Slow Baja - Trudi Angell On The Museo Antigua Californio

Episode Date: October 6, 2023

Trudi Angell makes her third visit to the Slow Baja Podcast to discuss her new "retirement project," The Museo Antigua Californio in Loreto, BCS. Trudi is well known in Baja as the longtime owner and "Bell Mare" guide-in-residence of the mule-packing outfitters Saddling South. Through her travels into the remote mountains of the Sierra de Giganta, she befriended Dario, a gregarious rancher and "keeper of the old ways" who became the subject of her fabulous documentary film La Recua. https://larecua.com/ You can visit the Museo de Antigua Californio in the Pueblo Mágico town of Loreto BCS on the corner of Benito Juarez and Calle Davis. To book a mule-packing trip, contact Saddling South: https://saddlingsouth.com/ Get your Baja insurance here:  https://www.bajabound.com/quote/?r=fl9vypdv2t More information on Slow Baja Adventures: https://www.slowbaja.com/adventures

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. You know, I've long said it, ask your doctor if Baja is right for you. Well, I want to say hearty thanks

to all those folks who are coming on the Slow Baja Vintage Expedition. They got the okay from their doctor and they're going to have a great time exploring Baja Norte with me. Well, that trip is sold out. Believe it or not, that's right. It is sold out. So if you want to get in on the 24 Slow Baja Vintage, this time in Baja sewer, you got to check out the Adventures tab at slowbaha.com. And if you have a newer rig and a lot of folks did inquire with newer rigs and you want a winner getaway, the Slow Baja rally is February 23 to March 3rd. It's a slow roll from San Diego down to Loretto and back. About 10 days long, we're going to have a couple of nights laying over in Loretto. I've got some ready-made adventures for you there. If you want to get off on a one-day mule-packing

trip, or if the weather's good, you want to get out on the water, we're going to have a one-day water adventure. There's also going to be a one-day volunteer project for folks who might want to do that. And if you've got some stuff that you need to address on your rig, well, we're going to have some hand-selected Slow Baja-approved mechanics, whether you need a welder or a tire shop or a mechanic transmission, whatever it is, we're going to have those resources for you, so it's going to be easy for you to get whatever you need addressed, addressed. You know, it's not the longest or the largest or the most miles. It's the slowest and the best miles and hopefully the most smiles. All right, for more information, check it out. It's a Slow Baja rally at Slobaha.com slash adventures. Don't be afraid to

ask questions. You can always reach me through the contact link at Slobaha.com. Once again, that's February 23rd through March 3, 2024, the slow Baja rally. Well, hello, my heaping dose of gratitude today goes out to Mr. Baja visitor, Ted Donovan. Now, Ted and I have been going to Baja together for 39 years. 40 years next year, I can't believe it. I don't even know how you say that without sounding like a crusty old dude. And the only solace is Ted's even older than I am. So anyways, Ted's wife has a landmark, a big birthday.

and Ted's going to miss the Slow Baja vintage expedition, and that's just a tough one for me, because seriously, over those 40 years, I've probably been to Baja, I don't know, a handful of times, five times, six times total, without Ted on the trip. He's not always in the seat navigating for me. He's often in another vehicle,

but I've only been to Baja a few times without him. He knows every dirt track. He remembers every taco shop we've ever eaten, every drink we've ever ordered in any bar, every bartender's name, which is awesome. Anyhow, place. I'm going to have Renee Ranachalanga Ortega. And Renee is a friend and a fabulous photographer from back in my racing days in mainland Mexico and the La Carrera Panamericana. And Renee is flying

in from Oaxaca and it's his first trip to Baja. And I can't wait to share Slow Baja with him. And I can't wait to share his images of the Slow Baja Vintage Expedition with you. So without further ado, we're going to get on to today's guest. Today's guest is Slow Baja. Baja alum, Trudy Angel. And Trudy has been on the show a couple of times talking about her days and paddling South and then Saddling South and then Larekwa. And I heard that Truddy was retiring. And I was driving through Loretto and I just had to stop in and find out if the Baja scuttlebutt was right. I just couldn't imagine her retiring. And of course she's, you know, changing. Their new, new team has taken over at Saddling South. We can talk, you'll talk about that a little bit on the show.

But she has a retirement venture. She has opened Loretto's hottest attraction, the Museo de Antigua, California. So she has a beautiful collection of artifacts of the early days in Baja California history. And augmenting that is a collection of her Vicaro culture and ranch life culture artifacts. And it's a tidy museum right there in Loretto. Have a beautiful backyard where we filmed the interview and a lovely cafe. And it is Slow Baja approved. and you should check it out the next time you're there.

So without further ado, Trudy Angel talking about her retirement venture, the Museo de Antigua, California. We're rolling. We're rolling. Rolling. How do you say that when you're on the trail, Trudy? Arre, that's like giddy up. Okay, say it again.

With gusto. Arre, caballo, arre mula. Well, that's the sound of the start of a slow Baja podcast in beautiful Loretto with Trudeau. Judy Angel, old friend of the show, Slow Baja alum. I think this might be like your third trip around. And finally I'm here. Yeah.

Finally I'm here. And I'm pretty excited in Loretto to tell this new chapter in your life. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm. Take it away. Tell me where the heck we are and what we're doing at 7.15 in the morning. This retirement idea of not doing meal pack trips anymore.

I don't know how that's going to go for me because I'm not going to quit riding meals. But what I've kind of moved into here in town in Loretto is something that actually I've been working towards for a while. I have a couple of places where I ended up practicing putting up little museums. Just because I had so much gear in my living room, I thought, well, I better open a museum. instead and get some of this saddle and some of this gear out of here and people really enjoy learning about this stuff too there are a whole lot of people who like the idea of old California cowboy style gear it all started for me learning about this with besides riding down here with the cowboys but learning

that Gary McClintock up in Descanso California great saddle maker passed away a few years here but a few years ago but he came down and actually wanted to film some of the people who were still making this old style California gear and he said Trudy you know anybody who does that and I took him out to somebody who I figured was going to be his his movie star and he did turn out to be that his name is Dario I get a mesa and in our little museum here. It's small, but

it's packed with a good cowboy information. And the saddle that we have is made by Dario Iguera Mesa. You know, everything from raising the cow, killing the cow, skinning

the cow, tanning the hide, knowing which tree bark to go out and get and take off the trees or the root from the mesquitio that would tan the deer hide parts that he needed. So he has all that knowledge. And he's been doing it for years, and he's around 72 now, I think.

Still working. Still working. Still a movie star now. Yeah, and he's another movie star. When he's not on the road, signing autographs. Right. Arre! Action.

Action. Yeah. Action. Hey, so can you tell me about your first, well, maybe not your first meeting with Dario, but so you knew Dario from your own mule explorations, correct? So he must be in a well-positioned ranch, and he seems like a beautiful, warm, and engaging human being, welcoming a gringa mule, mouleteer. How do I even address what you do?

Belmar? Belmar, yeah, I guess. Let's stay with that. Caponera. So he, I'm assuming, welcomed you warmly. And then this idea comes up with Gary and making a film. And that was really a wonderful thing. And it had this underground cult status for so long.

Like, have you seen it? Yes. I saw a bootleg copy and the guy was so happy to show me this bootleg copy. Yeah. He said, I'm going to burn you one. I said, I'm going to find it. Don't worry. Thanks for letting me see it.

I'm going to help the filmmaker with $10 or whatever. That was Corazon Vacero. Yeah. Made back in 2006, 2007. It was filmed and finally got out to the world in 2008 and 2009. You had a producer credit on that, right? Yeah, associate producer. Okay.

Even though I thought they were going to give me chief cook and bottle washer. Some need to do that. And Eve E viewing. Uh-huh. E-viewing. Oh, that was fun. Can you imagine? Traveling on a mule trip, any mule trip with e-viewing is just fun.

Well, since we're talking about her, she's a Slow Baja alum that I'd love to have on film sometimes so people can see the amazing, amazing nuttiness that surrounds her. Can you just jump into the e-viewing show and what you? she's all about. Obviously, I met her through you. Yeah. So if you can tell me and tell our Slow Baja world about who this person really is and the amazing, astonishing life of adventure she's had. Yeah. Yeah, and because her father was a major part of scripts and whale watching, the first whale watch counting back in the 50s, I guess it was. By air. By air. Yeah. Flying over Scammon's Lagoon and those areas and doing whale counts. And so,

her story is that she was quite the adventurer from a young age and suddenly her father was down in L.A. Bay and I, our guest met up with Munoz, who was a pilot and flew around to the small village. It was very small back then, no roads, so you could get in by mule or you could get in by plane, I guess some old dirt roads maybe. but they were in L.A. Bay. The mailing expedition had started off in December, 1963, from Tecate, and had gone south to traveling south with 14 mules and eight people or something like that. And by the time a lot of the people got to L.A. Bay, according to Eve and her stories that we would hear around the campfire,

By the time the mailing group got to L.A. Bay, the size of the group dwindled. Some people bailed. Yeah, they defected. They defected. And so they needed more people to join this amazing adventure that was planning to go all the way to Cabo by mule with burros and muis as pack animals. And Eve's dad suggested, hey, Eve, get down here. Yeah. And bring some nails, bring some powdered.

Yeah, and so she pulled together, you know, a camp piece of canvas to cover herself, no tents back then, piece of canvas to go over her sleeping, her bedroll, her sleeping bag, and yeah, a few things, and flew back down again in two days after gathering that stuff, and continued on with the mailing expedition on to La Paz. And so meeting Eve years ago, kind of because of Gary McClintock as well, was just a spark for us and a spark for us to consider reenacting that trip from that Andy mailing and Joanne Alford put together and then invited various people to come along. I'm going to interject a story that I recounted yesterday from Eve from that trip. So, you know, Mountain Line takes down a big mule and takes off with it, which is, you know,

expected, I guess, those people could, was in the realm of possibilities. Possibilities, yeah. And I'm not sure if it was Joanne, who was, as I understand, quite attractive and kind of glamorous and was Andy's girlfriend. I believe so. Yeah, she was, she was there for a little eye candy is what basically Eve was inferring and maybe not totally down with the whole thing, but she was there with her man who

was a great adventurer. And I think it was, I think it was her, but she was, Eve said, we all. thought she was sleeping in, that she was just having a little lie in. And when we finally went over to see if everything was all right, there was a rattlesnake coiled on her chest as she was sleeping and she was waiting for it to warm up enough to slither off and not making a sound or a movement. I don't know if you can make that stuff up. I don't know if there's any reason to. No, I don't think so. I think Eve probably all those stories, got to be Eve's stories. Yeah. Yeah. So I think the world got their first real glimpse of Eve in Corazon Vaccaro.

And let's pick up the trail from there. Yeah. Dario. And so Dario, when, let's see, that was in 2006, when Gary McClintock and Eve E. viewing came down in order to, you know, do some of these filming and find out who these people are, who Somebody taking the wheels off of my car She says not important

Okay So we ended up riding into Dario's ranch Because Gary had asked me If there were any people who were still making the old style of old California gear And I thought, yep Okay, we're going to take them into Dario

Of course, one day wasn't enough to film everything. So they made a date with Dario to meet up with him the following year 2007. And Cody McClintock, Gary's wonderful creative

son filmmaker was along with them and they went down the following year to film little bits and pieces of things. that they really wanted to gather, like how do you cook an agave?

How did the indigenous people live? How did the ranchers live when there was scarce food? They picked up on the indigenous way of surviving in the desert. So Dario had all of that ready when Gary and Eve and Cody drove down the following year and got into the ranch and had stopped by to tell me in Loretto, hey, we're going to go over to Dario's. We're going to be there about three days. And in my mind, I was like, nah, you're going to be there a week.

Because he's going to have tons of fun stuff for you to film. And sure enough, Dario had gathered horsehair so that he could make a horsehair rope on film. And he had things tanning in his tanning vat. And he had just so many things that because he was a good film director, he right off the bat, he thought of all of these things that he could show to the world. And I'm going to be kind of silly here for a second, but like this is what people did before they just looked at their phones all the time wondering what other people are doing. I mean, this is a guy who's just, there's not a commercial outlet for the stuff that he's doing.

Correct? Correct. Yeah, he's just doing it because he has the knowledge. Yeah. He saw it done in previous generations, and he's the guy keeping the flame. Basically, that's it. He's a keeper of old California tradition, and he will, he just loves to share that. And that's why in 2017, so now we're talking 10 years later, I'm riding through with a small

group of people to his ranch. And one of the things he always does is go take us into his saddle shop and start explaining what all this old gear is. And then he looked at me with a glint in his eye and said, Trudy, I've always wanted to do this thing. I've always wanted to get out on the trail and run an old-time pack trip just like my grandfather used to do because when I was 10 years old and a little kid I was sitting around the campfire listening to these old guys

the old aryeros the aryeros who moved pack trains of goods from one village down all the way to La Paz for things that they couldn't get in La Paz so one of the things was

candy that was made in Comondu was a famous area to grow sugar cane here on the peninsula. So they made sugar cane candy. And then goat cheese or hides and things like that. So just whatever there was in a village that was produced could be trucked down on donkeys. So they were the old time original truckers on the trails rather than roads and taking it to La Paz and trading for goods that they didn't have out there in the outback branches. It's interesting for me because of my little Baja adventures driving around in an old land cruiser, as I pull into these tiendas, and it's all the same.

It's, you know, it's packs of chips and packs of, you know, candy bars that we can get in the States, and obviously lots of Mexican candies that I'm not seeing in where I live normally, unless I'm in a bodega or a tienda, but I find myself always searching out the locally labeled, locally made artisanial things. And I have a bag of dates next to me from San Ignacio. San Ignacio. And I was told they were the best dates in the peninsula.

And I think they are. But I think they're also a Baja superfood. And so when I'm driving along and I'm fading, you know, I can have a date and kind of chew on it a little bit and kind of roll that pit around my mouth before I throw it out. And the Machaca thing for me, it's like, that's another Baja superfood. Right. And it's just, you know, it's interesting that those things have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Dried beef, shredded beef, reconstituted, wrapped in a tortilla, stuffed in your pack. That's a huge luxury. That's what you would have to carry. And the goat cheese that I actually, for the film, had to go to a ramborough. ahead of time and order up because people don't make really the big blocks of cheese that would be a 10 kilo block of cheese that would fit inside of a kakaisle is a certain type of a box made out of usually watamote wood or something like this cardone on this box down here the cardone skeleton so a

Kaizlée would be made out of that or another wood called Watamolte. And they would make the blocks of cheese exactly to fit into the Ka Ka Kaizli. And as that cheese went along down the trail, wrapped in banana leaves, wrapped in palm leaves, wrapped in something to keep them cool and a piece of canvas over them or burlap, they could take it all the way to La Paz because that cheese would dry out. And then it would be dry and crumbly and the perfect kind of cheese to, like, put on top of the beans or crumble for your cheese enchiladas and things. So they knew how to make the products that would last long enough, like the dried meat, the machaca. Without refrigeration.

Without refrigeration along the way, yeah. I think it was Paul Gansder was telling me when he was riding with Harry in the, I think it was 67. And he said, you know, we had some cuts of meat there. And you're just on the saddles with us. And they just kept getting aged as we went. Dyer and drier. As we went, you know. Hopefully it was already dried and salted meat.

No, no, it was fresh. It was fresh. And it just kept aging, as he said. And he did say that it got a little softer as it went. Yeah. Hardships on the trail. This stuff, you know, I'm sure you've built a route that people can do, but like driving an old lane cruiser around.

It's not the easiest way to get around. How do you prepare people, gringoes, people like me, how would you prepare somebody to get up on a mule trip for a couple days or a week? If they're going to go on a long trip, I suggest that they probably try to go out and get a little riding under their belt at first. but if not, a lot of people come down really without much experience and go out for a few days. And if we're going to do a longer trip, I usually start them out slow. We don't break them in doing it seven or eight hour a day the first day. I don't even like to do that. I like to do a five-hour day at the longest or maybe six if you have to.

But we'll start them out doing just two or three hours. And then you can always get off and walk. So on our pack trips, that's, you know, we try, we keep them in mind. Their comfort is foremost. Well, we've diverged here from the original reason for me to sit down with you this morning, which is to talk about your museum. And we're going to get to the museum, but we're going to take a break here for just a second. We'll be right back with Trudy Angel and her beautiful Museo de Antigua, California.

See. Okay, we'll be right back. 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 Bajabound.com, serving Mexico travelers since 1994. Big thanks to my new sponsor Nomad Wheels.

They stepped up and sponsored the Slow Baja Safari class at the Nora Mexican 1000. And I don't know if you've seen the pictures, but Slow Baja is running a set of 501 convoys. and utility gray, and they look pretty damn sharp. They were a little shiny. I will admit that. They were a little shiny when I got them installed at Basil's Garage just before the Noramexican 1000, but after, I don't know, 3,800 miles from Baja dirt, they look perfect. They really do.

Nomadwheels.com. That's right. Check them out, reflecting a minimalist approach to off-road travel. Nomadwheels.com. Hey, we're back. We're going to talk about your museum. So you're saying it's a retirement project, but you're not really going to retire, are you? Yeah, probably not.

Okay, because I definitely need to get out on the trail with you. Yeah, good. Yeah, in fact, we're hoping to do another Mule 1000, my daughter and I, we would like to try to get on the what's called the Long Riders Guild, which has certain rule specifications of how you operate. on your trip. So the first long ride that we did in 2013 and 2014, which basically was honoring E-viewing and her and the Andy mailing ride. So we did a 50-year reunion with that long ride in 50 years after the mailing expedition. And so now my daughter and I want to get out there

and do it differently. And when we see that trail that goes off and we hear about a pool of water somewhere five miles down the road that way or up the trail, we want to go there. And so we want it to be a little less structured and more... More slow Baja, actually. Yeah, more slow Baja. Trudy Angels keeping Baja slow right here, folks.

Slower than me, even. Yeah, when you ride a mule, you really get to see everything out there. You're not going by things very fast. And so you get to pay attention to the birds and the wildlife. And when you're doing 10 miles a day, it's a lot different. You know, when I drive back up the highway, driving back north up to Alta, California sometime, and we end up going 10 minutes, and I've thought, well, that was a lot of. one day.

Well, can I ask you how often you're looking as you're maybe driving, this happened to us yesterday. We were driving along and Ted's out there, head cocked, looking at something. And I said, what are you watching, Ted? What are you doing? He's like, oh, there's a road over there. A road.

And we're just, you know, well south of Loretto, but he says, you know, there's a dirt road. It looks like a decent dirt road. And we ought to get that at some time. We got to go check that road How often are you driving or flying or looking at a map or Google Earth and saying, you know, I think I just need to check that one out on a mule. Yeah. Because you can go anywhere on a mule. Yeah, yeah.

You know, four by four you might get stuck. You might tear stuff up. Yeah, you can go anywhere on a mules. Yeah, you can see that from some of the shots in the film in La Reque, too, right? We're on that amazing old, old trail, the real original El Camino Real. which is now basically a ditch of volcanic rock that's five feet high. We're riding, it's the upper part of the trail is at shoulder height because they had to move so many rocks.

And indigenous people who built those trails for the missionaries when they went north and south between San Javier and Komondou, and there was the straightest shot to get them between those two missions was kind of the trajectory that they wanted to take. And so they just kind of plowed through and built those trails. And that's where I love to go. Yeah. And all those trails basically led to waterholes because that's what you have to do.

That's what you need. Feed for the animals, waterholes. And that's a really, you know, that's just part of our vision. for every day on the trail. Where is the feed for the animals? And we're looking around for the Deep Bua tree, the kind of a palo verde that has more of a feathery branch. And it will be what we can feed the animals

if there's nothing on the ground for them to eat. Or some nice mesquite trees. And we break off some branches to give them mesquite. Well, like all trails lead to watering holes. I think all stories lead back to Eve telling stories of that, that extraordinarily difficult trip she was on in 1963 where there had been a seven-year drought. They'd been told, and everybody's going to tell you, don't do it, it's dangerous, it's what have you. But the forge, the feed for the animals,

was extraordinarily hard to find. And as I'm looking at you and I'm looking at your hat, I'm thinking about the water that Eve was talking about. one of the watering holes as they started to drink that water, they realized there was a dead cow in the water. They still needed the water. It's not like you can go pick up a jug of water at the local oxo. They still needed that water. And she said, well, we filtered it through our hats.

Yeah. Have you ever drank water filtered through your hat? No. These days we have Katadn and MSR pumps and, yeah. Yeah. Well, can you talk a little bit about that? I hate to call it a business. The life you created, sharing the ranch life, sharing Darillo's life,

sharing mules with folks. How did you just get the first one going and then tell me about the evolution of the water, filtering water along the way and doing these other things that you must have done to make the practicalities that, you know, you'll need. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, I don't even kind of, I don't even remember, you know, when you first get out on the trail, I first got out on the trail with Tim Means from Baja Expeditions back in 1980, it was before Olivia was born, I think it was around 85.

and he invited us, me, to go and some friends and family and his family and his little kids. We were all on the trail for about nine days. And it's such an amazing new kind of experience when you get on those mules and you get down into the canyons or you're going on rough trails and realizing how athletic a Baja mule is. That you're just overwhelmed. at first. It wasn't until a couple trips later that I realized myself what the cowboys were doing. Like all of the details they had to pay attention to. Where's the water? Where's the feed? Where's the, how are we keeping these tourists safe on the trail? And so I didn't start learning until I did several more trips of really what was going to

on in the background, even though it was going on all around me. And that was interesting to note myself that there was a, all this stuff going on in the background, and it gave me a good understanding of what a tourist, what one of our guests might also be experiencing. Like they're not going to get it the first time that they're out there, just all of the work that their cowboys are, cowboys are doing for them. And so that gave me the opportunity to start to think, what is it they need to learn or would be interested to learn on a trip. And so then we would start bringing those things to light on the tour so that they would really get more of a sense of how people live in the backcountry.

And they just, the guests that come on our trips then end up getting a much deeper appreciation than just going out on a trip by themselves and not really picking up on all the minute details of what else is going on. Yeah, and I'm having the sense it's somewhat transformational travel. You know, it's beyond mindful. It's transformation. Uh-huh. Yeah. So many people come, go into, to. do our rock art tours, for instance, and then come out of the canyon saying,

oh, the cowboys, the trails, the mules, the country, the, oh, and we saw rock art too. You know, they go in with one focus, but come out with a whole other new knowledge. Well, since you brought up the subject of rock art, can you give us a small, short education on, on rock art and what you've, what your theories on it are? No, not really. There are theories out there and there's some information written, you know. Maybe you can explain the rock art and give the little background on it then. Yeah, okay.

Well, there's Harry Crosby's wonderful book called. cave paintings of Baja California. And most people who, many people who come on our trips have read that book and that's what they come out there for. They want to go see these amazing great mural

artworks of art by indigenous people from hundreds to thousands of years ago. And my concept is that maybe it really were was the Cochee me people because the Cochee me people who lived as of 300 years ago

on this peninsula in this area and in the Rockgart area said it wasn't that what was their ancestors or it was another people or whatever they didn't they didn't know according to what they said to the people who were coming in and you know inundating their own culture so they weren't in my concept is they why would they share their deepest spiritual shamanic information with people who are coming in to try to take over their culture so that's kind of my theory in a nutshell is that possibly it could have been the cochinees and they just weren't easier to say no say yeah uh-huh yeah exactly yeah yeah well back to where we are the beautiful backyard of your museum what's here? It looks like you've got some space. You might have some events.

Yeah. What can you tell people about your new retirement plan? So last year, and that would have been 2022, a couple of friends showed up and said, hey, Trudy, can you help us look for a place for the new, we want to redo the Caballo bookstore, which has been located in Loretto for, oh gosh, over 20 years. Janine and Beto Perez ran that bookstore on the south side of the plaza on Juarez, no, excuse me, on Idaalgo Street in Loretto. And it's called the Caballo Blanco Bookstore. And unfortunately, both of them have passed away now, but friends wanted to reestablish it and make sure that Loretto had a bookstore.

So they asked me to look around and help look for a new location. And I did that. Found one. It's just behind us over here on Wada is Street now. But in the meantime, I thought, well, if the group that is enthusiastic about reviving the bookstore doesn't really want this location, then I'll keep it as a museum. and they wanted it. So I looked around the corner and here was this perfect little old building built probably in the 40s or 50s, probably in the 50s here in Loretto. Made of wood, the old board and batten style with some old galvanized corrugated roofing on it.

and even though inside it looked like a trash heap at the time, I saw the possibilities. And so I latched onto this as a project. And a couple of months later, had it painted, had the patate, the woven mat walls put up where there was no way that we were going to replace that beautiful old wood. And started painting the inside a little bit and cleared it out and put my saddles out from that I had piled up in my living room, put a saddle and an apparejo, an old pack saddle style from Darillo. A couple of my alforjas, which are the skin bags that we used both in the film and I use on my tours. and some Sourones, the cylindrical type of a rawhide cylinder that dates would be put into to carry all the way from Comandu down to La Paz for sale. And so I just started putting those things in there and writing out the little stories about each.

Yeah. Great signage. Yeah. And up on the wall, a few colorful things. And those would be the blankets that have a history behind them. They're actually fairly new blankets. One of them was made for La Reque, for the film, by the woman whose Ricardo's wife in the film has this beautiful blanket that he lays down as his bedding at night. and his wife made that for him so that he would be comfortable on the trail.

And what's really fun to tell people, as they wander into the museum, there's a little sign out front. We kind of have to draw them in a little bit, hey, come see the museum and smell the coffee. And we get them in there, and then suddenly they have a whole new vision, just like the people who go on our pack trips. they might go in thinking one thing, but they come out with a lot of knowledge about the old style of living and how that's still happening in some very small now pockets of the peninsula.

So they see the new blanket that's up on the wall, really colorful one, shows up about four times in the film in La Reque. And then they see an older blanket with these beautiful hearts and birds and flowers and things. embroidered onto it. And I get to tell them the story of how much fun it is to go out with somebody who you'd

be thinking as a rough and tough cowboy out there in the back country, you know, and they put down their bedding at night, and here's this little pillow with hearts and birds on it from there. And you go, ah! Well, we're going to leave it right there, folks. We're going to get a look inside the museum and the bookstore, and I can't thank Trudy enough. saw us coming in sweaty off the trail

last night and said, hey, let's do this early tomorrow morning. The light will be better. It'll be much nicer. We will be refreshed and she was absolutely right. So thank you for that, Trudy. And listen, we get to hear birds now this morning too. There's just a bunch of birds going around this

Qualtecomate tree which is a very iconic tree here for Loretto. A lot of people come by here. And ask if they can take the fruits or these almost like they're yes these home with them and of course we have a box out in front just where they can pick up free ones it's a medicinal piece of the

fruit you drill a hole into it let it dry out put alcohol in it maybe some Fortaleza tequila that's my gal that's my gal thank you Judy and you put that in there and let it sit for a while and then you drink it and you get to, you cure lung issues, breathing issues and also other people have used it for some intestinal issues, one of my guides. Some people up in the Sierra San Francisco asked me if I could bring some of these up to them because it's a well-known medicinal, has medicinal qualities. Well, I think that's a coming series on Slow Baja, creating some Fortaleza cups out of this.

And that's what else they're used for, where this tree originates in actually southern parts of Baja, I mean, southern parts of Mexico, they dry out these, they take the hull off the outside. It looks like a little coconut shell, you know, cut them in half, put a little round something on the bottom, and then use them for mescal. And those are the little mescal cups.

Copitas. Yeah. A lot, safari special group, Tim Martin. You've got nothing on Slow Baja. Wait until next year, bro. There's a group that had beautiful handmade copitas. They have a mescal sponsor. And they brought the ceramic artist,

the loam wolf, Julie, absolutely amazing, beautiful woman. And she had handmade all these beautiful copitas for their team and to share their mescal, with the other racers, ralliers. Yeah, that's really a stunning thing. They carve the outside and make beautiful designs and pictures on them. Wow.

All right. Well, let's get a look inside. Way be in. Well, I hope you enjoyed that show. Trudy talking about her retirement venture. I can't wait to get on a mule on a trip with her, and I hope that e-viewing is there. And if you haven't heard the Slow Baja conversation with the e-viewing, I implore you to scan back through the catalog and find those conversations. It is very difficult to keep Eve on track,

but she has had an extraordinary life. And I feel very lucky to have gotten the microphone in her hand and gotten to record a few of those stories. All right, well, if you like what I do, folks, if you like what I do, you got a couple tacos jingling around in your pocket. You got to drop one in the tank. Please help me keep this show on the road. Help keep me doing these interviews, these conversations in person on location. It takes a little more time, cost a little more money. but I really do think they are worthwhile. The whole experience that I had with Trudy, we came in hot. It was late at night.

We were tired, and she saw right through it. And she said, listen, I got stuff to do tomorrow. But if you guys are here early, and if we're rolling before 7 a.m., we can do it tomorrow morning. And it just brought out a much better that, you know, the birds were chirping. It was just a much better conversation than if we had tried to push through and get it done the night before. And, you know, that's the effort I'm making.

So if you're enjoying it, and if you're still listening at this stage in the game, I hope you are enjoying it. So drop a taco in the tank if you've got a taco in your pocket. And if you don't, well, hey, take a second. Get on to Apple or Spotify. Drop a five-star review. Say something nice. Tell people why you listen to the show.

That does help people find the show and helps people start listening to Slow Baja. So thank you for that. If you haven't been over to the Slow Baja shop lately, they've got some new t-shirts in and black. So we've got a replen in. We've got some hats in. So check it out at the Slow Baja shop. And, you know, I'm going to be back with something interesting next time.

pretty soon, sooner than you think. And until then, I'm going to leave you with the words of Off Road Motorsports Hall of Famer, Slow Baja alum, Mary McGee. I'm going to leave you the words of her pal, Steve McQueen, who made a few movies, who's a cool cat, loved Baja. Steve McQueen, he said it. Baja is life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.

You know, I'm a minimalist when it comes to Baja travel, but the one thing I don't leave high. home without is a good old paper map. My favorite is the beautiful, and I mean beautiful, Baja Road and Recreation Atlas by Benchmark Maps. It's an oversized 72-page book. It's jammed with details. It brings the peninsula's rugged terrain into clear focus. Get yours at Benchmarkmaps.com. In fact, get two. One for your trip planning at home and one for your Baja rig. And while you're at benchmarkmaps.com, you've got to check out all their other atlases. I think they're up to 17 now, including British Columbia.

They've got folding maps, they've got digital maps, they've got giant wall maps. My favorite, and I've got it up on my wall right here at Slow Baja HQ is the 30 inch by 46 inch Baja wall map.

It's so great to just look at one thing to see the entire peninsula there. I love it. Benchmarkmaps.com. Slow Baja approved. Huge news out of Ensenada. Huge news, folks. Cerviceria Trans-Pencillular

has Slow Baja on tap all summer. long. That's right. I saw it for myself. Heck, I tasted it for myself. You got to get there. You got to check it out for yourself at Serviceria Trans-Penanceal Arts. Right there next to the Hotel Corral and Marinas in the Playitas neighborhood. Get yourself a frosty cold, slow Baja on tap, but don't delay. It's for limited time only this summer.