Slow Baja - From Tecate To Tierra del Fuego With Overlanders Tim And Kelsey Huber Of Dirt Sunrise

Episode Date: September 11, 2020

Tim and Kelsey Huber bill themselves as two ordinary people living an extraordinary life. For the last two years, they've lived in "Goose," a 1995 Toyota Land Cruiser modified for camping with a custom interior and pop-top. After a year secretly planning, saving, and divesting themselves of all salable possessions, the duo crossed into Tecate Baja, California, on June 25, 2018. They spent most of the first month trying to beat the heat by staying high in the mountains or hugging the Pacific ocean. Unfortunately, when they tried to ship Goose to mainland Mexico, a paperwork issue sent them back to the US border. They made a banzai-run North to get it sorted out. With the documents in hand, they said goodbye to Baja and headed East into Mexico. The Pan American Highway led them down through colonial cities of the North to the beaches of Oaxaca and into Chiapas' jungles. Once in Central America, they enjoyed Nicaragua and El Salvador but hustled through Costa Rica to get to Panama. They had a deadline to meet a freighter and get Goose across the Darien Gap. As they waited for Goose to arrive from Panama, they spent a magical month exploring Cartagena, Colombia, on foot. Back in the Land Cruiser, they worked their way South. Zig-zagging through Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru before heading into Brazil and onto Bolivia. They explored cayman-filled jungles, survived the death road, salt flats, and climbed to 18,660 feet, before continuing South into Tierra del Fuego. At the tip of Patagonia, they celebrated with friends they had met along the way before heading back North. Argentina and Uruguay were the last places they saw before the coronavirus began closing down borders. They shipped Goose to the US from Montevideo, Uruguay. He landed in Texas on March 17, 2020. With the drive to Canada figured into the journey, they've logged 80,000 miles and are still on the road! When we spoke at the end of August, they were in Gillette, Wyoming. To follow their journey or buy them a taco check out their website www.dirtsunrise.com. Visit Dirt Sunrise here Follow on Instagram Follow on Facebook Follow on YouTube

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. Slow Baja is brought to you by the Baja XL rally. The Baja XL is the largest and longest amateur off-road rally on the Baja Peninsula.

It's 10 epic days. L.A. to Cabo to L.A. Check it out at BajaXL.org. It's Michael Emery and I am Slow Baja. I'm delighted to be on a Zoom call today with Tim and Kelsey Huber. They're in Gillette, Wyoming. They are Overlanders extraordinaire

with Dirt Sunrise, driving a 1995 FJZ. It's an FJZ 80, right? FZJ, but yeah, I mean... FZJ. I always call them F80s, but those land cruiser nerds, they just need to know exactly what it is. I'll tell you, they won't stop. All right. Well, we can't jump into Land Cruiser nerddom yet, but we'll get there. Hey, your two ordinary people living in an extraordinary

life is what you say. So let's just jump into it. How did the whole thing get started? You know, we were just like everybody else, off-roading as much as we can, exploring. You know, I just felt like over the years I wanted to, we never want to end the trips, right? Not that anyone does, but we're always looking for ways to make the trips a little bit longer and a little bit longer. And, you know, I kind of got interested in going. I think my first international trip was probably Baja, going down for like Habitat for Humanity or something as a kid, you know, and school trips. And then Buddy and I built a race car, started racing. And then it was like, I don't know, we just wanted more of that.

And since we met, we just tried to make the trips longer and longer and they kept saving and saving until we realized, are we ever going to just go? like we see these other people doing this. Are we going to go or are we going to the people who just talk about it? Yeah, we always had, you know, these dreams of like, oh, that would be so cool. And then we kind of talked and we're like, well, why not, why not do them? Why not try for them? Because we were just working, you know, regular office jobs and dreaming of this kind of lifestyle and just decided, let's go for it. Let's try it. I think, too, it kind of aided us. Like we, I've taught it Overland Expo's. Some friends started that, like in, I don't know what it was, like 12, 13 years ago. And so I've been teaching there since it started. And so you meet all these really great people. And then they go off and do their trips.

And they come back and they're like, yeah, so this last year I was in Africa. And then I went to Australia. And you're like, cool. And you're happy for them. But there's a little party that's going, damn it, when am I going to go? So that was eaten at us too, I think. And so I think when the fear that we may never go, like we would just get more comfy and, you know, keep working and keep working was greater than the fear of what will happen if we quit our jobs and, you know, have no health insurance and go for it. When the fear of not doing

it was greater than the fear of going, we kind of just looked at each other and went, all right, one year out, let's go nuts and sell everything we can and do this. And so that was a genesis. One year. You gave yourself a year to make it all happen. Yeah. And we told nobody. I mean, even close friends, I think some were a little bit like, hey, why wouldn't you confide me? It's like, look, I didn't want to profess. We are going on this trip and we're going to go to the tip of South America, even when we were halfway through the trip, we still were not saying, like, publicly, like, I'd really like to get all the way to Shwaya or Patagonia, because we just didn't know, you know, if the engine blew tomorrow, we wanted to feel like we could just turn

around and come home and go back to work if that's what we needed to do. So we just kind of quietly sold things off. And we've always been the types that on weekends and holidays, if we can do something that earns us money, we'll do that over a trip. And so we were always doing anything we could, you know, buying old dirt bikes and cleaning them up and flipping them or working side jobs. You know, all those side jobs have become our only jobs now. So now we have like seven side jobs that have become what we do when we're when we're not on the trip, trying to pay for it and save for the next leg. So, yeah.

Hey, Kelsey, how did you two meet? We actually met at Oberland Expo, which is really random. I was working for Overland Journal. and I happened to be at the event running their booth and doing all that. And Tim has been instructing there since the beginning. So I noticed him and he actually noticed me and we didn't meet, I think, for another year. In a speed of men, Tim actually noticed you. Right.

I know. It's like Wolverines looking at her, I think, you know, the one woman walking around Overland Expo, but I definitely noticed her. And I was, yeah, I was shocked to find out. I think it was a year after we've been dating that we had talked. found out that it was actually the year before we met that both of us noticed the other one and started asking questions. Like, who is that? Yeah. And then we met at Expo at like a vendor's party.

And Tim said hi. And that was about that was about all we said to each other. And then we started, I think, talking through Facebook maybe a month or two after that. Yeah. In just checking out your YouTube videos, kind of got on a deep dive on that. Tim, you readily admit to being an introvert. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, even though Kelsey's doing all the voiceovers and stuff, I think she's kind of the same way.

And the way we met at this, this party that one of the vendors puts on every year consistently, I'd never have gone to it. Because you're working all day, you're tired. And again, being an introvert, I'm like, let's go sit around a fire with four good friends and drink some beers and hang out. And so neither of us would even go to that. And I think it was the first time both of us actually went to a party. We got dragged along and we're like, okay, just for a little while ago. and then. Well, you did it.

You got together, Matt, managed to figure that out. You've got the land cruiser, and you managed to get rid of everything and actually get the whole thing going. So tell me about the why. You know, I get it. You were doing it.

You saw folks doing it, but you did it. Why? Yeah, we've had someone say to us, This is something that people just talk about. They don't actually do. And I think that was one of the biggest impetus is for us to actually do it because, you know, we talked about doing a lot of stuff and we never actually did anything about it. And so it just felt like life was kind of happening to you.

And so taking control of that and going like, I'm going to try for something. The scariest part is, you know, what if I fail at something that I'm really trying at? or what if I don't love this thing that I've idolized and dreamed of for so long? But I think for us, or at least for me, it was very important to kind of reach for those dreams and go for it. Yeah. I think also a theme of sort of since we had met is pushing each other. You know, it's like, okay, what sport or activity or trip have you always wanted to do that you haven't? Or, you know, the whole idea of buying like the FJ40 that we bought with mice living in it.

like financially that's too scary for me uh you know for me like during the last the last economic downturn i don't know if we're headed for another one or not yet but the one the one around 2009 or whatever i pretty much lost everything was laid off five different times as companies went under i was working for i was working for banks so of course they were going under but i from that point forward was like not not full i'm sure as bad as the uh great depression eras savers but i was like you know if i could get a dollar i was like putting it in a mattress i was so paranoid you know from that downturn and from being, you know, foreclosed and all that kind of stuff and basically starting over from scratch. And so I think I was too conservative and too scared to do anything that was too

wild. I loved camping. I loved going to Baja. That was all great. Mountain bikes, dirt bikes, all that. But anything bigger was like, nah, no, I couldn't do that. That's too risky. And since we met, it was kind of a theme that we'd be like, let's go do this, let's go do that. Let's head to this place. or, you know, and so it just seemed like a natural progression that like, look, what if you did say to yourself the things that you're too scared to do normally? You just said, no, I'm just going to do it. You know, it seems crazy. It seems like too much. It seems like it's not going to work out. What if we just did those things until they don't work out? And then maybe we, you know, pump the brakes a little and be more safe or conservative. But so far we've just continued going for it. And I think because

you know you have a partner in it, it's not nearly a serious. scary. You just try something and go for it and it works out. And even if it doesn't, at least there's two of you there to kind of figure out what to do next. Yeah. So let's start with the beginning. When did you, when did you sell it all and load up the land cruiser and drive way? So I think when we kind of decided it was a year out was 2017. Yeah. And then we decided, okay, we're, you know, we, our last paycheck would be next year's Overland Expo West. So let's work that. You know, we were in Phoenix, Arizona. It takes place in Flagstaff. So we figured that's a perfect time. And, you know, we'll leave right from the Expo or whatever. So we just started selling and,

you know, Kelsey became an expert in searching Craigslist and finding deals on, you know, dirt bikes, or whatever it was that we sort of, anything we had a good knowledge of, that we thought we could buy, you know, get running better and flip. And then we were selling furniture. selling, we had some old motorcycles and stuff, and we just fixed up everything we could and sold it. And then we left pretty close to our target. It was like two weeks later, I think, because we had nearly burnt the truck to the ground. So when we cut the roof off the truck, which is a little bit terrifying, we glued on this, you know, epoxy or whatever, this pop top on, we were welding, closed some holes on the top, or my buddy actually was TIG welding.

And from outside, we heard, you know, fire, fire. and it had caught the insulation on the pop top on fire. And the whole thing was turned to the ground. The tent material on the side was on fire. It was terrible. I jumped in it. You can't see my face, but that feeling in my stomach was just like,

oh, there it goes. Everything. Yeah, I mean, it was completely that. It was, you know, I think at this point, we'd finally told a bunch of friends. So now it's like, you're going, right? It's official. And I don't know if I'd give a notice or not,

but, I mean, it is happening. And we're going on this trip. and the thing is burning in front of me. And, you know, sure, this is the one time the fire extinguisher is not close or it's not, I don't think if it had a charge in it or something. So I'm just glad I had a baseball cap on because when I jumped inside the truck to start, I just had a bucket of water and I was throwing it up onto the ceiling trying to get it to stop. It's raining black, you know, molten plastic on me.

And so I got all these burns and stuff, but thankfully the baseball cap kept me from getting my face burned. And so that was the beginning of our trip. I mean, like, what a dumpster fire. And yet, you know, we, we just took like an hour to be a little crushed. And then we're like, okay, so here's what we need to do. We need to order this. We need order that. Kelsey was learning how to sew better.

We re-sowed in the tent, all the pieces that burnt. We reinstated it. We, you know, fixed everything we had to do. Put seat covers over the sort of melted seats. And, you know, I think it was about a two-week setback. And we went, okay. Like, we cannot let anything stop us. Wow.

Pocawopo, as they say in Mexico. Mexico. Wow. So you left 2017, drove out of Arizona, correct? So 2017, we decided to go a year out. So we left 2018, what would it have been June? Yeah, probably end of May or early June. Yeah. So we went and we basically camped in the mountains, you know, outside San Diego and crossed over into Takade and just it was happening. It was crazy. The first night camping, in the mountains. Instead of going down to the beach right away, we decided to go up into the mountains and kind of run that. I'm not even sure what the mountains are called there. Actually, I can't even think of it. But kind of up where the Baja 500-1,000 course goes up in the pine trees there. We camped there because it was hot summer and just kept making our way along that ridge. And it just, it didn't set in, I don't think, for at least a week that this wasn't, like, when do we turn around and go home? You know, when do we need to be back at work? And there was no date.

Wow. And that was getting into warm weather for that, that beginning part of the trip. Yeah. It just got warmer from there, I'm assuming. Did you, did you figure that in or coming from Arizona? Everything else is cooler, so it doesn't matter. Almost that. I mean, and that's one of the reasons we stuck to the pine trees. So I just did all those pine trees. Then we hit Valade de Trinidad and went up to Mike Sky Ranch. And then we did, what's that, Simpson Hill? and we just stayed high. And then the mountains just south of there, I probably can't remember off the top of my head because it's been a couple years now. But you go up to the top and you're at, you know,

eight or nine thousand feet and it was actually cold and it was wonderful. We had a mountain line in camp at night. It was a little terrifying. We started camping with the tailgate and the hatch closed after that. But that was amazing. And then when we went down to the beach, you know, of course, in the drive there, it got hot. And our goal was just don't leave the Pacific Ocean.

So the whole way south, we didn't do. any Sea of Cortez side that time just because it was so hot so hot and but as you know as long as you're right on the beach and so we would like we aired down the tires and just ran the beach for days at a time and then when you of course had to go inland to do some cliffs or something yeah it would be 110 and you just go all right back to the beach come on and so since we're talking slow Baja here let's get into a little bit of the the Pacific side what did you see what what sticks with you now you've driven all the way to the tip of Tierra del Fuego and back and you're in Wyoming now. So those are a lot of miles since you started in Baja.

But what did you see in Baja that stays with you? For us, I think, you know, I guess because I grew up going to Baja a bunch, I know the rules sort of, you know the, you know where you can get fuel, you know sort of the laws and everything, how everything works. So it's really comfortable. So for us, it's neat because it's that international destination where you're on the beach, but no one's coming up on the beach and telling you to leave or. as long as you know where you're at anyways, you know.

So for us, it was just those sections of beach with no one there, you know, where you, you're looking at the Baja Atlas or at aerial, you know, stuff if you have a decent cell signal. And you're just finding your way to beaches you've never had the time to get down to that take a day or two. So for us, I think just those desolate beaches where you don't even see tire tracks and you just hang out and go, well, this one's ours, you know. And then you run into some locals and always so nice. And so that was just the theme of our whole Baja trip this time was snorkeling and swimming around and just trying to find those beaches with nobody around. And when you did, you just hung out for a little while.

Yeah, I think there's such like a wildness to Baja. And I love the landscapes because I love the desert and I love the beach. And it kind of combines those two for me. And the people are so nice. The food is good. Like Tim said, it's a pretty easy country as far as international travel goes to travel through. And by the way, we consider Bahat's own country. Yeah, yeah, totally.

Baja snora maybe. Mainland Mexico is amazing too, but the beach is there. You know, most beaches, you know, there's a gate. Somebody wants some money, not always. Sometimes you get down and it's free, but then there's a bunch of other surfers there and stuff, which is also fine, great. But we realized how special Baja is on this trip, because even South America, where you think it would be desolate

or you think, at least we did, you know, that we'd find these long stresses of empty beaches. Usually there's a hut, you know, a hut every couple of miles or something. There's people living all along the beaches. And sure, there are some remote ones, but in general, it's funny we'd find ourselves in these beautiful exotic places and going, I wish we could just head out of the Baja real quick, get some tacos and go to the beach. Yeah, people would ask us all on the trip.

So you've seen so many places, what's your favorite? And it always came back to Baja for me because even though it's so close to home, there's just something so special about Baja and, you know, maybe it is because it feels easier or safer than a lot of the countries did, but I think it's just the wildness and there's adventure to be had there, I think. Well, I think it's ability to get remote too for us. And so I know, I think people would sort of roll their eyes and go, you know, oh, but you've been to Patagonia and you've been to the Bolivian jungle or whatever. And it's like, no, no, those are all amazing, every single one of them. But there is something about, you can't mistake distance. from home for coolness, you know. And so if we're honest, I really still feel like that's my favorite place possibly on Earth. Yeah. Yeah, I say it's a desolation on our doorstep. Yeah. And especially if you get into some dirt there, you know, you really don't see very many people. No. And you can get onto the dirt pretty quickly. I would imagine you were on dirt pretty soon

after you cross the border in Takate, you've probably found some tacos and then said, okay, time to get off the paved road here and get to where our truck feels comfortable. Exactly. Yeah, and for us, you know, our truck is somewhere, you know, it's more comfortable than guys doing it on motorcycles, but it's a lot less comfortable than people doing it

maybe in like an RV or a siding camper. And so we found Baja played to the truck strengths, you know, where we added an auxiliary tank and a lot more water storage. So, you know, for the trip in general. But in remote places like that or like in Argentina, there's this Alti Plano area that's kind of the high desert. And we found in these really remote areas of the trip,

our truck was shining the most because you can go, cool, we're good for at least one full week. Let's go as remote as we can. And the goal is just to be off the beaten path and have our own space in the world, so to speak. So Baja played to that really well. So that's what was so neat. And then, of course, after that,

you love coming into town and getting tacos and hanging out. Yeah, so tell me a little bit about the modifications you made to your truck. We can geek out. I'm sure there's a few Land Cruiser aficionados listening here just because, you know, I drive the old FJ40 down to Baja. But tell me what modifications you made to your truck before you left. So we've had this truck for like 10 years. So I had it before we met.

And I, you know, the main stuff, just the normal off-roading stuff, like front bumper, rear bumper with a couple of swing outs. You know, I re-geared it, put some bigger tires on it, and then some really nice shocks. And that was about it. And, you know, I'd sleep in a platform on the back. And frankly, I could have done, we could have done the whole trip with it set up like that, with the fridge underneath the bed like we used to have it. But for the trip, I had my eye on one of these pop tops.

A guy made seven of them with one prototypes, really like six production ones. And I knew they'd all been sold, you know, five, six years ago. And he had gone on with his life and had stopped making them. And so the chances of finding one were really small. And then I posted on some forums and lo and behold, a guy shoots me a message in Canmore, Canada, near Banff, and says, you know, I've got one. My truck's all rusted out, but the top's aluminum. So, but I'm going to get a new 80 series and I don't need the pop top because I'm not going to be

traveling in it anymore. So if you want to buy it, come on up and get it. So he had changed his mind a couple of times. And then with the final time when he said, you know, okay, I'm definitely going to sell it. I said, okay, I'm on my way. What? So we did a, was it a 30 hour, 20 hour drive. And we had to do it over a weekend. We still had jobs. So it was in January, I think. Yeah, so January, we get in the truck. And 80 series people know this little firewall. There's a little bushing in the firewall that keeps the steering from having too much slop in it. And that had blown out on mine. So you've got kind of a wonky. I think my FJ40 has better steering than this had on this drive anyways. And so we headed up to Canada in January. And we had to get it. it all done on a three-day weekend. So we drove up there, straight, you know, got a hotel somewhere near the border, woke up it, you know, we slept for what, three hours, then woke up, kept driving, couldn't get the truck to even stay warm enough to run properly. So we were trying

to block off the radiator like the semis do up there. I mean, we were so, we had every bit of clothing on. We're so, so Arizona, Southern California people. Yeah, totally unprepared for how completely and amazingly cold it could be up there. Yeah, we're in the truck wearing everything we have and we go. So that means if the truck breaks down, we're dead. We got to this guy's garage and pulled it inside, turn on one of those little jet sort of heaters, and started cutting, got a jigsaw out, and cut the roof off my truck, threw it in his side yard, and started gluing the new top on. And, you know, something like 18 or 19 hours of straight work and lots of coffee. And we were leaving. And, you know, we didn't even have time to, like, go get a coffee with the guy or say, you know, we said thanks, obviously immensely. But, you know, we had just cut the top off the truck. And then you look at the tube of syciflex, which is the epoxy we used and a lot of these folks used. And it's like six days to properly cure it above 70 degrees. And we're just like, well, we got a ratchet strap. The top flies off as we're going south.

We'll have a convertible. And then we'll just ratchet strap it on. This is totally fine. And it worked out. But I mean, that drive up and back were more dangerous than most of the trip, I think, through the Americas over the years. Because it was just too crazy. Too many hours, not enough sleep, too many miles to get done. And then we arrived at, I think, at 4 or 5 a.m. on the work day. And so I just parked the truck, got in maybe the 40-year. I think we had a Prius at the time and went to work. And then I didn't get anything done those next couple days at work.

But I was there and they had no idea what we've been up to. Wow. You know, I've driven a lot. I've done a lot of dumb all-night drive kind of things. Wow. I've never been evolving. I wouldn't recommend it. Fabricating against the clock and freezing temperatures.

But wow. So, Kelsey, you've, sounds like you roll with it pretty well. Yeah, a lot of times I'm the impetus of like, yeah, we should do this. So, yeah, I'd say I'm just as much part of wanting to do all this stuff. Yep, absolutely. I, you know, I'm not pushing on a lot of this stuff. I'll be like, it'd be nice if we had a pop top. And I start showing her some photos.

And she's like, if we can go. our hands on that, we should do that. So it's like, okay, well, here we go. So besides the top, you know, we built an interior. He had an interior that was in his truck. He gave us. And so we took that and modified it. So we have a bench on one side, a countertop on the other, sort of a kitchen at the back. I built a little fold-down table off the swing out. And then we got a much bigger propane tank. So we have a 10-pound or 11-pound, I think it is, that lasts for a couple of months. And so we just sort of turn the truck for more of that weekend, lightweight, you know, I'm going to go to Baja for four or five days type truck into something that we could stay in for well now

a couple of years and so you know we'll get a Airbnb on the trip if we're in a city or we'll pay for a campground you know once a month or something to get showers but in general the goal is to not pay for camping and it just live in the truck so it's for the living in it it is tight and it is small I think for full time but for what we're doing with that mix of occasionally getting air bmbs or whatever it hasn't been it hasn't been bad there's been time for where it's felt really small and tight. Yeah, I think it's downfall as camping in a city is hard because, you know, we don't have a proper bathroom.

We can't really take a shower unless you're outside. And we can't even sleep without popping the top of the truck, really. You can try and fit yourself down below, but that's where, you know, the folks, our friends we've traveled with in a sprinter van or whatever, a sprinter van or all these other different options where you sleep inside. They just pull into a town and park and, yeah, who knows if they're actually in there or not, you know. Yeah.

Yeah. So obviously, getting back to the conversation we had before I started recording about the Volkswagen Westphalia, you can sleep down below or you can sleep with the top popped up. If you have the top popped up, it tells everybody that you're, you know, in there sleeping. Yep. That's the local park ranger or, you know, others. But what you're just telling me then is you really don't have a comfortable spot to sleep down below because that's full of gear or what have you. Yeah, and so I'm, you know, it's tough because the way the truck was before, it was obviously only below because there was no up area. I'm not a big fan of rooftop tents.

I had one when sort of people first started importing them to the U.S. and had it for a month and went, man, and wind, this is horrible. You put it away wet. You know, it's too much top heavy. So I kind of, I didn't want to go that way. And that's why I always slept inside. But I do think when we built the interior, we should have made a very easy to figure out lower bed because the winds of pad. because the winds of Patagonia, I mean, there was a week in a row where it was so strong that it would have ripped the top clean off if we had popped the top.

And then, you know, there was a motorcyclist, I think an American motorcyclist that passed away by being blown just clean off the highway. So it's serious, serious wind like we'd never dealt with. And those situations to have the option to sleep below or just a stealth camp like you're saying to go, you know, I'm just in the parking lot at the Grand Canyon. Like I've done that before where, you know, you're passing through. there's no actual campsite. So you just park in the parking lot, put in the sunshades, laying back, no one knows. That's a nice option to have. Yeah, there's a couple of nights where you just tuck in and in a Walmart parking lot

driving cross country. And you say, you know what, it's not the worst thing ever. There's a bathroom inside. Yep. Yep. I want to get into your fears because, you know, again, most people would be paralyzed by fear and not even be able to begin this. And as you've said quite clearly,

if you two can do it, anybody can do it. Now you've got some fabrication skills. You've taught some off-roading overland recovery kind of stuff. So you've built up some skills along the way. Tell me about getting past your fears. And have any of your fears been, worst-case scenario has been realized and how did you get past them if they have? Yeah, I think the biggest fear and most general fear

probably just the fear of the unknown, you know, going on doing something like this. You're trying to set up a truck for something you've never done. You don't know. What do I need? I mean, I was overwhelmed by setting up a kitchen, you know, like, well, what should I bring in a kitchen? I'm going to be living in this truck. You know, usually I'm camping for two weeks at the most. And so everything becomes this like, oh my gosh, it's all overwhelming. But I think as we jumped into it, we were just able to take bite size pieces, you know, okay, this time we're we're putting on this pop top. This is what we're doing. And, uh, you know, so many things we would YouTube to figure out how to do it. So I think we're comfortable with kind of learning on the fly.

I mean, everything we've done, I feel like in the last three years editing videos like, okay, I'm going to Google how, you know, look on YouTube. How do I do this? How do I do that? And so a lot of learning. But yeah, the fear, it's a huge part of, of everything traveling, I think, you know, and, um, dealing with it. luckily we have each other and we've learned that, you know, if you're afraid of something to talk about it because it will come out in other ways, anger. Frustrations. And so I think just learning to deal with it right in the moment is really helpful.

Yeah, we've gotten a lot better at that. I mean, you know, you'll see we'll both pass a police officer on the side of the road, which, you know, in all these other countries, it's not reassuring. It's, okay, are they going to try and shake us down, which only happened, I think, three or four times. but it's still a huge, huge anxiety that when you see a police car and it pulls out behind you. And so, you know, that can turn into both of us sort of getting on each other's nerves and snapping at each other. And so instead it's just so much we've learned to kind of just all of our fears, just say them out loud, you know, and go, man, I'm freaking out with it right now. That guy's falling us.

Man, what he's going to do if he's going to be the aggressive I want money or the kind of, come on, hook me up? You know, we've had both. And of course, one's not a big deal on the other. It had gotten more interesting a couple of times. And so, so we just, yeah, I think dealing with the fear as we go. But I do think the main fear is the fear of just going. And that's, we're always telling people just go. And we get emails about, okay, here's my truck. I've planted out. People putting well over $100,000 into their truck. And you just go, don't do it, you know, unless you've just got that to burn by all means, go for it. But people get into analysis, paralysis. And then, never leave. And we've met people in one guy, Mike, Miguel, actually, we call him. He's from

Australia. He was backpacking. And then a guy in Baja gave him a free pickup truck, an old Ford Ranger Tool Drive, you know, stock basically with a shell on the back that leaked. And we kept running into him the whole trip. And we hung out with him in Patagonia. He did it in a free truck with no supplies, no nothing. He just did it. No mechanical knowledge. No mechanical knowledge. Nothing. I mean, he just figured it out. It's like every time it broke, he would just. just talked to mechanic and he rewired the alternator like four times or something, but it ended up working and he did the whole trip cheaper than almost anybody I've met. And then on the other side, we met people in $200,000, you know, beautiful German Unimog rigs and, you know, their number

one cost is food because they're eating out every night and going to the nicest restaurant. So you can you can spend easily 100 grand a year or you can spend, you know, six grand and do the whole trip. And so I think all those fears, you just have to realize that they're going to keep you from doing the trip and you have to go. We never had every time we had an ominous sort of, uh-oh, some guys are walking up to our truck and it's nighttime. It was always okay. It was always, hey, guys, we're the local community security and we're a little freaked out, who are you? What are you doing here? And you're like, you're freaked out by us.

Oh, okay. Well, you know, we're from the United States. We're doing this. We're doing that. And they're like, oh, you scared us. You know, there's reports that there was a truck in the mountains and we're the kind of, you know, local security guys. And so, yeah, we were terrified. And you realize they were more scared of us, right? So it's always worked out in that situation. We've had so many people come up to us and approach us and it's never been a negative thing, ever.

Yeah, so kindness of strangers. I was watching one of your videos and you're driving down a dirt road and a family passes you on their quad. So let's get to that, a family, mom, dad, you know, a couple of kids all piled on a quad, which you see in a lot of, you know, other countries, people all piled on. And, you know, you talk to them and you want to know where to camp and they invite you up to their ranch. Yeah. And I think that's so unexpected. It is. I mean, it recalibrates, you know, years ago we did before this trip, one of our first trips together

out of the country besides Baja was to Cuba. and like walking down the streets sort of rubble looks like, you know, war zone in some ways falling apart. And by the time we left, we realized we'd recalibrated sort of what was scary because this is a nice street we're staying on. We first showed up, we went, what have we done? We picked a bad place to stay. Should we even be here? Yeah, should we even be on this street? Like, oh, and just four days later, you're like, Manor Street's beautiful.

This is great. You know, and they're doing the best they can with what they've got. And you've reset what is scary and what's not. So for us, we're always resetting. You know, anytime, every time we got to a border. every single border we had some anxiety. What's the new country going to be like? Are all the rumors true? You know, you're sitting at the border of El Salvador or Nicaragua. And in the news at the time, things were not going well in some of these countries. And you're terrified. And then you just go

ahead and go for it, talk about it with each other to keep the fear from being too much. And then every time it turned into one of our favorite places and we were just so comfortable there and every local, every time you just had a question, you went, you know, just stop on the side of the road and ask that person or that person. And people were so overly nice. It was. it was sort of shaking and you went, okay, I got to remember. Don't trust. I mean, there's a deep gut, I think, that you do trust and like, let's get out of here. You know, this is something's going on in this town or, you know, there's a big festival going on. Everyone's really drunk and a couple of guys are fighting. It's time to leave, you know. So you do trust your gut. But in a lot of

ways, there's this other voice that you know is the paranoid voice, sort of that American that's used to everything looking a certain way and being sort of orderly. Ignore that voice. You got to let that one go. And that's, we were always, and we still are. I'm sure if we crossed a border tomorrow, we'd have a little anxiety and be thinking, just relax and, you know, give it a chance. Do you find that each country is afraid of their neighbor in some way? Like, absolutely. And the Canadians are afraid of us or we're afraid of the Mexicans. The Mexicans are afraid of the, you know, folks from El Salvador. And it just works its way south. You know, the Venezuelans know, like the Colombians or vice versa. And then, you know, whatever.

completely i completely agree even in within one country where you guys had it over there don't go over there they're they're all thieves over there and you get to the next town and and there's not a person not smiling and waving at you as you drive by and they'll tell you bad things about the town that you which you come from oh how did you not get robbed over there they're all scoundrels over there and you're like i got it and so once you realize that you don't want to discount people's warnings but you know we got used to those type of warnings where you go got it those those people that that really nice lady saying don't go over there, reminded me of the people in the U.S. saying you'll die in Baja. And I knew that one wasn't true because we'd spent so much time. So we knew right off the bat

to discount those warnings. But then you started to believe the locals ones because they're locals. Now there's different kinds of warnings too. Like if people go, yeah, don't go to those mountains. It's harvest season. You go, got it. You know, not going to go up in that area right now. Don't drive at night. Okay. Got it. Yep. You know, very specific. And then we saw all Mexico mainland don't drive at night. We had a couple of friends drive at night. And it ended up being like, again, the town security folks, but they had, they got hassled and yelled at and pulled out of their car because the security people were like, you must be running drugs. There's an agreement. You don't drive in this state of Mexico at night. What are you doing? And so we knew not to do that. The moment

we hit Guatemala, I asked a local we had become friends with and who was showing us Sonotes and Cliff jumps and all this amazing stuff, I said, can you drive at night here? And he's like, oh, your headlights It's not working. I don't know. I mean, is it safe to drive at night here? Is it okay? He's like, well, it's more dangerous because it's dark. And I was like, okay, got it. There's no issues here with driving at night. And so you just ask around and kind of go, what's the etiquette? What do I do? What don't I do? And for the most part, there isn't any big rules. I don't think we learned. Yeah, it kind of brings back that little kid brain of like you have to figure things out and learn by seeing or asking or, you know, because you're not just going to automatically, automatically know all

this stuff. So it's kind of interesting that way to travel. Yeah, you hit a mountain town and instead of the last town where everyone was smiling and waving and talking to you asking where you're from saying do you like their country? Do you like this? You know, you get to another town and everyone's looking at the ground. Everyone looks pretty downtrodden and scared, scared of you, scared of each other. And you go, something's happened here. Doesn't mean that you're in danger, but you notice things that you wouldn't normally notice. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruisers south of the border. When we go, we'll be going with Baja bound insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at Bajabound.com. That's Bajabound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994. Hey, Baja tourism is picking up, and our friends at the Animal Pad and TAP Act want to remind you when you're crossing the border, just say no to puppy peddlers. I know they're cute, but the sooner we can end the demand, we can end the supply.

For more information, check out theanimalpad.org and TAP Act on Instagram and Facebook. I want to jump back to something that we kind of missed. We talked about when you departed, but I don't think you've recapped your journey yet. Can you do that for me? Just talk about where you crossed. You said, Takate, and then how long in Baja and where did it go from there? I've seen the map, but, you know, Slow Baja listeners haven't yet. Yeah, so we crossed in Takade, and that's where we used to cross when we go down to race and usually be heading to Ensenada, of course.

and I just knew how busy it was, and it wasn't, you know, we, our lives had been really fast, especially trying to prepare for the trip besides they're already normally fast in just American life. But so we just wanted to get away. So we stayed, and I wish I had a map in front of me to remember all the names of the mountains, but we stayed in the mountains of South of Takade and just weaved our way south. And then I can't remember the, it's named after like a person or something, but we went up this really tall mountain, sort of just to the, east of San Quentin area there. And we just stayed as high as we could until we knew we were

getting to the beaches that were more remote and less people. And so I think it's Rosario or something like that, we then stuck to the beach heading south and left highway one. And I think in total, in Baja, we spent a month. About a month, yeah. And we, I mean, looking back, we easily would have been happy spending three months there or something. But I think knowing how much was ahead of us, It was like, this is here. This is always going to be here near where we live. I love Baja, but I'm excited to see mainland Mexico. I'm excited to see the mountains.

I'm excited to see Guatemala. So I think we didn't feel rushed, but we would have doing it again. We would have slowed down. And every beach camp that was amazing, we would have doubled our time there again. Yeah, yeah, easy. Hey, so I want to catch you because we haven't even, again, gotten out of Baja yet. There's a lot of your trip discussed. us, but we're 40 minutes in.

And I picked up something that I think Kelsey said in one of your videos about slowing down. Has that been a problem for the two of you to just slow down, relax, you know, be where you are when you're there? Yeah, for sure. That was, I mean, it still is a struggle for us. Like Tim said, especially coming off of like this year of preparedness. and working really hard to make all of this happen. It was hard to slow down. And then I think for us feeling like, you know, we had been to Baja a few times and it still

felt like vacation where you're like, okay, we have two weeks. We need to see all of this. We need to like, you know, spend two days here and then we're moving on. And so that was hard to break that habit of like we don't have an end date. Like we don't have to be anywhere at any particular time. And I think part of it, like he said too, was the excitement of like, oh, what's next? what's coming up next. And so learning to enjoy where you're at and go, this is a really good spot. The next spot might also be really good. But like, let's enjoy this really good spot.

Yeah, it's a struggle and something that we both kind of try to hold each other accountable to be like, you know, this is a good spot. We should maybe stay here. How do you feel about staying here and trying to just slow each other down a bit? Yeah, I think for sure, these five, six day trips we always used to do were always about doing the most, seeing the most, and rushing for some reason. And so we now are immensely slower travelers than we used to be. And it's funny, we get on the highways here in the U.S. And I feel like, gosh, everyone's in such a rush. But I was absolutely one of those people. I was probably even more in a rush than your average person.

So we've slowed down immensely, but we still want to even slow down more. But it's a hard thing for us. You know, we'll meet some travelers who get to a beach. Maybe they're from another country or something. And so they haven't sort of had that same American go, go, go as part of their psyche. and they'll just post up and, you know, we'll go off and we'll see 10 different things and we'll circle back to the town. And they're still sitting there on the same patio as they were when we left, you know, drinking cheap wine and Mendoza. And you're going, that looks pretty good too. We'll

do that. And then we'll hang out with them for a week in one little town and go, we didn't move. You know, we just hung out and got to know one town. But that was really hard for us. So it's something we always have to remember to keep in mind, I think. All right. So let's fast forward. then you're in Baja, you spent how long in Baja? About a month, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Any highlights you want to discuss, which beaches, which places?

I mean, I think our favorites, we couldn't find any names to them. And so it's kind of what we would do is just avoid, you know, when the big cities were on the, you know, at least at the south, it was kind of, we could go to either side. It was all hot down there. We would just kind of go to whatever side had the smaller towns or less towns or less paved roads. but I think Cabo Palma was beautiful down there. That was amazing. And there was a nice little, you know, sort of, I guess you'd call it a four by four road.

Not super hard, but it deterred 90% of people from taking it around the point down there. Yeah. And that was just great. Really, really hot. Weltering hot. But the fish and everything you saw was, is exactly what you hoped it would be,

which was really cool. But I think for me that section sort of south of El Rosario down to gosh, even all the way down to Scorpion Bay or Ignacio, right? That whole area there, we were just trying to stick just to the beach, and it was pretty doable, and it was amazing. And, you know, we would air down the tires and find a really loose sand path down to the beach and then stay for a couple of days and just not see anybody. And other times we'd get to know, like, some fishermen who come out each morning at a different beach.

And it's just those were kind of my favorites. It's that simple, to me, perfection. Yeah. There's nothing extraordinary about any of these beaches except that they were yours. And that's our favorite thing. Yeah, I think for me, like the San Ignacio Scorpion Bay was where, at least the time of year we were at, the water had just, it was like a turning point. Like the camp north of that was a little cold.

And then you got there and it was like, oh, the water is like, you could stay in the water and swim and it's beautiful. And like the beaches are, you know, pretty empty because it takes, you know, surfers. that know that area to actually come there. So the beaches were pretty awesome and the waves were awesome and the water was nice. And that was just like prime right there. That was a special day, like a 30 mile drive down the coast along the beach. And it went from yesterday.

Excuse me. Yesterday's jump in the water was a little bit cold still. You know, San Diego kind of temperature feeling. I'm sure it was warmer, but still felt cold. And then the next day, we're going, has this changed? Yeah, I think this has changed. This is nice. So that was a nice shift.

Yeah. All right. And now put it in four high. And let's let's just, let's just fast forward a little bit through the other parts of the trip and let everybody know where you've been and how it's gone. So we went to mainland Mexico, which was. Did you cross in from the ferry in La Paz? No, that's a long story. That's in our mistakes video. Yeah. We meant to. Yeah, we meant to. So we had like got our passport stamp, but we didn't do the import. paperwork because going to Baja, I've never done it. And I feel like, we'll get it down in La Paz. And so we were in La Paz and they would not give it to us. And they said, you have to go back to the border to get it. So we actually. Yep. Exactly. It's like 150 bucks that you put into a bank, you know, the Mexican like federal bank and you get it later. But we didn't do that step. And so they said, well, most people when they screw this up, fly back to San Diego, walk across the border and get it. I'm like, I'm not doing it. and that. So we did a crazy one and a half day drive from the tip of Baja all the way up on one, cut across by Coco's Corner and around San Felipe. And then I think, you know, we went to Mexicali to two different border crossings to get the paperwork done. And, and they had some trouble with, you know, with being okay with us clearly being in the country for a while, but now

wanting the import permit and all that. So we were just going to cross back into the U.S. and cross back over. In the end, an older guy at the office said, no, no, this is no big deal. Here you go. And we were all good to go and then headed to sort of El Golfo area and camped. And then we kept coming around the corner there. And then we wanted to go up into Copper Canyon. We had a friend, actually, the bike shop, mountain bike shop I go to in Phoenix. He's from a little town up in the mountains of, is that Guerrero? I can't remember now. Something. Yeah, I can. So he was going to be visiting his town. So we went there and got to do like a mountain bike race and then like got to hang out they had some big festival going on so we kind of

stuck to the mountains heading south and then we hit the beach again in puerto yeah we're not fast forwarding enough no sure so we really enjoyed all of mexico the food was amazing food's amazing i think for sure seeing it change you came uh north and on the east coast of the baha peninsula past san filibay back up to mexicali and then you drove around the top of the gulf of california and back down the east side, the mainland side of the Gulf and then continued south, correct? Yeah, exactly. And then we started digging and sacking. Yeah, we'd go inland.

You know, there were some things we wanted to see here and there. So we would stick to the coast and then shoot way inland, come back over. You know, it was a trip to really see from the stereotypical Mexico that I know growing up in Southern California, we just pictured as being sort of desert Baja like to being up at higher elevations than we've ever been on volcanoes. and then going to Mexico City and seeing this massive city that had some of the nicest and the worst areas we'd seen of the trip. It just, it was mind-blowing.

So getting in the southern Mexico, places we'd never been before, and being on the beaches there, meeting other travelers, meeting a guy from Dana Point, you know, where, which is where I grew up, and a guy down there surfing and was down for three days, surfing his tail off, and then you just realize that you're the one that he's envious of. you realize you're the one on the trip. And it kind of, there's moments like that that hits you and go, wait, I'm the one doing the thing. I would normally be like, oh, I've got to do that someday.

So is that the beaches in Watuko or in Oaxaca? Where were you meeting with Dana Point? Yep, O'Haka. And I think it was San Francisco Beach. I think is what it was. And yeah, it was amazing. And, you know, then we went into San Cristobal was a really cool little hipster town. And, you know, for, I think $21 or something like that, we,

be this beautiful architect, this beautiful house that an famous architect or a wealthy architect in Mexico City had built. And he was renting out casitas on his villa, you know, to Airbnb so cheaply. We had our own fireplace and like view of the mountains. And we stayed in this little town of San Cristobal and just walked everywhere each day. And it's the perfect opposite of being in the truck and going, okay, we haven't in a shower a month. We've done our laundry literally in the ocean and the saltwater and like haggard. You know, then you get into this town and you're like, let's put more wood on the fire and hang out on the king size bed and enjoy a shower. And so those sort of vast contrasts, I think,

we're one of our favorite things of the trip to be super remote and then to be full city life, you know, going out and like, you know what? I know I'm in Guatemala, but I want a hamburger. What's the best hamburger in town? What's, you know, we've eaten local for enough weeks. Let's try, you know, feeling like we're at home. So those contrasts was what made the trip. Yeah.

pretty cool. So San Cristobal has been calling to me for 20 years. We took a little family trip on my kids were very young and went to Baja and it didn't really work out. It was too hot for us. We put the minivan on the ferry and went over to the mainland and drove across from Mazalon over the devil's backbone into Durango and then on the Tatekis. But on the ferry, we met an American guy from a screenwriter from L.A. and it's just stuck with me. He was going to San Cristobal, which, you know, I really wasn't on my radio. are and he was talking about yeah you know I think I can live on 150 200 a month that's just really cheap it's really beautiful and it just stuck with me and I and I've gotten to tuxla Gutierrez

a couple of times but never got into San Cristobal which is only another 100 miles down the road oh so close so close yeah exactly so crossover into central America and take me all the way down how did you get to South America what was your method of that's always the problem where do you ship your vehicle there and let's let's jump into it foot on the floor now you know all of central we loved it at times it was super hot and i think the sort of highlights for most americans of costa rica and panama we loved them but those were our least favorite i would say because they're so americanized the prices were not far from being the u.s and and so for us we also recognize that who you meet determines what you think of a country so in guatemala one buddy who used to lead to a

up into the Patin near to call and kind of out in the more remote jungle up there, introduced me to one of the guides he used to use. And that guy became a good friend. And then he introduces us to Jose. And Jose's got a, what, a $2 million house in Antigua. And so we're crashing in his guest room. I mean, it was just mind-blowing. The whole trip was changed because we met these people that kept introducing us to other people

and giving us GPS tracks to follow deep into the jungle. And we did all that remote jungle stuff. we kind of wanted to do seeing ruins that, you know, almost no one had seen that are still covered up, seeing ones that had been, you had a whole board into the side of them, they'd just look like a dirt mountain that, you know, I guess you call it, grave robbers had gone into and stolen everything out of. I mean, it's super neat. So that made Guatemala for us. Then El Salvador was great, you know, and you're kind of, you know, on your consciousness is MS-13 running the country or, you know, if you see a guy with face tattoos, don't talk to them and never saw anybody,

never saw anyone that even had really any tattoos. And the place was great. And we sat on the beach eating papuces and it was wonderful. And then we headed into Nicaragua and there a friend introduced us to someone who has a cigar factory. So we went and toured that. Amazing. And then Costa Rica and Panama were both amazing too, but they were more restrictive. You know, you go to the beaches and there's a couple hundred gringoes from whatever country surfing. And it was awesome to interact and hang out, but you felt like you'd gone from another world into more of, like, a tourist world. And so it was great, but just so different that we kind of longed for. And I think we're also on a bit of a schedule at this, not a tight schedule, but we had a

shipping date. So we, to ship around the Dary and Gap, we put goose on, like in a cargo container. Yeah, and Cologne. And so we had that date that we needed to, you know, be at the port to put them in. Yep. And so we were, we would have spent more time, I think, in those countries. if we had more time because they were great. And then once we got to Panama, it was mostly business and getting that all.

Yeah. Inspections for your truck going to see the police, they have to check everything. So it's a big, long, drawn-out process to get vehicle shipped. So, I mean, the vehicle shipping from Cologne to Cartagena, which is very few miles, costs more than shipping from Uruguay back to Texas at the end of the trip, which is, you know, 20 times further. So pretty wild. But what's that beep?

So take me through South America. South America was great. And Columbia, we first, we waited for our truck for, you know, it's Christmas time. And the truck was supposed to arrive. The Dakar rallies going on south of us. And I've been dying to get to see that. And the ship's just stuck at sea, some paperwork issue, not having anything to do with us, but just, you know, some bureaucratic issue.

So we waited weeks in Cartagena waiting on the truck. Once we got it, it's too late. to see Dakar, so we headed north to the northern tip of Columbia and then just started working our way south, you know, meeting. We met sort of more indigenous peoples up in the mountains there and, you know, people who just invite us into their homes or, you know, camp on their sort of property, not really into their homes, but it was amazing and loved Colombia, felt totally safe, love the food. You're meeting Venezuelans everywhere because we couldn't go into Venezuela. Right now it's probably not the greatest time to go anyways, but they're

migrating to all these other countries. So you're eating tons of Venezuelan food, meat and a ton of Venezuelans on the road, which we fell in love with their food. And it's awesome. Ecuador was great. I mean... Hang on for a second there, Tim. So we only hear about, you only hear bad news about like Cartagena, you know, the drug culture, the cocaine culture they're going to come and get you. But that is like one of the greatest travel cities right now. And you've got to spend a couple weeks there just because your your truck was late. Yeah. I mean, Cartagena, besides maybe in the super touristy area, looking out for like a pickpocket or something, it felt very safe, very fancy, in fact. And there's a fixed-upart town.

We, you know, we would, we walked everywhere trying to save money. And you'd walk through some areas. We were like, oh, maybe it would have been better to get a taxi or take the bus or something. But for the most part, it was pretty, pretty nice. Yeah. Yeah, we, our research for each country was like watching bad old 80s movies. So we watched romancing the stone. so I knew Cartagena was going to be awesome.

Awesome. So you didn't do it by watching Anthony Bourdain videos and just saying where were we going to eat? Oh, we definitely did. We watched all Anthony Bourdain on any country. In fact, we got used to now looking up the country on Netflix and Amazon and all these other ones to find out what food shows were done in it. And then if we were in a town where there was one, you know, Buenos Aires, we went to a New Orleans Fried Chicken Place in Buenos Aires because we're like, yeah, I saw it on the show. See how it is. Awesome.

Awesome. Hey, so foot on the floor now. So we're heading down through South America. Give me some highlights. Yeah. So, I mean, Peru is amazing. Some of the shelf roads. We were able to get super remote there and loved it. You know, Machu Picchu was good, but it is, it is Disneyland. You know, it's tens of thousands of people. You're sort of ashamed to be an American at times there because people are grumpy and yelling at each other and the tour staff and you go, let's get out here. This is cool. It's something I want to see my whole life. but not really a highlight. Then we went into Brazil, down into Bolivia, and you just get tired of that hot jungle. But Bolivia was one of those places that was different than any other country. It is stuck in time, economically otherwise. But the geographic craziness, we did the Bolivian death road and the jungles in the north where there's so many Cayman alligators everywhere that you'd not get near any water without being very scared. And then down in the south on the Lagunas route and the big salt flats, we drove our truck to 18,660 feet.

I mean, we could have gotten to 19. If I had another truck with me, we probably would have gone past a washout to get to the top of this mountain. But just mind-blowing changes to be freezing cold up on a mountain. And then two days later, be back north in Bolivia in the jungle, sweating. And it's 100 degrees, 100% humidity and brutal. I think for me, Bolivia was the country that felt the most third world. And we talked about fear earlier, but I think that one triggered the most fear, probably. Really, really pretty.

But for some reason, wherever I was at, just mentally, it was my least favorite, I think, as far as enjoying it. I think Bolivia's where we first started dealing with more protests. We saw some in Peru. But, you know, pulling up to a couple hundred people yelling and tires on fire and just going, am I going to be the target of some of their frustrations or not? And they were always nice. People like, you guys have enough food. We can't let you through, but, you know,

we'll make sure you have enough food and water while you wait. And it'll be a couple days. But it was a bit of a shock after traveling pretty free most of the trip to get used to that. From there, you know, we had to go to Guazoo Falls and all that. And then on our minds was sort of Patagonia in all those areas. And so we headed south and zigzagging again, not really efficiently doing one side of the other, kind of going where we felt like or where maybe we heard one of our friends. you're meeting people on a trip like this and you go, hey, so-and-so who we met in Panama is down here,

and so-and-so who we just met over in Brazil is in the next town. So you're kind of using those as excuses to head directions. Did your backgrounds being with Overland Journal and teaching it Overland Expo, did those connections come into play? Did people, you know, do you have some off-roading, overlanding celebrity, so to speak, that, you know, you were able to trade on and have friends that are hooking you up, so to speak. No, I mean, I think because we knew some people who had traveled, we had people saying, like I shared a Google map on my Facebook page long before we left saying, hey, what are your highlights? And so we had maybe more people than the average person putting pins on it. And in the end, we just found it wasn't even worth

hunting for these pins. We liked, you know, you want to sort of find the view of yourself. You want to find the beach in Baja yourself. And then it means more to you. So we maybe had more suggestions. but no, not really, you know, throughout the trip, we decided to do these YouTube videos each week. So I would say each week, you know, combined between the shooting and the editing, we were working in front of a computer almost full-time hours. So our trip was definitely different than a lot of the people we met who were like sort of in a gap year in college or just graduated. And we're like, or retired and had all the money they needed. We're like, this is pure fun.

I'm just doing this for fun. ours was awesome and fun. But to make this last, hopefully, we were trying to work as much as we could. And whether we were doing consulting work for people back home, whether we were teaching some other travelers who met along the way or a tour group, you know, we were able to teach as guides, you know, how better skills for winching and off-roading and all that sort of stuff. We had kind of viewed it not just as a trip like a lot of people are, but more as a life change, you know, like we want to live our lives differently.

and this is a step towards that. Yeah. So we skipped stuff that I would say, you know, if we could have done it again, would we have gone to the Galapagos and maybe Easter Island? Yeah, but that was six months or almost a year's worth of budget to go and do these side trips. So there's stuff we didn't do that maybe we would have,

but we were really trying to get ourselves to almost break even with the work that we were doing as we're traveling. So it was fantastic. We did get recognized one time. We were the southern part of the trip and we were climbing Fitzroy, Fitzroy and a couple from South Korea goes Tim, Kelsey. And I went, no way, what? So yeah, that was our total celebrity for the whole trip.

It was this really nice couple that we ended up actually shipping with them back to Texas in a container. And you didn't have to big anybody. You didn't have to say, hey, you know, really, I'm doing my thing right now. I can't give you an autograph. That's what I did. I'm too busy. Excuse me. So you ship the truck back and you,

flew home when about giving me the timeline on that yeah so we were you know we're at the tip of the tip of the world down there new shwaya and stuff and we hadn't heard anything about the pandemic yet we're coming up through chile and doing the keratara austral and all these sort of checkmark things we were dying to go do and we were already over in sort of mendoza area I think we started hearing about you know COVID this is probably what January or something like that then february we're hearing more about it. It seems to be getting more serious. Down in these countries at the time, there was almost zero cases, so it wasn't a concern there and travel wasn't limited. Then we're in Uruguay, and it's seeming like it's getting more serious. So we decide, along with this other

couple, we met from South Korea, to ship our trucks to Texas. And so we started that process. And then as we're doing the process, it's getting more serious. State Department sending out emails saying, get home now if you're an American. So we actually, you know, really only cut the trip short. I mean, in one sense, we may have decided to go up through Brazil more and go up into like Gianna or something like that. But we were kind of deciding one way or the other. It was about time to come home and work and save up some more anyways. So the pandemic really maybe pushed our trip short by two or three weeks. Yeah, we had flights and we just pushed them up about two weeks. Yeah. Once we heard that like, oh, we need to get out. Yeah, I think we flew in like March 16th or

17th. Everyone's telling us through an email, like, if there's toilet paper down there, bring it home, fill your bags. You know, we're going, what is going on? So we flew into Miami and, you know, we had to fly to from Buenos Aires. We flew to Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, to Miami, to Los Angeles. No one ever asked us anything or checked us. You know, no one was really even wearing masks at this point yet, except for, I think, TSA was. We got into L.A. and got to my parents' house in San Clemente and just hunkered down. we went into, you know, like Ralph's and we're just in awe of the food. Everyone was saying how the stores were barren. And compared to what we'd seen on the trip, it was like a culture

shock to come home and see a pyramid of perfect Roma tomatoes, you know, four feet high. And we're just going, we'll be fine. It's so amazing. None of them are moldy. And like there's more than five of them, you know. So it was. It's shocking, isn't it? Once you've done a little traveling. Absolutely. And so we felt like everything was so plentiful that it was, it was a luxury to be home. And compared to our friends who got stuck, we have some friends in Honduras, they're still there. We have another friend in Syria who's stuck there. So, I mean, when this happened, we got home and our life was pretty okay, pretty great. Compared to our friends who were locked down in a country, not able to enjoy the country or explore it,

we had another friend who's a quadriplegic who was doing travel in a van, and he was stuck in Buenos Aires, and he couldn't leave his Airbnb. And, like, you know, his brother would go get food and bring it back, and they were stuck for six months or something. something when they were supposed to be on this magical trip sitting in an Airbnb. Our other friends were in a field in Honduras and the government officials would bring them food and they're still stuck in now they're in a hotel I think. But we think about how it could have been. We super lucked out. When the truck arrived in Texas, we couldn't go get it. So we had to pay for it to get shipped to us. So it was an extra cost. All the events we were going to work and had lined up were canceled.

And then I fell back on a job from like 12 years, 10 years ago, something like that that I used to do where we used map trails for the department of the interior. And, you know, that's what we've been doing since. And it's just, we're really lucky that we found some sort of work to kind of keep us afloat and keep us going. Yeah. So just a couple minutes on that. The work that you did while you were away, that's something that you were pretty

upfront about on your video, that you were on your YouTube videos, Dirt, Dirt Sunrise YouTube channel, that you two were trying to do everything you could. anything you can to earn some income while you're away, make this lifestyle actually work. So tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, I mean, we initially started doing the videos just because I wanted to, you know, back when I used to do side trips, we'd write like a blog and post a few photos here and there just to remember the trips. For this, we decided we tried doing video and it was mainly for, you know, family and friends

and just to check it out. But we sort of had that inkling that thought of, but what if? What if this was our life? What if this might be a California listener-only reference? But what if we were the Hewelhouser of sort of the world traveling around and looking at stuff and going, look at this and look at that, you know? And that could be, we could create our own sort of job in that sense. So we knew, and we have throughout the whole trip, we've flown home three times during the trip

to work one of the Overland Expos, some Overland rallies and some military training. And that kept us afloat on the trip. but the videos increasingly help us. You know, I wouldn't say it's close to being. It's a slow burn, but it's, yeah, we're going for the long game on that one, I think, but it does definitely, you know, fill the gas tank, so that's good. Yeah, yeah, and that was kind of the thing is once we realized that people were excited about the trip and, you know, somebody would send us $10 and go, hey, have a beer on me.

And we're like, hey, that helps. That's like another day's worth of travel. And so the trip went from, this was initially a year trip, you know, and then it was two years and now, yeah, we're home, but we're still living in the truck. And so to us, the trip's really still going and we're just working and saving until the world reopens. And then I don't really know where we're going to go next, but... We're definitely going somewhere. Definitely going somewhere. And so did that actually work? That people actually buy you a taco and buy you a beer?

Because I love that idea. Yeah, it was so cool. You know, people would say, like, we have one buddy who goes, all right, I'm putting 20 bucks in there, but no food and no fuel. You have to buy booze or something, you know, some of a joke or something like that. We had, Yeah, people, mostly people we've never met just saying, here, here's five bucks. I, you know, have five years till retirement, but I'm loving watching it because it's keeping me excited until I go. So here's a few bucks. We know how important that aspect, I think, was for us before we left of watching kind of other people's adventures on YouTube and looking and going, oh, we could do this. Look where they are.

It's so exciting. And like, it keeps that inspiration going. And so it's really cool to be on the other side of that, kind of giving that to people as well. I think, you know, if you're working a normal job right now, like we were, and the people at your office may not be the ones who inspire you to keep doing it. They're the ones that might say you're crazy or it'll never work or you'll go broke. But for us, when we're in that environment, watching YouTube videos of people sailing around the world, people driving around the world, ride motorcycles, whatever it was, we kept looking at that going, yeah, but they're doing it. So maybe it's not that crazy or maybe it is doable. And so it's kind of cool that we can be that for a few folks.

And yeah, like Kelsey said, it's slowly growing. But we were amazed. We opened up a Patreon account halfway through the trip. And somebody I'd never met said, you know, years ago, I was doing an off-road trip. And you sent me, you made a bunch of maps and sent me like a giant paragraph of info for my trip. And it really helped me out. And so I've been watching you guys. Here's like $2 a month or something.

And I went, oh, my God. We're doing it. We're doing it. It's $2. But it doesn't matter how much. It's more of the proof of concept. And as long as it's always going the right direction, I think we know there's a chance. Well, let's end it there.

Tell us how people can be in touch with you, stay in touch with you, with you, follow your adventures, and hopefully kick that two bucks a month into your booze or gas. I mean, you're traveling in a FJ80. I can't say the Z-Bard. Those are not sippers. Those drink. Yeah, gas is our number one, or fuel, I should say, is our number one expense. But yeah, we chose that named Dirt Sunrise for a lot of reasons, but in one, because nothing else really comes up under it. So we have the website, Dirt Sunrise, Instagram, and then the YouTube account.

And we try to post something every single week. So we're working during the day to be on the trail, but then at night we're making and editing videos and getting them up there for folks. And they'll always be free. We're not trying to charge folks. And if people are saving for their adventure, keep saving. But if folks have a couple extra bucks and feel like they appreciate what we're doing, that's awesome too. Yeah. So you can find everything just dirt sunrise.com.

And then that links back to all social media and everything we have. Well, I really appreciate you spending some time with slow baha. We'll get those links up on the show notes and look forward to following your adventure. And do you have an idea? Are you forming a plan on where to go next? We are. I think the world's going to tell us where we're going next. Because we've got ideas and we've met friends from a lot of neat continents and we're kind of itching to go.

But I think it's going to depend what opens first and what we can make happen. But yeah, we're excited to head out again. Well, Tim and Kelsey from Dirt Sunrise, I really wish you well. I look forward to following you. And thanks for spending some time with Slow Baja. Have a great day. Thank you. All right.

Cheers. Hey, you guys know what to do. please help us by subscribing, sharing, rating, all that stuff. And if you missed anything, you can find the links in the show notes at slowbaha.com. I'll be back before you know it. And if you want to receive notices on new episodes, please follow Slow Baja on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for you old folks.