David Kier is a humble historian who has been traveling to Baja since the early '60s. With a copy of Gerhard and Gulick's Lower California Guide Book -known as the "Baja Bible," he sat between his parents on the bench seat of the Jeep Wagoneer as their trusted navigator. He read the map, followed the odometer, the "bible," and kept his father abreast of what to expect on the road ahead. On his first trip, they drove to the fishing village of San Felipe and South to Puertecitos. The goal was Gonzaga Bay, but that was fifty miles further over the toughest road in Baja. When the locals said the road was impassable, his father thought of the fish he was going to catch, dropped the Wagoneer into 4Lo, and five hours later, they arrived.

Kier continued making Baja trips with his parents, including an epic tour of 800+ miles on dirt down to the tip in 1966. The journey was so dusty and difficult that they took the ferry to Mazatlan to drive paved roads home. In 1973, he turned 16 -to celebrate, he and a buddy took his Myers Manx to Baja. It would be his first of many trips to come. There were two more firsts that year; he went to the Baja 1000, where Bill Sanders and Pete Springer won in a Land Cruiser FJ40, and he published his first book titled Baja and the Transpeninsular Highway.

In this conversation, Kier shares stories of those early travels and subsequent trips for The Old Missions of Baja and Alta California 1697-1834 his book with Kurillo and Tuttle. And his latest book Baja California -Land Of Missions.

Visit David Kier's website here

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Geoff Hill is not your average Insurance agent. Since his first surf trip in 1990, he hasn't been able to escape Baja's pull. After surfing his way to a degree at UCSD, he joined Baja Bound Insurance in 2003. As VP of Business Development, Hill spends his time sponsoring events that bring people to Baja.

When our Lucha Libre Racing Team took on the grueling La Carrera Panamericana in 2006 -we reached out to Hill and were honored to be the first racing team sponsored by Baja Bound Insurance. Nearly fifteen years later, we are thrilled to have his continued support.

In this conversation, Hill gets personal about his travels, volunteer and fundraising work, and the people that keep him coming back. If you are planning a trip south-of-the-border, make Baja Bound Insurance your first stop.

Visit the Baja Bound Insurance website here

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Stephanie Nisan founded The Animal Pad (TAP) in 2010 after adopting a dog that was about to be euthanized. TAP is an all volunteer-run 501c3 non-profit that rescues dogs from the streets of Tijuana and Ensenada. They work through a network of volunteers and shelters in Northern Baja that locate and capture the strays. The dogs are in terrible shape, malnourished, abused, and with life-threatening ailments, including Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumors (CTVT) -a sexually transmitted tumor cured only with chemotherapy. 

In this conversation, we learn about the dedicated community of TAP volunteers that find joy in this challenging work. They travel by the busload to work one-on-one with dogs in shelters. Volunteers vaccinate, wash, socialize, and feed them a highly nutritious meal -a luxury for the weaker dogs that usually have to fight the others for their food.

Visit The Animal Pad website here

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Hayden Roberts and Scott Toepfer race mid-’60s vintage British Dirt Bikes in events like the NORRA Mexican 1000, NORRA Baja 500, and The Mint 400. Roberts, originally from England, is now a fixture in the So Cal Motorcycle scene, crafting and customizing bikes at his shop Hello Engine, in Santa Paula, California. Toepfer, a top lifestyle-photographer with a specialty in motorcycles, met Roberts while they were on a motocross exposition in Japan. They became fast friends, and have been racing, wrenching, and traveling on their desert-sleds ever since. In this conversation, we learn the meaning of “Only mad dogs and Englishmen.” Hear stories of swapping motors on the beach, sleeping in the dirt, and surviving a dreaded stingray sting. Joy Lewis joined us midway through. She tells us about an epic night of worry on the NORRA Mexican 1000. She was in the chase-truck, supporting Hayden, and his GPS position stopped moving. Her mind raced; did he crash? Was he injured, or worse? They were hours away and had no way to contact him, let alone reach him. As she searched for information and tried to summon help -one grizzled Baja veteran (jokingly) suggested that he was “shacked up with a local senorita and in nine months a little Baja-racer would be born!” In the morning, Joy found him -tired but well-fed, nursing a carton of milk and teaching a group of elementary school children about England. During a sandstorm in Bahia de Los Angeles, they fell in love over a cup of hot tea.  Prompting Joy to make the observation “the stars are brighter, and the tacos are better in Baja.” We couldn't agree more!  

Hayden & Hello Engine Website, Instagram 

Scott G. Toepfer Website, Instagram 

Joy Lewis Instagram 

Buck Smith Facebook 

Nick Ashley Instagram

NORRA Mexican 1000 Website 

NORRA Mexican 1000 Instagram 

Andrew Szabo created the zany Budapest-to-Bamako Rally and the 3000-mile-no-support-Baja XL Rally. In this podcast, we discuss adventure travel, Africa, Baja, off-roading, and how not to get shot when you steal a farmer's tractor to pull your car out of a silt bed!

The 2019 Baja XL Rally featured some 300 entrants in 140 vehicles hailing from 30 different countries. In 2017, Szabo created The Baja 4000 -for the four thousand kilometers, the event covered from LA to Cabo and back to LA. In 2019, the Slow Baja team competed in the Adventure 4x4 Catagory in the renamed Baja XL Rally.

Visit The BajaXL website here

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Budapest-Bamako channel on Youtube

Ruben Valenzuela Hernandez is the owner of the BCB Tasting Room in Tijuana. With 42 beers on tap and another 400 in bottles, BCB is a mecca for craft beer drinkers from both sides of the border.  In this podcast, we discuss the booming craft beer scene in Tijuana, the rise of the Valle de Guadalupe, Bichi Wine, tacos, and Ruben's favorite restaurants. Please note we taped this conversation in January 2020 before sheltering-in-place and social distancing due to COVID-19 was in practice.

BCB Tasting Room

Calle Orizaba 10335

Fracc. Neidhart 22020 Tijuana BC

+52.664.656.9405

Recently Slow Baja spent a day exploring Tijuana. We had a great time eating, drinking, and recording. Our first stop was at the charming Casa Cacao for a late breakfast. The artisanal chocolate shop and mole restaurant -located just a few doors off of Ave. Revolution is a tiny slice of Oaxaca. Owners, Rosa, and Jose were eager to share their love and knowledge of cacao and its many healthful properties. We dined on enmoladas, tlayudas, and tamales with house-made salsas, and moles. Locally roasted dark coffee and traditional hot chocolate were an unexpected surprise. The conversation ranged from the healthful properties of cacao and dark chocolate to the state of the economy in Tijuana. Please note we taped this conversation in January 2020 -before social distancing and shelter-in-place orders due to COVID-19 were in place.

Casa Cacao

Calle 2da #8172

Zona Centro 22020 Tijuana BC

(664)215-6565

casacacaotijuana.com

Adalberto Pérez Mellión is an artist and printmaker who operates Taller Pérez Mellión—initially opened as Galleria Pérez Mellión in 1988. In the beginning, he specialized in selling the art and crafts of the Paipai and the Kumeyaay Indian tribes of Northern Baja. He spent years traveling to their remote communities by four-wheel-drive vehicle trading for their handicrafts.

After an artist-in-residence scholarship took him to Zacatecas, to study printmaking at the Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguerez, Pérez Mellión returned to Ensenada and turned his gallery into a printing studio. Since that day, he has been teaching the craft of printmaking while selling the art of his students and local contemporary artists.

In this conversation, we discuss his progression from folk-art dealer to becoming an artist and a teacher of printmaking. Additionally, we covered a three-day hike with burros to see cave art he took with our mutual friend Ted Donovan led by Francisco Detrell. Last but certainly not least, we discussed the origins of fish tacos in Ensenada and his favorite tacos stands. Please note we taped this conversation in January 2020 before social distancing due to COVID-19 was in practice.

Taller Pérez Mellión

Centro de las Artes de Baja California

Francisco Detrell Baja Guide

Tacos Corona Tacos de Pescado and Camaron