Hola todos!
Yesterday officially marks a month since I packed up my internal-frame backpack and left my home in Columbia, South Carolina, for my new second home in Colombia, South America. I’m here taking on Latin America with my bestest pal and fellow southerner, Tia Johnson, in the lovely city of Cali, where we’ll be living, volunteering, and yoga-ing for three months in the Centro Yogendra Ashram.
My first impressions of Cali as it rushed by my taxi window our first night—big, humid, and brightly lit; with traffic that made me feel like I was in a real life Mario Kart race. It’s not exactly the expansive, lush, alpaca-filled pasture I had imagined all of South America to be, but, I’m loving it all the same. Typical Colombian foods involve arepas (sort of like very thick corn tortillas, eaten in all sorts of ways with every meal of the day), lentils, and various unfamiliar fruit juices (my favorite being “lulu” fruit). The city has just about everything: there’s your typical city things; malls, restaurants, parks, movie theaters, coffee shops, salons, etc; some not so typical city things; bustling South American style markets, arepa stands on every other corner, restaurants that serve pizza topped with plantains…along with non-city things, like the gorgeous Pance river and the beautiful, mountainous, national park (perfect for hiking and impromptu yoga retreats). And, of course, Cali is the salsa dancing capital of the world! Unfortunately, I’ve yet to successfully take a salsa class, but there’s still plenty of time for Tia and me to channel our inner Latin spice… Anyway, Cali is relatively safe, easy to navigate, and the people are extremely friendly and helpful. I’ve quickly learned that punctuality isn’t a concern here, and nothing ever goes quite as planned—every trip we take outside of the ashram is a guaranteed adventure. A lot of our time so far has been spent exploring this diverse and exciting place.
Life at the Centro Yogendra Ashram is amazing–there’s a yoga studio right outside my bedroom door, an organic garden in the backyard, and a front porch complete with a hammock and a lovely view of trees and mountains (even though there happens to be a loud and active mine on said mountain). We have hot showers, delicious vegetarian food prepared for every meal (Tia and I both being vegetarians, this is a definite selling point), wifi, our own beds/room…We’re spoiled. No matter how hot it is in the city, it always seems to be the perfect temperature with a slight breeze up at the house. Only our awesome teacher/volunteer coordinator Samantha and her two year old son, Ilan, actually live in the house, but there’s a constant flow of new and interesting yogis from all over the world coming and going. We spent our first two weeks here getting into yoga shape, exploring Cali, taking Spanish lessons, and painting/cleaning/decorating the house in preparation for the upcoming three week yoga teacher training course that Tia and I are both taking. Since the course has started, we’ve been immersed in crazy-hectic-yoga-world…
A day in the life of yoga-teacher student:
6:30-7:00—Optional kirtan; devotional singing/music playing (I’m not really the kind of person to wake up optionally at 6:30, but the drums do make a nice alarm every morning)
7:00-8:00—Morning meditation and breathing exercises (not so optional)
8:00-9:00—Breakfast usually consisting of fresh fruit, granola, honey, yogurt, and arepas
9:00-11:00—Yoga philosophy class taught by our Peruvian guru, Chaitanya
11:00-1:00—Physical Yoga class
1:00-2:30—Delicious buffet style lunch/nap time
2:30-4:30—More philosophy…
5:00-6:30—More physical yoga…
6:30-on—Chill. Go out for food. Or ice cream. Usually ice cream. Study. SLEEP.
As of tomorrow, all of our hard work will finally be rewarded in the form of a nice shiny yoga teacher certificate (assuming we pass the two and half hour written exam…gulp). We’ll start the day with the exam, then take a vow of “Ahimsa,” which means becoming a vegetarian and practicing nonviolence (Tia and I kind of have this one in the bag). Once we’re officially yoga teachers, we can start the real volunteer work we came here to do– teach yoga! In the meantime, I’ve got som
e cramming to do.
Namaste!
~Shelby Rivers
