Slow Baja - RVing Baja Exceeds All Expectations With Nicole Demme Kapturowski

Episode Date: July 12, 2022

I am pleased to share this 2021 Slow Baja archive conversation on RVing in Baja with Nicole Demme Kapturowski. With the Summer travel season in full swing, I've been fielding loads of questions from folks planning their first Baja trip. I love Nicole's enthusiasm, and her honesty as she shares her heart-felt endorsement for Baja as an RV travel destination. This lively conversation answers many questions and assuages so many concerns that I thought I would share it again. "We have a full plate. My husband retired in 2019 because he has stage-4 cancer, but he's doing well. We're just trying to make the most of our time and not be the cancer family—much the same way with my son, who's autistic. I try not to let that define us. We're not the family with the autistic child; we're just another family out there doing things and living our life. We try not to let those things define us." Moved by the kindness of strangers and stunned by the warmth, attention, and care shown to her autistic son, she eloquently posted about it on Talk Baja. The post received over 2700 likes, 410 comments, and 200 shares! Read her Talk Baja post on Facebook here.

Hello, hello, hello, Ola Como Estas, Slobaha amigos. My heaping dose of gratitude this week goes out to John Alderson. You've heard me mention him, shout him out on the show before, but John has slid some tacos in the tank, and he's been a regular in that regard, and I can't thank him enough. And recently he sent an order in for a slug of old-school Slobaha trucker hats that he just wants to give out his gifts to his Slow Baja Amiga. and I just can't say thank you enough. John was flying around over the Nora Mexican 1000 looking for me, but I guess I was so slow, he never found me. He saw a big Oli, but he never saw

slow Baja. So anyways, John, thank you, Amigo. I appreciate all of your support and thanks for sharing the love. Today's show is with Nicole Demi Kaptorowski, and it's a show from the archive, but I've been sharing it a lot lately, privately in messages one-to-one with folks who are asking me about heading to Baja for their first time. What about the roads? What about the safety? What about the whatabouts? And I just think Nicole has so much honesty and enthusiasm.

And she did her homework. And I just wanted to share this show again because it really warms my heart, what she was going through in her own life and what the experience of going to Baja did for her. So enjoy the show. I'll be back with something fun next week. And without further ado, Nicole. Demi Kapturowski, RVing Baja exceeds all expectations. 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 Benchmarkmaps.com.

Hey, good morning, Slow Baja friends. I've got Nicole Demi Kaptorowski on a Zoom call from Las Vegas, correct, Nicole? That is correct. I'm in Sin City for a few days. Well, I was just just taken by your posting on Talk Baja about your recent RV trip to Baja. I think you spent a month down there with your parents and your kids and your husband. And I just, again, like so many folks who responded to your post, I was just taken and reached out to you and you're kind enough to get back to me. And here we are. So, Nicole, you're from New York. Baja. Yeah, Baja isn't next door to New York. No, it is not.

Yeah, my brief stint of living in the Boston area, people don't really think about Baja back there the way they would go to Florida or maybe a sunny vacation in the Caribbean or Puerto Rico or something like that. But what put Baja in your wheelhouse, so to speak? Well, I've been RVing for a little more than 20 years. And, you know, it's all been domestic, cross-country, local, you know, we haven't been. afraid to get out there, but we had not done a lot of international RVing. And that's something I've always wanted to do. And a couple of RV groups that I belong to, some people had mentioned Mexico and more specifically Baja as a really safe, you know, fun place to go. And it kind of a great first place to go to get your feet wet and kind of international RVing. So I started doing some

research. I joined Toc Baja and a couple of other groups. And the more I learned, the more seemed like a very realistic idea. It was, you know, I mean, yeah, of course it's far. But when you live at one particular end of the country, almost at anything as far. So we just decided, you know, the more we researched and the more we learned, it just seemed like a very realistic option. It seemed like a lot of people were going and they felt safe. And so we decided, you know, let's do it.

We were originally supposed to go last year. But of course, you know, COVID, you know, kind of put a damper on those plans like I'm sure did for a lot of people. So we rescheduled for this year, which kind of was a blessing in a disguise because we originally only planned to be there about two and a half weeks and going this year, we were able to extend it for about a month. So it worked out, it worked out very well. Well, you've got a pretty full plate, it sounds like, in our conversation. You've got a husband who's retired, but dealing with cancer, you've posted about that. And you've got a couple of teens with you.

And I think you have your parents in tow as well in another vehicle. Yeah, we definitely have a full plate. My husband retired in 2019 because he does have stage 4 cancer, but he's doing very well. And so we're just trying to make the most of our time and not be the cancer family where that's all our life revolves around is cancer. And much of the same way with my son who's autistic, you know, I try to not let us be defined by that.

Like we're not the family with the autistic child. We're just another family out there doing things and living our life. So we try to not let those things define us. So my husband being retired and me working remotely and the kids both being remotely in school, you know, that really kind of gave us the opportunity to kind of have this extended experience together. And once we planned it all out, my parents who are retired and they used to RV about 20 years ago, just kind of set on a whim, all right, we're going to buy another RV and come with you.

So we kind of started this cross-country, cross-country international journey together in our little caravan. Wow. Again, I'm a little bit slack-jawed at just taking all that on, but you did a lot of question asking on Talk Baja. Where else did you go for permission? When, I mean, do you plan the rest of your trip as carefully or did your experience of 20 years of RVing and it's the United States? You just said, well, you know, we don't need to worry about this so much.

How heavily did the Baja portion of one-third of your trip factor into your planning? You know, I did ask a lot of questions. In addition to Tauk Baha, I joined RVing in Mexico too because that was very specific to RVing. You know, Baja was funny. I had to do more research for that particular portion of our trip. But the other two-month portion of our trip, I had to actually do more planning in the sense of making reservations. Because one of the things that I learned, you know,

through Talk Baja is, you know, I didn't really need to schedule reservations this particular time, one being because so few people came down for the season because of COVID. And being in April, that tends to kind of be, starts to be where a lot of people that did come down for the season head north. So I learned that, you know, reservations weren't as necessary in Baja as they would be throughout the United States, because, of course, as RVing has boomed, reservations throughout the United States are very difficult to come by. And it requires six, eight, nine months of planning in advance, especially at some of the

most popular areas. So it was kind of, there was kind of a nice little sense of freedom with going to Baja because we didn't have to be so rigid in our schedule. And we, and it was, fluid. So we we loved Los Perilis, so we ended up staying there extra days. You know, we ended up, you know, adjusting our schedule kind of on the fly to add another day here or reduce a day there depending upon the area we were in and what we were doing. And that was, that was really nice. Yeah. So the itinerary that you posted was crossing. I don't know where you cross, but you Papa Fernandez. So, you know, the east coast up north was your first stop. And then you want to take it from there or do you want me to read what I what I wrote down and see where you

think of up? We did we crossed in Mexicali and that was super smooth. Everybody was incredibly helpful even when we ended up in the wrong lane on our first go through. So it was a very easy crossing. Like I said, everybody was extremely helpful. You know, they looked over the RV, a couple of questions. We did our FMMs and we were on our way. We had planned to go to Papa Fernandez, but my parents rig was a little too big to fit in there. So we ended up at Rancho Grande, that first evening. And from there... Excuse me for interrupting, but that changed, I think,

you got an awful lot of feedback about that seemingly on Talk Baja. Is that what drove that change? I did. You know, it was... I was using that book camping in Baja by the churches. And the most recent edition was from 2017. So I was kind of using the Talk Baja, book, which was very helpful because it gave me a ton of information, kind of like a foundation

of where to start with a lot of the campgrounds I was researching. And one more time, Nicole, that was the camp, Camp Baja book by the churches? Yes, it was. And so that was a really, you know, kind of great place to start from. And from there, I could then, you know, that book, the most recent edition, I believe, was 2017 or the addition that I had is for 2017. So, of course, you know, with the pandemic, you know, I've read a talk Baja, of course, a lot of other people probably have as well that certain campgrounds and businesses closed.

And so, you know, I had a kind of, I had my kind of starting point. And then I would throw ideas out to the Facebook page and ask people, you know, their feedback because they've been traveling more recently than the book was written. And so that was really helpful to kind of get some better ideas. I know a place that I planned on staying at in La Paz closed this year. So that, you know, knowing that in advance was incredibly helpful because I could make an alternate turn to a plan and not show up at that campground that was closed and not have any idea where to go from there. So from Rancho Grande, how was that for your first day on the road?

Actually, that was fine. Five is super easy. We had no problems. The second day was, you know, for me, I think that we found the most difficult section of driving with the RVs to be from where five intersected one to Giro Negro. That was the hardest part because it was for us, That was the narrowest part that we encountered. The winding of the mountains and the declines and the ascents didn't present as much of a problem. But the narrowness, you know, when you have eight and a half feet of RV on a nine to nine and a half foot road with semis coming in the other direction, that was the hardest part that second day. But then what's we- Can you just stop for a second and describe a little bit what maybe your expectations were of the actual roads and then how they presented yourself.

and how it was probably, and I'm guessing here, a fairly white-knuckled experience for both vehicles. You know, I haven't driven it. You don't know the crown of the road. They don't know that there's no, you know, there's no shoulder that's there's a drop when the pavement gets to the dirt on the edge. So just go into that a little bit when your vehicle is using every inch of the road and then probably you have your parents behind you and their vehicle is using a few more inches of the road.

Yeah, you know, I think that I felt pretty well prepared because I had done so much reading on Talk Baja, and I had read so many people describe the road conditions, and I felt that those descriptions were very accurate. I don't think that I was really surprised by anything that I found, you know, other than that one section was extremely narrow, and that to me was the hardest part of the drive. My parents, on the other hand, I had tried to prepare them for what they were going to encounter. And, you know, my father, my father said, no problem, it's not going to be a problem. I can handle narrow roads. That section really, really stressed them out to the point where I didn't know if they were going to make it sound of San Ignatio. But it was funny by the time we, you know, went on further south and then we're coming back that way. Yeah, we all still found that to be the hardest part.

but you do get acclimated to the roads, I found rather quickly. You know, the most stressful part is when you're on a narrow section and a big semi passes you, that is jarring. But I would say, out of all the semis that we passed and dozens over the course of a month, the vast majority of them make every effort to make as much room as possible for you. So, I mean, that was really, really nice. I think only in two occasions did we find a semi really kind of encroaching into our lane. And one of those was a wind occasion.

So I really feel like the semi-drivers down there make every effort to give you as much room as possible. I wholly wholeheartedly agree. Driving my antique 50 old open land cruiser, the semi-drivers, I think, are really the ones that are in front of me going slowly, slower than I am. they're the first ones to turn on a blinker to let you know when it's clear to pass. And, you know, they do on a narrow road and sometimes a narrow and twisty road, do their best to give you as much room and stay in there on their side of the line. Yes, yes, they do. I found them to be very courteous.

Were you surprised when you got to San Ignacio? Did you get into the actual little downtown and see the mission there? We did. We did. It was so charming. We stayed in San Ignatio because we had made arrangements to go do a whale watching tour with Antonio's eco tours, which was fabulous. Because they had kind of set the expectation for us, very reasonably so that it was the end of the season and they couldn't guarantee what we'd see. And we saw a ton of whales and we were thrilled and they couldn't have been nicer.

So we were very happy to have experienced that. But San Ignatio was just a wonderful town, very charming. You know, it was really our first kind of our first little adventure, you know, walking around in a small town in Baja because we just did the one overnight before that. So it was in that wasn't in an area where you'd say there was a town center to walk through. And it was just, it was really a great, you know, first experience because you just, you saw how friendly people were and how they, everybody was saying, oh la, and buenos aillas. And, you know, there was just a sense of welcome right away. that carried out through the entire trip. I still clearly remember my first walk through that town as a college kid on a little

adventure with a couple of buddies. And we said hello and everyone said hello to us. And it was just one of those interesting experiences that, obviously the place is tiny. And the mission and the town square are so charming. But whatever, we probably passed two dozen people milling around on the streets. And everyone looked at us and said, oh la buenos dees and it was just it was it was sort of an eye-opener to the further south you go the real baha reveals itself yes and you know what and and the funny thing is is I didn't find

the language to be as much of a barrier as I initially thought it would be I know very little Spanish I made an effort to try and learn some basics um you know on dualingo for for a few months prior to the trip but you know my Spanish like I said it's very very basic at best But you know what? People really make an effort to understand you, to help you. So I didn't find the language to be that much of a barrier. I think if you're making an effort and you know a little bit, you'd be amazed at how far you can, how far you can get. I was really pleasantly surprised by that. So a pretty shocking first, I guess it would be the second day, that you are on to San Ignacio. And I'm assuming the third day you were on to whale watching. Yes, we went to the whale watch with Antonio's, which was, like I said, it was fabulous. We had a great experience with them.

That's kind of a life changer, isn't it? You know, it was so different. Being from, you know, the Northeast, we had been up to Cape Cod before in Maine, and we've done whale watching up there. But you're on this big boat with, you know, hundreds of people and the whales are 500 yards out. But when you're in the Little Panga, and it's only a few people, it's so intimate and they're right there. It's just, it's, it was such a different experience than we'd ever had before going on whale watches in the United States. Yeah, so I've done that out of Peatown and Cape Cod as well. And that's it.

You're looking for a fluke or a spray. And you're like, wow, that was great. We saw whales. Okay, let's go back. Did the whales actually come up to the boat? Did, you know, Daniel and it's a bit of? Bella actually get to, you know, have that kind of crazy close encounter? We didn't, we didn't get one that came up close enough to touch it, but I would say we had them

within probably six feet of the boat. So, I mean, they were, they were close. They were really close. That's just crazy, isn't it? It was a many of the people. Like I said, it was just, it was such an amazing, intimate experience. That's kind of the best word I can, I can use for it. And that's, I found that with a lot of the things we did. We, we were supposed to dive with the whale show. but unfortunately the night before the government shut down the program because of early migration. So, you know, we were a little bit bummed, but we did go and dive with the sea lions the next day. And it was the same experience of the whales in the sense that, you know, you just don't get an

opportunity to have that intimate close reaction, you know, with wildlife like that in nature. And it just, it was so amazing. It was so amazing. And you're a person who does some diving, correct? Yes, we do snorkeling. I have done scuba before, but it's not my best. I have asthma. I find that kind of a little bit more challenging.

But we've snorkeled quite a bit, and the diving there was just incredible. Especially we saw a lot of wonderful things around Los Burlis and the hotel, Pescadaro, over there at the point. It was just amazing. It was amazing. I took some great, some great GoPro videos. And maybe you can share how you accessed dive guides or dive services, snorkel services, or did you just have a mask and fins and snorkel with you and take a walk out from wherever you were staying?

We did have our own stuff with us. So that's kind of how we started. We just kind of started diving at the beach we were staying at. We stayed at Playa Norte campground in Los Burlis. So we just started diving right out there at that beach. And then we talked to some of the other campers and they tell us about spots to go to. So we'd just take a drive and get in the water and check it out. And we didn't do any formal guided snorkeling.

We did take several boat trips. While we were in Loretto, we did one with Captain Jorge, who took us around Isla Coronado, which was amazing. We had such a great time with him. We booked him the next day to go deep sea fishing. which was not in our plan whatsoever. But we had so much fun with him that we just said, okay, what do you got tomorrow?

Let's do DT-C fishing. And it was great. It was amazing. It was something I'd never done before, and it was quite the experience. This picture of a catch there. It looked like you caught a tuna. Yes, yes, we caught about,

I think it was five yellow tail. It was, like I said, it was an experience. It's hard to put into words. It's just, you know, I'm used to fishing, you know, large mouse baths in the north. So if you get one that's like, you know, three or four pounds, that's a big catch. To, you know, be reeling in these giant 30 pound tuna.

I just, I was so unprepared for that. And just the work, it's like 15, 20 minutes to get them into the boat. I mean, it was fantastic, but it was just something I had no concept before doing it. And did you have your whole family out with you on that trip? Was it just you and your son? My son and I, my husband and my father, my daughter and my mother did not want to partake in. the deep sea fishing. My daughter, believe it or not, even though like I'm, I'm always dragging her on boats into beaches, she has a bit of a fear of the ocean. So I've been trying for for many

years to overcome that with her. But, you know, it's just kind of one of those things that's ingrained in her. But I keep trying. And for folks who haven't fished Loretto before, was the water pretty calm and nice? Was it a gentle experience? Or did you have a little? Yes. Yes, it was amazingly calm. Even though there was a little bit of wind when we went out in that afternoon, it seems like the bay is very protected. So you don't get any large swells or anything like that. And it was funny too because my father, it gets seasick very, very easily. And he didn't have a problem at all on any of the times that we went out. Yeah. You know, I deep sea fished here in San Francisco as a kid. And you have to go west of the Golden Gate Bridge. And it's very, very rough. And you're out on a

party boat with 20 people and typically half the people are throwing up over the side, which makes it a very sort of lousy way to start your fishing trip. You know, I always kind of thought when I was there with my dad and my grandpa, I was like, we're paying to do this. This just doesn't very fun. But Loretto, I could fish there every day because the weather is nice, the water's calm, and the fishing is excellent. Did you take part of that catch into a restaurant and have it prepared for you?

What happened to the fish after? We actually, Captain Jorge had a cousin who flayed the fish for us. So we actually had all the fish is filleted. And because we were traveling in our RV, we made room in the freezer. We had, I don't even know how many tens of pows of tuna that we ended up bringing back with us. Wow. So we'll be eating tuna for a while. You know, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser down to Baja.

And when we go, we go with Baja bound insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use, Baja Baja Bound Insurance, serving Mexico Travelers since 1994. So take me from Loretto. Where else did you go? We were in La Paz for a couple of days. That's where we were supposed to do our whale shark swim out of. That became a sea lion swim, which was still amazing. Like I said, it was a fantastic experience. And then from there, we went to Los Berlus, and we really fell in love with Los Burlis.

it was just that right kind of combination for us. I'm, you know, we're from small towns, even though we visit cities, you know, with some frequency. There's just something different about the charm of the small town. I felt a little overwhelmed in La Paz and Cabo San Lucas, but in Los Perilis, it was just, it was just, I don't know, was that right kind of combination. There was just enough stuff there, you know, so it was very, very easy to be in, but it was still very just walkable and just very welcoming.

So it was just that right combination for us. We stayed at Planoorte. We rented and ate UTV and did that for a couple of days. We visited Zepalotes and had ice cream twice. Awesome. We ate some great restaurants. Beans and rice and Los Burlis, I have to say, we had the best guacamole I had all through Baja.

and I ate guacamole at every restaurant we went to. So I felt like it was a pretty good sampling size. So we really enjoyed it there. The diving was great. The beaches were very clean. It was just, it was wonderful. Wow, that's a ringing endorsement. I love it.

I need to spend more time there myself. Well, the other thing about it that was really nice, it was a great kind of central location for us to, like if we took a day trip to Toto Santos, and we drove to Los Cabos, and it was a great kind of place. to just take other little day trips from. So we didn't feel like we had to drag the camper all that way because Los Burlis,

just like I said, it was a great starting point if you wanted to go visit other areas down in that southern tip. Yeah, and to set the scene for folks, you've got your parents in a class A, as I recall. Yeah, pretty sizable one at that. A big class A. So that's not something you want to go poking around downtown Cabo in. And then you have a truck pulling, is it a fifth wheel or what do you? you pulling that? It's a 33-foot travel trailer. So that's still, you know, it's still not an easy thing to get into tight spaces.

But can you put your entire extended family into your pickup truck and go for an adventure in that? Unfortunately, no. We, you know, our pickup only seats five. Their car only seats five. So we were taking two cars most of the time. But, you know, it was, that was okay. And they have a car with them. Yes, yes. They actually, they typically tow their car with their motor home. But my mom was so nervous about the roads. We ended up detaching the car and I drove her in the car. So we kind of had a little, you know, we had a camper of the car and then the motor. That is a caravan. Did you just stay in touch via walkie-talkies or something? You know, yeah, that was one of the things that we did learn. We probably should have had walkie-talkies because there is a lot of the drive is no cell service unless you get into some sort of town of a town of a reasonable size.

So we just kind of, you know, we just relied on flashing lights or beeping horns. You know, we stopped every, I would say every two hours just to kind of just check in with everybody, make sure everybody was doing okay. But really, I think our longest day was six hours of driving. We really tried to keep it between that four and five hours of drive time just because it does. It's not physically, you know, enduring, but it is mentally, you know, because you have to just be on point on those roads the entire time. So, you know, we tried not to overwhelm ourselves too much.

I always say, and again, I drive a lot on dirt in Baja, and I'm more relaxed on dirt than I am on the paved roads because they're maximum concentration roads in any case. I'm driving an old vehicle unlike your more modern things, but pot holes, livestock, big rigs. There's a lot to sort of train your mind and your focus on that can be, truly exhausting at the end of the day. And so I think six hours tops is is plenty on on Baja roads. Hey, so let's let's sort of put it in high gear here and roll through some of the other stops or maybe you just want to touch on one or two other places that really stole your heart. We really enjoyed Mulehaye in that whole area with the bay. That was

absolutely just beautiful. We stayed at Santa's back, but We visited El Requeston as well, which we kind of wish we would have stayed at because it was a little bit more secluded. But that whole area was just absolutely beautiful. The beaches were beautiful. There's a lot of things to see in Ulai. I mean, we saw, of course, the mission there, the prison museum. It was just, it was a cute town to kind of explore and visit. We did on our way back stop in San Felipe as well.

We spent a couple of days in Valais de Guadalupe at the end. I mean, we really, I felt like we really had a well-rounded trip, but then of course, as we were traveling, we learned of other places we wanted to visit as well. So I'm hoping a return will be in our future. Well, that was the next question, obviously. What are your takeaways? I would definitely like to visit again.

It was incredible. I just, it was so unexpected in so many ways. I think, you know, I was really surprised by how many people read my post and shared my post and responded to it. I was kind of blown away. I didn't really expect it to be that big of a thing. But for me as a parent of a special needs child, and I think this is for a lot of parents. You know, a lot of parents of children of special needs, they're very, you know, traveling is a challenge. And so as a result of that, you know, I think a lot of people get confined to their town or to their area or what they know.

So going out into something different into the unknown is just not something that they want to take on or feel they can take on. And we've always made it a point to not let my son's autism restrict what we're going to do. I kind of feel like expanding his horizons has been one of the best things for him because with autism in particular, kids can get very set in a routine. And then if there's a change to that routine, it can be very stressful. So we kind of always made it a point to never really have a routine. You know, we've kind of lived life on the fly a little bit, which is very counterintuitive to what you think you would do with an autistic child.

So we've traveled with him both, you know, domestically, internationally, both for kids, of course. And we never let him having autism, you know, restrict that at all. Traveling to Baja was a little, that was probably the one thing I was a little nervous. I wasn't really nervous too much about the safety aspect of it. because I had spent so much time hearing the stories on Talk Baja, but I didn't know how prevalent autism would be in Mexico, you know, how common it is versus how common it is in the United States,

you know, how some of his behaviors would be received. Because he's not in any way a mischievous child, but he does have the very typical, you know, stimming behaviors of an autistic child where he'd flap his hands or he kind of bounces on his feet. He sometimes talks loudly because he doesn't have that tone mass. So I was a little nervous as to how those things would be interpreted. And I was just so blown away at people's reaction to him. Not only were they kind, but they went out of their way to engage Nathaniel.

And I just never expected that because it's just, you know, that kind of genuineness. And I think I said this in my post. as a parent with a special needs child, you become very accustomed to spotting and people are just trying to be polite where they smile and then kind of turn away versus when people are really genuinely engaging your child. I just couldn't believe it. Almost everywhere we went. That was the reaction we got where people were genuinely engaging him. And it would be something as little as, you know, the waiter telling him, I brought you the biggest scoop of ice cream out of all the desserts, you know, just to make him happy.

or, you know, we had one restaurant where we were at where they were all these different colored napkins on the table. And he was just very, like, intrigued by all the colors. And the waiter brought every single colored napkin over him and say, okay, pick your favorite. I mean, it was just little things like that. When we were at Antonio's Eco Tours, the woman that works in the kitchen, we didn't even really have any interaction with her at all. She came out to us and she said, I used to work with, you know, I saw your son. I used to work with a child that was autistic. He's a gift, and she gave me this big hug.

And she went over and talked to him for several minutes, you know, asked him all kinds of questions. And it was just, we had that type of reaction, you know, to a certain degree, almost everywhere we went. People were so genuinely kind in engaging. And I was, I just, I didn't expect that at all. You know, again, because I don't know, I, maybe you should have looked this up, but I don't know what the rates of autism are in Mexico.

I know the U.S. probably has a much higher rate of autism, but you don't get that same type of response in the U.S. You know, people are more quick to kind of, like I said, smile and turn their heads. This was so different and so unexpected. I was just blown away. And my son could feel it too. I mean, he's 17. And he said to me, I can't even tell you how many times. He's like, I don't want to go back to New York.

I want to live here. I want to be here. I don't want to leave Mexico. I mean, he could feel it too. was just, it was something that I was unprepared for and I was just so blown away by. Wow. Wow. Nicole.

Well, again, that came through so, so eloquently in your Talk Baja post, not, not something that, you know, Talk Baja is always known for, eloquent, thoughtful, pairing posts and responses, but I'm just going to throw it out here, 2,700 likes, 410 comments and 200 shared. So it seems your message resonated. We're going to wrap it up, but closing thoughts on what you would say to other folks who maybe have apprehensions that it's dangerous or there's cartels or don't go. No, no, I would say, do not face your opinion or the idea of traveling to Baja based upon something you might hear on the news or hear in some political circle or, or just people who've never been who are just kind of repeating things that they hear. If we would have done that, we never would have went.

My mother was kind of terrified. I'll admit she was kind of terrified traveling to Mexico. And by the end of the trip, her and my father were looking at property down there. They met with several real estate agents. Wow. That's how different it is from the perception in the media. I mean, and I said to a lot of people who kind of questioned my decision to take my family there, I said, you know what?

If all you ever saw of the U.S. was crime and shootings, you know, people wouldn't travel here. I have family in Europe because my mother was born in England who's scared to come to the U.S. for that reason. So if all you ever see is the bad news reports, that's going to be your perception of the area. But there's so much more to that. So I would encourage anyone, you know, don't be afraid to take your family there. Don't be afraid to visit. Do your, you know, do your research, understand that it is different than the U.S. you know, the military checkpoints can be a little jarring at first going through them.

But you know what? Every single person we met was so friendly. I mean, my son would stick his hand out at the military checkpoints and they would high five him or fist bump him. I mean, everybody was completely respectful. We didn't meet one person that I would even consider the slightest bit rude. So the military checkpoints, it was just like, okay, it was like going through a toll after, you know, the first couple of days, you just got so used to them because it was nothing,

you didn't feel intimidated. I never felt intimidated by that at all. I never felt intimidated by the police. It was very comfortable. So I would definitely tell people to do the research so they understand that it is a different country. There are certain things that are different about it, but it doesn't have to be something that you're afraid of.

And I would definitely encourage anybody with children with special needs to look at this area as a place to go on vacation and know that you will, your child will be accepted and they're not going to be, you know, kind of looked on differently. And I just, I have a friend of mine who's son is also autistic. And I said to her, I said, you need to take him to go vacation here. It's, it's, it was so, I can't even put it into words.

It was just so accepting that that experience will stay with me forever. Wow. Well, Nicole, I'm delighted that you shared. your experience with Talk Baja. I'm delighted that I read it and messaged you there and you responded and you shared it with us here. You had a capital A adventure. And I think that's got to be a heck of a lot more rewarding than just driving down to Orlando

and going to, you know, a theme park. So I really appreciate you making some time to tell your story in your words, in your, you know, obviously enthusiastic voice. If people want to get some specifics from you, do you mind people reaching out to you through? No, no, not at all. Like I said, I'd be happy to help. So many people helped me and answered my questions. And that's, you know, kind of why I ended up there and felt comfortable traveling because I, you know, I asked questions and I got wonderful answers.

And it helped me, you know, understand where I was going and what I needed to do and how to prepare. So no, I welcome any questions. And I always tell my kids, especially, my daughter especially too, that I think the biggest gift that I can give them is traveling. Because when you travel, you see more things and it expands your sense of really the world. You know, if you're only ever in the same place, you have a very narrow focus of what you know and what's around you. When you start traveling and you see other places and other people and how they live, and the differences and the similarities, it really changes your whole perspective on life and it gives you just a more broader and I think compassionate understanding of the world. Slow Baja proves that message, Nicole.

We're going to leave it right there and I really have to say deep and sincere thanks for making some time. Thank you. Thank you for asking me. I was happy to do it. All right. So that's Nicole Demi Kaptorowski. Did I get that right? You got it.

You can find her and you can find that post easily. at Talk Baja, reach out to if you have some questions if you're traveling with a child with special needs or a husband with stage four cancer or your parents in an RV. Man, you did it all. And I can't say sincerely enough for sharing your story with it. Thank you. Well, I enjoyed listening in that conversation again. I hope you did too, or if it's the first time you heard it.

I hope you enjoyed it. Nicole's enthusiasm, honesty, integrity, action, I love it. I love it all. Baja did exceed all of her expectations and she did an awful lot of homework and I wholeheartedly agree that Baja always exceeds my expectations as well. I kind of ask you, please. Serious. If you're listening on iTunes and most of the folks are, take a second. Go over there and smash that five star.

you say something nice about Slow Baja. It really does help people find the show. You can always just copy a link to a show you like and send it to your Baja Amigo or Amiga. And if you're going to Baja and you love Baja, I know you know somebody else loves Baja and they should be listening to the show as well. So please do do me a solid and share the show with a friend. I'd appreciate it. The Slow Baja shop is still open. Slowbaha.com. All the merch is there. Again, I want to say thanks to John Alderson who has decided he's going to start handing out some Slowba merch to his Slow Bahamigos and I really just warms my heart. So thanks to him and get over there and pick up that shirt, t-shirt, sweatshirt, what have you. And again, I'll be back next week with

something fun. So until then, to paraphrase my Baja loving Amigo Steve McQueen, Baja's life. Everything 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.