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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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

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here i am, finally breaking another drought of posts. it has been a rather busy time for us lately. i’ve been shooting off my resume to various and sundry companies to see where my next job is going to land us. school finished and all the kids are on holidays so there has been a steady stream of them in and out of our house. the rainy season has started in earnest so we have been making sure our house is keeping us dry (which it is). luckily brenda has been keeping up with her great ipod touch photos, so i’ll post them all here for you to feast your eyes on.

first up are two shots from a store called revolucion del sueno (revolution of dreams). its a super funky boutique run by a french couple whom we befriended the first time we were in sayulita. they bring a hip twist to the vibrant mexican imagery and colour palette, and its always a pleasure to go into their store and check out their wares. definitely worth a visit if you are in these neck of the woods.

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these ones were taken by brenda at a beach called carricitos, about a ten minute drive from sayulita. its usually deserted, and very, very picturesque. we like going there because there are lots of beautiful shells as well as hermit crabs. the sun sets right over the ocean. for me its one of those magical places where just being there makes you so grateful to be alive.

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but onto more important topics – nayou. our little guy has been doing a lot of eating and growing of late. he’s been bumping his head on countertops and other ledges that he used to walk under without any problem. brenda and i have watched his body grow taller and leaner, and his energy levels are high. which is to be expected from a five-and-a-half year old i suppose!

experiments abound in our house right now. nayou is always taking random dishes, tupperware, cutlery, duct tape etc for one thing or another. this is a great shot of the mad scientist about to embark on some new investigation.

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he is still very much into finding insects and other creatures. check out the size of this ant he found in our front yard. we think it must be a queen ant who got displaced with all the rain:

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this is our breakfast spot on our front patio. i love sitting here and welcoming the day with a nice strong cup of coffee. we found this local, organic brand of coffee called capulin which is just divine. its turned me into a coffee snob because all other coffees pale in comparison to the taste of these beans. notice also our “watermelon cake” – one of chef nayou’s breakfast inventions.

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on most afternoons this family sets up a trampoline in the plaza and you get fifteen minutes for ten pesos (about $1usd). there used to be a bouncy castle as well which was the hot favourite, but the trampoline is pretty good too.

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just in case you weren’t convinced that brenda is the best mama ever, here is something to seal the deal – she converted this space we have in our backyard into an outdoor bedroom! there have been about three outside sleepovers to date, and i’m sure many more will come as well. the space is really cosy and every time nayou has slept out there he was out all night like a rock. we’ve watched some movies out there at night and its good for that too!

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its also a nice chill space during the day:

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some days i have to get my practice in however i can. this was a pretty rainy day and our old foster doggie came in for a visit soaking wet. he really wanted to lay down on our palm frond mat, but i made him stay in the yoga room until he was dry. when i wanted to start my practice he refused to budge so i just began with him on the mat. then nayou saw us both in there and after that any hope of peace and quiet was dashed forever.

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we met this great guy from canada called vasant (“was” as in calm for short) who stayed in sayulita for a month. he bought a bunch of indian spices with him and taught me how to make pav bhaji. he was generous enough to leave the pav bhaji masala with me so every now and then i have been satisfying my craving for indiand food by cooking it up. it is delicious!

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we need to get this kid and agent and retire.

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another cool thing about having a big backyard to play in – waterfights! even better – nekkid waterfights!

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after the success of nayou’s bug documentary,  we have started shooting another one. this time its about food and cooking. we haven’t got very far yet, but hopefully we will get around to finishing it soon. watch this space. brenda made nayou the apron he is wearing out of oilcloth!

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nayou snacking on the sayulita-famous chocobanana (full disclosure: he didn’t really like it).

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this was so cute – nayou and brenda found a hole in the wall of our neighbour’s carport where a snake was hiding. the next day one of nayou’s friends came over so they took a bunch of stuff over to the hole to stake it out. these photos were taken before the mass of extra stuff arrived. i love this shot of them just sitting there in the driveway chatting away waiting for the snake!

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nayou is in love with his new yellow frog umbrella. it gets lots of use as a sunbrella and also for playing in the rain.

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nayou did his first photobomb with style:

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our good friend sondra went back to santa barbara after four months in sayulita. we met her the last time we were here and ended up coming back more or less at the same time! it was sad to see her go, but i’m sure we’ll bump into her again somewhere… probably sayulita. these are some photos from her going away gathering at the beach.

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the tiny photobomber (with bonus canine) strikes again!

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crazy thing #314 you can do in mexico and get away with: chuck your kids on the roof of your suv and have them hold on for dear life while you drive (moderately slowly).

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our friends are running a summer camp for kids at the beach. one of the activities they are working on is to build a surfboard out of plastic bottles. i’m very curious to see how they plan on tying the bottles together. if we end up with something wave-worthy, then i am going to build a stand up paddle board with the bottles! here is the beginning of the layout.

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the fruit and veg you get around here is insane. especially the mangoes are just divine. this was the bulk of our haul today. it looks like there is a lot of variety, but its mostly just a huge pile of mangoes!

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and to finish off, here is yesterday’s sunset in sayulita:

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three months. thats how long we’ve been in sayulita already. the busy season is over and the whole town is taking on that tranquil, sleepy feel as summer approaches. its a nice change from the busy vibrance of the high season, although it is getting pretty darn hot. we have tentatively set our departure around the end of june, which is close to the time our visas here expire anyway. its weird to think we’ll only be here two more months – i feel like we could easily stay for much, much longer. we still have no idea what is next for us. i think its time to start putting out some feelers to see whats out there… we shall see!

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we have been busy with all sorts of small projects, but things are winding down. i’ve moved over to a lighter schedule with my yoga teaching, and this friday is the last farmer’s market for us. i’ve also been helping out people here and there with computer stuff in exchange for massages. still haven’t cashed in on any of my services yet, but i am so very much looking forward to being kneaded and pounded by some incredible body workers!

i landed a semi-regular yoga teaching gig at this incredible retreat center called haramara. it is a big honour for me to teach there because it attracts world class teachers that really inspire me. i was rather nervous for my first class, but once i got into the groove of it it was ok. and i guess they like me because i’ve been invited back several times now! the retreat is located just outside of sayulita in a big area of gorgeous jungle. the two yoga spaces are straight out of a magazine. the photos below hardly do it any justice, but if you are interested there are some more online here.

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somewhere in between everything we also started a semi-regular cultural gathering to promote community and raise awareness on a variety of issues. our friend nathalie has a gorgeous gallery space that she wanted to open up, so we organise the events and she gives us the space. so far we’ve only had one event where we screened the documentary “waste land“. it was a small turnout but really mellow and fun.

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i think the next one is going to be on wednesday. we’ll prob do another screening since its easy, but we have lots of ideas about other things we could do (yoga, art, slam poetry etc). if you happen to be passing through sayulita and you have something to share, get in touch and we’ll make it happen 😉

we’re still building lots of lego creations too:

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the humble pom-pom has been taking sayulita by storm lately, with all kinds of shapes and sizes popping up in storefronts, on bikes, bags and even in people’s hair! brenda has been making some great ones for the house and people are noticing. the other day a bunch of friends came over for a pom-pom party (potentially the world’s first ever pom-pom gathering?).

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the ladies got hooked up with some beanies that brenda made, and now those beanies have pom-poms on them. the beanie on the left is headed to nepal next month and should get some good use 🙂

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nayou has been into watching youtube videos lately. its amazing how much random stuff is out there – lego reviews, lego stop-motion movies, video game playthroughs. i always wondered who bothered to watch all that stuff, and now i know! one of nayou’s favourite channels is evantubehd. its run by a nine year old and is full of toy reviews and other random things that young boys would be into. sometimes he likes to bust out his digital camera and do his own little videos:

some more cuteness from brenda’s ipod:

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i finally got around to editing some video off our cameras as well. its a hodge podge of random clips but hopefully it will entertain you. enjoy 🙂

 

 

this is going to be another post of bits and pieces. its easy to leave the camera behind these days when you leave the house with a surfboard, a boogie board and a myriad other things. but now that brenda is taking her ipod touch out and about we have many more photos of the goings on. first off, a couple of shots from our other home, the beach.

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my friend nick, whom i met at a yoga class, turned out to be an acroyogi and so he showed me some moves on the sand. he’s going to do a workshop at the end of march so we’re going to put a routine together to demo to the participants. its super fun stuff, but strong!

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and speaking of yoga, here is one of the studios where i teach. its a beautiful, calm space. love it!

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brenda and nayou took a fishing lesson from our friend jorge earlier this week. they just fished from the beach, learning about the rods, tackle and other fishy stuff. brenda managed to catch a snook (love the name), which apparently is a very wily difficult fish to catch. check out how big it is!

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ever wondered what nayou would look like as a rasta? wonder no more.

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nothing like some ice cream on a hot sunny day.

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to finish off, here is some video taken fresh today of nayou explaining how one of this lego creations work. enjoy!

there are just under three weeks left before we pack up yet again and move to cape town for the remainder of the shoot. i think chances are slim that we’re ever going to be in this corner of the globe again so we have been busy squeezing in trips to see as much of namibia as we can. a couple of weekends ago i went on a man-trip with some friends down to sossusvlei. its about a five hour drive from swakopmund along very bumpy gravel roads.

sossusvlei is famous for its huge red sand dunes which look stunning against the white salt pans that dot the landscape. combine that with blue skies and you have one of the most photographed landscapes in the world.

we arrived on saturday afternoon in scorching heat. it was way too hot to do any desert activities so we followed the advice of the lodge owner and went to this great little water hole to cool off.

we also snuck in a sundowner drive to see some of the scenery.

the next day we got up early and climbed up big daddy, a 325m high sand dune which is one of the largest in the world. it was definitely an intense climb, all the more so because we were the first ones up. blazing a trail up a sand dune is no easy feat! on the other hand, sprinting down one of its steepest faces into deadvlei was so easy! hehe.

i couldn’t resist getting bodie to snap some yoga photos in deadvlei for me. i think they turned out amazing!

last week brenda and nayou went to spitzkoppe fir a four day camping trip. i stayed at home and held down the fort while they had many adventures climbing rocks and looking for gems. the photos from that trip are on a friends’ camera so we’ll post some as soon as we get them!

in the meantime here are some snaps from a sunset horseback ride we did on sunday. my rear end was hurting the next day but nayou and brenda rode like pros.

today is saturday. in two sleeps we will get on a plane and head off to africa! as usual there is a bit of a last minute mad rush to get things done, but since most of our stuff is already packed up on storage and we are only dealing with 2 months worth of living its not too bad. as you are well aware i haven’t been very regular with my posts… i’m not sure whether the situation will improve much in africa as i will be working like crazy, but i will try and keep you updated! even if its just a photo dump of our activities, like this post 🙂

we just got back from singapore, where we spent a hectic and decadent two days in the heart of modern asia. our tourist visas for bali run out after two months, and the only way to renew them (legally, anyway) is to leave the country and come back. brenda and i considered a bunch of options but settled on singapore because the flights are cheap and my cousin sean lives there with his wife mary.

none of us had ever been to singapore before, and we hadn’t really heard many good things about it. the only thing i knew was that it was illegal to chew gum and that there were many other weird laws like that (turns out that its not illegal to chew gum in singapore, just illegal to sell it). but despite all of our expectations, we had an amazing time there. the city is clean, efficient, glitzy and fun! there is lots and lots to do and we wished we had decided to spend a little more time there. we still managed to cram in quite a lot in just over 48 hours – i took a yoga class at pure yoga, a studio i have been wanting to check out since it opened. its one of those ridiculous yoga studios located at the top of a huge skyscraper, boasting 4000 sq. ft. changing rooms and the like. we had an entire day of retail therapy on orchard rd., which has more louis vuitton, prada and gucci stores i have ever seen in my life. our shopping was decidedly more low key though, with stops at the lego store, h&m, kinokuniya and the japanese supermarket.

sean and mary were fabulous hosts. they made us feel right at home and helped us out with everything from cell phones, train passes, maps and all those other random things that make travelling so much easier. sean and mary live on the top floor of the cathay building, which has an impressive vista of singapore, especially at night. the panorama function on our camera managed to take a good shot for the first time ever!

the building also has a big pool which we made good use of. check out that view!

one night we tried to go up to the top of the tallest building in singapore, but we couldn’t because of potential lightning strikes. we ended up horsing around on a green patch of grass instead before going to a super yummy japanese restaurant. i was a bad blogger and forgot to get at least one photo of all of us together… in writing this i realised that i only have a couple of bad shots of sean and none of mary!

we spent our last morning checking out the architecture. singapore has some amazing buildings.

check out this vertical garden in the lobby of one of the buildings!

nayou had chocolate ice cream for breakfast. parenting fail.

we feel like we barely scratched the surface of what singapore has to offer. there is so much more we wanted to do – sentosa, the botanical gardens, the night zoo, the surf park etc etc etc. we would definitely go back if the chance arose again. thanks so much to sean and mary for showing us a good time!

oh yeah, there was this indian parade/ceremony type thing where a bunch of sadhu (or sadhu-like) people walked across town carrying very heavy structures on their heads, or pulling heavy things. they also have crazy spikes piercing their bodies – tongues, cheeks, brows, backs etc. pretty crazy stuff. one of the many friendly cab drivers we met told us that they do this as sort of penance if they pray for a miracle and it actually happens (e.g. a relative recovering from cancer). we didn’t make much effort to see these guys, but we did get a close up from a taxi. this guy was pulling an altar on wheels using hooks embedded in his back. ouch. and to top if off he was walking on sandals made of nails!

now we’re back in bali safe and sound, with a visa that will last us until we leave on march 1st. i’m still waiting for a proper contract for mad max, but we have started visa procedures for namibia already which is a good sign. sounds like its really going to happen this time around!

 

this is a typical warung (corner store, sometimes a restaurant). there are millions of them around bali. the bottles on the right contain petrol, so refueling your scooter is a piece of cake. two liters (around half a gallon) costs $1.10USD.

brenda is the champion of green smoothies. they are my favourite way to start the day. and nayou’s as well!

it rained for two days straight last week. just when cabin fever was about to set in, the weather granted us a reprieve and we went out and shot some photos in the rice paddies around our house.

these huts are scattered around the paddies for the workers to store their stuff and to rest in.

shiva stands guard over our pool.

nayou finds lots of these adorable froggies in our house.

street art.

kadek got some chickens for pets. unfortunately the poor chicks’ feathers have been dyed purple, pink, green and blue. they’re not exactly compassionate towards animals around here…