Carioca in Rio

From Wikipedia:

Carioca" is a Portuguese adjective that refers to the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The original word "Kara'i oca" comes from the indigenous Amerindian language of the Tupi people, meaning "White Man's House".

According to a survey published in American Scientist Magazine, the Cariocas of Rio de Janeiro exhibited great friendliness and offered to help in various situations. A quote from the article mentioned the following:

There is an important word in Brazil: simpático. (Actually it's a Greek origin word meaning sym-pathy that you feel very concerned (almost the same) about someone else's suffering). It refers to a range of desirable social qualities - to be friendly, nice, agreeable, and good-natured. A person who is fun to be with and pleasant to deal with .... Brazilians, especially the Cariocas of Rio (as citizens here are known), want very much to be seen as simpático. And going out of one's way to assist strangers is part of this image.

Our time in Rio was short, but we did have a few days to witness the Carioca lifestyle and all the culture and music that makes Rio such a great city.

We went to Ipanema beach to look for the Girl from Ipanema, but we didn't find her. We had a great yoga session instead.

We took a day trip to the Modern Art Museum. This impressive structure was designed by Oscar Niemayer, an amazing architect. He has many structures throughout Brasil and the world.

We went out with some couchsurfing friends one night, and discovered that the sidewalks are called "Brasilian rugs". The black and white stone work adornes most city blocks, and although it's nice to look at, the women hate it because it's dangerous to walk on with high heels!

Christ the Redemer statue is visibile throughtout the city. What a beautiful landmark! Our hostal was also a highlight during our visit in Rio, and we wish we could have spent more time getting to know people. We had to press on, however, to volunteer up the coast. . .

The Indra Devi Foundation - yoga for the people

Indra Devi was born in 1899 in Riga, Latvia. She was fascinated with India and moved there in 1927 to dance and act in the film industry. She found yoga in 1937 and trained with Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, a Yoga master whose other students included B.K.S. Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois. Often referred to as the first lady of yoga, Indra Devi brought the practice to Soviet Russia, China, Vietnam, South Africa and eventually Mexico and Argentina. She moved to Buenos Aires in 1982 and set up the Indra Devi Foundation : Yoga, Art and Science of Life.

She dedicated her life to bringing yoga to all people. At age 100, she was still practicing Ardha Sirsasana, Janu Sirsasana, Ardha Matsyendrasana, and Padmasana. She died just shy of her 103rd birthday in Buenos Aires. Her students refer to her as Mataji, a rare honor for a woman who exemplifies Yoga´s principles.



When we arrived in Buenos Aires, we picked the studio closest to our hostal to go make some contacts. Luckily, we met the two individuals who run the foundation and teach throughout the city. David and his wife Iana welcomed us with open hearts and arms. We signed up for classes and started to work on our Spanish anatomy right away. Our teachers and their youth class are pictured below.

We attended classes at four of the six locations throughout our stay. Each location is beautifully decorated with artwork and fotos from decades of yoga lineage. There is a room in one of the studios that holds many of Indra Devi´s favorite things from her life.

The class structure is quite different than that of an American yoga class. The pace is slower and more relaxed. There is not as much a sense of competition. Each class started with chanting Ohm, followed by neck warm-ups. The classes were primarily asanas, but also included pranayama, mantras and mudras dispursed throughout the class. Class was usually followed by a short dharma talk or a candle light concentration/meditation. The pranayamas were simple but effective. Just when I thought the asanas were getting too hard and I was exhausted, our teacher would have us do a simple short pranayama that would quickly relieve the stress in my body and calm my mind.

The students were of all kinds - skinny and large, short and tall, young and old, new and advanced, pregnant and not. The sun salutations were slower paced and started and ended in child´s posture. But in some ways, they were harder, like transitioning from downdog to updog in a flow while bending your arms and lowering your head rather than just lowering the hips and keeping the head high.
Most asanas were taught with 2 or 3 difficulty levels and each version was demonstrated starting with the easiest. I think it is nice for a beginning student or less advanced student to see the easy version demonstrated first as opposed to demonstrating a hard posture and then explaining in words how to make it easier. This may be one way that the Indra Devi schools keep a wide range of students coming back to class. The classes were challenging for all students regardless of their flexibility and strength.
Every class ended with "Ohm signifies love and Shanti signifies peace. Ohm shanti." And then every or almost every student hugged and kissed the teacher and other students with the greeting "Ohm shanti". It was an akward experience the first day of class as rarely do students hug their yoga teacher in the US, let alone hug and kiss everyone in the room. But it was a nice experience that really helped to strengthen the sense of community and family among the class.

David invited us to several activities, including a six mile walk around a rose garden and breakfast on a relaxed Sunday. He gave us rides home several times and this gave us an opportunity to ask questions about Mataji´s life and his experiences with her over twenty plus years. We enjoyed our time at the Indra Devi studios and hope to bring more yogis from the US to study for years to come.
Om Shanti!

The Lovely and Beautiful Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires from the 22nd floor of a Palermo building

After 48 hours of travel, including a six hour border crossing from Bolivia to Argentina, we arrived in Buenos Aires. The subway provided a quick ride to rejuvenation. We found a quaint four room hostal on the edge of Palermo Viejo, a neighborhood close to the city center. We negotiated a good rate for our 18 days stay and settled in for our adventures. The weather was gorgeous for our first week in the city, mid to upper seventies and ample humidity. Getting back to sea level brought us our first deep easy breaths since we entered the high altitude of the Andes nearly three months ago. Our dry skin recovered in about two days. Although we adored Bolivia and Peru, it was nice to be in a place where toilet seats and paper, and shower curtains were standard.
We quickly adapted to big city living by acquiring several good maps of the city bus and subway routes. Throughout our entire stay we probably averaged many miles of walking a day. The first few days we explored so much on foot that we literally collapsed into bed.

We met a nice gentleman in our neighborhood painting his new house. We want to be his neighbor!

We thought about parking our souls here for a day, but decided to go eat ice cream instead. The ice cream in Buenos Aires is amazing. We made sure to eat some everyday so we could understand the flavor structure and quality variance in each part of town. Josh pictured below demonstrating ice cream drainage, a technique used when the cone isn´t as fresh as it could be.

When we weren´t studying yoga, we spent our afternoons playing chess on our new Incas vs. Spaniards chess board (Incas go first). Za was keeping score of wins and losses until she decided part of love is not keeping track. Our games are still pretty average, but we´re getting better.

The city is full of monumental architecture, quaint cafes, and tango music. The makeup of the city is heavily European, and Italian culture seeps into the language and people. People in Buenos Aires say ´no por favor´instead of ´de nada´after someone says ´gracias´. De nada means ´of nothing´ or ´no problem´, and no por favor means ´no please´. The way people say it is quite funny though, as if saying OH PLEASE!!! It made us laugh a lot. Our Spanish skills improved throughout our stay, and although we aren´t fluent by any means, we felt the people of the city were open, polite and friendly. We found it challenging to go see live music, as concerts and dance clubs don´t begin festivities until midnight. A typical schedule appeared to be : eat dinner between 9:00 and 11:00, either nap or drink espresso from 11:00 to 1:00 and then go out until 6:oo in the morning. Needless to say, we couldn´t hang.
Our adventures through the various boroughs were always entertaining, even though the weather changed significantly throughout our second and third weeks. Luckily, we left before true winter hit.

Impressive bridge downtown.

View of a street downtown near the tango district.

Diagonal Norte, a huge monument in the city center.

Our last day in town, we went for a day trip to El Tigre with our two friends from Venezuela. Just 20 kilometers north of the city, El Tigre is a huge delta where hundreds of rivers run into the ocean. We took a boat ride and ogled at this impressive museum on the river.

Za and Marshia in Rio de la Plata, El Tigre