What a weekend.
3 days of fun and excitement.
72 hours with new friends and new experiences.
But leave it to me to wait over a month to write this post. One of these days I’ll stop procrastinating. Until then, here was the weekend…
After a brief sleep through the dark hours of the early morning, we woke up to sunrise and the amazing landscape of the Philippines. Even though it was a long bus ride, its hard to get tired of views like this –
We were also treated with a vegan breakfast. As you may know, I’m a pretty big guy and I love to eat meat. Even with that said, this breakfast was pretty good. Props to PipinoVeg, you made healthy taste good 😉
Once we arrived at Aliya Surf Resort, we spent a little time checking out the beach, meeting our fellow flow’ers, and grabbing lunch.
I was more than happy with the resort and my room. Imagine waking up to this each morning. Seriously.
Here’s the room and CR (aka bathroom/comfort room). Sure it’s simple, but it has StokedInc girls on the wall – so what else do you want?
I was supposed to have my first surf lesson of the trip at 3pm but I was so tired I didn’t wake up from my nap until 330. Luckily for me, nobody noticed. I found an instructor that was free, grabbed a board and we hit the water.
[Sorry No Photo… I WAS BUSY SURFING… Haha]
Just before dinner it was time for some music. It was time to Samba. I joined drummers while the girls got a little dance lesson. Dinner kept a similar theme to the rest of food on the trip. Healthy. Considering how much crap I had been eating the weeks before, it was a welcomed change. Here are some pics of everyone getting setup to Samba, plus our healthy dinner.
After dinner we stayed up as long as we could. I think I lasted until 9 or 10pm. We were all exhausted from a long day of fun in the sun.
In the morning I chickened out of what was supposed to be my first ever yoga lesson. Why was I chicken? I have no idea. I assume its because I’m a guy and were weird like that haha.
Our second set of surf lessons could either be done in the morning or afternoon. I chose to do the afternoon. I took the morning to bring my camera out into the water and get some shots of my new friends catching waves. Here are a few.
In the afternoon I got my second lesson (I wasn’t late this time). One thing that really set it apart was having a DJ setup banging out beats. Catching waves while rocking out to tunes is a serious way to spend your afternoon. We also got a intro to raw veg and a second round of samba. This time everyone got to grab a percussion instrument and join in a samba drum circle, on the beach, at sunset. Beat that!
On our last night, I made the confession about chickening out on the yoga. Big mistake. I was promptly woken up very early the next morning. I wasn’t getting out of it this time. I’ll tell you a secret. But you have to keep it between us… It wasn’t bad at all 🙂
For the final activity, half the group chose to stay for a last round of surfing. I chose to go on a hike to some waterfalls. 8 girls… and me. Yeah, I know I’m smart.
It was quite the little adventure. 15-minute bus ride. 10-minute trike ride, straight uphill. Then a 25-minute hike.
But it was totally worth it.
There is one sad part to the story. One the way back from the waterfall, I lost one of my sandals while crossing a stream. Luckily, our guide found me another sandal that someone had lost before me. I wonder how many sandals that stream has eaten over the years.
Here’s a pics of our group that I stole from the FLOW website.
A very big THANK YOU to Denise, Noelle and Monica for putting together this great weekend. I met a lot of great people. Had a so much fun and relaxation, I’m wishing I was back there right now. I’m looking forward to the announcement of your next retreat.
For more info your can check them our here:
Website >> http://www.flowsurfyogasamba.blogspot.com
Facebook >> http://www.facebook.com/flowsurfyogasamba
Twitter >> http://www.twitter.com/surfyogasamba
BONUS – Check these awesome videos from the weekend.
Thanks so much for blogging about FLOW! So nice to have you in our retreat, was really nice knowing you (:
Surf again when you’re in the Philippines!
Happy trails!
Thanks Noelle! Great meeting you as well. Im back in the Philippines now. Going to Siargao on Monday 🙂
i’d like to join the group but how?
thanks
ayie
Hello Ayie! You can contact the FLOW team a few different ways..
email: flowsurfyogasamba@gmail.com
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/flowsurfyogasamba
twitter: @surfyogasamba
Have fun on the trip!
thank you for visiting our town, BALER, AURORA sir!