Slow Baja - Travel Talk With Slow Baja Meet Keith Berkley Owner Of The Black Bass Lodge

Episode Date: October 22, 2021

Today’s Travel Talk with Slow Baja has us on a ZOOM call with Keith Berkley, owner of The Black Bass Lodge in Punta Abreojos. As a child, Berkley grew up camping and exploring Baja with his parents. His dream was to create a lodge where his friends and family could gather to find some of the slow Baja lifestyle that he loved as a child. Remote, private, and completely off-the-grid, The Black Bass Lodge is a destination all in itself. Located just steps from the beach where the surrounding reefs are abundant with fish and produce world-class waves. The Lodge is currently available to groups looking to rent the entire property (Over 3500 square feet with four rooms, three patios, lounge, 4.5 baths, dining room, and bar. Sleeps up to 15 people). A private chef is on-site to prepare your meals utilizing the freshest local ingredients. The Black Bass Lodge is Slow Baja Approved! Follow The Black Bass Lodge on Instagram Follow The Black Bass Lodge on Facebook Book directly via The Black Bass Lodge’s Website

Before we get into the show today, I just want to apologize for the quality of the Zoom call. Zoom is not really my forte. I love doing these conversations in person whenever possible. Keith and I just couldn't get our schedules together, so we did the call via Zoom. And I enjoy the conversation, but I wish the sound quality was a little better. So next time, Keith and I talk, hopefully you'll be after a nice fishing trip down at the Black Bass Lodge in Ponto Abriojos. Enjoy the show. Talk with you soon.

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. Let's just stop for a second and say,

hey, it's Travel Talk with Slow Baja, and I'm sitting here with Keith Berkeley, and we're talking about the Black Bass Lodge in Punta Abriojos. Keith, welcome, Amigo. Thank you so much. Really appreciate having me on. Yeah, so, dude, I just, I'm astonished about why people make the effort to build

something phenomenal in Baja and then share it with others. And you did. Yeah, it's so, when I was young, we would, you know, like we would go camping with my parents and their VW van, usually to like San Felipe or something like that. San Felipe was like our spot. And then as, you know, we got older, like I have an older brother and younger brother. As we got older, we started reading about Baja and we started to say, hey, I want to go to Baja or we want to go to Loretto, we want to go to these different places and we try to figure out to get there. And once we got in high school, we could work and we could, you know, get down there. We just loved it.

And when I was just started grad school, you know, I read this wonderful book by Gene Kira. And I forget the partner's name in it, but it was called the Baja catch. And it was about fishing coming all over Baja. And Coont-Avrio sounded the coolest to me because it's got big, vast types. It's just not your typical, like, hey, let's go catch a. Marlin or troll around all day until, you know, it's like, you really got to work at it. And, and I mean, you catch a lot of fish, but we just, yeah, a few of my friends and I, when we graduated from undergrad, went there the first time.

And we didn't know what we were doing. We were just camping. We brought a boat. We didn't know anybody. And we just, but we had the best hunt. It was, it was amazing. And went through that process. I met a guy by the name of Paco Swiniga, a couple of my friends that worked at Fisherman's Land.

had heard that I was going to Abriojos, and they came into the restaurant that I worked at, and they said, hey, I want you to give these photos to Pakozuniga. So I put them in a zip block and put on my tackle box, and sure enough, we're... The way it used to be. Yeah. Dude, carry this stuff down to my bro, and it's going to be your bro. Yeah, and it was funny. They had to qualify it. They're like, this guy's actually really good fishing with the rod grill. It was kind of in that transition before, you know, when people we're just not just using handlines anymore.

And yeah, so we went down, sure enough. Like, first Pongka comes up was like, what are you guys doing? It's so weird that you're here. We're just explaining it. I said, oh, I'm looking for my friend. I'm looking for a guy that Paco. I have something for him. I mean, a few minutes later, the boat rolls up is Paco.

He's fishing with an American guy named Oscar, who was one of the first Americans that I met down there. And I said, hey, I have something for you guys. And so Oscar was in the front of the boat. We got the pointy ends together, and we gave the photos. And he's like, did Danny give these two? And I'm like, yeah. He was like, I was in the front of the boat when that was taken.

So it just kind of blossomed into this relationship with Paco and Oscar. And then, yeah, we were camping. And then I started, I convinced a few of my professors at San Diego State to let me go study the town for a semester. And Eric and I would come back and we were doing a geographical survey. and oh my god we had a great time but during that time we found out there was some land for sale that was 27 years ago and we were able to uh purchase some land and it took us a long time because it was it was really wasn't that much i mean i want to say it wasn't seven grand back in the day but you know when i'm at that age seven grand might have been a million because we just didn't have it we had we had

we had 200 bucks to rub together we're in opera like we're in bah so um but yeah so eventually we were able to pull it off and it, you know, it takes a little longer to build when you're, when you get a build from cash. And I didn't know what I was doing. I had no idea how, what I was going to do. I mean, I thought I could build a whole place for like 20 grand. I didn't know. I wasn't in construction then. I just had no clue as to what things were. But my interest in construction at that point kind of led me to start my own company up here. So really, Aubrey-Ojos gave me my career. So let's talk about a couple of of things related to that.

You're a Stokel dude, doing a little research on you. You've got a couple of degrees in Latin American studies, and you've got an MBA and international business. And you're a contractor, and it

sounds to me like you love to fish. Yes. Yeah. I love to fish. Love to be on the water. I'll surf. Not that good at it, but it, you know, like to go out, I'll surf with the boys or something.

We'll do that. But I can get into it like a lot of my friends did. A lot of my friends that study and area that surf and they surf religiously, they go over the world and surf. But I've had a few of them tell me that the best day of surfing they ever had was an Aubrey Ours. Well, from my last trip, staying at your place for just a night, there was not a single surfer out under the other than the two guys that I interviewed.

So it was pretty low-key. down there. Nice small waves, but nobody else to compete with. So it seems like a perfect spot. I wish I had a long board with me because I would have jumped in and gotten a few ways. And there's there's like five other breaks right around there. The point is one thing. And then there's razors to the left. But there's other, there's other breaks that are much more, I guess, attuned to me because I don't, you know, I don't want to drop in on a bunch of rocks. Yeah. Yeah. So it sounds like there's a little, there's a few. challenges, geographical challenges there. But, hey, Keith, what I really want to get to, honestly,

if it sounds like you've got a love for Latin American things, Mexico, et cetera, Baja specifically, and you decided somewhere after your MBA, like you're going to be a contractor, but you also have this passion for this spot. And you built, a beautiful lodge there. So walk me through that. So we, you know, we started building it. And we started with the most utilitarian thing we could build, which was a, it was a five meter by five meter concrete block with a door. And that's, and then that was just to get away from the flies. It was a place we cooked. That was a place we slept. You know, we had a roof. And, you know, we're like, well, we love this place. We're surviving. But when I finally get to build this place,

I really want it to be something that's in a way out of place. Like it's when you go down there, you can get, you know, you can find plenty of places to stay where, you know, it's just very simple. It's very utilitarian. I didn't want this a place to be utilitarian. I wanted it to be something when people got there to be like, wow, there's art here.

You know, like, well, the architecture is better than I thought. You know, I want people to be pleasantly surprised. and to know that we really, in designing it, decorating it and things, we really tried to keep in mind some of our favorite places to go and the places that have a lot of art and stuff that doesn't really make sense, little alcoves and, you know, a halibut carving on the bench where you get your towels, you know, little things like that. Like, that's to me what makes it.

And we're still, we'll still working on it. You know, I think it'll get, yeah, it'll get more and more unique. hopefully not too crazy but yeah the oh and i don't know if you noticed but there's a there's a lot of you probably wouldn't notice unless you went to anthony's a lot here in san diego but there's a lot of artwork from there when they were closing down it just so happened to be i was opening up and anthony's seafood was like a staple here in san diego and anthony seafood that family was instrumental and starting obrioles they went down there on motorcycles and said hey we want you guys to go out to this point.

We'll come down on a ship and we'll bring you lobster traps. We'll bring you food. We'll bring you bait. We'll bring you boats. Everything you need. You guys fish lobsters for us and we'll pay you, you know, we'll pay you by this much money per pound. And so they started doing that. So there's three families or two families.

So you guys in the Arsays went from San Ignacio on the backs of mules. They walked next to the animals. They didn't ride them. And they just got all the way out to Avaroos and took them three days. from just from that dirt road and then sure enough the ship showed up and every year it did and then they uh once they once they discovered they could they could also sell abalone that they were there year round but uh so that artwork when i when i told the owner about where this was going he was like wow that was my grandpa that was on that motorcycle that went down there to do this it's like a

famous story in our family and and so he was you know i can tell he was pretty upset that the way his iconic restaurant was going away, but maybe that gave him just a little bit of happiness. He was pretty proud of that. And he was like, well, I'm glad you got this. And you got the glass that ended up in the shower. That was like part of their dining room and didn't ever set sand sculpture, which was a Faust. And he did, he did, he ended up doing the architecture for the wildlife animal park. And he did that for them before he kind of became famous. So, but yes we have a lot of stuff that we we feel is significant symbolic and and you know makes us happy and and I don't want it just for us you mentioned this earlier like I I don't know if I could

you know my parents showed me a lot of stuff and through them they showed other kids like all the people that would come down as adults down to the camp that we called the lodge and they would they would come down there and camp and they got that for my parents So I figure, wow, if I could just create like a dream factory, like for kids to learn about, okay, well, that's a scorpion. Like, this is how you get fish. This is a tide pool. This is how you surf.

This is how you become responsible. This is how you change a tire. And I think that that's important stuff for young men and women to do. And I don't know. Why not share? This is how you sneak a beer when your parents aren't looking. That's right. Yeah, I know.

Or whatever. Hey, Keith, let me just rattle off a few things here that I've I've scrawled on my yellow legal pad that I think sets the scene for folks. Remote, private, completely off the grid, black bass lodge is a destination all in itself. Located steps from the beach, no doubt about that. It's right there. It's across a dirt road from your front hammock. Punta Abrijo, Baja, California, Sur, where the surrounding reefs are abundant with fish

and the waves bring surfers from all over the world. Yeah, that about sums it up. Yeah, we've got, it was, you know, we've met people from all over. There's a professional wind surfer that lives in Maui, and he comes to, and I forgot his name, which really knows his name. But he comes to Abriolos for a week every year.

And he's just like it's different wind. And, you know, you see the kite surfers are out there now because that's one thing. Abrio has an abundancy of fish and an abundancy of wind. I mean, it's just the way it is. And almost every morning calms down and becomes beautiful and glasses off. But pretty much every evening gets windy. And so that's, God, if I only kite surf, I have something to do all the time. but yeah because you know and yeah it's it it really is it's a it's a it's a special spot and we wanted to

make it so that like when people come there the reason we have a chef you know there that we're all you know all time is you know people would have to go to town and find a little restaurant see who yeah yeah you got eating somebody's home right here you're you're dining somebody's home in right so it's cool but it's effort yeah or the old tire shop which is one of them, the great food, but it's the old tire shop. I remember it.

Yeah, yeah. And I think that Cresilda, she does a wonderful job. And, you know, I told her, I said,

look, let's experiment between, between you and I, but I really want you to just think of kind of like, um, the, you know, like traditional Mexican fair

that you would get it all. You know, there's nights when we go off and we'll make sushi or we'll bring down a different chef or she and I will experiment with something kind of fun. and, you know, but she, she does her, you know, she makes things from scratch.

She doesn't just open up a can enchilada sauce. She's, she usually just, you know, starts by chopping up all the tomatoes and then the garlic and then cilantro and then it turns into something amazing. I just want people to feel like they're at home, but not, you know, not their home. They don't have to maintain it to all this. Yeah, I mean, Keith, let me tell you. I mean, I was there for one night and she cooked, cooked, did not cook. she prepared a beautiful

service for me. Wonderful. And it was really, again, it was awkward that I was the only guest, but it was amazing. And then, you know, the eggs the next morning

were beautiful. And the fruit plate was stunning and sort of, I would say, you know, kind of a little over the top given the person there,

but it was spectacular. I was touched that she put the effort into doing that for, me and the coffee was spectacular. So really when you're out in a pretty remote spot like your place to have phenomenal coffee and somebody who's caring for you and looking after your needs with a beautiful fruit plate and, you know, six different things and more than I could ever eat, plus a beautiful eggs breakfast, you know, it was, it was really special. Wonderful. Yeah, that's,

yeah, that's what we're going for. Like, we don't care if it's one person or if there's is 12 home. Like we want to make sure that each person feels like they can get what they want. Like we don't want people to be like, oh, you know, I was in the bathroom and I don't know, there was something I saw there. It wasn't right. You know, ask us. We got stuff. We have a little store there that they can get sandals and shirts and, you know, fishing gear. We have a little tackle store down there. They can even buy rods and wheels if they want. But yeah, so we Can we jump into that a little bit? Can we jump into that?

How does, so you've got four rooms. It looks to me like you can easily take care of eight people and maybe up to what, I don't know, 12 or 14. We did 15 when their families that know each other. Yeah, so people want to get snowboard. You know, like, yeah, people like, because we're, my brother, you know, and two of our good friends, they all have two kids. It's like two adults, two kids. but the kids always end up sleeping up on the roof with their sleeping bags and stuff. So it's like we got,

Holly and I got her own room. It's great. But if the kids are too young and they're going to stay down there. But yeah, it's more work. And as we get more people, she will get help from town. Like her seldom will call her cousin or.

Oh, that's the Mexican way. No problem. Yeah. So we can wrap up to six people like that. So a big group, we just ramp up the people and we just buy more supplies and catch more fish. and yeah. And so if people are coming down to stay with you,

I'm assuming you've got a guy with a panga who's going to take people out if they want to go out. And it appears to me from my limited time there that you can catch halibut right out in front of the, how many things you can catch, but people weren't trying to get right there. Yeah, there's halibut. We had a trip last fall.

It was a 50th birthday. and so we went fishing down on the beach. It was, I think it was in October. Anyway, but October, November are almost interchangeable down there, especially for fishing off that beach. And all of a sudden, we just saw a lot of bird activity, and we were catching sierras. We caught halibut, we caught bass, we caught yellowtail,

we caught bonita. There was croaker. I mean, that's what I love about down there. I mean, you cast out, who knows what you're getting in. You know, it's not like sometimes when you're salmon fishing, You got a salmon or a salmon? So, yeah, you have no idea. We've got yellowfin tuna and sheephead on the same anchor in the boat.

And to answer your question from earlier, there are pangas in town. Pongas de Torezmo, so they have a couple that have pollholders and drinkholders and stuff, and they have captains, captain specifically that captained those boats. But they don't have a whole lot of tourism down there. That's what I was going to say. is gone. Yeah, we have to call ahead of time and say, hey, are you going to have boats? And if not, L'Abocana just to the north, they have like five or six sport fishing boats.

And so you can always get those as a backup. But I like to use the local guys that I've known since they were two years old. Like, you know, it's like one of the best captains down there. I mean, I remember throwing him around in the sand when he was three. And yeah. Awesome. Hey, do you wish you had joined us on the Nora 500? Well, here is your chance.

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Again, if I can do it in my 1971 Toyota Land Cruiser, totally stocked. You can do it in any modern four by four. the Nora Mexican 1000 is the happiest race on earth. Check it out at nora.com, n-O-R-R-A-A-com or on Slow Baja. So let's wrap this up, fishing, surfing, eating, adventure lodge, four beachfront rooms, indoor, outdoor showers, Wi-Fi, private chef, daily cleaning. If somebody wants to book right now, what's the best way? Just call us. Go on our website.

you know, we're on some of the, like it gets a little tricky with some of the other websites like booking and VRBO and those things. We've had some difficulties with the way each format set up to just email us. I got to you through Black Bass Lodge on Instagram. Okay, that works too. Or Facebook. We have right on it. And so tell me what's the best way if somebody wants to get a hold of you and get down to your lodge with a family or whatever they, want to do. They want to book for October, November, December. What's the best? Just the best ways to go

to the blackass lodge.com. Put it in an inquiry. Tell us how many people you have, what dates you want, any specifics like if you're vegan or whatever, do you want to fish, all those kinds of things that we can set it up. So we have a calendar that we look at that kind of books everything. But yeah, the best way is just caught. But you also have to decide. Some people aren't adventurous enough to find a place. You know, like, it's not easy. And it's kind of daunting. And so we actually do run a limited number of guided trips per year

where we will fly from Tijuana to Loretto. We have a 16-passenger van there. We usually go to Santa Rosalia first. Say the night there at a mortal, a nice little hotel, but it's not nicer than the lodge, which is important. But they have a nice dinner. and then we're at the lodge by 8 a.m. the next day. We usually stay for like five days and then go back to Loretto on the final night and we stay at La Mision, which is just my favorite

hotel ever in Maha. And we've gotten another staff there to the point where we'll come and we'll just go talk to the chef and we'll just give her a bunch of fish and lobsters, clams, whatever we brought over and give it to them. And then we say, hey, everybody, go relax, go sit in the pool, go take a nap, whatever you want to do, just be up at, also leave us their restaurant at seven. And we just have, you know, and you'll bring out so much food that, oh, it's unbelievable. But I know, I know not a bit goes away. So, yeah. Well, again, your spot is what? Is it 60 kilometers or is it 100 kilometers west of San Ignacio? It's about, it's right in between that,

because it's about 15 miles to the turn off. And then it's 68 kilometers, or 68, miles, I'm sorry, not kilometers, 68 miles from the turnoff. So it's, it's pretty far. So I was guessing it was about 100, sorry, I was a little confused, 100 kilometers, 60 miles ish from San Ignacio. It add a little bit more because you got to get a little bit more. From the turnoff, you're correct. It's from the turn off 60 miles to the lodge. From the turn off, which I'm going to joke is the local Starbucks because I asked the the old woman there if she would make a coffee for me. Yeah.

It was 10 minutes and it was beautiful and her dog barked at me the entire time. The entire time. Where she made this hot pot of boiling water on her stove and then poured it through the sock full of freshly ground coffee, which she ground in front of me and talking to me the entire time, you know, about life and everything else. And it was a really, you know, it's that I hate to say. it this way, Keith, but it really was a slow your role, slow Baja kind of a moment. Once you get Dan Ignacio, which is not exactly fast Baja for the imagination, once you start going west towards

your place, it is super slow Baja, man. You know, it's it's perfect. Yeah, it's perfect for your podcast because it was, it's great now, but it was so frustrating when I was trying to get the thing built like before my manager. Yeah. My dad and I would go down there. We'd be there for two weeks. And so I put out the word. Hey, I need some contractors.

I need to talk some people. So slowly the next day, somebody would come by. You know, and I was like, look, I just need this 15 by 15 concrete pad. That's all I need done. And you're a concrete guy.

So let's do it. He goes, okay, well, tomorrow I'll come by with the tape measure. And I was like, no, look, I got paper right here. I got a tape measure. let's just get the measurements done right now. And it would take me three or four days for them to get me just a materials list and stuff and to tell me that they would do it.

And oftentimes we'd have to leave without these, I mean, minor projects getting done. And so I was like, okay, look, here's half your money. I'll give the other half when I get back. But we didn't have, you know, I wasn't, and not everybody had cell phones in. So it was very difficult. I'd have to send faxes or whatever. And I swear, every time we showed up, that concrete would be wet as it. It was just wet, like 10 minutes before we got there, and there'd been like three months in

between. But, yeah, it was pretty funny. It was frustrated. But then once the technology caught up, it was a lot easier. Well, you've persevered. And it seems to me like Greece, Griselda seems to be doing a phenomenal job in the kitchen. And again, I mean, I was the only guy, but, you know, they were really quite honestly, sincerely warm to me.

and the food was great and it was lovely. Hey, I want to just wrap this up and just throw a couple things out to you and have you bring them back to me. Is this legit? 475 per night, up to eight people. Are you kidding me? Includes meals, private chef, cleaning service. Are you kidding?

Hey, we want people to go there. We know we're not trying to get rich off this thing. And I get that. So you've got to get the people who are willing to go 60-something miles from San Ignacio. And I love San Ignacio. But it's all paved. It's not hard. You got to get there. But you do have to get people to get out there. So you've got a special through the end of the year, through 12, 31, 21, 475 a night, up to eight people. So get your friend to get out there and get to the Black Bass Lodge. Thank you. I mean, I'm glad you went. And I hope you come again. You know, when we're heading down this weekend, you're invited. Well, I'm heading up to Oregon to watch my son play baseball, but as soon as his season is over, I'm hoping to donate a garage full of baseball gear to the baseball.

Oh, they would love that. Does he play for the ducks, or is he? He is in the Giants Minor League system. Oh, okay. Eugene Emeralds. And I've got a full forerunner full of gear. Oh, my God. Some place in Baja.

That is. A team right there in Ponto Abreyoos. I went to the, I went to the ballpark. It was pretty cool. Austineros. Yeah. Yeah.

It's, I swear, if you can get to, if you can see a home game, it is so fun. I mean, and there's pros. Like,

they have professionals, but maybe people that didn't really make it in a minor. Yeah. On their ways. They get free room and board. Yeah, they get a free room and board and, and,

you know, like, and pay them. And they get to play baseball. and the whole town goes nuts. And it's, oh, my God, we've had so much fun. But their colors are the, most Gennettos are like the Oakland Athletics.

Like they're the great. Exactly. Exactly. They have three football teams. And they travel all over. It's like Hoosers. Like the 15 cars going down to Loretto. So go watch and play and just honking the whole way.

It's really fun. Well, I'm, my, my donation is going to go to the coach in San Ignacio. which is a level lower than your folks at Punto Abreyo host, but I'm looking forward to watching a game, drinking a few beers, maybe a Michilada or something. There you go. Keith, I'm just delighted that we got a chance to talk about you and your fabulous property.

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