Slow Baja - Sarah And Jesse Beck A Baja Love Story

Episode Date: December 4, 2020

Jesse and Sarah Beck met while surfing in San Juanico when they were teenagers. Jesse had been going to Baja since he was a baby. After a few years camping in various spots, Sarah's family had recently bought a home in San Juanico. One morning, she was surfing by herself at dawn when Jesse paddled out. Mildly perturbed that she would have to share the waves, she was surprised to see the red-haired boy she had seen from afar the summer before. She said hello, and remarked that they had met before (as it turns out, she had met his brother the previous year). Jesse noted wryly, "no, no, I would've remembered you." They surfed again that afternoon and went to a Halloween party at Sarah's house that night. As they like to say, the rest is history. Sarah and Jesse went on to get married and have two beautiful children. These days you will find them exploring Baja's back roads and finding off-the-beaten-path experiences to share with the children. In this conversation, they share their favorite Baja destinations and their ongoing passion for the people and the place. Follow Sara on Instagram 

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. Slow Baja is brought to you by the Baja XL rally. The Baja XL is the largest and longest amateur off-road rally on the Baja Peninsula. It's 10 Epic Days, L.A. to Cabo to L.A. Check it out at BajaXL.org.

Hey, it's Michael Emory of Slow Baja, and I'm just delighted to be here in San Juan Capistrano with Sarah and Jesse Beck, and we're going to talk about Baja. Many may know that Sarah was my very first podcast. I think she was the second podcast to air, but she was the first podcast that I ever recorded about a year ago, and I'm delighted to be here in her home on this sunny, beautiful day. It's very quiet. We've got the windows closed and the door closed and we're sitting, I don't know, six, eight feet apart and we're just going to talk Baja. So, Sarah and Jesse, say hello. Hello. Hi. All right. Well, that was quick. Hello, Slow Baja. We're excited to be here. Yeah, so excited to revisit you, have you at our house and continue our friendship

and more talk about Baja. Yeah, so let's jump into it. The two of you have. The two of you have, long familial connections to Baja Sarah obviously your family moved down there when you were growing up in Oregon but Jesse you're a SoCal kid and you were heading down to Baja on your youth as well yeah my family started taking me my mom and dad when we were all the family we went pretty much when we were babies and we would camp on the beach and explore Baja and it just yeah we never stopped going down there for our whole life, so it's been great. There's some rad slide pictures of Jesse and his brothers on the beach in San Felipe that are so cool, too.

You just have to look at the microphone. You can't talk to me, Sarah. All right, sounds good. Yeah, there's some really great slides of Jesse's family when he was just a baby. Well, I think there's a picture of his brother in a crib on the beach in San Felipe, yeah. Yep. So that's pretty much how it all started for me, just going to. down and being in the water, camping, watching the Baja 1,000, and having fun down there.

And Jesse, you're San Juan Capistrano local. Do you grow up here? Yes, I grew up here. I've been here pretty much my whole life. So what was it for your parents that took them down there, and they brought you down there? Was it fishing? Was it surfing? Was it exploring? Getting away? Just the allure of the like, you know, adventure exploring probably aspect. I mean, My dad drove to Cabo before Highway 1 was paved. So can you tell me on what kind of vehicle that was? FJ 55, the longer wagon is a very cool. Yeah, super cool.

And that's what we used to go down in when I was a kid. Love it. It was red and white and it had, you know, that tailgate with the window that rolled down and four door. It was a big rack on the top and we could drive on the beach. and we would tow a dune buggy down there sometimes and other, there were sometimes other families that would come and we would camp on the beaches like the coves. Like, what are they like probably 5, 10 miles south of San Felipe?

But yeah, it was the FJ 55. That was the first vehicle we started going down there. And I think that's what my dad drove to Cabo. I think it was like 1970 when he did that. So he's got some good stories about that. Didn't you still get a Volkswagen van on the beach too? Yeah, he also had a Volkswagen van. I think that was maybe in the late 60s,

and he would put his motorcycle in there. Take the tires way down. I think, yeah, if you drop the air in those, you can drive him on the sand. I don't know. Yeah, but it's like down to 12 pounds or something, is what I heard. Yeah, probably. Yeah.

But with the engine in the back, maybe. Yeah. Maybe it all works. You know, I talked to a guy who, he went down with his parents in 60s. David Kier, and he was saying in those days, you poked and picked over the rocks and, you know, the donkey tracks and all that and you got down to Cabo and then you, you know, ended up up to La Paz and you put your car on the ferry and drove up on the paved roads on the other side just because

the road down was so difficult. So thinking about your dad doing it, you know, in those days before the road was paved, it's a hell of an adventure. Yeah, yeah. You hear some of those stories about, you know, they're not being very much fuel. You get, like, fuel can be an issue still today. Yeah. Imagine it back then. And then even some of the roads, like the, I think they call it the three sisters, south of Portocetus between like Portocetus and L.A. or Gonzaga Bay.

It was really bad. There were, or maybe it was the seven sisters, but there was, you know, there were places that were known to be pretty difficult to get through and challenging. So yeah. And so Sarah, tell me about the two of you. We're just going to recap that Baja love story. I was going to say that Jesse's story about how he got over the West Coast is kind of fat. I don't know if he wants to share that before we dive into our love story.

So you spent some time on the East Coast south of San Felipe. I did remember that from our earlier conversations. And you had some family friends that maybe were flying you down there if I had that right. Yeah. Well, that came later. That came a little later. So when I was very young, you know, like, before I was 10 years old, we were going to San Felipe. And then as I got, you know, like, around 10 years old, I was surfing and bodyboarding a lot. And I was, I remember telling my dad, like, hey, we need to go to the other side. There's waves over there. So we ended up deciding

on going to San Juanico. And I think that was about 1984. So I was probably like 12 years old. I want to say. Might have been 11. Might have been like 83. I'm not sure. But we, that was pretty much our first place for me that I went to on the West Coast. And I mean, you know, the impression, it just,

it left a remarkable impression on me because just as a surfer, you come around, you know, you kind of drive into town and see that set up with the points and the waves breaking that the potential and the waves is peeling like that. It's really good. And we got waves and we camped there on the point. And we, yeah, we never looked back. We kept going year after year there. And ended up buying some property and build in the home there. So it's been really good. That access in those days was a little bit more difficult than it is today. I mean, you're coming in, I'm assuming the overland route from the north past San Ignacio and, you know, it was a little bit slower and more difficult than the folks who can drive down south and come around on the paved road

now. Right. Actually, the very first couple of times we went, we would drive. We would not, we did not take the north road from San Ignacio, and we did not come up from the south from Constitution or Insurhentes. We came across the peninsula, just north of Laredo. There's a road that goes to La Presum and San Francisco. Nesedro and we would go over the mountains that way because like distance wise that was back then that

was the closest way from the pavement that was that one of the main and it was kind of like points of access yeah and then as the the north road just was always challenging because it's easy to get lost out there and you can get stuck out there and nobody's coming for a couple of days out there yeah well Well, I think there are, but there's people coming by. I mean, people have always lived out there. But I guess if you're stuck in the wrong place, like in a corner where, yeah, no one's going to see you, it could be a couple days. It's like a lot of people like to talk about how treacherous, the North Road is.

Yeah. When it's not quite. I think, well, we've all had our issues out there, I think. You know, you do it even two or three times. You're going to get lost. and, hey, weren't we already here 10 minutes ago? This looks familiar. You know, you just have to learn the landmarks.

And also, it's learn how to drive that road because there's like the really slick mud that you can encounter that people, a lot of people aren't used to. And then there's some deep sand out there that you got to be aware of and know how to negotiate that. And then the rest of it's pretty, you know, rocky, but that can provide its own charge. challenges too with like flat tires or cars breaking down.

The interesting thing about the North Road, we'll get to how we met in a second, but what we've observed recently is how much it's really changed over the years. It used to be a lot drier out on the salt flats, so you could really get out there and go really fast. And I don't know if it's tide changes or like more rain, but it hasn't been that way in a really long time that you can go really fast. So the mid-road became a road that a lot of people used. And now it's the higher road up there. And I think it's funny because the first time Jesse and I drove that,

it was probably 20 years ago now, but there were trees grown in the middle of the road. There was barely a road there. And now it's, you know, the main thoroughfare, which is going to. Yeah. All those different avenues have changed over the years. That's true.

Yeah. We have like funny nicknames for when you know your landmarks. So there's like job in the hut and pig boy. Yeah. The NASCAR lines. Yeah. Yeah, we have all of our different landmarks where you know you're kind of going the right way. But I guess maybe we should get into the original question, which is, you know, how Jesse and I met.

And Jesse had a history and his dad had just begun building a house. And the house had, it's an Adobe house. And it was on Greengo Hill, but there was only maybe three houses up there, four houses on Greengo Hill at the time. And Jesse's dad's an architect. So he had begun designing some of the houses there, and he was building his own house. And the first time I ever saw Jesse's house was before I met him, and it was just the walls were just going up. There were Adobe walls, and there was a lot of – my family had just moved there, and there was a lot of gossip. There was always a lot of gossip in San Juan Ego.

And there was a lot of gossip about the Beck family and who they were, and, you know, just talk, I guess. Small town talk. Yeah, small town talk. And the first time I saw – Just like any other small town. Yeah. Exactly. The first time I ever saw Jesse, I was actually 15, and we were camped on the point. And this, like, wild red-haired kid comes, you know, thundering down the road.

He's surfing, and then he's kayaking, like, river kayaking, and then he's ocean kayaking. And then he's back to surfing, and then he's boogie boarding. And then he's, like, riding his bike past, and then he's, like, running past. And his dad was just, like, driving behind him the whole time, like, just, following him wherever he went. And I could remember my family just like looking at Jesse and going, man, that guy has way more energy. You know, we're just sitting there reading books in our like, you know, camp chairs or whatever.

And so it was really funny that that was the first time I ever saw him, but I didn't meet him for another year. And at that point, my family was living, had bought a house and we were living there full time. And we camped there a couple of years. And then we finally got the house. And I had convinced my mom. because I was 16 to let me drive myself to third point to surf at dawn.

And she had finally agreed to give me full rain of the car without an adult in it. And so, you know, I got out there before the sun was up and scurried down the cliff. And the waves were really, really fun. There was a ton of sand at third point. And they were pretty like shoulder head high as sets and just really spinny little barrels. And the water was still warm. It was in the fall. It was actually on Halloween.

And next day I know I look up on the cliff and there's another car. And I'm thinking to myself, what? I just got up early and finally got to serve by myself. And now some Yahoo's going to come down here and steal my waves. And, you know, he paddles out. And he looks, oh, I look at him. And I say, oh, I think I've met you before because I'd met his brother also who has red hair. And Jesse goes, no, no, I would remember you.

And that was it pretty much, right? Yeah, that was it. Dom Patrol, third point. Electric. Electricity in the park. Yeah, we really liked each other. No, no, I would have remembered you. Yes.

Yeah. I was like, I remember pulling up like, oh man, someone already got out here before me, darn it. And I was like, oh, it's a girl out there. Let's go see who this is. Yeah. And then we ended up meeting up later. and surfing with this guy boss who he used to do boss surfboards. Bobbo.

Yeah, Bobo. At second point he was really big in San Clemente. I don't know, whatever happened to Bobbo. He's never. Yeah. I haven't seen his waves, I mean, his boards in a long time. But, yeah, we both, like, borrowed these. He had these really colorful long boards, and we each borrowed one.

I think I got on a red one and just got on a yellow one. And we were, we long boarded together. At second. Yeah. Yeah, the same day. Mm-hmm. And my parents were throwing a Halloween party, so invited him over. And the rest is kind of history.

It was kind of... That was day one. Yeah. How many... What's the population at that time of year in those days? What would you estimate the population of San Juanico? Big gringo population or the Mexican population are both. Or both.

Well, you know... Well, um... Break it down for me. It was winter and a lot of the... There wasn't a high school or even a middle school. in town yet. So once they hit about middle school age, the kids either to stop going to school

or they would go to Constitution or La Paz. So kids that were my age, there weren't a lot of them in town. They would come back during the summer or during the holidays. And so on the off season, there was probably, what,

like five, six hundred people in town. And when everybody was in town, there was probably maybe 700, like in the midst. of summer. In terms of green goes, there was probably 20 individuals that were in the process of building houses or had just built houses in the last few years. I think that has a lot to do with the theater commiso and the government changes and being able to access, you know, foreign properties that happen with NAFTA and all that in the 1990s. But I'd say there was maybe

eight to ten full timers and so everybody knew each other we were all pretty we all kind of hung out and yeah put up with each other I guess there's there were some fun characters so in those days a crowded day out on the surf was how many people well that was the really interesting thing that was um it was in I think Jesse and I met in 96 it could still get crowded well the reason why it would get crowded was because of Sean Collins and the um surf line so surfline had just become a thing and you could call up this. Or because people just followed the swells. Yeah, that too.

It was just, I think there was a big shift in technology then. And so when there was a solid swell, people would just show up, boom. And so at that point, there would probably be, I think max, maybe 30 people would take up the lineup. I mean, I think now it's like 100 people in the lineup, right, if there's a good swell. Just on a regular summer day, there's more than. And the funny thing. was second point was called Bambies.

That was really not a lot of the locals surf there and not a lot of people came to surf second point. It was really third point. And I think it was because of the sand. And no one really surfed at first. Yeah, nobody. And zeroes was. Right.

That was what we only us? Yeah, we only surfed that. And so that was kind of interesting how that shifted at some point. I would say second point is probably more popular than third point in a lot of ways nowadays. Yeah. So. Jesse, you still an old school OG at Scorpion Bay, say out of my way, kids? No, I mean, I don't know.

There's like a whole, some of the older guys, there's people there that, you know, are a whole generation or two older than me that went, you know, there's people that went there in the 60s and 70s, you know, before I was born. So, and some of those people, I think, are still there. There might be one or two of those guys. There's some of the old. Some of the, like, you know, guys that are in their 70s and 80s now that are down there have, you know, they did Baja trips and drove Baja and surf Baja and surfed there when it was, you know, in like the 70s and not very many people really even knew about it. Baja is funny.

There's like an ego component. Something you hear when you're traveling the peninsula, I'm sure you've heard it too, Michael, is that you'll go away. whale watching or something and you'll run into like a group of traveling foreigners you know or fellow bahas now yeah and the number one question you'll get jessie says smiling yeah the number one question you'll get though is oh how long you've been down as if that's some sort of like clout or something the street cred yeah and not how long have you been coming like how long have you been here is the one question and then later it's how long have you been coming and san juico is that amplified by like 30. And there's a gal that lives in San Juanico now and she was joking that there's,

we should all have t-shirts with a Sharpie that says, my name's so-and-so, and I've been coming to San Juanico's because there's a lot of weird ownership over the spot. And so now there's people that have been going there for like five to 10 years and they think they've, you know, got the cloud. And that's fine. You know, everybody, I don't know, there's other places I'd like to serve besides San Juanico's. I don't know. I just go out there and have fun. And mostly with our kids, that's the funest part is surfing with them. Well, let's fast forward to that. You two are in Baja a lot with your two beautiful children. And I think that's an amazing thing that you've, to quote Cameron Steele, shared the stoke.

You shared the stoke with your family. Yeah. Yeah, we just love going down there. And it's fun to camp with them. And the surfing is great. San Juanico is a great place for kids to surf. It can get crowded, but it's still really. good for the kids there.

Yeah, and then it's just super fun to like go and camp on some beach where there's nothing for miles and miles and, you know, they wake up in the morning and just run around on the beach or like we went to, last year we went to Mission Santa Maria and it's, you know, it's a pretty technical drive to get down in there. And we have a Jeep, so we were able to get like all the way down to the end of the road. and when you're in that canyon, it's just amazing down there. And it was just nice,

spending the night, having a fire in the arroyo, and waking up in the morning. Pretty much, no, you're not going to see anybody. I mean, you might. And the kids didn't want to leave. That's kind of,

wherever we go, the kids never want to leave. And I would argue, especially our daughter, Leila, that she would probably equate Baja to heaven on earth. Yeah, like,

we've done trips with other families, and they love it when there's other kids, but even when it's just us and there's no other kids around, they're really stoked. Yeah. They really have a good time. We took them down into Sierra San Francisco. That was one of our Baja checklist that we hadn't done yet.

And the last, was it November, I guess, we went up and got the mules and the guide. It was really cool. It was cold and misty in the middle of the winter. And we rode the mules down. Jesse hiked because he's kind of an animal. And I think that might have been one of the biggest impressions on the kids in terms of adventure. You really completely have to unplug when you go down to this year of San Francisco.

There's absolutely no cell service. And you have to camp for at least three nights. So then at a certain point, your cell phone even dies. So, and I think seeing the cave paintings and it's really cool because there's no safety deregulation out there. You're literally scaling a cliff to get up to the caves and see these enormous cave paintings and try and wrap your head around it. I have no idea how the kids wrap their head around that. But I think for me that was the most impressionable trip we've been on a long time. Yeah. Jesse's got his glasses on this. He's checking out the... I forgot. Arroyo San Pablo.

He's checking out the vintage AAA map, which is on the kitchen table here. I'm thinking like you should have your... your laptop, you should be showing him some Baja photos. Yeah. It would be cool. I mean, my archives are vast. Well, can I ask you about that specific trip? Because that looms large in my mind.

I want to obviously get out and do that. Highly recommended to you and anyone. All listeners. Yeah. And it's great commerce for the people, too. They're waiting. They're up there waiting to give the tours and they're excited to show it. Yeah, so peel that back a little bit.

How did you, now, again, you guys are old, Baja hands, Sarah, you've been to Baja more than 100 times, maybe 200 times we discussed. You don't want to track or brag, but I'm going to humble brag for you on that. You've been down to Baja a lot. Yeah. So how did you secure that guide and figure out where to go and what to do and make all that happen? So Jesse and I are really interesting in the way that we travel, and I'd say Jesse even more so than myself, he is, completely spur of the moment, let's not make any plans and see how it turns out. And that can be a

positive and negative sometimes we end up like fighting or looking for a hotel room or a place to camp and it's like, you know, 10 o'clock at night and we're like, yeah, we should have gotten up earlier. We shouldn't have spent so much time, you know, on Liquados or whatever. And so there can be positive and negatives of that. But it had been on our list and we had done some research and we knew Jesse had been up to this year, San Francisco many years before, right, on like a bike or something? I remember. Yeah. And so we kind of knew where to go and we just...

Wait, there's a sign. I mean, there's a sign on the highway one. So it's been there for a while now. You pass it and if you're interested in petroglyphs. And if you've read the books, you know they're up there. There's some, there's the big canyons are up there. And we've come across some just hiking in Baja as well. So we've just seen them from, you know, exploring roads and seeing a cave and scaling up them and finding them.

That was actually, I'm in a backdrop. I come back to that trip, but I was going to mention when Jesse and I first met, I had explored a lot of Baja with my parents, and I'm grateful for the times that they would put their truck into four-wheel drive, and we'd go out to places that a lot of people weren't going to. But when I met Jesse, he completely shifted my perspective, really on the inland components of Baja, which are one of my favorites, especially in the winter,

to go and explore the mountains of Baja's. just it's so mind-blowingly beautiful and um hard to even describe how unique it is out there and the ranches are really cool so jesse who is building his dad's house and every weekend we would get in his little 22R toy to pickup no four will drive and getting technical yeah and we would the legendary 22R yeah two wheel drive though come on man put those tires way down to to 12 uh but yeah so we would go to these ranchos. We would go looking for petroglyphs and cave art and go and just hang out on these ranches

and talk to the people. And I definitely defined how I wanted to travel and explore. And there's still ranches. We want to go back and visit. You know, you'd like drive up to a ranch and they'd be so excited to see you because they're living in the middle of nowhere in the Baja Mountains. And, you know, they would tell you the last gringo,

they saw it was, you know, three months ago or something, and they serve you whatever they have on their farms. So whether that's cheese, their goat cheese they're making or wine or a cup of coffee, you know, they're always so generous. And I think that kind of started us exploring the inland. And so we knew that the Sierra San Francisco was going to be amazing. We had read about it and talked to people. And so that was what we did. We just, last year, we drove up to the top. And it was nighttime. It was dark and kind of rainy. Yeah, we need to go back and do the Arroyo. There's an arroyo that drains off the east side. I think it's called Arroyo San Gregonio that I think you need to get a previous permit to get into that one, but it's supposed to be really good too.

Yeah, you don't need a permit to do this. You can go as far as seven days with Sierra San Francisco. And if you just drive up to the top there, they have like a little visitor center. visitor center and the way it works is all the ranchers that live up there they're all family but they're all approved guides and so they are all waiting for their turn basically so you know edward will get one and then Felipe and then one it's like the taxi line at the airport yeah yeah that's exactly in the old days yeah so they all take turns and um we were looking at our guy at this last time like this guy looks really old and I feel like you had like a satellite eye and we were you know, judging him a little.

He turned out to be super cool. He was awesome. He took really good care of us, and the kids were absolutely thrilled. What you do is you kind of go down into a canyon, and then you go across in a royo, and then you dip down

into this huge, like, wash, a huge canyon, and there's tons of palm trees down there, and there's fish in the creek and frogs, and the wildlife is absolutely, It's absolutely insane. It's really, we even, we convinced our guy because it was really cold to make like a little fire. And he was like, oh, I can't do it.

And he was super paranoid. So we just made a little time of fire got warm. And then we like, you know, took it out. But it's the cool thing, I think you can attest this are the mules. The mules in the burrows, I don't know what I thought about them. But I was sort of astounded at their ability to climb down these. Yeah, you can pack all kinds of food and tents and live pretty or camp pretty luxuriously down in there because they really know how to tie those mules, like load them up and

get a good pack on them and those things are incredible. That trail gets kind of technical in a couple of places and they don't, yeah, they're fine. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruisers out of the border. When we go, we'll be going with Baja. Baja Baja Bound insurance. Your website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at Bajaubound.com. That's Bajaubound.com serving Mexico travelers since 1994. Hey, Baja tourism is picking up and our friends at the Animal Pad and Tapp Act want to remind you when you're crossing the border, just say no to puppy peddlers. I know they're cute,

but the sooner we can end the demand, we can end the supply. For more information, check out theanimalpad.org and Tapp Act on Instagram. and Facebook. Sarah, we touched on this briefly in our first conversation, and I think you told me about Layla's reaction, oh, no, we're not going down there, are we? It stuck with me all this time. Yeah.

You know, like, just where you sort of like look down and say, are you kidding me, Mom? I feel like that's often Layla's response to things, you know? Like we just, we were, she and I just, as I've been highlighting on the, on Instagram, We just went down, had a little Cabo trip. And I said, okay, I'm going to take you surfing. And she's like, okay, let's go surf. And then we get the surf where we get down at the beach.

And she's like, oh, no, we're paddling out there, you know. And it was fine. But yeah, she's funny. But she always goes for it. And she loves it. And she talks about it constantly and is always telling her friends how they need to come to Baja with us. And it's hard to get people to, with. kids to go down there with you though. It's hard to

get people slow down enough to go on one of our crazy adventures. We brought a family a couple years ago and they'd really been wanting to go to Baja and had some other friends that go to Baja pretty consistently and I think we pretty much blew them away. We took them on some really

crazy, we took them to Bahia San Francisco though. Have you been out there? It's like so what is spectacular all the way down to El Barill and pass there. That's just unbelievable beach and you know I think the whole time we're driving from we went swimming at the whale sharks with them and then we drove them down to san franciscoito and i think they were thinking like where are these people

taking us this is insane you know and their vans breaking down and stuff and then we got to san franciscoe and i think they were like oh this is this is about as beautiful as a place can get right all right so you've touched on another you know um bucket list item for a lot of people with baha's swimming with the whale shark. So where did you go and how did you arrange that? Travel tips with Sarah Beck today on Slow Baja. I'm full of them. Again, we're more spur of the moment.

I had done a little research and I just didn't even know where to begin with it. So we just drove down there and Jesse has traveled with Cameron Steele a bit and they did go to L.A. Bay quite a bit when he was working with Cameron. And so Jesse's definitely well-versed in L.A. And there's a hotel where he knows the lady that runs it. And we stayed there and said, well, where do we do the whale sharks? And she directed us to someone. And they said they weren't available.

So then we should go to another place. So we drove down. And that was Anhell. I forget the name of his company. I forget. He was really cool, though. And so we just scheduled it. And he said, okay, meet us at the, you know, down there.

We'll have that in the show notes, as they say in podcan land. Yeah. We might as well find some information on him. Yeah. We can find some of Baha'ia de Los Angeles is what I was getting to. Yeah. And there are three or four operators. Yeah.

Yeah, there's several. And you could do it in La Paz, but what I had heard about La Paz is that they're, they're getting a little more strict about their regulations down there. And then you can also do it, I think out of Laredo, there's also an opportunity to do it there. Although I haven't talked to anyone that has done it. Sounds like there's a constant supply of folks coming up from Cabo doing it out of La Paz, so it is a little bit more trunquillo, they say, in Bahia de Los Angeles. I don't know if you follow Story of a Mermaid on Instagram.

I don't. That story of a mermaid on Instagram. Yeah. If you're not following a mom's guide to travel. Well, that's one more time. I'm going to, I just looked at you and I tripped on it. A mom's guide to traveling Baja. Yeah, it's a long one.

Yeah. So I got, I just as you and I became connected, she and I started interacting. on Instagram and she's super cool I don't know where she's from originally but she was she's been working in La Paz doing tours and she's really cool I've directed a few people to her for when you know people message me and say oh what you know I got some recommendations I want to see whales or whatever and so she's someone that I direct people to and she's amazing I think she's spending some time in San Juanico right now but I definitely recommend you guys follow a story of a mermaid Her content's really fun and uplifting, and she is another person that just loves Baja.

And it's always nice for me to connect with another female that loves Baja because there's a lot of guys out there that are obsessed with Baja. And then there's just a few of us ladies that really want to explore it. Hey, Jesse, Jesse and Sarah, can you talk a little bit about, you touched on it earlier and I just want to circle back to it, getting up to the ranchos and meeting the people. And you mentioned the generosity of the people who are there, whether it's a cup of coffee or the cheese that they've made or the wine that they've made or something that they've made. Can you just talk about how the generosity of the people in Baja permeates, whether you're at the rancho or elsewhere in your thoughts on that?

And maybe your evolution of your experience with that over the many, many years you've been down there now. Yeah, I think that, I think that I would say the people, I don't know, I guess sort of like stereotyping or judging people, but it seems like the people that are the furthest away out in the, you know, like the heart of the interior with the, you know, like the least amount of material items. They live very, very simply. Those seem to me, seem to be like, you know, the most like genuine people that I've ever met, like in all my travels around the world. and you can go to other countries and it kind of, I think that holds true to maybe humanity in a sense, like the people with the least are the most generous and just super kind and welcoming

and they just want to talk to you and, you know, give you a drink and sit down and you end up falling asleep at their ranch for two hours. I just had a thought of what our... It's really fun. It's really, it's a great way to see, Baja and like kind of step back in the world and step back and see how people lived, you know, 100, 200 years ago and they do so much with so little and it's, it's really nice.

I mean, there's a lot of, there's great people in all of Baja, but it really seems like those remote, the people that are the most isolated are very interesting and just very humble and kind. I'm thinking of Punta Cabrata, our most recent Baja trip, or one of our most recent Baja Trituga, which is actually where we got this shell hanging here. Very cool. We were eating in a restaurant, and the guy had a few of them, and that was his prize possession, and he really didn't want to give it up, but we convinced him to sell it to us. And it's one of my favorite pieces in our house. It's really fun. You can't see it, but what it is, it's a shell hanging.

So this man did use tax and fishing line and little, are those puka shells, I think? They're called Olivella shells. Yeah, the Olivella shells. But so I have a special connection to Bahia Tortuga because of that. And one of my followers actually lives in Bahia Tortuga, and he's constantly like, get out here, like do some more, you know, to highlight Bahia Tortuga. So we went out there and we, I was like, let's, we were just north of Bahia Tortuga getting ready to go out to Malarimo. and I said to Jesse like, take that road.

He's like, I don't know. I think that goes out to a dump. And I said, yeah, let's find out. So we go out and we were just a couple minutes out of town and we end up finding this road that's just insane. And the road progressively gets worse and worse to the point that we're like driving behind, like between these crevices.

And I'm wondering if we're going to like tip over and there's basically no road. We're just looking for like one, like a trevice. track. And we can't tell if it's quad tracks or car tracks and we're just trying to make our way and hope we find a road because at this point there's no turning back. And the stratigraphy out there and the geology is insane. It's so beautiful. And we're driving and we're driving and then we finally get out to this little point and it's a little tiny fishing village and we come around. It's like four houses. It's four houses. Yeah. And we go

to the point. There's one house on the point and they're waving us down and they're like, get over here. Get over here. They must have been watching us. Yes, they were. And they were from Bahia Tortuga, but they had their like weekend house and then a couple of them lived there full time to fish. And they were making like carnesada and sausage and they were having like a weekend feast. And they're like, get over here. Sit down. And they're pouring us, you know, so it. and making us tacos. Kids are playing. Yeah, they're like, oh, your kids can, you know, play with our kids.

And we were just instantly welcomed and invited into this fantastic party with amazing food. And, oh, they made these, like, garlic potatoes that were. Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah, they were so good. And I think that was one of my coolest experiences of being really way out in the middle of Baja and instantly being invited. Complete strangers.

Yeah. just right into it full dinner. Right. And then, of course, because everybody's family in Baja, one of our favorite questions to ask people is, what's your last name? And then start connecting who they might know from their last name because there's a few really strong names in Baja and. Arcei and others.

Yeah. Via Sensia. They were Mesa. They were Mesa. I think they were Mesa. There's like 10 to 20. And depending on how far north or south you are, there's some of them are stronger.

but yeah that's really interesting dynamic to look at. And we knew some of the same people. Yeah. Even though we're way out on the edge of the hook of, you know, midway through Baja, Punta Cabrada, I highly recommend anyone make it out there. Not many people make it out there and I think they're looking for visitors. So if you're someone that's looking for remote adventure and remote, you don't have to take the no road like we did.

There's actually a full on, you know, like graded road that goes in there. there but that was that was unreal I would say two things I'd love for you to expand on from that take that road take that road yeah take that road so jesse it appears on the internet you're doing all the driving so I'm assuming sarah's doing a lot of the time doing a lot of the navigating but tell me about take that road how how large does that live in your life and in your vocabulary in your vernacular when you're traveling in bah well I you know I've been looking at the map here and I've been thinking, I think my biggest, my, I don't know how to describe this,

but my biggest interest in Baja is going to like places I've never been, but I think even more than that, is going to like the most difficult places to go to in Baja. So like, you know, the places like Pichaco El Diablo, like the highest peak in Baja, not many people have been up there and you can go from the observatory, There's like trails and it's pretty difficult, but like when I did it, we went from the east side up, which you can do also up the canyon, but we did like this northeast, northeast ridge, which maybe no one's ever done.

And there's just, you know, like I like to look at the map and like where's the biggest hole where there's no roads? Like, oh, okay, look at that. There's a mountain like pretty much dead center and it. Let's try to go climb to the top of that mountain. Rider motorcycles or take the car as close as we can get and then hike. that's the kind of stuff I like to do. And then when we're traveling as a family, I'm usually like, I know he's either been there or not,

so then I'm like, what's on that road? And then we'll kind of go from there. And sometimes we'll be planning to go on a completely different route, and I'll be looking at the map and say, well, have you been out there and he'll say yes or no? And then... Or we might be trying to get to that mountain and we don't get there

because we just take a road that looks good or that we don't know where it goes, and you end up in a really cool place. and then you got to come back some other time to try to. The last time we were, just this last time we were out at Malarimo, we got down to the river mouth there, and then we started to come back and lost our road. And again, we're just on this.

And we were out there for so long, just trying to find any semblance of like a main dirt road. Oh, yeah, when we were leaving. Yeah, yeah. We were just cracking up. We're like, we may never, and the kids are like, how long, how much longer? The good thing about Baja, too, is if you have a name,

of fuel, you know, you're not really that lost. You can get somewhere because there's water on both sides of you. So this is the point that Malcolm Smith made when we were talking. He said, you know, I was asking about the Perry Dakar and he said, you know, Africa's just so big. He said you get lost in Baja, you know, you eventually go one direction long enough. You're going to get to something. Yes. He said, you can go all day and still not get to anything in Africa. And you're absolutely right. You know, you point yourself east or west or something. You're going to get to something. You're going to cross a road that has more tire tracks on it. You're going to figure it out.

Malarimo, it's been on my list for a long time. Tell me about that. Malarimo, it's a trip out there. There's some like unexploded ordinances out there sometimes. All the time. There's like these like, I guess stuff from all over the world from the ocean drifts gets, washes up. But there's these like, we found these signal flares. I kind of, I looked them up online, but I think the Navy uses them to,

maybe like let's say someone falls off a ship or they're going to like bomb a certain area they can throw this thing in and light a part of the ocean up there but those things I've seen on the beach there and all kinds of cool giant trees from like Oregon or the northwest wash up on the beach there loads of trash there's a lot of plastic piles and piles of trash sometimes those people go on there to look for the Japanese the glass fishing fishing floats yeah there's a giant What we find the last time was a car, right? There was just an abandoned car. Yeah, there was a car half buried on the beach on there.

Two whales. Yeah, a lot of big whales wash up. So it's really neat. It's pretty, it's remote. There's really not much out there. Although there is a, like some, it looks like fishermen built a small, small, like fishing cabin on the, what did that be? Right on the Arroyo. Kind of like the east side.

Yeah, the east side of. Malarimo right where the Laguna Ojo de Lyebre where the water kind of goes into the lagoon there on the point that's that was new since the last time we'd been out there but and the road's better too we were out there maybe 10 years ago and the road from Behiya Tortuga or really from um oh I'm blanking on the name Punta Eohenia right is that what it is yeah so you can go to Punta Eohenia and get a boat over to Nativity um and that kind of ends there the road you can't really keep going you have to go out on a dirt road kind of around that

and then you cruise down you cruise the big hook from there and it's a lot of it's on a high cliff so you end up just up on this high cliff in like a really sandy area and that road is really hard before and it seems like maybe it's been graded

yeah it was great and there was a couple new settlements actually out there this time too there was more people living out there not that was on the north or like the west end of the Malarimo. Yeah, I like it more. It's getting a little more development.

Yeah, I prefer the just south of Aohenia. It's a beautiful section of coastline, and then the desert just like south of that beach is really beautiful too. It's a nice, it's a nice drive, nice place to go explore and camp out there. All right, well, let's pivot here to the Slow Baja Travel Talk Lightning Round. All right, let's do it. Travel Talk Lightning Round with Jesse and Sarah Beck, and we're going to talk about, I don't know, just tell me about your first association favorite,

favorite luxury place to stay. Well, my new one is the Royal Solaris. We just stayed there. I'd never stayed in all-inclusive, and that was really fun. It was, I'd say it was fancy 20 years ago, and it's still really nice, and incredible food, great staff.

It's right on the water in San Jose del Cabo, which I prefer to Cabo San Lucas. a little less busy, the energy. And it attracts more Mexican tourists. So you get to sort of like hang out with people from all over and talk about Mexico, which I like to do. And it's just a super fun hotel. The other one I would say.

Let's repeat the name of that one again. That's the Royal Solaris in Sano de El Cabo. And that's great for the turtles. It's right by the estuary. So there's all kinds of stuff you can see there. And more of a modified. I like that. Was it in Encinada, the Elester.

Oh, Astero Beach. That was my first time. It's... For us, it's luxury. It's close to the border, so for like a lot of listeners, it would be a good, maybe if they're new. You could do an introductory day or two or weekend there. Yeah, you could cross a border and get there in two hours. And nice grounds right on the beach.

Swimming pool. Swimming pool. If you got kids, it's good. Asteroid. Yeah, it looks right out through like the opening of the estuary out to the ocean. you're kind of removed from the center of town which is I guess it could be good and bad it's nice it's quiet out there but the you know if you wanted to go into town it's not that far away and there's also a lot of restaurants like leading up into those grounds into the gate

some cool neighborhoods in there yeah you could eat and um there's stuff right outside of the hotel and then the like the labo fedora is kind of just around the corner to the south gives you more access to southern Ensenado, which has a lot of cool things that may people aren't tuned into like the Hot Springs in San Carlos or in Europa. Hang on. Hang on. Favorite hot springs. We're in the lightning round, Sarah.

All hot springs. I would say Guadalupe Canyon, but I think actually... We don't need to send any business there. So tell me about you got a secondary or... Well, they would want business. They would be very grateful for the business actually. So I'm going to give it a shout out because they do want the business. No, absolutely.

I was being flip. Right. Sorry. If I'm going to be a greedy, green go, don't go there. And it's kind of hard to get to. The San Carlos Hot Springs south of Ensenada are really, really cool. They're a bit of a drive. It's about a 45-minute drive kind of inland, but that's where a lot of locals hang out.

The water's awesome. They've got, I don't know, 10 pools maybe. It's just a super cool vibe. People aren't barbecuing. They're happy to hand you a taco. And then I would say on the side of the road, it's not open all your, round and i'm not sure what's going on with covid we haven't been and i think we stopped there and it was closed but um there is the uropan and i really like uropan it's the little um village right around

the bend before you hit the is it the santo thomas uh vineyard there you know the big brick circular thing i think that's the santo thomas vineyard uh so right before that you can drive in there and there is like a public swimming pool with hot spring water, and then there's a business right next to it with showers, and you can even just go in there and take a bath or a shower. So that's really cool that it's, I don't know, five minutes off the road and easy access and only 100 pesos to access. I really like the Guadalupe, just that view of the desert and the poems

and right on the side of the mountain. But for just a spring, what about San Bartolo? Yeah. So if you're in like Baja So if you're in like Baja Sour, just north of like, oh, between La Paz and Cabo on the east side, there's a little town like an oasis kind of town that has like a spring. The water just comes out on the side of the mountain and then they have some pools you can swim and it's super cool. It's like just warm swimming pools and people are barbecuing and it's just it's like it's like it's like. 60 seconds off Highway 1, or that might not be Highway 1, that's Highway. Yeah, right outside of Los Borrele.

So if you get Highway 1 up, it goes into the mountains to go to San Antonio and El. No, it's the first town. And you can buy a lot of mangoes while you're there. That was one of the like stop that poor Jesse has to put up with me before I saw a big mango stand. I'm like, oh, I really have to turn around. I'm like, yes, you absolutely have to turn around. And it was mango season. and they had dried mango and mango marmalade and mango candy and I'm going nuts and just like pull back don't buy so much we're not going to be able to eat it all and so you bought a bunch of mangoes and then and then that wasn't enough and it's start you know we only got a couple hours of daylight and I'm like no wait turned down I must see more of this town and so we went down the town and that's when we found the springs and they were just really nice the people were so cool and the water was it was hot so the water was cold and fresh and

Yeah, Sam... Or it was not cold. It was cool. It was perfect. It was like 70s. Yeah, it was perfect for a hot day. Yeah. Yeah, and just eating mangoes and people barbecueing.

And they kind of, I don't think they're used to having a lot of foreigners come in. They were looking at us like, who are these guys? But they were very nice. They were so, yeah. And the kids, of course, thought it was heaven. They put on their goggles and started swimming. It was a big swimming pool. And so, yeah, Sam Bartolo is probably my new southern tree.

Check it out. You drive right by it. Yeah. And that once again, I'm sure they'd love. love the visitors too. All right. Favorite beach? That's so hard.

El Barrel maybe? Oh, man. I'm going to say El Baril. Yeah, I mean, I really like Kabul Puma. I really like Los Arbolitos. Just because of the snorkeling experience and how peaceful it is, but it can get pretty hot. And then there's surfing beaches. Yeah, I know.

I can't give a favorite. It's a lightning round. It's a lightning round. Eco-tourism, what does that mean to you? Or sustainable tourism? Oh. That's a complicated question since I worked on my master's degree on that. Ecotourism, I think the idea of ecotourism is to be more sustainable.

I don't think that's always what happens. I think it's a really easy label for nonprofits to utilize, to take advantage of a community. I think it can also be just like sports or nature tourism. They can call that ecotourism. That doesn't necessarily mean it's sustainable. I do have a lot to say about sustainable travel. And what I can say is this, if you're traveling in a foreign country, the most important thing is to try to speak the language,

to be respectful, to ask questions, and show an interest in the locals. And even if you don't speak Spanish, just try to speak Spanish. try and be as polite as possible. I think those are the number one keys to sustainability and make sure that you're providing, that you're paying the locals. I think that's the key and don't get swept up in like an image of what Mexico is. Go in and learn what Mexico is by meeting locals and funding those people instead of doing a big, big tour at

of the U.S. I say go into Mexico and find it there. Don't, don't pre-plan your trip like that in terms of sustainability. I don't know, Jesse, what do you think? Yeah, ecotourism. Wow, it's a, I think it's a very complex term nowadays. You know, ultimately it's, I think tourism with having like good intentions to like support the local community, but also to like sustain the ecology in that area. And, that can take a lot of different forms even just like in Baja like let's just say whale watching

because the government steps in so that can be a totally different like floor plan how they operate that ecotourism or a different model than how maybe some private people operate their version of ecotourism

which might be ziplining or fishing or whatever Quads. Quads. Yeah, riding quads, which, you know, it's going to have, I think all the forms of tourism are going to have some kind of impact, so it's difficult, you know?

Just, yeah, there's a lot of ecotourism opportunities. It's a lot of tourism is, they're gearing it now towards ecotourism. I mean, actually, ecotourism might even be, like, kind of an older term. now there's a lot more newer types of subsets of tourism. Yeah. I don't know if we have any of those in Baja so much. I don't know. I mean, going down and seeing like the turtle.

There's the turtle tourism down there for sure. Yeah. That was something that was sort of on the side. Yeah. Turtles. And I would say the like cave painting tourism is they labeled. Because a lot of those are, Baja does have several UNESCO World Heritage sites. So all of those.

fall i would say fall under the ecotourism model and i think it's good they're you know they're trying to do what's best and they do have some good rules in place and you know maybe there's some improvements they could make but max go does a pretty good job i think of ecotourism as a whole i find i'm often pretty impressed with their their ability to i guess give the people what they want while still doing their best to protect the sustainability. Yeah, they're definitely trying, even from like the government down to like the locals. The people know what it is and they're trying to implement ecotourism. And, you know, that makes me think of if you're in La Paz, the number one recommendation I would make is to go to the Museum of Anthropolegia,

the Museum of Anthropology in La Paz is really, really cool. They have a lot about, you know, the cave art, they have a lot about Spain coming over and taking over Baja, and they have a lot about the modern history of Baja, and the students that work in there and the scientists that work in there are really excited about the work that they're doing, and they definitely are excited to have visitors at the museum. So if you find yourself there, you can learn a lot about

Baja by going in and having that museum. Yeah, it's pretty impressive. All right, two more questions. What spot in Baja is closest to your heart? I guess San Juanico. Sarah goes pale. I guess San Juanico, yeah. I think that's for me, my soft spot. I love it there. It's just that's where I consider a lot of my friends that live there to be family. Yeah. They're really. Oh, man, that's hard. Jesse likes to get away from people, I'm seeing.

Yeah. He likes San Juanico. I do. No, yeah. San Juanico is definitely up there. I really like the whole Catavina, Gonzaga Bay area. And then I really like the whole, like the Cape area region. I mean, it's just amazing down there.

It is very crowded, but it's still really incredible. The beaches and the water. Even Puerto Puyoscos, actually. a really cool spot and a lot of people don't consider that Baja but I still consider it Baja because it's right at the top it's right at the Rio you know Colorado and that's in Sonora I know but I still that's on the other side of the river I still count it as as Baja that's a pretty Pinnacotti yeah that is definitely like if you're just trying to get to the edge Baja and have an experience yes go to Pinnacotti for sure yeah yeah and Puerto Pinojasca and what's the little town there

El Golfo is yeah that's a really cool being town too. Yeah. Yeah, I guess maybe I would have to say San Juanico, just because I've spent most of my time there. I'm lied. It's two questions. We've got two more questions. What's been your biggest Baja surprise? What's been the thing that you just like, wow, I can't believe, you know, whether there's whale watching or swimming with the whale sharks or the mule trip to the cave paintings or just the most delectable mangoes? You know, I would say mine is Valle Guadalupe. That has been a really big surprise.

I used to, gosh, I don't even think I was, I was maybe 18. It was right when I moved up here with Jesse. And I used to have this little loop I like to do. I would go to Taccati and then drive Valle de Guadalupe down to Rosarito and ride horses and then drive home. It would be a day trip or maybe one overnight trip. And I would take my girlfriends down there because I was like 18 or 19. And Jesse and I would go down there. We had a couple of romantic little adventures.

And Viade Guadalupe was beautiful, but there was really nothing along that road at all. And I think what has come out of that is really, really cool. I think the vineyards and the restaurants and this, I call it Bougie Baja. And it's like so, so fancy. But then each vineyard is different and unique in its own way and the food's really good. And I think the excitement that that is. bringing to Baja and the commerce it's bringing to Baja is really, really cool. So that's my biggest surprise. If you had told me 20 years ago that was going to be like a hub for food and wine, I would

have laughed. No, surprising, isn't it? The ingredients are the same, but what they're doing with them is phenomenal. It's amazing. And that's sort of the Baja experience, right? You can go down to Cabo and do a luxury beach experience, all inclusive, and, you know, do that, where you're just drinking whatever drink you want, eating whatever food you want, and then you can end up camping at El Barill where nobody's there and going to Sierra San Francisco and see, you know, amazing piece of history that's hard to wrap your mind around to going and having a really nice dinner and drinking a really good bottle of wine. Like how cool is that? And surf, you know, there's a whole circle of part of it. But let's not talk about surfing in Baja

too much. All right. Jesse, you're not going to get to answer that question. You're going to get to answer this question. What keeps you coming back? Last question. What keeps you coming back? Just the I just want to go find out more places you know go to new places that's really what wants me to come keeps me wanting to come back

I think after 20 plus years and hundreds of trips new places that we haven't been in and mountains I haven't seen and there's still a couple you know some like really remote coastline 40 years so

yeah just exploring and finding new caves, new mountains, new creeks, and there's, you know, a lot of places I've seen on the map or mountains I've seen driving by that I want to go to. So I think that and... A mom's guy. You have to admit it. Yeah. And I was going to say friends and family. Like, I have a lot of... We've been building some really cool trails down there that were still not done. Jesse will say no with the family. No, yeah, taking the family for sure. This is for mom's guy and he'll, you know, take you down a random road.

The mom's guide's been fun. We've been going to new places. We've been trying to like just cover Baja, like go to new places, go top to bottom, left or right, in and out. And it's great. Sarah, can we talk about the mom's guide? Yeah. That's your last question. Then I'm going to say goodbye.

You've been very generous. So tell me, Mom's Guide. Where are we? So Mom's Guide, I still have a bigger picture vision of having a website and ultimately creating a family guide for families that want to go to Baja because I think that's such an authentic experience for for young children really and I think I don't know if you looked at my last post that was a few days ago but I was talking about for me ultimately like a wood coffee made off of a wood stove in on someone's porch in a cracked plastic chair you can't get closer to true humanity and connection with an individual

than that, and that for me I think is really important for kids, especially in this day and age where they're distracted by TV and media and cars. Just the world that we live in, the American world, there's a certain narrative and visual that these kids have, I guess kids in the past have never had to deal with. There's a lot that you have to process, especially with COVID stuff and all the changes in the world and to be able to take your family down to Baja and experience the simplicity of some of the components I think is something your kids will thank you for for the rest of your life. In fact, Lana was saying our friend, Lana, we took Luke, they met us down when we were living

down in Baja and their son is, I think he's 10 now. And she says, hands down, he was six at the time when he came down, hands down, that's the best trip he's ever been on. He talks about it still constantly. So it was four years ago and this 10 year old kid is still talking about the experiences that you had in Baja. And I think I want to share that with people. And I would like to talk more about how you can do that sustainably and keep it that way. And so that's my ultimate goal I think is to just create Stoke and inspire women and families to go down there and not have it just be like a guy thing where they go down for surf trips or race or fish. You know, it doesn't need to be that.

it can be something that families really enjoy and experience and love. And I'm going to get one more opportunity for you to dig down on that. The post that was before that with the sea turtles. Yeah. Just that's, again, just one of these things that just has spoken to me since I was a child, the hatching of the sea turtles and jacusto like baby turtles returning to the z, the cycle of life continues. And that has stuck with me since I was used.

your children's age, 50, well, almost 50 years ago, 40-something years ago. You did it. You were there. I don't know when that post happened in real life, but I only saw it last week. So tell me about sea turtles and the trip you took. So I would argue that all of the experiences you see on a mom's guide are very spontaneous. It's not something we plant. I mean, the whale sharks I kind of knew, okay, I know they're around this time.

And so we intended on that. but I had totally forgotten turtles were hatching. I was so spontaneous, and I think that's the most special thing about Baja is it doesn't matter what time of year you visit Baja. You can come, like firsthand, you can experience a biological miracle, no matter the time of the year, no matter what part of Baja you're in, you're going to see nature in a way that you're not going to see anywhere else. So for us seeing the turtles was spontaneous, you know, as Layla said and our little

voiceover, I laugh and she said it was a turtle. I'm like, oh, it's probably just someone rolling in the sand. And it was really, it was a turtle. And she was walking up the beach and she laid her eggs right in front of us. And, you know, we were all of the people on the beach were just sort of so amazed. Even the employees of the hotels that go and stake off the nests are, you know, still amazed. And they've been seeing that their whole lives. And then it was so cool that we, were just directed by locals that yeah you don't need to do the tour thing you know just they dig those eggs up at 6 p.m and so that's what we did we got down to the estuary at 6 p.m and there they were and they were happy to share the experience um i was messaged by a couple people worried we had

touched the turtles because that's illegal um or this and that and that did not happen we stood behind a fence and they took my phone and were generous enough to get closer up videos and we had you know, clear conversations about what they're doing for, to protect the turtles. And so I felt really grateful that we were able to walk upon an experience and still protect the turtles best that we could and support the community. And I would argue that no matter the time of year, you're going to run into whale spouting or in the summer sometimes in Cabo, you see those rays that fly to the water. That's a really, like, unbelievable experience.

Yeah, the kids make that. There's the Osprey's nesting. It doesn't matter what time of Baja, what time you go to Baja, you're going to experience some sort of biological wonder. You just have to look for it and it all just appear, I guess. Well, I appreciate you making some time for Slow Baja. One more time on your social media handle before I botch it again, a mom's guide to Traveling Baja on Instagram.

Yeah, a mom's guide to traveling Baja on Instagram. It's a long handle and I'm hoping to get a website up here soon. All right. Well, Jesse and Sarah Beck, thanks again for opening your home and talking about Baja and look forward to seeing you down there soon. Yeah, let's talk again soon. Thank you very much. It was great to be on Slow Baja. That was my pleasure. Thanks. Hey, you guys know what to do. Please help us by subscribing, sharing, rating, all that stuff. And if you missed anything, you can find the links in the show notes at Slowbaha.com.

I'll be back before you know it. And if you want to receive notices on new episodes, please follow Slow Baja on Instagram. Twitter and Facebook for you old folks.