Slow Baja - Pauline Marguerite Wickham The Mule Mujer Of BDLA

Episode Date: March 24, 2023

Today’s show is with Pauline Marguerite Wickham --Paulina, as she’s known in Baja, is a retired “child-whisperer,” having taught for over 35 years. She resides full-time in Bahía de Los Angeles, where she keeps busy with three mules, a burro, an elderly dog, and her husband, "Dern." We discuss her life and friendship with Baja legend, prospector, and raunchy-raconteur Herman Hill. She began traveling to Baja at 3. She fondly remembers sport fishing trips to Ensenada with her Grandfather. As the men fished, she would dip her sleeves into the bait well filling them with cool water and tiny fish. From those earliest days, Baja has played a significant role in Paulina's life. Her parents were adventure-seekers. They were avid off-roaders and raced motorcycles. Paulina soon joined them, running enduros in the powder-puff class. She made many trips to Baja in high school and continued traveling to BDLA to study Marine Biology in college. She is a highly accomplished mule rider and had ridden with the vaqueros of Rancho San Gregorio during the spring round-ups --an experience she calls “life-changing!” Paulina loves a challenge and relishes her arduous remote emergency radio work with BFGoodrich for SCORE. She rides for hours carrying radio equipment by mule high into the mountains so the racers and teams can maintain vital communication. Enjoy this Slow Baja Conversation with the Mule Mujer of BDLA, Pauline Marguerite Wickham. Follow Pauline Marguerite Wickham on Facebook

This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches, and hands down, my favorite tequila. Hey, folks, it's that time of the year again. It is the Nora Mexican 1000. The Slow Baja Safari class is your ticket into the happiest race on earth. We take the green flag every morning. We drive the best stages, but we've got to live. little time. We're going to stop. We're going to take photos. We're going to take a little swim,

maybe buy an ice cream cone. And we're going to get back across the finish line in time for a shower and get cleaned up and watch the racers come in. And then we all go to the big fiesta. Each night, have a fine dinner. And back at it the next day. It's five days to get from Ensenada to San Jose Del Cabo. We start on April 30th in Ensenada. And we end up with a huge beach party, May 5th, Cinco de Mayo at San Jose Del Cabo. It is a major league adventure. And Slow Baja Safari class is your ticket in. For more information, N-O-R-R-A, that's nora.com, or you can always message me through Slow Baja. Hey, it's Michael Emery, also known as Slow Baja, coming to you from the Sheelman recording studio,

sitting in my land cruiser in a blustery cold parking garage in North Beach in San Francisco. That's right, I'm still in California, post-Baha XL trying to get this project finished here. so I can head back to Chicago before I head back to Baja for the Nora Mexican 1000. Well, hey, I know I had promised you a podcast with Ivan Stewart is our first launch from our Baja XL trip. The Kaiser, that's right, my podcast producer Kaiser came along, shot video. And we're going to bring you Ivan Stewart, but we're working on that video, trying to get some images to sprinkle into that. And so we thought we'd bring in this interview with Pauline, Marguerite Wickham. She's a wonderful woman.

She's into horses and mules and was a great friend of Herman Hill, a legendary figure in Bahia de Los Angeles and in Baja, a gold miner, a wanderer, a stringer of tails, a wonderful human being. So we talk a little bit about him and his life and a lot about Pauline's life and ride mules and Bahia de Los Angeles. And a huge shout out. My heaping dose of gratitude goes out to Mike. Nulti for sharing his digs with me, put me up for the night. Unfortunately, Mike wasn't there, so we weren't able to get him on the show, but we'll get him down the road, left him a bottle of Fortaleza and some Slow Baja logo shot glasses that I was glad to see that he and photographer extraordinaire Drew Martin got into.

So anyways, we'll get Mike soon, and without further ado, Pauline, Marguerite Wickham on Slow Baja. All right, Pauline, one more time. Tell me your name where we are, what you had for breakfast. My name is Pauline Marguerite Wickham. We're in Bahia de Los Angeles. And for breakfast, I had two cups of coffee, two bananas, and a handful of pecans. All right. Well, that sounds like a children's book starter.

Hey, it's Slow Baja, and I'm in Bahia de Los Angeles with Pauline, Margareter Wickham. That's it. I'm pretty stoked to be here. Well, me too. And we're just going to talk about you in your life while you're here. But we're going to get started with your good friend, Herman Hill. Herman. I met Herman in 1994, walking by his place with my son and a fishing pole over his shoulder.

We wanted to go to the Via Vita Pier and catch dinner. And Herman popped out of his trailer at Guillermo and said, where are you going? My son told him. Your three-year-old son. My three-year-old son, we're going to catch dinner. And Herman said, come back and show me what you catch. And he said, okay. And then he looked at me and he said, I have a hot shower and a television set.

So. Wait a second. If you knew Herman, you would know. Creepy. I know. Nice. Awkward. My thought was we're not going to show that fresh old man your fish, but we did show that fresh old man his fish.

And Herman became my Baja dad. and my children's grandpa for a very long time. He passed away 2013. So from 94 to that time, yep, he was my family. And, well, I'm going to have to ask this question now, which I was going to move a little later in the podcast, but what brought you here? I came here to satisfy a science requirement in junior college to do marine biology. I had originally signed up as an art major to go to Europe, and the class was canceled. And my college, what do you call the person who tells you about your advisor?

My advisor, thank you, suggested why don't you satisfy science and go to Bayeia. And I said, okay, because I've been coming to Baham my whole life. So I thought, I'll go there someplace new. So I came with Lane McDonald to the Glendale College, the Vermilion Sea Field Station, where Megan is now, and studied the finback whale. And after that experience, I took every class I could take that was offered in Bahia for the next two years to get all of my classes done. Everything I could take I took down here in Bahia. I loved it. So I'm assuming because you had an experience of traveling to Baja already, you were probably a Southern California and a girl.

Yes. Okay. So where did you grow up? Eagle Rock, Los Angeles. Okay. All right. And so you're studying in junior college and you get this amazing advice, life-changing advice. Yes, it was. Go to Baja.

Yeah. And it changed you. It did. Well, I started coming down to Mexico. My first trip was when I was three. My grandfather fished during the 40s. the 60s here in Baja and mainland Mexico. So my first trip was as a three-year-old on a fishing boat out of Incinada catching fish in the bait tank. If you hold open your sleeve and you push

it through the bait tank, you can get a lot of fish up your sleeve. Wow. Yeah. So that was my first experience. And then my parents rode motorcycles. So we did a lot of off-road racing down here in San Felipe. And then in 1979, I took an interdisciplinary class in high school that went to the different missions down to Loretto. And she's wondering why I wanted to talk to her on slow Baja. You're kidding me? So I already had Baja in my blood. It's like you either love it or you hate it. Ask your doctor if Baja's right for you. Absolutely. It's right for me. So let's get back to what do you remember about being with your grandfather in Fisher? trips here at that period of time.

People were flying in Francisco Munoz or there are private pilots or whatever. The kissing captain. She even knows what we're talking about here, folks. Jesus, I'm just getting all giddy. I got chills. Yeah, so, I mean, people flew in and it was remote spots and Buena Vista and other places. And you experienced some of that as a wee one. As a little one, I only did as far as Ensenada, staying at Popple.

Gaios is where he always stayed. And I just, I just remember the boats that they had the little slats where if I dropped my fish, they would go down into the floorboards and I couldn't get them, so I'd have to get some more. And how they always wanted me to take a nap, but that's not fun. Fishing is more fun, and I still love to fish. So I remember dancing on top of my grandfather's shoes to the Marimba music and the restaurants and going to the shops and It's little memories. Yeah. Yeah.

And then your parents raised motorcycles. Yes. Yeah. Come on. Yeah. My parents raised motorcycles. Yeah. And I did for a while.

I was in the Powder Puff division. Okay. So Endurros, I rode Enduros. Do you want to put an era on that? Was that 80s? In the 70s. 70s, powder puff. Do you remember the bikes?

I had a Suzuki 90. Okay. And a Honda 250. Okay. And we were a little ripper? Induros, which are more time and challenge. It's not go fast as you can. You have to keep a certain pace.

But I traded two wheels in for four legs. Okay. So I don't ride motorcycles anymore. And let's get on to that life-changing bit. I mean, we're jumping around all over the place, but golly. You ride mules. Yes. That's a special thing all in itself.

It is. Down here, they're a little, they're a tool. The best four by four you could have. So I have three mules and one burrow. And can you explain the difference for folks who may not be up to speed on, who may have not had a STEM education, they don't really know the, the idiosyncrasies of a mule and a horse. And a horse and a burrow.

Okay. Mules are a different animal. It's like a cat and a dog. They have four legs in the tail, but they're not the same. Mules down here are necessary for the mountains, sure-footed. They can see all four feet at one time. They don't eat as much. They don't require as much water.

They're smart. They're not stubborn. It's a land cruiser. Yeah, with how it doesn't need gas. But I got my mules to work the cattle roundup at Ranch of San Gregorio. And that's the reason why I have mules. And unfortunately, with climate change and the drought, that doesn't happen anymore. They lost all of their cattle.

Wow. Yeah. So my mules live with me here. They don't live at the ranch. Well, we were going to talk about Herman, but we're going to keep on ranching and talking mules, and then we're going to get to Herman. We're going to get to Herman in Part B. talk about that process of having that inside you where you say, I need a mule. I need a mule.

Well, it's... Did you have to clear that with anybody? Well, I've had horses. Yeah? Most of my life, I've had horses. And I had a very bad accident on my last horse. And the neurologist said, no more horse riding. Well, a mule's different animal.

So now I have mules. You never run a mule, do you? Run, they don't need to. Yeah, but like horses, you're going to go galloping at some point. But mules can go fast. Depends on the cow you're chasing. So if you need to go fast, you can go fast. But like for doing flat work with the cows, they use horses,

but doing the mountain work, they use mules. And so tell me about the process of finding that first mule. How far do you have to go? Who's the mule broker? Who has the best mules? Word of mouth. One of my mules came from an American gentleman up in San Felipe. I bought her from him.

The other two are rescues. One came off of the tourist wall in Punta Banda. I felt sorry for him. He was so small. Mules shouldn't be started under saddle until they're about the age of four. And this mule was started too early. I felt bad. It took a year for him to agree to sell him.

to us. So that's where I got Machito. And then the Roosevelt, we have a three, he'll be three in March. We got him. He was an accident. The owner owned a thoroughbred and sent her way to be bred to another thoroughbred and came back and threw a mule. Which is a cross between a horse and a donkey. So he was going to discard the baby and go again and so that's why we have Roosevelt.

Awesome. Yeah. Awesome. Sounds like hound dog rescues. Yeah. I think the hound dog's a great idea until they have one. Yeah. So we have two mules as rescues and one I chose to buy.

And because we work the radio communications for BFG, the thousand comes through Bayeah every, I believe, three years. And in order to get radio communication in and out of Bayeah for the racers, we have to go onto the top of that mountain range behind us there. It's about 4,500 feet, and the only way to get there is on a mule. So we met Guillermo Vio Vizencio at Rancho San Gagorio, and that was our trip up there. It took five to seven hours riding to get up to the top.

And after that first trip with them, where we spent three days at the top of the mountain, he invited us to come back to the ranch for the round of the mountain. up. And I rode with the vacaros every day. Darren, he doesn't ride like I ride, so he stays, we kid that he stays home and makes tortillas. I go ride with the vacarros. But we had to ride their mules, and I wanted my own mules, so I wouldn't have to take a mule away from another rider. So that's what started me on having mules, and then it just kind of went from there. All right. For the record, I stay home and make tortillas, too. Well, I try to make tortillas, but they laugh.

Mine look like the bottom of your shoe. I can never get them round. I mean, chocolate chip cookies in my case, but whatever. Tell me about the ranch. Ranch of San Gregorio is south of Mission San Borja. And it takes used to before the hurricane, take about an hour and a half from here to get there. You go to San Borja first, and then you continue up the mountain in south. the hurricane took out the road so for example it takes five hours now to get there from

rosarito nouevo if you go out that way so we haven't been since the hurricane but we would spend three months a year up there helping with the roundup and we lived in a tent while we did that and they asked why didn't we come more often we did it two years in a row and we said said, well, it's not comfortable living in a tent for one reason, and they said, well, would you like a house here? So we built a house. We built a house there, a small little casita. It's not quite finished yet, but then the drought happened. And they lost their entire stock of cattle. Many family members had cows, hundreds. They all died. So it's a hardship now for these families because that is their life. It's generations of cattle ranching.

Generations. Their grandfather built the original house up there. So our hope is with our little Katzita that we built, that they'll be able to now do ecotourism. And once the road is repaired, the problem with the road is they're having to do it by hand, rock by rock because the road is just gone. So you're getting up there in a four-wheel drive?

Yes. Yeah, so it's not a two-wheel drive experience or an adventure motorbike experience. Well, they do go up in their razor scooters. Carol and Roger just went up in their razors. And they had pictures. Okay. It's pretty bad. So generations of drought in Baja, drought in Baja have gone

hand in hand for centuries. It has. Do you think the cattle are ever coming back? I think it could slowly. They started to take cows up there, cattle back. The problem was without adult cows to teach them, the mountain lions, the cats came in. Yeah.

And the cattle is not at the ranch, or it didn't used to be at the ranch. They were a good three-hour ride away from the ranch in various locations. They weren't right there. So we would ride up the Bioncitos, a ride up to Mesa Alta. We would ride to these different places. You know, get up in the morning and you'd hear the choyah being chopped to make the fire because you always start your fire with choya to make coffee on your wood-burning stoves

and get your mules ready and then ride out and stop after two hours to make coffee and your tin cup that you keep on your chaps in the fire pit. And then you get the cows and bring them back. And the first ride out, they were like, oh, who is this woman who's going to ride with us? The other vicaros didn't know me.

Yeah, she's going to slow us down. Yeah. And it was a 12-hour day in the saddle, and it was awesome. And I couldn't wait to do it again. And it was pitch block when we came back down, and we'd get in a line like a train, and the first person would shout out if it were choa or what was coming, so you'd know to put your hand up.

I knew I was getting back close to the ranch when I could put my hand out and feel the wall of Rancho Viejo. Then I knew I was getting close. But it's just a lifestyle that I love. Sounds magical. Unfortunately, now with the cattle gone, but that's their bank. If they need something, they'd go to the ranch, you'd sell a cow.

But without the cow, It's a lifestyle that I'm worried about if it's going to continue. So that's why we're hoping with our little Casita out there, they'll be able to use that for tourism. Because there's petroglyphs. There's so much else to see besides the working cattle ranch. You know, people want to know about medicinal plants. They want to know the life. People want to slow Baja.

They want to relax. Awesomely slow. Yeah. Amazing out there. I don't know how else to say it other than it's just, I just absolutely love it. Can you describe the mule back, the pace, the walk, the rhythm of it? Can you really put that into words? A caterpillar?

We call one of our mules a caterpillar. He's just, that you just, you just, you just. trust your mule they they can see where they're going they won't go where it's not safe they um it's hard you become the same as your mule you're this you're this you're this you're one they can tell how you're feeling before you even get on so if you're in a bad mood you better leave it in the car it's just like teaching you know you have all these problems in your head but before you you leave them all in the car before you walk in the classroom. It's the same when you're on your mule.

You know, life just needs to slow down and soak it up and trust your mule. And I don't know. It's hard to describe, but I love it. I do. What's the, what's the, more or less the working life of a mule? How many years are you going to get to ride your mule? They live until about the air. of 40 and you don't you shouldn't start them until four so my mules will outlive me

yeah they've got some prime years to go yeah because my mules are only um three eight and nine so my mules are fairly young my mules it sounds like a song can you tell me about your shoes I've got some whites boots on here that are my Baja boots and I love them but you've got some handmade boots there. My tejahas were made in Sierra San Francisco. I took my spurs off to come here. You can see where I cut a little slat so that my spurs stay in there really well. But they're made in Sierra San Francisco when I went on a ride down to see the cave art. They traced my foot out on a piece of cardboard and I came back and had shoes. And they're the most comfortable shoes ever. I put little flower stamps on them to make them mine. But those are my shoes. I love

them and the tread is almost worn out. I prefer them with tread because they help you get a little more traction. I have a pair that are slick I use for dancing. But these are my working ones. Oh, we're going to spend a lot more time together, Paul. So are you going to get them resold? Do you have to go back to the ranch and have somebody put a fresh pair of rubber on there? That's probably not a bad idea.

But I hear it is getting harder to find good old-fashioned tires that aren't still belted. Absolutely. Yeah, they use the sidewall now instead of the tread because... That's probably why my dancing ones are so slick. And also, these are cowhide where a lot of them are deer hide, and the deer hide is a lot thinner. I prefer the cowhide because it's a little bit hard.

Well, I use tapaderos on my saddle, so I don't get too many choa through them. But it can happen. Can you talk about the choye? What do you do? What's your choya removal tool? I call them hairy pickles. Harry pickles. Yeah, because sometimes when you're chasing cows, you go through them, you have to.

But my chaps are very thick, and I wear a leather jacket, and I have polinas on underneath my chaps to keep, so double layer. But they do get stuck in the mules every once in a while. So I'll just find a ride by a stick and break it off and then snap it off. So you don't have an Afro pick on your Velcoat or a leather. man. I have a gerber tool on my chaps. I mean this is real stuff. You need something to yank. Motorcycle riders for sure. I have a

grubber tool on my chaps. I get them here. You know, I had one in the back of my neck. A comb will work really well. Yeah, exactly. The serious racers use the Afro pick and yeah. So a comb will work well or I keep a gerber tool on my chaps. We're going to take a break right there and let you ponder Troya removal

tools and what you might need to bring with you. Harry pickles. Hairy pickles. Hairy pickles, and we'll be right back with Pauline Marguerite Wickham. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border. And when we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at Bajabound.com. That's Bajabound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994.

Well, it's a small world here in Baja. I want to ask you about, we started with Herman Hill. Mm-hmm. And he was such a character. He was. Hard to describe what a character he must have been. Yeah, he was a prospector. That's what brought him to Baia, the gold mines.

And he had raunchy jokes and naughty Navy songs. And he didn't like dogs. but he was very patriotic. He loved 4th of July, hot dogs and apple pie every year. And for Christmas, we would go out and collect the top of century trees and have a Christmas tree lot in his front yard. And every day was his birthday. And he had many occupations depending on who was staying at Guillermo.

He'd be a rocket scientist one day. be a census taker. He'd always have something to engage someone in conversation, and he had stories to tell. And he worked on that book of his Baja's Hidden Gold for a long time. There's many nights I would sit in his house with the Coleman Lantern writing his stories or typing them out again or putting them in the order he thought they should be in the different chapters. and finally he was able to get it published. And he was very proud of that book. And you couldn't walk away without buying one from him because he made sure.

Well, I didn't even get to buy one from him. I bought one at Kate's bookstore in Totos Santos. He always wanted to have a second edition published, but unfortunately it didn't happen until after he passed. Well, talk about his obsession with the Jesuit treasure. He was sure that he said Jesuets. That's how he said it. The Jesuets.

And he was sure the Jesuits had gold out there. And if you asked, he wouldn't tell you. But he loved to take people out on different, showing them the different minds, the different areas, different tracks. And if you found a rock, he always made you feel special. He would call it Leverite. And he would say, oh, you found Leverite right there. and he'd point with his finger. And people were so excited that they had leave her right.

And then he'd say, you know what to do with that? And they'd say, what? Thinking jewelry or something. And he would say, you'll leave her right where you found it. And that was one of his silly jokes. Again, I read the book quite a while ago, and I was going to bring it with me on this trip because I wanted to talk to you about him.

And I just remember what's his testimonial? I don't need any stinking testimonials. I don't need any testimonials by this book. If you don't buy it, you're, you know, we're softball. Something like that. Just something like that. Pretty crass and pretty funny. Yeah, but he helped to set up the mining exhibit at the museum here with Carolina.

Yeah. She knew him very well also. She knew him very well. And he was a World War II guy, Navy, Merchant Marine, something like that. Yes. He was. I wrote a little article for Baja Bound on him after he passed. And that's our sponsor.

Greg, Greg Jeff Hill at Baja Bound, the best in Baja Insurance. We're going to do an impromptu since we just dropped a commercial for them in the break. But you wrote an article about them for Baja Bound because everybody I'm ever talking to, either you wrote something or Martina wrote an article about them. If I'm researching somebody for sure, there's an article on Baja Bound. I just need to go there. Yeah. You can read my little write-up about Herman on Baja Bound.

But he had a, like many older Baja folk here, he had an open door policy. Can you talk about Baja in those days? Like maybe when you came and how you experienced the people who, the folks who were here and in their approach to life? Well, Bahaia was of one dirt road town and the airplanes landed still in the middle. And Casadillas was the only place to go. There was a little Dos Pinos was a little. Those Pinos was a little, I think his name was Tomas. I'm not sure.

That's where we would walk up the road to buy an avocado maybe. Maria Lina made tortillas. We'd buy them from her. We would come here to Archelon to work with the turtles with Antonio. Our job as a student was to scrub the tanks and scrub the turtles. That's what we did keep the turtle tanks clean as students. So I'm going to talk to Antonio about that. So this is Antonio's father, correct?

And can you tell me a little bit about the research station here? I mean, I'm assuming originally it was turtle capturing, processing for food. Well. In the old days, those went over the hill, I'm guessing. Yes, they did. And if the fishermen would catch a turtle, then Tony would put them. He had three cement ponds that are down near the old campground. And that's where Tony had the turtles.

And he could tell you, Donito can tell you more about that. Tonito, Chubasco. You're going to know all the nicknames for all the boys in town. Yeah. Yeah. And he would nurse him back to health. He would.

And keep them there and try and make sure that they were released safely and not end up in another net. Right. And I think they've tracked some out of here and ended up there in Japan. It's just kind of amazing to know how far these. these turtles go. Do they have turtle hatching here? There is a turtle group here. I don't know very much about them,

but I do know that when they find a nest, they try to keep the nest and hatch the turtles and let them go. But I don't know about them. You're not the turtle gal. You're the mule gal. Yeah. Well, you've been super generous with your time. we're going to wrap it up. What do you, what would you want folks to know about Baja that,

you know, maybe set right a preconceived notion or, you know, if you're going to close it up and, you know, I always say ask your doctor if Baja's right for you, because it's not right for everybody, but it's, it's just the, the culture and the people and the children and to soak it in. and it's not Margaritaville. A lot of people come down, they're here for a short time, and they just want to drink and party and go to the beach and have fun, but living here is different. It's a hard life, and there's a lot of work to living here,

but it's worth it. Living your dream is hard work. You have to earn it, and then you need to, own it and you need to maintain it. And that means maintaining your relationships with the people. Your neighbors. Your neighbors. Your community.

Exactly. And it's hard to describe, but it's... But isn't that the key to long life and happiness when they do this research around the world and they basically find that people who eat fish, who have community and who get to laugh a lot and do a little exercise a little work, whether it's up and down stairs or riding mules or whatever, that's what keeps people alive the longest, I think. You find your fit. You find your fit, and you find what works for you, and then you keep it working. And are you off the grid as well over with Roger and Carol? Yes. What's your situation over there? We are. We're solar. We are moving into town,

though, so we have another place. I'm back to O'Conia's. I started on O'Connial land. Then when they changed the road configuration in town, the road used to go straight through town and continue south. The Signor O'Conia back in the day closed that off and made the road go up through where the cemetery is now. And so my home was up there. Mike Nelte has a place on O'Connellan, too. And when my son was just three or four, cars would be pre-running and driving by a little

bit too close because being a school teacher, I came here every school holiday with my children. My husband at the time didn't come. It was just me and my children. And so I got in the truck one day and drove south and found a really nice piece of dirt. And then came into town and found out who owned it. It's Chubasco. And then hooked up with Pepe Smith, who unfortunately isn't with us anymore. And he pulled my trailer out and parked it down there on the beach.

And I've been there since 94. Wow. Yeah. And so I'm off the grid. But we are moving back into town. Chubasco because he was born in a Chubasco. Yes, he was. Baja legends that you just can't let pass.

Eve Ewing, Slow Baja alum, she's been on the show a couple of times. Her father was flying airplanes down here in the 50s, surveying the whales for many years from the air with the director of Scripps and others. And he gave Chubasco's father the very first. marine radio that was not supposed to be on land. It's probably still in the office. It's still in the office. I saw it out of my last trip. I had Shabasco come and show me.

He didn't, he was kind of sheepish about it. He's like, you see that old thing? Okay, here you go. And it's still there. But that's how people got messages back then. In those days, it was like kindergarten telephone. There was one ham radio in town. And if we wanted messages to get out, we had to find somebody to work that radio.

Right. Otherwise, it's, you were here. And, yeah, very different. The town electricity would go out at 10 o'clock at night. And we would be out studying the bioluminescence. And the way we would find ourselves back to town is to look for the lantern in the window. And then we would know that's the station

and you would head your boat back in that direction. But 9.30, you wanted to have toilet paper and a flashlight. Those are the two important things you need to have. It's like traveling in the line. Land Cruiser. I told Christopher, we need, we got to have headlights and flashlights at the ready, because when it gets dark here, it's dark. It's dark. And there's no interior lights and you're fumbling for stuff and you better have a headlamp at your head right at your right there. Right there. Two most important things. Toilet paper. And a flashlight. We're going to leave it right there, folks.

Thank you. It's delightful. Thank you. It's really delightful. Well, I hope you enjoyed that show. And for those of you who watched it on YouTube, I hope you enjoyed watching it. Thanks to Cafe Siette Filos at Campo Archelon for loaning us to the space. And thanks to you for listening. If you like what you're hearing, please take a second. Share it with a friend. I know you've got a Baja Amigo that maybe doesn't listen to podcasts

or maybe he doesn't even know that this podcast exists. Share this show with one friend. Just send it along. Say, hey, check this show out. I really enjoyed listening to Slow Baja. It really puts me to sleep. There's no sleepy, sleepy time like a Slow Baja podcast. Also, you can rate the show if you're listening on Apple and most of you are, but if you're also on Spotify, a lot of you are on Spotify as well.

You can rate the show now, drop a five star, say something nice about me, tell people why you listen to the show. And I hear it really does help people find the show. I don't know a lot about that stuff, but I hear that's what all the podcasters say, so I'm saying it too. And for those of you who are on Patreon and we're hoping to support Slow Baja, I'm going to make your wish come true. I'm on Patreon now. So if you like what I'm doing, check it out. And you can drop some tacos in that tank. And, well, I'll be back with something fun next week.

I hope it's going to be Ivan Stewart with a lot of fun images. And to quote Mary McGee's pal, Steve McQueen, the Baja lover, the driver of the Baja boot. Baja is life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.