Slow Baja - Travel Talk With Slow Baja Meet Raul And Caroline Of Rancho La Bellota

Episode Date: May 18, 2022

Raul Aguiar and Caroline Kane are the affable owners of Rancho La Bellota, a 2800-acre guest ranch located in Tecate Baja, California. Rancho La Bellota is a portal to another era. Free from cell service and wifi, guests quickly adapt to the rhythms of ranch life. The coffee is ready at 6:30 AM, and after a cup on the porch, the guests gather in the sun-washed dining room for a hearty breakfast. Following breakfast, it's time for a ride. I select a cowboy hat from the rack and make my way to the saddled horses. Jan, a La Bellota regular, knows the hat's owner (he leaves it at the ranch) and says it looks good on me. It's been forty years since I've ridden a horse, so I'll take the compliment. The horses at Rancho La Bellota are retired from a life of working cattle. Hence, as I mount my handsome palomino, Raul gestures to the horse and says, "it's an automatic with power steering and power brakes," letting me know with a wry smile that it's an easy horse to ride. In addition to being an expert horseman, Raul is a devoted overlander and drives a pop-top 1969 Chevrolet Suburban that he designed. He regularly hosts overlanders on their way up and down the Baja peninsula. He's quick to stress that he's not running a free campground; he's a proud native of Baja California who gladly shares his knowledge and experience to help travelers enjoy their time in Baja. Rancho La Bellota is Slow Baja Approved Learn more about Rancho La Bellota here. Follow Rancho La Bellota on Facebook Follow Baja Peninsular on Instagram

Hello, hello. Ola, Como Stas? Slow, Baja, amigos. My heaping dose of gratitude this week goes out to all the sponsors, big and small, who helped me get to the Nora Mexican 1000. Top of the list, turtle wax. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Slow and shiny wins the day. I'm not used to dealing with corporations, and you guys were absolutely the best. I'm thrilled that you sent your in-house photographer. for Sam Hurley down to document our trip, and I cannot wait to share his images with you and see the story that he tells of the Slow Baja Safari class. So on that, Sam Hurley, man, it can't be easy

coming to a place like Baja when you've never been there before and trying to figure out how to tell a story over a thousand miles of dirt, but damn glad you were with us. I can't wait to share your images. Toby at Shield Man, It was fun driving this event with you and Nicole.

The shield man seats, listen, they're no joke. I had 1,400 miles of testing. The event was 1,300 miles. I probably had 1,600 miles back from San Jose del Cabo to San Francisco, California, and an FJ40. And I got to tell you, I'm able to walk around. My back feels great. there is nothing better. I wish shield man made every seat in the world. There is nothing better than

these seats, folks. If you're spending a lot of time in your car, whatever it is, do your body a favor. Check out shield man. Contact Toby up there in Oregon and get a set for whatever you're driving. You will be absolutely delighted. And I cannot thank Toby enough for forcing my hand to make that decision that I was very reluctant to make. The seats are amazing. And I'm very thankful that they're in truck. Jeff at Baja Bound. I've been doing fun stuff with Baja Bound since 2006, since you guys sponsored me to do my first race of the La Carrera, Pan Americana. Baja Baja Baja Bound's the best. They've got a lot of information on their website. They've got a lot of stories. Whenever I'm looking somebody up, when I'm going to interview them for Slow Baja, there is almost always an article

about them or about where I'm going on Baja Bound insurance website. So they're the best. Go with them. can get them through my website now you can click right on slowbaha.com go to the sponsor page click on to bahabound and uh same price to you bahabound drops a taco in my tank and helps me continue to do this show so i'm ever thankful to jeff at bahabound uh curt at cruiser outfitters man you were right uh again i'm reluctant reluctant reluctant to make any changes to my old truck but you talked me into the ARB old man, Emu Dakar suspension, and you were absolutely right. Life-changing. So much better in the dirt, it's shocking.

It really is amazing what that old truck could suck up and what I was clenching my teeth in anticipation of feeling and then just didn't come. So high recommendation, folks, if you're driving something old like my land cruiser, you should be checking out cruiser outfitters for all the stuff that keeps old land cruisers on the road. And ARB, old man, emu, yes, super slow Baja recommended. Check it out, get it on your truck, and you'll be thrilled with how Baja feels under your bum. Guillermo, Big G, as I like to call him, and Billy at Tequila Fortaleza.

You know, I'm just honored. I'm still pouring your tequila since 2008 when nobody knew who you were. It's astonishing to me how far this company has grown, how your tequila brand has grown. and it just heartens me to be able to share the best tequila in the world with folks. And, well, Sal Fish poured some for him, and he was delighted. He knows tequila inside and out, and I hope to get some Fortaleza in front of him and a microphone in hand for a future episode of Slow Baja

because it was a great icebreaker to be sipping Forteilaza with Sal Fish. Benchmark maps, we used you every day. We really did. Not kidding. Thank you for outfitting the entire Slow Baja Safari class with Maps. You know, when you're training your route on the fly, you've got a trophy truck on your course. You realize you've taken too much time getting from point A to point B, and now the fast vehicles are coming up behind you, and you've got to figure out a way to get to the end of the stage without staying on the course. Well, benchmark maps makes that pretty dang easy.

We just pop it open, pull over, figure out where we're going, find that route, and we're on it. Well, you know it's not bad sunscreen either when you've got sunburn thighs and you're in a pair of shorts and it's 100 degrees out and you just fold that benchmark maps over your legs. Try doing that with your GPS folks. No, seriously. 72 pages, the Rodin Recreation Atlas is absolutely crucial to a trip to Baja, whether you're trip planning or rerouting or protecting your thighs from sunburn. Man, benchmark maps. It's the one. Yokohama yeah those geolander mud terrains were amazing

really shocking they were big they're beefy didn't have a single problem thanks for your support of the happiest race on earth and to my friends at Nora thank you for getting a new set of tires on my truck truly needed Amy in North Carolina I had a great time with Captain America thank you for your support It was absolutely integral to our success. So thank you for that, Amy. Oscar, the Baja drinking team, so proud to be associated with you guys. You're at all the big races, having all the fun.

I'm delighted to be repping. Andrea, your first Baja trip was just right before the Norah Mexican 1000. I'm sorry you couldn't roll with us as well. It was delight to have your father, Irv Hanks, who was in the very first Nora 100, 1967. It was a delight for me to be remembering him on my truck. Thank you for your support. And David Carlo, my Alaskan Wheeler up there. I hope your Alaskan winters make you appreciate the Slow Baja Safari,

and I truly appreciate your support. Taco sponsor, again, that makes, I think, three events in a row. You've picked up the tab for our tacos, and I truly appreciate it, but he couldn't do it without you. So thank you. It's nice to have... Corey and the Carlo boys riding with me. All right, folks, without further ado, today's show is with Raul and Caroline from Rancho La Bayota.

Rancho La Bayota is a 2,800-acre guest ranch in Takate, California, Ticate, Baja, California, probably, I don't know, somewhere less than an hour from the border. It's a portal to another era, folks. It's horseback riding. it's candlelit dining, it's no cell, no Wi-Fi. Heck, there aren't even plugs in your cabin. So you get on your horse, you take a nice ride, you take a nap, you've got hiking trails, the food is fabulous, there's tequila tasting by the campfire.

You know, I can't say it strongly enough. Go unwind. Do yourself a favor. Unplug. Go on a horseback ride. ridden a horse in 40 years. It comes back to you. These horses are the best. Again, Raul and Caroline, they know how to make people just relax and enjoy themselves.

The conversation flows, the tequila flows. You know, it's a strong, strong Slow Baja approved. So check them out. All right, here we go. 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. I can't believe I'm here. Well, thanks for coming here. Thank you.

Thank you for accepting. the invitation. I do accept most invitations, folks. So if you've got an invitation, Slow Baja on all the channels. It's a beautiful morning here at Rancho Bayota. We're sitting on your son's cabin's porch on Ricardo. Yeah, yeah, Ricky or son Ricky.

It's a little overcast. It's a little cool. We've got our jackets on. But this place is beautiful. Well, thank you. Thank you. We enjoy it. We love it.

Well, let's say hello. I'm at, this is Slow Baja. I'm on location today at Rancho Beota. I've got, I'm just touched that I'm sitting here. And my beautiful host, Caroline and Raul, can you tell me, just say hello and tell me about what you've built here? Well, this is our ranch, this family ranch. It's our, our nest, our cocoon, our escape. We built this 18 years ago.

Family has been ranching for generations now. And Carol and I, we bought this place in 2004, cattle ranch that we turned it into a guest ranch with the traditional activities as a cattle ranch, you know? Caroline, say hello. How did you get involved with this? Well, I'm married to Raoul, of course. But we bought this ranch, and yes, everything Raul said is absolutely true. but for me, and I'm sure for well too, I really enjoy when people come here

and they get to get off the grid for a little while and escape the routine of daily life and work and work and they can get out into nature and relax and ride horses and spend time with family and friends and with us and we really, really enjoy that. So that's an important part of the concept of this ranch. Yeah, so folks, you're in a stunning valley.

Your property is 2,800 acres or so? Yeah, 2,800 acres, exactly. And we're right in the middle of the property, a tiny valley, surrounded by mountains. So it gives privacy to people. There's privacy. There's no outside traffic noise.

There's no booming rock concert, two valleys over, and there's no cell signal, there's no Wi-Fi. There's, I don't think there's even a plug in my cabin. You know, if you want to plug something in, I don't think there's a plug. There's beautiful, rechargeable lights that look like their candles. And it's just, you have to take a deep breath here and just slow your role and get into the rhythms of another time when it got dark

and people sat by the fire and they went to bed. And then they got up early when the sun came up or before the sun came. In our case, you know, when it gets dark, we play cards with our guests. We play jokes, tag store, tell stories, exchange comments, lifestyles. Sit around the campfire. Yeah. And that you're right. We don't have any Wi-Fi.

Not because we are too far away. We just don't want to have that here. And we're lucky enough that the valley, the mountains, are covering the signal. So people get to disco. You know, they come here and they disconnect from the real life. It's good to disconnect once in a while. And so bottom line, that's what it is. It's a place to...

Recharge the battery. There you go. Recharge the battery. Recharge the battery, yeah. Yeah, but it was funny. Okay, so we're at a guest ranch. It's a little bit like city slickers, you know. I haven't ridden, I grew up on a little ranch, but I haven't ridden a horse since, you know,

11 years old or something, and I'm on a ride, and we're up, we get up your long, long driveway, which is this beautiful dirt road that goes way up, almost a mountain, you know, way up a hill. And you get to the top and your phone, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, all these messages coming. And, you know, I was working on a project that was pretty important. And I got here and I just had to say, okay, well, it's whatever's going to happen. Somebody's going to handle it or it's not going to get handled. and when I get a signal on Sunday sometime when I get back to Ensenada,

I'll be able to deal with it, whatever the outcome is. Maybe got handled, maybe it didn't. But it was just funny to be on a horseback, you know, squinting at my phone screen saying, oh, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll. And of course, Raoul, that's your office. You're up there doing business.

You have to get to the top of the mountain to get a signal to handle the daily transactions that need to be handled to communicate. Even so, we are of the grave, you know, we have to communicate. with our clients, people who is making reservations, people who has questions about the ranch. So we do check out once or twice a day.

We go to our office, which is a 360-degree view in top of a hill. And so that's where we get connected. And that is true. Yesterday, remember, I say, I'm going to get my phone. I left around my horse. And I said,

Nobody's ever said that to me in my entire life. I've got to go get my phone. I left it on my horse. And he meant it, folks. And he meant it. So can we roll back the conversation a little bit to Raul, you're up bringing here and Caroline, you're up bringing in Los Angeles. And how the two of you met, I think that's a funny story. Well, Raoul can tell the story.

Okay. So in the mid-80s, I was in the Mexican tile business, you know, pavers and Talavera tiles. And I used to send those tiles to one of my aunts that had a store, wholesale store in North Hollywood, California, North Hollywood. So I used to take all those tiles, export into the United States and spend a few days there in Los Angeles. delivering the tiles and doing the business park. So that went for a while until I decided to rent a little place there. You know, and it's funny because that was kind of like when people say about destiny. I was in my aunt's office, and it was a very hot summer, and I decided to cross the street

and buy a cold Coca-Cola. Then on the way out, I picked up the recycler. I don't know, you remember the old newspaper. The recycling. That's where you found all the good deals on. surfboards and cars and everything else. They all eBay, you know. Penny saver and the recycling.

Exactly. So I pick up one of those newspapers and I start reading it. Then I see horse property for rent. I said, wow, that's cool. So I went to see it with my aunt. And I saw the property. It was a mobile home, like a trailer type, you know, type. So I was looking around and I said, wow, this is a good place because I can have my

van here, my equipment, the whole thing for the tile. And I end up renting the place. I end up renting the place, you know. And a week and a half later, I hear about this girl rent an acre and a half behind the property. So I didn't know her. And at that time, I had a dog, a border collie. His name was tequila. Tequila was a very hyper dog. So he was actually living my property when I wasn't there, and he will go and chase my neighbor's chickens and kill a few. And my neighbor was a big dude, a big vicar, you know, like devil my side. So one time he comes to the house, to my place with a dead chicken in his hands. And he said, you know, your dog is killing my chickens.

One more chicken he kills. I want to kill your dog. So I said, okay, I got it. I got the point. I got the message. So I had to put a long leash to my dog. And so every time I left the tile place, to the tile place, I left my house, I left my dog with a long leash. He was okay like that, but somebody didn't like that.

This girl that rent the place in the back property, she didn't like that. So she will drive by and untie the dog, and the dog will follow her. So one day I come home and the dog is not there. is in the boarding table that this girl set up. So I went there and the dog was, I found the dog there. He was barking in me and, you know, being very happy and doing circles around me

and then kind of like getting me close to this girl who was in the center of the arena with a horse. And we got the dog make us get very close. This is like a lassie story. It's weird, it's weird. Or a Disney story. Yeah, the dog leads one to another. Yeah.

is a story in a book called Angel Dogs about that. But anyway, so I got close to this girl, and she asked me, this is your dog. And I say, well, that's not the question. The question is, are you untieying my dog? Then she apologizes. I said, oh, sorry. Okay, great. Here we go, you know?

So a year and a half later, we got married. We've been married for 35 years now, you know? 35 years. 35. Caroline, so you're just a lover of animals. You saw this dog that was bored out of his mind tied to a leash, and you thought what kind of cruel jerk would do this to his dog all day? The dog was absolutely fine.

He was fine. He was in the shade. He had food, water. He was fine. But I've always loved animals. When I was seven years old, this horse fever just came over me. And no one in my family has anything to do with horses. And I've loved animals all my life.

And then I saw the puppy. And I thought, oh, how cute. and I untied him, and I started bringing him dog biscuits every morning. This is how it starts, folks. That's how it starts, yes. And we became fast friends, and he followed me everywhere, every morning when I would go to the stables before I went to school, and I'd do my work, and I'd untie him, and he'd follow me around,

and then I'd tie him back up before I left. And that's how it started with tequila. And then I met Raoul. Wow. Yeah, get a cool start, right? You've got a horse property. You've got a horse property. You've got this tile business.

What did you think of the Mexican guy with the, was it love at first sight is what I'm getting to? I mean, obvious when you look at Caroline, I'm sorry, Caroline. I'm going to put you on the spot here. Obviously, when you look at Caroline, there's something to see there. But what happens when she sees this guy? Well, he was very nice. He was very sweet. I remember we struck up conversation immediately.

We became friends first. And we used to go out for hamburgers, remember? Yeah, yeah, that was cool. But the first formal date that came later. Yeah, that was a good date. Yeah, but I made him work for it, though. I made him work for it a little bit. Yeah.

Yeah, I did. I went the extra mile to make her. The roses. On our first date, I think a week. Before the actual date, he was hunting for a restaurant, a nice restaurant to take me to. And he found one in Topanga Canyon. And he brought roses that evening before we were supposed to get there. He had roses in his car.

And everywhere we went, there were roses. And it was a wonderful evening. We had a great time. Until I screw up. I forgot to put gasoline in my van. It's about, I was so excited, you know. So I forgot to put gas onto my BW van. I used to drive, you know, one of those surfer, 1965 VW van.

That was my personal car. And I just forgot to put gasoline. You know, I was too excited. And we ran out of gas on the 405 freeway at 10 o'clock at night. Oh, my stars. I felt so bad. Luckily, I was very close to one of those yellow phone booth at the highway. The call boxes.

Call boxes, yeah. So I walked to that thing. It was maybe 20 meters from where we parked. and CHP answers and I gave him a phone, phone number, and they contact this person, and they brought gasoline in 20 minutes, you know. So it was not so bad, but I'm sure it was a wandering experience. Well, I thought, uh-oh, you know, now what? Everything was going great.

Now what? Well, that was a minor issue that we solved. Yeah, I know. So roll me through, uh, Raoulou, your family. has been in ranching here. You had an uncle that you were quite fond of that had a ranch. You spent a lot of time in your childhood. Yeah, well, the ranching story of the family is, it goes back to my grandpa, you know, when he was, he came to Ensenada in 1916, at 16 years old. He was from the area where, you know, now is Cabo San Lucas, San Jose Del Cabo, that area.

So his family there, they were cattle, you know, they raised cattle. So his older brother moved to Ensenada in 1896 until he was well established. So my grandfather got into business with him in a very young age, and they started bringing cattle from the south to Ensenada. And they were the ones with the first feedlots. by ship. Yes, but on all ships, they will bring it to Ensenada,

close to the, what is the Arroyo, the river now, the dry river, and they will just dump the cattle into the water, and the cowboys will wait for them on the beach and driving to the corrals, you know. That was in 1932, 1934. So he ended up getting too big cattle ranchos.

But in the end up getting two big cattle ranchers. But in the end up, And he passed in 1965. He left those ranchers to my father. My father was a second-generation rancher that he didn't want to be a rancher. So he ended up selling the ranchers in the late 70s. But then his younger sister, my Tia Celia, she married a cowboy cattleman, Uncle Kiki. That's where we spend a lot of summers and vacations, riding horses, you know, working cattle and all that.

we learn some of the skills. So after Carol and I, we got married, and we moved back to Ensenada, we got in the cattle business with my uncle. That's how we started ranching again. We got a good amount of cows, heads, and that was the beginning of the business. Just for cattle, we ended up building a cabin there,

and that's what we were living. Then we used to invite friends from the Los Angeles, yellow area carrying friends that become our friends mutual friends and they they loved the experience at the ranch when we were doing their roundups that was in 1994 yeah 94 yeah and that's when the idea come about a guest ranch so we talk about maybe we can do a guest ranch you know people like this you know and we did some advertisement we built some cabins we did some advertisement

in a Western Horseman magazine tiny little ads they were very expensive and that's how the whole thing began you know getting groups and offering the ranch life that's about online and how did you

how did you end up coming to this place where this phenomenal magnificent property became yours and you were able to keep this tradition going. Well, that's a good story. I tell you why. When we were at the rancho, my uncle's ranch, for many, many years, he passed away on 2002. And he was basically the person who was leading everything in a very good way. It was a very nice guy. Everybody likes him. Then he passed

away and my cousin, first cousin in me, we got to be the lead persons of the operation. And we built the business. So we were making a living 100% out of that. So we started thinking about maybe it's time to move on and find a property, you know. And we did look for a property for three years. I mean, and finally, by destiny, we found this one. somebody told us, hey, Rancho Labriota is going to be for sale. So we end up coming here.

I came one day with my daughter and two of our friends when she was a kid. We drove into the ranch and immediately after seeing several ranchos around Baja, we saw this one and they didn't have anything. It's just a land, okay? But it has this beautiful altrues. So when we drove into this place, I felt like this is home. I don't know how much they're selling it for. I don't know how we are going to pay for, but this is home.

This is where you want to be. Yeah. May I add something? Yeah, please. It's kind of a funny coincidence. I don't know how it works. Sometimes we don't understand the way things work. But this ranch belonged to the father, well, to the, well, Rowe's younger sister and the son of the owner of this ranch before we've been.

bought it were really good friends all through high school. And so one day he saw Raul in town, and he knew Raul was looking for a ranch. And he said, you know, my father's selling my ranch. You want to come and see it. And that's when he came. And it was just perfect. Raul said he came down into the ranch, and he saw it, and it was just perfect. Yeah, so we found what we need here, you know.

We found what we need. And of course, it was very expensive, and we were not ready to buy such a big property, 20,800 acres. So we start talking with Don Jaime and Dona Lupe, the owners. And kind of like, I believe they saw themselves in us. You know, young couple trying to buy a property to make, you know, make a living and with kids.

So we used to go to their house and have coffee with them and tell them why we want the property, you know, why we want the property and what we're going to do here and all that and they kind of like sympathize with us you know they they they felt like they felt comfortable with us taking over their their life dream you know they make a living out of here for so many years with cattle so because they did have buyers that they want to buy it in one shot you know yeah cash down yeah cash down people with money that yeah i just want to have a ranch but they actually they actually were very interesting on us, you know. And so when we were talking about prices, one of the first times

I met Don Jaime, he said, he looked at me and he said, you know, you want to buy my ranch, I want everything at front in one shot. So I say, oh, that's not a problem. Then I told Caroline, so when are we going to San Diego? And she said, I think we're going on Saturday or Friday. okay don't have me it's not a problem you want everything at front right we're going to san diego on friday and on monday we'll see you because i'm going to buy a lotter ticket on saturday so if we win i pay you not a problem

so i make him laugh i make him laugh you know and and from that from that moment we cannot become friend very friendly very friendly and i told him my my my i give me my proposal about payment. And I ask him, you know, I want to tell you something that is kind of funny, but please don't laugh until, at least ask me why. So this is my offer.

I will give you this amount of money and the balancing payments. But when I give you the down payment, I want the property under my name. And I ask him again, don't laugh at me. Yeah, so now he has to trust you to pay it off. Yeah, yes, ask me why. So he said, okay, yes, exactly, you know, he was going to release all the paper words when I paid the percentage, you know, like 30%, and I said the reason why is because this is our, this is a big step for us. I have the money to give you a down payment, but I have the money to build the ranch. So thinking about the words, if I have a heart attack or whatever, and the ranch is not under my name, we'll,

lose everything. Now, if something happened to me, I know my wife and my son will pay you because we already have the clients. We are ready to start working. So if you do that to us, it will be the greatest favor you, somebody can ever done for us. And we will pay you on time. So he said, okay, let me think about it. And in December 2004, December 26, his son called us. and say, my father want to talk to you guys to bring the family. So we went there in maybe, oh, the meeting was at 7 in the morning. And we're talking about an hour and a half distance from Ensenada. So we got there at 7 o'clock in the morning, having coffee in the whole thing

and having a nice conversation with the couple, with the owners, Don Jaime and Dona Lueppe. And after we talked for like an hour, different times, topics, he said, he turned through his wife and said, you know what? I didn't make my decision. This ranch should belong to them, you know? So when we left that house at around 10 in the morning, we own, we were the owners of a 2,800 acres, you know. So it was. He's got tears in his eyes right now, folks. I mean, it's a, yeah, amazing. Well, we're going to take a quick break right here, talk about Baja Baja Bound insurance and how you can head on down to Mexico and see a beautiful place like that. So we'll be right back.

You guys okay? Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border. And when we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at BajaBound.com. That's Baja Bound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994. We're back with Raoul and Caroline. We're sitting in the beautiful Rancho Beota.

It's still cool and lovely. The birds are singing. This is tequila, yeah? This dog. Yeah. Our dog tequila. So many dogs named tequila. Tequila sleeping right here at Caroline's feet, having a little dream.

It's a nice day. It's a beautiful day. It's a beautiful day here. Caroline, you have a whole other life besides being the, I don't know what to say. Are you old enough to say Donya yet? No. Do not call me Donia.

Not yet. Excuse my, please. Excuse my ignorance. It's funny because anybody who calls me Donia, I say, please, do not call me Donia. Yeah. Not yet. But it's for respect. It's respect.

You're the ranch owner. They respect yourself. I know. I understand. But it makes me feel old. Yeah. And your young grandparents, you have a granddaughter now. two-year-old who's spending some time on the ranch.

But Caroline, what I was getting to is tell me about your other life, your writings. You've got a whole thing. Yes, I'm, I have another life. Yes, I do. Ever since, well, I guess it started when I was around 15. I always loved to write. And I wrote short stories. I've had some published in 2005 and 2006.

I wrote a short story for a book called Angel Dogs. divine messengers of love about tequila and the first tequila and how we met how i met raoul and then in 2006 uh angel horses and that was about my barrel racing days when i was a barrel racer and it was a special story about my horse and how we participated in the the rodeo circuits here in baha but each book was meant it was a contribution from different authors and And so my short stories were in there. And then I published two children's books. And I just published about a month and a half ago, a fantasy fiction book.

It's for everyone. Anyone who reads it will love it. But it's in the genre of young adult. It's a story that takes place in the Viking era. It's called At the Edge of the Forest. And it's about a young girl coming of age. she's living a wonderful happy life and at age 13 the rug is pulled out from under her and she loses everything and her mother is taken away she has no family no home and she grows up by herself learning to deal

with things that she's never had to deal with before dangers and learning about herself and all the time seeking vengeance in her heart for the man who destroyed everything. And it's a coming of age story, and it's a nice story. It's got adventure in it. It's got a horse in it, of course. And I'm going to continue writing. It's what I really love to do. I find a lot of peace in it.

It's just something that's in me. My dad was a writer. My mom was an English literature major. it's just in my blood, I guess. That's what I say. It's in my blood. Writing in horses. Yes, yes.

Have you written an account of the ranch yet? I have tons of stories about the ranch, and I do write lots of stories about the ranch. Oh, yeah, good stories. There are so many stories, and I have, I'm on a writing platform called Medium.com, and I have lots of stories about the ranch on there, and on my computer, of course, But what I'm planning to do is to get a book together with all the stories that I have about the ranch and make a book, write a book about that with tons of stories in it. Well, in my short time here, I think it's bookworthy. Let's change gears here a little bit. You two are pretty serious overlanders as well.

Well, yeah, yeah. We've been, actually, we've been camping. Overland style. You're car campers. You're not Overlanders. No, exactly, yeah, exactly. And science. I'm saying this in jest because you've got two beautifully built, hand-built, hand-designed machines. Yeah, they're very comfortable, and they can go any place,

anywhere we want to go. You know, we like road trips. We like to experience that. We don't like too much destination vacations. So we build these cars to go. Any place we want to go whenever we have, whenever times allow, because we are pretty much busy here at the ranch. which is a good thing.

It's a good thing. And we enjoy people every single day here. But once in a while we take tours to the peninsula. You know, we have this beautiful backyard, the Baja Peninsula that is, you know, 1,000 kilometers long, so plenty places to go. And we build the cars specifically for that. To go to the less, what the road less travel? What is the expression?

Yeah, to the road less travel. Exactly, to go to those places. And we built a 19, my last built was a 1969 suburban that our kids, they name it, they nickname it the Subi. So when we were camping 25 years ago, they always will us. Are we going on the Subi? So end up to be the Subi lander. That's the name of our truck, you know. And we built it to a point that is very comfortable for the two of us.

has a nice sitting area, cooking area, nice bed. And it's very, it's not so bright or so, so, how do you say, to take too much attention? It doesn't stand out too much. It doesn't stand out too much. It's an old truck. Yeah. You're laughing about that right. It doesn't stand out.

It does stand out a little bit. In a sea of sprinter vans, you basically have created, I think, I think your vehicle is actually the picture that was in my father's mind when he was driving his 1978 Westphalia. And he thought, I need something with a little more room, a little more power, but I need exactly this. A pop top. I need this stove, this storage. It's like a beautiful yacht. It's a yacht-like interior there, not with fancy woodwork or anything, but very, very well designed.

Practical. Basic and practical. Everything has its place. The woodwork was done by a guy who works in sailboats in Ensenada. There you go. He does this beautiful sailboat. So I told him, we want this track to be comfortable. So the two of us, we work on design, and we did some drawings, and he ended up doing

the job, and it's great, great work. Very basic, but very practical and very comfortable. Yeah. And it's a 350 with the two-bodies. barrel so it's it's an easy thing that could be fixed in anybody's little any place any town any mechanic sure i didn't want any computer i didn't want to because we could buy a newer truck you know maybe a sprinter stuff and build it but i want something that it will i know what i have the only basically on this build the only thing we left from the original truck is the body and the chassis

everything else is new from axles differential transfer case but everything is old school for me that's very important i want to be able to fix it in any time and i understand about all 350 engines i mean this is a new engine i got a crate engine you know but he has the the old intake for 1969 it has the two-barreled rochester carburetor that i can disassemble it with my eye close you know he can fix anything with a paper clip. Yeah. I mean, there's a little, there's a little bit of a stereotype

of coming to Mexico, and I always say any mechanic here with a screwdriver and a bottle cap and, you know, a piece of chewing gum. Duct tape. Can get your car going back down the road if your car's old enough. Bailing wire.

They don't have computer analysis. Yeah, bailing wire. That's true. Yeah, bailing wire. So the overland, the trips, that you take, getting away from it all is quite serious to you. You say to your kids, give me two weeks a year.

Yeah. We're going to camp. Yeah, that's true. Well, what we do is we try to have a family tradition. My son loves overlanding. He has a land cruiser. Our daughter is using our little truck, what we call the mini-moke echolander. Okay.

Yeah. So we try to, well, we've been living in Senada for two weeks, the ranch for two weeks, going to the south, just as a family tradition. You know, now with our granddaughter, this is an amazing experience to have her in the middle nowhere on this pristine beach and deserts and plants and all that you see in Baja and all these secret corners. You know, so, yeah, we are trying to keep that family tradition and we like, we love overlanding, you know, which is basically camping, but long term.

Yeah, you've got your stuff. with you. Yeah, there we go. Exactly. You don't need to touch civilization every day. We only need to, how you say, reload our stuff. Yeah, restock. Go to the market. Restock. Every week. Uh-huh. Maybe every week. Yeah. And your tradition here of welcoming overland travelers here, you're not a free campground. You can't come down from San Diego and camp here for the weekend. Oh, okay. Unless you've driven to Patagonia first. Yeah. No, this is what we do here. We support the overland community.

And why we do that is because that's how we travel. You know, we want to give them a good place to rest. When they're coming, mostly people are coming for, that they come to stay here for a few days about the overlanding. It's because they're on the way south or coming back from Baja South or mainland or South America. So we're trying to provide this comfortable place for them so they can have a good time, rest, and be prepared for the rest of the journey.

You can find us in I Overlander, and you can read about all the testimonies. You can read the testimonies there or reviews. Reviews, yeah. And Raul gives out great information on places to visit while they're in Mexico, people that we know up and down the peninsula who to connect with. So he's just a walking encyclopedia of Baja California.

Well, all of Mexico, but on where to go in Baja, he knows. Yeah, and also, you know, a lot of people worry about the safety in Mexico, you know, but it's been blown up out of proportion. We know all over the world we have bad people, but also we know that all over the world we have good people so we just concentrate on the good people you know trying to do good for people

that visits because we want them to have a good experience while they're in Mexico and if they have questions about the safety we are very honest to answer we don't sugarcoat everything you know we don't try to make it

perfect but we know that we have some issues but we also know that we have good things same as USA of any other country in the world. So we're just contented and the good stuff. Can we talk about a few of the good things? Caroline, you want to name a few good things about living here in Baja? You've changed your whole old.

Well, I've lived here for 30 years. Exactly. Yes, we moved here when I was 22 or 23, right? I don't know, 30 years ago. I'm not going to say a whole old day. But 30 years ago. You're still very young. That's okay.

Don't worry about that. And I found that things seem to slow down. Family, I know family is very important in the U.S., but here in Mexico, the family unit is closer. We're a lot closer, locationally, and also within our hearts. You know, we're always together. We may not see each other for a couple of weeks or a week, and then when we see the person again,

it's like we saw them yesterday. and that I've noticed. I seem to have one foot in the U.S. and one foot in Mexico. So I am very familiar with the two cultures. But in Mexico, things slow down. It's more relaxed, easygoing. I mean, life can get busy because we're working. But that's what I've noticed, especially about family.

And can you give me kind of a rundown of typical trip here on the ranch. People are going to come in. You've got a group now that's going to exit today and another group coming in this evening. Break that down for me. So I think there's, what, eight, ten, twelve people?

Twelve people, yeah. Twelve people right now. This group, 12 people. And tomorrow, later on today, nine arrives. So let's talk about the rhythms of the ranch. Well, it's very interesting because our guests, they come down and they have a wonderful time. Hang on for a second. They park on the U.S. side of the border in the pay lot, so it's all secure.

Yes. And then you collect them in your... Yeah, they walk across. In your modern suburbs. Yes. And we're waiting for them right there. As soon as they cross, they'll see us, right on the corner waiting for us. We take them to the ranch.

We bring them here. And the weekend starts. They usually arrive on a Thursday. It could be a Sunday, but usually it's Thursday, any day of the week. and they get settled in, we have a nice dinner, we talk, we're always with our guests, we really participate with the group. And then Fridays and Saturdays, we'll do two rides, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, depending what the guests want.

Sometimes they want to go to the wineries, so we'll take them to the wineries. Once we have them here, we find out what they want to do, what the plan is, and then we're very flexible, and we'll take them to the winters if they want. We go horseback ride. the number of hours they want to go. And that's basically we're just catered to them. Clay shooting. Clay shooting.

Hunting. Coffee's ready at 6.30 in the morning. Coffee's ready at 6.30 in the morning. You've got a beautiful homey, what should I call it, just a warm, comfortable dining room lit by candles, lit by sunlight in the morning. You've got a couple of wonderful cooks in the kitchen on a 19th, massive 1940 stove and I don't know if they have four or six of those blue

and amelware coffee pots going and they're pouring the coffee through a little filter. They're always full, yes. They're pouring a coffee through the filter right into your cup and it's just you can sense or I can sense that there's love behind there. These aren't just employees coming in and punching in, punching out and these are people who enjoy what they do, providing the hospitality with the smile behind their mask. see it in their eyes, they're still smiling. We have a good team.

You've created some warmth here. And your clients seem to me, the group that's here now, they're all familiar. They've been here. And if the one or two that may have not been here, they couldn't wait to get here because their friends have told them about the amazing vacations they've had here. Yeah. The whole idea here is to keep it as a family. Every weekend, like a family reunion.

It's so cool for us to see familiar friends. faces when they come back and they come back and they feel like this is home away from home. When we get, we reach that feeling. That's mean we succeed in what we're doing. So many of our clients, many of our guests, they have become friends who are lucky enough to have them as friends. And so part of the experience here is the home feeling, you know, like in the kitchen, this lady, we have a dream team now. I mean, the caretaker, the Wrangler, The cook, the assistant, the assistant, Rosa, you know, she makes the best margaritas, you know. They are so good and everybody loves them.

So the whole idea here is for people to feel at home, you know. And our mission, Karen and I, our mission is when we meet them at the border. We try to make everything as simple as possible. And we try to learn their names on the trip from the border. We don't know them. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we learn their names. and so we can talk to them personally.

That's why it's a guest ranch. They are our guests every time they're here. It's like they're coming to our home. And they say it says, they say, I feel like I'm coming home again. Right. And that's a great thing to hear. That's what we want to hear. That's the whole idea.

So, again, people are up early because people who come here are my age and older. They're up early. They're having their coffee. They can't check their phone. know what's happening on Bloomberg. They can't check their stock portfolios or what horrific thing has happened in the world today. They're here.

They're now. It's mindful. It's now. It's now. They're enjoying what's in front of them now. And what's in front of them is stunningly beautiful. And then a great breakfast. Yes.

And then put your boots on. We're going to go for a ride. We're going to go for a ride. And you have enough acreage here that you can do. Yeah, we have that 2,800 acres. We have unlimited amount of trails. And the most important thing, we have good, well-trained horses. What did you tell me yesterday?

You put me on a horse at Palomino, and you said, it's an automatic transmission power steering. It drives itself. You know, the key of these horses is that they are pre-owned by working cowboys. Not by a weakened cowboy, you know, without offending anybody, but they are full working horses, which means they have been in rough terrain. chasing wild cattle.

I mean, with extreme. So by the time we take them for a ride with our guests, it's a pony ride for them, you know, it's a ride in the park, you know.

But they are very safe. They are, but they are very, how you will say, super well, easy to ride them. People who don't have any experience, they can learn how to ride them

with not a problem. And we go to super nice trails, you know, very adventurous. It's not a boring. No. No, it's not a boring ride. You saw that.

Up and down over rocks and through brush. And beautiful views, you know. Those are the trail that they are in a cattle ranch. Yeah, they are not pre-made. They're trails that we use with chasing cows, you know. So we get, with that type of quality horses, we're able to take all our guests to this adventurous ride, you know, and they love it.

We've been in several, like, horse magazine. They talk about our horses. Yeah, the horse riding part of this is no BS. It's not for show. It's not for show. It's a reality. Yeah, and the guests, interesting to me, the guests want to come back and have the same horse.

Or somebody like Jan who's saying, she's got the roving eye. She says, is this horse better than my horse? Should I be on that horse? I want to steal this person's horse. She does. Michael, you ride so beautifully. That palomino's got a great gate.

I'm like, wow, okay. I haven't ridden a horse. in 45 years folks, but that horse is making me look good according to one person on the ride. But that's, you know, it's no joke. So a serious horse rider could come here and get the authentic deal. Oh, definitely. And a person who hasn't been on a horse like me in four decades, folks, can get on a horse and say like, holy Toledo, this is life-changing. Well, we specialize on beginners. People with no experience. And we specialize to a point that when they finish the stay here, the rinds, they want to come back to ride more. Because our horses are, like I repeat, they're super well trained.

They're very safe. And if people understand the concept, the basic of riding, our horses are what you call neck reining. They're being trained by working cowboys. Neck raining because you only use one hand. The other one, you have the rope on it. So if people learn the basics here, they will have a great time. So it's perfect for me. I've got my iPhone in one hand.

Exactly. There you go. Perfectly, that's true. Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly true. So, yeah, the biggest thing here, the biggest part of the ranch is the horses. We have 30 horses that they are super healthy. I think we call it happy horses, right?

Happy horses, yes. Sound cheesy, right? But they are happy. Well, they have the best life, you know. When they're, well, during the week, we'll use them maybe three or four days out of the week. And the rest of the days, they're roaming the mountains. They're free. They're being horses and grazing and just roaming around wherever they want.

And when we need them, we're going round them up and bring them into the corrals. A couple of days of riding and boom, they're out again. I call them, our horses are, they have the life of a horse. They are not in captivity. Yeah. So you also have, you mentioned a little bit offhand last night when we were having a sip of tequila. I hear the bell for breakfast, so we're going to wrap up here in a couple minutes. You also mentioned that you do a real live, real, real deal roundup. Yeah, of course. For people who really know how to ride, we offer the cattle rice,

which does a yearly thing that we do in fall to prepare the cattle for winter. So we had to give them vitamins and an eculatum, inoculations. Inoculations, yeah. And doctoring in general. So we bring the cattle from the mountains. It's actually, in that time, I have the cattle in another section of the area. You know, it's like 25 miles from here. So we take a group there.

We round up the cattle, sleep under the trees with little tents. And we drive the cattle back to the ranch. we spend a whole week doctoring and doing all those traditional things that we do at the ranch so we offer the real thing you know the real drive their real cattle experience you know cattle ranch experience so we're hanging that carrot out there folks you come to the ranch a few trips raoul gets to see how you ride you never know maybe you get to uh that's how it works get the invitation somebody down the road if you can ride well enough to get on a real deal roundup well we're going to uh wind it up here uh

Caroline, Raoul, I can't say sincerely enough how touched I am that you would invite me and have me here, you know, just because I have the old Slow Baja truck and Raul has a soft spot for land cruisers. I think that's the real connection. Well, you know, we have to call it destiny, right? Somehow our path cross, you know. And you're super responsive given the parameters of when you have, signal. So we were back and forth in a number of threads on the magic of the internet, Instagram or Facebook or however we got connected here. But I didn't realize you had to make quite a trek to the highest point in the land there to your cartel lookout spot so you

could work in the office. You made that joke, right? Yeah, we do the, we have to go to the office, we call it, twice a day, early in the morning and then in the afternoon. Because that's a matter if we are away from the of the grip, still we have to be connected. So we try to answer as fast as possible to our guests. You know, we are in the times of instant gratification. People want everything fast.

We started this business sending brochures and hearing from our guests a month later, you know, and when they approve, they decide to come. They will send a check to our PO box in San Diego. That means we had to drive to San Diego. And sit in the border traffic. Exactly.

So that all of the, process it turned into a seconds now. You know, people make a deposit electronic transfer or whatever. And we make reservations every single day. We're making reservations every day. So tell me the best way for people to find out about you and the best way for people to contact you so they can come and have this amazing experience. When in social media, they find us as a Baja Rancho La Bejota.

And right there, we call it. That's double L folks. Yeah. Baja Rancho La Bejota. O-T-A-Rancho, Baja, Baja, Baja, Bata. La Bejota. La Bejota. But folks, remember, it's double-Ls.

Yeah, Baja Rancho La Bejota. Okay. And it will be in show notes. You can find it there. Where else? You're Baja Peninsula on. That's for our travel, our private travel, Baja Peninsular, Overland on Facebook and Instagram.

That's for our private travels, you know, but for the ranch, again, I repeat, it's Baja Rancho La Bejota. and they can find us in social media. They can go, they can find us in a trip advisor. We have a website. It's rancho lobejota.com. But Facebook, Baja Rancho La Bejota. If they type the name into the Google search engine,

the Facebook page will pop up immediately. Yeah, it's the first. And Caroline used to handle all that communications, but she's delegated that to Raul. Very carefully. Delegated that to Raul. you will get this charming face, the Mexican Anthony Hopkins right here.

There we go. Who will be behind all that communications, and you're right on it, twice a day. She taught me well. Yeah, she taught you well. Well, I can't say it sincerely enough. Thanks for making a little time for Slow Baja for this experience, for this communication.

Hi, high, high, high. Slow Baja approved folks. Figure out how to get down here, bring your family, have this amazing off the grid, not off the grid as much as off of the screens. Get off the screens, get down here, breathe deeply, ride a horse, eat the breakfast.

Oh, yeah. Enjoy the coffee in the morning. Drink the real cowboy coffee. And the conversations, you know. I mean, we are so blessed. We met people from all over the world. We listen to their stories. You know, it's unbelievable, a great experience for us too,

because we love to have the people here. The thing that we didn't even touch on is this tequila thing that you and I have. So next conversation, you're going to tell me about Caba de Oro. I will tell you about my caba de Oro tequila, and of course you will tell me about Fortaleza. No, no, Fortaleza, we don't need to talk about it anymore,

but we'll talk about that. You run trips to tequila, you run trips to the whales. Yes, we use... You'll take people places. It's not all just here at the ranch. Exactly. There's a lot going on. It's on the web.

It's on the social media. Check it out. Hi, Slow Baja approved. Let's have some breakfast. Excellent. Thank you, Michael. Thank you. Okay, we did it. I hope you enjoyed that conversation. Raul and Carolina are terrific hosts. Rancho Labayota is a strong, strong, strong, strong, Slow Baja approved. Get out there. Unwind. Get off your cell. Get off the computer. Enjoy yourself. Ride a horse. Be in nature. All right. You know what to do, but I got to ask you because it's not getting done. If you're on Spotify, please, please, please drop a review on. I'd love for you to say a few kind words and drop five stars. Apple iTunes, that would be great if you Apple iTunes listeners could do that over there as well. It's pretty easy. You click the fifth star. They light up and then you say some nice things about me.

And then if a few people do that, Apple says, hey, what's going on over here? And then they kind of recommend my show, which would be great to have people listening like you. Believe it or not, the T-shirts are in. They are finally freaking in. So for the first time in a year plus, if you're a size large, which most of America is, well, not most of America, most of Slow Baja is, we'll put it that way, get a dang shirt before they're gone. black short sleeve, long sleeve sweatshirts in black.

They are there. We've got small. We've got medium. We've got large. We've got extra large. We've got double XL. I think there's even a triple XL in black still or one or two. The hats, all the old popular hats, they're back.

So stickers are replenished to get them all while you can. I'm going to give a bunch of them away. I'm sure while I'm in Baja. So if you've got something you want, get it now. Because I'm going to be broke when I get back. and it's going to be months and months and months before I can order T-shirts and hats again. So get them now, folks. Thanks again for those who drop the taco in the tank.

I acknowledge you in the beginning of the show. It really does warm my heart, and it really does help me get the show along. I'm doing this. I don't know how you say shoe string in Spanish, but that's what I'm doing this show on. So I appreciate everybody who chips in and supports. Please, if you're thinking about it, you can cruise right over to Instagram, click the drop a taco in the tank or at slowbaha.com you can click the donate button and of course at slowbaha.com all the episodes are there contact info's there if you want to get a hold of me if you've got

a show suggestion i want to hear it um and with that i'm going to leave you to the rest of your day so hey thanks i'm going to be back with something fun next week and you know steve mcqueen my amigo he said it Well, he didn't really say it. He kind of paraphrasing, I'm paraphrasing, McQueen Foundation. Baja's life. Everything that happens before or after is just waiting. Have I told you about my friend True Miller? You've probably heard the podcast, but let me tell you, her vineyard adobe Guadalupe winery is spectacular. From the breakfast at her communal table bookended to an intimate dinner at night. Their house bred Azteca horses, Solomon,

the horseman will get you on a ride that'll just change your life. The food, the setting, the pool, it's all spectacular. Adobe Guadalupe.com. For appearing on Slow Baja today, our guests will receive the beautiful benchmark map 72-page Baja Road and Recreation Atlas.

Do not go to Baja without this, folks. You never know when your GPS is going to crap out, and you're going to want a great map in your lap. Trust me. I'm going to be