Why is that so hard sometimes?
A couple days ago while sitting on the beach, Los Frilles in Ecuador, I saw water spitting out of the sea. Whales!!! Now that is a deep breath!
The next day, I took a tour and got out there and saw some amazing things! I’ve been whale watching a few times and have never seen such a display! Quite a few humpback whales…from a huge poppa to a “little” baby. The adults can get to 40-50 ft long! Of course it is hard to catch on video when you just have a point and shoot and the boat is rocking…but here is are some highlights. There were about 6 at one time and the baby was playing.
After that we landed on Isla de La Plata which is the called by some the poor man’s Galapagos because it is much closer and cheaper to get to but has some of the birds.
Maybe I am just a little lonely for love but I really enjoyed these Booby couples! They are monogamous, you know?!
And rarely seen Albatross:
But it was after this during the snorkeling portion of the tour that I struggled for breath. Why do some things scare me and others don’t?! We are all that way but sometimes it seems so arbitrary that perhaps we need fear nothing! Ok maybe not! Anyway, I freak out in water sometimes. But only when the water has living things in it like huge turtles, manta rays and fish!
The first guy to jump in the water came to the surface yelling “there are a lot of fish in here!”
But I knew I’d be mad at myself if I didn’t go so I put on that mask and I jumped in. I don’t understand but every time I put the snorkel mouth piece in I gasped for breath like I was drowning. I was getting air but it was like it wasn’t filling my lungs. I forced myself to keep my face in the water and trust the air and breath easy. It finally started working but was easily lost.
It was the next morning in my first yoga class in almost two years (due to a shoulder injury) that I remembered how little we trust our breath even out of the water. I sat in lotus preparing to begin and connecting with my breath and hearing the many sounds of nature around me and I found my breath and I was present. Honestly, sometimes that is more overwhelming than anything else. To truly connect with yourself in the present. Just like with that snorkel mask I can feel myself resisting and not trusting my present, my breath. But alas, I can keep practicing, keep remembering and keep breathing!
And what a great place to reconnect with myself and my breath than Ayampe, town of 400 people that closes at 8 pm and is simply “tranquilo”. Here is a taste of Ayampe: (I don’t know how to make the slide show only of the new images so skip the ones from earlier in the post to get to Ayampe pics.)
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