kath: yoga training, montezuma, costa rica

30 August - 30 September, 2014

So, I'm now a fully qualified yoga teacher! Yep. After a month of living in the jungle, at the beautiful Anamaya in Montezuma,  I and 21 other students  successfully completed our 200 hour intensive yoga teacher training course. Woot!


The highlights

• The course content... My inspiring yoga teacher, Jackie... And all the gorgeous students from the world over I had the privilege of spending a full month with. (I know it's three highlights in one, I'm going for the trifector.) We learnt SO much in such a short period of time. About yoga postures, anatomy, breath work, meditation, ayurvedic medicine, chakras, teaching, leading students, and more. And I can't wait to share everything I learnt with ya'll when I get home..! (Oh and I may have learnt a few Americanisms as well...)
• Living in the jungle. Woah. Between the 4.3 richter scale earthquakes, lightening literally striking my back garden with firey explosions, huge thunderstorms that were on par with the earthquakes in terms of hut shaking ability, epic rain and even a night rescue situation, the jungle had it all. It also had lots of friendly creatures. Geckos, bats, scorpions, iguanas (even as I type this there is a meter long iguana parading past my hammock), howler monkeys, humpback whales (particularly distracting when you're trying to hold a balance posture and they insist on splashing in your line of sight) and weird looking wombat sized mammals that sulked about our yoga decks when were trying to meditate. 
• Speaking of yoga decks, we practiced for hours and hours each day and night on two of them. Both of which had spectacular views. I'll leave it to the pics to explain this one.
• I can't NOT mention the food at anamaya. It was out of this world. We were fed five times a day. And the food was so fresh (grown on their own farm down the road!). Amongst other things, they make a daily brekkie cake that's not only delicious but it's also GOOD for you!? Its like eating vitamins (my way of rationalising 3 cakes in one sitting). Gluten and dairy free too. I don't know how they do it. And most dinners were not one, not two, but THREE courses. Spoilt.
• And finally, one of the biggest highlights was all the fun things we got up to in between our lessons: paddling in the speccie pool, power walking up and down the hill we lived on to vent out the days frustrations, doing hilarious night time zumba classes on the deck, drinking copious amounts of herbal tea and costa rican coffee with coconut milk (given booze was off limits!), sweating it out in the sauna, watching sunrises at 5am cause they were so bright they wouldn't let you sleep in even if you wanted to, studying and reading lots of yogi books, going for virgin drinks in town, and simply sitting around chatting for hours about all things life and yoga. Best.


The Summary
Weather: hot and stormy. Epic earthquakes and lightening bolts. There's a small part of me thats grateful we all made it out alive..!
Surf / yoga / scuba: yoga, yoga, yoga! All day, everyday.
Food: so much food! Amazing. No red meat, some chicken and fish, almost no diary or gluten, but somehow seriously delicious cakes, pancakes, eggs, salads, noodles, burgers, tacos, etc, etc. Yum.
Beverages: i may have drank montezuma out of tea, coffee and coconut milk. 
People: beautiful! Not just my fellow students, but the staff as well.
Accommodation: a basic jungle hut, called the temple, with my stunning temple sista, Lia.
Budget: oh boy, totally blown.
Overall: so glad I had the chance to do this course. I had my ups and downs, but it's certainly been an amazing journey - I have a much deeper understanding of yoga as a lifestyle and I met some incredibly inspiring people along the way. I can also now do some rad arm balances - the real achievement of this last month!

Now I have a few more days in costa rica before I fly on up to nyc to see my love and partner in travel crime, Damo! Yay! I am suuuuper excited. And I can't wait to catch up with the two boys and hear about all their adventures together, before continuing our travels up into Canada. Bring. It. On.

Namaste,
Kath






That's me, official yoga teacher, in the monochrome leggings! Getting my fabulous students to "walk their dog" (that's yogi speak for "walk your feet out whilst in Downward Dog").

Everyone gets about in the grooviest pants.

Yoga at sunrise.

Yoga at sunset.

Yoga all damn day.

Thank goodness for savasana.

Blind yoga too.

Yogis and yoginis! After our final group practice. All ready to go out into the world and teach.

Storm rolling in... brace yourselves.

My office. That's my purple yogi towel work station. It's open plan. Just like my other office at the big red W..!

Our dining area. None too shabby. 

Food glorious food! Another creative meal fashioned by Lau and La, the twin chefs with basically the same name. True story. 

Everyone is secretly tryng to turn their water into wine...

Winning! One of just five meals we enjoy each day.

Our zucchini seeds, for planting and giving back to mother nature. Let's see if I make it on to "border security" when I smuggle this little guy home.

Yay! I passed my final exam! I'm a yoga teacher, with a certificate to prove it!

Two of my fave yoginis! My temple sista Lia and my namesake Catherine. 

My inspiring yoga teacher, demonstrating a little "brahmacharya" (which means "moderation" in sanskrit) by making up for our last four sober weeks with alllll the bubbles! 

The end. Namaste xx

damo & dalbs: albuquerque to new orleans

30 August - 10 September, 2014

Hey there!

Kath is about half way through her yoga instructors course, and continuing her incredible adventure in the depths of the Costa Rican jungle. She wants to let everyone know that she is alive and well, and continuing to impress with healthy eating, headstands and backflips (at least that's what I understand she's doing, but I'm sure she will fill us in with more detail shortly).

So, whilst we are looking forward to meeting up with Kath (and Britta, Dalbs' better half) in New York in a couple of short weeks, the Damo and Dalbs quest continues for another glorious update, this one outlining our adventure through the mid west, Albuquerque to New Orleans. Who would have thought we would have made it this far?!

The highlight

• Monument valley and the Mexican Hat
• Albuquerque for Labor Day where we stayed at an eclectic place with chickens and a very enthusiastic mother of one. Airbnb continues to keep us on our toes! 
• Roswell we enjoyed all-you-can-eat ribs (big mistake) and alien paraphernalia. Although we did have a competitive game of throws in a pool. Damo won one game, Dalbs another. We also went thrift shopping, walking away with 2 vests for 2 whole dollars. Bargain! 
• Dallas consisted of cruisy bars, harry potter closets, and sneaking into hotels to use their pools (namely the W hotel in Dallas, being our alias Mr Picallo, room 409 of course. Here on business. Third largest imitation crab meat salesman in the Dallas area). 
• Austin, the forever college town, kept us entertained with a campus tour, the opening game of college football (go the Longhorns), and cool natural swimming holes, where we broke up a fight between a volunteer parking ticket officer and an aggressive recipient of the aforementioned parking infringement (resulting in cops coming and us providing witness statements). Austin is super fit and healthy, with one of the coolest supermarkets we have ever seen (we spent hours in there, who would have guessed a supermarket would be a tourist attraction)! Austin also had a cool area near 6th street consisting of a row of old houses, done up into themed bars. 
• Finally, we made it to New Orleans, where jazz bands dominate and ghost tours excite. We also went exploring for somewhere to do some exercise and found a place specialising in vertical fitness. Never having experienced vertical fitness, we gave it a go. Turns out vertical fitness = pole dancing classes. Which we totally nailed by the way. Looks like we've found a new source of funding for the trip! 

The Summary

Weather: Beautifully hot! The desert can be funny like that... and New Orleans is properly humid. 
Surf: Nope, although we tried to surf at an indoor wave pool. But it was out of order. 
Food: We have done plenty of cooking, with delicious meals. We've also had our fair share of fried American food. When in Rome. 

Beverages: Just a cheeky whisky here and there. 

People: Still meeting plenty of people along our journeys. Americans are incredibly welcoming! 
Accommodation: Mostly airbnb but a couple of motels along the way. We've been pretty fortunate with airbnb, although America is definitely not a cheap place for accom! Average airbnb is around $100 per night. 
Budget: Hard to tell but probably just a little over, so not too bad! 
Overall: Incredible! Abq to New Orleans was a diverse adventure, from desert to swamps, history to modern, and quiet to busy. America is absolutely delivering an incredibly adventure! 

Monument Valley and Mexican Hat, Utah

Monument Valley, hot and no one around. 

Taking a birds eye view with some casual levitation. 

Checking my wallet for more pixie dust. 

Adding to the Mexican Hat. Kinda like jenga right? 

Dalbs nose how to pose for a photo... eh? eh? 

Mirror selfie? 

Airbnb. 2 bedroom. Plenty of space. Quiet neighbours. Eclectic. Close to transport. Loads of natural light. And only $70 per night! Bargain. 

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Not getting into trouble... the cops in Albuquerque were incredibly friendly and hilariously funny! Although a very quiet place, especially given we were there for Labor day. Where was everyone?? 

Albuquerque, where Breaking Bad was filmed. This guy loving the Breaking Bad paraphernalia! 

Nicely cut... the vegetables that is :) Part of our healthy eating approach to travel. 

Roswell, New Mexico

The locals look a little different in Roswell... 

When in Roswell, drink the local stuff! 

Dallas, Texas

Dallas, putting the I in bIg. We then enjoyed the facilities at the W hotel. They're very accommodating. 

In Dallas, we found an "extreme" park called Zero Gravity. 

Nothing like bungee jumping to cure a hangover

 Austin, Texas

Austin, with it's massive university! If you've seen the movie Road Trip (which we had just finished watching ourselves), it's kinda like that. 

Getting heaps of learnen' in the uni library

Hook em' horns! 

One of the  natural spring pools in Austin. They even had a diving board here, where i skilfully belly flopped a dive and Dalbs face planted a flip. In front of a lot of people. This is where self confidence comes to die. 

Before the football games, Austinites "tailgate" which means they throw huge parties in public carparks, consuming beer and cooking up bbq's. Is this legal? We were actually told of this concept by a passing policeman. Not only legal, but encouraged! 

The game. Opening game of the season. We didn't understand what was happening, or why, we just booed when people booed, cheered when they cheered, and, like all games, blamed the referee for any players' mistakes. 

We totally fit in with our Longhorns tshirts. Chameleons. Just blending in. 

Houston, Texas

We stopped off at NASA for an hour to check out the place. Could have spent all day there! Incredible. 

Two space cadets. 

I thought it would be bigger...? 

New Orleans, Louisiana

The street lights use actual fire! We need to introduce this into Sydney. What could possibly go wrong? 

New Orleans is all about the music. Jazz. And these guys are some of the best! 

On our way to take a yoga class, we stumbled on "vertical fitness". Definitely not pole dancing.  Turns out we're pretty good! That's what they told us in between pointing and laughing... 

Trick photography. We're actually just leaning on horizontal poles... 

Cemetery tour with a highly eccentric local tour guide who advert online included a review stating "if you want a tour guide that looks like a homeless man, with pizza stains on his shirt, then this is the tour for you." We signed up immediately and were not disappointed! 

We met this guy in New Orleans. Mr In Cognito. He was hilarious.   

The street cars in New Orleans are an old but enjoyable way to see the city. And the city's inhabitants. 

The journey continues...!