Trials of the Yoga Park…

The first night in the tree house was tranquil. Having arrived late the night before, we had a dinner and went to bed with a full stomach. The yoga park was silent and dark, a huge change from the bustling city. It was warm enough we didn’t need any blankets….

We got up early had an amazing breakfast: banana cake, oranges, oatmeal and apples.Here is a picture!!

We headed into the garden to work for our 4 and 1/2 hours. The sunrise was gorgeous as we hoed, shoveled, and weeded in the garden with our new friend Maria. Maria is from Bolivia and lives right down the street from the Yoga Park. She isn’t Hare Krishna and doesn’t do yoga. She manages the organic garden to help support her 3 children. She speaks little english, but that didn’t stop her from having a good time with all the volunteers in the garden.

Just like Yoga classes in the states, the yoga park was mostly women. They were looking to detox after eating unhealthily while traveling. Maria liked having a guy in the garden. Which meant I got to do all the fun jobs like tilling the land with a shovel or chopping down small shrubs and bamboo with a machete. We had a great time working and talking in the garden will all of the fellow volunteers. There were about 12 of us volunteering at the park, along with 4 or 5 non-volunteer guests there just for a weekend get-away from Buenos Aires. The non-volunteer guests spent the mornings reading or relaxing around the park. In exchange for our help, we were given a discount at the park. (for us the total was $12 each per day, for them $40 or $50).

Lunch was fantastic! Very colorful, flavorful, and delicious. It was great to have some fresh vegetables after eating some unhealthy meals while on the road. Each meal was served with a hot tea made from fresh fruits and mint from the garden.

We were loving the yoga park. After lunch we relaxed a bit in the hammocks, read, practiced our spanish, went to a yoga class,watched a movie in the cinema, and then went to bed early.

Sunday was great! No work, all play. We relaxed a lot! Took in the sun and enjoyed our day off. To be honest, I was a little sore from working in the garden. My hands were blistered and my back was a little achy. It was good to have a day off.

We got our blankets and went to bed… when I woke up Monday morning, I realized I was allergic to the blankets! What?!? yes, completely and totally allergic. My eye had swollen completely shut in the night. It looked like I had been in a fight

We thought it was pretty funny, and I got some Allegra D from the pharmacy (prescription strength) and tried that the next night. Nope, that didn’t work, and the nights keep getting cooler. I tried various methods of keeping warm… Here is Leah’s favorite, where I look like some kind of war prisoner wrapped up in my sheet and wearing a bandana over my eyes for protection from the evil blankets. (and as a hat) We had a lot of fun with it for a couple of nights. But it kept getting colder!

And as the week progressed, there were no longer any “regular” guests… and our meals started to get less and less appealing. We had squash. Lots and lots of squash and zucchini. Maria was taking full advantage of having a guy in the garden so I was working pretty hard, and zucchini wasn’t giving me any substance to work off of. And arugula! Arugula with every meal. I swear I’ve eaten my weight in arugula. I needed some protein.. beans, lentils, dairy… something. I understand we eat a lot of protein in America, and probably more than we need. But after a couple of days of squash, zucchini, bread made from only flour, water, and a bit of vegetable oil… I’m starting to get hungry. I’m a growing boy, working in the garden and expelling all my energy as heat trying to stay warm at night, I had to have been burning 4,000 calories a day. How many servings of zucchini do you need to eat to consume 4,000 calories? I have no idea, but google tells me: 200. 200 servings.

I started to day-dream about the little chickens running around the yoga park. I asked around, and the chickens were free roaming and nobody owned them… got me thinking… They won’t miss one! I have a pocketknife in my bag, there is a stack of wood for a fire by the garden, I have some spices… there might be a dead chicken soon. I have dreams of food at night: coffee, cakes, hamburgers, and steaks. We head over to the farm next door to the yoga park, we heard wind they had yogurt there, so we got some.

But this wasn’t cutting it, we had a week left I could not sustain on some yogurt we got next door. I needed food. I was getting hungry and starting to get angry. Leah and I call this hangry (hungry + angry). Two nights in a row I woke up at 4 am and had near mental break downs. Usually rants of “I’m cold” “I’m hungry” “We are saving the souls of cows at the expense of mine” stuff like that. I was genuinely pissed off. Leah, she was laughing at me. I mean here I am a swollen eyed, Taliban looking hippie living in a tree house stomping my feet like a kid, I don’t blame her. But things needed to change…

So we made a trip into town. I devoured a steak, mashed potatoes, a huge hotdog, coffees, a chocolate cake thing with Leah, and Ice Cream.

Full! For the first time in a while. I’m happy for the time being, we find a grocery store and stock up on filling foods, like nuts, bread, crackers, pound cakes, whatever is heavy, filling and tasty. These were a godsend to us. Also, the weekend came bringing “regular” guests, and the good food. We found the trick to surviving the yoga park after the first week.