marching into spring

A month ago, ago sitting in front of the cathedral in cusco my wallet went missing. I was waiting for my ride to my three week yoga workshop and in the midst of many offers to shine my shoes (which had been shined the day before) I lost a lot of money for the workshop and my debit card. Not ideal. However, had it been a week earlier it could have sent me home. To lose a debit card is rough in a foreign country. Wells Fargo was not especially eager to ease my troubles either. But my new aquaintances in my class stepped up and loaned a total stranger money and shared their food. For a girl who hates to ask for help this was yet another opportunity for learning.

Thankfully I was rescued by my parents who kindly sent me money for my retreat and the lodging. Whew! And knowing my new cards would be delivered by dear friends visiting at the end of the month, life became bearable on a tight budget.



So the yoga retreat. Last time I thought I would do s&e yoga was last summer. I made it about 12 minutes in to the video and decided I was bored and stopped. My first day at the retreat I went through two 1 1/2 hour ashtunga classes. With a light lunch in between. After the second class we moved into "training" which involved push ups and core work. The thought occured to me that I might just die.

Second day of class... Full moon. Traditional ashtunga practice on the full moon is 108 sun salutations. Gulp. I made it through 47 before I gave up and succumbed to shivasana also known as corpse pose. I excelled in shivasana! :) I forced myself up for the last few sets of sun salutations. I deeply admire my classmates who did it all. To be fair though, they had already been there for a few weeks. I was joining at the half way point.

After three weeks of yoga, meditation and fruit fast I left feeling stronger physically, emotionally and spiritually.

There were some days off the fast. With my limited budget I fell in love with the offerings of a woman known to us simply as the potato lady. For 1 sole (about40 cents) she makes perfectly fried stuffed mashed potatoes with a green dipping sauce. She rolled her cart into the street everyday around 5 pm.

To go to Cusco and see the Potato Lady we had to walk down a smelly muddy street to the main road and catch a cab. On the return trip we would pray that late at night we could bully and bribe the cabbie to drive us up the muddy road. (muddy with standing water and contributions from dogs, cows and pigs.)

Kiersten, one of my fellow classmates, had a heart of gold and took to feeding and naming all the random dogs on the walk. We always walked down with snacks for the dogs. Such kindness!

The situation with the stray dogs here is a daily heartbreak I never anticipated. You see the with mangy fur, with ribs protuding and all too often missing mobility in one leg as a result of a car hitting them. How it makes me miss Lucy! So the daily act of Kiersten walking, feeding and naming these dogs was deeply admired by all of us.

The retreat was actually a teacher training for three people and four of us were there for yoga and dream journeying. Basically visualization exercises. It was an interesting time. Towards the end Danny and Virginia came into the class and Paulina, who was staying at the retreat center, joined as well.

Somehow we decided to journey (physically not dreaming) on an impromtu trip to the jungle. We took an overnight bus to puerto maldonado and made our first home in a hostel that I cannot describe. However I would have gladly paid more for a toilet seat!

Thankfully we moved to a lodge outside the city complete with exotic animals, a yoga room (aka dining room), a wonderful owner and, yes, even toilet seats.

Pepe the howler monkey fell in love with Danny and curled his body around dannys head and neck. Pictures are, of course, on facebook!

Our final yoga class together was intense and the intensity of the heat of the jungle lent a bikram like affect to the class. Ashtunga is a very physical yoga in the cool of cusco. There were many moments where I considered collapse!

After a beautiful and intense evening together, with the sounds of the jungle unparalleled in my previous experience, I flew back to cusco and on to Lima.

In Lima I was down to 63 dollars... Incredible food town and I ate in something not unlike a denny's as far as quality goes. But I ate contentedly; Excited knowing within a few days Devin and Marshall would be arriving bringing with them a promise of cherished friends, comfort, much laughter and my debit cards!

As usual, typed on my phone. Sorry for typos!

In joy...
Aly