Lucie: Good morning.
Hello from the jungle. I'm in my bug net.
I brought this bug net to protect me from bugs.
It's kind of a cloudy, cool morning.
Annnd... I'm gonna get ready for the day. Also, you're probably wondering what this is...
'cause it looks like one of those insect repellent bracelets... but it's actually
just my hair tie that made its way up my arm at night.
Hello everyone, and welcome back to my YouTube channel. Give this video a thumbs
up if you're excited to watch it and to get a little glimpse inside this lovely
yoga retreat that I'm on right now. And also make sure you're subscribed to my
channel by clicking on the little box right here. Let me put you down somewhere.
Hello everyone.
Woo! Alright, for those of you that are new here, my name is Lucie Fink, and I'm a video producer and a lifestyle host from New York City.
But this week I am in Nicaragua on a yoga retreat, so I wanted to take you along on
a day of my life in this beautiful jungle and beach setting. I'm really
sorry if you hear the ocean and it's very loud, but it IS very loud. This video
is sponsored by Acuvue, which is the contact lens brand that
I've been wearing since middle school... And I'm so excited to tell you about
their ACUVUE OASYS with Transitions Light Intelligent Technology.
I generally have really sensitive eyes, so being on a trip like this where it's very bright
and sunny... and then the clouds come in and it's dark... and then we go outside in
the bright sunshine... and then we go inside under the yoga shala...
my eyes are constantly needing to adjust to the changing light conditions. But
these contact lenses are not just for people who are in the jungle on a yoga
retreat in the sun, they're also just for everyday, everywhere... so I also wear them
in New York City. They're great for cloudy days, sunny day, days in the
jungle, days in the city... you name it. But how they work is these contact lenses
use an innovative technology that causes them to transition from clear, to dark, to
back to clear again--while they're in your eyes--all in response to the
changing light conditions around you. I'm going to tell you how you can get a free
trial pair a little bit later in the video, but for now let's get started with
my morning. Breakfast is very soon... actually, pre-breakfast is very soon. So,
there are 4 vegan meals a day on this trip, first meal being a pre-breakfast--
which is like granola, and smoothies... and then, after we do yoga
we get the actual vegan breakfast buffet which includes a lot of stuff. Can't wait
to show you. I've been loving it. So delicious. Let's go. It is a very wet
scene out here... it must have been raining all night. I am on my way to go meet
Marjolaine for some early morning coffee. There she is!
So I was just gonna tell everyone how I met this lovely human... I think about a
year and a half ago, she sent me an email... or even a DM on Instagram...
Marjolaine: I think it was a DM, followed by an email, followed by another DM.
Lucie: And she offered me a free session of her services,
which are lifestyle and mindfulness coaching... and I was like "Cool,
I could totally use that." For the past year and a half, every Friday morning at
nine o'clock a.m. Eastern Standard Time I sit down on my computer, and she's
usually in Germany, and we FaceTime. Honestly it's been crazy
that I'm here now and I get to see her in the flesh. She's no
longer a person on a screen with pixels that freezes and has bad Wi-Fi...
Marjolaine: It's always your Wi-Fi. New York's wifi? *shakes head* No good.
Lucie: But here we are, we met each other in person and it was kind of like that show where people have a
long-distance relationship on the Internet and then they meet in person and
it's amazing... and it was amazing.
Marjolaine: It's true.
Lucie: We'll see you for breakfast.
Good morning! And this was the moment where I spilled coffee all over my yoga
outfit and I had to go back to my room to change before yoga. Our yoga classes
had a different feel to them every day. Some days were faster and more intense...
others were slower and more grounding. But either way,
each yoga class finished off with a 30-minute meditation session.
Breakfast every day was a full buffet of local ingredients and vegan pastries. We
had a lot of rice and beans, or "gallo pinto", with roasted vegetables,
plantains, and exotic local fruits.
Marjolaine: But Lucie... Don't... Don't neglect how precious this is. This is avocado.
Gives us life.
Lucie: This is a true avocado everyone.
Our daily workshops were focused on self development and growth.
We'd usually head to a quiet place on the property. On this day, we took a nature hike to the lookout point.
Along the way, we were encouraged to connect with our senses and explore our
curiosities. I touched a lot of leaves, closed my eyes, and pet some trees... watched
animals scurry by, and overall just felt my bare feet connecting to the earth
while I heard the sounds of the jungle all around me.
It was peaceful, serene, and meditative. A perfect way to prepare for the workshop.
We arrived at the lookout point beneath a hut, and could see the rest of the
eco-lodge in the distance. Marjolaine and her boyfriend George
walked us through some mudras, led us in some stretching and introduced the day's
prompt, and then we had time to journal. I'm normally not the biggest journaler
back in New York, but this trip really changed that for me.
George: Really chop it.
She looks very confident, don't you see?
Oh yeah, there you go. Oh, oh... okay. Alright.
Lucie: Well... I've still got that. It was worth it.
Lo siento.
Lunch was always a delicious dish featuring fresh and local fruits
and vegetables. The produce on site is so delicious, and the chefs on the property
have an amazing ability to pull out incredible flavors from really simple
dishes. Lunch on this day was a minestrone soup loaded with beans and
local vegetables, and of course, crunchy corn chips on the side. After lunch, we
hopped in a van and took a ride to the Collado Reserve... a partnership between the
retreat center, a charity organization on site, and the local communities. Their
goal is to restore the forest and to plant 1 million trees in the next decade.
As part of the reforestation efforts, each member of the retreat got two baby
trees, and we took a long hike through the mud and the greenery and went deep
into the reserve to go plant.
Earlier in the day, we had each written out an intention for ourself on a piece of paper.
And then we planted that little slip of paper with our trees.
The Collado Reserve is home to endangered and threatened species, and
the reforestation will ultimately help the local river flow year-round,
providing clean drinking water for the local villages.
Our afternoon workshop put each person in the spotlight and help them work
through a personal problem or an insecurity. When it came to my turn, I
opened up about my fear of the local bugs... and to help me get over that fear,
Marjolaine suggested that I hold one. I was scared.
Is it gonna fly?
Marjolaine: Just touch it, in your hand... Just look at it, it's okay.
Lucie: Okay, hi... I'm putting my hand further away.
Marjolaine: Just breathe, it's happening.
Girl: It likes you! He's actually kind of cute...
Lucie: He's kind of like a dog... a little puppy...
After facing my fear, I realized that I didn't
really have much of a reason to be fearful. The bugs were completely
harmless. They were just big.
Whoa, I think it peed on me...
After this workshop, we were called down to the beach because the sea turtles
were hatching. An eco defense and social justice organization called Vital
Actions is stationed on the property, and they protect these turtle eggs from the
moment they're buried in the sand to the moment they hatch. Once they hatch, the
baby turtles head for the water.
On their way down, the magnetite in their brains and nervous system cells is
essentially magnetizing with the sand and the earth. This is important because
sea turtles can swim around the entire world, but they always come back to the
beach where they were born to lay their eggs.
I followed up the sea turtle sighting with some private stretching on the beach.
I practiced some hands, and then went back upstairs to chill.
You caught me. I couldn't resist... I cut open a second coconut while I looked out at the beautiful view.
And as if I wasn't already blissed-out enough, I signed up for a coffee scrub
massage. The spa treatments on site are amazing, and this was exactly what my body needed.
As the sun went down and the sky turned orange, we gathered for dinner. Coconut
curry loaded with vegetables, cashews, and a side of quinoa. Each night we were
joined by Nina, the one-eyed cat that was rescued by Vital Actions. We cut up some
food for her and she sat with us while we ate.
The dinner area was always where those giant bugs gathered.
*screams*
Looks like holding that bug in my hand didn't help me one bit...
And dinner each night was followed by a yin yoga session.
We'd all unwind, stretch... and here's the video from the previous night.
Sometimes Marjolaine would come around and do some hands-on work.
As if we weren't already lucky enough to see the baby sea turtles hatching during the daytime...
we got extra lucky and saw an adult sea turtle headed up the beach to lay her eggs.
The volunteers from Vital Actions told us that she was about 60 years old!
And they even let me put on a glove and pet her shell gently.
No.
Every single day on this retreat has been so different. There was a schedule when we
got here, but there have been unpredictable weather conditions so
every day we wake up and we really don't know what to expect. This is the second
yoga retreat that I've ever been on. I went on one for a five-day challenge a
couple of years ago, and it was actually in Costa Rica... so not too far from here.
Everyone here is getting so close. We're learning a lot about each other... I'm so
excited to keep a lot of these people as friends once they get back home, because
a few of them are from New York! Including my roommate. And it has been
bright and sunny here, so these ACUVUE OASYS with transitions have come in
major handy. I've now been wearing these contact lenses for a couple of
months, and I'm noticing a major difference. Especially when it comes to
going from really bright and sunny conditions to really dark and shady
conditions... and that's been happening a lot on this trip. We go straight from the
yoga shala, to emerging into the bright sunlight, then we go under covering again
for lunch, breakfast, and dinner... Why can't I speak in order? But no matter where I
am, these contacts are always on and they're always working so they help in
all places. And I feel like I could just enjoy the world more without worrying so
much about squinting all the time or shielding my eyes, so that's been great.
If you click on the link in the description box below, you'll be taken to
an online form where you can enter your name and email address and you'll be
sent a free trial pair certificate that you can take to your doctor so that you
can try ACUVUE OASYS with transitions for yourself. If you wear contact lenses and
you feel like you're bothered by light in response to changing light conditions,
these might be for you, so definitely click on the link below and get that
free trial pair. And now it's time for bed in the lovely bug net. I brought this
thing from home, and it's come in handy. And I just noticed there's a bug on the
wall behind my bed... It's okay, just a moth...
Bye!