Archive

Sayulita

sayulita is a town made up of a rag-tag bunch of pirates from literally every walk of life. there are writers, artists, athletes, professors, healers, millionaire moguls, you name it. for example, our friend and neighbour risa is an accomplished surf instructor and a film maker. last week i met the guy who came up with the idea of “21 jump street” and “the a-team“. i’ve also had the opportunity to hang out with anne menke a while back. they all call sayulita home.

the upshot of having such a large amount of diversity is that trading skills becomes a way of life. i’ve traded yoga classes for massages, logo design for photo shoots and technical help for good karma. brenda, who has blossomed into a talented seamstress, has been making very cute beach dresses and the ladies in sayulita have taken notice.

one of these ladies is our friend rebecca, hair stylist extraordinaire with almost three decades of experience. she cut our hair in exchange for brenda making her a dress. nayou and i were both looking pretty feral these days, having not had our hair cut since cape town… possibly even before!

nayou really likes rebecca. and rebecca really likes nayou. its a regular love fest when those two are together.

IMG_4489

we set up a makeshift salon in our back patio. it was very nice to have an outdoor haircut with good music and good conversation. nayou was the first to get shorn and he looks super cute. the back of his neck was getting super sweaty in the swelter of summer, but now its free and he seems much more comfortable. here he is BC (before cut):

IMG_0345 IMG_0346

and AC:

IMG_4487

after that it was my turn. check out my mullet. i know this is considered hip in some parts of the world, but its not for me.

IMG_4498

IMG_4502

and here i am on the other side. its pretty much the same cut i had before the cut, just shorter. its so similar, in fact, that most of my friends haven’t even noticed i got a cut!

IMG_4513

rebecca didn’t have time to get to brenda, but the men of the family are looking much more respectable now. thanks rebecca!

ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to present the second installment of nayou’s documentary series. this one is about a topic dear to all of our hearts – food. we were inspired to shoot a food documentary after nayou started concoting all kinds of recipes in the kitchen a couple of months ago. he has made us some delicious infused waters (some of which we sold from a stand outside our house), some great roasted vegetables and many other weird and whacky dishes. it was clear that he loves to play in the kitchen so we decided to film his antics and share it with the world.

so without further ado, here is the world premiere of nayou’s food documentary. bon appetit!

that is a good question! i suppose you wouldn’t know given how infrequently we’re posting stuff these days. we have been pretty busy, what with the summer holidays and all. here are some photos to show you some of the mischief we have been up to.

one night we made a fire on the beach.

IMG_3964

nayou has been very much into making fires these days. despite the stinking heat, we often gather up leaves and sticks from our backyard and have a little bonfire. its nice to cook potatoes in the embers too!

occasionally nayou will wash the dishes for us.

IMG_4069

last week brenda had a big burst of creative energy and our house turned into a giant art project. now we have some new splashes of colour in our already vibrant household!

you live pretty close to nature in sayulita. especially in the summer, all kinds of critters and random animals come out. we’ve been seeing fireflies, iguanas, hermit crabs, minnows, the occasional horse and loads of centipedes. check out this bright green guy nayou caught.

IMG_4132

some evenings once it starts to get cool we go down to the plaza and hang out. you can usually find someone you know there and just chill for a while.

IMG_4105

nayou and i have slowly been filming more footage for our next documentary. its going to be about food and cooking. our good friend narayani showed us how to make pizza dough from scratch.

the last time we lived here back in 2010, we came very close to buying some land that is part of an eco-community called tierra luz. we ended up taking a rain check because the project was in its very early stages and we just weren’t ready to commit. since then, the members of the community have done some amazing work on the land and it looks really nice. we’ve become good friends with the managers of the community and are very excited to see where they are going to take it. here is nayou having an explore on the property.

IMG_4284 IMG_4285oh, there was a children’s festival on the beach somewhere in there. brenda set up some really cool games for the kids.

IMG_3877 IMG_3878and i taught a yoga class for the ninos. i wish some of the adults in my classes would show the same level of enthusiasm!

IMG_3887

here is some gratuitous cuteness to finish off the post. till next time!

IMG_4405 IMG_4406

many moons ago (well, about a month, so just one moon), we got some cat traps from the local animal shelter and caught some of the neighbourhood cats. brenda had noticed that there were a fair number of them skulking around our corner of sayulita, and none of them were neutered. we managed to nab two of them and got them them successfully fixed.

one of them is a gorgeous white/grey cat with piercing blue eyes. we call her saphira. she has attached herself to us and hangs outside (and now inside) our house all day long. she is an amazing hunter and is part of our cracker team of chickens and felines keeping the scorpions, cockroaches, and rats at bay.

IMG_3856

IMG_3996

and meet the other half of the duo – rock lover. that’s the grey/white cat you see behind saphira in the photo below. rock lover (named by nayou) is another cat who has decided to call our home his home. she hasn’t been neutered yet, but we’re trapping her next week. but no matter, we’re pretty sure she’ll be back!

nayou decided to call her rock lover because her grey colour looks like a rock, and she is friendly and loves a good cuddle.

IMG_3871

IMG_4340they are pretty much our cats now, and we’ve noticed a couple of others lurking around as well. we’re turning into the cat haven! i suppose it doesn’t help that we feed saphira and rock lover breakfast and dinner every day either 🙂 i forgot about how low maintenance cats are – they just kind of hang around and meow at us when they are hungry. its nice to have the company!

this is our friend xipatzin (pronounced “si-pat-sin”). he is a really nice guy who we see around from time to time, on the beach and out and about. xipatzin was actually one of the first people we met on the beach when we lives here three years ago!

this morning brenda took nayou to san pancho, the next town up from sayulita. they bumped into xipatzin and took these great shots.

IMG_4312 IMG_4315 IMG_4317

its time for us to jump into the contemporary blog age with something a little more tidy and graceful than the trusty old twenty eleven. this one is a tweaked version of a theme called blogum and we think its pretty cool!

and yes, i’m going to write a proper post soon. in the meantime, check out what came swimming back into our lives!
IMG_4189 IMG_4224 IMG_4180

we all look the same, save for one of us who has totally transformed from baby to young boy!

IMGP9631