Issue #29: A Weekend in the Valley: From Surfing to Shakespeare
The Unexpected Blend of Community, Culture, and Quirks in Machuca Valley Life
One function of a newsletter is to disseminate “news”. Something we haven’t done much of here, mainly because there isn’t much news per se. “So and so’s dog bit another dog” or “Fresh eggs at the market!” doesn’t feel like a headline worthy of publication. Yet, the collection of activities that happened this past weekend, while not newsworthy in themselves, do represent a set of activities that one can expect when living here. Perhaps not in the same weekend, but certainly in a given month. And so without further ado, I give you, the last weekend:
Friday Morning
Friday started with a bit of surfing at Barranca - a great surfing spot only 40 minute drive from San Mateo. Its a left-hand wave that goes on for quite some time, you could technically be riding that wave for a good minute. We have a Surfing group chat with people going during various days of the week and there are quite a few spots within 1.5 hour drive. You can surf year-around and never need a wet suite.
I don’t like surfing, I actually hate it. I also don’t really know how to surf. I have tried lessons and tried practicing and recently even got my own custom shaped board! Yes, thats how much I despise the sport. If you enjoying biking, you get on a bike and you peddle for say 3 hours, after you’re done, you have just done 3 hours worth of your preferred activity. If you like surfing, you get into a car, drive for 40 minutes, stretch, wax your board, get out there, get hit with waves almost drowning, finally get past the breaking point, sit and wait until you finally catch one or two waves, go back. After 3 hours if your time, you have done 60 seconds of your favorite activity. Why? I dare you to name another activity where the ratio of “getting ready for the activity” to “actually doing the activity” is as bad as it is with surfing. Anyways, if you want to get into surfing and suffer with others, hit me up! There are a few people who claim to enjoy the whole thing, I suspect they are very good liars.
Friday Night
Friday is often a YALP night. What is YALP you ask, its short for "Yet Another LEV Potluck”. They happen often, sometimes without a reason, it’s a way for community to come together and eat Quinoa.
This one was different. Maracuya a multi-house complex inside LaEcovilla was sold and Monica and Ross(previous owners) were saying farewell to the community. This was important for many reasons, first Monica was there since the early days and has been a pillar of the community for quite some time, second, the multi-house complex provided the much needed short-term rentals for families looking to “try communal life” for a few weeks, or just friends visiting the area. It’s not clear if those houses will ever be available for short-term rentals again, in fact the people that were staying there were all kicked out(quite literally!) and any future reservations were canceled. Not a good sign, but perhaps just a rocky transition and something positive will unfold there once the new owners get settled.
In any case, if it’s not yet clear, I hate potlucks. We get together, we gobble the Quinoa, we have small talk, sometimes there is music, kids are usually running around, it all feels quite “lively” and “communal”, but afterwards I still have the “well I’m glad thats over!” feeling. I suppose much like surfing, there are probably minutes of the potluck that are quite enjoyable.
Saturday Night
Kaypacha, an internationally renowned astrologer and founder of New Paradigm School of Astrology is hosting his annual “WTF is going on!?” event where he invites neighbors over to his house and tries to explain where we are currently and where we’re heading, astrologically speaking of course. He has a Zodiac mural in the center of the house which he uses as a stage on which the performance unfolds where main characters Pluto, Uranus, Neptune and other planets play their parts with Kaypacha as the ventriloquist. It’s quite a show and its the 3rd year that I’m attending it.
You might be thinking that I hate astrology right? No, certainly I don’t hate it, but I also don’t quite understand it and coming from the western / rational upbringing have a healthy dose of resistance to it, even though I’m surrounded by everyone who to various degrees believes it and even uses it to guide big parts of their lives. So at some point one must ask - am I surrounded by crazy people or am I the crazy one? Whatever the case may be, there is an appeal to blame Mercury for your car troubles and not the fact that you haven’t changed oil for 3 years, certainly takes the weight off one’s shoulders and if I can blame some far away planet for at least some of my troubles, I’m in! But if you are astrologically inclined, please don’t judge me, I’m told my resistance is due to my Sun, Mercury and Mars(yes all 3!) are in Taurus, so we can blame the stubborn materialistic Taurus. But worry not, there is hope, in just a few years, the alignment will be such that I shall come to my senses and likely start my own Astrological school - “The Even Newer Paradigm Astrology School”
Anyways, back to Kaypacha event, the short summary is: everything is going to change, because the planet’s locations will change. It’s a spiral, not a circle. Buy crypto, grow food, do inner work, Pluto is coming for you and you’re not gonna like it! Next year you’ll be older then you are today. Lets give birth to the age of Aquarius. Cheers!
Sunday Morning
One of my favorite spaces in the valley is the LEV Yoga Shala. Depending on the day and time, you will see people do different activities there, on a rare occasion there’ll even be an actual Yoga practice, but on this Sunday morning, 8 men were gathered with the sole purpose of trying to punch each other in the face. A group boxing class that James is leading was taking place and I was excited to participate. Do I hate being punched in the face you ask? Why, no! I absolutely freaking love it! Perhaps not the face punching itself, but the focus and presence that it cultivates. In all the years of Yoga, Meditation, Medicine Journeys, Kirtan Singing, Ecstatic Dancing, Envision Drumming, Cold Plunging or any other activity that is meant to get me out of my mind and into the juicy present moment of the evasive “now“, facing an opponent who is actively trying to punch me in the face definitely comes out somewhere on top. There are so many levels to this martial arts practice from the physical to psychological, learning to calm one’s nervous system under stress, looking someone in the eye adversarially in one second and as a brother the next, moving all parts of the body in unison to produce a single punch, holding space, actually punching someone in the face(surprisingly hard!) and I’m just getting started. If you haven’t punched someone in the face lately, I highly recommend it, come to LEV Yoga Shala on Sundays at 9:30am. It goes without saying that of course we do it in a very safe and supportive environment meeting everyone where they’re at, regardless of level of experience.
Sunday Mid-Day
I have a business proposition for you: Lets open up a Restaurant and a weekly Farmer’s Market! Let’s do it away from the center of any town, away from the main road, in a place that has zero foot traffic and where people wouldn’t otherwise go, somewhere where there are currently no people and no one lives nearby. Let’s put a security guard and a gate made of rope to add some “friction” into the process. Sounds crazy right? What if I told you that’s exactly what happened, moreover on this very weekend, both the weekly Farmer’s Market as well as the restaurant celebrated their 1-year anniversary.
I’m talking about Mercado de la Tierra and Shanti of course, and if Farmer’s market was a religion, we are all converts, going every Sunday like clockwork to receive our sermons in form of Organic Goat Yoghurt, Vegan Ayurvedic Lunch or whats probably the Best Pizza in the Valley. Whether you enjoy locally grown produce, or want to listen to some good music or just hang out with friends and play chess or card games, the Sunday market is the place where you can find all of that. Happy 1 Year Anniversary Mercado de la Tierra and Shanti! And no, in case you are wondering, I don’t hate it.
Sunday Afternoon
And speaking of unlikely places. By sheer luck and happenstance, we have right here whats likely the only Olympic-level beach volleyball court in the country? Somehow this place was right under our nose until Juan discovered it a few months ago and ever since then on Sunday afternoons there is a community beach volleyball game happening. We play 6-on-6, most people are beginners or total beginners, the teams are mixed ages and genders and we rotate the teams after every game so everyone gets to play. It’s a true community activity if I’ve ever seen one with a chill vibe and some dance beats in the background. People come who don’t even want to play volleyball! Thats a sure sign of a something going right. Of course we have a Group Chat for that, if you’d like to join, just ask your neighbor to add you.
Sunday Evening
Now I know what you’re thinking, surely after all that, I just want to go home for some Netflix and Chill. And you’d be right! However, on this unusually busy weekend, there is one more event to attend to. And that is the premiere of Macbeth, a Shakespeare play being put on in Teatro de la Tierra in Atenas by Jesai, a world-class Theater director, producer and actor, starring our very own witches Cata and my wife Elvi. Do I like Shakespeare plays? I absolutely hate them! Did I go to see this one? You guessed it! Of course I wanted to support my wife as it always gives me great pleasure to see her on stage, even if I didn’t understand a word she(or anyone else) said. While I may not enjoy Shakespeare plays, I certainly enjoy being the person who goes to see Shakespeare plays and then proudly tells their friends about it, casually throwing a quote in the conversation. What’s done cannot be undone.
We finish today’s issue with a fundraiser. A local school right here in Libertad was robbed last week. Food and Kitchen appliances were stolen. We’re raising funds to replace everything that was stolen as well as put in place security measures to prevent it from happening in the future, thank you for your support!
You are hilarious my friend 🤣😂👍