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El Churro, Mexico

After spending time in the beach, we headed an hour to a little village called El Churro. It only has about 50 residents here, about half ex-pat. This was a true vacation, and the spot was muy tranquillo. I had to work a bit more on my Spanish here, as no one outside the ex-pats spoke English.

this odd mexican skeletor? near El, Churro

The village was right next to a reserve de biologique. It had hot springs. If you know ash and me, you know we love hot springs. Although the area wasn’t that great for soaking as while the water coming out was hot, it was mainly dumping into the river. The hiking was stellar (pic below), we did the same hike twice along the ridge of the canyon. It had some impressive vistas, with lots of views of the mountains and the canyon below. It was also very diverse looking, in one spot there were cactuses right next to oak trees.

Cool looking tree in the park

The place we are staying here is a bit more up close. We are staying with a Canadian retiree. And her daughter, son in law and 3-year-old girl happened to be visiting for the holidays. It can be a touch awkward at times, as we feel like we are just up close with them. I will say that it is nice to see holiday family dysfunction from the outside, versus living it.

The host invited us to join the ex-pat Xmas eve dinner. They were so welcoming to us. However, they were mostly older and Canadian. But they treated us like we were their friends. The food was fantastic, I brought my chipotle beef dip to the party, and it was a hit. We left early as my stomach was bothering me a bit. 

x

Whale Shark, Hot Springs, Oh My

So I have meant to write a few blog entries about our “workcation” in Baja. However, I was too busy working and/or vacationing. But here are a few highlights. We arrived on Dec 15^th at the Cabo airport. We rented a car and headed to Las Barriles, which is on the east cape of Baja del sur. The town used to be a fishing town but now appears to be retirees mostly. It had a low key vibe to it though, even if it was primarily gringos.

We rented the bottom half of a house near the beach (about a block), in the suburbs of Los barriles – spa Buena vista.  It was a killer spot. First off, the beach was right there. Second off, the place had a hot spring tub in the back, which was lovely to soak. And it was quite artsy and well decorated. Our host was charming, giving us a lot of space. Ash loved the bird seeing the endemic Xantu Hummingbird along with costa and Anna hummingbirds plus warblers, a woodpecker, a cactus wren and a hooded oriole. The house also had a lime tree in the backyard, which we mixed with tequila for a nice afternoon cocktail.  

We stayed there a week, and it was quite the treat. On Sunday, we snorkeled with the whale sharks. We had to drive up to La Paz, about 2 hours. But it was worth it. Our guide Katrin took us out with a family for an up-close experience. It was a truly fantastic experience. Whale sharks are the biggest fish in the world, and they are a bit intimidating. They are friendly, but still, they are the size of a small bus. We got up and close. On our first swim, ash said she thought the whale shark was going to headbutt her! I got four swims in, and ash got two. The ride back through the mountain in the dark, on a narrow winding Mexican highway, was a bit scary. But overall great.

The rest of the time in Los barrilles, we worked thus the “workcation.” Ash invented that term, and we both know why. Yes, it was a lovely spot, but the work cut into too much. 

Ubud last gasp

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Ubud. While it is very touristy and comparatively expensive to sumatra, it has a very authentic feel to it. Ubud was voted the best Asian city by Conde Nast. So yes you have a lot of boutiques but you also see an old lady taking a bath in an aqueduct on the side of the road.  We love the garden, fountains and statues.

 Yesterday afternoon, we visited the monkey forest.  It's a bunch of monkeys in a temple being feed by tourists.  The setting was gorgeous though, with lots of vines and moss covered statues. 

Today we did a bit of last minute shopping and got massages.  

Ubud birding

Today we went birding with Bali birding walk and guide Sumadi. Birds have been sparse in sumatra and Bali so we were eager to see some. It wasn't our best bird tour but our guide was quite the character. We saw around 30 different types of birds with the Java kingfisher being our favorite.

We also liked the pond heron and cisticolas. Kingfisher below

Tomorrow we head to jakarta and home on Saturday.

Cooking class

Today we took a cooking class with casa Luna cooking school. It was amazing to see how much work goes into Indonesian food! We made chicken saga, Vado Vado, corn fritters, bean salad and fern salad. All of it was yummy!

After that massage time.

Ubud

So yesterday, we left relaxation station and headed to Ubud, the arts center of Bali. Our first stop on the way was Temple Ulun Danu Batur.  We had to buy kurtahs to go in, which were over priced but still cheap.  It's a Hindu temple and had all of our favorite gods....Ganesh, pavarti, etc

From there we shopped and tried Luwat coffee, which is coffee that is digested by a cat first. It was ok coffee but not amazing, and very expensive.  They wanted $27 for 3 ounces of beans and we passed on that opportunity.  The coffee in Indonesia has just been ok, which seems to be the norm from coffee growing regions.  They probably export the best coffee.

Last night we saw Owen kecak Fire dance performing Ramayana epic. We had no idea what transpired but the music and dance were lovely.