1. No kidding! I am planning to teach a second level course for the three Nicaraguans who have gone through the first level and are ready for more. There are two out of the initial 5 who have been dedicated, practicing and coming to clinic hours every week and are now working in the local hotels where we are promoting our program. It's really exciting to see how much they have improved over time and are now gaining experience from working on paying clients in hotels.
I really enjoy being back here and being in community this time and it feels like home in many ways. Everyone comes together here to share their gifts, passions, and hearts in community. It's a special place for sure. I will blog about life at Inanitah in the near future. It's worth a good story.
5:42 a.m March 31.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Yoga Retreat Picture~ Las Mujeres
WOMENS' YOGA RETREAT SANTA FE, PANAMAAfter teaching 6 classes a week during the month of February, Michelle and I decided to take the show on the road. We called our retreat, "Inquiry Into Yoga", and had 3 days of fun and yoga in the mountains, 3 hours north of Santa Catalina. Pictured above left to right: Jen, Diane, Valerie, Michelle, and Rose.
gringos
I know that the flow of this may not make any sense, but I'm going to do my best to blog more often now that I'm in a faster internet zone, Nicaragua. I'm in San Juan del Sur today. It's a strange little beach town which seems to be a gringo party spot.
I am here on a mission, not really by choice. A friend of mine from Santa Catalina, Panama is driving back up to his home town of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He was nice enough to put my massage table, tent, and sleeping bag in the back of his truck and drop them off here, as it's not too far off the Pan-American Highway.
I have been playing in Bocas del Toro with my dear friend, Janey, who came down to visit me from Boulder, CO on her vacation. I am so blessed with good friends! She and I had 9 days of fun and travel in which I didn't need any of that stuff cause she sported the hotel rooms all the way across Panama and Costa Rica.
I did the boarder crossing from CR to Nica today at Penas Blancas. Some of you may recall the first time I crossed this border last Feb. I wrote a mass email about it because I found myself wandering in and out of the Costa Rican border station asking "Excuse me, where is Nicaragua?" until some kind soul finally informed me that I had to walk about 1/4 mile down the road in order to get to the entrance of Nicaragua.
Today, I am proud to announce that I do learn from experience! This and the fact that I am much more facil with the spanish language than I was a year ago. So, I was able to not only find my way through to Nicaragua without problem. I was also able to fend off the 10 or so Nica taxi drivers who kept telling me there was no bus to where I was going while I asked a WOMAN where I could catch a bus. She told me and she was right. These MEN, I swear! They are scammers. Not all of them, but they give the ones that aren't a bad name.
I also have to state, for the record, that Nicaragua has no signage on how to enter their country at this border. None. Nunca. It's a series of buildings spread out across a rather wide area with lots of fences, police, and random scammers running around and nothing posted about where one should proceed. They expect you to know. And if you have to ask someone, you will have to pay them for a correct answer.
Now, I don't want to make Nicaragua out to be like this. This is just the border crossing. The rest of the country is awesome and friendly. I was able to catch a bus (technically, they are right, you need to catch 2 buses to get to San Juan del Sur) and will head up to Inanitah tomorrow after a little night on the town here.
I am here on a mission, not really by choice. A friend of mine from Santa Catalina, Panama is driving back up to his home town of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He was nice enough to put my massage table, tent, and sleeping bag in the back of his truck and drop them off here, as it's not too far off the Pan-American Highway.
I have been playing in Bocas del Toro with my dear friend, Janey, who came down to visit me from Boulder, CO on her vacation. I am so blessed with good friends! She and I had 9 days of fun and travel in which I didn't need any of that stuff cause she sported the hotel rooms all the way across Panama and Costa Rica.
I did the boarder crossing from CR to Nica today at Penas Blancas. Some of you may recall the first time I crossed this border last Feb. I wrote a mass email about it because I found myself wandering in and out of the Costa Rican border station asking "Excuse me, where is Nicaragua?" until some kind soul finally informed me that I had to walk about 1/4 mile down the road in order to get to the entrance of Nicaragua.
Today, I am proud to announce that I do learn from experience! This and the fact that I am much more facil with the spanish language than I was a year ago. So, I was able to not only find my way through to Nicaragua without problem. I was also able to fend off the 10 or so Nica taxi drivers who kept telling me there was no bus to where I was going while I asked a WOMAN where I could catch a bus. She told me and she was right. These MEN, I swear! They are scammers. Not all of them, but they give the ones that aren't a bad name.
I also have to state, for the record, that Nicaragua has no signage on how to enter their country at this border. None. Nunca. It's a series of buildings spread out across a rather wide area with lots of fences, police, and random scammers running around and nothing posted about where one should proceed. They expect you to know. And if you have to ask someone, you will have to pay them for a correct answer.
Now, I don't want to make Nicaragua out to be like this. This is just the border crossing. The rest of the country is awesome and friendly. I was able to catch a bus (technically, they are right, you need to catch 2 buses to get to San Juan del Sur) and will head up to Inanitah tomorrow after a little night on the town here.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Hey, photos!
Above: Yoga deck at "La Buena Vida"; Santa Catalina.
Above: Looking out from Rancho Estero onto Estero Beach, Santa Catalina.
Above: View from Visitor Center, Coiba National Parque
Above: Blue Chevy Van with shade structure and bike parked in front.
Above: Adan cutting off alligator head with machete on Lagatero Bay.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Santa Catalina
As of Jan 30th, I have moved into the town of Santa Catalina. It's a small place, about 10K from where I was living the two months prior.
My bicycle has been given a rest from the continual back and forth of living in Lagatero, out in the sticks (est pop: 100 persons, 50 chickens, 25 dogs, and 10 alligators) to the bustling metropolis of Santa Catalina; (est pop: 400-500 ). The folks at Hibiscus Garden just didn't have enough work to keep me there. We mutually decided it was best to end our initial agreement of me staying there until mid March.
For a fleeting moment, I entertained thoughts of traveling for 6 weeks until Janey arrives in the beginning of March. That was before my friend Michelle, owner of "La Buena Vida", and fellow yogini, asked me to stay in Catalina and design/teach a series of yoga classes with her, it was an easy choice.
I have committed myself to the practice and study of yoga while I'm here. I am teaching 3 or 4 classes a week, taking another 3 classes each week from her, and expanding my own practice on the luxury of her yoga deck in the treetops.
It's really a beautiful thing to have dedicated myself to this immersion. We are organizing a women's yoga retreat in Santa Fe, Panama Feb. 23,24, 25. It's a mountain town about 3 hours north of here where we are going to spend 2 sessions a day teaching basic yoga techniques as an introduction for beginners to the practice, with time for a long mountain hike one day.
Blessings from Panama.
Om, shanti.
My bicycle has been given a rest from the continual back and forth of living in Lagatero, out in the sticks (est pop: 100 persons, 50 chickens, 25 dogs, and 10 alligators) to the bustling metropolis of Santa Catalina; (est pop: 400-500 ). The folks at Hibiscus Garden just didn't have enough work to keep me there. We mutually decided it was best to end our initial agreement of me staying there until mid March.
For a fleeting moment, I entertained thoughts of traveling for 6 weeks until Janey arrives in the beginning of March. That was before my friend Michelle, owner of "La Buena Vida", and fellow yogini, asked me to stay in Catalina and design/teach a series of yoga classes with her, it was an easy choice.
I have committed myself to the practice and study of yoga while I'm here. I am teaching 3 or 4 classes a week, taking another 3 classes each week from her, and expanding my own practice on the luxury of her yoga deck in the treetops.
It's really a beautiful thing to have dedicated myself to this immersion. We are organizing a women's yoga retreat in Santa Fe, Panama Feb. 23,24, 25. It's a mountain town about 3 hours north of here where we are going to spend 2 sessions a day teaching basic yoga techniques as an introduction for beginners to the practice, with time for a long mountain hike one day.
Blessings from Panama.
Om, shanti.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Cha, cha, cha, changes...
And so we are getting near the end of the busy or high season here. Mostly December and January are kinda ¨balls to the wall¨busy and then it slows a little, say the ones who have spent several seasons here. Our guests are fewer and I´m anticipating our pace will be slower even still.
How will I fill this extra time, you may ask? Good question! I am going to begin teaching a second yoga class each week in Catalina at La Buena Vida. Today I went surfing today for the first time since I´ve been here. I forgot how much I like it. Remind me to use sunscreen next time, ouch. I think between yoga, surfing, and spanish lessons with a massage thrown in here and there, I can fill the next 6 weeks without any problems.
Why only 6 weeks, you may ask? You are full of good questions today! Because my dear friend, Janey, is coming to visit me! She flies into Panama City on March 6, so I am going to be done with work and such at Hotel Hibiscus a few days earlier. Then she and I will travel together and explore Panama and some of Costa Rica and she flies out of San Jose on march 14, and I will head up to Nicaragua once more to teach another 2 week intercultural massage class at Inanitah!
Check it out at; www.Inanitah.com. Will be there till April at least, then we shall see.
Ok, that´s the update on plans for the future. Photos coming soon, I hope, and then you´ll have more wonderful questions.
How will I fill this extra time, you may ask? Good question! I am going to begin teaching a second yoga class each week in Catalina at La Buena Vida. Today I went surfing today for the first time since I´ve been here. I forgot how much I like it. Remind me to use sunscreen next time, ouch. I think between yoga, surfing, and spanish lessons with a massage thrown in here and there, I can fill the next 6 weeks without any problems.
Why only 6 weeks, you may ask? You are full of good questions today! Because my dear friend, Janey, is coming to visit me! She flies into Panama City on March 6, so I am going to be done with work and such at Hotel Hibiscus a few days earlier. Then she and I will travel together and explore Panama and some of Costa Rica and she flies out of San Jose on march 14, and I will head up to Nicaragua once more to teach another 2 week intercultural massage class at Inanitah!
Check it out at; www.Inanitah.com. Will be there till April at least, then we shall see.
Ok, that´s the update on plans for the future. Photos coming soon, I hope, and then you´ll have more wonderful questions.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Hotel Hibiscus Garden
I was just looking and its been a while since I last posted. I am getting in a groove of sorts here but I think that once I have some real sort of groove, the music usually changes. The people who run Hotel Hibiscus Garden are a german couple in their 30s about to have thier second baby...like anyday now. Lucia Valerie (not named after me, but a cool coincendence) is due on Jan 11. Her older sister, Karlota, is 2 years old and just stood up on a surfboard for the first time yesterday!
They are growing some wicked cool kids here.
I am spending my days in a combination of ways. My duties around the hotel that pay for my room and board are assiting in the kitchen and waiting tables. These happen for 5 to 8 hours a day 6 days a week. I am also promoting and doing some massage for guests and we should, with any luck, be getting yoga mats today so that I can offer yoga classes a few times a week as well.
I am teaching yoga at a place in Santa Catalina once a week, La Buena Vida. The woman who owns it with her husband recently completed the same yoga teacher training as myself in Costa Rica, so we are practicing a lot of the same style.
However, its 10K to town from where I live, the shuttle only goes sparatically, and hitchhiking is fairly unreliable since there are often not many cars. So, I bought a crappy mountain bike which is now helping me transport in and out of Catalina at will. Ahhh.....this is a blessing.
I will tell you why. The other people on staff at HHG are all German or Austrian, except the chef, another American. The culture is one of drinking a lot, smoking a lot, and speaking a lot of German, which I don´t understand. They are nice enough people, but I have the feeling that even if we were speaking the same language, I couldnt relate all that well.
So I have taken this as an opportunity to create a lot of space for myself. I have moved into a broken down blue chevy camper van toward the front entrance of the hotel. It´s one they are using for spare parts and is parked under some trees off to the side of the dirt road just before crossing the river to where the hotel is located. Neither my roomie or myself were sleeping all that well I think due to the fact that our energies were colliding all night on some level. The van is becomming my sanctuary. I cleaned it out a little each day over the past week or two and finally found a spare matress to put in it yesterday. The gardeners have built a palm roof shade structure outside and I am in the process of decorating it and hopefully have electricity hooked up soon! I will post photos of the Mystery Machine when I get the chance.
Anyway, this is going to be my little haven. Oh yea, and a hammock. And I have lots of time to just be. Its actually very nice.
The horses are kept in this area, which is also fenced off sometimes and this morning it was such a beautiful way to wake up to have them hanging out outside the van. I got up, wrapped the bedsheet around me, and communed with them for a little while.
Loving the slowness here. Hot, hot days and warm, stary nights. Everything is tranquilo. I am learning spanish mostly just from practicing, but also from a peace corps volunteer who is living in Santa Catalina and happy to trade massage for spanish lessons as he is fluent in both languages.
Feeling good and have promised Mick and Heidi I will stay until March here. After that is a mystery. I am absorbed in being present and having a deep appreciation for being alive.
Sending you all warm wonderful vibes for 2011.
With love
Valerie Hope, aka; Esperanza
They are growing some wicked cool kids here.
I am spending my days in a combination of ways. My duties around the hotel that pay for my room and board are assiting in the kitchen and waiting tables. These happen for 5 to 8 hours a day 6 days a week. I am also promoting and doing some massage for guests and we should, with any luck, be getting yoga mats today so that I can offer yoga classes a few times a week as well.
I am teaching yoga at a place in Santa Catalina once a week, La Buena Vida. The woman who owns it with her husband recently completed the same yoga teacher training as myself in Costa Rica, so we are practicing a lot of the same style.
However, its 10K to town from where I live, the shuttle only goes sparatically, and hitchhiking is fairly unreliable since there are often not many cars. So, I bought a crappy mountain bike which is now helping me transport in and out of Catalina at will. Ahhh.....this is a blessing.
I will tell you why. The other people on staff at HHG are all German or Austrian, except the chef, another American. The culture is one of drinking a lot, smoking a lot, and speaking a lot of German, which I don´t understand. They are nice enough people, but I have the feeling that even if we were speaking the same language, I couldnt relate all that well.
So I have taken this as an opportunity to create a lot of space for myself. I have moved into a broken down blue chevy camper van toward the front entrance of the hotel. It´s one they are using for spare parts and is parked under some trees off to the side of the dirt road just before crossing the river to where the hotel is located. Neither my roomie or myself were sleeping all that well I think due to the fact that our energies were colliding all night on some level. The van is becomming my sanctuary. I cleaned it out a little each day over the past week or two and finally found a spare matress to put in it yesterday. The gardeners have built a palm roof shade structure outside and I am in the process of decorating it and hopefully have electricity hooked up soon! I will post photos of the Mystery Machine when I get the chance.
Anyway, this is going to be my little haven. Oh yea, and a hammock. And I have lots of time to just be. Its actually very nice.
The horses are kept in this area, which is also fenced off sometimes and this morning it was such a beautiful way to wake up to have them hanging out outside the van. I got up, wrapped the bedsheet around me, and communed with them for a little while.
Loving the slowness here. Hot, hot days and warm, stary nights. Everything is tranquilo. I am learning spanish mostly just from practicing, but also from a peace corps volunteer who is living in Santa Catalina and happy to trade massage for spanish lessons as he is fluent in both languages.
Feeling good and have promised Mick and Heidi I will stay until March here. After that is a mystery. I am absorbed in being present and having a deep appreciation for being alive.
Sending you all warm wonderful vibes for 2011.
With love
Valerie Hope, aka; Esperanza
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