Day 14

WOW WOW WOW!!

We went to Playa Del Carmen today to this place called XPLOR.

IT WAS SO COOL and I don't have a single photo to share!  Well... that's not entirely true, but when it comes to all the cool water-related stuff... I have zero photos.  :(

We went zip lining for hours, and went rafting and swimming in caves, I drove a four-wheeler jeep terrain thing (yes I know that doesn't paint the clearest picture, but I have no idea what it was called).  It was so amazingly fun.  I've always wanted to do zip lining but never thought I would get a chance to do that on this trip!  Insane.  I never expected to be able to check that off my life's To-Do list so soon! 

My sister was 100% terrified of the zip lining... aka: "Tirolesas." I mean I don't blame her.  You're essentially chucked off a really tall pillar and you fly down these cables that you're attached to via a harness, all the while overlooking a jungle and all the possible things you could die from falling into.  So yeah, I totally get the fear.  To be honest, as we climbed our way to the top of the first tower, I wanted to chicken out myself.  But I'm glad I didn't.  She didn't either!  We were all hooked after the 3rd zip line.  The last couple of runs involved zip lining into a water fall which was so glorious.  

Swimming in the caves was insane and I'm so sad I don't have any pictures of any of this.  There were stalagmites and stalactites everywhere.... and of course bats.   I just pretended I didn't see those.  

Today was a very physically demanding day,  the rafting required a lot of upper body strength, the swimming in caves required a ton of leg strength because my arms were sore from the rafting so I didn't use them much afterwards!   The Zip lining required some core strength because on many of the lines you had to keep your knees up to avoid hitting trees or cliff walls.  I loved every bit of it.  

I'm not feeling quite as sick anymore either.  I think I slept off the fatigue and muscle aches these past two days.  I'm definitely feeling stiff though.  My routine lately has been: morning yoga, busy day of mexican activities, then some late-night swims in the hotel pool until it closes at 11pm.  I think the late-night swims is what is making me stiff oddly enough.  The early morning yoga undoes all that stiffness though.  The truly beautiful thing is that I can feel such a strong difference in my body.  I have actual strength and ENERGY to do all these physical activities.  In the past I could totally see myself being worn out by the rafting or the swimming, or any of the stuff I've been doing lately.  But with all this yoga, I feel perfectly equipped to handle everything Mexico's been throwing my way.  

My visit with Eoin Finn and crew was called Shoulder High this morning.  It was muy excelente. 

It's also only 34 minutes long which is fantastico because I definitely didn't have much time this morning before we left for Playa Del Carmen.   Eoin made up this really cool pose... it's a variation of boat pose... can you believe I actually think it's cool now?  I used to loathe this bad boy.  

Anyway, you're essentially doing boat pose but with one hand behind your shoulders and the other one reaching over to grab your opposite hand.  I'm sorry if this isn't very clear... I'm not very eloquent today as I've had a few cervezas! Oleeee.

I'll be sure to take some pictures of this the next time I come across it in the routines!  I guess I just really like it because I could literally sense my muscles being confused.  They were like "Okay, okay, boat pose again... brace yourself... wait... whaaat?  what's this?   Hmm.. yeah okay, I guess we can handle this too then."  Eoin says in the video that he thought of this pose while trying to put on sunblock on a hammock and I totally get it.   This is definitely something new that I haven't ever done at any yoga studio before.