Spain week four, day four

Tuesday May 20th 2008

Hacienda, Villamartin, Spain

Grey skies at first but then some blue patches and for a short time we were all quite optimistic that today would be the day we could bake in the sun. Unfortunately, our hopes were dashed by late morning as the cloud thickened again. Kate logged onto some weather satelite sites which showed the growth of the cloud sitting over us and suggested it was being trapped by the mountains nearby. The forecast for later in the week is better again.

But at least it is warm and there was no problem with having yoga outside again. Today is Lou and Nicky's last day of their short break and so we wanted to make the yoga a little more challenging prior to their departure and the other's rest day. So I chose a series of short vinyasa sequences that would give a really good work out to those who wanted it while allowing the others to go at their own pace with a smaller number of postures. This is not a style of yoga that I have taught a lot but it was nice to do.

The "learn to relax" course also had to accommodate Lou and Nicky's departure and so I picked out a few of the sessions from the next three sessions, ensuring that I could produce some sort of conclusion even though it was only day two of the four day course. Most of the participants got the key insight that there are often no "black or white" answers to these questions and that change does require some effort. Both Lou and Nicky said they would be certainly trying to incorporate yoga and pilates into their lives going forward.

After much deliberation, the afternoon is spent in Arcos de la Frontera, the last "white village" before Jerez and perched on the top of a hillside as most are. This is larger than most in the area and has a lot of very attractive shops in the old part of town. Plus a rather odd uniform shop that a couple of the group went round. More complex driving to exit the town as the one way system takes everyone out to the edge of town.

As we were back a bit later than planned and had booked an evening out, yoga / Pilates is reduced to 45 mins but also aims at a slightly higher level that previous days, prior to the rest day. I took quite a few photos of this session as everyone is beginning to look very good at the postures we have been practising the last few days.

Some nice downward dogs

Everyone has done some excellent Tree poses this week

For some reason this posture seemed to reduce everyone to fits of giggles everytime they did it

. . . . . and a nice strong crescent moon pose near the end of the sequence

Dinner tonight was at the Hacienda Buena Suerte which is next door to us across the fields. This is a riding school and has about 30 horses, all of which Ellie loves. The guests seem to be mostly French and German. They serve a simple buffett dinner which was salmon tonight and very good. Everyone had a very good time, though Kate is ultra-sensitive to smells at the moment - a side effect of her pregnancy - and found the slightly smoky atmosphere a little difficult. So hopefully Luigina and Nicky had a good last night.

Jonathan and Luigina at the Hacienda Buena Suerte