CHILEAN LAUGHTER ADVENTURES IN THE USA

Remember that exciting laughter yoga tour of Chile that my husband, William, and I took last fall? Well, our gracious laughing hostess, Tosha Tobias, made a trip to the United States in April so we could have more laughing adventures together.

Together, Tosha and I attended the laughter yoga teacher training seminar taught by laughter yoga founder, Madan Kataria. Though we are both laughter yoga teachers already, we are mentoring with him to become master trainers. Eventually, we'll both be offering the laughter yoga teacher course.

Here we are at the laughter seminar in Chicago—happy to be reunited.

Tosha and Dr. Kataria are laughing and dancing together.

Here we are with Dr. Kataria, the laughing yoga guru! Ha ha ha!

We got to see many of our old laughter yoga friends and meet new ones. Here Tosha is at lunch with our friend from San Diego, Michael Coleman.

Tosha enjoyed borrowing my laughing tiara.

After the seminar, we had but 2 days before Tosha had to fly off. So she came home with me to our house in McGregor, Iowa. We felt our tour had come full circle—we had stayed with her in Chile and now she was staying with us in America. She is taking a call here on our new couch.

Tosha is enjoying coffee in our dining room.

We took Tosha to my father's cabin in Guttenberg, Iowa. It is located on an island on the world famous Mississippi River. This was the most important destination, which we wanted to show Tosha. Here we're getting ready for a boat ride.

Tosha put on her lifejacket and was fearlessly ready to hit the river.

Here she is as we're leaving the shore.

Laughing Laura and Tosha enjoying the river boat ride, which was piloted by my father.

Of course, the lifejacket nearly swallowed her. She said: "I feel as if I'm sinking."

After the boat trip, Tosha played with the many push toys my dad has made.

She was really into them.

We raced push toys. And laughed, of course.

She enjoyed stretching out in the cabin.

We shared a lovely meal together in our home on Saturday night.

The next morning, Tosha came to worship with me at my church of Our Savior's Lutheran in Lansing, Iowa. Here we are in front of the paintings I created and donated to the church in memory of my mom. Learn more about them here.

Tosha preached. Just kidding. This is her pretending to preach in my pulpit. I think she's rather convincing, though. Oh, and did I mention that she's a Jew and I'm a Christian? That's another reason why we value laughter yoga so much—these religious differences do not divide us. We can laugh together and be one in Spirit.

Tosha posing with the Easter cross.

Then I took her up Mount Hosmer in Lansing. This is a beautiful park overlooking the Mississippi.

She laughed with the earth from this lookout point.

After this, we went to Pike's Peak State Park in McGregor, Iowa. Here we had another high-up view of the mighty Mississippi.

Tosha with the view.

We even managed to take a self portrait! Ha ha ha!

Here is the stunning view. This park is just south of our home. There's a barge going down river.

Tosha looking enthralled by the information sign.

We also got a shot of Tosha with the famous pink elephant of Marquette, Iowa. This elephant has been in Marquette all my life. I think it likes Tosha very much.

Then, we took Tosha to Madison, Wisconsin to stay with some laughter friends who agreed to get her to the shuttle in the morning that would get her to the airport. Above, Tosha and I are posing with laughter yoga teacher, Michelle Erschen. All three of us were born on May 22. Isn't that amazing? We're laughing birthday sisters!

Here we are with Madison Laughter Club founders Nancy Greenwald, Michelle Erschen and Mike Kueny. They came to one of my laughter seminars in 2009. By the way, there's a great laughing video of them at that link.

Before Tosha left, William squeezed in the time to shoot this studio portrait of Tosha and I laughing together.

But the really exciting thing that came out of Tosha's visit is that we decided to use our cross cultural laughter partnership for a very important new project: a laughter yoga CD in Spanish. That's right, we produced "Yoga de la Risa," the first laughter yoga recording in Spanish (that we know of). We had limited time, but we did it! We got the recording made with Tosha energetically introducing each and every laughter yoga exercise in Spanish (which she amazingly translated on the fly as we had no prep time at all). But she's a profession and pulled it off as only Tosha can. Her infectious laugh is going to crack EVERYONE up, even if—like me—they can't understand Spanish. Ha ha ha, or as they say in Spanish: ja ja ja.

Here is the cover of the new CD.

Here is the back side of the CD with the track listing. If you double click on the image, you can see an enlargement.

This exciting new resource, which is about 35 minutes long, will be released next month. There will be more information posted here when they are available to order.

The moral of this adventure with Tosha is that laughter yoga is an amazing thing that brings people of different nationalities, languages, and religions together. With laughter, we are reminded of our common humanity and our core joy. Yes, world peace is possible and we are working on it...one laugh at a time. Very good, very good, yay!

CHILEAN LAUGHTER TOUR DAY 16

The 16th day of our tour was among the busiest. We visited the fascinating coastal cities of Viña del Mar and Valparaíso, then did a laughter yoga session at a new arts center.

We awoke to the amazing view from Tosha's apartment.

 

This is Tosha's Mezuzah on her apartment doorpost.

Here she is touching it as we left for the day.

Before we left the resort, we visited Tosha's other apartment, which she uses as a rental. Here I am on that deck.

This is the view from this apartment.

Then we drove to Viña del Mar by a rural route. This is a team of oxen we met along the way.

The wild poppies were growing everywhere.

It was a bit foggy but we got a nice view of the coast in Viña del Mar. This name is Spanish for  "Vineyard of the Sea." It is also known locally as La Ciudad Jardín, Spanish for: "The Garden City."

A view looking the other direction.

Some scenes in Viña del Mar.

These two are police officers.

The spring buds are emerging on these trees.

A naval training school.

This condo by the shore is a prime example of how the buildings are stacked up along the hillside for maximum views of the ocean.

We stopped to get a closer look at the beach. Tosha's on her cell phone as always.

A beautiful desert flower.

Here you can see the beach and the bay of Viña del Mar.

We loved the beach!

Though it was cold, sunbathers were already enjoying this spring day.

More stacked up condos.

William looking cool on the beach.

This stray dog was keeping an eye on us.

The spring flowers, like this one, were just glorious.

Many of the apartment buildings had unusual balconies.

Balls on the beach.

I'm enjoying the flowers.

William and Tosha posing for the camera at the sushi restaurant where we had lunch.

Our sushi waiter.

Pamela and William getting ready for lunch to arrive.

Tosha and I celebrating our matching polka dots!

Pamela found this star in a store window and brought it out to have her picture with it.

More lovely spring buds on the trees.

Viña del Mar has lots of high rise buildings.

This is Chile's oldest gambing casino.

I don't know if I'd want to stand on one of these balconies for too long!

This hotel looked like a castle.

Along the coast between Viña del Mar and Valparaíso, the buildings are stacked up along the cliff overlooking the sea.

Now we are in Valparaíso, which is Spanish for "Paradise Valley." It is one of Chile's most important seaports and an increasingly vital cultural center in the hemisphere's Pacific Southwest.

Nicknamed “The Jewel of the Pacific”, Valparaíso was declared a world heritage site based upon its improvised urban design and unique architecture. In 1996, the World Monuments Fund declared Valparaíso’s unusual system of funicular elevators (highly-inclined cable cars) one of the world’s 100 most endangered historical treasures. In 1998, grassroots activists convinced the Chilean government and local authorities to apply for UNESCO world heritage status for Valparaíso. Valparaíso was declared a World Heritage Site in 2003, thanks to its historical importance, natural beauty (large number of hills surrounding a picturesque harbour), and unique architecture (particularly, a mix of 19th century styles of housing). Built upon dozens of steep hillsides overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Valparaíso boasts a labyrinth of streets and cobblestone alleyways, embodying a rich architectural and cultural legacy. Valparaíso is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Electric buses run around the city.

Graffiti is legal here and there are some truly wonderful works of art on walls and buildings throughout the city.

I think this photo best shows the urban design of  Valparaíso and how the buildings are all stacked on top of eachother on the hills.

These skater kids showed off for us.

Can you sense the steepness of these narrow roads?

Here we are getting directions. Don't try to navigate Valparaíso without a map!

More directions. We are still lost!

Finally, we arrived at the art center where we would be doing a laughter yoga session that evening. Here is Tosha with one of the arts center directors, Hemena. The two of them at "met" on Facebook and set up this whole event and were now just meeting for the first time.

This is the entrance of the arts center. The "incomplete" look of the walls is intentional and it is a really groovy look.

This is the painting studio. The painting are Claudio's. He's the other director.

This sculpture is Hemena's.

This is their dog who is sad to be stuck out in the back courtyard.

This is Claudio making us all a cup of espresso.

Here is another one of his paintings. We could not help but notice that the main figure bears a striking resemblance to Obama.

We left Tosha at the arts center to help get set up for the evening's event. William, Pamela and I went walking around Valparaíso. Here are some of the many sights we took in.

Dig this short doorway.

Our wedding picture!

The cat tried to jump out of the pen but the dog bit it's tail and I captured it all in this shot.

Pamela peeking into someone's yard.

This graffiti says "We can do anything!"

Look! It's the doors.

We rode one of the famous "funicular" elevators that makes the town so unique. Here is the wheel that runs it.

This is the view looking down.

And the view looking up.

Now we are down in Sotomayor Square.

This is the seaport.

The monument in Sotomayor Square.

The view of the whole square.

Someone else was taking this little girl's picture but she looked at my camera instead.

This is the scarf we are buying from the vendor.

A huge stump.

We loved this building on the corner.

Dancing with the graffiti!

This mural was so vibrant and beautiful.

This is the llama wool purse I bought in a boutique. 

The sales guy posed for a picture with us in front of all the pretty scarves.

This is the sign posted outside of the arts center about the session we would be leading that night.

I decided my new purse would also look good on my head!

Here Tosha and I are leading the laughter yoga session in the meditation studio.

Afterwards, we said good bye to our new friends and headed out for dinner.

This is the bar at the Italian restaurant where we dined.

William and I were still smiling after a long, full day.

And Tosha was too!

After dinner, we drove back to Tosha's beach apartment so we'd be ready to tour a winery in the area the next day.