Slow Baja - Travel Talk With Slow Baja Meet Nathan Burbey Casa Concepcion B & B

Episode Date: April 24, 2023

Meet Nathan Burbey of Casa Concepcion B & B in today's travel talk with Slow Baja. In our conversation, we discuss his history in Bahia Concepcion. --Nathan's father owns the restaurant and campground just down the road known as Mark and Olivia's Playa Buenaventura. Nathan has lived between Posada Concepcion and Buenaventura since he graduated from college more than a decade ago. My Podcast producer, Keiser, and I stayed in Casa Concepcion on our recent BajaXL trip. I was delighted by the hospitality. The Inn was sold-out, but Nathan held our room for our 10:00 PM arrival --a kindness not practiced routinely on the peninsula. The room was lovely, thoughtfully decorated, with cotton sheets and blankets --and was a generous cut above the Baja standard. Cold beer was in the fridge, and Nathan invited us to help ourselves to a snack if we were hungry. Nathan had the coffee brewing at 5:30 AM for the early risers. As we poured our cups, he implored us to follow him across the road to watch the sunrise. His stoke for nature's beauty was infectious, and the show was a stunner. Casa Concepcion at Posada Concepcion is Slow Baja Approved. We look forward to returning soon to slow our roll and fish with Nathan. Find links to Nathan Burbey and Casa Concepcion in the show notes at www.slowbaja.com

This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches, and hands down my favorite tequila. Ola amigos, Michael Emery, also known as Slow Baja, and I am delighted to bring you this travel talk conversation with Nathan Burbank of Casa Concepcion. Casa Concepcion is at Pasada Concepcion on the shore, a beautiful behia Concepcion. It's just south of Muley. It's a spot I've been driving by for a long time.

Always kind of wondered about the folks who had houses there at Pasada Concepcion. And then over the years, I watched Casa Concepcion being built. I thought that looks like a darn nice place. So I reached out to Nathan, told him I was coming down for the Baja XL rally. Had a night. I was hoping to stay there. And he couldn't have been kinder. He was on a family ski vacation.

Got right back to me, got me booked for. the night and we got in late of course i've been telling you about the carburetor problems we were having we were doing a couple of podcasts and then we got away late and carburetor stuff and i had messaged as soon as we got self-service i'd message nathan to say hey man don't uh don't hold the kitchen open for us we're going to be in late late but he was right there waiting for us when we got in at 10 o'clock at night and he was back up at 5 a.m getting the coffee ready so he's a guy who's got an eye for detail wants to make people happy uh and casa concepcion is the kind of place that I would really love to hang out, spend a few days there, get off, do a little fishing

with Nathan, and it is Slow Baja approved. So check it out, Casa Concepcion. I found it on Facebook. All the details will be in the show notes at Slobaha.com without further ado. Nathan Burry talking Casa Concepcion on Travel Talk with Slow Baja. Hey, it's Slow Baja. It's a beautiful morning here in Bahia Concepcion. I am at the Casa Concepcion. I am at the Casa Concepcion. at Posada Concepcion with Nathan Burby. Yes, good morning. Hey, dude. Good morning.

It's been a while. I've been hoping to meet you. Yeah, thanks for doing this. Yeah, well, I'm delighted. Thanks for having us here at the Casa. And you had a full house last night. Full house with the Baja XL rally. Yeah.

Yeah, I was sending people away, which is a good problem to have. Me, amigos. Tell me about your life. You spend a lot of your life here. Yep, so right now I'm 32 years old. I moved here when I was 21. I came down here because of my father. He maybe he's been here probably about over 25 years. I grew up in San Diego, Southern California. I lived in the suburbs, lived the normal life, high school sports. I finished high school really early when I started taking college classes at about 16. And then I finished with a bachelor's degree at 19 and was just going fast, fast, fast.

My priorities were I wanted to make some money. I wanted to be big in business. And when I finally started accomplishing those things, I really was not happy at all. I was more miserable. At least you figured that out. Yeah. In a lot of ways, Baja saved my life. I truly feel that.

Can we jump into your dad's place? just down the road, beach front, a very cool, old school spot. Tell me about it. Yeah, so a Playa Buenna Manchura hits just paradise, really. It's in between Mulae and Loretto. At the end of the bay, it's far away from everything. It's close to Playa L'Recosone, but there's no big developments by it, which makes it really cool because it's basically a beach with no rules. You know, everyone there is like super laid back. My dad's super cool. They had this like funky beach bar with all kinds of Baja 1,000 stickers and all kinds of weird stuff on the walls. It's really like old school Baja. And you can easily throw, you know, a rock into the ocean. It's just like a few

meters from the front doors. It's right there in the water. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, super thoughtful. I was last time I was there two years ago for breakfast. Your dad's got a guy raking the beach, just picking up the, you know, the, you know, the, the, the float some and jetsam that comes out of the water and just making it look pretty. And the staff was just amazing. You know, we were the only folks in there rolling through. They couldn't have been kinder, couldn't have been nicer. Food was great.

Kind of funny. I think they had ACDC playing or something like that. But it's Taco Tuesday's the epic event there, right? Taco Tuesday is the epic event. Like you said, the employees, it's far away from town. You know, it's like almost no one has a car around here. It's hard doing business off grid from the people who live in Mulehead. the lady who works Bonaventura, she's been working there like 18 years now.

She's this like this lady from Acapulco who they found just selling blankets. And she's like an amazing cook. And basically we've gone through so many employees over the years there. But it's her and her kids basically that they take the bus there every day and home. Wow. You know, and then just like they're committed. And then Taco Tuesday started up. We had an idea to do it because I think there was another place.

It was actually my grandma's idea because she was living up in Bahamar. And she was like, this place has like a Taco Tuesday here. You know, they give away these like really basic, like ground beef tacos or something. And then my dad and I wanted to do it big. We've done a, we did all kinds of events there. We did pig roast. We did 18 pigs in one year. And then, but it was like a lot of work doing that.

And then so we did taco Tuesday and we did like eight kinds of tacos, like coconut shrimp tacos, pulled pork, slow cooked brisket and all these like specialty tacos. We even did a Broughtwurst taco where we made our own brought worst and we made her own like mustard on it and sourcrout and it was good. And now it's been, I don't even know how many years it's been going, but every week it's just packed in there. It's like 100 people out in the middle of nowhere. And like on the day you went there and you're the only person in there, that's usually how it goes. And then on a Taco Tuesday, like if someone's camping, they're like, whoa, I thought you were joking. There's like 100 people here and it's fun.

It's a happy hour 11 a.m. until noon. and that can give me it just a thing. Nice, nice. Can you tell me about your relationship with fishing? You're pretty serious about that. It's been a guiding light in your life, hasn't it? It has definitely. So my dad got me into fishing when I was really young, you know,

and maybe it was kind of missing him because he moved down here. I probably caught my first draught out about six years old, caught my first yellowfin tuna at about seven. And even when my dad was down here, I really didn't see him much. But I kept fishing up north. Oh, sorry, hey, the power went out. It's okay? Yeah, I'm battery operated, so we're all good to go.

So, let me start again. Okay, and then, so yeah, when I was, and even in high school, I started a club called Poway High Anglers, and we would go fishing different lakes every weekend, and we'd get like half price on half-day boats and three-quarter-day boats. So it's always been a really passion of mine. But me moving down here, like I said, I was just kind of miserable up there. And I was just looking for, you know, a purpose.

And for me, being out on the ocean or being underwater even better, it's just like, you know, it really puts the world into perspective, you know, all your problems and things, you know, out in nature, it just centers you. And the fishing down here is just amazing. I really prefer even to fish alone because I just love going out there at sunrise, being alone with my thoughts, you know, and just being grateful. And the fishing is just a bonus. I just love the ocean. The fishing here is spectacular and the diving as well.

And, yeah. Well, can you tell me a little bit about, you built a beautiful life. You're here at Pasada Concepcion. Can tell me a little bit about this community? I've always driven by and thought, you know, this is kind of cool. got your neighbors, whether you want them or not, they're right here. Everybody's right on top of each other in this little turnoff, this wide spot in the road, but it must be a lot of community. Yeah, it's a, this is a really, you know, impressive community. Coming from Buena Ventura, which was

like the opposite, basically I could just like walk out of my house naked because no one was around. And I didn't even have power in my house down there for like seven years. And I just do candles and had like an on-demand hot water heater. I didn't have a cell phone down there for like about almost eight years. I had no phone number. And down here, it's kind of the opposite. We've got, I think, over 60 houses here. And it's just a, it's comfortable living.

You know, that's why for people coming, you know, that are coming down and they're aging, they want to have a comfortable house, everything kind of taking care of for them. We haul on the water from a ranch. We pump it out of the ground two, three times. a day, big truck full of water. In the past, we've always had a generator, a big generator running from 10 a.m. till 10 p.m. giving people power in their house. And just this year, we started with a huge solar project, one of the biggest solar projects in Alabaha. It is impressive. We have a room full of lithium ion batteries, inverters all over the walls. So far, we're up to 146

solar panels. And this is just the first phase. So right now we're having power almost all day. with just solar, the generator automatically kicks on around like 738 and goes still 10 still. But we, our goal is to have 24 hour power within the next few years. You can just get those people to stop making microwave popcorn late at night. Yeah, it's just, and you know, when people are gone right now, it's like full house because the time of the year. Yeah, it's winter. And almost everyone who lives here is running from the cold.

Yeah, we're here in February. It's winter and it's nice here right now. compared to the weather we've had in the north, but it's pretty cold here right now. Yeah, it's cold in the rest of the year, but most of the people are coming from Canada, Idaho, Washington, Oregon. I saw some Michigan plates in there. Michigan. Yeah, someone just bought a house. I was from Michigan.

And we have, you know, we have some goals with this community. So when my wife and I, we've been together probably about six years, we were living at Buena Ventura for a few years. last year I was doing both running Buenna Ventura. My dad went up north for COVID. I was just there alone for about four years. And this year, now I've got two kids. My wife's like, I need you to be here because I need to take care of the kids. So this year I'm 100% here, and it's been going great, really.

We keep building on what we have. We have pickleball has just gone off here. People are playing pickleball like every day on these courts and tennis as well. You're limping around a little bit. You got a pickleball injury. I got a little injured, you know, playing with everyone probably about twice my age. I was the one on the ground. You're the youngest guy and the fittest guy here, and now you've got a pickleball injury.

Everyone was giving me a hard time for that. We also just put in a gym here in the community. You know, it's got a few bikes. That has a treadmill, has some lightweights, and just wanted to keep doing stuff like that. This beach compared to the rest of the beaches in the area, this is the most advanced and innovative by far. And we want to keep building on that. And that's the reason why people don't mind having a neighbor right next to him

because it's a cool community and there's not the issues. Even this last summer there was a hurricane here. It washed out a lot of the road, everything else. And by the time people came down, we had it together. And we put more sand over by those hot springs and rebuild the dock. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruisers south of the border. And when we go, we'll be going. Baja Baja Bound Insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use, check them out at

Bajaubound.com. That's Bajaubound.com serving Mexico travelers since 1994. Hey, so you're running, you're running a place here. This is a beautiful spot. I've rolled by it so many times and said, this guy's doing something extra different. I mean, you're not making a shabby old shack here. Yeah, you know, that credit really goes to the original idea was my mother-in-law, actually, that was here. She really wanted us close you know and I was over at Buena Ventura and it was kind of a wedding gift to us honestly we took an old existing house here and just started building on it and yeah we wanted some niche a little higher in the bay

there really isn't even a hotel in the bay right now there's some Airbnb's almost everyone has there's Airbnb's glamping at a few spots most of the Airbnb's have a two-night minimum so it was a good niche to have something a little nicer with a little bit of amenities having Wi-Fi, having hot water. We've got a restaurant here. And I think we're just starting to build it up. But I think in the future, we'll probably even put in additional rooms. So far, we have nine. And I'm excited for the future. I think it's a... Yeah, no, I mean, it's first class. And it's interesting, again, 30 plus years of traveling around Baja. I don't know how to say this delicately. There's all.

always something awry in almost every hotel room, in every house, in every, in every bathroom. I don't know if there's a slow Baja scale that I'll eventually develop for, you know, standards and whatnot, but that's all part of the charm to me. But we rolled in last night. We were rough. We had a long slog, you know, left Campo Archelaun a little late, and we've got this carbureation problem that we've been sort of battling through. and I finally we got a cell signal in Mulejah and I shot you note saying hey we're coming in I know what Baja's all about

I know that you can't roll into a place on the Sunday at 9 o'clock and a tiny little in and expect like full service restaurant you know and so I just shot you note saying hey we're in Mulehay and should is kitchen open or should we grab some tacos and before you even responded I had spun a U-turn and was pulling into a taco shop and sent you another note saying hey we're just grabbing tacos quickly And then you came in and said, yeah, kitchen closes at 9. But getting here, getting here, you open the door. The room's beautiful, beautiful. I mean, really nicely done, beautiful fabrics. You know, none of the Baja cheesy polyester.

You know, I hate to say it that way. But really thoughtfully done, nice bathroom, everything works, water pressure, everything. So you're smiling. You're smiling because you know what work has gone into this. So I just want to say it's not going unnoticed. Thank you. You know what? It's just business, doing business off-grid is so challenging, you know,

and I don't think a lot of people understand that. Like, Buena Ventura, I lived there for some of the years. It was basically just my dad and I because I came down here. I was about as mechanical as like a 15-year-old girl. I didn't know anything. It's more than me. Yeah. It's more than me.

I lived in, you know, in the suburbs. And if you had a flat tire or something, you just called insurance and then someone would show up, AAA would show up. And coming down here was just like a crash course because over there, you know, there's no one you can call. So if there was plumbing issues, if there was water issues. And it made me, you know, a lot more conservative with things too. Like I went on a sailboat for a month and a half and the captain was all worried. I was dating his daughter. And after like two days, he was like, I'm so impressed, man.

You like know exactly what's going on. And I told them, I live on a boat on land, basically. Yeah. You know, if I see something dripping or, you know, it's about conserving water and power. But since I've been down here, I've been down here almost 12 years now. It's just the innovations for living off grid is just remarkable. The Starlink, the solar. Starlink, solar, these lithium ion batteries.

And, you know, it just gets better and better every year. The internet when I first got here, HughesNet, man, that sucked, you know. It's like, people running a restaurant with that. People don't understand. I'm like, hey, we get like 250 megabytes a day. they go, yeah, I understand, you know. I've been using the internet my whole life. Yeah. And then boom, buy another token. It was expensive and painful. And, you know, but it is, it is difficult, you know, you got to be really on top of it. Well, let's get on to the

offerings. I know you have to take your son to school. We've got a hard, got a hard stop here. So let's roll through. Yeah. Man, I love fishing. You want to tell me about that? Yeah. So, I don't know if anybody's put the acronym together. M-I-L-F. Milf Jigs. Milf Jigs. A little humor. Like I was saying earlier, I love fishing.

And there's this new style of fishing that's been kind of a craze last few years. It's called slow pitch jigging and vertical jigging. So they're kind of like Dr. Seuss-looking jigs. You know, they have like glow and weird kind of lines and things on them. And I got into it maybe like two years ago, but super expensive down here. Like for a jig, it's costing like, you know, it's costing like 500 pesos. And they sell them without hooks and you got to, and you're going to lose jigs when you're fishing here. It's just the way it goes.

And so I started my own company, Milf Jigs. It just started it maybe like six months ago. And I've been doing seminars. You know, a lot of guys want to get into fishing. And it's been great. The first, I made a few styles and went to go test them out. We killed it that day on Yellowtail. And it's been like that. My neighbor right here had never caught one. He bought some jigs. I went out with them. He got like six that day. He was so sore.

Got the magic checks. Yeah. So they work great. They're just like real, there's like slow pitch where they like flutter down. And then there's like vertical jigs that almost look like a knife. You would never think a fish would like this thing. But the way you work them and their action, it makes it happen. So I had a seminar here last week. A lot of guys were interested on how to fish them. Sold a lot of jigs. I've got these cool shirts. Yeah, the logo is like this very voluptuous blonde holding the yellow tail. Maybe milthy-ish. Yeah, kind of milthy-ish. And it's great. You know, I think that kind of stuff sells. I love that kind of like little marketing and things.

And... His eyes are just glowing here, folks. His eyes are glowing. You see the wheels of turning a guy who graduated high school early, graduated college early. He can be in Baja for 20 years, but his mind does not rest. Exactly. Hey, let's talk about that. the fishing here and the offerings. So if people want to come down here, stay here, what have you,

you can also put them on to fish whatever time of the year. There's something that's going to bite here. This is, we're just starting to do, we want to do like a fishing operation out of here because I have a big presence online with fishing. People have been asking me a lot. And like I said before, I really prefer to fish alone because it's like my time. But the time is here. So many people want to. And it feels good to see guys catch fish that, you know, maybe haven't. We brought. a guy out last week that stayed here and he was with his 85 year old father and he caught a nice fish that got some pictures together you know it might be his dad's last trip and there was just like humpback feeding right next to us all day and the dolphins cruised through and uh his father just

kept saying like what an amazing day and stuff like that what have i been doing my whole life makes it worth it yeah it's like stuff like that is really nice to see people go out um so our goal is to get a few boats going um right now we've got like uh uh three boats basically available, but we're still getting the gist of it because you need to have someone local who's like a deck hand. You have to hire some people and there's It's we're far you know we're far from town. It's hard to get guys to come out here and be dependable Also spear fishing is something that I really love. I got into that when I moved down here a guy was Guy had a dive shop in Mulejah and he used to play water polo I was a swimmer. I was a lifeguard and I loved a fish so he's like you got to try spear fishing I need someone to have

help me out on these tours. And I was like, I don't know. I like fishing, this and that. And then the first time I went out, I was just hooked. And it's just like extreme snorkeling. You go down there and you get better and better. You wear weights. You go down. And even if you're not shooting fish, you just see turtles and all kinds of life down there. There's a cool quote that says, watching the ocean from the surface is like watching a tent of a circus. And that's how it is. You could be fishing, there's nothing. You go down and you like, you know, everything's interacting the whole ecosystem. And so I would also like to get into that here because I just know the spots and, you know, people really want to try it.

Can you explain to let this truck go by here, this car? Can you explain or can you tell people or tell them the Slow Baja audience about Mulehe? It seems to be a very cool little town. Yeah, Mulehei. it's just this small little town. It's kind of like the town that time forgot. You know, there's just not much going on. They've had some bad luck with hurricanes and things.

Always have. Always have. For centuries. Yeah, and people a lot of times buy a house on the river there and they go, oh, they fix the dam or this and that. Then the next hurricane comes and floods their house. But it really is a magical little town. You know, I always tell people to go and check up by the mission

and you overlook this river with all the palm trees, and it's got some magic to it, you know. And it has, I don't know, it has this like healing energy. There's multiple people that I've met that either come here to the Bay or the Mulhay area and they have some illness or they have a limited time, you know, maybe to live. And they come down here and they're still living 15, 20 years later. I don't know if it's the less stress or the fresh food. Living here, you could eat really healthy.

You can eat fresh fish, fresh seafood right in the bay. Behind Mulahey, there's like all these ranches. that make organic fruit and vegetables. I grow them, and a lot of that gets exported up north, you know, for sulfur a pretty penny. And so I don't know if it's a mixture. My friend who lives down at Buena Ventura, he's been living there about three years. When he moved down here, he was, I think, like, 360. And right now he's like 190.

Basically, he just drinks, like, Takadi Lights, and it has, like, a mule or two. He says it's the Takadi Light Diet diet. But yeah, he was like just saying he was so stressed before. He goes, I think that was it. Yeah, we'll put down the sodas and enjoy a little sunshine. You're a fit guy. What do you do to keep fit with the pickle ball and the, you've got a gym? And what else is going on here?

Yeah, I know, for me, exercise is like a high. On top of just being fit, I just like getting that buzz, whether it's running, lifting weights. Yeah, there's not much going on around here, but in the past I've really liked to swim. I would go, I'd put on a mass when I lived at Buena Ventura, and when the water was warmer, I would just swim around Rekkson Island.

It was like a mile and a half, but it's so salty here. If you get tired, you could just float. I'd swim down and collect sand dollars and check out the fish and things and be gone for a few hours. And that's a great workout, but it was fun. And, yeah, right here, we just started this gym. But it's nice to have, like, you know, other people in there.

I really want to, that's one thing that I kind of miss around here. I like the kind of gym mentality, which isn't very Bajaish. But, yeah, I like going in, you know, and throwing some weights around and whatnot. Community. Yeah, community. Community. Hey, bring it back full circle here. You've got a lot of community.

It's quite apparent. You've built this beautiful in Casa Concepcion. What's the best place for people to contact you, find you? I got you through Facebook. You're pretty active there. Talk Baja. Aren't you a gatekeeper on Talk Baja? I'm an admin on Talk Baja.

How many people have you thrown out? Yeah, I've been on there for a long time almost since I started. And that's been a great group for just getting the word out. You can contact me through WhatsApp. Our website's Casa Conceptionbaha.com. My Facebook's Nathan Burby. I've got a lot of people following me on there.

My Instagram is also Nathan Burby. and you're easy to find you're even on a ski trip responding to my inquiries about hey i'd love to come and hang out and get to meet you get you on the show yeah exactly it's just crazy how much my life has changed um in the last few years when i first came down here i was just like yeah like i said i didn't have a phone i didn't really have a care in the world i just wore like the same board shorts every day it was hanging out there at the blenemintura bar you know i didn't even go back to the states when i moved here at first i think for like almost four years I didn't even like to go to Muleahue.

I just like to hang there on the beach. That's a nice spot. I was like, nah, you know, they go. You want to go to town and shop? Nah, really. I hang here. And it was really my happy place still is. But now I have a family.

I've got two kids. I've got my wife. And my life's changed drastically, you know, for the better. Yeah, I don't drink anymore. I really focus on my family. I'm focused on business. We're doing family trips. you know and we're progressing you know I'm over that growing up my life where I was growing up

Nathan I was basically in like the early retirement phase with like no money when I came down here and I was real happy with that but yeah the last few years it's been you know it's worth it you know time you know it's it needed to happen and I would like to you know also you know improve everything to help everyone else is coming down yeah get them hooked yeah well I think you you are definitely as Cameron Steele says Sharon the stoke. You're definitely, you're definitely sharing the stoke here. Great guy, yeah. All right. Well, on that note, we're going to say, hey, thanks for showing us the beautiful Casa Concepcion, Slow Baja approved. We had a beautiful moment over

on the dock that was built for your wedding and got the sunrise. We're going to get a cup of coffee and get on down the road. Our first early start. You've got to take your kids to school. So, hey, check it out. Online. You can find Nathan. In the show notes, you can find the links, but he's on Instagram. He's on Facebook. You can find Casa Concepcion and easy to find. Slow Baja approved. Nathan Burberry, thanks for making some time to talk this morning. Thank you guys. Slow Baja. Cool, man. Hey, I hope you enjoyed that. I love doing these travel talks, getting to know some of these folks

who run the businesses that we use up and down the peninsula. And Nathan and Casa Concepcion, well, again, Slow Baja. approved. He could not have been a better host. Up late, welcoming us in, beers in the fridge, up early, making strong coffee. Great guy. Great spot. Again, check it out. The links to book are on Slobaha.com and the show notes. And while you're over there, you can always drop a donation, drop a taco in the tank, or pick up some merch. And all of that really does help me keep this thing going. And we really do do it on a shoestring. I mean, we do this show on nothing. So if appreciate what we're doing. Buy some merch, rep us this summer. I'm going to have the store

closed for a little bit for the Norm Mexican 1000, but I've still got sweatshirts. I've still got T's black and white in almost every size. Of course, we've got patches, we've got stickers. Oh, we've got this and that and check it out. Find yourself some stuff. Reps, low Baja, drop a taco in the tank, and not to waste any more of your time. To quote Mary McGee's pal, I hope you saw that podcast. Mary McGee, what a hoot. Got to get her on video soon. He's pal, Steve McQueen, he loved Baja. He loved Baja. He loved racing. He drove the Baja boot and the Nara Mexican 1000. Yeah, that guy, Steve McQueen, Baja is life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.