Our first USA home sit - Anza, CA

Never heard of Anza before? Neither had we but that didn't stop us from applying for our first home sit here in the United States. And boy are we glad we did because not only is it surrounded by some of the most breathtaking landscape, it is home to our friendly and hospitable hosts Dayna and Daryl.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with home sitting, the service allows you free accommodation in exchange for caring for owners homes and/or pets while they themselves go on holiday. This greatly appealed to us as it gets you to new destinations off the tourist strips, immerses you in the local community and has all the comforts of home that hotels cannot provide. And of course it's free!

After about 3 hours driving from Beverly Hills, Dayna and Daryl welcomed us into their beautiful home set up high on the hill with 360 degree views of desert mountains, Indian reservations and stunning sunsets. We are here for 5 nights caring for their two horses and dogs who are happy to meet us too.

The fires we had left in LA were also not far from Anza and so as a precaution the power to the town was turned off. This made for an intimate impromptu dinner with the neighbours (ironically from Box Hill North, Melbourne) as they weren't as fortunate as us to have a generator on their property. Dayna cooked chicken parmesan and together we got to know a little bit more about each other's lives and gained insights about the different lands we were all from.

You cannot beat local knowledge so before long Quiggy and I had an itinerary of what to do and what to look out for, like coyotes, mountain lions and big horn sheep (thankfully winter is not the season for rattle snakes!). How exciting to be surrounded by nature yet so close to the famous Palm Springs, the wineries of Temecula, and the beaches of San Diego.

During our stay we were fortunate to see all of the wonderful sights above and more, meet interesting people who expanded our minds from the skewed view our media at home feeds us, and learned that though we come from half a world away, we had so much in common with our new friends.

We loved Anza and it's people. Perhaps it was the tourmaline filled land we were standing on or the abundant nature surrounding us that made us feel relaxed. That and the fact we didn't see the coyotes, mountain lions or big horn sheep!

#Back into nature

#Skip the tourist strip

#Go make friends with a stranger