Slow Baja

Javier Alejandro Inzunza and Leopoldo (Polo) Sanmiguel are passionate about sharing the stark beauty of Baja with the world. The Tijuana-based duo created the beautiful travel site Baja Adventures, "To inspire people to live in a more sustainable way by adventuring into The Baja Peninsula and rediscovering the unique bond between themselves and nature." On a recent trip to San Diego, I reached out...

Jonas Deichmann is a world-class endurance athlete. He is currently running a Munich to Munich Triathlon that is 120 times the distance of an Ironman Triathlon.  We caught up with him as he had just finished the Baja portion of his adventure. He had run from Tijuana to La Paz, averaging a marathon each day. With the Baja leg of his circumnavigation of the globe complete, we spent a few minute...

In our second conversation with Eve Ewing, she shares more stories from her 70 years of Baja adventures. From her 1950's flights to count whales with her father, legendary Oceanographer Gifford Ewing, to riding mules in the '60s on the grueling Meling-Alford Expedition Eve has been there and done that and still remembers the story! Enjoy this rambling conversation with my friend and Baja-legend, E...

"The key to victory is throwing yourself at it and see what happens." Napoleon Graham Mackintosh won the UK Adventurous Traveller of the Year Award in 1987 for his walk around the Baja peninsula from 1983-1985. He captured the experience of his extraordinary voyage in his 1988 book  Into a Desert Place. Growing up in England as admitted couch potato, Mackintosh became obsessed with the idea o...

"Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible." — Doug Larson In today's podcast, we meet Mike Steel from Idiot Racing. His dream was to race the Baja 1000 in a Class 11 VW Bug built with his own hands. He documented the build on his Instagram page and won many fans and followers.  His first race was the SCORE Baja 500 on June 13...

Today's Travel Talk with Slow Baja, we chat with the team behind the new Benchmark Maps Baja California Road and Recreation Atlas. Cartographer Neil Allen, Bridger De Ville, Director of Sales and Marketing, and Baja expert and project consultant David Kier are my guests. "The Baja California Road & Recreation Atlas is truly unique, combining the most accurate trip planning information with spe...

Ron Gomez Hoff is the founder of the website and Facebook page Talk Baja. A Southern California native, Hoff fell in love with Baja as a teenager on a scouting trip in 1968. After high school, a stint in the Navy had him operating nuclear powerplants on submarines. When he left the Navy, he returned to Long Beach and joined his family business running testing laboratories in the oil and gas indust...

Hey amigos, it's hard to believe that is's been a year since Slow Baja got picked up on Apple iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcast. I wanted to take a moment to say a hearty THANKS for listening. Since I launched the show, many have asked me about my Baja journey and what Slow Baja is all about. So since you asked, here it is, one year in, I swap seats with my intrepid editor, Christopher Keiser, a...

Nicole Demme Kapturowski is an avid RV enthusiast who recently spent a month exploring Baja with her parents, husband, and two teenaged children. The family caravan consisted of a dual-cab pickup pulling a 33' travel trailer followed by her parents in a Class-A motorhome. Nicole brought up the rear in her parent's car that they would typically tow, but they unhitched and drove due to the narrow ro...

Jeffrey Westman arrived in San Juanico as a 19-year-old on a surf trip and fell in love with it. The teen dreamed of finding a surf shack and staying forever. Not surprisingly, college and a career won out, but the dream stayed with him. Thirty years later, he has built the San Juanico Surf Society, a danish infused, Mexican-modern resort for friends and family. Located on a bluff above "Panga Bea...

Edie Littlefield Sundby has been a great friend to Slow Baja. Since I originally aired my conversation with her in July of last year, she has introduced me to many of her Baja community. A few have been interviewed on Slow Baja already, and I hope to record with the rest as time and travel allows. When a family member was headed to the hospital for major surgery, I turned to Edie for advice. She h...

Twenty-three-year-old Edson Romero may be the most famous resident of beautiful San Ignacio. His parents, Jackie and Gery, own Edson Ice Cream Shop, a must-stop when traveling through the oasis town. As a youngster, Edson was teaching himself English using google translate. When off-road racers came to town, he would use the opportunity to practice his English to promote his parent's ice cream sho...

Three amigos take on the 3000-mile BajaXL Rally in a thirty-year-old Land Cruiser. Hear the unvarnished (and slightly exhausted) take on ten days of brutal Baja backroads, police actions, government sanctions, and a heaping dose of drama. Warning Adult Language! In a first for the Slow Baja podcast, we began recording this conversation at midnight. We were actively consuming adult beverages and us...

Now that " La Recua " is finished and making the film festival rounds, I thought I would share this conversation with Trudi Angel again. Angell has been living in Baja since the mid-'70s. She made her first trip South to attend a 12-day Sea Kayaking course at the National Outdoor Leadership School in Mulegé. Angell fell in love with the people and the place -and stayed six weeks. When she finally...

Inducted in the 2020 Off-Road Motorsports Hall Of Fame , Roger Mears is the eldest son of racer Bill Mears and the older brother of four-time Indianapolis 500 Champion Rick Mears . Roger drove buggies, midgets, stock cars, sprint cars and competed in the Indy 500 twice in his long career. He made his mark in offroad racing and was a constant threat in both short course and desert racing.  Mea...

In today's Travel Talk with Slow Baja, we sit down for a quick chat with Marlen Ahumada, Sales Director of the  Tesoro Resorts Los Cabos . On the 2021  BajaXL Rally , we stayed at the Tesoro, and we were amazed by our accommodations, the hospitality, and the entire Tesoro experience. An adult beverage greeted us upon arrival as we booked the all-inclusive plan. After dropping our bags in...

Miguel Ángel de la Cueva is a profoundly thoughtful photographer who focuses on Mexico’s natural beauty, wildlife, and remote ranch-dwelling people.  National Geographic ,  Geo  magazine,  Mexico Desconocido,  and environmental organizations like The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, Wildcoast, and Niparajá-WWF have published his images. He has photographed t...

In today's Travel Talk with Slow Baja, we sit down with Jesse Atkinson, massage therapist, and owner of Ensenada Massage and Valle de Guadalupe Mobile Spa . Jesse shares his life story. From growing up in Wisconsin, to his work in Central America as a consultant, to surviving cancer and making life changes that led him to become a certified massage therapist. As we were ping-ponging back and forth...

Curt LeDuc is a salt-of-the-earth Baja racer with an impressive record of DIY accomplishments in off-road racing. When asked about his approach to building winning racers, LeDuc said, “I’m not an engineer, I’m an imagineer” He’s built and raced his own vehicles at the highest levels of desert racing for decades. He’s won championships in desert class 8 five years in a row, and has two Short Course...

Today’s podcast guest is life-long cyclist Herb Bool. In 2018, at 55 years old, Bool rode the 1,700 mile Baja Divide in 35 days. Conceived by ultra-endurance bicycle racer Lael Wilcox and Nicholas Carman, the Baja Divide is: “A rugged 1,700-mile off-pavement bikepacking route down the Baja California peninsula, from San Diego to San José del Cabo. This route connects the Pacific Ocean and the Sea...

In today's Travel Talk with Slow Baja, we sit down with Sheila, the gregarious owner of Zopilotes Ice Cream in San Bartolo BCS. Originally from Salmon Arm, BC, Canada, Sheila, and her husband first visited Baja Sur in 2008. They returned with a fifth-wheel camper in 2009 and bought a house, sight-unseen in 2010. How was the experience of fixing up a home in a country where you don't speak the lang...

In today’s Travel Talk with Slow Baja, we sit down with guide and outfitter Steve Hayward of Paddling South in Loreto, Baja California Sur. Hayward has traveled extensively and has paddled in Chile, Alaska, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Ireland, Wales, BC, and Baja. He has guided and developed programs for Sea Trek for over 25 years. For the last 15 years, he’s run the Baja operation in Loreto -a b...

Marshall Kramer, Jamie Wolgemguth, and Craig Dieffenbach are The Desert Dutchmen; on today's Slow Baja Podcast, they break down their drive of the 2019 Baja XL Rally. The trio from Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, began building a 2000 Jeep bought on the cheap from a relative. The build progressed at a glacial pace, and the trio moved to Plan-B. They booked a modern Toyota 4Runner from California Baj...

David Kier is a historian, cartographer, and expert on the Missions of Baja. As a young boy in the early ’60s, he began traveling to Baja with his parents. Wedged between his parents in their Jeep Wagoneer, a copy of Gerhard and Gulick’s Lower California Guide Book in hand, Kier provided turn-by-turn navigation. The experience burned the dirt roads and landmarks into his young mind and created a l...

Happy New Year! Thanks for tuning into Slow Baja. As I prepare for the upcoming  Baja XL Rally , I wanted to share one of my favorite podcasts initially released in May last year. This podcast is very dear to my heart and was transformational for me in many ways. I want to thank Joy and Hayden for opening their home to me, and I was delighted that Scott braved a rainy morning on his old BSA t...