[dropcap size=big]O[/dropcap]nce inside, along with the fluttering elation of making it there without incident, the sweating began. It dripped into my eyes, pooled in my belly button, and soon every possible pore began pumping perspiration. This rate of sweating wouldn’t stop for the next 4 days.
Putting aside the heat, I traversed the grounds in search of a campsite with at least a twinge of shade. Luckily, I found a nice slice of tree right next to the Village, but peace be with all those who weren’t so fortunate. Retrieving items from my tent midday was like plunging into a radiating sea of heat, and I had to take breaks from rummaging through my bag to gasp for air.
While setting up my camp, my neighbors began streaming through, and after ensuring I wouldn’t be bothering anyone by posting up so close, I set off to make a mental map of the festival grounds. And let me say, the layout of Envision is brilliant. Everything is close, even walking from end to end takes no more than 20 minutes at a reasonable pace.
The entrance to the festival spills into the side of the venue, and turning left will take you towards the ‘back’ of the grounds, where the first permanent structures were built just this year: The Templo Auspicioso, and Templo De La Unión. Every day from 8am to 5pm, world class yoga instructors were leading practices ranging from dance, to prana, to vinyasa. In all honesty, these workshops and courses would alone be well worth the $310 GA price tag. I attended at least one yoga class every day, sometimes even two depending how much my body hated me at the end. But it was during day one’s yoga class that I made the biggest rookie mistake: the Costa Rican sun burnt my ass to a crisp.
Who knew that the Sun doesn’t stay in one spot in the sky!? After finding the perfect shade from palm trees outside of the overly crowded Templo Auspicioso, about ten minutes later I was in direct sunlight for an hour and a half. Of course, being stubborn as I am, I wasn’t about to give in to a bit of Sun and scamper away in defeat. But I paid dearly.
Once the class ended, I figured it was a good a time as any to be proactive about my impending lobster hue. Envision does well to provide options of all sorts, and not just regarding workshops, music, and food. They have two medical centers, one is dedicated to Western medicine, and one is traditional plant based homeopathy. I was chastised enough as a child to know that aloe was exactly what I needed for neglecting sunscreen, so I trudged over to the med tent and got slathered up with some aloe. The volunteers looked me over and decided I was in worse shape than I thought, and also gave me some clay for the two or three swollen bug bites from my nights on the beach.
You know the feeling when you buy a new car and suddenly you notice all the other cars like it on the road? Well, after getting a bit of clay, I began seeing people walking around with their entire bodies caked in blue mud. As I continued on my way throughout the festival, it was like seeing cliques of Na’vi from Avatar dancing in the rain forest. A couple discussions with these smurf-ified homies revealed that it wasn’t just a fad, and that covering up in this volcanic mud was indeed the cat’s pajamas. It acted as a sunscreen, soothed sunburn, kept bugs away, kept your body cool, and I’ll admit, it makes you feel pretty damn tribal. Needless to say, I went all in and covered myself in the stuff over the next three days.