Slow Baja - Goodbye Wisconsin Hello San Juanico The Ashley’s Make The Move

Episode Date: January 23, 2024

In today's Slow Baja Podcast Conversation, I feel like I need to start adding a disclaimer to my recordings. "Slow Baja is not responsible for your desires to blow up your life and move to Baja. Please listen to these shows at your peril; Slow Baja LLC and Slow Baja Adventures are not responsible for feelings of irrational exuberance for living near cacti or an irrepressible desire to surf regularly or fish from a kayak daily." Or consider the version sent by my legal team: No part of the Slow Baja Podcast shall inspire you, your family, or your heirs to sell all your worldly possessions and move to Baja. The views expressed in the Slow Baja Podcast are mine, and mine alone, not necessarily those of my sponsors, their agents, Slow Baja Adventures, Slow Baja LLC, its directors, officers, or employees. I make no representation or accept any liability for the accuracy or completeness of the information provided herein regarding the quality of tacos, adobado, birria, queso birria, al pastor, carne asada, or fried fish and or shrimp. Unless expressly stated, the quesadillas are routinely regarded as excellent. Seafood tostadas in Ensenada may be the finest street food in the world. This message is not intended to be relied upon without subsequent written confirmation of its contents. Slow Baja LLC, therefore, shall not accept any liability of any kind that may arise from any person acting upon the contents of this Podcast without having had, at a minimum, two tequilas and two Tecates and driven at least seventy miles of dirt road in the preceding week. All humor aside, listen to Hallie and Austin tell their incredible story, and for the record, I only take the tiniest morsel of credit for what happened. Enjoy this Slow Baja Conversation recorded initially in February 2023. 

Hey, this is Michael Emery. Thanks for tuning into the Slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches, and hands down, my favorite tequila. You know, I've long said it, ask your doctor if Baja's right for you. Well, you've got to check out the Adventures tab

at Slowbaha.com. The slow Baja is from February 23rd to March 1st. It's a slow roll from the beautifully rustic Rancho Labayota to stunning San Ignacio and back up to sunny San Felipe. We're going to have a one full week to explore some of my favorite places and meet some of my favorite people. We're going to have two nights in San Ignacio and everybody's going to get to go whale watching. You know those gray whales in the San Ignacio Lagoon are noted for their curiosity and

friendliness. So be prepared for them to get up close and check you out. And I'm proud to say, I'm going to be doing. doing a little giving back on this trip. My friend Matthew Schnitzer, the founder of Barbers for Baja, you know the great work they do, sending kids to college. Well, he's on board, and we're excited to launch our new project delivering desperately needed baseball gear to teams and coaches up and down the peninsula, and we will make our first gear donations on the Slow Baja. You know, it's not the longest or the largest or the most miles. It's the slowest and the best miles,

and hopefully the most smiles. Okay, for more information, check out the Slow Baja at Slowbaha.com. Don't be afraid to ask questions. You can always reach me through the contact link at slowbaha.com. And remember, the slow Baja is open to four by four vehicles of any age. Got a two-wheel drive that you think you can make it? Well, let's talk. Once again, that's the Slow Baja, February 23rd through March 1st, 2024. Help me keep Baja slow on the slow Baja. You know, I'm a minimalist when it comes to Baja travel, but the one thing I don't leave home without is a good old paper map. My favorite is the beautiful, and I mean beautiful, Baja Road and Recreation Atlas by Benchmark Maps. It's an oversized 72-page book. It's jammed with details. It brings the peninsula's rugged terrain into clear focus. Get yours at Benchmarkmaps.com. In fact, get two. One for your trip planning at home and one for your Baja rig.

Hey, big news. Benchmark just released the second edition of the Baja Road and Recreation Atlas. They are always striving to improve these maps. And they've added a bunch of new features, a bunch of places of interest, including the Chenet Legacy Lodge. It wasn't on the first printing of the map. It's there now. It's awesome. You can see it right there in Persebo. Get your brand new second edition of the Baja Road and Recreation Atlas from Benchmarkmaps. And while you're at Benchmarkmaps.

com, you've got to check out all their other atlases. I think they're up to 17 now, including British Columbia. They've got folding maps. They've got digital maps. They've got giant wall maps. My favorite, and I've got it up on my wall right here at Slow Baja HQ is that. a 30 inch by 46 inch Baja wall map. It's so great to just look at one thing, see the entire peninsula there. I love it. Benchmarkmaps.com. Slow Baja approved. Hey, it's a new year, but mentally,

I got to tell you, I'm still thinking about Thanksgiving. And I want to thank everyone who dropped a taco in the tank in 2023. And I know you want to get on with the show, and I want to get on with the show, but I'm going to put a list of everybody who donated in the credits. And I really have to say deep and sincere thanks. All right, well, my heaping ghost of gratitude today goes out to all those who dropped tacos big and small into the tank, and you know, I'm a shoestring operation. I sincerely hope you know that by now. I am. Let me look behind the curtain here. I am a tiny shoestring operation, and every taco helps. But I do need to take a second and mention the special folks whose generosity in the taco dropping department astounds me in demand to mention on the air.

So just indulge me here. John Alderson and San Catene. Thank you, Amigo. Joe Dean, we had so much fun on the Nora 1000. Thanks for your generosity, Joe. Kaven Garmat, can't wait to have you on the Slow Baja vintage expedition in October and your beautiful scout. Thank you, Kavan. Stephen Bixby.

Yeah, we had some good times in the Land Rover crew out from New England. Thank you, Stephen. Gregory Santos. Thank you, Amigo. David Carlo. continuing his long-time support for Slow Baja from Alaska. Thank you, David. Eric Lippincott, the coolest cat in Colorado puts pop tops in land cruisers.

Thank you for your support, Eric. Stuart and Sherry McMillan up there in Canada. Thank you for supporting me and listening. Thank you, Stuart and Sherry. Derek Boykes probably has his head under a $20 million vintage Ferrari right now. Derek, thank you for your support, the best mechanic in the land. Hope to get you on my next trip. Thank you, Derek.

Kevin Bradburn, thank you, Amigo, Barry Ward, thank you. Andrea, Jillio, you will always be, Irv, Hank's daughter to me, the banquet Bronco from the very first Mexican 1,000s. Thank you, Andrea, for your support. Tim Price, thank you, Amigo. Richard Laugh, you've got to get down to Baja, Amiga, you got to get down to Baja. Thanks for your support. Daniel Robbins, thank you. And Jeff LaPlante, L.A. Car Guy.

Get into Hawthorne, L.A., South Bay, Porsche, buy a Porsche from Jeff. he can continue to support Slow Baja. I know it's kind of a roundabout thing, but thanks, Jeff. Appreciate the support. All right, today's show, I got to tell you, I don't know what. I mean, seriously, if any, responsibility I have in recording these conversations. Maybe I should put up a disclaimer, but Hallie and Austin Ashley started listening to the show while they were living up north in Fridid Wisconsin, and they decided to blow up their life, sell their business, sell their house, and move to Baja with their children. So I got to see them about a year ago after they'd been down there for a few months and it's really a beautiful thing. So before I take any credit for

anything that happened, I'm going to let the Ashley's tell you the story. So without further ado, here's Hallie and Austin Ashley today on Slow Baja. All right. Hello. Greetings. So odd. Welcome. I've done this thing for three years now without going solo everywhere where I'm just fumbling for everything. Now I got a guy making me look good, making me sound good. Great. And I'm just delighted to meet you guys in person finally. Absolutely.

Yes, too. Thanks for hosting us last night. Had a nice little dinner. And beautiful Fortaleza-fueled cocktail and home-bake brownies. That was the height. That was the hit. With pecanas. Yeah.

Got to meet Otis and Fern. Opel. Hey, all right. Well, let's get on with it. Hey, we're in San Juanico. I'm with Austin and Hallie, Ashley, and I'm just going to set it up. I don't know what happened. I don't bear any responsibility for this.

It's not my fault. They started listening to Slow Baja. They sold their house in Wisconsin, and they moved to Baja, and we're here at their beautiful house in San Juanico, and that's all I know about these guys, and we're just going to have a fun conversation. We've got a half hour before we hit the road north on the dirt road to San Ignacio, and we're going to get to know the Ashley family a little bit and hear what it's been like three months in now four months four months in from relocating from snowy Wisconsin yes six degrees today is that what you said back home six degrees in Varroquah today and we're freezing here at 65 degrees or something whatever it is

so hello all right say sir hello so what the hell happened uh well I mean, you're not totally responsible, but you really helped wire some things, as they say, in the surfing world coming down here. I found out I was really obsessed with gray whales. I'd read an article probably in 2019, and I just loved the story. It was actually about Pachico Merrill, who's from, or lived in San Ignacio and on Pachico whale tours. And I kind of went down this rabbit hole reading everything and watching documentaries about him and so forth. and we're like, well, we're going to sell our business. Or actually, at first we were like, well, we're going to go for like six weeks.

And then we're like, six weeks doesn't sound long enough. And I'm like, man, I think we need to sell the business. And so we put it up for sale. And probably had 16 people look at my business. And I ended up selling it within like three months. And this is a business that you conceived of, birthed everything. The two of you ran it. You had a partner, as I understand.

Yeah, it was a beverage. company that I started it squeezing one lime at a time and I went from one lime to barrels of limes yeah wow yeah wow Hallie yeah say hello hi um yeah that was also COVID had there was a COVID during that time and it just made that external forcing of a big change makes you review your life then we were like what what are we want to do here. We still want to be in Wisconsin. Yeah. And so we started planning this trip. The Land Cruiser got it started. Yep, started driving around my FJ 60 and I was like, oh, it had a five-inch lift, old man, Emu, all that stuff, Kmar, gas cans. We started just like, it just was the

expedition dream car. It had a bad, well, it had a bed built in the back. And then we convinced the kids that it would be really fun if mom and dad slept in the back of the truck and they would sleep in a tent with the dog and they they like that yeah they bought that story yeah they did so it kept camping and they were like oh but it just kept me i kept reading like expedition portal or whatever i was like man i've always wanted to go to bahaw that'll do it yeah and then that whale thing on top of it and it just solidified the whole thing and then of course listening to all your podcasts and stuff and it was a year of bahad every documentary every YouTube video, all the podcasts. It was winter, and I was fueling my winter February walks and negative temps hearing. Yeah.

Yeah. The pot, slow box. Yeah. Podcast. Some of them I'd listen to multiple times, especially the eVewing ones. I really loved those. I was just going to say, I didn't want to put you on the spot, but I hope you listened to eVewing. She was such a delight to talk to and to try and corral her into, you know, staying on track.

just it was amazing she's an amazing woman i should stop i should stop and see her every time i go through san yeah i would love to listen to that that was great and then when we started getting closer to the reality of um coming down austin sold the land cruiser to buy the truck that would fit the truck camper that would fit the four of us and we could comfortably live in for four or five months and we had all of our spots picked out that we really wanted to explore we ended up meeting a lot of people that we heard their podcast with you. We booked a whale tour with Sherry Bondi. We met Trudy.

It's real. Yeah. And then one really fun was Benito. Uh-huh. Benito. Yeah. The most interesting man in all of Toto Santos, is me? He was fascinating and just to talk to him.

I mean, he's 74 probably or something like that. So his pocket of art and Mexican art is really fun to talk to him about. Yeah. We hung out with him. Like, was it two, three days? We just wandered in his studio and then we the kids kept them when are we going to go talk to that guy again and so we kept going and Hearing his story actually really inspired us to like make the leap because he said he kind of did a similar thing with his family And he thought it was the best thing he'd ever done like he lived in his house for 20 years

He sold everything to move to La Paz is actually where he lives and then do his art here on the peninsula Yeah, there's probably like four, maybe six English-speaking kids here right now. And they all go to, they go to the school here. So that's useful. But it's still a little bit difficult on some people. Do you want to elaborate, Halley? Not that he said it's difficult on anyone specifically, but you could expand on that or Otis? We have one of our children is, loves Mexico, loves new things. She'll, she'll eat She'll try any food you put in front of her. She's so fun to travel with when we were on the East Coast.

Lobster ice cream. She's like, I'm like, where do you want to try this? She's like, yeah, I'll try. So she's, so that. This is more of a mac and cheese pizza. Give me a cassidia kind of guy. Yeah. And he, so he longs for familiarity.

He's kind of Wisconsin through and through, loves the Packers. So he's, he's, but we've been here four months. They've been in school five weeks. So he's finding more and more joy. He enjoys sports, so playing soccer works well. And having the other community here was key. We wanted to find a place that wasn't, we felt the same thing in totos. Like it didn't appeal because we weren't.

We also, we like small towns. We do like small towns. We learned that living in our previous place. We lived there for 17 years in our small town in Wisconsin, Varroqua. It took us a long time. to get used to that. And now, and then once you understand how small towns work, you start to appreciate the qualities of having the small conversations, uh, seeing the same people looping through and how

that kind of adds value, even if they're, you wouldn't call them, they're like more than acquaintances because it's not like you have them over for a meal, but you saw them for 10 years, uh, four times a week at least. And so this place had a few other families that are in the same boat that like living simply, living remotely, and spending as much time as you can outside. So we, that felt like a good fit. So break down the nuts and bolts. You sold your place. We don't need to tell people how to sell a place at home.

So you sold your place. You've got your truck. Probably should have done it six months ago, though, if you're thinking about it now. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You got your camper and you took a bit of a tour to get here. So had you bought this before you left? I put money down on it and I gave the lady an offer. And that was a little tricky.

So let's walk through that. You decided that San Juanico was the place. And how did it go from there? Well, we found a fellow here through my friend Travis. Travis Gardner shout out. Fellow Texan. Yeah, he pointed us to Dave Stuybel, who's a builder here, a really great guy, and just had him drive us around looking at properties here. And this was kind of like, I don't know, we kind of looked at it and we're like, oh, man, that's kind of it.

It's not perfect. It needs of work, you know. That's kind of our way we operate. So then we, it was really great because Dave's like, well, how do we, you know, what do we do to negotiate or talk with her? and she's like, just drive over there and talk to her. Like, wait, you're not coming? And he's like, no. I was like, all right.

He's like, let me know if you agree on anything. Yeah. And I really like that independence, you know, just being like kind of human almost versus like, you know, you can hide behind real estate agents and you don't have to discuss with people. Right. Which is nice and not nice, you know. Right.

Right. But the couple that built this, this was their retirement home. And she was getting, she was feeling like she couldn't live so remotely anymore. She's getting up in age. and with a piecemaker. Needed some services. So she needed to let it go and kind of move on. And so that's, they did an awesome job building it.

And hiring great builders in town. It's pretty unique stonework and tiles. So it's got a lot of character. We like that. Yeah. So Otis, you want to say hello? No? All right.

How's you going to ask you how you like the school and how you like coming to a new place? Otis is a should. showing me a shark tooth that that's is that your new favorite hobby living near the ocean? Maybe. Maybe. So elaborate a little bit. Yeah.

As you said, you bought this from Americans who had had it built locally and then they decided that it was time for them to move on whether, I don't know where they went. Well, she kept telling us that she, she's 80 years old and she's got one foot on the banana peel. Do you know what I mean? I was like, I know what you mean, sister. Got one foot on a banana peel. I really want to buy your house just because you said that. Her husband had already passed. Okay.

And he, there's a lot. She didn't, you know, to maintain a big house property like this was too much. But what could we elaborate on for you? No, I was just, you know, so you made a deal. Yeah. And then you took the plunge. Yeah, I got a lawyer in town. They came out to second point, and we talked to them, signed some papers and played guitar together.

And it was not an American experience. at all. It was really awesome. We're singing and having a good time. And what advice, what concerns, what did you go through? Did it go smoothly? You had the lawyer, you went to second point, you played a little guitar. Yeah, I mean... She had her one foot

on the banana peel. I mean, then we're, you know, we're like, hey, we're going to buy this place. And then that fucking hurricane came through, and I was like, oh, my God. So the fence isn't exactly the way it was when we offered the money, which kind of sucked, but it's good enough, you know.

My motto is like if you can get 80% within proximity of your ideal, you're doing good. 20%, you can lose that. It's okay. And you can figure that out. You can figure it out. Yeah, totally. All right. All right.

And Hallie, what are the pros? What are the cons? What have you, how have you changed if you have at all? How have you adapted four months here? Are you breathing more? Breathing more. I do love that I can be outside so much more. and that we are

favorite pastime driving down on the beach to watch the sunset pretty regularly feels like such a gift and I love I've never lived by the ocean so I just love learning

like the beaches here are pretty remote and so what washes up is we've had we've already touched we tried to we touched a whale that washed up then we tried to help it but it it dork sperm wound it couldn't be helped but we all got the experience of being a part of that um its skeleton is on the beach right now so then you watch the vultures devour a day when you go down that's been you know how much time that takes and the kids are

digging through the shell finding lots of shark teeth and the summer activities are surfing which that'll be a whole new I mean Austin surfs now because he's experienced and doesn't mind putting on the wetsuit. We all have them but we don't use ours as much as Austin right now I'm still maybe in the romance phase I basically

love it so much I love it I love that our life is simpler we we do we did work for many years with for little pay starting that business and

then being able to kind of reap the benefits now of our time. But we've always lived frugally, and that's allowed us to be where we are now, where we have time with our family. Big pro. Can we talk about Fern and Otis ages? Fern's 10. Otis is eight, but we're seasoned parents with a 20-year-old, where we basically learned all our lessons.

We realized when we started the Baja trip, it was kind of a little bit of a catalyst of like, oh yeah, they're going to hate us in like six years. You know, they go through this mode where they're like, middle school. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you suck, you know, and it's like, oh, okay. So that was kind of part of the other reason to come down here and just kind of spend open-ended time with them and, you know, get to know each other in an open-ended state. Well, our son graduated high school. And he worked for our company. and then we said

it was getting sold we're like okay bud we're gonna go to Baja we're gonna rent the house out so you can come with us we'll get a bigger camper or you gotta move out and so that was

wait can I just have the house nope I'm gonna rent the house out sorry buddy he's 20 right 20 years yeah yeah so he got an apartment good change he was kind of forced

yes it was good for everyone so then we he didn't want He'd never been to Mexico because we were young when we had Alden, so our travel fund was basically wherever we could drive. So we did a lot of road trips, but he hadn't been. So he didn't want to miss out on that. He likes travel. He's curious.

We flew him down and met him in Loretto. And we camped with him. We made it work in our camper. Austin slept in the back of the truck. We camped on the Bay of Concepcion with him and took him to, San Javier and took him whale watching in San Ignacio and so he got the experience that we were a two-week version of what we did for four five months let's get into some some particulars and some worries that you know maybe someone

would say like where do you go for the hospital how you know what what what do you know what do you have to do you're out here in the middle of nowhere well yeah about two hours away from a good okay hospital I guess and then you could go to La Paz, which is four and a half hours. So is that Constitution? Yeah, you go constitution or La Paz. And then there's the neighbor who just sutured up a guy.

A neighbor is the lifeguard. He's got some skills. But you could go to the Pharmacia, too, and she sutures people up. And, you know, just try not to hurt yourself too bad, you know. No, we have heard, oh, you guys got to go. No, Pete. He's an ex-paramedic and has all the equipment,

so you got to know where he lives. But we actually don't know where he lives yet, but we haven't met him. We've also heard stories about a guy that used to be here at Dye lived in Kadehe. And his name, they called him Dr. Takate. And he was a doctor and like a Bush doctor. But they call him, I said, why you call him Dr. Takate? They're like, because every time he answered a door, he's holding the Takate in his hand.

Like that's a problem. And Hallie, can you elaborate on the school process? What was it like to get your kids enrolled in local school? and it's just K through 8? No, there's a high school. There's a high school now. Yeah. So.

Let me back up. I shouldn't say there's a high school now. So it's K through 8? And a high school. I'm sorry. Tell me about their school. Tell me about more coffee. Tell me about the process.

What did it take for you to get enrolled in the school? Well, so honestly, the biggest thing, Austin and I are learning Spanish. So I'm, but I met a family. back in May when we were here and I was like okay I could be friends they have children she speaks Spanish and she and they she recommended the school and I trusted I guess all my intuition on that and she I asked her I texted with her when we were back in the States do I say we're heading down do we need can you let the school know for me she's like oh no just just show up and so it did that

I was like, all right. And so when we came, I let the kids kind of get used to the big change. Fern was like, I'm ready to go to school now. And Otis is like, I need two more months at home. And so it was kind of an in between there that we enrolled them. And so there are five weeks in. It's really sweet. The thing about Mexico is that the days are a lot shorter.

Which the kids like? It's like, you know, 8 to 1230. And we get to all come home and have a meal together and then... Then dad takes a nap. As you should. That's the law. That's actually the law. Austin's really taken to the Mexican custom.

I've always been this way. And they... It's a full immersion. So when I communicate with the teachers, it's, you know, I'm translating on Google to send them texts and then translating their text back to me. and so right now it's going well they're but first you read it and you're like oh yeah let me see what i can learn here yeah absolutely yeah yeah then you translate it like oh i was right yep their note they're you know all their writing is in um fortunately both of our kids we haven't

raised them with a lot of device access so reading is their main form of entertainment so they they have a good solid background in in in reading and so they're writing in their notebooks are full of, it's written in Spanish, and I know they don't really totally understand what it means, but they're learning. I mean, that's awesome. That's really awesome. And you've got grocery stores, and you've got, you know,

you can make a life here pretty easily, frankly. It's not like you're having to raise your own barnyard animals or anything. It's really, you know, it's pretty civilized. Butter's kind of hard to get, but, yeah. Grass fed, Carrie from Ireland. Okay. Butter's important. For this family, yep.

Yeah, from Wisconsin. Well, I do a lot of baking. And I don't like using margarine. So they tend to, you have to, I had to seek out and learn the butter sources, but now I know. And I just, when I'm in the city, you just buy like, you know, 5 pounds.

Montaquia. Montaquia. Mine five pounds at once and skip in the freezer. Any other tricks to survive in here, Austin? Yeah, what is a trick? I mean, making friends, but that's pretty easy. I mean, people are so cool here. Even, you know, people, if you speak Spanglish,

you know, you're just meeting locals and they'll, I was just talking to somebody kind of and broken. I was holding somebody else's baby. Somebody came up speaking Spanish, and they're like looking at the baby. They're super happy, and then they, like, they reach down in the floorboard and handed me a lobster. Wow. And I handed the other guy, the baby. And then I joked around, and I was, like, bouncing the lobster like it was a baby.

And, uh, Osprey carrying a mullet. Anyway, it's just, there's so much fun, man. And right now. It's that pace of life that allows the small gestures and the kindness that you were touching on earlier from your days in Wisconsin being in a small town. But it's real here. It's real here. It's being even extended to the new guys, the gringoes. And that's an amazing thing, isn't it?

It is amazing. I mean, I would just shout out total that I'm from South Texas and like Mexican, pockets of Mexican culture are just like that. and you're just grateful to be around them. They treat you like family, and you're just good, good solid human beings, you know. And you've made some friends here already. Oh, yeah.

Good stuff. Kind of everywhere we go. That was kind of what solidified this place so much, because we just kept making friends. And even though... When we were just camping on the point. I mean, even people that were just camping or whatever were just like, made really solid friends here out of all the places,

you know, I stayed in San Pedro for three weeks, And I didn't make that as many friends as I did here, you know. And there's Maddie for pizza. Oh, yeah. Pizza Knight, yeah. Pizza Night is, was a key factor. And also his daughter and Fern hit it off. So they're really good buds.

And that's been fun having that whole, that's another element is you have Italian culture a little bit. And horses. And, yeah, they have horses. Casa Venetia, yeah? Or is it Casa San Venetia. No, I think you had it right at the first thing. Casa Venetia, shout out. Maddie?

I call it Matia, Pizzeria Matia. Pizzeria Matia, Slow Baja Alam, Slow Baja approved. 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 traveler since 1994. So Pachico Eco Tours, It's in San Ignacio? Pachico Eco Tours, which is one of the reasons why I ended up down here, is I read about Don Pachico, who is the man who started whale watching. He had a whale come up, bump his boat, and he was like, what's going on? And the whales were like, you don't mess with the whales.

They're known as Diablo, right? And that was partly because what Richard Scammon did was trapped all the whales in the laguna and decimated the population, right? But so in 1968, 72, somewhere in there, Don Pacico is out fishing with a friend. Whale bumps his boat. He's like, what do I do? And he waited and looked at this whale at the edge of his boat. And he touches the whale after 20 minutes, and he realized the whale liked it. And he started petting it.

And he just decided, like, you know, this is what I want to do. And he's the man who started it before it became even some kind of tourist thing. And I just was enamored with the story. Because one of the things he talks about is the compassion of the animal. The animal that was decimated by man and that the whale came to man. To me, it was like a metaphor for what forgiveness is really all about. And I thought it was just a beautiful story. And, man, I wanted to go down and touch one of those whales myself.

Anyway, so we go do the whale watching. And then we come here, and I'm like, I didn't really want to come here. And one day I had really hurt my rib surfing. I mean, it was so stupid. I was like screaming. and I'm like, you're here to surf. You must serve. And I made myself paddle out.

And when I do, this guy comes on a motorbike with a ratchet strap around his board. He's a local. And he's got a ratchet strap. And he's just hauling ass, you know, with this bike. And comes off of the motorbike, gets into the water, and he paddles by me. And he says, get tell. And I'm like, oh, man, I don't speak that good of Spanish, you know. I was like, oh, bien, be it, man.

and these other people from L.A. are like, man, you see that fucking local, that local's got no shoes or booties on? And I'm like, well, he's local, you know? Like you walk across the reef. Anyway, a guy catches waves, and I'm like, man, a really good surfer. And he's like 50-something. And he paddles in, and I paddle in.

My ribs totally hurting. And I look and I just, I'm just going to walk past this guy. I'm not going to talk to him. I'm like, man, just turn around. I walk 15 feet past him. And then I say, you know, what, I was just a turnaround. I turn around.

And I look at him, I said, those were some really nice waves you caught. He said, oh, thank you very much. Fucking perfect English, you know. I'm like, oh, man, there's my dumb judgments. And we start talking, he's like, well, why are you here? And I start telling him about this guy, Donpachico. I'm like, man, this Donpa Chico guy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I read every National Geographic thing.

There's a Christopher Reeves documentary. There's all this stuff. And then he says, that's my dad. No way. Come on. I like you gotta be kidding me you know and I'm just like literally up right over there blocks away yeah yeah so it's just been a real it was it was such an interesting thing because there's a confluence of all these things of like why I was coming down here surfing whales

and then meeting him and then we just had long conversations about whales and um his dad and then told me told me more about his story his story is very his family's story is very rich yeah and uh you got deep into Melville and you've got a whale, you've got a crush. Yeah. I think you're there. Yeah. So, you know, I'd read that or I'd heard that, you know, if you really want to get into philosophy, which I've kind of always been into, read Melville. And I did. And it just, it was, it's a very moving book. It's a, it's a trip. He was just such a great writer. It's a, it's a sad story, too, because what ends up happened in Melville wasn't popular at all in his lifetime. He's basically just a loser at the end of it,

you know, not a loser, but he really wanted Moby Dick to be his magnumopus, and it wasn't until like, there's a guy named, Kent, I think Kent Rollins was his name, or he's a wood carving.

Have you seen these before? They're like relief cuts and then you ink them and then you put the paper on top. Wood cuts. Yeah, woodcuts. Yeah, wood cuts. Thank you. But his book And his woodcuts of Moby Dick is what made it popular. And he was a sailor. They're just magical, magical, just like the book.

Yeah. We're going to leave it right there. Yeah, yeah. Hey, Slow Baja listeners and Mike. This is Hallie and Austin and kids. We really enjoyed our first year in San Juanico. as of November 15th, I think, we've been here a whole year. Right now it's currently January 5th, but it's just been a real joy, you know,

watching the holidays with all the locals and learning Spanish and watching our kids learn Spanish. Surf's been okay. Could be better. Hallie here. I just wanted to offer the first year we was settling. and living into this remote place, but I definitely am happy that I feel like the kids

and I all get a lot more time outside. And but my favorite thing is actually really been getting to learning the traditions of the locals here and we get to partake in them since the kids are in school. And one big thing is the elders are amongst a community and you see them living walking down the street and you talk to them and they're always have a happy face they walk a little slower and you hold the door for them and especially out at the ranches the elders is a real joy to be

around them and learn from them in their ways that they've done for I'm not sure many generations but generations back yeah and I didn't feel like I had that in the US and I feel so great for that my children get to witness it firsthand, and I'm witnessing it for the first hand myself. So that's probably my greatest joy of being here right now that I'm super grateful for. Hey, well, I hope you like that show. Wow. Yeah, nice update there. Beautiful life. Things are great, getting a chance to meet the elders in San Juanico. Sounds pretty good because, you know, it's 25 below right now in Chicago. out a couple times today and is absolutely frigid. So even mediocre surfancy, San Juanico,

living down there sounds awfully good. If you like what I'm doing, if you like what I'm doing, please take a minute, drop a taco in the tank. And, you know, I know everybody doesn't have tacos. I know it. So if you don't have a taco in the tank, your job right now, click on to Spotify or Apple Podcasts, drop a five-star review. Tell people why you're listening to the show, while you like it. 130-something-something shows, 100-plus thousand downloads. Thanks for listening. Please help me keep this show going.

Drop a taco in the tank or drop a five-star review. And if you got a second, get over to slowbaha.com. I've got all sorts of fun things. I've got trips there. Now you can go on Slow Baja adventures. You can come with me in February on the Slow Baja, or you can come with me in October if you've got something cool and old on the Slow Baja Vintage Expedition Baja sewer.

edition. But I've got hats. I've got t-shirts. I've got stickers. I've got sweatshirts. If you're a bigger guy, I've still got some sweatshirts and big guy sizes. And I've got some new merch coming. So get on to slowbaha.com. Buy something for yourself. And thank you for listening. Thank you for reping the show. And I got to tell you about Slow Baja alum. Mary McGee. You know, we're still pretty close to the new year here. She went to a New Year's Eve party back in 62 and she was talking to Steve McQueen. He's pretty cool cat. And Mary's pretty cool. And Steve said, Mary, you got to get off that pansy road racer motorcycle you've got and come out to the desert and ride dirt bikes. And she did. And she got damn good at it. Now she's an off-road motorsports hall of famer. But what I'm getting to is

Steve McQueen. He loved Baja. And he said, Baja's life. Anything that happens before or after? Just wait. You know, people always ask me, what's the best modification that I've ever made to slow Baja? Without a doubt, it's my Shielman seats. You know, Toby at Shieldman, U.S. could not be easier to work with. He recommended a Vario F for me and a Vero F XXL for my navigator, Ted, as Ted's kind of a big guy. And Toby was absolutely right. The seats are great and they fit both of us perfectly. And let me tell you, after driving around Baja for over a year on these seats, I could not be happier. Shieldman, slow Baja approved, learn more and get yours at shielman.com.