Slow Baja - Azure O'Neil Baja Adventures & Overland Expo

Episode Date: April 30, 2024

Azure O’Neil is a badass. She has traveled through 31 countries on two and four-wheels, including a multi-year journey on her 1989 Honda Transalp. In addition to her love for overlanding, Azure enjoys paddleboarding, scuba diving, moto-camping, and planning her next big trip. You can follow her adventures on Instagram @MyTicketToRide. I met Azure at the 2023 Overland Expo, where she is the Director of Programming. Recently, we spent ten days tent camping through Baja. We kayaked Loreto National Marine Park, mule-packed in the mountains above Mision San Javier, and interviewed people involved in the conservation movement in Baja. In summary, Azure is a wealth of knowledge, travels easily, makes a damn fine cup of coffee, and is the one to ask when you need a pinch of salt. Azure O’Neil is Slow Baja Approved! Learn more about Azure O'Neil's travels here: https://youtu.be/9JE3ZXjqM5A?si=tvxDvkc9_13rxb2C Follow Azure on Instagram here:https://www.instagram.com/mytickettoride/ Get your Baja insurance here: ⁠https://www.bajabound.com/quote/?r=fl9vypdv2t⁠ For more information about Slow Baja: ⁠https://www.slowbaja.com/⁠ More information on Slow Baja Adventures: ⁠https://www.slowbaja.com/adventures

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. You know, I've long said it. Ask your doctor if Baja's right for you. If you've been hankering to get down to Slow Baja,

you've got to check out the Adventures tab at Slow Baja.com. All my trips are there from my vintage extravaganzas in summer and fall. Summer is old, old, funky, slow stuff. Fall is not quite as old stuff. And, of course, your meals are included on the fall trip. Good dirt roads, private campsites, ranch days, great food and great people. Let me tell you about my winter 2025 expedition. You know, that's already on the calendar, winter 2025.

That's for you folks with the new stuff, all those folks, the complainers who tell me they don't have anything old, but they want to come with me? Well, the winter expedition is for you. We've got whale watching. We've got beach camping. And once again, that is open to trucks of any age. The common denominator on all these trips, they're small. They're immersive.

We go slow. We say hello. Well, to find your trip, check out the Adventures tab at slowbaha.com. Now, stay tuned because I'm going to be adding some non-motorized adventures soon. So who's ready to go on a mule packing trip with me in the mountains above Loretta? You know, I just went and I can't wait to share a super, super slow Baja experience with you. And just so you know, I'm always open to help you with your Baja trip planning. And if you like me to organize and lead a private guided tour, I've done it.

I loved it. All the pictures, all the information, all the deets are over there at slowbaha.com slash adventures. Or just hit me up at slowbaha.com slash contact. Hey, big thanks to those of you who've contributed to our Baja baseball project. You know, we launched our gear deliveries on my winter expedition. Michael and Matthew from Barbers for Baja. We're along for the ride, and we got to deliver that critically needed baseball gear up and down the peninsula. It was really, truly amazing.

And on my last trip, I got to go to the state baseball championships and see some of our alums playing some recipients of the Baja baseball gear deliveries and congratulations to Guerrera Negro and Mulejahay, the Austenaros and the Cardinalitos won silver and bronze at the state championships. Big stuff. It's really fun to be there and fun to see them. All right, well, please help us continue this vital work. Make your tax deductible donation at the Barbers for Baja. click barbers for baha.org, click the baseball in baha link, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really do. It is so amazingly gratifying to be able to give these kids this chance to keep playing this sport. Keep them on the field. Keep them out out of trouble. Please check it out. Baseball in Baja link at barbers forbaha.org. Thank you.

Well, thanks for tuning in to today's Slow Baja. My heaping dose of gratitude goes out to Rachel, Colin. Rachel was absolutely integral to every aspect of my last Toto Santos trip from acting as liaison to the youth baseball team to arranging my interpreter, Marcella the writer. Everybody calls her Marcella the writer. I don't know what Marcella's last name is, but everybody in Tos Santos refers to her as Marcella the writer. So Marcella the writer, my interpreter, to reaching out to the community to help me secure some lodging for my little media circus. and through Rachel, I ended up staying at Los Sagrados, horse and donkey sanctuary in Pescadero, which there will be a podcast coming out on that soon,

and that leads me to my second heaping dose of gratitude, a first for Slow Baja, that there are two heaping doses of gratitude on this show. But Noel, the founder of Los Sagratos, is very well connected in the farming and organic food scene, herb scene in Pescadero, Toto Santos, and she reached out to Slow Marcos, to Slow Baja alum, Javier Placencia.

And she told Javier that Slow Baja is in town, and Slobaha was staying at the ranch, and he was delivering baseball gear to the kids in Tos Santos. And Javier, being a damn fine fella, said to Nuel, why don't you send that guy over to the restaurant tonight? I'd like to buy him dinner. And I went with my little film crew, Dylan and Elvis. And wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. we went to Hazamongo and basically I let the Sente, the matri d, order for us.

And it was truly spectacular. And the thing that kind of really stands out early in the dinner was guacamole. So yeah, guacamole. That's pretty standard in Mexico. But instead of chips, we had beef jerky or carne saco sliced paper thin, like prosciutto thin and probably flash fried. It was fabulous. Fab, fab, fabulous. Too bad. Poor Dylan is a vegetarian, so he didn't have any, but I clearly smashed his share, and it was amazing. All right. Well, anyways, today's show is with Azure

Anil. And Azure is the programming director of Overland Expo. And I will be at Overland Expo. This is coming up in May, May 17th through 19th in Flagstaff, Arizona. It's an amazing collection of people, of vehicles, of vendors. Anybody who wants to get out and camp in their vehicle, do this overlanding thing. Overland Expo is still the place to be. So I'll be there, May 17th through 19th, Fort Tuttle Park up in Flagstaff, Arizona. I'm going to be talking about Baja. I'm leading a class on Baja called Baja 101. Leading another class called Less is More, which is basically me imploring you to just quit planning, quit trying to build that ultimate off-road vehicle.

Just freaking go. And then I'm going to be telling people about how I started Slow Baja, the podcast. And I'm going to have my truck on display in the storyteller's pavilion. So you can come and hang out, say hello. I'm going to have a boatload of beer on my pack mule cargo carrier, courtesy of my friends at Modo Sonora Brewery, who have just made a brand new, slow Baja Mexican Lager. You can get it at Motocinora or you can get it from me during happy hour,

please, at my truck, coldie, off the rack. And I'm pretty stoked about the whole thing. All right, well, Azure O'Neill, back to her. She's a programming director of Overland Expo. She's traveled the world by boat. She's overlanded 31 countries on two and four wheels. I talked to her extensively about, I think she spent five years riding a motorcycle from up in the Arctic down to the bottom of South America, Ushwaya, and across the state, across the South America. She's been a lot of dang places. She navigated the prestigious and challenging women-only rebel rally, which is an amazing event in its own right. And we spent a week in Slow Baja. We kayaked the Laredo National Park, the Laredo Bay National Park. We camped out on an island out there

with Ginny Callahan, and we rode mules. Trudy Angel got us out on mules up at right behind Mission San Javier up in the mountains, and that was truly amazing. And, you know, we tent camped our way down the Baja Peninsula. And let me just be clear on this. When I say we tent camped our way down the peninsula. She was in her tent and I was in my tent, but she makes a hell of a cup of coffee in the morning, and she's a damn nice person. She's a real trooper. If I were able to give her parents a high five right now, I would do it. And anyways, without further ado, Asher O'Neill, today on Slow Baja. Turning on. We're turning on, so don't say anything you're going to regret. Asher O'Neill, introduce yourself and get you dialed in here.

All right. Like introduce myself for real, are you still sound checking? Yeah, I'm still sound checking, but yeah, like, you know, this might make it into the show. You never know. Do you feel like you have little droplets of something raining down on you? I guess you don't have as much bare skin showing as I do. There's like, I'm like, there's definitely no rain. If there's one of us with skin showing, I'm glad it's you and not me. There's, it's really funny. I'm like, this is some kind of psychosomatic. People are not tuning in to slow Baja to see my skin. Well, hello. Asher O'Neill.

We've had quite a week, haven't we? We have had quite a week. We're on, what, day eight, nine, something like that? I've lost count, but yeah, it feels like that. We've had a real run through Slow Baja. Yes, it's been both a fast and slow run through Slow Baja. Let me come up just a little bit here. All righty.

Well, there we go. The sultry sounds of Azure O'Neill. K-B-B-A-J-A. We're going to start it again. So Azure O'Neill, hey, Asher O'Neill. Hey, Michael Emery. Thanks for making some time for Slow Baja.

You are here, because we are here in Slow Baja together doing Baja things slowly. I really don't know what we just did for the last eight or ten days or whatever, however long we've been here. But it was your recommendation that got me roped into this. And, well, I just want to ask you. Your official job, your title, is Director of Programming for the Overland Expo. That's how I met you last year. That's correct. Yeah, that was how we got connected last year, and we had the pleasure of having you join our team of speakers.

Talking Baja at the Overland Expo. And getting rave reviews at the Overland Expo. Oh, good. I never knew if people liked it or not. But we've had kind of an amazing week. We've done some really slow stuff. We've kayaked a couple of miles, four-ish miles out into an island, spent the night, had the most amazing time with Ginny Callahan and the Marine Park of Loretto.

And then jumping right back onto the mainland, we ended up mule packing with Trudy Angel up in the hills behind Mission San Javier up above Loretto. and we've camped out in Arroyo. You went scuba diving. Holy Toledo, man. What are your thoughts? You've been to Baja before. I've been to Baja before, and I will say selfishly, I felt like I went too quickly through Baja last time.

And maybe slightly more slowly through Baja the time prior to that. So when Gary reached out to me about this, adventure, we'll call it, and asked for Baja recommendations, you know, folks in Baja who really knew the peninsula well. You were the first that came to mind. And, you know, one is the knowledge, but two, the way your, you know, your reputation for how you move through Baja and how you see Baja, because there's so much to be seen here, but you really need to take the time to slow down. Right. And see these things, have the conversations. And so I hope that you've enjoyed this adventure as much as I have.

But thanks for letting me be part of getting you roped into it. Yeah, well, you were here to ride a motorcycle. You were here to ride with me. You were here to interview people. You were here to be interviewed. And I am getting rained on by something. See? I think it's like tree sap or something.

Is it? Yeah. That's wild. And I think you've already had a three-hour interview today. So we're going to try and keep the pace moving along. It's beautiful afternoon. Los Freoles, Friles, Los Friles, just south of Cabo Pulmo. We're in an arroyo.

We found a shady spot sitting on a rock here. And we're going to get right into it. You probably got to Overland Expo. You became known to that community through some epic motorcycle rides that you did. I'd love to just jump into that. So I know that a little bit about your story, you were in Australia, making wine. What led up to that? I was prior to that I was living in Washington D.C. I had gone to school there and got out of school and needed to start paying off those student loans right away as one does in some cases and got into a career that, you know, it was interesting and exciting, but it was definitely kind of became a burnout situation.

Politics. We're not going to go into what politics, but you're in politics. That's the employer there, right? Um, you know, loosely. Everything I think it kind of is related to, to politics. You start in politics and then you moved to lobbying and you moved to Australia instead. Exactly. Did I get it right? Pretty much. Yeah. Nailed it. So let's cut to Australia then. So you had a, you had some time in D.C. And then you found yourself in Australia, um, in the wine business. Yeah. I found myself in Australia in the wine business. And I just felt like I came alive there. Um, I loved working with grapes. I love. I love. loved the miracle that is grapes becoming wine. Phenomenally, physically challenging work, you know, physically and mentally exhausting for sure. It's farming. It's really farming. Yeah. Yeah. But it was just an incredible experience, and obviously the outcome is beautiful.

So I know you're a huge tequila fan. I grew up near Sonoma and Napa, so I've drank my share of wine. Yeah. And I've drank my share of tequila. I'm working on getting to the share that you've had of tequila, but I'm not sure if I'll catch up. Wow. But I really fell in love with winemaking, and I just realized that I had never felt so alive and engaged in a place in a career in my life. And I'm like, okay, I just want to keep doing this. And I decided not to go home. And I bought an old Toyota Camry and started driving that around Australia.

Noted Overland Vehicle. Yes, noted overland vehicle. But it was great. It took me everywhere I needed to go. I actually brought it up Gibb River Road, which is kind of one of the renowned, you know, adventure four-wheel drive tracks. And there I was, and, you know, a mini skirt flip-flops and my little Honda and got quite a few looks. But, you know, we made it a good way until everyone else had to turn around. And it was a good adventure. So along the way, I stopped and worked on the Great Barrier Reef. Scoobabing is one of my passions. And I met a guy who had traveled overland from Holland to Australia on his Honda Africa twin. And one thing led to another. Cool guy. Yeah, both. Very cool.

But he invited me to hop on the back of his bike and travel down the middle of Australia with him, which at the time was considered one of the only places in Australia that solo female travelers were not advised to go. And so I did. And I fell in love with motorcycle travel as much as I fell in love with the cool guy. So it led to five years of traveling around the world on a motorcycle. I eventually got my own motorcycle. I decided I wanted to have just as much fun as he was having. And so we did North and South America on two bikes, roughly from east to west, and all the way north in Prudobay, Alaska, to the bottom of Argentina in Ushawa,

and back up the east coast. Wow. Quite an adventure. It was phenomenal. And what were you riding? I have. I still have. I don't think I'll ever get rid of it. A 1989 Honda Transelp.

Oh, terrific. I can see it. Is it red, white, and blue? It is. Yes. It's the posty bike. Yep, so cool. So cool. And so all of that riding, that guy evidently is not with you today. I'm aware of that.

And I'll just say for the record, there is a secret guy that's with her today that we're not going to discuss. but just don't send me any messages, folks. Okay, she's taken. And so how did it go from there to Overland Expo? I mean, obviously you're a badass. You wrote for five years and traveled, and did the pandemic kill that? What eventually brought that to an end? I wouldn't say that it necessarily has been brought to an end.

I think, you know, I had, after South America, the idea was to, continue traveling through Russia and Mongolia. But ultimately, you know, international relations are quite dynamic, as we know. And sometimes relationships with a country can appear to be positive and ultimately, diplomatically, they are falling apart. So there was quite a period of time where it was not wise for me to try to travel to Mongolia via Russia. And during that time, I had, you know, been going to Overland Expos and speaking and talking about my travels and trying to encourage other people to go out and chase their own, you know, dreams and travels, passions. And ultimately, one of the women who was working for Overland Expo at the time heard about my

past in logistics and operations management for events in Washington, D.C., and said, hey, I think we could use someone like you because we're growing every year. really need some help. So that translated to a job that allowed me to still fortunately travel extensively because Overland Expos, you can imagine, encourages their staff to go out and actually do the thing. Do the thing. Do the thing, which I'm very grateful for. And we were working remotely well before the pandemic. That was kind of always the model for Overland Expo. So incredibly, incredibly good fit for me professionally and you know life logistically awesome awesome what do you think you learned five years on the road seeing all those cultures from across australia to the top of the

arctic and down to the bottom of south america it's a long it's a long way why why what who tell me a little bit about that unpacked that a little bit well i i think for me there were kind of three major takeaways. When I started traveling, I had grown up with, you know, my father's incredible stories of, you know, traveling through Europe and Asia as a young man and, you know, when he was in his early 20s. And he spent time, a lot of time in India, in the Himalayas, and he would show me these incredible slideshow, you know, presentations of his photos from that time. while I was growing up and I just always remembering I want to go there I want to see that and the

really magical thing that I experienced while traveling was that all of my journeys well there was ultimately some goal you know a point here on a map and I want to go see that canyon or that waterfall or that really picturesque town ultimately the highlight of each journey became the people who I had the fortune to encounter along the way. Yeah. The people, the people, the people. Yeah. So it keeps me coming back.

Yeah. And another one of the lessons is that, like, 99.9% of people are wonderful. I believe that for sure. Yeah. And even times when, you know, Gary kind of grilled me about this this morning, he was like, really, 99.9%? And maybe not 99.9% of the people. were wonderful, but the interactions were. Even if there was someone who maybe rubbed me the wrong way,

I felt like if I thought about it long enough, there was always a takeaway for me where it was like, okay, something positive came out of this. They either educated me about something, helped me to grow in some way, or hopefully maybe I educated a couple of people out there, like, you know, that women can actually ride motorcycles. Yeah, that women can ride motorcycles. I've been seeing you ride up and down this arroyo a little bit, doing some film work yesterday. You can ride.

Well, you know, it's fun. I'm a little rusty. You got a compliment from Dylan the videographer who on our way to lunch today. He said, yeah, she's pretty fast. It's kind of a badass. So you must have been enjoying it a little bit. Oh, it was so fun. Yeah.

I mean, riding in Baja is difficult to talk. Yeah, so thinking back to Slow Baja alum, Doug Miller when I said that I was going to be down here with you. He said, oh, say hello for me. We had such a wonderful time at Coyote Beach. So I guess you were there on your trip down the peninsula and all the way down to Ashwaya, yeah? Yeah, yeah. And tell me about that story. I don't want to, you know, recap it to you. Tell me about that story. Tell me about taking the kids, the local kids. Was it the orphanage kids? What was that all about? Yeah. Tell me about that. I mean, it was really incredible.

and Shannon are wonderful people. You go back and listen folks to the episode. I'll have in the show notes with Doug and Shannon Miller about giving back. And they're really lovely, lovely people. But they're camped out on a beach. Somehow you must have been camped out on the same beach, I'm guessing. Yeah, it was just, you know, the slow Baja thing, you have to keep coming back to that. And I think the times when you're really traveling slowly and you're able to connect with people,

you open yourself up to really magical experiences. And we were stopped in Mule Hae using the wildest. at the coffee shop and not really intending to spend any time in Mulehaye or it surrounds. We didn't really have a plan other than to, you know, camp somewhere that night and keep heading down the peninsula. And my travel partner at the time, Ruel, his bike had Dutch plates on it. And this older Dutch gentleman approached him and started chatting with him in Dutch. And, you know, through their conversation eventually, I learned that we had been invited to camp

on this really beautiful beach with this community of Canadians and Americans who had camped there for many years altogether. It's really interesting. I mean, I'm sure you've experienced this, but I feel like here in Los Frales and Coyote Beach, and I'm sure other beaches along the peninsula, kind of the same people return year over year. And they create these really lovely communities that are based on like-mindedness, and, you know, shared goals and values, which is pretty cool. So we landed, you know, in Coyote Beach, and we were only planning to stay for one night,

and they told us, oh, man, it would really be a shame if, you know, you missed Christmas here. You know, we're going to have the kids from the orphanage and Mulehaye out to enjoy the beach, and they'd really love to ride on your motorcycles. So we're like, oh, polo cray. We didn't. Yeah. Can't be leaving now. Yeah, can't be leaving now.

We didn't have any plans for the holidays as it was, and nothing sounded better than that. So we stayed and it was incredible. I mean, I felt like we really became kind of, you know, part of this coyote beach family, which was really special. And I saw my first whale sharks there, which was, you know, something I'd been longing for for many years by that point. And we still keep in touch with several people we met on that beach and, you know, Facebook friends with the Millers. and it's been magical to reconnect with those people. Tim and Ramey, Lytle is Ramey's last name. I can't remember Tim's Bower Schmidt.

They had an incredible experience with Tim's mom after we met them. And they wrote a wonderful book about that experience called Driving Miss Norma. And they are definitely people you should chat with about slow travel. Yeah. So these things happen. These things happen. Somebody sees a Dutch plate. He's Dutch. He makes, strikes up a conversation and invites you to come and stay. Not everybody is open to the come and stay. Like all over the world. If you're paying attention and you have a, you know, a smile and you're welcoming, good things can happen. Tim and Kelsey Dirt Sunrise have told me all the times about they wish they had acted. They're a little, they admit to being. introverts and they wish that they had acted a little more when people said, oh, come with us, come to my house, come, come for a meal, come. But you, you, you took the invitation, you stayed. Yeah. And there's some, there's some tears there. I see kind of, you know, thinking back on those times, Christmas with the kids from the orphanage. That must have just been powerful. It was incredible.

But I feel really fortunate that I learned at an early age to be open. Um, and, during our travels I learned pretty early on that the people were the primary point of the journey for me and so and I have you know anthropology that's my educational background but also just kind of

a life's passion I'm so interested in how other cultures and you know micro cultures really make the world go around so for me an opportunity to get an inside picture, inside view of something I don't necessarily understand right off the bat is,

it's a precious opportunity. Yeah. So, yeah. So from that trip, you made it down all the way down. Did you have other experiences that kind of matched Coyote Beach? Did you find yourselves getting invited here and there? Oh, absolutely. Doing things?

Absolutely. I mean, I think, you know, one of the things you and I have spoken about a fair bit is traveling with maps and you know picking your head up from that device that you're depending on to tell you where to go and looking at a map but also taking your map you know when you stop for a coffee or when you stop for tacos and and asking the restaurant owner to tell you you know oh what road would you recommend i'm trying to go there do you think i should go this way or that way yeah and for me you know you get you get priceless information um that way you know take this road, you know, it's safer or, you know, watch for the potholes here, stop it,

kilometer 74 for tacos again or whatever. But oftentimes, you know, those interactions with people would lead to deeper conversations. You know, the map was an opening to have a deeper conversation about where we were going, where we were coming from. And a lot of times, I mean, you know, this happened in California, we were having. a very similar conversation with folks at a coffee table or coffee shop there at a long table. And we, you know, they were like, oh, you have to meet our friend. And he'll be here shortly. And we wound up meeting this guy.

He was one of the first people to go through the Dary and Gap, you know, first non-Columbian or Panamanian people to go through the Darying Gap, which we were trying to get to. And he invited us home. And we wound up spending two or three nights with him in this, you know, tiny cabin that he had. We learned, you know, just the most incredible history of that region that we were going to, incredible stories from him. And he was a mall airplane delivery pilot. Wow. So got to take like a really cool mall airplane ride around the vineyards that we so dearly loved.

So just stuff like that. I mean, it happens all over the world. But in Mexico, obviously, I mean, people are so friendly here. It happens a lot more often. Yeah. And we've been, I think, really deeply dwelling on that a little bit. bit as we stop and have interactions with folks in their cafes or again, you know, just up in the ranchers homes, the two ranchers homes that we went to, both so lovely and engaging.

And again, we had a wonderful guide bringing us there. Trudy's been bringing people to those ranches for 20 years. So they know that Trudy's bringing friendly people who are open and interested in their lives, their ranch lives. And she's also bringing economics. She's bringing business. She's bringing money to them to allow them to stay on their ranch, continuing their culture. What do you make of that?

You're a cultural anthropologist. You know, what do you make of the micro-ecor tourism like we saw firsthand at Chey's Ranch? I mean, I think that it's, you know, it's really interesting. One of the things that I learned early on through studying

anthropology that's really impacted how I've moved forward in the world is to not judge something or look at it from the perspective of your own culture, but to look at it from the perspective of the culture that you are engaging with as best you can. And I think that to see a culture, to see, you know, the branch culture, really strive to find an alternative means of staying, I hate the word relevant, because it's really just reductive. Staying surviving, frankly. To bring it all the way down to the base, to just survive.

And to preserve a way of life that is really special and beautiful. I think it's incredible. I think it takes courage to pivot like that, especially for older generations. We're looking at, you know, trying to keep their families together and trying to keep these ranches together. The other really interesting thing that we learned was just, you know, that the ranches and the mountains really have kind of like a, you know, a level one impact on the ecosystem literally flowing down the mountains. Right. They're incredibly important for the watersheds. Right.

Their water catchment systems, their cisterns also feed the communities who live below them. And if the ranchers aren't there keeping those cisterns clean and those catchments operating, that the, the water does not flow to the people down below who need it. Yeah, it's an interesting insight that we learned. We learned a lot on this trip. We really did. We're going to be right back. We're going to take a quick break here for a word from our friends, Baja Bound,

just in case you might want to come down to Baja, the way you need to do it if you're driving is through getting insurance with Baja Bound. We'll be right back with Azure O'Neill talking about Baja. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old Land Cruiser south of the border. And when we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at Bajaubound.com. That's Bajaubound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994.

Hey, we're back. Azure O'Neill, still smiling, still smiling, talking about ranches, talking about cultural experiences, talking about water systems and environments. What would you say to somebody who says Baja? Why would I want to go to Baja? Isn't it dangerous? Isn't it dirty? What's in Baja? Why? There's a, you know, part of me that's like, well, maybe I would just tell those people not to come to Baja. Ask your doctor if Baja's right for you. That's what I say, right?

So a little story there. We kept up a travel blog all through our journey, and we had given a presentation in San Francisco, actually Oakland, about our motorcycle travels. this lovely father and son pair came out that day and attended the presentation. They were really engaged. We chatted with them a little bit. And then we carried on our way and frankly never thought of them again. And, you know, went through the rest of Southern California, went through Baja. We were just ending the kind of the end of our time in Mexico in the mainland and got a Facebook message from the son. And he thanked us profusely because he had always wanted to travel to Mexico with his father.

But his father was extremely afraid of going south of the border, had all of those concerns. Why would you go there? Why would you want to be there? Isn't it dirty? Aren't the people, you know, unfriendly? They only speak Spanish, you know. We're going to get robbed or killed or kidnapped, you know? and it was all of this stuff and he said that thanks to our blogs and us openly and candidly sharing our

experiences through Baja and mainland Mexico that his father actually asked him to take a trip to Baja and for the first time in whatever 75 years of living in California his father finally went south of the border

so amazing I think you know you just have to pay a ton enough attention to the people who are coming down here over and over again. There's something really special about this peninsula, whatever draws people here, you know, whether it's the natural spaces where you can really feel like you're actually experiencing them maybe for the first time, which we know isn't true. People have been, you know, on this peninsula for many, many years. But you can still feel like there are natural places here that have been untouched by other humans.

And that's really becoming very rare. You know, the water here is incredible, the shades of, you know, turquoise and Azure that we've seen today. Yeah. I can't miss that opportunity. You know, you don't see that in a lot of places around the world and just really pristine areas and the incredible smiling faces. I mean, that's why I would tell people to come to Baja. You know, you don't interact with a gas station attendant who doesn't have a smile for you. Yeah, and I would say, like, you know, my take on, when you watch a lot of you, you know, when you watch

into a fast food restaurant in the States, you rarely find the person who's cooking your food, singing your song and doing a little dance or dancing to the music that's on the radio. There isn't that same level of freedom or joy or whatever, living in the moment that I find so appealing about being here, living in the moment, the happy to have that sip of tequila in the middle of the day if I'm offering it. Like, why not? I don't know how often I'd get away with that in the States, you know, with the people I run into, but people, you know, do find like, yeah, why not? Though, yeah, why not seems to be part of the ethos here.

Do you feel that? Do you see it? Do you experience that? I think it's just a general embracement of joy. Yeah, there you go. You know, it's just like, yeah, you can tell, obviously, that some people are really struggling and they may not have easy lives. but I feel like they just choose, choose the attitude of embracing joy.

So let's talk a little bit about your employer. I'm going to be going to the Overland Expo. I know, I can't wait. I'm going to be talking about Baja at the Overland Expo. I hope you folks come on out and tell me a little bit about that. That's a thing. It's a big thing. It's a big thing.

You know, I started with Overland Expo in 2017. And it was, you know, quite a bit smaller then. It was still a really actively, strongly growing show. But I think it's an incredible gathering of the Overland community. And there are, you know, as the show has grown, it's attracted, you know, more types of communities who really come and enrich, you know, the kinds of communities and people you can find at the show, but also, you know, the exhibitors that. we have come and bring, you know, new products to market by showing them at Overland Expo is, it's really cool. I mean, it's really a lot of mom-and-pop businesses that kind of get their start with us. And I think that's really special that we're able to provide a platform for that.

But my favorite part, and this is obviously, I'm super biased here. So I'll just go ahead and admit that. But now on to the program. Director of Azure Neal. You know, we really, I really, I really strive to ensure that we have folks like you who are super passionate about what they're teaching, super passionate about the areas of the world they're talking about or the areas of Overland Travel they're talking about. You know, the number of really positive reviews I got for this one kid who taught essentially a physics class at Overland Expo. Wow. It was amazing. But it's like this is what we're looking for. You know, it's really, this community is so diverse. and I'm really just so grateful that we have so many people like you who are willing and able and happy to come to our shows and share their knowledge and their passion and inspiration with the people who attend classes and, you know, sit around propane campfires with them at night having a post-expo beverage.

Yeah, post-expo beverage provided by Motosanora Brewery, new Slow Baja, Beauxhore. You're coming. We've just revealed that today. That's exciting. There'll be some of those being handed out secretly. Yeah, I think the most impressive thing to me about being an Overland Expo, other than the deluge that I slept through in my Seeger tent and didn't get soaked, I was so astonished that that tent was holding water at the end of that thing. It wasn't leaking in from below. It wasn't coming in through the fly. It was astonishing.

and I was inside a tent in an absolute downpour. But what I kept next to Michael Landon, Michael Ladin in his BMF, that monster truck that he drives, well his previous monster truck, he drives an even bigger truck now. Michael Ladden, he will be appearing on Slow Baja soon.

But looking across and seeing that little Jeep and getting that story of the first overland crossing of the Derry and Gats. not trying to float it. And in the sea of modern, what do I want to say, a sea of modern, capable, comfortable, massive, some may say expensive vehicles, to just see that humble little Jeep

with the humble little navigator telling her story. I think that made the entire expo for me. Like, I wasn't in the market for anything. I don't need anything for my truck. So that whole thing was kind of a blur, just walking around and seeing all the things that you could buy to outfit your sprinter or your Tacoma or your F1,250, whatever. I didn't need anything.

And I was in a little bit of overwhelm after like 5,000 Baja miles and then driving up to Flagstaff. But that blew me away, meeting her. Patty Upton is a dynamo. I mean, she is an idol. I just her story I think you know for you and me both and I know for you know Mike Ladin and a few other really well-traveled folks who attended her presentation it was the absolute best part of Everland Expo for us last year she attended two of our shows and I'm so grateful and excited for her to join us again this year yeah get anyone who's coming I mean make sure that you don't miss it Patty Upton's presentations and definitely stop and check out that little red Jeep

because, you know, I joke about my little red corolla or sorry, Camry that I rode around Australia and that Jeep is obviously more capable than that vehicle. But holy Hannah, just some of the things that they went through, you just can't even fathom them happening today. The bravery and the trust and the faith that they had in their vehicle, in one of the way. another in the kindness of strangers.

I mean, it's a story for the ages. Yeah, and it's on Slow Baja folks. Patty Upton, her Guinness Book of World's Record trip across the Dary and Gap. I'll have it in the show notes. And she's really a really, really, really wonderful storyteller. And I was quite touched to be in her presence. And I hope I get to record another podcast with her. And I don't care if she says exactly the same thing.

I just want to get it again. because he was really amazing. But onto the programming part of Overland Expo, your area of expertise, there are people from all sorts of areas of travel and different expertise, as you said, from somebody teaching physics to somebody talking about, I never get pulled over from Baja,

I have no idea what you're all talking about. So talk a little bit more about what's on tap for this coming Expo. Can you sneak peek anything? Or maybe can you tell us a little bit about what happened last year or why people should go? Yeah, I mean, you know, I think that one of the things I always really love about our shows is that, especially Overland Expo West, because of the timing and the location,

we are really a destination for international travelers. So I love that when you come to Overland Expo's, particularly West, you can see license plates from Australia, from Chile, from Germany, from Ireland even. I mean, we've just had some really incredible folks coming through. So looking forward to welcoming those international travelers again. We'll have several of them in the showcase and DIY area at the show. So definitely really looking forward to that.

We have some phenomenal chefs coming to teach various types of cooking classes. Amanda Zito is one of my favorite humans. She's a solo female motorcyclist, and she is releasing. a cookbook this spring. Wow. Yeah, so excited to get a preview of some of those recipes. What else? I'm just going to inject here.

We've got a second. I'm on the Kurt Williams School of Travel. Don't bring any food. I don't bring any food. I don't cook anything. Although I will say that Michael Ladin and the community here at Los Fridays have been cooking and caring for me beautifully over the last couple of nights. And last night they cooked a fantastic dinner on the Scot Algerie.

Great freaking advantage. They started with pouring some chicken stock and then adding some brown rice and letting that cook for a bit and then adding sausage and vegetables. And it was amazing. I mean, you only have to have two beers while the dinner cooks under the lid by itself, basically, with one or another person walking around and lifting the lid and giving you a stir now. And then it was sensational. Not that I have room for a scottel, but Jerry, if you're listening. Anyways, no, seriously, you have an amazing array of folks, is what I'm trying to. trying to get at, being a little bit of a wise guy, but you have an amazing array of folks from

Patty Upton, who, you know, drove across the dairy and drove around the world in this little postage jeep-sized, you know, postal jeep-sized vehicle to chefs, to all sorts of accomplished folk. To you. Oh, yeah, to me. Yeah, of course. And to me, Slow Baja. Yeah, but I'm thrilled about where you'll be.

This is the storytelling pavilion is a new teaching area and kind of a new community. community-centric area that we have at the show. Every year we ask for feedback at the end of the year from everyone who attended, but we also ask for it after each show. And then, of course, people comment on classes in the app. And we also have a pretty extensive kind of auditing system in place to really try to get a better handle of what people are really attending the show to see, what's most popular, what we need to do more of, and really encourage. And we've seen a trend. Everyone wants to be a YouTuber or podcaster or an Instagram influencer. And, you know, there are a lot of, we've called it field arts for a number of years,

you know, photography and videography and drone imagery and nature journaling and podcasting interviews, things of this nature. They're really the artistry and the poetry that you can experience during Overland travel that can really enrich your journey. So we're creating a space specifically for those types of. classes and we'll be having folks like yourself talk about their trade and really provide you know some open and honest candid behind the scenes kind of looks at what life is like as a content creator yeah i'll tell you everything i know especially how much i hear i hate hearing about

the word content and creation put together in the same sentence but it is how it's referred to these days i'm just an old crank hey before we wrap up um i'd really like to know what What advice? Can you put on your wisdom cap? You always have your wisdom cap on, I've noticed. But can you give women advice specifically solo female travelers, somebody who may be thinking about, you know, like Jen, who we met here in the camp, she came to Baja. She's from Chicago. She really didn't even know where Baja was, but met some friends who were going there, and she felt safe enough. That because she was solo and she was with, you know, a few other people in their vans that they could come down and do it. And she's totally committed now.

She's remote working from basically a, in a Royo in Baja. What would you tell solo female travelers who might be thinking about Baja, might be thinking about it on a motorcycle, might be thinking about it in a van, might be thinking about it in their four by four. What would you say? Wow, I think Baja is a playground for so many people in so many ways. I love solo travel. I think that I've really enjoyed the travels that I've done.

done by myself. And I think that as a woman traveling alone, Baja is a really wonderful place to kind of dip your toes in the international waters a little bit and really get comfortable with understanding how to move through places outside of the U.S. as a solo female traveler. And to really get comfortable with that because I feel like the reception is overwhelmingly so positive. you know, smiles that you get from, you know, police and, you know, military folks at checkpoints and just, you know, the encouragement of the thumbs up once you pull up your helmet and they realize that you're a woman and not a man on a bike. It gives you this incredible sense of pride and confident connection to the people you're encountering along your journey. So I would encourage

any solo female traveler to open their mind to Baja and really open their hearts too. But also, there are some incredible places in Baja that no one should go by themselves. And I'm a big believer in safety and numbers and making sure you can self-rescue. And like I said in the beginning, there are some places in Baja where you feel like you're the only person who's ever been there. And you may be the only person who goes there for the long, long time. So if you get pinned under a motorcycle or your van breaks down and you don't have a way to self-rescue or, you know, an emergency tracking device that you can ask for help with, you could be in trouble. So I think it's kind of like anything use common sense.

And if you are so inclined to get off the beaten path, which I strongly encourage, you know, make a friend or two, which is pretty easy in Baja. Yeah, have a lifeline. Look for this guy. Yeah, Azure O'Neill. We're going to leave it right there. Thank you so much for spending a little time, spending this week with me, getting me involved with this project where I got to show a little of my slow Baja life to folks. And while I can't wait to see you in Flagstaff in May for Overland Expo dates. Time.

Best place for people to find out about the Overland Expo? OverlandExpo.com is the best place to find all of the information, all of the answers to questions, to buy tickets. And, you know, I think social media, our Facebook account and Instagram are a great way to connect with folks who are coming to the event as well if you're looking to meet up with people and ride in along the way. Looking to meet up with Slow Baja and get one of those coveted. Ask your doctor if Baja's right for you, bumper stickers that you can only get from me in person or by making a donation to this show. I'll be there. Come get one. All right, Azure, thank you so much.

Thank you. It's been a magical week, and I so appreciate the way that you've shared with us. It's been unforgettable. Awesome. We did it. Hey, well, I hope you like that show. Azure O'Neill, absolutely an amazing human being. What a delight to travel with somebody like that.

If you like what I'm doing, I'm going to implore you. Please, please, please, get off your good intentions. Go to slowbaha.com. Drop a taco in the tank. You do that by hitting the donate button. You can see how many tacos you want to buy. I need them, man. There are no tacos in my tank.

It's been a rather. bumpy road recently in the old Slow Baja Taco Department. So without putting to find a point on it. If you got a taco in your pocket, please think about dropping one in my tank. All right. And if you don't have any, I get it. Maybe you can go over to Apple or Spotify, drop a five-star review, say something nice. Tell people while you're still listening to this show.

You're still listening to this guy beg you to drop a review on this show. Hey, and while you're at slowbaha.com, you can always go to the Slowbaha shop. There's some good stuff there. Replen on hats. A bunch of new stickers in stock. T-shirts are getting slim folks, and I can't deny it. That's related to the no tacos in the tank department. So if you can find your size in a T-shirt, buy it.

Don't come back and look for it again because it's going to be gone. Well, all right, let me tell you about Mary McGee's pal, Steve McQueen. Is there anybody ever cooler than Steve McQueen? I mean, think about it. Is there anybody, any actor who is ever cooler than Steve McQueen? Well, he loved Baja. He really did. And he said it.

Baja is life. Anything that comes before or after is just waiting. You know, people always ask me, what's the best modification that I've ever made to slow Baja? Without a doubt, it's my Sheelman seats. You know, Toby at Sheelman USA could not be easier to work with. He recommended a Vario F for me and a Vero F XXL for my navigator, Ted, as Ted's kind of a big guy. And Toby was absolutely right. The seats are great and they fit both

of us perfectly. And let me tell you, after driving around Baja for over a year on these seats, I could not be happier. Shieldman, slow Baja approved. Learn more and get yours at shieldman.com.