1st post on Island!

Aloha!  

Finally, I got the internet up and working!  Many days without internet, coffee, tv, and radio/music.  I feel content now with just the internet.

My emotions are so strong.  Jon and I had an amazing time together on the Island.  He left several days ago, which was so hard saying goodbye.  We did so many things; we went snorkeling with dolphins, we SUP paddle-boarded, we went on a boat cruise, we went to the Volcano, and we really just had a great time exploring the Island together.  Since he left, I feel sad, but so invigorated with the immersion into my Yoga adventure.  Let me share a little about what it is like.

 

First off, my room is called the Timor room.  This is not a normal room, it is an actual antique ceremonial hut that was used in Timor.  It is hand carved with ceremonial etchings of women and other female representation.  It is believed to be a fertility hut. (Uh Oh!)  The hut was deconstructed in Timor and reconstructed here at this site. There are no panes of glass to be seen on the whole commune, including my room.  My room is facing the ocean crashing on top the lava remains.  Quite a beautiful site and sound to sleep to.  I have a beautiful canopy netting I can surround my bed with at night to keep the geckos or other creatures from joining my slumber.

The site, named Hale Kai, was purchased in 1985 as a completely baron piece of land.  When Deborah and David were deciding to buy the land, while on site, they said they saw 2 humpback whales breach simultaneously 30 feet off shore. They took that as a sign that the land was meant to be theirs.  They decided they wanted to build their home and yoga retreat completely sustainable.  The home is completely solar powered, the food garbage is all composted and reused on the land, everything is recycled, and all of us students participate daily in the jobs to the maintenance  of our yoga paradise.  It was also built to be as little of an impact of the environment, all the furniture and permanent fixtures were custom built in Bali with environmentally friendly wood like coconut wood, bamboo, and other exotic woods in order to not further destroy the rain forest.  The very first building that was built at Hale Kai in 1985 was the Yoga room.  This room was made completely by hand since there was no electricity down here at the time. It still stands here today the same.

Oh, which brings me to, the yoga teacher training.  It turns out there are 8 female students here this session.  The personal attention and information we are learning is outstanding.  We wake up early, 5 or 6am to swim in the ocean or hike the 2.5 mile mountain that we are at the base of before we meet for our daily meditation.  Some days we meditate at the beach on the volcanic remains, sometimes in the open aired yoga room, or sometimes ceremonial meditation with flowers and incense to various spiritual statues surrounding the Hale Kai.  We practice many traditions within the compound.  It really does feel like a highly charged place.  We all can feel it.  After that we have a smoothie and go into Yoga practice, then breakfast, Yoga theory, study time, lunch, break, yoga theory, yoga practice, dinner, and then bed.  Whew!  Busyness all day with no coffee!  It's great though.  Just weird since we are literally in and on  Kona Coffee land!

I wish I could add some pictures now of Hale Kai but I accidentally left my camera at the last place Jon and I spent together.  Because we are rather remote it is taking a while for me to be able to retrieve it.  Soon to come.  In the meantime I added some pictures we took when Jon and I were together.

Mahalo!