Slow Baja - Rancho La Concepcion

Episode Date: January 26, 2025

In this Slow Baja Conversation, we meet Vitza and Cesar, the gracious hosts at the beautiful Rancho La Concepción. Originally from Mexico City, the duo met while engaged in conservation work in Baja California. Rancho La Concepcion is a realization of their combined dream to give back to the world by creating a sacred space for thoughtful travelers. The main reason to visit Rancho La Concepcion is the unparalleled stargazing, but the easy access to nature, miles of hiking trails, and slower pursuits like forest bathing, meditation, and yoga are equally compelling reasons to stay. I've stayed three times and shared the experience with my Slow Baja Vintage Expeditions. I appreciate the slow vibe and silence that envelop the property. On my next visit, I hope to get a glimpse of the local Condor population. I highly recommend their cottages. With prior notice, meals are available, and I can attest that Cesar is a fine cook. If you visit the ranch in the fall, you may be lucky to enjoy an apple pie from their ancient orchard. Rancho La Concepcion is worth the drive and is Slow Baja Approved! Learn more about Rancho La Concepcion and book your stay: http://www.rancholaconcepcion.com/ Get your Baja insurance here: https://www.bajabound.com/quote/?r=fl   For additional information on Slow Baja Adventures, visit: https://www.slowbaja.com/adventures

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

you've got to check out the Adventures tab at slowbaha.com. All my trips are there, from my vintage extravaganzas in fall and summer to my fantastic winter expedition that's open to four by fours of NEH.

Now, of course, you can bring something old, but this trip is perfect for modern rigs. Got a go fast camper or a rooftop tent on your taco? Let's go! Bring your gal. Bring your best Baja bud. Bring your dog. This slow Baja

adventure is for you. We've got whale watching. We've got beach camping. Raul at Rancho La Bayota is going to roast a lamb on a spit that will change your life. You know, I take care of breakfast and dinner on these trips, and it really does take the sting out of camping. Great food, private campsites, ranch stays, good dirt roads, and extraordinary people are the ingredients that make up a slow Baja expedition.

To find your trip, check out the Adventures tab at slowbaha.com. But don't delay all my slow Baja expeditions sell out. So you've got questions, hit that contact button, ready to book, Use that Slow Baja boarding pass at Slowbaha.com slash shop, and I look forward to seeing you in Baja soon. And folks, just so you know, I am always here for you for your Baja trip planning questions. One question, 100 questions, the easy way to get me is slowbaha.com slash contact. And if you'd like to go to Baja and you don't want to go by yourself, you don't have a vintage vehicle, my winter trip doesn't work out for you, I am happy to talk to you about organizing and leading a private guided tour.

I've loved it. The pictures are over there at slowbaha.com slash adventures. And you can check them out. And if you've got some questions, let's talk. Well, thanks for tuning into today's Slow Baja, new year, first show of 2025. My heaping dose of gratitude goes out to Abby Diamond. I met Abby at that little cafe, Abby and her pal Marcy, met them at that little cafe at Lagoon Luna Chappala where the five runs into the one. And Abby asked if I knew about Rancho La Concepcion. I told her I didn't. I didn't know a thing about it. And she said I had to check it out because it was super slow Baja. And she was absolutely right. I did check it out. I took my group up on the slow Baja summer expedition, those kids from Akalani's high school auto shop and postal jeeps. We got them all the way up there. And it was great. And I came back with my buddy and his wife, Wino and Amy. And And then I brought my fall, Slow Baja, Vista, cooked a fabulous dinner for my group and made stunning apple pies from their trees and a beautiful breakfast on the way out the next morning. And I got to tell you, it's really a lovely spot. It is worth the drive.

It is Slow Baja approved Rancho La Concepcion today on Slow Baja. We're here. Okay. Yes. You're there. We're all together. To squeeze in the camera. Yeah, it's a beautiful morning here at Rancho La Concepcion. I'm delighted to spend the night.

And I've got Vita and Cesar here. There are beautiful proprietors of this fantastic ranch. And we've been joined by a whole mess of flies. Como did he say? We would say in English a shitload of flies. How do you say that? How do you say? Muchos.

Muchos mosques. Muches mosques. Yeah. All right. We got a lot of flies around us, folks. They're buzzing. We're sitting here in the shade in this beautiful ranch. It's a lovely, lovely morning.

It's October. I'm on a pre-run for the Slow Baja vintage expedition. We'll be back here with a group in one week. And I just wanted to come in and see Vita and Cesar and get a good look at the route, make sure everything's all right. And here we are. are. Here we are. Here we are at Rancho La Concepcion. Yes, we are so happy that you are here with us. Yeah, that's my my second visit. Tell me what possessed you to take on this project. This is a very sizable project. You two are conservation professionals. You've worked in the world of

conservation, so we'll get to that in a minute, but why this? Why this? Well, I think that And before we met, it was like our dream, each of us had like one dream. And when we met, our dream was more or less the same. Yes, like to have a space to do those things that we think and we believe in, like to make an impact on the world about how things can go okay, how to we can give to the world instead of the world giving us. And here we are. We're looking for places.

And this one just got our heart because it's immersed in the Sierra San Pedro Martyr. And that's what you have, only nature around you. Yeah, that's right. That's right. This is a very special spot in Baja California. Of course, you know, it's a lot of special spots in Baja California. but this this give us the opportunity to have all this different types of needed for develop our project it's far very far it's close to the national park it's very close to the national park it's a very pristine area jet and it's a spot with a lot of history a lot of uh not only the quiliwas the kiliwa the tribes do live here in the beginning or in the past it's a part of the Meling ranch

areas and the cowboys activities the Bakeros in Baja California and have a lot of history about around the conservation and the stars the nights the dark skies here it's amazing I think it's a very special spot because put together a lot of different aspects. The nature, the silence, the far away, and the skies, the history. It's a very important area. Yeah, so I will agree, Slow Baja approved right out of the gate.

And the gift I dropped last night when I got here, it's worth the drive. This beautiful place is worth the drive. I think it was Mama Espinoza who said, bad roads bring good people. Bad roads bring good people. And this isn't a bad road. It's just a little bit off the beaten path.

Now, again, you've got the National Park above us. You've got the melling ranches, the Rancho Alto Coyote, and the main melling ranch just below you. So people are coming. But this is a beautiful spot that I think people should come to for what's here. So let's get into what is here. It's a dark skies ranch. So people should come here first and foremost for the stunning, spectacular skies.

I set my alarm for 2.30 this morning so that I could just get up and see the stars. And they're just right there on top of you. And there's really no light pollution at all. It's stunning. So tell me a little bit about that. Yeah. So I think that in the cities we forget that there are a million, million stars above us. we forget even to look up to the sky and see all the tiny tauts above us and here it's just like when there's no moon or even with a little moon you can just look up and see I don't know like you you feel yourself like you're a small small piece of the universe because there's a lot going on out there and you are just like here to amaze yourself and to see how the stars

illuminate the night and to see shooting stars, to see, to get to understand constellations, how they move through the night, how in one moment you start like at 2 a.m. you see one constellation here and by the end before it's sunrise, you see the constellation. So that's the proof that we are moving and we are just here to amaze ourselves with that. Well, yeah, and so you start with that, the spectacular night sky. I mean, we were It's Baja midnight at 9 o'clock. So we were sort of patting off to bed after Cesar had cooked us of magnificent dinner. And so, you know, I mean, I was probably, you know, over in my cabin on the outlook at 9.30.

And I'm sort of winding things down, thinking about going to bed. And sitting out on the deck there, we watched the sunset there, which is such a spectacular part of this property, the way you cited that deck so you see the sun drop right. down into the horizon, into the ocean. And that's stunning in itself. And then to just be there in silence and see the stars and say, okay, I'm going to bed. But I'm setting my alarm for 2.30 so I can get up and see the full effect. And again, I slept in the cabin.

The last time I was here, I slept out on that deck, which was lovely on a cot. And at 2.30 in the morning, it's just the sky is alive. It's just, it's stunning. I mean, it's just stunning to just allow your eyes to adjust. You realize how bright it all is. So you've got that. And tell me about you've got hiking, you've got meditation, you've got nature. Let's just go through it all.

Cesar? Yeah. Yeah, that's super interesting and it's amazing. Not only, as you say, the skies and the night and the dark, and enjoy the stars and the movement of the world. You can enjoy the night in the other level, taking a hike in the night inside the forest to try to listen the birds in the nights, the owls.

The owls. That's a very interesting thing. You not only can see the life in the stars and in the skies, You can see in the night the life and the things that happens at that hour, no? Most of us are having a dreams in the night, no, rest, sleeping. But a lot of different animals, people, and things happen in the night. And that's very interesting to try to enjoy in here.

The opportunity with this property, that's far more of the things. the animals keep more they're more relaxed more relaxed yeah that kangaroo rat that walked me up to my cabin he just didn't care you know yeah yeah that's scampered in front of me the whole time yeah you can see the dears in the night here in the property have

this apple trees plantation and the the dears love at the apples love the apples and and you can here in the middle of the night with all the dark sky, you can hear and see the deer's moving around here on the birds, the holes, and all the fauna on the life in the nights.

Fisla, tell me a little bit about your specialty, your passion. We were talking a little bit over breakfast, beautiful breakfast that Cesar made. You meditate, you lead part of what people come here for is guided meditations and to meditate in nature, in companionship and company. I don't know how to properly say it, but tell me a little bit about meditation here and what you're doing. Yes. So I believe that meditation is a way to just like slow down ourselves. And I have been practicing for a few years now. And what I

about meditation in nature is that it awakes all our senses that sometimes I feel that they are like sleep. We forget how to feel with all of our skin, how to smell, how to hear. So one part of the meditation or one meditation that I like to guide is like just, first of all, to feel yourself presence in the space and then little by little starting awakening all your senses. like to feel the wind through all your skin, to get to recognize all the sounds, the farthest sounds and the closest sounds that you can perceive and also the smells.

Sometimes we don't pay attention to all these kind of senses and how these senses gave us information about the place we are in and how they awake us and how they make us realize that we are in the present and how we can enjoy ourself in that space, but also to enjoy the space with ourselves in it.

Yeah, sounds good. I'm ready for that today. We've got more mapping to do, unfortunately. I won't be staying to meditate, but I'm open to that. I'd like to give that a try. Also, you two are quite hikers, adventurous hikers, but you have a number of hikes here on the property that go from very relaxed sort of accessible, I don't want to say easy, but accessible, easy hikes to a strenuous 11-kilometer six-hour route that we were discussing earlier. Let's talk about that a little bit. Tell me about what's here in the hiking, what you see, where you go. Yeah, we have different levels of hikings, no, for, for be available for any kind of tourism or guest or desires. Ability, any type of ability. Ability. Yeah. And one of them is very close here. We are starting this project like two years ago, one year in operation, two years ago living here. But this property, this ranch, it's a very old property. It's a lot of history here. It's a lot of histories, a lot of things to see. And one of them is a little hike. We can see one of them in a little hike to open the hill. to visit one ruins ruins of a little cabin of Kiliwa people. And we can be there and talk a little more about all the history, all the Kiliwas,

all the behaviors of that tribe, all the things that they collect or hunting for interch change in the coast for other type of resources. and it's very interesting. It's not only a hike, a traditional hike, no it's only the exercise that it's very nice to walk in the forest. It's a little hike to understand better the culture and the nature. I've just said in the beginning of this podcast interview, we are both guys to work for a conservation for many years by now, and we want to share with guests with our,

guests all our knowledge or our understanding about the nature and we can walk in this hills to take a look about the flora you have to look and learn look and learn look and learn yeah and of course I just say it's it's some of very close here another one it's a little more difficult and enjoy all the day and in some points we do a stop to to take a rest to take enjoy a coffee or a tea or something that's bidsa say that the meditation it's not only this level of traditional meditation that you put in a in a flor or loto no in a seat position the lotus position yeah we can meditation in in in the middle of the forest in the

middle of a trip a hiking that that's that's very amazing yes we we have been like our outdoor people for a long time. We have doing like hikings or speleology, canyoning, biking for a lot of our life. So that was an important part for us in this project to get to those places that sometimes require a little more of energy or a little more of time and to explore. For me, exploring is one of the most important things in my life, in my daily life, to get to know like places that you think or you believe or you feel that no one has been there and that you are the first one to see that. I don't know. Maybe it's not true, but you had that feeling. You have that feeling for sure.

Yes. Let's talk a little bit about your backgrounds. I was surprised to know I know that you both have an association, had an association with Terre Peninsula, so you've been in that organization and conservation. But Cesar was a little surprised last night over our conversation to hear about your thesis, your PhD thesis, with the tourism and shark diving on the Great White Sharks off of Guadalupe Island.

I think that's very fascinating. So just tell Slow Baja a little bit about your background, where you came from in the conservation path, the jobs you've had. I don't want to say the jobs you've had, but the projects you've worked on in the past that led you to say, I'm going to take this on. And, of course, you're still working remotely in conservation. So just bring us up on your backgrounds a little bit.

Yeah, I start working in conservation like 20 years ago, something like that. When I moved here, moved to Baja California. I'm born in Mexico City, and as you know, you can understand, it's a beautiful place too, but it's very different in nature aspects. I move here to Baja California to learn, to study more about the fish. and sharks always be my best interest of my fascination. They're fascinating, aren't they? Yeah.

Very fascinating. When I am child, I always want to understand more about the sharks and about the behavior of the sharks. I see, of course, all the pictures with sharks are involved. And I start working here in Cicese to do my master degree. And my time of thesis is that. of this is it's the change of the behavior of the white sharks in interaction with the cage diving and develop a methodology to understand better the I test three different methodologies to understand better what it's happening with the

cage diving and in that in the same laboratory in CCCES I started working with the fisheries I move all around all the Baja Peninsula visit all the fish main camps not to understand the the catch and what happened with the the sharks in that in that bycatch situations I work with some partners in Cicese to understand the the little shark the baby sharks the one of the the the jump of the year sharks in in Biscayino Bay no to find the the rest of the sharks in in some of the, what do you say, basurero, trashers? Trash.

Trash. No? And a lot of things are interesting. Let's unpack this for a second. I think this is so fascinating. So the Great White Sharks have their babies in Viscayano Bay. So that's where they birth their young. Now, I don't know a lot about sharks, but my assumption is those sharks are out on their own

from the minute they come out of the mother. Yeah. They're out on their own. They're swimming around. And what you're talking about is these, young sharks in this area are getting caught in fishermen's nets as bycatch for their fishing. They're looking for something else, but those baby sharks are swimming with other things and they're getting caught. Is that what you're telling? Is that what you're telling me if I am

understanding correctly? Yeah, yeah, you don't understand correctly. Yeah, that happens in Biscaynobe is this. Today on Shark Week at Slow Bar. We didn't mean to get down this path, but I am also fascinated by sharks, so we're going to get just a minute and then we'll roll it right back to Rancho Concepcion. So back to sharks and your work with the fisheries and the fishermen. Yeah, that happens in Biscayino Bay because Biscayinovay, it's a very nursery area, important nursery area, not only for the sharks, for many different species of fish and marine mammals and other kind of fauna. It's a protected area with this current from the north,

with all these nutrients coming for the surgencias, for the I don't know what's saying in English the upwelling no open whaling no and came with all these nutrients for for the Biscayino Bay he bring that a very important characteristics to be a nursery air for different species and of course it's other fishers activities over there for catching a different type of fish and one of them it's in bycatch it's the white sharks yeah it's not a lot, but it happens. No, it happens. And we work to study the impact of that in that area. Well, I'll be back to talk white sharks on another trip. I'm so fascinated by that subject as well.

But let's circle back to, I was asking you about your path, your path as a conservationist and the projects you worked on before you took on this project. So let's, after you were, you were studying the impact of cage diving, on the Guadalupe Island white shark population. Yeah, and after that, I started working with Terra Peninsula. They asked me for move the marine conservation program in Terrapeninsular and I start working some projects in Guadalupe Island but with other resources like lobsters, and we start work with the sport fishing activities,

and we start working for that. But the principal aspect in the Terra Peninsula is, the main goal of Terra Peninsula is protected areas. It's natural protected areas. It's about low protected areas. And we work with land conservation, land acquisition, and different levels of types of protection with the federal government, with the local government,

and with the private owners of land. and help us to develop the skills to manage the areas like a natural protected area. And that's the reason that I first, my first time to be here in Rancho La Concepcion is because the previous owner asks Terra Peninsula to help to develop a natural protected area here. That's the reason that I, it's my first time here in Rancho La Conception. I started working here like 10 years ago, trying to help with the protection for the Yucca, to protection for the fauna, to measure the diversity of here. And that's it.

Well, if you fell in love with the ranch. Yeah. Yeah. Well, if you want to come to this beautiful ranch, you're going to need Mexican driving insurance. And we'll be right back after word from Baja Bound. So we'll be right back. Here it's Little Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border. When we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance.

Their website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at BajaBound.com. That's Bajabound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994. A big thanks to those of you who've contributed to our Baja baseball project. You know, we launched our gear deliveries on my winter expedition. Michael and Matthew from Barbers for Baja. We're along for the ride, and we got to deliver that critically needed baseball gear up and down the peninsula. It was really, truly amazing.

And on my last trip, I got to go to the state baseball championships and see some of our alums playing, some recipients of the Baja Baseball Gear deliveries. And congratulations to Guerrera Negro and Mulej, the Austenaros, and the Cardinalitos won silver and bronze at the state championships. Big stuff. It was really fun to be there and fun to. see them. All right, well, please help us continue this vital work. Make your tax deductible donation at the Barbers for Baja.org. Click the Barbers for Baja.org. Click the baseball in Baja link. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really do. It is so amazingly gratifying to be able to give these kids

this chance to keep playing this sport. Keep them on the field. Keep them out of trouble. Please check it out. Baseball in Baja link at barbers for Baja.org. Thank you. Hey, we're back with Visa and Cesar and we're talking about this beautiful property, Rancho La Concepcion. I'm going to say it again, it's worth the drive. If you've got your Baja bound insurance, you might as well drive all the way up this beautiful mountain. Get up. It says six kilometers, five kilometers. How long is your driveway?

6.5 kilometers. 6.5 kilometers on a beautiful winding dirt road that they're busting their busing their buns to keep that road in shape. I heard Marcy and Abby did it in a Prius. I did it in, I did in low. I put my truck in low, but it wasn't in four-wheel drive, but we got up at all right. We were just talking about your paths as employment, as conservationists getting here. We didn't get to you, Visa. Tell us a little bit about your background. Where are you from? How'd you get here? So, yeah, I'm also from Mexico City, where I studied biology. And then I think, I think, I think where I just get this dream to live of greed was after I finished my degree, I went to an island that's called Isabel Island in front of Nigerit.

And I spent like five months over there studying birds, like blue-footed bobby bird. And I think that's when I realized that I just wanted to live in nature and to be around nature and that I was comfortable there and not in Mexico City. So then I returned to Mexico City and did my master, but in the other peninsula of Mexico, in Ducatan Peninsula. And I did some job. It was a program between Canada and peninsula. And with there, I also discovered my dream to explore and to get to know other cultures and to get to know other places. And I went to Cameroon in Africa to study how firewood, the chain of firewood works over there. And then I came back here and then I also work with Terra Peninsula, but before like starting working for Terra, but because of Terra, I went to Alaska to start working with the Forest Service over there and to get to know how to do like trails and how to manage the part of the tourism in natural protected areas.

And then I came back and worked at Terra doing that in their natural reserves. But as I told you, that was this dream of like making an impact. And that's where Cesar and I like get this dream together or like accomplished this dream. And we came here and we decided that it was like the perfect place to start it to make an impact to create like this directive tourism where people come and get something from the place from nature, from being digital disconnected, but also the place gets from us by being here, just like, like, I don't know, like doing composting, like getting the fruits, and we are giving also to the place and protecting the place by us being here. Yeah, it's a noble undertaking and a sizable undertaking. There's an awful lot here. There's an

awful lot here that you guys are taking on. So we've talked a little bit about the hiking, the meditation. Up the hill, you've got the Condor restoration project, the rookery or the breeding program for the condors. On one of your hikes, you're telling me that you can actually look up, and if you're paying attention, binoculars, you might see condors flying above. Yeah. Yeah, we are very close to the polygon of all the National Park, the Sierra San Pedro National Park. But in some point in one of our trails, you can be in a predilected area to have in front of you the Punta San Pedro.

Punta San Pedro is the place that part of the international park, it's part of the polygon of this Condor project, this reintroduction condor project. And it's the researchers or the people, the experts, the experts, the decide to be the project in that area because it's a very... Clips. A lot of topography. It's very special. Cliffs and caves, yeah?

Yeah. And the condors nest in that areas, in that corner. If you can be there in a good day with a lot of lucky, no? And with the binoculars, you can see the condors moving around here. And it's very interesting because it's an open, It's upper, no? It's all around one thousand meters up. But you are close because it's the the hill, it's La Pendiente. It's a steep part.

It's a steep part, no. But it looks like a very tiny birds, no? But when you see with the binoculars are huge, that huge. Massive. And that's it's very interesting to see it because it's not even you are far with a 1,000 different different of altitude, you can see moving around the area that it's impressive. Now I noticed both of you have mountain bikes tucked on the back patio. You must do a little mountain bike riding around here.

Yes, we do. We are starting looking for trails for the bikes. Now we go just like around like exploring. And one of our projects is to do that bike trails. So an interesting part of the history here, we were talking about the native people who were here and were this, this property was part of the migration from the inland valley to the sea. So when they were, when they were moving with the seasons, moving with the foods, they moved through here. But also the Melling family settled here. Is that Ida Melling?

Aida Melling. Excuse me. Iida Melling. Iida Melling settled here. Yeah. So my thought is that if she was choosing this location, way, way, way back when she had her choice of anything around here, there must be something special here. Now, I know you have water. Give me a couple minutes about what else makes this place so special.

Yeah, that's, I think, one of the principal reason that the mailing and the cowboys families decide to buy this property and use for the backeros activity, for the cowboys activity, because they move all the cows from the other places in the valleys and take a rest here to move for the rest of the trail, to move around the down areas. They're looking for the grass, looking for the better feed it for the cows, the animals,

and in this like a migration route for, for the cows. And this property cross, it's crossed for three different streams, no, different trips. One of them run water, two of them run water all the year. So you have year-round water, which is the most important thing in Baja. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's one of the very special things here. We have water all the year coming from the La Sierra, and that gave it not only for the cows

and the cowboys activities for the dears and for the rest of the fauna, it's a very important place to use it, to take water. Well, it's a very special place. I unfortunately have to get on the road and get down the trail, as I have still a lot of mapping to do for my trip for next week. Tell people about how they can find out more about what you do here. What's the best way for folks to find you? I know you're on Facebook.

Yes, we are on Facebook. We are on Instagram. And we also have our web page and WhatsApp. All right. And that's Rancho La Concepcion. Rancho. dot La Concepcion on Instagram. Rancho.

dot La Concepcion on Instagram. And your website is Rancho la Concepcion.com. Well, it'll be in the show notes, folks. We are in Airbnb, too. Oh, yes. We are in Airbnb, too. Airbnb, too. We didn't even talk about that.

Holy Delito. So I stayed in a beautiful cabin that has a beautiful westerly view. Tell me about the other offerings here. You've got places for people to stay. You don't have to camp here like I do. No, that's how we started. Now we have three cabins for different size of groups like one. Our biggest cabin is for almost seven people, seven persons. The other one that is called El Estabolo. The middle one is from two to four people and the one you stay.

This is one that one's behind us. And the other one is where you stay there is one for one to two people. Yes. And that's little one. It's very special. It's very special. Because it's in an upper hill, no, in a hill with the west in front of you and the sunset, it's a very special area. Right.

So there's a very large glass window there, folks, where you see the sun setting in the west. And, of course, you can look right out and see the stars. and, you know, when the sun rises, you get to see just the early morning glow of, you know, the beautiful valley. It's just a valley straight away, and then you get to see all the way to the coast. It's amazing. All right. Well, Rancho La Concepcion Slobaha approved. It's worth the drive.

Come and see Luca. Hello, Luca. You didn't get to see Luca in this video, but Luca's their beautiful ranch dog. It's a beautiful place, spectacularly quiet, and that's so rare today. dark skies, good people, good food. Looks like you're able to roast something here in this barbecue. I've seen photos of a young pig, beautiful pig here. What else will you do a party like that?

Yeah, yeah, it's part of the things we can do for our guest. Organize a big dinner, no, with some fire and deer's, no. like your peaks a peaks all right well visa Cesar has been lovely

staying here thanks for making a little time for slow Baja and I'll be back here next week and I can't wait so worth the drive folks

come on up Rancho La Concepcion and the the difficult of the road it's part of the experience for sure the life it's

the roads in the life it's not always easy And that's part of this project. The road is part of experience. The roads and life are not always easy. We're going to leave it right there. Thanks.

Thank you. Well, I hope you liked that one. Cesar and Vitsa, really lovely people, lovely property, well worth the drive. Get up there in time to watch the sunset. Tell them Slow Baja sent you and run a cabin. And if you run a cabin, or even if you're camping out, set your alarm. Get up in the middle of the night and check out that night sky. It really is spectacular. All right. Well, if you like what I'm doing, if you like learning about places

that you need to go visit, I'm going to ask you to drop a taco in the tank. Support me. Support this work. I can't do it without you. And I get it. If you don't have any tacos, if there are no tacos jingling in your pocket to drop in my tank, do me a solid. Drop a five-star review on Apple or Spotify. Tell people while you're listening to the show. That really does help people find Slow Baja, and that is super important. All right, in closing, got to tell you about my pal Mary McGee. You know, she passed away at Thanksgiving, almost 88 years old.

Really a wonderful, wonderful woman. I'm so glad that I got to help get her story out to a wider audience. Now, Mary had a pal, Steve McQueen, and Steve told Mary to get off that pansy road racer come out into the desert because Steve loved Baja. And he said, you know, Mary, Baja's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.