Slow Baja - BajaXL Rally Update with Andrew Szabo

Episode Date: January 7, 2023

In today’s Slow Baja Podcast, we catch up with Andrew Szabo, founder of the BajaXL Rally. Unfortunately, we had some technical glitches and used Andrew’s voice memo app as a recording device. When he sent the files, they were static-filled and nearly unusable. My producer Christopher Keiser did yeoman’s work to make the audio (barely) tolerable. My apologies for the static, but we had dumped a previous conversation due to poor audio, so this had to fly. If you get through the entire show and see me in Baja, I promise to pour you a shot of Fortaleza Tequila or buy you a beer. “The ten-day, 3000-mile BajaXL Rally is a minimal assistance road rally. There are no rescue trucks, medical helicopters, or travel guides. You must rely on your wits and resources to get out of trouble. The BAJA XL is open to ‘anyone by anything.’ If it’s street-legal, you can drive it. The rally is open to cars, motorcycles, trucks, and whatever else you can think of.” Space is limited to 50 teams in each category. We hear there are a few spots left! For more details, check out the BajaXL Facebook group.

This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches and hands down my favorite tequila. Hey folks, you know I'm always telling you, ask your doctor if Baja is right for you. Well, I don't know what your doctor's going to say, but I want to let you know right now it's the open enrollment period for the 2023 Baja XL rally. That's right.

If you need a little Baja care, you got to get in right now during the open enrollment period. for the 2023 AHAXL rally. February 17th through 26th, it's 3,000 miles in 10 days. It's a minimal assistance rally. That means there's no rescue trucks

or no medical helicopters or no travel guides. You get to rely on your own wits and resources and probably the other 150 or 180 vehicles that are in this rally with you who are always darn nice and willing to tow you out or give you a ride to the auto parts store or to the mechanic or whatever you need. But, hey, the Baja XL is open to anyone by anything.

So if it's street legal, you can drive at their classes. There's a competition class if you want to get in and solve geotagging treasure hunt questions all day and all night. There's the 4x4 touring class that Slow Baja does where we just pull out our benchmark map first thing in the morning, get some macket, some egg, some hot coffee, take a look at where the route ends that day and figure out what the most scenic, squiggly dirt rink. roads are on our map and that's that's how we do it um again there's no judging it's a heck of a lot of fun it's a major league adventure and it will certainly certainly cure your uh your symptoms of mild seasonal lack of adventuring all right ask your doctor if baha's right for you the baha xl rally more info at bahaxl.org or feel free to dm me through slowbaha dot com or the slowbaha Instagram or Facebook sites for more info.

Hey, welcome. It's a new year. It's a new year of Slow Baja, and I am super pleased to bring you this static filled, this static filled phone call with Andrew Zabo of the Baja XL rally. We've been trying. We already put one call into the dust bin, and this is a second call that we put off for a couple weeks because he was traveling and he's back in his office and his house in Budapest. And dang, we had all this technology lined up and it just didn't work. And he sent the phone files and they are a little staticy. And my producer, that's right, producer, he used to be an editor, but now he is the producer. Christopher Kaiser worked his tail off to make this thing listenable.

Listenable, is that a word? Anyway, something that you could listen to. So please listen, especially if you are heading off to the Baja XL in six weeks like I am. Andrew is the founder of the amazing Budapest-Tabamako rally. We go into a little bit of that, how that happened, and then started the Baja XL, which I think is an amazing event. It's a little bit like a drug for me, and I'm still trying to get back to that amazing experience I had on the 3,000-mile 10-day drive that I took.

in 2019 with Baja visitor Ted Donovan. We had such an amazing time on the Baja XL. But before we get into the show, I've got to acknowledge my heaping dose of gratitude this week goes out to those folks who slid more than a taco, a single taco into the tank. These are folks who slid a tray of tacos and a couple of them.

I have to say, slid a little more than that. So let's get on to. to those folks who I could not do the show without their support. I don't know how you say shoe string in Spanish, but that's what this thing runs on. I am running on a frickin' shoe string. So when Jeff LaPlante, LA car guy, drops an overflowing tray of tacos in the tank in the holidays

with no no nothing, just drops some tacos in my tank. It just really honestly, sincerely, I don't know. I'm going to fight back some tears right now, but it's amazing. So, Gary Rebenstorf, thank you, Amigo, for your kind words. Joe Dean. My Alaskan Wheeler, David Carlo, thank you, Taco Sponsor on My Drives, Amy Montgomery.

Excuse me while I compose myself. Amy Montgomery, so amazingly generous. I couldn't do it without you. Thank you so much for your. consistent trays of tacos that you've slid on over, tortas, enchilada suites, chili rianoes, the whole dang thing. Amy, thank you. Rich Giroux, John Alderson, Eric Lippincott, the Pop Top King of Colorado.

Eric, I hope we get to have another fun time in Baja soon. Kaven, I will look forward to seeing you and that super cool international Scout on the Nora 1000 in April. Did I say Amy Montgomery? Yeah, I'm going to mention her again. Thank you, Amy, for everything. Your generous support. Todd Ratzlaff, thanks for stopping by, Amiga, having a few tequilas with me at the holidays. It's nice to know that you're in Indiana and we can get together and talk land cruisers, Baja, and tequila. And Richard Law, I really hope you figure out your Baja XL situation, and I see you down there soon. And I'll, and I'll Holly Michaels. Thank you, Holly. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your generous support.

Deeply appreciate it. And again, without further ado, and before I shed more tears, I'm going to bring you Andrew Zabo. Okay. All righty. I'm ready when you are. Awesome. Hey, it's Slow Baja. I am on a Riverside FM call with Andrew Zabo in Budapest, Hungary. Andrew, how are you today? I am doing great. Thank you so much for having me. It's always pleasure to be on your podcast. How are you doing? I think about I'm great and I just have to say, you know, let's just get to it. There's nothing like the Baja XL rally. Nothing. And I think about it. I think about it all the effing time. Seriously? It's like a drug. It's quite a compliment. Yes, our events kind of function like drugs. Every time one is finished, you say,

Oh my god, I'm so happy it's done. I'm so ready to go home. I'm so ready to relax and not think about it. It was tough. It was hard. I was getting dirty. I was not getting enough sleep. My joints are shaking from all the driving. And then once two, three, four weeks passed and you sort through all the video footage and all your pictures and you're starting to get a little nostalgic. And for the rest of the year, you're just dying to get back again and do it again. It's crazy. I don't know how it's. happening or why it's happening, but it does have that effect on a lot of people. And it's the same for our Baja, and it's also true for our other event at the Budapest, Bamako, in Africa. Yeah, I, luckily, I've never been addicted to heroin. But let me say that 2019 Baja XL, not really knowing what to expect, having this silly notion that

I need to paint slow Baja on the side of the truck to sort of be a reminder to myself and be a warning to everybody else. I'm doing it my way. I'm going slow. That drive, those 3,000 miles, the people that I met, the dirt roads I drove down, the places that I saw, that's what I'm trying to get back to every time I go to Baja. Right, right, absolutely. And that's what you're going to get.

The rally is going to be slightly different this year, but we try to keep the original spirit alive as much as possible. And I'm very proud that the original spirit, the OG spirit of our rallies still shines brightly, and they haven't really changed much. The motto is the same, anyone, by anything, by any means. We're a super liberal event, meaning you can enter by any vehicle. We're not a speed race, so you don't need to have roll cages, you don't need to have fancy fast car or a fast motorcycle Drive whatever makes you happy and drive whatever feels comfortable. You know some people try want to drive high-performance Off-Roeuvre vehicles other people are happy with the VESPA

I know some guys who drive old Land Cruisers or FJ cruisers at like 30 miles per hour and and have a great time And, you know, what I always say about the Baja Excel is that we'll give you a frame and you have to paint your own picture. Yeah. And, you know, the beauty of that is the diversity and embracing that diversity from the dudes that are in the Raptors. Alan Flugher noted Baja racer. He's down there with his bros. He's dressed up for the start in some crazy costume. You know, I think he was weird science last time. And, you know, he's not going to go to the Baja 1000. I mean, this dude, this dude had a starring role in the film Dust a Glory,

Superracer, Alan Fluger. And he's there dressed like weird science with his buddies having, having a go at your event, taking it seriously. But then it goes all the way to the guys in the Earth Romers and the Unimogs and the guys on the Vespas. I mean, come on. You know, that's, that's no easy task to. go 1,000 miles, or 3,000 miles, much of it on dirt on Vespas. Right.

I didn't know who Alan Flueger was until somebody told me or somebody whispered, oh, my God, do you know that guy, do you know who he is? I said, no, I have no idea. He's just one of the guys on the Baja, and he seems to be having a great time. So Alan was there, I think, four years ago for the first time, and he came again last year, and he's going to be here this year, and he's just one of those guys that really called the Baja X-L bug. And I think he discovered the true magic of these events,

that it's not about speed, it's not about driving yourself crazy over getting from A to B fastest, but really enjoying a great time with your friends, enjoying true classic adventure far away from civilization, resolving your own issues and your own problems, using your own resources and your own wit and having a good time in the process and bonding with your friends and the mates that you're traveling with. So really that's the magic and the other one is meeting new people.

On most rallies you'll never meet anybody. You meet them at the start line and you'll meet them at the finish line but during the day while you're driving and you're racing you never really get to know other people or you never get to experience the camaraderie, the friendship of other participants and here we make it a point to build community and and to forge friendships among our participants every night we spend usually away from civilization in a wild camping setting somewhere beautiful somewhere picturesque there are campfires there's outdoor cooking there's camping and

there's just a lot of ways to bond with others and connect and and have fun in the evenings This is like one of the principles of our events and I think that's what makes them magical. We try to stay away from hotels. We try to stay away from civilization and form our own little sub-civilization in the desert. So that's something that people seem to be enjoying and I think that's where the magic is in our events. Yeah, and I think the beauty of your event is that nobody judging. You know, listen, if I'm driving a open 50-year-old vehicle all day and decide that I'm staying in an inn that night or some roadside motel because I'm going to get a hot shower and a cup of coffee in the morning, I mean, nobody cares.

They don't. You know, if somebody comes from Europe and rents a car and drives the whole thing on pavement, nobody judges that. Exactly. And I think that's a great thing. And there is no social hierarchy on the Baja exile. You can be driving a super expensive decked-out Hummer, or you can be driving, you know, a $500 BW Beetle. And those people will be just as good friends or friendly with each other. There's no social status on the Baja XL.

Everybody just does whatever they enjoy doing. And that's also a really special aspect of this event. And once again, the same is true for our other event that we hold. in Africa. Same concept. So the key that we try to emphasize here is community building and getting together, keeping rules as liberal and free as possible. And I think that's one of the ways to avoid judging people and snobby people and people

who judge others for whatever it is that they do, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I think the interesting realization for me was, in that 2019 event, just the amount of people that you pass here and there. Somebody stopped at an internet cafe because they didn't get whatever their GPS download done beforehand. And of course, there's really crummy signal all through Baja or no signal. And so you stop in to say, hey, is everything okay? And they say, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're just checking our emails, checking in on the kids

and downloading the GPS map, we didn't get it done. So that's, you know, like first contact on our way out of Takate. And then you run into somebody else at a gas station. You stop and say, hey, how's it going? And you get to know these people. And over the course of 10 days, true, honest, sincere friendships form, which I think is also an amazing, unexpected outcome of your event. Right.

It's always such a fascinating experience. You drive in a strange country on a completely strange road, in an absolutely strange environment, and you pass by a gas station, and you take a look to the ride to the gas station and see another car with a Baha Excel sticker. And if you decide to pull over, you can say hello and get to know them, ask them where they're from,

how it's going for the race for them, you know, and how's their day going? And then you start making new friendships. If you have a CB radio and you can talk to all the participants during the day from car to car, which is another super fun aspect of driving on one of our rallies. So yeah, so those type of friendships are really awesome. And some of them are really superficial. Some of them last, you know, for a couple of days or a couple of minutes or a couple of hours.

And others are, you know, lifelong friendships that people form on these rallies. They find people who share their interests. They find people who share their passions and they become friends. So it's really cool, and I'm very, very proud of that. So in that regard, the Baha Axel is super fun. And once again, as I said, it's a community event. It's about belonging to the same group. It's about being part of the same herd, if you will.

Hey, so, Andrew, I wanted to ask you to ask you to share your experience as a rally organizer. You have a rather interesting path to your avocation here of organizing these crazy rallies. Can you enlighten me a little bit about that? We covered it on the last show, but that was a long time ago. So I'd love to know about your trips to Africa

and how this whole thing got started with you becoming an ambassador. Right, it's a super crazy story. And it has a long version and a shorter version and a campfire super long version. So I'll try to make it short or maybe stick to the medium version. So I wasn't a rally organizer. I was an internet entrepreneur in the late 90s, early 2000s, one of the early internet guys, before I would venture into other businesses.

And in 2005, I sold my internet companies, and I sort of like went into semi-retirement, trying to figure out what to do with my life. And I was investing in some mining projects. And a friend of mine in Canada said, Andrew, you have good connections in Africa. Try to get us a couple of mining deals in Mali or Guinea for mining gold. And I don't know where he got the idea that I had good connections in Africa. I had never been to Africa before that. But I said, yeah, sure, why not?

Let's get some mining deals in Africa. And one day in August, 2004, I found myself booked on a plane to Guinea. The capital of Guinea is Konakri. I was flying to Konakri. And from Konakri, I had another ticket to the capital of Mali. And I already made some contacts. And I had a bunch of meetings lined up. And when I got there to Guinea, I found out that the airline that I had my ticket for had

only one plane, which is not very unusual, but what's unusual is that plane crashed two days earlier in a swamp and was completely destroyed. Seriously, it was... Oh yeah, that's unusual. It was a regular Boeing, you know, you know, big plane, not some single- prop puddle jumper so they just the airline destroyed its only aircraft and I had to drive or get from Guinea to Mali by car it's I think it's about twelve hundred kilometers around 800 miles and you know there's no abyss or Hertz

counter at the airport in the Konakri so we sent a kit to the market and we told him listen start spreading the word that there are four people here who need the ride to the capital of Mali. And lo and behold, the same afternoon, like 20 guys showed up at our hotel with different types of cars, like all super crappy, all cars that were falling apart. And we had to choose the most suitable

for the 1,200-kilometer ride from Konakrit to Bamako. And it was such an exciting and life-changing experience to drive, you know, this long distance on different dirt roads and through little villages in Africa. And I was completely overwhelmed and amazed. And I really felt like I got dropped in a National Geographic special somehow. And I said, this is so incredible and this is so amazing that this is something that has to be shared with others.

And I got appointed Honorary Council of Mali that summer on that trip. And they said, you know, you sound like a cool guy. start promoting and building the relationships between Mali and Hungary. All right, okay, I'll figure this out. And I said, here was an exciting experience driving across Africa, and here's an experience that I would like to share with others. Let's drive down from Budapest to Balmacola. That could build relationships.

That could be an exciting way to share my experience of driving in Africa with others. Plus, we would drive through a lot of places that I had never seen and never experienced, i.e. the Sahara, the greatest desert in the world, other than Antarctic about, okay, let's not talk about that. So I said, let's do it. And I came up with this rally called the Budapest Bamako, which started in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, drove down the Mediterranean coast to Spain. We took a ferry from Spain to Morocco, went to Morocco to Morocco, to Moro, to Moroos. Mauritania and Mauritania to all, to Mali. And that's how I became a rally organizer. I really wasn't planning on it. I really never thought about it. It just happened.

So the first year, we had about 100 people and it was an incredible journey. I didn't know a lot of the places that we would go through. I had never visited them. I read about them in books. I put together a road book based on my personal experiences and based on what I read in other books and we were all driving into the unknown and it was just it was unbelievable and it was an incredible experience and uh you know 100 of us hit the road took us two weeks and the next year we had 200 people the following year we had 400 people and so on and so forth and uh this year is the rally in its 17th year 18th year i don't know i i can't even count. The 2024 edition of the rally is in the process of selling out in less than a

week. So it's an incredible success story. And it's something that I'm super proud of. And every year we have over 6, 700 people now. And we could have more, but the bandwidth for crossing borders in Africa is just not big enough. When you started this, I'm assuming obviously you didn't pre-drive it. It's not a GPS file that somebody's downloading where they're following a dot or a line on a screen the way so many people overland or drive these days. You crafted some level of a root book

and people had to kind of sort it out, I'm assuming. Right. Everybody had to... At that point in 2005, everybody had to get a paper map. GPS devices did not really proliferate that much. And, you know, people use GPS as we gave out GPS coordinates as much as possible, but we asked people to rely on paper maps and we gave starting points and we gave end points for each day. And people had to figure out how to get from A to B. And there were a lot of occasions when people got lost, when people went the wrong way. They asked me how long the rally would be.

I said, you know, it's maybe 6,000 kilometers, depending on how much you get lost, maybe 7,000. But really a lot of people got lost and had to turn back and have to find their ways. So it was super fun. It was a very exciting time. And you know things slowly evolved. Now everybody has a GPS on their cell phone. You can actually enter African cities and Google will tell you how to get there. So it is a different world now.

But still just as challenging navigational as navigational as it was in 2005. 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 BajaBound.com. That's Bajabound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994. Yeah, hey, Andrew, I think we had some technical glitches, but we're back, and I think like the Toto song, we were talking about the rains in Africa.

So pick up, you had a gang in front of you, everybody trying to hawk their cars to drive you 12 hours to Mali. 12 hours through Molli. Right. So, yeah, and during the rainy season, some of the roads are just not passable at all. And I couldn't finish the Mali section of the track riding for the first Mamako. But still, everybody finished. Some people wanted to kill me at the end. Nobody knew what to expect. Nobody knew how difficult and how challenging it would be. but you know a month or two later everybody was talking about the rally as the most heroic and

most manly and daring thing that they have ever done so it was it was really really an exciting time and an exciting experience and i had been running the budapest balmacos for a number of years and i moved to los angeles in the meantime and the rally was put on every other year So we had a break here in between the two Budapest Bamako's and I thought let's organize something like the Budapest Bamako but a little closer to LA so I don't have to take a flight anywhere and I could just organize it pretty much in my backyard and I had always been fascinated with Baham in one year I drove down with my daughter on a spring break and I said this is the perfect place for the second rally for the in between years and I organized the first Baja XL, which at that time was called the Baja 4,000, because it was 4,000 kilometers. And it was just absolutely fantastic, and it was a great experience. I think we had like about 100, 120 people. A lot of them are former Budapest-Balmico participants, and it was a great success.

And I love that trip. And so that first one was 2017. Correct. Fast forward to 2019 when I had been researching the event for most of 2018 and thought, you know, I am going to do this. The info was so scant. It felt like I was really signing up for something. Who knew which way it was going to go?

Dangerous, crazy, what have you. I had some interactions with you, some messaging back and forth, I believe, on Facebook. you you seem like a legit enough guy that I thought, why not? Let's get to Long Beach and a Redondo Beach, wherever we started there, and figure it out. And I was shocked to have, what, 25 countries or something represented in that 2019 event. And I would guess easily, I don't know, 120, 130 vehicles, something like that. the parade start where the multiple, what do you want to say, the anthems of multiple countries were played and the people were.

I mean, we play the U.S. and the Mexican anthem at Hollywood and Vine next to a strip club in Hollywood. That was amazing. You remember that? Do you remember when the strippers came out of the club at 5 a.m. for the start? That was before my time. I had the sedate start. Oh, you got the PG version.

The only raciness of 2019 was your medical staff were, I don't know, moderately scantily clad if those words go together. Those ladies decided to wear sexy nurse uniforms for the start, which I think was quite spectacle, quite a spectacle. Quite a spectacle. Yeah, for leading heart surgeons. Right. But that's what makes the rally fun. Yeah, so crazy costumes start, and then we rolled on down to cross the border. And again, let's take it away.

It's buy anything, for anyone, buy anything from Vespas to Earth Romers to Unimogs to to raptors and jeeps and land cruisers, new and old. and you know, I got to say that I felt that pretty quickly you find your pace and you keep seeing the same people who are traveling at approximately the same pace that you're traveling. And it's inevitable that at the camp that night or at the gas station, the multiple gas stations, you know, my truck only gets 10 miles of the gallon. you're going to have a conversation and that's going to lead to becoming acquaintances. You might not remember their names.

Ted and I had nicknames for everybody. And then, you know, friendships evolved as we covered earlier in the program. Since we're sort of coming up on your need to exit for your next meeting, I wanted to just get to

some questions at the Baja XL Facebook group has submitted. And I think we're going to get to the racy one right away from Leslie Butsey up there in Fargo, North Dakota. On a scale of one to ten, how likely will any Baja XL participants be detained? I would say a one.

I don't know if I should make Caliente odds on that, but I like. your confidence. So let's open it up for folks who may not be aware of what happened on the last event. There was some salt and pepper and a little spice that got applied by various government organizations. And take it away, Andrew. Tell us what went through, what happened from your side. So there was a bit of a kaffo last year with the Baha XL. It was during the height of the COVID pandemic. Mexico was, as you know, open for travel and tourism, but with lots of restrictions. They did not allow any organized event. They did not allow any motorsport event. I always said that we're not an organized motorsport event. We're quite disorganized.

And we're not an event that draws spectators. We're not a spectator event. We are a group of people who are driving. And since we had no organized activities, no reserved spaces or booked, you know, parking spots, or any sort of organized event associated with the rally, I thought that we could just pass this requirement as an exception. and in Baja, California, South, which is different from Baja, California, North, where we worked on an arrangement with the authorities who let us drive through and let us, you know, conduct the rally.

The authorities in Baja, California, South, said no, this is an organized event, this is an off-road race, and of course the authorities were encouraged by some of the salty Mexicans. promoters who couldn't hold any events and they said no you can't be an organized event and they held a bunch of the cars at the the Baja South Baja North passing point at a military checkpoint I was on the phone trying to reason with them that we're not an organized event we're just a group of tourists and eventually a compromise was reached where they said okay you can continue the program but only as individual tourists and they took the

stickers off of the cars. And basically the Baja XL went on their ground. People could still download the tracks. The medical teams still traveled from camp to camp. So the rally was held, but it was held in a hush-hush way. And for the racing teams who felt uncomfortable racing in this environment, we canceled the racing days and we said, okay, there are no points being given. And we gave them a free entry for 2023 and we said, you know, guys, let's try it again in 2023. And you're compensated that way. But the tour itself, the touring category and the 4x adventure category was held via GPS coordinates and the checkpoints could be downloaded from our servers for every day. So that's what happened in 2021 during COVID. So we, we,

were held as an event but not really in our full glory and full capacity. Well, I enjoyed the experience immensely, especially in retrospect. It wasn't enjoyable every minute of every day, but it did really, the entire experience did result in the bumper sticker that I'm now quite proud of, which is the slogan, Ask Your Doctor, if Baja is is right for you because, you know, I did get hauled into a police station. I did get cornered in a restaurant by a police officer who wanted to know if I was the organizer of the event. And it was, you know, in retrospect, a great story. At the time, it wasn't where I wanted to be or what I wanted to have happening. But in retrospect, it really did become an amazing

story, at least the trip into the police station became an amazing story. And frankly, the getting cornered in a tiny restaurant in Bahia de Los Angeles and being questioned for 10 minutes if I was the rally organizer. And then realizing that my off-road Hall of Famer podcast guest for the next morning was sitting at the table next to me celebrating his 90-year-old neighbor's birthday. This podcaster coming to see him is getting hassled by the local cops. It was an interesting experience that I had not had in my podcasting, my short podcasting career. But again, enough about me, it really did make me think that, you know what, it's great to have an adventure and to get through. And even the people that had the most severe interactions with the police where they were stopped at the, at Guerrero Negro, at the north to south state line and detained for a night.

They had to go to the halfway inn, the halfway house hotel in, which isn't so bad. cool, cool spot. I'm sure they all had a drink at the bar and laughed about it. And the, you know, many of them found a dirt road or took the stickers off or what have you and continued on in a more clandestine manner. And I know that some people did turn around the Bartolucci's turned around because they had that badass Bronco and it just looked like a Baja 1000 racer. And it was very hard for them to convince the authorities that they weren't involved in some event and whatever their personal tolerance for talking to authorities on a regular basis. They just decided to turn around and head home.

But, you know, Bill's coming back this year. So I would guess he had a pretty good time. I'm going to get on to a couple other questions for you. And Melena Blanis Inheria, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right, but Melena, such a great spirit. She wants to know what, she's from Brazil, of course, lives in Texas. and she wants to know what countries are people coming from. Do you have an idea on that, Andrew? I actually have the exact data for you

because I prepared for this interview. Most of the people are still from the U.S., 162 Americans. We have five people from England, two Dutch drivers, three Mexicans, three people from Finland. We have five people from Estonia. We have a couple of people from Denmark, Canada, Brazil, and one guy is from Australia, and a couple of Hungarians as well.

So there's like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, 14 countries represented this year. Amazing. That's outstanding. We're going to stick with Melana's questions for a second. She's got three here. So on to the second one. Do you know how many women are entered?

As a matter of fact, I do. 30 women entered the rally. Fantastic. 170 men. That makes it 1 percentage. Still a bit of a dude ranch. We can, uh, we. Yes, still a bit of a weeny roast, but.

A weenie roast, yeah. It is what it is. And, uh, so last question. But don't ask me how many of those women are single, okay? I don't have that data. All right. And, uh, last question from Elena. Uh, what is the craziest car?

And that's something that maybe you can go into for just a second here, Andrew. The spirit category, the crazy cars from $500 bang. to the guys that I'm so sad they're not coming. Jeff and Dave and Phil, rest in peace, Phil. I'm sorry that you're not with us. But, you know, those guys built out a full limousine, a stretch limousine for off-road with a rooftop tent. And of course, inside there was a tiki bar and a disco ball. And they really had a fabulous approach with, you know, everybody's got the Jerry cans with the extra gas and the water. And then they had an extra one, a bright yellow one that was margaritas. And I just think, again, you know, when the day ends and they break that, they break that Jerrycan out that's margaritas and start pouring that around the campfire, that is the spirit of this event.

And that is what's really different from other events. Right. So the spirit category was launched to maintain and preserve the original spirit, the crazy spirit of the rally. And we honor these teams who drive a crazy enough car by letting them. enter for free so they have they don't have to pay any entry fee and they just have to submit their ideas and proposals there's a small deposit and if they actually do start with that car they will get their deposit back so this year i think the craziest car is a monda miata that little convertible gay car from the late 90s gay isn't happy yes that happy

that happy little car the answer is always miata is the Yes. You know, there's actually a feasible group, which I thought was hilarious. It's called, I'm a straight man, but I drive a Mazda Miata. So there's a Mazda Miata. There's a 1977 beetle, which I'm very excited about. I have a soft spot for VW Beatles. We have a Honda Accord, and we also have some Crown Victoria's on the rally this year.

All right. Nick Butsey asked Leslie's partner there, husband, Nick Butsy from Fargo, North Dakota. You've already answered this question, but maybe we can get specific. I don't recall your exact answer. Any rally participants coming from Europe? And I think what Nick is really trying to get to as the guy driving the G-Wagon, he's probably actually asking in a clandestine manner, is anybody coming from? from Austria and can they bring him some G-Wagon parts from Graz? You got any answers for Nick? Nobody's from Austria, as far as I know, but it's something that you just post in our Facebook group and the Facebook group members are usually pretty responsive and somebody will get back to it and somebody can land a helping hand. It's crazy the kind of messages that people post in the Facebook group once the rally is on.

our African rally group, somebody posted, you know, we're stuck here and there. We are missing some kind of converter for a Porsche Cayenne. Can somebody help us in the middle of the Sahara? And, you know, people said, here's a solution. There's a solution. Try this, try that. You know, so there's always somebody who could help you. That's also one of the founding cornerstones of the rally is helping each other and helping the other. And the other one, in my experience with driving two of your events, is there's always a Porsche Cayenne breaking down. That is correct. I didn't even think of that.

There's always a Porsche Cayenne breaking down. When you start with a $5,000 cayenne, that happens. No, but there are guys who start with a $50,000 or an $80,000 cayenne, and they still break down. Two years ago in Africa, we had a cayenne breakdown, and they actually flew somebody from Bulgaria. to Mauritania in the middle of the desert with a $5,000 part to fix the car. Some people just know the obstacles to get to the finish line and that's really great thing. And you know, I think they skipped, like these people missed two or three days, but they caught up eventually with the rest of the teams.

On our African rally this year we had a team that overturned on the first African day African day and sort of slid off a hillside on the roof of the car, which was pretty scary. It was somewhere in the Sahara and Morocco. The next day, they got a crane from a nearby village, went back to the side, pulled out the car, got the car fixed as much as possible, and finished the rally. It was incredible. You know, the will to survive and the will to finish and the commitment that people make. And one of the cornerstones of our kind of rallies is that you can't drop out if you miss a stage.

Like if you participate on the Dakar, for example, or similar multi-day rallies and you don't get to the finish line by the end of the day, you're out. You have to go home. And that was one of the things that I wanted to maintain that nobody has to go home and nobody gets dropped out. Yeah, I think the trophy, so to speak, for doing this. event is doing the event. People ask, do you win or whatever? And get into the finish line. It's really a personal challenge and a team challenge. And it's really not, what matters is not how fast you finish. It matters is whether you finish it or not.

Yeah, for sure, for sure. Hey, we're going to go over another question here from, from Mike Thornycroft. And, you know, Mike coming down from, he's, in Canada or Washington up there, British Columbia someplace. This guy, this guy keeps helicopters in the air. So he's a, he's a guy who has questions, checks, checks everything twice or three times. And he wanted to know what was learned from 2021 permits, permissions, and the professionalism of your organization. And I think this is an opportunity for maybe you to talk a little bit about your work with Hector or Hector's work with, you know, on your behalf. So let's talk about that a little bit.

All right. So one of the things that we learned from 2021 is don't hold an event during COVID. Don't hold an event when they say don't hold an event. And we're complying with that. And the other thing we learned is that the roads that are marked on every public, map in in bahia is not a public road in the u.s and other countries there are two types of roads there are private roads and there are public roads in mexico there's a third type of road the hedo road hedo is an agricultural cooperative where members of the cooperative own the road so

it's not really private and it's not really public it's like a weird twilight so in ownership So what we found out and what we had problems with in 2021 is these Ahedo dirt roads, where sometimes our drivers were stopped and the owners of the road demanded money and demanded our permits. And since we didn't know this structure, we didn't have permits. And some of the drivers were arrested by these owners. And now this year we're doing it differently. We are making deals with every Ahedo.

and we're paying a fee for these roads and we're getting permits. We also get permits from both Baja California North and Baja California South. We are now on the official tourism program for both states. I was actually surprised when I checked their sites as an official event. So we got the state permits. We are in the process of obtaining all the private permits. And in the road book, it says if you get stopped by anyone or harassed by anyone for not having the permits. We also have a compliance director now on the rally who was Hector,

the person we know very well. And Hector's phone number is published in the roadbook, and we tell our drivers, look, if anybody is harassing you, please refer them to Hector, and he has all the receipts and all the paperwork for the vehicle permits. So all the issues and all the concerns that we had in 2021, we found a solution for, and we worked there. it out and I'm very excited about this. So we are coming out of legality and we're totally above the ground now. Well, that's fabulous. Poca-a-Poko. I do want to just vouch for for Hector for a second here, an amazing individual. His credentials are he's an attorney. He's a rancher. He's a class 11 Volkswagen Baja 1000 winner overall winner he's been racing in Baja for he's in his early

60s he's been racing in Baja for 40 years and his father and uncle started the very very first motorcycle dirt bike races in Baja in the 60s so he goes way back and he is the dude and he's the guy who negotiates with the Ahedos for Nora and for score. And I had the pleasure of spending two weeks with him in January of last year on the Nora mapping trip for the 1000, where I got to watch him talk to each Ahito representative, each rancher who's sort of in charge of his Ahito group. And really what's going on here is, you know, as an education for you coming in from another country and figuring this stuff out, but what you're also up against is every,

local tour organizer in Mexico who's got a side-by-side tour that comes ripping through some guy's farm, you know, and that's what, you know, when you say, hey, you know, we're doing this, we're driving slow, it's geocaching, what have you, that doesn't matter because that guy, that farmer, that Ahito is still angry at the local dude who tore up his property three months ago, or the Baja 1000 that promised him all sorts of money to fix his road after the race comes through. And whatever happened, his portion of the road didn't get fixed to his satisfaction. So he's still no est tranquilo. He's angry.

He's not happy about how that played out. And he's got to take it out on the next guy who, you know, happened to be Baja XL. So whoever it is. So yeah, it's it's a very delicate balance and and it's a conflict of interest. So we have to work with them. That's that's something I always believed in that we have to work with the local communities. We are their guests and we are enjoying their hospitality and we have to make sure that they're happy in any way, shape or form we can. And one of the things that we always say about our rallies and this is true for the Baja and Excel. And we have to make sure that they're happy in any way, shape or form we can. And we can. And one of the things that we always say about, and we. And we. write this down every possible form and every form and every terms and conditions that things can change any time one thing is certain expect the unexpected and the uncertainty so we are going to have our permits and we have our permits but you know what I learned from Hector is that things can change any time things can change all the time and that's why the daily briefings are important and

And the route can change anytime depending on which way the wind blows in the Ejito world. Your experience may vary. Yes. So we have a plan. The plan is in place. Our route is just absolutely fantastic. We did the track riding a few weeks ago. I met with Hector.

All the compliance is in place. So everything is pretty much ready. much ready. There are a couple of finishing touches to the road book, which we will publish in I would say in about two, three weeks. All right. Let's wrap it up, Andrew. What advice would you have to somebody who's coming to your event for the first time, what to bring, what not to bring, what have you? I'm sure there's some information on the official website about that stuff. But what advice do you have after, you know, running the rally from Budapest, to Bamako, which is just extraordinary to me.

And then now we're in the fourth iteration of the Baja XL. Keep an open mind, get ready for anything. And this is not one of those prepackaged adventures that the adventure industrial complex is trying to sell you. This is an event where anything is possible. You have to rely on your own wits and your own resources to get out of trouble and solve crime. problems and if you can accept these you will have the best time of your life.

We're going to leave it right there. More information. Where can people find out about you? Bajaxl.org or you can follow us on Instagram also BajaXL. Look for our Facebook page, BajaXL news and community. And Budapest Bamako on YouTube has a bunch of videos from the Baja as well. And folks? So we're in all the social media. Just do a search for us.

Yeah, you will. BajaXL support news group on Facebook, very active group. Your questions will get answered there. And folks, feel free to direct message me, Slow Baja, and Instagram, Facebook, or through my website, Slobaha.com, if you have any specific questions, what have you. So always there. There's a very active community ready to help you figure this thing out. And I will say, in closing, less is more.

Less is more. You can figure it out on the way if something breaks. Shane Collard blew up the transmission in his Dodge pickup truck. He got one, I think, shipped over from the States to Mexicali. He drove up and picked it up, got it put in in San Felipe. And he was there. He didn't even miss his whale watching trip in Guerrero Negro. He was back in it by Guerrero.

So, and I will say, book a whale watching trip. too because that is a life-changing experience. Andrew, it's been a delight to have you on Slow Baja again. It's always a pleasure to be on Slow Baja. I can't wait to be in your presence and share a little Cortolese of Tequila with you. Absolutely, sir.

See you in February. See you in, what, six weeks? Absolutely. And if, I don't know when this podcast is going to air, but if it's in the near future, we still have three, four entries left. if somebody... We're going to get this show up right away,

and you heard it here, folks. Three entries left. Better get on them. Well, if you're still listening, I want to say sincerely, thank you. And I mean it. Thank you. We really strive.

Christopher Kaiser, producer, and I strive to bring you a show that sounds great and a conversation that is meaningful and worth your time. And sometimes the technicals do elude me. I'm not technically gifted. And so again, that's why I elevated

Christopher to producer so that shows would sound as as great as we can make them and be worth your time. And so, well, I thank you for listening sincerely. If you like what I'm doing here, folks, got to ask you to do me a solid. Get over to Apple iTunes, drop a five star. Review. Say something nice. Tell people why you spend

this time with Slow Baja, what your weekly Slow Baja break brings you. It really does help people find the show. You can do that also on Spotify. If you're a Spotify listener, I got my Spotify year and wrap. And Spotify says that my show, that's right, Slow Baja, thanks to you folks, is in the top 5% of shows shared globally. It's hard for me to believe. But thank you for sharing the show. If you know somebody who likes Baja, who likes podcasts, or likes one or the other, send them the show so you can get them to like both. I really do appreciate it. The entire archive. The entire 100 plus shows is over there at Slowbaha.com. You can click the episodes tab and you can see every show that I've ever posted. It's there, all the early ones, the Hemmings and the Hawings and the

ums and all that. Yep, they're there. And while you're at Slowbaha.com, if you're heading off to the real Baja or to mainland Mexico and you're driving. You can get your Baja bound insurance right through my site. Click on the sponsor page. Click Baja Bound and that takes you right to their site. Same great price to you and they drop a taco in my tank and that's pretty cool. And of course, there's the Slow Baja shop. I've got modern trucker hats all three flavors. Dad hats. They're in stock, not just for dads, the slow Baja beanies. I still have a few of those and I'm wearing one right now. So if you live someplace cold, it's winter, get yourself a beanie, put a little Baja on your head. If you live someplace warm that's cold and rainy right now, get yourself a beanie.

Help your head relate to what's going on. We've got black sweatshirts, all sizes, white t-shirts, all sizes, black T-shirts, most sizes, the big ones for sure. Stickers that we've been completely replenished with the Baja XL coming. I've got thousands of stickers in stock now, including the Ask Your Doctor if Baja is right for you bumper sticker. You can't buy that one. It's not in the store. You can only get it by making a donation to Slow Baja, dropping a taco in the tank, as I've said, or meeting me out on the trail and asking me for one. So if you are not going to run into me in Baja, the best way for you to get that cool bumper sticker is dropping a taco in the tank, and you can do that. So thanks.

and without wasting another precious second of your day, I want to tell you about what Mary McGee, my pal, Mary McGee's pal said to her. Well, I'm not sure if you said. I'm paraphrasing folks here. I'm paraphrasing Steve McQueen Foundation. Mary McGee's pal said Baja's life. Anything that happened before or after is just waiting.

Let that sink in for a second. And then I'm going to tell you that, hey, congratulations to Colin Corgan at Serviceria Trans-Penensular. He's a dad. Again, Colin, holy Toledo, you're my age, bro. And you're a dad. You got a new one. So he's going to be young forever chasing his beautiful wife around and watching that beautiful baby grow up. So congratulations, Colin.

I hope to see you at the brewery when you get back and we can raise a toast and congratulate you. All right. Be back with something soon. Thanks for listening.