Learning Thai Massage in Guatemala from a South African and a Mexican

In my previous post I made the bold claim that I am a not a hippie, however I realize my actions may continue to indicate otherwise until maybe at some point I will have to concede the inevitable.

The past few days, as a gift to Ken, I decided to take a Thai Massage class in the nearest town, San Marcos. You see Ken loves massages but 9 times of of 10 he is not satisfied with the level of pressure. The best massage he ever received was at  a spa we traveled to in New Mexico, Ten Thousand Waves. I HIGHLY recommend it if you're looking for a bit a heaven closer to the US than my beautiful lake. We have been trying since then (2001!) to re-create the experience and thought perhaps I just needed to do it myself - like cutting his hair. :-)

The timing of things coming together made me wonder if the universe really wanted me to attend. We were supposed to go to San Cristobal last week for Ken to see a doc to check out a mole on his back, but Guatemala's version of the DMV gave us a hard time and said if we left we couldn't bring our vehicles back - yes, I know we seem to have DMV issues everywhere. We are still investigating the issue to figure out how we are supposed to cross the border here.

So instead we made last minute plans to hit Antigua and it was amazing. By pure coincidence, we ended up staying at a small lovely hotel, Sor Juana, owned by a guy that has stayed at our place on the lake and knows our landlord. His mother is American from Palo Alto and he lived in SF for some time, so lots in common. We plan to have many more visits there (and I'll put together a separate post about the visit.)

After a great doctor visit and not enough time to enjoy but a promise to return soon, we left Antigua with plenty of time to make it home and relax a bit before the class the next day. Best laid plans. Halfway down the mountain to the lake, we blew a tire and had to rely on the kindness of our landlord to find the lugnut key in our apartment and drive it to us 30 minutes away in the dark in a storm - on one of the most challenging roads we've driven. Good times.

Arriving back about 10 p.m., I was delighted to discover that the class didn't start until 3 the next day.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but my teachers Zendrick (from South Africa) and Carla (From Mexico) immediately made me feel welcome. There were 4 students, so lots of personal attention.

Two of the students were a young couple from Blackpool in the UK and the third was a local therapist also from the UK. The couple had been through massage classes before, the young man even studying sports massage for a year. Not intimidating at all to be the only person not trying to be a professional therapist!

I soon discovered a challenge bigger than my self-confidence...my knees. After nearly 30 years of soccer and four knee surgeries, they were not happy with the positions required when working on a client on a floor mat. That left me feeling strained and somewhat awkward until I found alternate positions to work from.

I was extremely lucky in getting my partner, the local therapist. She was fantastic at providing feedback about what I was doing and how I was doing it.

At the end of the first two days of instruction however, I was a little puzzled about how I was feeling afterward. I would go into class each day feeling quite centered and positive, enjoy the class, but find that immediately afterward and into the evening, I was fatigued, negative, and not in a good place.

After talking to my teachers about it prior to the start of the last day, I got some great advice about how to clear away energy after working with a client. Today I suffered from none of those symptoms, instead finding I have more energy than when the day started and feel extremely positive. I think I may have to look into more of this kinda thing.

When Ken came to get me, our quad wouldn't start, so we went to a local place for a late lunch, playing with their dogs and having a great time. When we returned to the quad, it still wouldn't start and we had to leave it and walk back home in the light rain, actually kinda fun.

Favorite moment of the day - sitting cross-legged, the only American in the room, hearing the local Guatemalan pastor over the loudspeaker in the distance while we talk about Indian, Chinese and Thai energy work and yoga traditions. What a wonderful world.