Slow Baja - Casa 8 And The Beautiful Bruma Universe With Ruth Loyola

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

In today’s travel talk with Slow Baja, we meet Ruth Loyola. Ruth is the General Manager of the Bruma Universe. In our conversation, we discuss Casa 8, the casually elegant bed & breakfast, Bruma, the stunningly beautiful winery, and Fauna, recently selected as one of the top 50 restaurants in Latin America. We stayed in a beautiful room in Casa 8. Each of the properties' eight rooms is unique, blending traditional Mexican design and locally sourced materials. The rooms are arranged strategically to respect privacy --yet are attached to the main house, which holds the kitchen, living room, pool, and outdoor lounge. The opportunity to meet other guests and make new friends is integral to the design and is an expected part of the Casa 8 experience.  Casa 8 is a STRONG Slow Baja Approved!  Visit the Bruma - Casa 8 website here  Follow Bruma - Casa 8 on Instagram here  Follow Bruma - Casa 8 on Facebook here  Follow Fauna on Instagram here  Reserve a table here

Hey, this is Michael Emery. Thanks for tuning into the Slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches, and hands down my favorite tequila. Hey, I want to tell you about your new must-have accessory for your next Baja trip. Benchmark Maps has released a beautiful, beautiful Baja California Road and Recreation Atlas. It's a 72-page large format book of detailed maps and recreation guides that makes the perfect planning tool for exploring Baja. Pick yours up at Benchmarkmaps.com. Before we get into today's show with Ruth Loyola, the general manager of the Bruma Winery, Casa Ocho, beautiful architecturally situated universe 90-acre site in the Valle de Guadalupe. I just need to say thanks to Dan McNally.

Dan is a Baja-loving builder up in Northern California, and he was working on a project around. the corner from Slow Baja HQ for months. And I just loved whenever I caught him at his truck and we would talk about where he was going or where I had just been. And Dan's wife is a small ye. And one day we were talking about the Valle, and they had just come back from a stay at Bruma and Casa Ocho and had eaten at Fauna. And Dan said to me, dude, it was worth every penny.

So I'd been trying to get Lulu, Buma's famed winemaker on the show for for a while and with the Nora 500 on the horizon, I managed to get her lined up, a stay at Casa Ocho, and a dinner reservation at Fauna, all to line up and got the Baja visitor and we drove Old Slow Baja to the site, showed up all dirty and dusty, but Ruth couldn't have been more kind to a couple of dirty Baja racers, and their 90-acre site designed by Mexico City-based architect. Aalajandro de Acosta, it is absolutely stunning. You almost don't see it from the wine root. It is so stunningly integrated into the existing surrounds, the 300-year-old tree that the whole property is centered around. The man-made lake, which is amazing with this sculpture that we talk about,

then underneath it is the wine cellar and next to its fauna. I mean, the whole thing is spectacular. It is a strong, strong, Slow Baja approved. Get yourself down there. Tell him Slow Baja sent you. Okay, without further ado, Ruth Loyola. Hey, it's Slow Baja. It's Travel Talk, and I am incredibly excited to be at this beautiful property. I'm with Ruth Loyola. She's a general manager of Bruma, the Bruma universe. We're sitting in the gymnasio, which is stunning. There's an incredible.

art sculpture project above us and Ruth's going to tell us all about the property and the art and the wine and I'm just delighted to be here so hello Ruth say hello hi this is Ruth it's I'm very happy to to have you here to show you a bit of what we do and a bit of our place so Ruth I've been doing Slow Baja for a couple of years I live in San Francisco People love Baja from all over the world, but in my neighborhood, there's a contractor working right around the corner from me, and he says, oh, you're slow Baja. I know you. Hey, have you ever been to Casa Ocho?

I said, I went with my wife. It's a beautiful, beautiful place. You've got to go there. So you have people in San Francisco saying, have you ever been? Yes, we have many tourists from San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles. We are very near, and it's very safe to come here. The roads are very easy to get here. and it's a place that people don't expect to see here.

So close to the U.S. and so beautiful. And so different. And so different. And so let's talk about this a little bit, the Bruma universe. When was this universe constructed? It's beautiful, centered around this amazing, amazing oak tree, just a spectacular centerpiece to this property. 90 acres, you told me.

About 90 acres divided in the vineyard. the hotel, the winery, the restaurants, and we're building a market also at the entrance. We also have cows and bulls. So it's very organic and it's a universe here and in the mecca of wine. So with good wine and good food and good architecture and art and, you know, nature. So it's a place to be. But it's spectacularly situated inside the nature that's here. and then what's been constructed has been so thoughtfully integrated it appears when you arrive that it was just all here forever. Yes.

Tell me a little bit about your architect and how that came about. This, well, this started as a dream of eight friends and I think the architect made a wonderful job reflecting what this eight friends wanted to show. the architect and these eight friends wanted to include nature and to use as many recycled materials as possible and to look very endemic not to look like something from outside from the city or a building but to be integrated with nature and to respect the nature here so you come here and it's a place to really connect with nature and connecting with yourself, I think, and connecting with yourself is not only, you know, a quiet place and being alone, but also it's having good food, enjoying with friends, having good wine,

having a nice breakfast, you know, enjoying the morning views or being at the pool, but, you know, like, it's a disconnect from the real life. Yeah, it's a pretty nice place to disconnect. It is, yes. So your famed architect Acosta, I mean he's painting with with natural cactus and dirt together. I mean he's bringing in recycled metal. It's it's a pretty amazing vision. Yes, it's including the nature around with the rocks, with the painting, with the cactus, we have a lot of cactus around.

The wood is also recycled. So that's his idea, to show all the nature of this place. This is the first time ever that I've done a podcast where a tray of beautiful drinks and treats has just appeared from nowhere. Coffee, tea, water, muffins, homemade muffins. Yeah, and freshly cut herbs right there on the national. Hopkins folks. Slow Baja is ascending. Well, back to the integration of the property. So centered around this amazing 300-year-old, approximately 300-year-old tree. You were touching on earlier that this was,

there's native, evidence of native inhabitants of this land. Yes, there are some indigenous areas around here which still preserve their traditions. One is about less than 10 kilometers from here. It's called Nekwa. It's beautiful. They have spring waters, they make marmalades, they make cheese. It's a very, very small community, but very closed community. And this was part of them as well many years ago. So I think that integrating nature with this architecture, with all the history that happened many years ago, I think that's what makes this place so special.

And all the trees, you know, all of what they've seen. scene around. And now the trees get to see beautiful people enjoying their lives and you host weddings under the trees. Yes, now these trees see celebrations, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings. We have many weddings here as well. And even if it's not a big event here, just really just having breakfast there under that tree and having the birds singing.

all day and having all this background with these mountains and vineyards, all this nature around it's very beautiful. It's an experience. It's an experience. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border. When we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at Baja bound.com. That's Bajabound.com serving Mexico traveler since 1994. Have you asked your doctor if Baja is right for you? If your doctor says yes, well, maybe you need to check out the Baja Exile. It's every other year and it's coming up February 23, the 17th through the 26th, San Diego, all the way down the peninsula, and all the way back up to Tijuana, 10 days, 3,000 miles. If you're

interested in doing it and you got some questions, hit me up at slowbaha.com. click that contact button or you can direct message me at slow baha on instagram or facebook and always check out the baha xl.org page that's bahaxl.org and hope to see you down at the start line in san diego for a grand adventure ruth um i'm sort of just astonished honestly at this this property the sculpture that you showed us where the wedding ceremonies are performed. It's tree branches, tree, I don't want to say trunks, but it's an integrated upside down.

It's almost in the tradition of the Jewish Hupa. There's an amazing open enclosure, if that makes any sense at all, of this natural space. Who comes up with that? Yeah, it's a spider. It is. Spider, the architect, his ideas, and he had a lot to work with, with all this nature and all the things that he found, but also his vision. He had this vision to transform and to make this a very unique place.

And so that spider, it's usually used for the ceremonies for weddings. We also have had proposals there and also Jewish weddings there. Well, there you go. The natural Hupa. Yes. Maybe the only one in Baja. But it's beautiful. It's a spider.

It looks very natural. It's surrounded by cactuses. The view just facing, like the spider is facing the vineyard. Like to the front is the vineyard and to the back is the mountains. So it has a beautiful, beautiful view. And then when we have weddings, we have a suite here above us. and the staircase, like you can see from the spider, you can see the stairs. So we've had the bride walking from the stairs, and everybody by the spider is just looking at her.

We've had mariachi bands coming from the stairs, and it's just beautiful. So Casa Ocho, eight rooms, eight friends, eight's a number that's important here. Eight is a number here. Eight is a magical number. It's eight rooms here. It's eight rooms here. in Casa Ocho, eight rooms now in Casa Montaña because the hotel is divided into sections. The winery, which you'll see, it's an octagon and there are eight trees around, and in the middle it's a big tree. So it's like the union of these, you know, these eight people. It's like very symbolic, but eight is the number here. Eight is the number here. Tell me a little bit about, So Casa Ocho is a place that one can rent a room when it's available.

If it's a wedding, you're renting the entire eight suites, eight rooms out. Tell me a little bit about Casa Montaña. Casa Montaña, it's two houses with four rooms each house. We rent them by room or you can run the whole house. But it has many common areas. There's a living room, dining room. There's a beautiful fireplace. There's a pool, a jacuzzi.

There's a lake also. you can swim if you're brave enough to swim there. We have dogs there and who knows turtles, I think I've seen there. But in the whole Bruma, the concept is to share. So we have many common rooms like this, the game room or the gym. The dining room is also a place to share. The lobby in Casa Montaña. The living room is big enough to share with your friends.

Fauna also has these big tables to share. And the cool thing is that even if you just come, you know, with one room, the idea is to meet other people and, you know, make new friends. It usually happens in Fauna where everybody's having this lunch at the same table. You can't help but make friends with who's next to you or, you know, they're just say hello or something. So that's the idea to share. And Casa Montaña really, really shows that in one half. house where you can rent one room and maybe make some friends with the other rooms, or you can rent the whole house.

And we include in the house, if you rent it, we can bring a chef to cook in your house. We can bring a guitar player, a bartender, the massages. We have people that ask us for salsa classes, salsa like to eat, because the girls make breakfast here and they have this homemade. homemade and people have asked us to show them how to make them so we make these small classes there as well can we talk a little bit about fauna fauna it's the place to come in valley and i i i can't say in in mexico it's the food is wonderful they work a lot of a lot with vegetables and um the a fusion of ingredients. It's just crazy. Our chef, or the chef, his name is David, David Castro

Husong, and he's very young, but he has this creative mind. If he sees a cabbage, he will make something that you will remember forever. We have people, really, that come to fauna just because they remember the cabbage or the broccoli. And he has this very creative mind. His food is really very unique. His taste is very unique. And his wife, Maribel, she's a pastry chef, which the pastry there is also, it's really good. Fauna is the place to have the meal. Well, I can't wait. We'll be having the meal there tonight. Yes. Ted Donovan, the Baja visitor and Slow Baja, we're usually at a roadside taco stand where

it's homemade tortillas is enough for us, but tonight we're living large after the Nora 500. So thank you, Baja Bound. We'll be enjoying a little bit of your support at Fauna tonight. Let's wrap it up. Where's the best place for people to find out about what's happening here at Bhruma, to find out about the Bruma universe, website, social media? Social media, I think by Instagram. We are pretty active with Instagram, like sharing stories or pictures or events.

David does a lot of visiting to other restaurants around Mexico and in South America as well. So he always shows that over Instagram. Okay, so that's Bruma at on Instagram. Fauna Restaurant. Oh, Fauna Restaurant. Okay, and for Bruma? Bruma Casa Ocho. Casa Ocho with eight.

Yes, eight. Yes. Bruma, Casa eight. Yes. We haven't even talked about the wine. I'm a little distracted here at this beautiful space, having this beautiful coffee just been delivered. Let's talk about the wine.

This is a winery. People come here for the wine. Yes. The Valle is a mecca of wine. There are many wineries around here. And our inologist, her name is Lulu. She has this, also, I don't want to say, has this fusion or innovating, but that's what they are.

They are really artists on what they do. David, with his food, Lulu with the wine. And I think what's very important is that this is a girl making wine, which is not very common. So she's opening this area to many girls. So she's going around with this flag of girl power, you know, because she's doing big stuff, and she's opening this market, which is not very common for a woman.

She has this very feminine touch in her wines, which I think you'll try in a little bit. But yeah, that's the wine. It must be difficult sometimes to be a woman at the very top of her game in a business that, or an industry that's dominated by men. Yes. So I'm looking forward to to thoughtfully tasting her wines and finding the girl power, as you say.

She's a strong, beautiful woman, and she's opening this market and doing big stuff. You'll try her wine and you'll see her winery, and it's just amazing. It's a work of art. I think as David, Maribel, and Lulu, I think they are art. on what they do is not just making food and it's not just making wine but it's you know they are artists they really know how to work with grapes with lettuce with food with you know ice cream whatever it's it's magical really it's a full experience everything in bruma i think it's it's an experience even the coffee you know it's that's what we try to show you know it's everything that

you come here and it's a whole experience when you receive your coffee or when you go around in a bike or when you go in the pool or when you go grab a drink or anything, it's all an experience. Or when you walk in and you're met with an ice cold towel. Yes. Because you know it's hot and it's Baja and maybe you're a little dusty. Yes. And you're met with an ice cold towel that you can wipe your hands and wipe your face.

Well, Ruth, we're going to leave it right there. You've been very generous with your time. It's a beautiful place. I can't wait to get over to Fauna and have a glass of wine and enjoy the rest of the evening. So thank you. No, thank you so much for coming. This is your house. You can come any time. You're welcome to come and visit. All right. Well, that's Bruma folks. Slow Baja approved. That is a very, very strong Slow Baja approved. Find your way to Casa Ocho, find your way to Fana. Stay here, relax. Be where

you are when you're there and reach out to Ruth and say Slow Baja sent you. Ruth, before I let you go, just one more time. Tell me about this art sculpture that we're sitting underneath. These are rackets. They are vintage and the artist, his name is Seth. His artistic name is Art Puscher. And he made this design with this rackets that he found. And his idea is to make this as a tree. So it grows every time. So he's going to put more rackets each time. It's in the ceiling. It's beautiful. I think they blend really good. with the colors, even with the curtains or the color of the building, I think it blends a lot and it goes with the tennis court here. Yeah, so Seth, the art brochure. Tijuana, artist, again, some notoriety in Tijuana, but certainly has spent time on both sides of the border.

An incredible sculpture of hundreds of vintage wooden tennis rackets arranged in the ceiling, like there are leaves almost from a tree. And it's right outside, right inside the gymnasium, right next to the clay court and the paddle ball, pickleball, I think is what we call it. Paddle, yeah. Yeah, so it's an amazing sculpture, and that's the beautiful thoughtfulness that goes into every detail here. If it's the botanicals that are on the napkin or the products that are in the room are locally sourced or the fantastic muffins that have just been delivered, which I'm going to devour with my coffee here in a second.

It's, again, Slobaha approved Bruma on Instagram. Bruma Casa Ocho On Instagram Fauna Fauna restaurante on Instagram We're going to say it one more time That's Bruma Casa Ocho On with an 8 on Instagram

And Fauna Restaurante On Instagram's best way to get there And just a quick web search We'll get you to their website, TripAdvisor or something You'll be able to see more about it And make your reservation And tell them Slobaha sent you

Yes Yes Thanks. Thanks again. We did it. Thank you so much. Have I told you about my friend True Miller? You've probably heard the podcast, but let me tell you,

her vineyard, Adobe Guadalupe winery is spectacular. From the breakfast at her communal table, bookended to an intimate dinner at night. Their house bred Azteca horses, Solomon, the horseman will get you on a ride that will just change your life. The food, the setting, the pool. It's all spectacular. Adobe Guadalupe.com.

For appearing on Slow Baja today, our guests will receive the beautiful benchmark map 72-page Baja Road and Recreation Atlas. Do not go to Baja without this, folks. You never know when your GPS is going to crap out, and you're going to want a great map in your lap. Trust me. Hey, I hope you enjoyed that conversation

as much as I enjoyed my stay at Casa Ocho. Before you start sending me hate mail and telling me I've gone soft, you know, I want to see it all. I really do. And when somebody stops you on the street and tells you in San Francisco that you got to stay at Casa Ocho, you got to stay at Casa Ocho. I've stayed at the bare bulb hanging from the ceiling, paint, peeling, mom and pop, cassidias are darn good, but the mattress is highly questionable. I've stayed at that place. I've stayed at a lot of those places. Bruma, Casa Ocho, fauna, it's in a totally different league. If you've got to take your wife, your girlfriend, your best Baja off-roading buddy, to someplace spectacular. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Tell them Slow Baja sent you. All right, if you like what I'm doing here, folks, take a second and support the show. You can drop a taco in the tank by clicking the donate button at SlowBaha.com. That is the best way to get my Ask Your Doctor if Baja is right for you bumper sticker. While you're at Slowbaha.com,

you might as well grab some merch at the Slow Baja shop. Stuff's flying off the shelf, so get yourself a knit cap, maybe one of those black sweatshirts. Maybe you need to replace that modern trucker in gray and white that's sun-fated and dirty, and your wife said, are you wearing that hat again today? Well, maybe it's time for a new one. All right, always share the show with a friend, leave a five-star review, say something nice.

I'll be back here next week with something fun. And until then, in the words of Mary McGee's Baja-loving pal, Steve McQueen, Baja's life, everything that happens before or after, is just waiting.