Spa Day at Mi Amo

Who does not love spa day!

Mi Amo spa at Enchantment resort is the place to go.

Beautiful surroundings, excellent food at Mi Amo Cafe, and wonderful spa services.

Check out our Viva la Voyage travel photo site to see photos of the Great Synagogue of Budapest, Hungary.

Photo: Cliff Dwellings in Boynton Canyon

About half way up the cliff in yesterday's photo is this scene of the ruins of a Native American cliff dwelling.  There are lots of cliff dwellings in the rocks around Sedona.

Some of the cliff dwellings are preserved with Forest Service rangers and volunteers controlling access and monitoring visitors.

Bout many other cliff dwellings like the one in today's photo, are unattended.  They must rely on their remoteness, difficulty of access, and the better elements of human nature not to deface or alter the sights.


This week we are posting some additional photos from our recent trip to Ethiopia on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo: Boynton Canyon Cliff

This is a typical Sedona scene.  This is in Boynton Canyon, where the Enchantment Resort is located.

There is something unusual about this scene, however.  I will show a closer view tomorrow that exposes a hidden treat in this photo.

This week we are posting some additional photos from our recent trip to Ethiopia on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo: Taking a photo in the Kiva

My husband took this photo of me taking yesterday's photo.  For me to get the angle of yesterday's photo, I had to lie down on the bench seating around the edge of the kiva, and shoot back across the room to get an angle with both the fountain and the skylight.

The fountain in the middle of the kiva is a giant log of petrified wood, with an illuminated crystal mounted in it.

The atmosphere in the kiva is very conducive to relaxation, except of course when one is concentrating on taking a photo with a difficult camera angle.

This week we are posting some additional photos from our recent trip to Ethiopia on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo: Kiva at Mii Amo Spa at Enchantment Resort

This is a somewhat odd photo.  It is the meditation kiva at the Mii Amo Spa at Enchantment Resort in Sedona.

The kiva is round, of course.  Most of the light comes into the room from a round skylight, but there is also a bit of indirect lighting, and some crystals on the walls and in the fountain in the center of the floor are also illuminated.

Tomorrow I will show a rather goofy photo that my husband took as I was taking this photo.

This week we are posting some additional photos from our recent trip to Ethiopia on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo: Lone Tree Growing from a Sedona Cliff

It amazes me how trees can grow in the rocks on a cliff.  I suspect that the roots have found a crack in the rocks into which they have penetrated.  The sandstone of Sedona is porous, so perhaps water seeps down through the rocks to feed the roots.

This week we are posting some additional photos from our recent trip to Ethiopia on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo: Cliff Face in Boynton Canyon, Sedona

On our recent hike into Boynton Canyon from Enchantment Resort, we of course enjoyed looking up at the red rock canyon walls.

I suspect that rock formations such as this would be popular with mountain and rock climbers.

Today is Sunday, so we have new photos posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  These week we are showing some additional photos from  our remarkable recent trip to Ethiopia.

Photo: Mii Amo Spa Swimming Pool at Enchantment Resort

This is the swimming pool at the Mii Amo Spa at Enchantment Resort in Sedona.  There is a larger pool at the main lodge, but this is a small, quiet pool for use by guests who are enjoying spa services.

I think it is hard not to relax in this setting.

This week we have photos of the spirituality of the people of Grenada, Nicaragua posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo: Enchantment Resort from the Air

As our plane headed from Sedona to Grand Canyon West, the pilot flew over the Enchantment Resort where we and the other couple on our trip were staying.

You can see the main lodge, with the swimming pool, several tennis courts and the croquet court in front of it.  The casitas are sprinkled around the woods and canyon.

The other couple on our air excursion from Sedona to Grand Canyon West were visiting from Zurich, Switzerland.  They wanted to visit Sedona before attending a conference in Chicago.  We enjoyed talking to them about our visits to Zurich, and then mentioned how much we love Bellagio and Lake Como just south of Switzerland.  They were obviously well travelled, but they had never been to the nearby Italian Lakes.

It is strange how sometimes people have travelled to distant lands, but have missed places worth visiting close to home.

This week we have photos of the people of Ethiopia posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo: A House with a View in Boynton Canyon

There are a few private homes on the grounds of Enchantment Resort, just before the National Forest land that comprises the rest of Boynton Canyon.  The people who live in the house shown in today's photo have a spectacular view of the red rock canyon.

The view changes with the light, although we hiked past these homes on a rare cloudy day.

This week we have photos of the Hassan II mosque of Casablanca, Morocco posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo: Croquet at Enchantment Resort

If tennis, like I showed yesterday, is too vigorous an activity, croquet is also an activity available at Enchantment Resort.  We did not do either, preferring to hike in Boynton Canyon when time permitted.

This week we have photos of the Hassan II mosque of Casablanca, Morocco posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo: Tennis at Enchantment Resort

Tennis, anyone?  This is a photo of one of the tennis courts at Enchantment Resort in Sedona.  It must be a challenge to keep your eye on the ball when playing tennis in such scenic surroundings.

When Enchantment Resort was first built, it was called John Gardner's Tennis Ranch.  It has about a half dozen tennis courts in front of the lodge.  It is now more of a multi-purpose resort with many activities, rather than marketing itself with a focus on tennis, but there are abundant opportunities for tennis.

This week we have photos of the Hassan II mosque of Casablanca, Morocco posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo: Mii Amo Spa at Enchantment Resort

Mii Amo Spa at Enchantment Resort is considered one of the top spas in the country.  The spa has many Native American elements and themes.  Some of its treatment rooms look up to the red rock cliffs that surround its setting in Boynton Canyon just outside Sedona.

There is an excellent restaurant at the spa that features healthy, fresh cuisine.  They also have daily afternoon lessons  at the counter overlooking the restaurant kitchen.  Some days the lessons feature teas, and other days they are cooking lessons for an entree or other dish.

They have casitas at the spa so people can spend the entire weekend there, although my husband and I have always stayed a short walk away at the Enchantment Resort casitas.

This week we have photos of the Hassan II mosque of Casablanca, Morocco posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Sedona's Boynton Canyon in the Clouds

Here is another photo from our stay in Sedona two weeks ago, when there was a major winter storm across the southwestern U.S.

Sedona is part of the Mogollon Rim that streches across much of Arizona and divides the high desert from the high country.  The red rock a the lower canyon elevations were visible, but the limestone cliffs of the upper reaches of the canyon were in the clouds.

Today is Sunday, so we have new photos posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  This week we are showing some additional photos of the monumental Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco.  Our photos two weeks ago showed the large scale of the mosque.  This week's photos include some of the people enjoying visits to the mosque.

Photo: Apache Flute Player

This flute player at Enchantment Resort in Sedona was excellent.  The canyon walls provide very nice acoustics.

This week we have photos of the people of Ethiopia posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo: Plains Indian Dance

This is a plains Indian performing a traditional dance that simulates the stomping down of grasses on the plains.  What is unusual about this dance is that this woman is the only female who is allowed to perform this dance.

They explained that there are different dances for men and women, but she went to the tribal elders and requested permission to perform the men's dance.  Due to her sincerity, they granted her permission.

Congratulations to her for breaking another gender barrier and crack in the glass ceiling.

The red rocks of Sedona's Boynton Canyon and the adobe fireplace make a fitting backdrop for this performance.

This week we have photos of the people of Ethiopia posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo: Plains Indian Dancer

While the hoop dancer was performing, this Native American was waiting her turn.  She was a northern plains Indian, so her clothing is of a different style than we usually see for Native Americans in the Southwest.

The dance that she performed is quite unusual as well, as I will show and explain in tomorrow's post.

This week we have photos of the people of Ethiopia posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo: Native American Hoop Dances

Enchantment Resort in Sedona has lots of activities, many of which have a native American theme.  During the Thanksgiving banquet, they had Native American dancers and musicians, including this hoop dancer.

In addition to the performances, the musicians and dancers gave educational explanations of the history and culture of their performances.

This week we have photos of the people of Ethiopia posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Photo: Sedona in the clouds

What a difference a week makes.  The photo that I posted yesterday shows what Sedona looked like this past weekend.  We happened to spend the previous weekend in Sedona as well, and this is a photo of the same Boynton Canyon as I showed yesterday, taken one week earlier.

The weekend before Thanksgiving was highly unusual, as a major storm system moved across the USA from California to Texas.  It caused some rain and the clouds enveloped the red rocks of Sedona.

It was unusual to spend two weekends in a row in Sedona.  We had made reservations a long time ago to spend Thanksgiving weekend at Enchantment Resort with my mother and a good friend of hers.  Then my husband had a Board of Directors Retreat that happened to be scheduled for one week earlier at the same Enchantment Resort, so we ended up staying there twice.  The very different weather made it a very different experience on the consecutive weekends.

This week we have photos of the people of Ethiopia posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Prickly Pear Tunas at Mii Amo Spa

Here is a photo of Prickly Pear Cactus with its tunas turning slightly purple.

This cactus is located at the entrance door to Mii Amo Spa.

The fruit of the prickly pear cactus are called tunas and you can make tea, margaritas, candy, or syrup from the tunas.

Today is Sunday so that means new travel photos. Check out the architecture of Spain at Viva la Voyage!