Slow Baja - Marty Harriman Baja By Horse

Episode Date: July 26, 2023

"Experience life in the old west with us, riding through 1000 acres of privately owned ranch land and wilderness. Wide open spaces, epic vistas, and sightings of grass-fed cattle, pasture horses, wildflowers & a variety of birds all await your soul." -Baja by Horse. Marty found her way to Baja in 1961 when her parents bought a lot in La Mision and built a simple vacation house.  She would steal her father's garden hose and lasso local horses to keep herself entertained. Marty would swing herself up and go for a ride until she fell off. And she ALWAYS fell off!  She calls Rancho La Pila --Old Baja. "It's a ranch. When you're out there, you've got no phone, no service, nothing. You unplug, but you recharge."   These days, she spends her days sharing the slow life with friends, new and old. To book your stay and get a ride on her 1000-acre slice of heaven, contact Marty through her website: https://bajabyhorse.com/

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. I always say, ask your doctor if Baja is right for you. Well, right now, folks, it's the open enrollment period for the Slow Baja vintage expedition.

For vehicles 1993 and older and motorcycles 1980 and older, and I'm not going to tell you anymore about the motorcycles because the motorcycle side has already sold out, teamed up with Adam Sheared at Speed Deluxe, and that side is closed. So if you're coming, you're coming on four wheels. It's October 15th through the 20th, 20th, 23. We're going to start out at a hotel,

we're going to end at a hotel, we're going to have four nights of camping under the stars on private land. we've got a chef and a team that's going to prepare fabulous, fabulous food, got great dirt roads, good people, and great old trucks. If this sounds like the way you'd like to experience Slow Baja, well, you've got to reach out. The information is at slowbaha.com. On the new Adventures tab, you can click the Slow Baja Vintage Expedition at Slowbaha.com and if you're ready to pull the trigger and sign up, well, over there at the Slowbaha shop at

slowbaha.com, you can click on the deposit ticket. and pull the trigger. And I will see you in Baja in October at the Slow Baja Vintage Expedition. Next event I want to tell you about is the Slow Baja rally. Now, this one doesn't have many rules. It's February 23rd through March 3rd, 2024, and it's for anything you've got on wheels. So if you've got a sprinter van, if you've got a VESPA, you can do this event any way you want. It's really about going slow and saying hello, community, commerce,

Maraudery. We're going to have a big party before we leave in San Diego. You're going to get to meet some travel buddies. And for those folks on the dirt, you're going to have some friends with you. And for those folks on the pavement, you're going to find some folks who want to travel with you and at your pace. And again, what we're doing here is being where we are, fewer miles, more smiles, getting into camp. We're going to have the pre-selected campsites, getting into camp during the daytime, putting up your tent, popping open a cold one, sharing with your neighbors. maybe you're going to cook a little meal together. You're going to play a little free-form bachi ball on the beach or go for a swim.

But it's really a much more relaxed pace than some of these other rallies that need to be the biggest and the baddest and cover the most miles. We're going to cover the best miles with the most smiles. I guarantee it. Slowbaha.com slash adventures for more information. It's the Slow Baja Rally, February 23rd through March 3, 2024. Hey, hello. Thanks for tuning in to the Slow Barra. Baja today. My heaping dose of gratitude goes out to Nathan Stewart at Legends Overlanding.

You know, guides need guides. And I got Nathan to run us around Baja. We had about 1,100 miles in his Ford Raptor in the last week, and we dotted all the eyes and crossed all the T's on all the roads and all the campsites and every last little detail for our Slow Baja vintage expedition that I'm running with Adam Sheard at Speed Deluxe. He's got the Motos. side of that, which, of course, I don't need to tell you anything about because it's already sold out. But if you want to join us, we're going to have a great route. And thanks Nathan Stewart for helping us nail it. Okay, today's show is with the wonderful Marty Harriman, H-A-R-R-I spells Harriman, something like that. She's got a little jingle that she sings for you.

Marty runs Baja by Horse, and she's got about a thousand acres at Rancho La Pila, up in the hills above La Missione. She's just a wonderful woman. If you need a little vacation, if you want to sort of disconnect to recharge Rancho La Peele is the place. And without further ado, Baja by Horse with Marty Harriman today on Slow Baja. Well, thanks for the strong coffee. I'm ready to go, Marty. I'm ready to go. We're on.

Where am I? What are we doing here? You're at Rancho La Pila with Baja by Horse. Baja by Horse, Marty Harriman? Yes, Harriman. All right, we're going to do that one more time, Harriman. Harriman. It's kind of like H-A-J-D-R-I, and it spells Harriman.

Airman. All right. Well, where the heck are we? In La Mision. Baja California. And you are actually at Rancho La Pila. And it's Baja by Horse. Baja by Horse.

With Marty Harriman. Yes, with Marty Harriman. I'm just stoked to be here. I'm really glad you're here. Took me a long time. I know, but I follow you. You know all my great friends. So I figured, you know what, this guy's got to be okay.

He's got to be okay. He's got to be working his way over to me someday soon. Someday soon. We've got a welcome slow bah. Benevidos, welcome slowbaha. Yeah. Awesome. I'm not an artist, obviously. It's pretty dang accurate representation.

There'll be a photograph of that on Instagram, folks. So, hey, well, you know, I'm just thrilled to be here. The sun's going down now. We're outside of your kitchen. You made some beautiful, strong coffee. The temperature's dropping here. Cheers. We had some rain and there's snow and there's snow.

the mountains in Baja. So we're going to get onto it before we start freezing. You bet. I'm on it. Wait, well, I swig my coffee there. Hey, so tell me about your Baja journey. You're a San Diego girl, yeah? I'm a San Diego girl. My mom and dad were very, very adventurous, loved Baja. So we started coming down here in 1961 and came upon LaMission through some friends of my dad's work. And back then, the owner of LaMission proper of the beach and the hill area he had bought it in 1947 was John Stocker. And he had created the first subdivision in Baja, California. and he would have a drink with you,

either a margarita, preferably a martini. And if you were like-minded and he liked you, he would sell you a lot. Wow. And then from there, you would build a house with no electricity, no phones, no nothing. We would come down. So we built our house in the early 60s,

and that was our kind of playground. And I found horses. And that was my... you know, as I got older, that was my treat. Okay, you can have a horse for a week. You can have a horse for a month. You know, and it was one of those. And, oh, honey, all those horses are yours.

So I would get a garden hose and go round one up and jump on bareback and ride until I fell off. And that's how I learned. And the garden hose was your heart. I was going to say your halter. It was your lasso. Oh, yeah, I think it worked as everything. And so you were just barebacking. Yeah, yeah.

And then all the little old late. ladies on the hill would say, oh, that little heron girl's going to fall. And, of course, you do fall, but you get back up. Yeah. Well, I don't think I've told many people this. I grew up on a little ranch. We had 10 acres. We boarded horses, and I used to ride bearback all the time, just a little halter.

And then one day, the owner of the horse was coming, and the horse saw its owner and bolted. And I got hit in the head as we went under a tree branch. And I went, I don't think I like this anymore. Oh, no. So I'm going to have to come and ride with you. I'm your girl because I love taking a bad experience on a horse and making it you're going to come back and bring your whole family. That's one of my favorite things I do. And everyone has a bad horse story.

Trust me, you're not alone. Yeah, and I think we ought to just get right into the part of your story, which I find so compelling. You've said that horseback ride can cure just about anything. horseback riding is you know people pay a lot of money for therapy i get on my horse that is my therapy and i don't know you know there's something about it you're out with nature you're i left kind of the the inland beach all of that stuff just to be able to bring baha to people this is old baha out here i have about a thousand acres and it's it's very it's very it's amazing and I have cattle and horses and chickens and cats and dogs it's it's a ranch um but when

you're out there you know you've got no phone you've got no service you've got no no you unplug but you recharge it is it is I can't tell you how many people just oh they leave here and they're like Marty I just I feel different I and all walks of life you know Every single person that comes here leaves with something. But mostly they leave with their batteries recharge to go back to the city. And you know what? I've created basically a family out here. Everyone comes back.

I have an adult orphanage. They all want me to adopt. So we call it Marty's adult orphanage. I like that. I like that. Well, let's get back to those early days. So you're here. Your parents are building a house.

You're doing Baja. In the early days, so it must have taken me a little bit to get down through Tijuana and then down the road long before the toll road, of course, to find this place. It must have felt like you were away from everything. And you found wild horses, I take it, just, you know, kind of mozy. I thought they were wild. They were somebody's. But they were actually belong to someone. They were not in a corral.

They were not in a corral. Exactly. And that's how it was back then. Yeah. Well, there was no toll road yet. So mind you, we would come through Tijuana, and there were what we called the cardboard houses along the riverbed. And they knew our van, and they could see it before we crossed the border because we would stop with clothes and food. Gifts.

Gifts for everybody. No, we were coming, so we would have to start throwing the stuff because they would, like, you couldn't see out of the car. And I kind of would get a little scared as a kid. But then we'd get, make our way through there. And then, you know, you had the year of the bridges where. They decided to fix every bridge. I think that was probably the 70s. Rather than do one bridge at a time, they put like two people on each.

That's the way it felt as a kid. So there were some slow detours. There was some slow detours. You got some slow bahad. Yes. You'd go off the road sometimes. And there was always one car at all, which was like one car at a time. Well, you'd meet a semi.

Right. Well, they win. Yep. So, yeah, that was the journey to get down to La Mision for many, many years. But then when we got here, it was paradise. So from the first house, at what point did you get back into these hills and find this paradise? Well, as a kid, I'm pretty sure I rode out here because I would, I rented horses from a man named Fido Crosswhite and who I thought was my grandfather. so I became a crossway just by, oh, no, osmosis, and blue eyes.

He was a Irish descendant, and as was my mother. So I would ride out here, but then when I started having a horse, my, so I bought a house up the hill from my parents 30 years ago. My parents have since passed away, and I sold their house, or they sold it like 15 years ago. So then I had my house, which I still have in town. But I don't go there anymore because why? You're here on the ranch. I'm here in paradise. So I kind of left. That started getting busy over there. I know people will laugh that you think Limassion's busy. It's all relative. But this is where, this is how I grew up. It was not a lot of people, not a lot of, I mean,

there were animals and they ate your flowers in your yard and you chased. cows out at the middle of the night and horses. So that's what I do now here. So I feel like I've just gone back to my youth. Gone back to your roots. Yep. Well, tell me about Ranchula Pila. You've got water here. That's why it's here. That's why you're here. I do have water here. There's springs. And, um, hence the name. Yes. And the big Pila that you, when you came in, you saw that was the original Pila. Pila is basically in English, you would say a cistern. So it holds water. And it was meant for the cattle and the horses when they were running cattle through this land.

That was the PILA that held the water. And then now people swim in it. The horses drink water. I mean, it's kind of everything. This particular one, there are several different PILAs on the ranch. It's all gravity fed from the first canyon. there's two canyons, two pilas. The first canyon that comes down, feels a pila, that gravity feeds this pela, and all the water on the ranch that you use.

And are there hot springs anywhere nearby? No, no. I know there are some Ensenada. Right. Yeah, but we have no hot springs. I saw the big swimming pool on the way in the building. Oh, yes. Yes, that's an old one, isn't it?

Yes, that's Ernesto Reyes. We tried to go there once and it was closed many years ago, but. Yeah. Bumping around dirt roads, trying to find interesting things. Yes. When people would just tell you stuff before it was all on the Internet. Right. Yeah, you go down this road.

Go down there, yeah. Go left at the horse. So when I called for directions, when I called, you asked an important question, coffee or beer. Tell me about the culture of offering some hospital. vitality when guests are arriving. The mountain culture, the Vicaro culture, the coffee culture. Of course, I recently ran Paul Gansters' recollections of traveling with Harry Crosby. With the new Harry Crosby documentary out, I re-ran a story from a couple years ago,

an interview from a couple years ago with Paul, who rode with Harry in 67 on the El Camino Real. Just talking about every ranch that they would ride into, that out would come. with the coffee. Yep. And when you think about the work that went into procuring that coffee, roasting that coffee, grinding that sock. In the sock. Exactly.

Yes. You know about the sock. Yes. Yeah. And so tell me about the culture of hospitality that's just part of Baja. That maybe we don't know. That's what made me fall in love with Baja. Exactly.

Was the culture, the people. I mean, I basically thought I was Mexican until I was probably 12 and they're like, honey, You know. For those not sitting here, Marty has very blonde hair, blue eyes. You know, there's some blonde hair, blue-eyed Mexican people here. There are. Descended from whomever. I grew up.

My mom was an English teacher. English has a second language and also taught citizenship. So the Mexicans loved her. She was, you know, just gold to them. And so when we would come down, you know, all her students would invite us to these. huge parties and we would go and I was like, God, those girls are so young to get married. Yeah, I was probably 15. It was their kinsanadas, not their wedding, but it's very, so as a kid, I thought, wow,

they get married really young. Come to find out, that was what I was going to all those years. But the culture itself of the Mexican people is why I'm here and is why I moved out to this ranch. because, you know, I know enough Americans, and I have pretty much won the lottery here because basically living this ranch life, people might think it's lonely. But I have guests that come and ride with me, and I get to show them this beautiful place. You know, we spend anywhere from three to ten hours together. We'll do cattle. We'll ride under the full moon. We'll play the piano. guitar, we eat, we talk, we have coffee or beer.

I've seen a little tequila in the kitchen, I don't know. Oh yeah, there's tequila. Oh, and there's Bacca and Lola. Hey, watch out for your camera. We've got an assist here from Vaca. Yes, we have an assist. We have an assist from Vaca. So, anyway, that's kind of, you know, my greatest gift is that I have these wonderful people.

And then they go, they leave. They leave. even so then I have my wonderful space to myself. And you can recharge for the next round. And I can recharge. But my people are so amazing. I mean, like they know all my guests.

They bring me coffee. They'll bring me their favorite. Oh, you've got to try lost bean. You've got to try L.A. coffee mill. Whatever. I'm a pizza girl, but Starbucks anything. But they bring me half and half because that's the one thing that I can't get fresh down here.

But yeah, they'll bring me dog food, whatever I need from the state. So, yes, it's, I've created a really, really, um, I was going to take a picture of Vaca helping me with this podcast. Okay. So that is how I deal with, I'm never lonely, because I know I've got people coming. I have a group of six coming from Chicago. I pick them up at the airport and then they'll stay with me. I have two Cabanjas and then the little house and then couches. in here. Most of the time nobody

ever wants to leave each other. We're sitting by the fire and everybody's talking and throwing a few back and you just kind of stretch out on the couch. You stretch out and you put a blanket on them and you see them in the morning with coffee. Strong coffee. So let's get right into

what you offer here. It's Baja by horse, Rancho La Pila. Obviously it's a guest ranch. People can come and stay. They can come and stay. What's the regular... I usually vet the stay people. I was going to say. So you can You can come for the day and ride for a few hours and bye-bye. Yes.

And then if you want to stay, if you're okay with a couch or a cabana or what have you, let's go through that. So I have a website, Baja by Horse. In the show notes, folks, Baja by Horse. So basically people book a ride. So they'll say, hey, Marty, I have four people. The first thing I do is get your heights and your weights and your experience level so that I can get you on the perfect horse so that

that it's safe and that you're comfortable and that the stirrups are the right length. If you've got a six foot five, 200 pound person, I'm going to put you on one of my Clydesdale walkers. Yeah. You know, I have a range of ponies to very large horses. But I do have a weight limit. So the people come, they can sign up for you. You can do a full moon ride at night. You can do a three-hour ride.

You can do a five-hour ride. you can do a cattle drive. There's all kinds of different opportunities out here, different rides, different places. Usually they'll start out and we do this loop here that's about an hour and a half, two hours. And then they're like, Marty, I want to come back. And then I do another ride and we go up to the top of the mesa.

And then there's another ride that goes up the riverbed. It goes on forever. You can come out. I've had friends come and we just put a sleeping bag on the back of the horse and you can go camp on the property. But all of that needs to be scheduled and the people need to be vetted. I don't want serial killers. Hey, before we get into that, let's take a quick break and then we'll come right back.

Okay. With Marnie Hiramon and we're Baja by horse. Yes. Ranch of La Pila and we're just going to take a break. Okay. Are we doing okay? You're doing great. I just need to give him a spot that he can put in the Baja Bound ad, which is important.

Baja Baja Bound. I love Baja Bound. I love Baja Bound. I love Jeff. I love everything about Baja Bound. They are the bomb. The bomb, Baja Bound. When you're ready to be with the best, that's what I always think about. When you're ready to be with the best.

He's got you covered. When you're leaving those old jalopies behind and you're driving your Lexus, you better have Baja Bound folks. You better have Baja Bound. All right. Marty said it best. Yeah. I love it. Since 1990 serving Mexico travelers, since 1994. Baja Baja bound.

Big thanks to my new sponsor Nomad Wheels. They stepped up and sponsored the Slow Baja Safari class at the Nora Mexican 1000, and I don't know if you've seen the pictures, but Slow Baja is running a set of 501 convoys in utility gray, and they look pretty damn sharp. They were a little shiny. I will admit that they were a little shiny when I got them installed at Basil's Garage just before the Norah Mexican 1,000, but after, I don't know,

3,800 miles from Baja dirt. They look perfect. They really do. Nomadwheels.com. That's right. Check them out, reflecting a minimalist approach to off-road travel. Nomadwheels.com. Hey, we're back. Hey, we're back. Hey, we're back.

Rancho La Pila. We're just talking about what's on offer here and how you select the right horse for the right person. And I've had a question for a long time about horses. versus mules. I know Baja's big mule country. Big mule country. You're in horse, you're in horse country here. You're not doing the through the cactus kind of stuff that... Yeah,

I mean, there's definitely mules here. It's a whole different... I would have liked to have had a mule. I tried actually. But mules are just... They're good for packing. They're good for going off-road, and they can go anywhere

and do anything. We just had our recent Kabagata, which is basically a group of people that have like mind, like, like everything.

They want to ride a horse with a group. There were 320 of us last weekend. Wow. And there were several mules on that ride. There's a couple

of my friends in town that have mules. I don't have any. I used to ride a mule. I look at those mule people and say, what's with them? No, no, no.

I used to ride a mule up in the Sierra de Juarez. at Rancho El Topo. And that's the right spot for it. And that is the perfect spot for them. Yeah. You could have a mule here. I'm not saying you couldn't.

I just don't have one. Mule rides at the beach. It's just not flying with that. Yeah. And I actually don't do the beach anymore. I'm... You're up here. I'm here and I'm happy.

Can we get into... We met your vicaros. We met your vicaros. We met your dogs. We met your whole... The whole fam. Kit and caboo here. Well, no, you haven't met everybody.

Can we... Can you talk? Tell me a little bit about the vicaro life and how it's still real. It's still happening here in Baja. You know, it is alive and well. And the Kabul Gata and the whole thing, yeah. You've come to the heart of, you know, that vacero culture. La Miscione was founded by Vakeros, and, you know, I'm going to give you a story to take with you.

It's the history of La Miscione when you leave because it really, really gives you an insight. insight into how this whole place was kind of found and the crossweights who are a family that you need to interview. But, you know, the descendants, the people who came and who discovered this, you know, and the horses and, you know, how beach property was not valued because it wasn't arid and it wasn't, you know, farmland. You get tired of clams eventually. Yeah, it was like, get rid of that stuff. Give us some farmland. So, but, you know, but, you get rid of that stuff. give us some farmland. But yes, the horse culture and the vacuero culture is alive and well in La Mision. I mean, if you drive down the road, it's pretty likely that you'll see someone stopped at the grocery store, picking up groceries, or just going to their neighbors or training a horse.

On a ride. Somebody on horseback. Somebody on horseback. It would be shocking to drive through Lemison and not see someone on a horse. It is horse country. Is the Baja culture rooted in this Vakara lifestyle? Is that where it all comes from, the ranch life, the Bacera life? I mean, how do you parse that?

I do believe that it comes from Baja. I mean, you can do your history and look into it, but there are stories that say the Vakeros came from Baja. You know, that is where the United States Vakeros, all of it started here in Baja. I'm not saying here in La Miceaune, but I mean, I'll take one for the team. Could be. Could be.

Yeah. There's some areas down below the Melling Ranch and, you know, in the mountains of the Sierra de Juarez. San Pedro de Martyr. Yes, San Pedro de Martyr. Yeah. I haven't been there in a long time. I was at Rancho El Coyote a couple years ago. Oh, yeah.

But I haven't been to the main milling ranch. The main milling, yeah. 20 plus years. I need to go. lovely people and the condors. There's a lot, lots of beautiful stuff. Baja has so much to offer. I mean, obviously I'm a horse girl,

so I kind of do the horse thing, but I'll tell you, Baja is alive with so much, and it has so much to offer, you know, beyond clubs and tequila. It's an absolutely epic piece of land. Tell me about some of the places that you like go? In Mexico? Yeah, and here in Baja. If you're getting away from the ranch.

If I were getting away from the ranch, my next stop is down to La Pazaz to visit Trudy and also my friends, I think you met Polo and Reggie, they're doing a lot of things to like save the whales and save the dolphins and save the planet. You know, that's what I'm honestly, I'm like in love with them. These are all Slow Baja alums folks. Yes, yes. We had a little taco day with Polo. Yes, I haven't met Reggie yet.

But Trudy, I hope to see her on this trip as well. What a terrific human. Yes, yes. So many wonderful people. And so for you, for La Paz, are you flying out of Tijuana? Are you getting in your truck and driving? I kind of would like to get in my truck and do that route because that's what I did as a kid. Although as a child, you know, as a youngster, we would fly in to La Pazette.

and then we would go to Rancho Benita, which I think Benita, which is, I'm a fisherman at heart also. That's one of my fishing horses and photography. I knew I liked you. Fishing. Yeah. So I fish. Fishing horses and photography. Yes.

On Slow Baja with Marty Harriman. That's a pretty good one. Let's go. So where do you like to fish? Well, right now I do, like I'll do a six-pack out of San Diego and then they come to Mexico, but then I'll go. catch, jump on a boat down from Ensonata and go out and get the tuna. You know, whatever I catch, I come home and can. And so I do all my own canning and I have my tuna and I do jalapeno in it. I do garlic. I do dill and lemon. Whatever, but yeah. I think our vehicles

just broke down, Michael. Yeah, I was just thinking, you know, I was having some problems stalling on the way in. We might have to stick around. I wonder if she's got a couch open tonight in a fireplace. Well, and then I do Alaska. I'll do my salmon and halibut. So, yeah, I'm a fisherman. And Point South, you said you'd fly down when you were younger? When we were younger, we would fly to La Paz, and then there's a spot called Rancho Bonita. Now, I don't even know if it's still there.

I believe it is. It was the Red Fleet. And it's between San Jose de los Cabos and La Paz, about halfway in between. And we would just go and fish usually Thanksgiving week, our whole family. you would, whatever you caught, you'd bring it back to the hotel restaurant, which wasn't really a hotel restaurant. It was a little place. And they would cook up your dinner, and it was just great memories. Got my first Marlin, my first sail, my first rooster fish.

You are serious. Dorado, yeah. Yeah. Is there a fish you like to catch versus a fish you like to eat? Or, I mean, which one do you like? I love catching a good tuna. Yeah. That's kind of my...

And Dorado is probably one of my favorite to eat, which is Mahi Mahi if... Yeah, Dorado. Rooster fish are fond to catch, but they're not the best eating. Yeah, just all... I mean, we used to fish off the beach here in La Miscione, and every once in a while we'd hook into a halibut.

And that was pretty fun. Corbina and the rocks. So, yeah, it's... Well, getting back to LaMissillon. To Baja by horse. Yeah. I mean, we're jumping all over the place. And, you know, people who have made their lives here, you said you've been coming here for 60 years from when your parents first brought you here.

So you didn't get too deep in the places you like to go, but we'll save that for another time. Yeah. I'm pretty much here where I like to go. So this is a pretty nice spot, exactly. And with the water being here, there must have been people here right here at your ranch for, as long as there's been people here in Baja. Oh, yeah. And can you tell me a little bit about the native people who've been here?

I'm assuming you found some artifacts. Artifacts. Arrowheads, something, something. Arrowheads. She's pointing to one right now, a fossil. Up here you've got what they call the Mesa the Indios, and there's a hike that you can do. That's on the other side. But oftentimes I will take people and will park the horses

and we'll find clam, you know, petrified clam shells. And, oh, that's a whole other thing. Because didn't we all want to be an anthropologist? Sure did. We sure did. When we were little. So I let people live out that dream for a moment up on the mountain. I don't know.

I'm pretty sure if I panned for gold, I might find some. Who knows? I think you found gold here already. You're right. I did. I did. All right. So I'm going to say, we're going to let the horses fill a little atmosphere.

here. I thought they were going to come back for another round. They just left, they just left an opening for me to speak. They must have found some grass. Yeah. So again, getting back to the native people and this, the feeling of this land, it is special. It really is special. And it's quiet here. I mean, eventually you'll hear a plane flying over, but we've heard nothing but the rustling of the wind and leaves and the horses. You probably won't even hear a plane. It's very rare, although there has been a slight, shift of a flight pattern that we laugh. We're like, oh, Mexico City. Oh, Cancun. But yeah, no. It's pretty darn quiet. You'll hear birds and cows and horses and dogs and, you know, there's quite a bit of wildlife. We've got bobcats, mountain lions, links. Some, of course, are interchangeable. Puma, the largest that will take down a calf. or a baby horse. And then we've got foxes, coyotes,

and that's about it in the way of predators out here. And you learn to live with them, and they learn to live with you. I don't, you know, I have no interest of killing anybody or anything. Rattlesnakes, of course. Rattlesnakes, yes. You'll see my door is lined with a couple that got too close to my horse.

Right. And that's Vicarious. take care of that stuff. You don't have to worry about that. On occasion, I've run into some by myself and had to kind of intervene, but it's not my favorite thing to do. And so being out here no cell, thousand acres, do you get worried? No. No. I know all my neighbors, and I also am, you know, I don't know. Growing up in Limitione, I have a pretty vast amount of friends that. And skills.

Well, you can take care of a lot of things. I am the queen of Chicanaata. You know, you don't have a Home Depot you can run to, so you got to make shift whatever you need to patch a hose, to fix a pipe, to fix a, you know, I can kind of do it all. The people, I'm very fortunate, are friends of mine, and they look out after me. I truly believe, you know, like at the Cabagata last weekend, there were 320 riders. And, I mean, I got so many hugs and how are you and love you and miss you and da-da-da-da. From fellow ranchers and fellow vackeros, that it does fill my heart at times to know how many people out there that I've met along this journey that I care about and care about me.

So in that regard, no, I don't worry. and if that's the way I go, then I guess that's the way I go. I can't live like that. And you had a recent experience, fell out of a tree, bumped your head, broke your thumb. Yeah. That was me trying to be cute, like the 30-year-old actress on the ride that was doing yoga. I thought, well, I can do that.

I'm 60-something. So bring it on, tree. 60-something is the new 30-something. Yeah, exactly. Totally. Yeah. So anyway, the tree won. But yeah, but I got it.

I got back on my horse and rode down and went to Red Cross and they're like, oh, no, you go state side. So, yeah, we got all fixed up and continued doing my rides. My girlfriend's covered for me while I couldn't. While you had your handle. You couldn't lasso, exactly. I can't lasso still. Speaking of 30-year-olds doing yoga, you've had some celebrities coming through. I.

Can we touch your horn for a little bit? Yeah, you know, I mean, it's all. It's all literally just me being me. Beyonce was on the beach. Managed to get my horse into that music video. Was she and Jay-Z? I did a thing with international house hunters. I did two years of horse wrangling for Fear of the Rocking Dead.

I have one of my favorite people of all time is Jen Landon, who plays Teeter on Yellowstone, who rides with me. There's been quite a few. I've done some music videos out here, The Lucy Ring. Of course, they always try to give me a part. I'm like, no, I'm better in the background. But it's fun.

It's all fun. It's all good. It's not my, if I happen upon it, yay. But it's not something that I go after. So I have, I figure every one of my writers is a celebrity in my book. Right. And if Beyonce is at the beach, you might as well say hello.

Hey, there were helicopters. I thought, you know what, Lexus or horse? Jumped on my horse and the rest is history. Well, what's on offer here? How do people find you? How does this whole vetting process work? If somebody wants to come and fall in love with you in person, see the ranch take a ride, maybe spend the night on the couch next to the fire,

maybe leave with the puppy. Did I say puppy? Oh, did you say puppy? I didn't say puppy. Okay. Secrets. Those puppies will be all grown up before these things. Yeah.

This podcast comes out. So a lot of people that I, that find me, find me from like reviews on Yelp and Google. I have a five-star review and they'll, you know, because I always ask people, how do you find me? Frankly, I love my return clientele. It is about 75% of my business. which I love because then I don't have to vet them and I don't have to, you know, oh, yeah, you bet, yeah, oh, you want, okay, same horse, same, da, da, da, da. Oh, you want to advance a little.

You want to go up because last time you were a beginner, now you're a full-fledged vacarra or barqueiro, you know, so they want to go up a notch. But so basically they write, send me an email or WhatsApp because, as you know, I don't have cell phone out here. And then we go from there. I get their size, their height, their weight, and their experience level, and I have my whole little system of working out how to get everybody properly and safely on the correct horse. A lot of people say, oh, I'm experienced.

I immediately kind of go red flag and make sure by asking some questions that they're really experienced. So if you come and say you're experienced and you get on the wrong side of the horse, I kind of look at the boys and we go, okay. Okay. And we do a little switcheroo. I think people are used to not understanding the work that goes behind me choosing the proper horse to make the experience the ultimate. And so they think, oh, I'm going to get this horse that doesn't move and it's not been fed.

And it's, my horses will eat before me. Trust me. They are very well taken care of. I have a vet. I have everything. I have 30-year-old horses. So in that regard, you know, they have to trust that I'm going to take care of them and make sure that they're experience.

I want them to have an awesome experience. So I wouldn't put, I don't have a bad horse, but I wouldn't put them on a horse that was too much for them and I wouldn't put them on a horse that was not enough for them. And we have different rides. We go off-roading. if you've been vetted and you've come and you've okay fine this person actually does know how to ride boom we hit it and we hit it hard and it's fun and you'll move a little cattle something if you can move up the ladder you can move up the ladder that's that's definitely three four trips you get the

okay you can move into the cattle ranching portion of the ride so then we'll go out and we'll find the cattle and we'll move them in and then twice a year I do where we bring them all in and we put them through the shoot and all the cowboys and learn how to lasso. All my cowboys will help you too. I've got some, you know, metal cows. And we practice lassoing at the end of the ride if that is something that you want to do. You know, we always have lunch here after the ride. So I do what I call carnitas crack because I know you'll be back for it.

It's so good. I call my guy. He cooks it up. I pick it up. We have fresh carnitas that are. to die for if you have vegetarians. I have, you know, different, be it chili rannos or casadillas or whatever. There's always a cooler full of beer. And pretty nice way to spend a day. Yeah. Or a couple of days. Yes. And I usually save the beer for after the ride. Actually,

I always do for safety reasons. Of course. If somebody comes in there not, you know, they've done drank too much. They don't go riding. They can't ride. I get it. You have to have some. facilities with you when you mount a thousand pound animal. For sure, you have to have your faculties. You got to know what the heck you're doing. Even if that horse is well selected and it's a two speed automatic power steering piece of cake, rides it. Yeah, Lexus.

Drives itself. Yeah, drives its. Oh, okay, Tesla. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, no, we, I am very, very into safety and, you know, and it's interesting. Out here, the horses have a.

job. So when we're on the trail, the horses know that they've got this job to do. And they're not, a lot of times people want speed and all of that. I go, you know what, there's other people that do speed and all of that. This is about a journey. This is about something that will change your life. And if you want to go on a ride and see some deer, you know, wildlife or just right now, it's kind of like a super bloom. I don't know if you notice. green everywhere. There's water everywhere here. And the orange are poppies. I wish I could take you guys so bad. It fields of poppy right now and after the poppies, they'll be looping and after the loopin, they'll be mustard. So you'll go from orange to purple to yellow and you'll ride in mustard as

high as you in the horse. I mean, it's just, it's beautiful. There's lakes up there right now. Thank you for the rain. I'm never going to complain about rain. Yes, it makes the road difficult, but we need it. We do. Bring me back to slow. So there's something special. You said people like to go fast, but going slow is something special. We're going to go out on that.

Your thoughts after all these years on just slowing down. Slowing down. That's why I moved out here. It was just to slow down and enjoy the journey. You know, it is not about the speed. It's about the beautiful stuff around you. if you take time to enjoy it.

And I mean, you could get off the horse and lay down in a field of flowers and smell it if you want. And people get it. Once they do it, they get it. They don't need to go fast anymore. I mean, you know, obviously there's some spots where we do that too. But people don't come here to race. It's not what it's about. Well, Slow Baja approved.

Ranchola Laha. There you go. Rancho La Pila. Yeah. I get here, Baja by horse with Marty Harriman. It's been a real pleasure. She's super responsive. Shoot her a note. You'll get 15 back. Yes. So instructions, details, everything. It's right there. So slow Baja, proved. Get out here, take a ride while it's still green and beautiful. Marty, thanks. Thanks for the coffee and thanks for the afternoon. Thank you. Thank you for coming. It was a absolute pleasure to meet both Christopher and yourself, Mike. Saludos, amiga. Salud. Our coffee's cold. Yeah, mine's done. All right.

Thanks. It's a wrap. Well, I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Marty Harriman at Rancho La Pila Baja by Horse. She's an amazing woman. You know, these they're on YouTube now. You can watch them. You can watch me talk to these people. Not all of them, but most of them.

And Sam Hurley's cutting together some great videos. So head over there and check it out. And if you're thinking about booking a vacation, it's Baja by horse.com. That's also the Instagram, and I think you can find her on Facebook at Rancho La Pila, L-A, second word P-I-L-A. And again, Marty, Harriman, I fully believe in the disconnect to recharge. All right, if you like what I'm doing, head over to slowbaha.com, hit the donate button, drop a taco in the tank.

It really does help me keep this show on the road, doing these things. in person. Driving down dirt roads for 45 minutes, 45 minutes south of the border is an investment and most folks aren't willing to make it. I think it really is meaningful, but I do ask you to help buy a taco, drop a taco in the tank, keep this show on the road. And if you don't have any tacos jingling around in your pocket right now, I get it. I do. I really do. Head over to Apple or Spotify and drop a five-star review and say a few words about why you listen to the show. It really does help folks find the show. And it doesn't cost you anything.

It doesn't cost you anything to be nice is what my mom used to say. It really doesn't. So drop that five-star review on Apple or at Spotify. And while you're at slowbaha.com, you can go over to the store. Hats are in. Get yourself a fresh hat. Rep Slow Baja. And you Dodgers fans, there's a very limited supply of Royal Blue and White.

slow Baja hats. So if you love Baja and you love your Dodger Blue, you can put the two of them together, but do not delay if you see them on the site, buy it because they'll be sold out in no time. All right, well, I'll be back next week with something fun. And until then, we're going to talk about Hall of Fame nominee. She's almost inducted. Her induction is next month in September. Mary McGee's pal, Steve McQueen, he made him a few movies. He loved Baja. You know what he said? Paraphrasing here, folks, I am paraphrasing. He said Baja is life. Anything that happened before or after is just waiting.

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. 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 the 30 inch by 46 inch Baja wall map. It's so great to just look at one thing. You see the entire peninsula there. I love it. Benchmarkmaps.com, slowbaha approved. Huge news, folks. Huge news out of Ensonata this week. Serviceria Transpenincillar has added Slow Baja to the summer tap list. I can't believe it.

That's right. You can walk right in to Serviceria Transpeninsula and order yourself a cold and frosty Slow Baja on tap. And that's what I'm going to be doing this weekend. I'm heading to Baja this week and to pre-run for the Slow Baja Vintage Expedition. I'm going to stop right there in Plaites de Ansinada right next to the Hotel Corral and Marina. And I'm going to walk right in and I'm going to say, hey, bartender, I want a slow Baja and he's going to pour me one. And Colin, the good-hearted owner of Cervasaria Transpentialar, said he's going to drop a couple

paces in the tank for every servesa he sells this summer. So you buy yourself a cold, frosty, slow Baja beer. That helps Slow Baja stay on the road, bringing you the... these great podcasts. It's win-win. All right, I'll see you down there. Surveyseria Transpennsalar, limited time only this summer. Get yourself a slow Baja on tap.