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Conversations Topic: Cabin Getaways

Transcription:

Amy: Hi, everybody. My name is Amy Whitney and I'm here with Curtis Davies and
we're from realenglishconversationscom.

Amy: And today we have a fun conversation where we're going to be talking about cabin
getaways and some of our favorite trips and the most unique cabins that we've stayed at.

Amy: So, Curtis, why are cabin getaways something that we look forward to, and what
do you enjoy about them?

Curtis: Oh, we look forward to them because it's kind of like camping, but a little more
comfortable, actually a lot more comfortable because it's a house in the middle of
nowhere. And you cannot have to worry about setting up a tent or anything like that. But
you still have the relaxation and peacefulness of the wilderness without any of the
discomforts of maybe creatures in the night coming to get you, you know, when we
usually end up sleeping in the car. Remember our camping episode that we talked about?

Amy: Yeah, exactly.

Amy: Yeah, I think that with cabins, it really is kind of like a home away from home, but
it's located in a natural area.

Amy: So, Curtis and I are also fans of camping, or maybe we were fans of camping. I'm
kind of feeling like the age or the stage that we are in life right now. I'm not sure that I
really want to camp anymore. I might prefer to stay in a cabin and it's really because it
has everything that you need. So, well, hang on, let's clarify.

Amy: We have rustic camping and rustic cabins, and we also have in terms of camping, I
guess you could have glamping, that's a new term. We've never done that, but it's a little
bit more set up and comfortable for people to have a very comfortable camping
experience. And there also are kind of luxury cabins, and we've stayed in all ranges of
cabins. But the main thing is that there's definitely a bed.

Amy: You have shelter, so you don't have to worry about any creatures coming into your
cabin like Curtis had talked about, which is interesting because we only have that fear in
Canada, now that we're in Mexico, we don't think like that.

Amy: But anyway ...

Curtis: You have a bathroom and a shower, usually.

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Amy: Exactly, which can be really uncomfortable when you're camping, when you're not
able to just go have a shower after you've been outside all day and maybe hiking, you get
kind of hot and sweaty and gross, and you want to have a shower with camping, that's a
little bit more complicated, right?

Curtis: Yeah, for sure. I always end up smelling like the campfire that we cook over
because the smoke always seems to follow you.

Amy: You know what? Whether we're in a cabin or we're camping, I think that we end up
coming home smelling like a campfire, it's just the nature of the beast of hanging out with
a campfire.

Amy: But anyway, I thought that it would be cool for us to talk about a couple of the
unique cabins that we've stayed in and what kind of made them special.

Am: Do you remember that cabin that we stayed in, in the Nakusp that had its own
private hot spring?

Curtis: Oh, yeah. It was like a tub that you could control the water temperature with and
the amount of water. And it was in the back, like you said, of the cabin, and it faced the,
it was looking towards the lake and the glacier.

Amy: Had a beautiful view.

Curtis: Yeah, and that lake was so calm and smooth, where you could see this beautiful
reflection of everything. So, during the day it was beautiful. And when the sun was
setting behind the glacier, it was just one of those memorable moments. So, definitely
one of my favorite Canadian cabin getaway experiences was in the Nakusp.

Amy: Yeah, and I think that one actually had kayaks that we were able to take out one
day, which was really fun. That may have even been the very first kayak experience that
we had, if I remember correctly.

Curtis: I think it was the first one in my life for me.

Amy: Ah! Okay!

Curtis: I don't think I've ever used a kayak before. So, you really got me out there onto
the lake and paddling around and I didn't tip it over, so that was good.

Amy: That's important because that water was cold in that lake.

Curtis: And I can't swim.

Amy: Do you remember, speaking of kayaks, actually, this is kind of a thing, and maybe
that's where it came from, because I was thinking about the cabin trip that we did, which
was probably the most rustic cabin trip, which was going to a little place, a little lake in
the middle of nowhere called Esperon Lake. And honestly, if you want to get out in the
middle of nowhere, this was it. And what if we have to do in order to get to that lake? Do
you remember?

Curtis: We borrowed our friend Kurt, his truck, he had a really old beat-up kind of beater
of a truck.

Amy: Yeah, we called him a beater. When you don't care, you know if it's going to get a
scratch or a little dent or something like that. It's been around the block, we could say.

Curtis: In a little bit of rough shape, and it was, a good thing for that, because that narrow
trail, I see the dirt road in my head right now, like replaying the movie back in my mind.
The branches and the trees and everything were scraping against the side of the truck. But
we knew Kurt wouldn't care because the truck was in pretty rough shape and had a
million scratches on it anyway. So, I don't know how long we drove on that dirt road for.

Amy: It was rough, it had a bunch of ditches and things that we had to go through. I think
we had to drive through a couple of shallow creeks as well.

Amy: But the reason why we wanted to do this was because Kurt had brought us to this
lake previously and we went camping with him and his girlfriend. And we knew that this
was a lake that actually had cabins that I don't know why, but somebody took the time to
create these or build these cabins, and they were open. Like, anybody could use them,
anyone could stay there, and it was completely for free. And we knew that we would be
the only ones that would be staying at the lake, so we decided to go up there. And these
ones were pretty rustic cabins. Do you remember what was inside? If not, I do.

Curtis: I don't remember every single detail, but there was like a wood stove and very
minimal types of things.

Amy: I think there was like a rough table or some sort of makeshift table. And there was
a bed, I think, or at least the base of a bed, I think we might have had to bring like a
foamy mattress or an air mattress or something like that. But regardless, it was structure
log cabin, and it had a roof on it, so we were protected from the cold and the rain. And if
we needed to have heat, we had a wood stove that we could use to light a fire inside and
to keep us warm. And it was super peaceful. And I think we rented kayaks and that's why
we needed the truck, right?

Curtis: Yes, and then one of the cabins was across the lake, so we actually had to use the
kayak, put our gear and stuff in it and go across the lake in the kayak. It was a kayak,

Curtis: A boat, kanoo.

Amy: I think that was with Kurt, he had a boat or something, I don't remember what it
was.

Curtis: Something like that

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Amy: One time we stayed at the big cabin across the lake and that was the fancy one,
fancy in the rustic sense, okay? So, a little bit bigger, it had a few more things in it. That
one was really cool. And what about here in Mexico? When I think about Mexico,
especially as a Canadian, cabins do not come to mind as the first thing that I see. But we
were pleasantly surprised. What did we find a few years ago?

Curtis: We discovered that just about, I don't know, an hour to the south of us is this
really beautiful cabin. There are a couple of cabins up there, I think, on the property. It's
up in the mountains, a little bit higher in elevation. So, what I really like is it goes from
palm trees to pine trees, and the nature of it all looks like we're back in Canada.

Amy: Yeah

Curtis: So, it's really cool to have that, you know, when you're feeling like, I wish I could
stay in these rustic cabins of Canada again. But you don't have an upcoming trip to
Canada. You can just drive an hour south in Mexico. It totally surprised me to see this
there.

Amy: Here in the area where we live in Puerto Vallarta, we're actually surrounded by this
massive mountain range, and these mountains are quite high. So, we're able to drive up
into the mountains and literally, I think it's 45 minutes from Puerto Vallarta, we're able to
go from this tropical beach area that is really hot, especially in the summer, up into the
mountains into a new area that has totally different vegetation.

Amy: It has pine trees, and pine trees are really kind of an iconic symbol or something
that we think of with camping in Canada, right. So, when we're there and we look around,
we're like, man, we could pretty much be in Canada right now. We feel like, oh, this is
really cool. But do you remember the very first time that we went there? We were so
excited about having a campfire.

Curtis: Oh, yeah, because they have a huge fire pit, and we have all of our stuff that we
can cook over the fire like we did in Canada. Marshmallows, hot dogs. We even get
gourmet sometimes with our food that we cook.

Amy: We, meaning Amy, goes to the kitchen, cook something delicious or puts it
together.

Curtis: Yeah, the fire pit was one of the most exciting things for me because I know the
food is going to be good because of what you put together. But not having one for so
long, it had been years.

Amy: Yeah, and I think that's the thing that we used to when we were in Canada, we
were going camping all the time, where we would go on a cabin getaway, I mean, there
were even times that we would just go up. We call it a weenie roast. Like, a weenie is
another name for a hot dog. So, we'd go up and we'd make a fire, basically hang out for a
few hours, cook these smokies or hot dogs over the fire and just hang out.
Amy: So, it was something when we moved to Mexico, and you're not really allowed to
have fires on the beaches here, at least in populated areas. I'm sure you could get away
with it in the middle of nowhere, but you can't really have fires on the beaches. So, there
wasn't an opportunity for us to really have a campfire. And when we finally discovered
these cabins and they had a campfire, I didn't even care what the cabin looked like. I was
just so stoked that there was a fire.

Curtis: It took us long to start the fire, did it?

Amy: No, we didn't even have to start the fire. Which actually leads us to the type of
cabin that this was.

Amy: So, to our surprise, this is actually a really well-made log cabin. I don't know what
type of wood it is, but it's all wood, and they have done it really well. They have a very
comfortable king size bed in there. They have a TV; they have Netflix and whatever else
you want to watch. There's an Internet connection. And part of the deal is that they
collect the wood for you. They come up; they start the fire for you. Like, man, we don't
even have to know how to start a fire there. So, we aren't able to use our Canadian fire
skills.

Curtis: It's on this property and it's really cool. They have six dogs on the property, so we
have some pets keeping us company there too. So, it's a really interesting way to spend
the weekend if you want to.

Amy: And I think one of the things that I really enjoy about this cabin in particular,
because it is really in nature, there are neighbors around the property, but they're on
different properties that would be like acres and acres away. Like you can't really see
them or hear them, but because of that, we get to see some interesting wildlife. Do you
remember when we saw the parrots?

Curtis: Oh yeah, the parrots and hummingbirds, squirrels.

Amy: Fireflies.

Curtis: Oh yeah, fireflies. That's really cool too. And it's pitch black at night, so the star
gazing, that's something that I always love at these cabin experiences too, is just looking
up and watching the show of the galaxy of the stars and the universe. So, it just adds to it.

Amy: Exactly. And one thing that's really interesting about this cabin that's near us, and I
think it has a lot to do with the area where we are and the elevation and the weather
patterns around us. But oftentimes in the late afternoon, the clouds start to develop and
they kind of roll into this area and it creates this really mystical kind of feeling where it's
foggy. When you look around, you feel like you're in Harry Potter or something like that.

Curtis: You stole the words out of my mouth there. I was just thinking the same thing. It
sounds like Harry Potter. You're in Hogwarts having a campfire or something, right?

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© 2022 RealEnglishConversations.com Amy Whitney & Curtis Davies
Amy: Maybe not a castle, but who knows? Anything is possible. I'm sure there's a castle
for rent somewhere.

Amy: Anyway, I think that's all we've got for you with this conversation about cabin
getaways. But this really honestly, I think we've stayed in 20 or 30 different cabins. But if
you ever have the opportunity to do it, I know that you're going to have to drive
somewhere. It's going to kind of be out of the way, but it's really a great time and a great
way to relax and spend time either with your partner or you can go with your friends. But
either way, you're not going to regret it.