The day started with the usual 8 AM breakfast - pinapple, papaya, bananas, granola, nut-milk. It could have started with 6:15 AM yoga, but my body said no. lol
Before the cleanse can begin, we must get in touch with Mother Earth again. We need to cleanse ourselves mentally and emotionally, as well as work up a good sweat and remove some physical toxins. That is the purpose of doing the Sweat Lodge first. It was an amazing ceremony with aboriginals there conducting some of the spiritual blessings.
For those of you unfamiliar with a Sweat Lodge, the tent is approx. 12 feet around and 3 feet high. We packed 36 people in there 3 circles deep on the dirt floor around a pit, everyone sitting very up-close and personal, the men on one side and the women on the other. There is a ceremony to fill the pit with hot stones (Grandmother & Grandfather Earth), the tent is closed, and water is poured on the stones creating a sauna effect. There was rattles and drums and singing. You set an intention before you go in, and focus on that intention during the sweat. We did 4 sweats honouring each of the 4 directions of the earth.
It was freaking awesome!! When we came out, we were covered from toes to the nose with mud from the steam and sweat in the tent. When I was in the sweat, I used the mud on my legs and arms and face. Women pay a fortune to have that done at a spa! I'm sure I looked like a real Indian Warrior Princess when I crawled out of the tent. Sorry, no pictures! Sacred ceremony.
And the best part of all was getting to jump into the river after it was done. Fantastic.
The staff had juice and watermelon for us, as well as transportation back up to the top. It's not so bad going down, but getting back up after an hour in the Sweat Lodge can be challenging.
From there we went to lunch (our last meal for the next five days!) consisting of raw soup, veggie wraps, salad, hummus w. dehydrated crackers. It was delicious!
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