Slow Baja - Paula Pijoan An Earth Day Conversation On Forest Bathing And Native Plants Of Baja

Episode Date: April 22, 2022

On Earth Day, I am delighted to share this Slow Baja conversation with Paula Pijoan. Paula is a native plant expert and a fierce advocate for the land and nature. She is a certified practitioner of shinrin-yoku, the Japanese art of forest bathing, also known as forest therapy. We met at Vinos Pijoan, her family vineyard in the Valle de Guadalupe. When I arrived, Paula was transferring native plants, so I sat down on the ample patio and ordered a cheese plate and a glass of Pink Convertible -- a dry rosé of Zinfandel + Grenache. "My relationship with wine is that I drink it --I don't get so involved in the production of it!" Paula said as she joined me in this conversation.  Enjoy! Vinos Pijoan is Slow Baja Approved!  Follow Paula Pijoan on Instagram   Follow Vinos Pijoan on Instagram Learn more about Forest Bathing at Respire Bosque   Follow Respire Bosque on Instagram   Learn more about the native plants of Baja here 

Ola, Ola, how are you? My Slow Baja amigos, today's heaping dose of gratitude goes out to Raul and Caroline from Rancho Labayota in Takate, Baja, California. They have a spectacular 2,800-acre guest ranch with horses and just a, it's a beautiful, beautiful piece of property in a beautiful valley, no cell signal, no Wi-Fi, it's magnificent to just get away from it all, dining under the candles. It's really lovely, you know, a little fire pit for sipping some tequila after dinner. And I'm recording from my cabin at the property. The sheep were just grazing right out in front. I thought it would be fun to record this while you could hear the tinkling of the bells and the munch, much, munching of their flock of sheep. But they've moved on. Horses were just trotting

by a second ago. Anyways, I wanted to share the sounds of this space rather than try to block the sounds out of where I am, which is what I'm usually trying to do. Today's show is with Paola Pigeuan, Vino's Pijuan, and more than being part of the winemaking family of Vino's Pijuan, Paola, Paola is an expert in native plants of Baja and a fierce advocate of keeping the native plants in with all the development of all the winery. so surrounding the vines, lining the lanes down the vines, the interior of the vineyards with native plants to keep feeding all those bees, keep feeding all that wildlife that depends on it. And Paolo is a fierce advocate of that, and it was a real joy to speak with her.

She's also a practitioner of the Japanese art of forest bathing and leads forest bathing trips. So if you want to check that out, get yourself immersed in nature. I'll, uh, Pijuan, enjoy the show. 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.

Hey, I want to tell you about your new must-have accessory for your next Baja trip. Benchmark Maps has released a beautiful, beautiful, Baja California Road and Recreation Atlas. It's a 72-page, large format book of detailed maps and recreation guides that makes the perfect planning tool for exploring Baja. Pick yours up at Benchmark Maps.com. So maybe you can just say hello and tell me your name and tell me where we are.

Okay, so my name is Paula Pijuan. We are at Vinos Pijuan in Valle, de Guadalupe. What are you drinking? You've got a white here and I'm drinking a rosé. I am drinking. I think it's a Chenin blanc with Sauvignon, I believe. Part of the whites that my dad and my sister make here in Pijuan. Okay, well, okay.

Let's get right to it. Hello, how are you? I'm good. I'm going to take a glass, a sip of my glass. Ching Ching. Ching. Thank you for the interview. Well, thank you for making time.

Hello, Slow Baja listeners. Today, I've barged into Venus Pijuan and forced my way into a conversation with Paola, who was doing her best to ignore me, but she was twice recommended by good friends, and I had to come and see her, and she's been very kind to make a little time. Today I've got a beautiful cheese plate in front of me so if you hear me munching along in between long soliloquies you'll know what's going on here. It's a beautiful day. It's not too hot. I found Paula working in the field with her beautiful dog. Pax? Packs, yeah. Packs. Tell me a little bit about this place. About the winery? Yes, your father's midlife crisis. Exactly. So we got this place precisely 20 years.

ago in 2002. As you said, it was my dad's midlife crisis. He was about to turn 50. He really did not like his job at all. He was a vet and he always wanted to make wine but nobody else was making wine except for professional inologists. And he took a course in 1999 of how to make your own wine. He started making his own wine in the garage. They found a little cheap place in Baleo Alto, back when it was still cheap or at least affordable. And we got it, and I would say, like, the whole family's life changed in so many ways because he completely turned direction in his life. For me, it was my introduction to the rural life, to the plant world, to tending the earth,

and how challenging that can be if you have no idea of what you're doing. And here we are 20 years later, drinking good wine, working more than... ever, but understanding more where we're at and the challenges and the love that it requires to be and to thrive here. Well, you've created quite a beautiful place out of this if you're telling me you're amateurs, but work hard for 20 years. You've done something amazing. Thank you so much.

Tell Slow Baja, the Slow Baja world, what you have here. We're sitting in the patio of your beautiful restaurant. So you have food. You make your wine. Do you have, you receive guests, you have lodging? Yes. So you have one small house with two bedrooms and that's about it. We got this place, the house was already there.

You had three small houses and we've built around them and like that's where we, I mean, we grew them so that we have the winery now. And for us, it's always been, we don't live here. We've never lived here. we have spent a lot of time here and for us has always been our refuge from the city. So we've never wanted to, for this place to become very touristy, very big, very busy. So it's always chill. I mean today is a Wednesday, it's just you and I today. But even on weekends it's a respite from the big places and the busy places of Bayoulao

Lupe. We love nature, like that's what unites all of my family. Like we are, Since we were kids, it's me and two other sisters. And the wines are actually named after us and my mom and my grandma, so there's a big story there. But I think I would be more interested in focusing about the nature part of it. And we've tried to make a haven, I would say, not just for ourselves, but for the visitors, and not only for the humans, but also for the wildlife. And that's what we are trying to create and it's happening. Well, let's talk about that. So I walked in and you're transferring native plants, food for the pollinators.

Let's talk about you're an oceanographer. You studied oceanography in college. I checked up on you. You're fathers of Spanish descent, but you grew up here. Yeah. In Encinada? We got here when I was six years old, and my parents are from Mexico City, but yeah, the family grew up here. So tell me about plants and tell me about native plants and how that became really your focus. And I'm looking at just the vineyard behind you and you've got it planted full of native greens. Yeah. It's been a big journey.

It was interesting because I never, ever in my life cared about plants at all. I was totally into the ocean. I studied oceanography. I was fully into surfing. I started surfing in the year 2000. I was there when there wasn't that many women in the water, and it was such an adventure. Like, it just taught me so much.

And basically, the ocean was my soul life. That's what I did. And then I started a master's degree in ecosystem management in 2006. And during one of the classes, they took us out to the fields, and I got into Drus to the plants. And at the same time, my mom was trying to make gardens here in Pijuan. And she was using the typical plants, the roses, the bucambylias, whatever, and all of them were dying, and we didn't know why, because we didn't understand the climate. And I was noticing that around our lot, which was all virgin and all pristine before, in back then, it was all full of plants.

And it was obvious that nobody was sending them, nobody was worrying them, and the birds were there, the quail were singing. It was just so full of life, and what we were planting wasn't full of life. So that kind of sparked my curiosity. And that's how I discovered that in California, it's already been over 50 years of, I wouldn't say a trend, but a curiosity in gardening with native plants. It has become a trend in the late years. So, yeah, 2007 I fully got into, it was just a huge spark. I didn't care about plants. And then all of a sudden I only cared about plants.

And here I am. Did it affect your surfing? Did it affect your relationship with the water? I do not surf anymore. That's all I can say. Wow. That's amazing. Yeah, that's a long story.

But it was so clear that I just wanted to be inland. Like my heart just had enough. Like it was my love affair with the ocean had been complete. That's the only way I can explain it. It's like I had given it my all and he or she had given it's all. And every part of me just wanted to be. in the land, tending the plants and around trees. So it was a big shift that I didn't see coming.

Amazing. So you were involved with the California Native Plant Association. Do I have that right? What's the correct acronym for that? California Native Plant Society. CMPS. Do you know anything about Annetta Carter in her study of Baja plants in the 20s? No.

Oh, she's an amazing woman. I'm looking for somebody to tell me her story. She's passed, obviously, but she, She came and charted all the native plants in Baja as a Gringa and in the 1920s and 30s. So just interesting, I'm looking for somebody who's got Annetta Carter stories to share with me. But on to you and forest bathing. Let's talk about that. Okay.

So my interest with plants came along with a deep personal crisis, similar to. similar to what many people are living right now with the pandemic. I started a little bit before. I was starting, I don't know how to make it short, but basically I wanted to help the environment. That's why I studied ecosystem management because I wanted to use science

to be applied in projects that could help the environment. I was seeing so much degradation around the shores, on the beaches, and even here around Valle-Loupe, even back then, I was seeing how much was being destroyed because of development. So I started this master's thinking that I was going to find answers there. And I didn't find that many, like policy answers and regulatory answers in Mexico. They take a long time and you don't usually see results.

So I had a profound personal, I would even call it a spiritual crisis that sent me to a personal quest. I actually started meditating big time back then. and because I was feeling so down and so misplaced, I started going out into the hills of the native vegetation here in around the Ensenada. And I was doing nothing. Like I would just sit in front of a shrub and just do nothing but observe it and contemplate it and not think about anything. I didn't know what I was doing, but I knew it made me feel better. And I started realizing that going into nature was the only thing that was making.

me feel better out of the despair or the confusion I was in. I did go to spiritual retreats for a few months at a time and I became a meditation teacher and at the same time I was teaching people about native plants like in separate places, no? Some people were being taught meditation inside of the room and other people were being taught about plants but very in a scientific way. like this plant is named blah blah blah and like a lot of concepts. And I was like, no, how do I get, how do I join nature and meditation, nature and healing in one package? And all of a sudden I discovered the concept of forest bathing, which is a Japanese practice. That's growing big time worldwide.

And it's precisely, it's going into nature. usually at least at the beginning in guided walks that are not about learning concepts. It's not about learning names of trees or bird watching. It's about going into nature for therapeutic processes to heal, to recharge, to replenish, to relax. The same reasons I come to Baja. And it doesn't have to be a forest. It can be a desert. It can be anywhere.

Yeah. So I became a guide. and I'm so happy I do that. Yes, please. What are you pouring? Domenica. This is a 2018 vintage. It's a base of Grenache with Sierra and Carina.

Fabulous. Salute. So how is this practice received here? And who do you get to come with you? I mean, Leda, my new best friend from the Adobe Food Truck. raves about you. Oh, she was actually, it was so funny because I got certified as a forest bathing guide in Santa Rosa, California.

There is a... Very close to where I live. Oh, you guys have amazing forests. It was so beautiful. I think it was sugar loaf, hill or sugar loaf mountains. And I got certified in 2017, but I had to do my practices. So my first walk is where Leda was. and who comes

I'm actually most of the time I cater to locals because it's kind of hard to cater to both groups at the same time I don't like doing bilingual groups so sometimes I am searched by Americans for example and I can cater for private groups and offer it in English but mostly I do it for locals and who comes

it's just more and more people are starting to realize that they miss nature, that they need it. And people are so inside the cities that they don't even know where to start. They don't even know where to go. Baha is complicated because there's a lot of, there's a lot of open spaces, but they're private. It's not like in the U.S. that you have a lot of like natural national parks or state parks or city parks. We don't have that much here. They're mostly private. So you have to know somebody that knows somebody to know where to go and that's where I mean that's part of where I come along and and the guided walks really help the mantra that we learned as a guide is like our role is

because it's called forest bathing or forest therapy and our mantra is the guide opens the door and nature is a therapist or the forest is a therapist and it sounds it's it's really hard to put into words but it's an exploration of nature through the five senses. So that's all I do. I offer invitations to people to listen to the bird that we can listen to right now. We're listening to a dove right now. Exactly. And feel the wind in our skin and notice the colors or the light all around us. And that just naturally relaxes us so quickly. Paolo is absolutely glowing right now. I hate to say it. You just a huge smile and eyes are sparkling. I'm starting to blush. It might be the second glass of wine here, folks. So,

Can you walk me through? Is it something that you can describe? Can you walk me through visually? What happens if I were to come on a forest bathing excursion with you? Well, I think a bit of it, the beginning of it is what we just shared, no? Like, it's an invitation to explore with the senses. So you could say we begin with a meditation opening the senses. And even though all of us have five senses,

we don't usually pay attention to them. They're so numbed out of our system because we're always thinking. We do not stop thinking. So we don't hear the birds. We don't feel the wind. We don't notice the ground or the earth under our feet. And that's what happens on a forest bathing walk.

And I would say like mostly people become children again. Because that's the way children explore next. That's the way children play with nature. They don't care about learning concepts or being serious about it. They're just fully experiencing the place in the moment, in the now. And that's what happens for people, and it's beautiful to see. That's why I glow. Okay.

Well, we will, I will ask you at the end here when, where people can book, if that's something that you're open and offering, offering walks now. I would definitely like to make the Low Baja community aware of how they can book you because I really feel you've touched on something as we are all, I have my phone right here in my hands folks. We are all looking at our phones all the time. Everybody in San Francisco where I live has this thing in their hand and they're looking at it. And they're not, as you say, aware of the birds,

the beautiful climate, the smell of the plants that they're walking by, as you said, the five senses. And they're not, they're not in their body when they're in their space. I always say, be where you are when you're there. That's what slow Baja is in a nutshell. It's be where you are when you're there. Exactly. I mean, it's called mindfulness. We can call it wherever we want, but it's having our mind where our bodies are at. That's the way I explain it, No, like our bodies can be here, but our minds are elsewhere. So we're kind of sleepwalking most of the time. And we need reminders and we need guidance, and nature is a beautiful guide.

Like she usually brings us like, hey, listen to the bird. Hey, feel the wind. And I mean, fortunately for me, the pandemic has definitely sparked an interest and a need in so many of us for these practices we need to find balance all of us are overworked overstretched, overstretched, over-stressed we have our hands in so many things

at the same time and I just think it's in natural like no other species on planet Earth is demanding so much of themselves like we are. It's just exhausted we're all exhausted and so we need these moments of pausing and arriving in our bodies and just remembering and feeling what being alive is like.

Wow. I think I want to leave it right there, folks. That could be all you need to know about this right here. Holy Toledo. Okay, we're going to take a break. Sorry, I told you I was always in profound spaces. Haiti, wish you had joined us on the Nora 500. Well, here is your chance.

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I'd like to come back to your winery a little bit, and tell me about your father. Tell me about your sisters. Tell me about the wines named after them all and what people will find when they come here. Explain, give me a forest bath right here in your beautiful space because it truly is beautiful. Thank you. Okay, so my father is from Catalonia originally,

Catalonia region in the west of Spain that has always wanted to be separate from Spain. Absolutely. They have a different language. We don't speak Spanish there. It's Catalonian. His mom and dad came running away from the Civil War in the 30s and arrived in Mexico as exiles. So my dad was born in Mexico, but full on, like a second generation, I would say, Catalonian.

His first language is Catalonian. But he was raised in Mexico City. But obviously as a Catalonian where they are deep in the Mediterranean, he was raised with Mediterranean values and a love for Mediterranean food and a love for Mediterranean wine. So it's interesting because Baja California is very similar to the Mediterranean, like all these rocks and the Mediterranean climate where we have rains in the winter and summer droughts.

As I said, eventually he started making wine. He's a scientist. I mean, although he's a vet, he was a vet by profession, He's a researcher. He was a researcher in the veterinary areas, but a very scientific-minded person. So when he was taught how to make wine, he was very methodical about it, and he always followed the recipe, and he always... He did it very carefully. So he was able to reproduce, like, he started making good wines, and fortunately he was able to reproduce the good wines. It wasn't like a one-time thing. So people started looking for our wines. It wasn't a plant thing. and the first wine was named after my mom, Leonora.

And when the place became more famous, he had to make more wines, and he's like, okay, I run out of names. Well, I have three daughters. I just named them after them. And the wines kind of have the ideas that the wines are made similar to the personality of each one of the women in the family. Okay, let's get into that then. So tell me about your youngest sister.

So Silvana, which is, I think it's the one that I'm drinking right now. It's a white. The wine was made when she was nine years old, she was a kid. So it's a light, I think it's a shenine and a sauvignon without barrel, like nothing serious about it. Light, fresh, citrusy, floral, easy to drink. It's beautiful paired with savages and salads

and a lot of the seafood that we have here in Baja. We love it. I really like it. So it really represented the identity of a girl. And my mom was the opposite. My mom and my mom Leonora and my grandma, the name of the wine is Mara, which means mom in Catalan. Well, they're more full-bodied, more mature. They spend more time inside the casks.

So that's the idea, right? Like each wine has a personality. And my wine, which is Paola, I've always been like an outside kind of person. So my dad made a young red that you can drink. that's beautiful on the beach or in a hot day like today. It's not too serious. It only goes in the barrel for, I think, six months or even less.

And it's a blend of a lot of grapes. Like, I don't even remember, which also represents me because I'm into so many things at a time. But it has Merlot, Petitira, and it's Vinified as a grape. Let me remember the name. Whole berry fermentation. Okay. That's the word.

Which brings up very different flavors. like banana and choosy pop and candy and it's just like a little bit crazy and it does represent me a bit cheers to that cheers to that cheers to that um you've taken the philosophy of stewardship stewarding the land caring for the the plants the animals the what have you very seriously here so i i'm guessing it's biodynamic they're not pesticides or, you know, weed killers or what have you. You've integrated nature. Can you talk a little bit about your philosophy in how this property is cared for? So my mom comes from a family of full-on nature lovers, you know, like everyone in her family has nine dogs and six cats and that kind of

family. There are a few dogs here I've noticed. There's a few dogs. Packs I met, but there are three or four when I parked. There's always at least five dogs in Pijon and there's always rescues and there's always more coming. We don't know where they come from, but we always have new dogs. And they are our guard dogs. We don't have. I mean, they have a job. They take care of the property so well, and they love receiving people and stuff. But anyway, a lot of the practices in agriculture involve an ideology of a war between your crop and their nature that wants to eat it. And the way most people wage that war is with pesticides and with rodent killers and with all these things that We hardly kill a spider in our house.

So my mom was always like, there's no way we're going to kill the topos, the gophers or the artillas, the squirrels. And we have never put any herbicides at all. Pesticides hardly, not pesticides, but sometimes we used copper for a mold that grows on grapes. But for the past maybe five years, we've gone fully organic. and it's not biodynamic, but it is organic. And my, I mean, my sister is actually the one that's more right now in charge of tending the vineyard. I tend the native plants. My relationship with wine is that I drink it.

I don't get so involved in the production of it. All right. Well, you've got lots of native plants here, and I understand that you're a consultant about native plants. Yeah, so after I did my master's, I became so passionate. about native plants and it went from a full-time hobby and passion. Well, it wasn't, it was a hobby and I had to have other jobs. But eventually I became, I found my niche and it's like a niche that not many people are holding.

It was so good for me because like it was just an empty niche and my hobby just became a service that I could provide to others. So what I was telling you before is like the trend in most places is that people buy land, We could talk about Valle de Guadalupe, for example, by pristine land that's covered in native vegetation, all these beautiful plants that are actually the home of all the songbirds and the squirrels and even Pumas. I mean, there's like so much wildlife here. And people buy the land, they fence it and they bulldoze the whole thing. It's just a practice that has been ingrained like in, I don't know if Mexican DNA or human DNA.

But the word they use in Mexico is Limpiar el tarreno. It's called clearing the land or cleaning the land, which implies like the land is dirty. So if you buy a land and somebody asks you, like, do you want to clean your land? Anybody would say, yes, I want to clean my land. And that actually means bulldozing the whole thing

and getting rid of all the vegetation. And with the vegetation, there goes all. the animals. So fortunately some people are trying to do things differently and that's where I come along and show them you do not need to clear your land if you want to develop it you can clear the spaces that you want to build in or the spaces that you're going to put a vineyard but even in the vineyard it's super proven by Berkeley scientists vineyards that are near native vegetation have a lot less pests because

nature is always in an equilibrium in a balance so if there's a little bug that's eating the grapes then the other bugs that are inside the native habitat they're gonna go and eat the pest a pest is only a bug that that grew its population beyond what's normal and like nobody's eating it nobody's killing it when there's a healthy ecosystem around it the balance is achieved almost immediately so even people that want to build vineyard they can leave patches of native vegetation inside the vineyard, which is what I'm doing with a few of my clients.

And it looks beautiful. It really helps solve erosion problems as well because natives really hold the soil when the big rains come. And the pest problem really diminishes, and it's like a lot of scientific papers have proven that. What do you want to say about the Valle, development, water, what have you. How do you want to address those crushing issues?

I don't know. I guess by Guaalupe, it's a microcosmats, but it's happening in other places in the world. It's just rampant development. Because the wine industry flourage so much, suddenly there was a, I forgot the word in English,

but people needed a place to stay. So it's not only, it's not just that the wineries are destroying the ecosystem, is that everybody wants to put an Airbnb in their land right now. And you just see these explosions of little tiny baby cabins all over the place. And even though there is a regulation for Valle Lupin, most people are not paying attention, and the government is not actually working at all in applying that regulation, or those regulations,

which involve a density, how many houses you can actually build per hectare. There's a beautiful regulation about not building massive walls around your property so that the landscape is not affected and that's not happening. Like all these massive gray cement walls

are... People come from the city and instead of wanting to adapt to the country side, they're bringing their city with them because they do not know what rural life is. And what could I say? Like if you're coming to a rural area, I mean, and I don't think your community would do it. I think it's more of a city kind of person. But research what rural life is and build according to the context that you are arriving at. Don't destroy it and turn the place into a city, which is what's happening in so many places around. Well, on that profound, I realize you were going to be profound.

I knew it. I am. On that, we're going to change gears again here. And just maybe you can tell me about a few places that you really love here in the Valle, that hopefully Slow Baja listeners will come and see and not in such droves that they destroy it. So just if you're willing to share a few places that you really love, who are doing wonderful things here. I'd love to hear them.

Well, I mean, the message is hopeful because I can recommend you, of course, Mogor Badan. Natalia Baden has been one of the pioneers in Valle, and she's been doing things the right way since the very beginning. And she's left the native plants, and she has organic, and she's never catered for the big tourism world.

So it's a beautiful, it's a very authentic kind of thing. place. That's appointment only folks. Appointment only. I'll have the link on the site, Slow Baja, if you want to visit Natalie Badan.

Yes. Okay. And she has beautiful, really good wine as well. I mean, Drew DeGman is there, so who wouldn't want to go? So that's a basic one has to go to.

Three Mujeres. It's also a small scale, full of heart project from Yvette Bayard. and again very homely very I mean respectful of the landscape respectful of the place um adobe wadalupe also has those notions and where I would say that I mean it sounds very grim like what I said before sounds very grim but this is where it turns hopeful a lot of what's been happening it hasn't been because people are are mean or evil they were just

lacking information. People from the city come and develop like in the city because they didn't know they could do it in another way. So I just started working with two developers that are big in Valleupe, Julian Salas and Eric Castro that used to do things very differently but they discover that they can do it different like there's a different way of doing it. So now we're rescuing the native plants from their properties instead of just bulldozing them moving them from place to place so the land is cleared for the architecture but the plants are rescued and these are people that thought very differently a year ago they were bulldozing big

time a lot of the places but something happened that they discovered they could do it differently and they have an impact they are very much in touch with the regular landscaper not landscapers regular developers and they're pushing for things to happen differently because they themselves are also seeing that Vallejo is going in in a, I would, a lot of us say it's not a positive direction because it's so unstructured and so undirected. And unsustainable.

Unsustainable beyond unsustainable. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the drought and all these things, we have to take into account. Okay, well, on that note, Paula, if people want to come here, let's go through the ways, the number of ways that people can

find out what's happening here, social media, websites, what have you. Let's talk about a little bit about how people can come in and see what's happening here. And then tell me how people can come to be in touch with you. And if they want to visit nature with you, go on a nature walk, book a trip for six friends in English or Spanish. Let's talk about that. Okay. So the first question was where they could find information about Vallevalupe? About here.

Oh, Pijuana? Yes. Okay. Perfect. That's an easy one. So you can find this on social media as Vinos Pijuan. That's P-I-J-O-A-N. And that's our webpage as well, Vinospyj-O-A-N. I'm happy, like when you arrive at our place, you found me doing gardening.

And I'm excited because in a few months, maybe a year, we don't know. but what I didn't share about the wine that we make is that we're making a wine that has native plant extracts. It's kind of a vermouth. And we're making a garden with native plants that are used in the vermouth. So we want to make, if anybody, if any of your listeners are interested in finding the meeting point

between the native plants and wine, this garden is going to be it. It's going to be a walk that really sparks your senses because most of the plants are aromatic. for our intention or my intention is for people to see that for wine to be existing in our region there has to be an ecosystem the ecosystem is not comprised only of olive trees and vine plants we need an ecosystem a ecosystem involves plants it involves animals it involves the geology so that

we have proper weather patterns and rain and I will find a way that's easy to understand. And it will be explained in the garden. My idea is for people that come to Venus Pijuan, that they live with a beautiful wine tasting, but they can also have a sneak peek or a little view of what Baja ecosystems are, why they're so important for them to exist,

and how they relate to the wine making industry. So any of your listeners will be able to see that here in Venus B. Joanne, probably in six months. We hope that that walk is concluded. And as for my personal projects, the forest bathing, my forest bathing project is called Respira Bosque, which means in Spanish, or the equivalent would be like, breathe the forest. So Respira Bosque in Instagram, on Facebook and Respiraboske.com. I've been offering walks since 2017. And as you say, I usually have one per month. It's usually in Spanish, but a lot of people look for me for private groups. And I can cater for whatever need,

different places. And I haven't had anybody that hasn't enjoyed the experience so far, fortunately. She says smiling with her eyes. Again. Well, if Polo at Baja Adventures and Leda at the Adobe Food Truck, recommend you highly that is those are two people that I truly admire both in their own right. So you're highly, highly recommended. So that's a slow Baja approved folks. We've got the dogs moving in.

I think we're going to wrap up our conversation. You've been very generous. It's beautiful here in the Valle, folks. I say, come and see it well. I don't know how to phrase it. Come and see it soon, sooner rather than later, when you can meet people like Paola and she will hand you three leaves. Can you tell me a little bit about the three leaves that you handed me?

So that is a white sage leaf, a California's crop sage leaf, and that Cleveland sage leaf. And they all are aromatic and beautiful. And you told me to go entertain myself for a half hour, order a glass of wine. have a smell of these beautiful, beautiful plants, and you'll be right with me. And it's, you know, I can't say in all my years that somebody's handed me some leaves. I say, go entertain yourself for a few minutes.

I'll be right with you. But it's lovely. This is lovely. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Slow Baja. I'm giving you a sniff right now. All right, Paola, Graziezius.

Graziezias for the invitation. Thank you so much for the invitation. Well, folks, that show takes me. conversation takes me right back to that beautiful spot. Sipping rosé all day with Paola and talking about forest bathing. You just don't get to have enough conversations about forest bathing these days. Thanks again to Ian Lassley, Polo at Baja Adventures and Leda at Adobe Food Truck for recommending Paola for a slow Baja conversation. If you have somebody you'd like to hear on Slow Baja, let me know. You can message me at...

Slow Baja on Instagram or Facebook, or you can certainly hit that contact button at slowbaha.com. And while you're at Slowbaha.com, well, drop a taco in the tank. Hit that donate button. Check out the merch in the Slow Baja store. I've got hats and stock, all sizes, all styles. T-shirts probably by the time you hear this show are in. So those long out-of-stock larges, yep, folks, they're back. They're back in black. They're back. They're back. and white. They're black sweatshirts. They're back. Grab them while you can. Thanks for listening. I appreciate it. Thanks for the folks who have dropped taco in the tank. I'll be acknowledging all in the next show. And until then, to borrow from my old friend, Baja lover, motor vehicle lover, Steve McQueen,

Baja's life, anything that happens before or after is just waiting. Have I told you about my friend True Miller? You've probably heard the podcast, but let me tell you, her vineyard, Adobe Guadalupe winery is spectacular. From the breakfast at her communal table, bookended to an intimate dinner at night. Their house bred Azteca horses, Solomon, the horseman will get you on a ride that'll just change your life. The food, the setting, the pool, it's all spectacular.

AdobeGuadalupe.com. For appearing on Slow Baja today, our guests will receive the beautiful benchmark map 72-page Baja Road and Recreation Atlas. Do not go to Baja without this, folks. You never know when your GPS is going to crap out, and you're going to want a great map in your lap. Trust me.