My mandalas in Mexico

Oh my goodness, the yoga retreat I took to Mexico at the end of April seems like it was ages ago! Finding this post saved in my blog drafts really took me back. Today I give you mandalas I drew in Mexico...
 

I loved having the opportunity for some down time on this retreat. I spent plenty of time practicing yoga, shopping with friends and visiting Mayan ruins, but there was also plenty of time for relaxing. I had taken a few books to read, but every time I picked one up my mind just wouldn't stay on task. So naturally, mandalas for me!

I noticed something about my mandalas while I was on the yoga retreat in Tulum, Mexico. My colors were all beach-y and sunny and vacation-y feeling.

Oh, that light that shined through my cabana window... Swoon!

True. Love.

This next mandala never made it to completion. This is what happens when I force something. I wanted to draw a mandala with harder edges so I started out with this:

And then I lost interest. I tried to add some color but just wasn't feeling it so I figured, "Meh. Life's too short, turn the page..."

And then I went back to what comes naturally...

Side note from mandala talk: The first couple of mornings as I walked along the beach I was surprised to see no shells for collecting. How could that be? Then I thought of my sweet hubby and how he is always finding little trinkets and stuff - because he really looks for them. So the next morning I decided to be more like Doug. I looked a little closer, and what do you know? I found shells! The shells on the beach at our resort were always buried just a little under the sand, with the very tops poking out. I was tentative with the first couple I dug out with my finger, expecting a little critter to climb out from underneath, but that never happened. I found shells every time I walked on the beach from that day on.

One of the participants in our group had a birthday during the week of our retreat, and my Alaskan friends suggested that we make a card for him that we could all sign. "I have nice paper with me!" I volunteered, and we agreed to meet later and construct a card. When we gathered we decided that I'd draw a mandala base, and a couple of other friends gathered beach items to adhere to the front. I loved the addition of the beach finds and the ring of sand inside! We were able to borrow a bottle of glue from the resort office, and we were all so happy with the way the card turned out. The recipient loved it too.

I drew the next one for my mama. ♥ Her birthday was at the end of the week during my retreat.

Last but not least, imagine my surprise and gratitude when I was presented with a birthday card made just for me at the end of our week. (My birthday fell on the day after our return home.) I had taught a couple of the ladies in my group how to draw mandalas, and they made this card for me that everyone signed. I love that I have Kat's first mandala as a keepsake! I will treasure it for always.

And how cool is it that they found a heart shaped ocean piece for the center?

Mandala love.

♥

The yoga part of my yoga retreat

You know how I've been blogging all about the yoga retreat I went on in April? How I went all the way to Tulum, Mexico for seven amazing days and had all kinds of fantastic adventures with sweet new friends? Well, there was actually yoga involved as well!

♥

Maya Tulum is the resort where we stayed for our yoga retreat. The resort is on a beautiful beach in Tulum, and they accommodate groups of yogis as well as other vacationing guests. The group of 10 yogis I traveled with had use of the yoga rooms twice a day. (There are two yoga rooms on the grounds of the resort - one small and one large.) Our teachers lead two classes every day - one from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m., and another from 5:30-7:00 p.m.

In my day-to-day life back home, my own yoga practice has taken a back seat to all the other have-to-do's on my schedule. I practice for about 10 minutes every morning, and it's rare that I'm able to attend a yoga class in a studio setting.

It was so awesome to be able to practice yoga twice a day, in classes lead by two of my favorite teachers. Jeff and Donna are a married couple, and they are two of the owners of Inner Vision Yoga in Chandler where I practice and also take my yoga teacher training.

At the end of the week I decided to have someone take my photo after one of our classes. I think it's kind of a weird photo - I look a lot like my mom in it. My friend Connie left the sweetest comment on my Instagram post. She said, "You don't need no stinkin' makeup! And it looks like you've got a massive greenery halo! So Taurus!" I loved that.

This was the view from my mat, looking straight up. The large yoga hall was a round building with
the coolest thatched roof and natural wood beams.

And this is my lovely group of yoga friends (minus one sweetie) with our teachers in front. I put my phone on a stack of yoga blocks and used the timer. This photo was taken after our final yoga class of the week - the morning of the day that we traveled back home.

This yoga retreat was exactly what I needed! I'm even going to go as far as saying that the week I spent in Tulum was life changing for me. Not in an earth shattering oh-my-God-everything-is-different kind of way, but in a deep soul illuminating way. I was reminded of how much I love practicing yoga in a classroom setting, in addition to my sweet little home yoga space. To be pushed a little past my limits and to practice under the watchful eyes of great teachers felt like such a sweet gift. The retreat helped me to deepen and reconnect with my own yoga practice.

Some of the adventures I went on pushed me so far out of my comfort zone, I wasn't sure if I'd ever squeeze back into that zone again. And actually, I won't and that's ok. My gosh, just going all the way to Tulum, Mexico without Doug or Carrie was liberating for me!

Within a few days after I returned home from my retreat, I did something I've been saying I was going to do for over three years now. I went online and filled out an application to volunteer for hospice care. Since then, I've already completed the interview process and I'm scheduled to take their required training course over two weekends in June.

Being in Tulum on a yoga retreat allowed me to feel what it feels like to really follow my heart's desire. The genie won't go back in the bottle now, and I'm totally fine with that.

Maybe everything is different now, but the earth hasn't shattered. It just cracked open a little bit for me in the sweetest way, thanks to yoga. I feel incredibly blessed to live this life of mine, and to have had the opportunity to go on such an amazing yoga retreat.

♥

Zip-lining and swimming in a bat cave ~ Adventures on my mom's birthday

As my yoga retreat trip to Mexico neared, I wondered if I'd have an opportunity to go zip-lining. Any time I'd ever seen that activity on TV, I always mentioned to Doug that I would love to do that someday. Well, I got my chance in Mexico!

These photos were all taken in the Punta Laguna reserve, and you can read more about the area by clicking here.

After hiking through the jungle, looking for monkeys and being blessed by a Mayan shaman, we came to a clearing with a beautiful lagoon.

Here we were met by a crew who was waiting with harnesses and helmets. Stuff got real right there.

Yikes. I think I was fine and fairly excited until the harness got strapped on and I realized that - OMG - I was really going to do this. I was going to hang from a hook attached to a metal line and propel myself across the water and into the jungle. Free falling, baby. Holy smokes.

And here was another first for me. I'd never been in a canoe before. It wasn't as tippy as I thought it might be, and the two sweeties rowing knew what they were doing. I was appointed as the captain and was supposed to call out "Stroke" over and over but, sheesh, that got boring in a hurry so I stopped and asked, "Really? Do I really need to do that?" No, I didn't in this case.

By the way, these photos were borrowed from my friend and fellow traveler, Linda. She was brave and kept her camera/phone with her, but I'd left mine behind at the dock, regrettably.

After the canoe trip across the lagoon, we hiked through the jungle for about 10 minutes to reach the zip-line platform. Jose, the monkey guide was also our zip-line man.

I was super excited and my adrenaline levels had to be off the charts right here! The worst part was the "brake" they gave us to hold - a crude stick with a hook at one end. We were warned to put the brake on behind the attachment on the wire or it would come back and smack us in the face. Duly noted. And when I had last minute questions about the "brake" just before take-off, I was told, "Oh, just don't even worry about the brake. They'll catch you on the other end. Go!"

Well, I didn't use the brake and they did catch me at the end. Worse part was that as soon as I cleared the tree line and flew out over the water my body turned and I rode the whole rest of the way backwards. Everything happened so fast, and I wasn't able to turn myself around so the catchers caught me coming in backwards and all was well.

When I was unstrapped and stepped off the landing platform, someone mentioned that if we wanted to have another turn we could. It would just require hiking back through the jungle, same way we'd gone in. I barely hesitated before asking one of my yoga friends if she'd like to hike and zip again with me. Yep! So we hiked and re-zipped and that time I flew straight in and used my brake and called, "WOOOO-HOOOO!" pretty much the entire zip across.

High-fives all around!

Part two of this post involves me going down into this hole in the ground...

Oh my goodness, it makes me squirmy to look at these photos again. This was not my favorite part of my Mexico adventures, though I am glad I did it. We had an opportunity to swim in an underground cenote, complete with a 40' ladder, one bare light bulb to illuminate the cave, and a bunch of little tiny bats hanging from the walls.

I look at this next photo - the only one of me in the cenote - and I'm shocked to see a smile on my face. I think I was still high from the zip-lining, and clearly delirious. Ha! I wanted to be one of the first ones to go down, fearing that if I stood up top long enough I might lose my nerve. We were still wearing our zip-line harnesses and those were used to rappel us down into the water - very convenient.

Phew! The water was cold at first, and it was fairly dark down there. The water looked black, and I was surprised when I looked down that I could clearly see my feet below me, and then nothing beyond my toes. No one seemed clear about how deep that water was.

Once my entire group had made it down the shoot and into the water, I was the first to volunteer to get out. The hook was re-attached to my zip-line harness, but only used as a measure of catching me should I slip and fall off that 40' ladder. That was one heck of a climb straight up, and I was super happy to emerge back at the top!

And that's a photo taken by me, standing on the sidelines before any of my friends came out of the cenote. I'm really glad I got to experience that, and it is officially checked of my bucket-list as an item that does not need to be revisited.

My friends knew that this day was my mom's birthday. I was so touched when one of them said to me, late in the day, "Your mom would be so proud of you." I softly replied, "She always was."

♥

Monkeys and a Mayan Shaman ~ Adventures on my mom's birthday

Today I'm continuing my recap of the amazing day I spent touring with my yoga friends in Tulum, Mexico. After climbing Coba ruins and having lunch at a great Mexican restaurant, we enjoyed a van ride through some crazy thick jungle roads and ended up at Punta Laguna, Mexico - The Spider Monkey Reserve.

There was this cute little museum near the entrance but there wasn't much time to linger there. We changed into our swimsuits, slathered on sun screen and hit the trail.

I'm super happy I thought to snap this next photo, because no way would I have remembered the name of this place. You can read more about it here. Otoch Ma'ax Yetel Kooh translates to "home of the spider monkey and puma." The reserve is overseen by the local Mayan community members who serve as tour guides into the jungle. This was such an amazing experience - to walk through the jungle with a local guide, whose deep love and respect for his culture and this jungle was infectious.

Before entering into the jungle, visitors are led through a purification ceremony. The ceremony was conducted by a Mayan shaman and this was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced!

We were led in a single file line, walked around this structure and stood in a half-circle, side-by-side. The scent of coba incense (now a familiar fragrance as our resort burned the same stuff) was wafting through the air. I snapped the above photo as we were taking our places. You know I was dying to take more photos, but once the ceremony began I felt it would be disrespectful to do so.

The Mayan shaman began his ritual and I seriously had goose bumps the entire time. Ah! I just felt them again as I typed this. The chant he recited was a dialect unlike anything I'd ever heard. His voice boomed through the jungle as his practiced hands tended to the burning incense and tied-up bundles of plant clippings in front of him.

He lifted a bowl made from a hollowed out coconut shell over his head and chanted words before handing it to the first person in our line. It was filled with some kind of honey-tasting liquid and we each took a sip before carefully passing it to the person beside us. When it reached the last person, the shaman met it there, and chanted some more before receiving the bowl back into his hands.

There was also something in a bowl that the shaman sprinkled on each of us individually, making his way down the line. He held the bowl in one hand, and a bundle of leaves in the other. Dipping the tips of the leaves in the bowl, he'd recite some words as he tapped our forehead with the damp bundle, and then the front of each shoulder (eh-hm, breast).

After the ceremony we were free to move into the jungle. There was such a deep sense of reverence after the ritual, a feeling of belonging and permission to proceed into sacred territory. Really, one of the most amazing things I've ever had the opportunity to witness.

The reserve's archeological site consists of a total of 36 structures that are pretty much engulfed by the jungle. These date back to 300 BC - 250 AD. It was so fascinating to imagine what these buildings might have been used for. Mayans constructed these buildings for temples and trade, while the village people lived in huts made from plant material.

Our monkey-tour-guide, Jose was a sweet Mayan man with a limited English vocabulary, but we got by just fine. At one point we stopped and he asked us to be quiet as he called out to the spider monkeys. Cupping his hands in front of his mouth, he let out some sounds like I'd never heard before. So fun!

We were there in the early afternoon, and the heat of the day was a time when the monkeys are less active. We did finally see some on our hike, but it was difficult to photograph them. They were high up in the trees, and the jungle was so thick. All the photos I took of them (and there were a lot) were more focused on the leaves of trees closest to me, rather than the monkeys. Oh well.

There's another Mayan structure in the photo above. Can you see it?

After walking through the jungle for a while, our path opened up to this clearing and a beautiful lagoon. I was awe struck at its beauty! It was here that we prepared for our zip-lining adventure, taking those canoes to the other side of the lagoon to reach the zip-line platform. I'm going to save the photos from that adventure for my next post, so the rest of the photos in this post show how we wrapped up our day.

Walking back through the jungle, we found a picnic area where we enjoyed a late lunch. All that walking and trying to find monkeys in the thick of the jungle, and then here was this guy, just hanging out in the picnic area. I thought maybe he was there to scavenge leftovers but no. The monkeys don't come near people, and they really enjoy their own diet of fruit from the trees.

Our tour guide, Cesar, supplied us with cheese, tomatoes, chips and guacamole and white wine.

And our resort had packed us each a lunch of our choice. I enjoyed a tuna salad, chips and fresh fruit. So delicious!

Jungle randomness:

And more monkeys on our walk back to the van. They were a family, and one of them is holding a little baby. ♥

Our tour guides took such great care of us! We were so grateful. And it was so cool at the end of our day to give their small village our left over sandwiches, fruit and drinks. They were so grateful in return!

Oh how I loved hiking through the jungle, receiving a Mayan blessing, and looking for cute spider monkeys with my yoga friends! I'll share about our zip-lining and cave swimming adventures in my next post.

♥

Adventures on my mom's birthday ~ food stop after Coba ruins

Our tour guide, Cesar is an entrepreneur in Tulum, Mexico. An outgoing and charismatic young man, he has many friends and acquaintances whom he feels a responsibility toward. It's his mission to help his community flourish and succeed, and he uses his tour guide business to provide for his locals every chance he gets.

After our time climbing Coba ruins, we loaded in the van and drove a short distance to this restaurant, owned and operated by friends of Cesar. In hindsight I wish I'd taken so many more photos! Truth is that I was hot and tired and really hungry, so here's what I have to share today.


We piled out of the van and made our way up the stairs to the second floor of this adorable restaurant. Cesar spoke to the employees in Spanish, ordering tapas for our group and sharing animated conversation in the mix.

Don't you love the bright green chairs and those fun tablecloths?

Ooooh these were the best chips and salsa! Everything was homemade and so fresh!

My lovely yoga friends... Cheers!

Fresh coconuts and bottled water. So refreshing!

Oh my goodness, that coconut was the coldest and most refreshing drink I had the entire week of my yoga retreat! They chill the coconuts and chop the top off just before serving. It stayed ice-cold all the way through lunch. At your request, they'll take the coconut back to the kitchen and bust it open for you, serving the opened fruit on a plate with wedges of lime. I didn't do that with mine - I was too full to even think about it by the time our lunch was over.

And there was this guacamole and the best tortilla chips ever...

And quesadillas served on homemade flour tortillas with a creamy cheese (not sure what kind of cheese it was other than yummy) and fresh shrimp. I ate my fill!

Continuing the celebration of my mom's birthday. She loved good Mexican food, and I know she would have loved this place! As I prepared this post I realized that, Hey! Seems like we didn't have that much food here! But we did. Cesar had been ready to order a few meat dishes but we chose the lighter fare. We had several rounds/refills of chips, salsa, and guacamole so we were fairly well stuffed!

In hindsight I realize we were all a bit overheated from climbing the ruins. Oh how we loved our simple and refreshing coconut drinks...

After lunch we loaded back into the van and headed deep into the jungle in search of spider monkeys in their natural habitat. But that's for my next post...

♥