Play, Practice, Learn

Oct 12, 2015 kayaking Loutro to Svakia

Today was an epic day, or at least a very long one. There was a mix-up on the schedule and yoga class was not posted. So I walked out to the point and practiced  – just me and the goat. The goat was out on the rock, but I still consider it just the two of us. We watched the sun rise. I wonder if I’ll ever see this place again. I’m grateful to have shared it with our little group.

We had breakfast, said our thanks and good-bye’s to the hotel staff and the bird, and climbed into our kayaks for our last, and what turned out to be wild, ride. The sea was rockin, the wind was behind us, so although the swells were about 9 ft, they were carrying us in the right direction. It was a bit of surfing, a lot of paddling and laughing. Joan and I had our rhythm down and lived our yoga – abhaya to be exact. It means “have no fear, everything’s going to be OK.” ( Those are the words I use with students at LACMA when I’m talking about hand gestures of Indian gods, goddesses, and statues of the Buddha.) I repeated it a few times to myself, and off we went…

It really was very cool, having no fear because we knew what we were doing. It is much like pranayama (breath practice) – dance with your breath rather than fight with it. Same with the waves, maybe not dancing, but definitely not fighting. Anyway, it was exhilarating and a great way to end our week in Crete. We made our way into Svakia harbor, pulled out the kayaks and cleaned them for the last time. We had enough time to go to our favorite restaurant for Horta (wild greens) our favorite bakery for – well – baked stuff and the local Ben and Jerry’s for the very last scoop of the season. Literally – the woman scooped out the end of the ice cream bin for us and closed up shop!

We parted ways with two of our guides with lots of hugs (thank god for Facebook) and boarded a bus back to Heraklion. Adam had a room reserved for the night as he was leaving the following morning. I went to the front desk and asked if we could pay a bit extra, get some towels and use his room to shower and change before our flight. At least that was the intention. The guy was gracious, brought us towels and refused to charge us. Once we got to the room and turned on the water we realized why… Calling it a trickle was generous. More water came out of the sink faucet than the shower head. Oh well, it was better than nothing and nothing was going to spoil our day – even the 2 hour delay at the airport. But we were going to Paris, so who cared.