Baja, Mexico with "Can We Start Over?" Podcast Hosts Britt and Lindsey

Ever thought about packing up your life and starting anew in a different country? Well,  Britt and Lindsey, the adventurous couple behind the popular podcast "Can We Start Over?", did just that. Leaving the familiarity of Texas behind, they took their three kids on a nine-month journey to La Paz, Baja California, Mexico. Listen in as they share how they've navigated the challenges of remote work and homeschooling, all while exploring the world and integrating into a new culture.

From the bustling city life of La Paz to the laid-back expat vibe of Toto Santos,  Britt and Lindsey  didn't just visit these places - they lived them. They have tales to tell about the abundant nightlife, enriching museums, and the tranquility of the Sea of Cortez in La Paz. Then there's Toto Santos with its unique character, the surf town of Cerritos, and El Triunfo, a mining town that's making a comeback. Their adventures even extend to practical details like renting a car in Baja and their encounters with Baja Beaters.

Completing the vivid picture of their journey, they shed light on their experiences with local cuisine, the safety of using credit and debit cards, and the alluring weather of La Paz. They even share how their children are already planning their next destination - Paris! If you're yearning for a dose of adventure, or are simply curious about what it's like to start over in a new place, this episode encapsulates it all in a captivating and heartfelt conversation. Listen in and be inspired by Britt and Lindsay's journey of transformation and discovery.

Find  Britt and Lindsey here:
https://www.canwestartoverpodcast.com
https://www.instagram.com/canwestartoverpod
Baja, Mexico Travel Guide: Explored La Paz, Todos Santos, La Ventana and more 

Map of Baja California

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

Hi, welcome to our podcast. We're next Travel with Kristin and Carol. I am Kristin and I am Carol, and we're two long-term friends with a passion for travel and adventure.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Each episode we interview people around the globe to help us decide where to go next. Welcome Britt and Lindsay to where next podcast. Thank you for joining us.

Speaker 3: 0:38

Thank you for having us.

Speaker 4: 0:39

Thank you.

Speaker 3: 0:39

Yeah, we're happy to be here.

Speaker 2: 0:41

And where are you calling in from?

Speaker 3: 0:42

We're in Ohai, California. Okay, got it.

Speaker 1: 0:46

You've been there for several months now.

Speaker 3: 0:48

For two and a half months, yeah.

Speaker 1: 0:50

But you were there before too, right.

Speaker 3: 0:52

Yeah, for a month on part of our travels. We were here for a month, yeah, in the spring.

Speaker 2: 0:59

Okay, and where are you all based? Are you from?

Speaker 3: 1:01

California. We're from Texas, oh nice. And so last year, really last September, we sold our house, we sold most of our belongings and decided to take our three kids on, like this epic travel adventure. Oh wow, for nine months with the intention of we were done living in Texas. Okay, we both grew up there and so it felt like it felt. We knew we wanted to move somewhere for a long time, but there was always a reason not to. You know, with jobs, businesses and then kids and horse, it was like the perfect opportunity. Because we made it the perfect opportunity to just be like we're going to do it right now and we're going to start over?

Speaker 2: 1:45

Oh, wow, and hence, do you have a podcast or you have, yeah, a blog podcast. Okay, and the podcast is called Can we start over? Can we start over? Okay, yeah, can we start over? Okay, cool.

Speaker 1: 1:57

Great podcast. I've been listening to some stuff, thank you, love what you guys do.

Speaker 2: 2:02

Thank you so much. And how long you've been doing the podcast then Since December of this year of 2022.

Speaker 3: 2:09

Oh, nice, okay.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Wow, you guys have done a lot in just a little time. Because how?

Speaker 3: 2:14

much. Yeah, we've been cranking them out, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like part our starting over story, part travel. So we talk about the places we've gone and then part us talking to people who we find interesting or who have started and or have started over in life.

Speaker 2: 2:32

Yeah, very nice, okay. So where have you been so far with your children and where are you in this nine month adventure? Are you done or we're done? Yeah, we're done for now, for now.

Speaker 3: 2:43

We started in Baja, so we spent three months between La Paz and Toto Santos, so kind of both sides of Baja California, sir, okay.

Speaker 2: 2:55

I don't know what towns are those. Are those towns, la Paz, yeah.

Speaker 3: 2:58

La Paz is the town. La Paz is the capital of Baja California, sir. And then Toto Santos is a small town on the Pacific that they're both about two hours from Cabo San Lucas.

Speaker 1: 3:11

My sister has two houses in Toto Santos.

Speaker 3: 3:13

They're both, two of us.

Speaker 1: 3:15

Oh, wow, amazing. That's so cool. I have not been there. I've been asked to be there and so far as it hasn't worked, out.

Speaker 2: 3:24

How's it? How's it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, okay, so way down there. Okay, got it. Yeah, I've been to Cabo and that's pretty, and then I've been like just south of San Diego and haven't been anywhere else. Okay, cool, yeah, I can't wait to hear what you liked about it.

Speaker 1: 3:43

How you chose it.

Speaker 2: 3:45

How did you decide to spend three months there?

Speaker 3: 3:47

Yeah, brett, you want to start with that.

Speaker 4: 3:49

Well, the first time I was even aware of La Paz was in a high school. We went on a school trip for a whale migration field study and we went to La Paz and at that time it just felt like a very small fishing town and I had never really been out of Texas. So it was amazing to me to see an ocean that looked like a swimming pool and stayed there for a week and it just stuck in my mind forever. So fast forward to us being adults and married, we had spent a lot of time in Mexico, usually in Tulum. We've been to Tulum like eight or nine times.

Speaker 3: 4:25

Yeah, and kind of just like all around there in the Yucatan.

Speaker 4: 4:29

Right, and so at some point we decided to take a trip together to La Paz, and we loved it, we had the best time. As for our anniversary, one year After that trip, I think we both kind of were daydreaming about hey, at some point, wouldn't it be cool if we just lived here, right? So when this opportunity came up, we were like, oh, the obvious first stop on this trip is La Paz.

Speaker 2: 4:54

Yeah, oh nice. So is it a fishing village or has it changed since you first went?

Speaker 4: 5:00

It is still, but it's a lot bigger now. Yeah, yeah and that was 20 years ago over 20 years ago that I first went.

Speaker 3: 5:07

A few hundred thousand people live there. That might not be exactly right, maybe it's like a hundred thousand, but, like I said, it's the capital of Baja California, sir, so it's not a huge city. It's kind of that perfect feel for us, obviously, because we love it. It has everything a city needs like that. I feel a city needs where it's like culture, outdoor space, food, you know, like all those amenities on this beautiful ocean, but it's not like so big that it's overwhelming, right.

Speaker 4: 5:37

There are no skyscrapers. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 5:39

Wow.

Speaker 2: 5:40

Wow, this one's really nice Okay.

Speaker 4: 5:43

And so it's located. It is on the Sea of Cortez side, and so the Sea of Cortez is the most biodiverse aquatic ecosystem in the world, so you can find anything in those waters. And specifically where we were at in La Paz, there's a bay and there's a lot of whale sharks that go there, so that's part of the big draw there is people to go swim with whale sharks.

Speaker 2: 6:06

What's a whale shark, and I know I've heard of a whale and a shark. What's a whale shark?

Speaker 4: 6:11

So it's the largest fish in the ocean. They get up to around 30 feet long and there's sharks, but they kind of eat like whales. They're just gulping in water and eating plankton. Oh, okay, they're totally safe and right there in the bay it draws in a lot of food for them, and so at points you'll be out there swimming with like 20 different whale sharks.

Speaker 1: 6:33

Wow, have you swam with them?

Speaker 3: 6:36

Yeah, a few times, yeah, wow.

Speaker 1: 6:40

So is it in the Gulf area? Right? And that's the Sea of Cortez. That's right, yeah.

Speaker 4: 6:47

Sea of Cortez is also called the Gulf of California Got it Okay. And it's actually where Zerat Cousteau did a lot of his work later in life.

Speaker 1: 6:54

Okay, and there's a little island. I see there's two.

Speaker 4: 6:59

Yeah, there's a lot of islands. The one that we went to is Esperito Santo, and it's amazing. It's a government-protected island and you can go there. Back when I first went, 20 years ago, you could only stay there if you got like a pass from the government.

Speaker 4: 7:18

Now, they have like a little camping area which is still run by like a company and they go through the government to get the permits and stuff. So it's still really well taken care of. But there's a lot more tourism there. It's beautiful the most beautiful beaches you'll ever see in your life and it's just like a 45-minute boat ride from La Paz to get out there and at the tip there's a sea lion colony so you can swim with sea lions. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2: 7:44

This sounds just so amazing. I love camping and that it's somewhat structured, so I'm sure it's safe, which is nice, and it's not too touristy. It sounds like, because it's kind of restricted, sounds heaven.

Speaker 3: 8:01

Definitely, yeah, those spaces. I found it so special that there is this extremely high level of care for the water, for the marine life, for the islands like the Esperito Santo, and you can't just even though they rely on tourism, and it is an important aspect of what's happening there. They're not just like a thousand boats going out and you have to get the permits and they have to see how many people are on the boat, and so everything is just. It's really structured in this way that keeps the ecosystem thriving and not over tourism.

Speaker 2: 8:43

Are there roads on this island?

Speaker 4: 8:45

Nope, there are no cars, Not on that island. Yeah, it's like, just for camping yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:50

Wow, I'm gonna say the name of it again, because I was looking around the maps.

Speaker 4: 8:54

Espiritus Santo, and it's about nine miles from one end to the other, and it's a mountain island, desert mountain island, so there's not really trees. There may be a few, but it's mostly like saguero cactus enormous cactus the size of a tree, wow and so you can hike there. There's a little lagoon where you can take a kayak through its breathtaking.

Speaker 2: 9:17

My goodness. And how would the kids go? As well, I assumed. How did they handle it?

Speaker 3: 9:22

For there we just went to like a day trip.

Speaker 2: 9:24

Yeah, we didn't do any camping on.

Speaker 3: 9:26

When we were there long term with the kids, we would just do like a small boat and a day trip and they did awesome. They loved it. The boat. It's like there's always a marine biologist.

Speaker 2: 9:38

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 9:38

Usually, usually like on the tour. So you're gonna get so much information from someone who, like, really knows the lay of the land.

Speaker 2: 9:48

So is there an organization that you would recommend to do that, or is it just go search for Esparita Santo, and there's just like? One organization that kind of runs it. It can't be.

Speaker 4: 9:59

No, there's a ton of them that you can go through. The one that we liked was Lobitos.

Speaker 1: 10:03

Is there an airport? How did or? No, you just got there by boat right From it. Looks like the end tip, I found it. It's kind of tucked above La Paz, yeah.

Speaker 3: 10:14

The island is like, only by boat. Yeah, so in La Paz, most people fly into Cabo because it's about a two hour drive two and a half two hours but there is also an international airport in La Paz that you can fly from, like, either the easiest way to do it from the US is to fly from Phoenix, or, if you're in San Diego, you can just cross over and fly from Tijuana, and now we know people that do that.

Speaker 4: 10:42

Wow, and La Paz couldn't be more different from Cabo, totally. It's a whole other world yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:48

So what's the difference, would you say.

Speaker 3: 10:53

La Paz. It has this colonial. It is a colonial city on the water feeling. So there's not those sprawling resorts. Nothing wrong with those if that's someone's vibe, but there's just not that there. There's hotels, there's restaurants, there's like everything that I would want from a city, like I said, but just without that. Like there's not a sandals there you know for four seasons or whatever.

Speaker 2: 11:22

And there's no entertainment. Oh, any entertainment. I think of city, I think of has all the sport. I'm not a big sports fan, but has all the sports, all the concerts come through, there's plays, there's, you know, museums. So is there good entertainment?

Speaker 3: 11:37

So there's definitely sports, there's soccer, and then the main strip in La Paz is called the Malacone. It's this, the street that runs by the water, and on that street there's bars, there's concerts, there's restaurants, there's parks. So it's like very family friendly, but also for all people. Single people go out and go to the Malacone and like go have drinks or go to a nightclub, and then families go to the parks by the water or go get ice cream. It's like one of those streets where there's just kind of everything.

Speaker 4: 12:13

Okay, and a big difference between La Paz and Cabo is that the city pretty much shuts down at 10 pm. Like the bars are still kind of open but they're kind of trickling down. It's not go hard until two. Two am kind of.

Speaker 3: 12:26

Yeah, it's like a different vibe.

Speaker 4: 12:27

Yeah, totally different vibe.

Speaker 3: 12:29

Yeah, and there are definitely museums. There's the main art museum. That's like in the square, and then we went to a whale museum, which was awesome for families.

Speaker 4: 12:40

There are lots of whales.

Speaker 3: 12:42

Yeah, and then there was a natural history museum slash. I can't remember the name of it, but it was like natural history and indigenous culture museum. So there's a lot of museums there, cool.

Speaker 2: 12:57

And then how is it with them? Is it a lot of Americans, a lot of expats, or half and half, or very rare, I would say less than half.

Speaker 3: 13:08

There's definitely expats happening there, but what I noticed and I don't know if maybe you can either have a different opinion or I don't know is that it's a place where, like people from Mexico City visit like where they vacation, but it has this feel where people want to go there, but it's more like Mexico City.

Speaker 3: 13:32

It's like they're Hawaii huh, Kind of yeah, yeah, yeah, like where they go for the weekend and people own houses there and then huge sailing culture, so a lot of there's expats that are like living in town. It's definitely a place where digital nomads live or we saw a lot of van life people who will drive down Baja and end up in La Paz, and then also the sailing, so people will sail around like from San Diego or even further north and they'll sail around into the Sea of Cortez.

Speaker 4: 14:06

Yeah, and that's been going on forever. There's actually John Steinbeck, the author Grapes of Wrath, sailed down, I believe in the 1930s, from California all the way down and did a log of the Sea of Cortez, did this big trip with a marine biologist and it's a real dry reed but it's very interesting.

Speaker 3: 14:27

Yeah, especially if you love the area.

Speaker 4: 14:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and they have a restaurant named after John Steinbeck. He's like a big celebrity there, oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:36

Nice. It's so funny because I've flown into, like Puerto Vallarta, cabo San Lucas. Well, puerto Vallarta is further down right, I think it's on the mainland. Yeah, yeah, but I don't think I've ever done the Sea of Cortez or the Gulf. It sounds really amazing. Oh, and then La Paz. I was just looking and there's almost like a peninsula that jets out and then a body of water that's almost completely protected, like its own little lake or something.

Speaker 3: 15:04

I was curious if you. Yeah, it's part of the Sea of Cortez, but there is that. Am I going to say this right, magote, what's? The piece of land that comes out.

Speaker 4: 15:13

It's called Magote.

Speaker 3: 15:15

Okay.

Speaker 4: 15:17

But yeah, it's part of what makes the bay there.

Speaker 3: 15:20

Yeah, it's part of what just makes. Natural.

Speaker 4: 15:22

It's natural, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 15:25

It just makes it like hyper-protected and people go to Cabo, which is a beautiful place, but I think they think of like the water, there is very ocean Like you're not really. It's not like the best to go swimming in or to Definitely not to scuba or snorkel in some places, and then you'd kind of just go an hour or two around the tip and it's a different.

Speaker 4: 15:48

It's like a swimming pool yeah it's a different experience.

Speaker 3: 15:51

Yeah, wow, is it pretty warm the water?

Speaker 2: 15:55

Yeah, the water is warm yeah, and I bet it doesn't get a lot of hurricanes. I'm sure nowadays anymore it can get a hurricane right.

Speaker 4: 16:04

It does, but not as much. Not as much and they're usually not as destructive of, say, like Florida or other parts of the Caribbean.

Speaker 3: 16:15

Well, yeah, when this Just a month ago, when everyone in LA was super stressed about the hurricane that did, it was kind of the same thing in La Paz, where they were like, oh, there's going to be a bunch of rain, that doesn't normally happen this time of year and they did get a lot of rain and luckily nothing was really super damaged.

Speaker 4: 16:34

Yeah, there was flooding, but it wasn't.

Speaker 2: 16:36

Yeah, yeah, now that you're left there, do you plan to go visit there? Is it still one of your favorites, or you now have the bunch? Just go everywhere? Well, we had the bunch to go everywhere.

Speaker 3: 16:48

We went to a lot of places and now we are like we're going to go back to La Paz as soon as possible. Oh nice, yeah, it's so easy and yeah, it just feels One of those places. You know, when you find one of those places that it feels like an exhale. That's what La Paz feels like for us.

Speaker 4: 17:07

Right and now on the other side. So that's in the Sea of Cortez and if you drive an hour to the Pacific side, there's Toto Santos right, and it feels vastly different there. The water is like huge waves. It's not really safe to swim in most of the areas there, but we did spend a lot of time there as well and it's beautiful, but it definitely had a different vibe as far as expats. They were everywhere in Toto Santos.

Speaker 3: 17:33

Yeah, there's a lot of expats in. So Toto, santos Pescadero and Cerritos are like the three towns on this side, about an hour and a half north of Cabo, and there are a lot of expats. It was actually really cool. There's an expat community that we kind of got taken in by a little bit because we had kids and they were like come to soccer practice, come to this thing where we're going to play. So that was really nice and that was a little, even though we met a ton of nice people and a ton of friendly people in La Paz. The difference on the Pacific side when we were in Cerritos was that our kids were totally welcome by people who were living there full time Right.

Speaker 2: 18:19

Wow, sounds great. And how much do you need to speak Spanish?

Speaker 3: 18:24

In La Paz there are people who don't speak English. My Spanish is poquito poquito, but I could get. I mean, if you can know how to order something or say thank you and ask for the check, you're going to be fine.

Speaker 2: 18:40

Okay, great Thanks. And then what's the cost of living down there Apartment, food, groceries?

Speaker 4: 18:49

Food, groceries, totally affordable Apartments, I would say. There's such a range too, but I would say from about a thousand to four thousand a month.

Speaker 2: 19:00

Okay, so four thousand a month be.

Speaker 4: 19:03

That would be big and close to the water.

Speaker 3: 19:05

Yeah, probably a pool.

Speaker 4: 19:07

Or a condo with a view. A thousand is probably closer to the Malacone up in town a little bit, not directly on the water.

Speaker 3: 19:18

In an apartment, yeah.

Speaker 4: 19:20

Right.

Speaker 1: 19:21

It just seems a lot for Mexico. I'm from SoCal and I've been down there and it was like, well, it was dirty back in the day.

Speaker 4: 19:29

Yeah, it's true. You can find that if you're even closer up, next to the Walmart, which is like a 30 to 45 minute drive through the town away from the beach, you could definitely find cheaper stuff there.

Speaker 3: 19:41

Man that's the best. Yeah, it gets a little. You know that's interesting because it gets a little cloudy. When you factor in, you start thinking about what's the Airbnb price versus the real price? Yes, if you can hook into a Facebook housing group in any city and I'm sure so many of your listeners are probably already doing that then you're going to find the thing that's more like $1,000. And if you're looking at Airbnb, you're going to find the thing that's more like $4,000.

Speaker 2: 20:09

Right, yeah, that's crazy, I was not familiar, honestly, about Facebook housing groups.

Speaker 3: 20:15

Oh, yeah, yeah. Do you know more about that? Tell me, tell us more. I mean, if you search, we are part of one. I think it's. What is it called LaPause? Rentals, rentals by owner or something like that and we started looking them up as we were traveling along. You know, you can. I joined one for an island in Thailand and then really just kind of anywhere you could think of.

Speaker 4: 20:38

Even here in Ohio we're part of one. Yeah, people are like hey, I just moved to Ohio and I need a two bedroom house for me and my kids, and then there will be people that maybe only live here half the year and so they're running out for the other half of the year, like finding short-term rentals, yeah. And that's where you can find the best deals, I think.

Speaker 3: 20:55

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 20:55

That goes for anywhere, not just here.

Speaker 1: 20:57

That sounds awesome yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:59

I think that just mainly close to America. You said Thailand too.

Speaker 3: 21:03

like around the world, that's everywhere you know it's probably more happening in places where expats are going to go Because, specifically off topic, but the island in Thailand, kosamui, and the neighboring island, kofi Bangan. They have large expat communities, so maybe that's why you're going to find those groups where people are sharing housing options.

Speaker 2: 21:29

Got it OK. And then some places when we interview people like maybe the costs are not that great, but people say stuff like oh, but the labor's really cheap, so you can get your own cook or a housekeeper, or can you take advantage of that? That's totally true.

Speaker 3: 21:47

Yeah, we, yeah, actually we got a housekeeper when we were in Toto Santos and I think it was like $15 or $20 for our house. I mean, we have three kids too.

Speaker 4: 22:00

So that was a steal.

Speaker 2: 22:02

We're not in an efficiency apartment you know Right, yeah, no, that's great.

Speaker 3: 22:07

Yeah, so that is really true.

Speaker 1: 22:10

I always think Mexico, Southern California too, is watch the water. Don't drink out of the tap, Only use bottled water for brushing your teeth. Even I mean, that was the thing when I was younger in the 90s Is that?

Speaker 4: 22:23

just it's the same there, but pretty much even the locals are drinking bottled water there, and I don't know if that is because fresh water isn't as plentiful or it's just because that's what they're doing. So we never got sick while we were there and we bathed in that water. We'd brush our teeth with it. I mean, there may have even been a few times where I may have even drank some of it, and it was never a problem. Yeah, but definitely I'm not saying to do it, they tell you not to.

Speaker 3: 22:54

Right but it's not.

Speaker 4: 22:55

I wasn't anything to be scared of, I don't think.

Speaker 3: 22:56

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:58

Was it a city like day to day life? People are going to work their kids. I'm sure it's in Toto Santos. It's kind of similar. Maybe La Paz is more of a vacation town for the locals. It sounds like.

Speaker 4: 23:12

Well, I feel like it was actually kind of the opposite. La Paz felt more like people go into work, people living their lives, like a bigger city, and then Toto Santos felt more like expats hanging out and it felt more like a divide in Toto Santos, like there were the expats in downtown that was kind of touristy, and then once you got out of downtown it was like locals. So even the people that were working in Toto Santos were driving in from La Paz or coming over on a bus to work in Toto Santos.

Speaker 1: 23:45

Oh yeah.

Speaker 4: 23:46

It feels like there's a big divide there between the locals and the expats. So that's just the vibe that I got. Could be totally different.

Speaker 1: 23:55

Yeah, and is it those two specific locations that kind of go back and forth and tie, or are there other locations around Baja that also keep?

Speaker 3: 24:05

There's probably others. I mean, cabo is obviously a huge draw for work, and what other parts? There's other smaller towns that attract expats and tourists, like La Ventana or the Triomfo Is that what it's called. There's a town that's actually not on the water, so it's like central Baja California, sir, which means it's probably like an hour either direction from water. That was an old mining town. That's kind of like having this resurgence and becoming a place that people go to visit. There's so many places where people can go for that kind of work, yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:48

What was that town called? The mining town that's resurging.

Speaker 3: 24:52

I hope I say it correctly El Triomfo like T-R-I-U-N-F-O.

Speaker 4: 24:59

Something like that. Yeah, you'll probably find it. It'll come up if you just type it. Funny, it'll, I'm sure, still come up. And there are other really cool small towns, like very close to Toto Santos, like Cerritos. We ended up staying there for a week and it's like a huge surf spot, so there's a big expat community there and that's all on the water and we had a blast there.

Speaker 3: 25:20

Yeah, it was really fun.

Speaker 2: 25:21

What was that called?

Speaker 3: 25:23

Cerritos, cerritos with a C, so C-E-R-R-I-T-O-S. It is a place that is, they say, like world renowned for people to at least try surfing. Like people are going to go surf there if they're in Mexico, ok, in Baja.

Speaker 4: 25:39

And it's actually the easiest place to one of the easiest places to swim on that side, because swimming isn't good on the Pacific side right there, like in Toto Santos you're not swimming, and so how did you all get around?

Speaker 2: 25:50

Did you bring a car down there?

Speaker 4: 25:52

We actually rented a car, and that's what we usually do down there. Next time we're just going to drive.

Speaker 3: 25:58

OK, since you're just sitting there we had two experiences with renting a car. Both were fine, but in La Paz we rented from traditional herds or something like that and it costs a lot.

Speaker 3: 26:13

It was like as much as the house. And then when we went to Toto Santos, we found Baja Beaters, which is like a local it's an expat ran organization and they are older cars, like forerunners, trucks, things like that, that you can rent for such an affordable price, so that when we and it was so worth it when you're on, if you're special, if you're there for a while, all the roads, the desert, all the roads are dusty, the cars are going to get dirty. It's so much less pressure than having this rental car that you think you need to keep pristine.

Speaker 4: 26:52

They even said, like if you ding off the car, don't worry, it's a beater. Yeah, it's a beater, baja Beaters.

Speaker 3: 26:59

So we did that for six weeks when we got to Toto Santos and that was perfect.

Speaker 4: 27:03

Definitely look them up if you're going Baja Beaters and we've realized now there's probably an equivalent to Baja Beaters in plenty of other places too you could probably find a good alternative to regular car rentals.

Speaker 3: 27:19

Right, well, and again unrelated to Baja, but when we were in Hawaii, since we already had the Baja Beaters experience, I was like I'm not going to do her, I'm going to look up Maui, just Maui car rentals. And we found this really similar thing.

Speaker 1: 27:32

Oh nice, what was it called? Because I have a car.

Speaker 3: 27:35

I wish I could remember and I'm sorry that I can't, but I'll send it to you, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was just a local thing and it makes it so much easier because you're not like waiting in line at the desk and all that stuff, they're just like your car's parked here. This is how you get in. Bring it back here so easy.

Speaker 2: 27:54

Is it all gas cars down there? Are there any electric cars yet?

Speaker 4: 27:57

I didn't see any electric cars, it was all like mostly older gas cars. Yeah, makes sense.

Speaker 2: 28:03

Ok, yeah, there's some new car rental. It's almost like Uber, where people like you rent their own car.

Speaker 3: 28:10

Turro, turro.

Speaker 2: 28:12

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 28:12

We've used it here in California. It's super helpful if you are like a one vehicle family or you just need something for like a couple days. It's so helpful. Yeah, but I don't know if that's a thing in Mexico. I actually didn't know it existed when we were there. Yeah, I just heard about it. That's the long go.

Speaker 1: 28:29

When I was looking. Also, when you look at that whole peninsula, at the end you know Cabo, but there's a lot of green there. It looks like it's desert around the edges and then it's just forest in the middle. Did you guys get a chance to go into the forest or is it a forest? I'm assuming it's a forest.

Speaker 4: 28:45

No, it's all desert there, so it's probably more cactus that you're seeing, and there are trees too, but it is still desert.

Speaker 3: 28:52

But when you're going we didn't spend a lot of time on that part that like eastern, south part near Cabo that you would go around that way to get to La Paz. That's kind of like the long way, but there are national parks both on land and in the water there. Next time we go we'll definitely do.

Speaker 4: 29:12

For sure.

Speaker 2: 29:13

And how high are the mountains there?

Speaker 4: 29:16

You know what? We're not like high, like mountain people, so I couldn't throw out a number and it wouldn't make any sense. They're very tall, they are tall.

Speaker 2: 29:26

Yeah, they are tall. Yeah, have you heard people go camping in those mountains? Or is it just really just rugged?

Speaker 4: 29:33

It is pretty rugged, but yeah, they do go camping.

Speaker 1: 29:36

I see El Triamfo Talk about that. That's in the green part in the middle sort of above Sierra La Laguna.

Speaker 3: 29:46

Okay, yeah, we didn't go there. It might be a little more green around there because there are natural springs.

Speaker 4: 29:53

Oh right yeah.

Speaker 3: 29:54

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:55

Okay, I was just trying to see pictures. Oh, okay, I just tapped on the pictures. Yes, it's beautiful, very green, luscious. It looks like waterfalls into a really pretty pool and it looks like there's some backpackers diverse wildlife, unique plant life. It looks really, really, really pretty.

Speaker 2: 30:15

Yeah, wow, okay, wow, you guys really opened my eyes, thank you, I just think it's like Cabo San Lucas, a couple beaches and I just like it was down there on my radar. Yeah, and it's kind of crazy, with Mexico being our neighbors, this is our first, I believe, right, kristen? Our first Mexico.

Speaker 1: 30:36

Yeah, I do, I can feel it.

Speaker 1: 30:38

We were talking about that and it's funny because we're at a next month or so, actually November, with a girlfriend of mine that has had a place there for I don't know 10 plus years or so and spends a lot of time there. But yeah, we were both like we need to do Mexico, and I did when you said Baja, because sadly I'm from Southern California and I have not really. I've been to Tijuana a couple times, of course, that's an obvious, but other than that, and Cabo on, you know, like a cruise with Mazatlan, but not really Baja. And yes, my sister, I need to go and see Toto Santos, for sure.

Speaker 4: 31:15

Yeah, oh, and you know, there's actually a ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan right. Yeah, yeah so you can take a ferry across the Sea of.

Speaker 3: 31:23

Quarters. We didn't do it. We considered doing it, but it is a 12-hour ferry ride and you can get like a room, like a state room, on the boat and ultimately we didn't really want to do it with kids, but one day we'll do it when they're a little older, or something yeah.

Speaker 1: 31:39

Yeah, oh, that's great. There's I'm Swedish and there's another one in Sweden where you go across to I'm blinking on right. It's so embarrassing, but you go to sleep on the cruise ship and then you wake up in the other country. You spend the day and then you go back on the cruise ship, have dinner and then go over. You know it's like a two-day trip, which is a lot of fun, nice.

Speaker 3: 31:59

That's awesome yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:01

It kind of looks like that one as well. Being right there. So fun, my goodness. What were your favorite like? What are the activities that people are typically doing that like to do, and what did you guys like to do there?

Speaker 3: 32:17

Yeah, like Britt mentioned, definitely if you're into aquatic nature, if you like, there's a lot of scuba diving, there's a lot of snorkeling there's you can swim with the whale sharks. There's amazing beaches all along La Paz because the water is so gentle so we would go to the beach all the time. Blandra Beach is probably the most well-known it's. You know, you've probably seen it and just not realized that you looked at a picture of Blandra Beach. It's like pretty, pretty well known and it's this bay. Is it a bay?

Speaker 3: 32:54

Kind of yeah, it's like an inlet An inlet where the water you could walk across and the water is only three and a half feet deep.

Speaker 4: 33:02

Right, and it's like a half mile across. Yeah, you could. When the tide is low it's almost empty of water, but when the tide is high you could maybe get out chest high in parts. Or if you get out closer to the open part of closer to the Sea of Cortez part, you could swim there. But you can rent kayaks there. People go four-wheeling. There's really beautiful hiking trails all through the mountains right there.

Speaker 1: 33:29

It's gorgeous. There's a I'm just bringing it up and it's crystal blue waters, and there's one picture with a rock formation that looks like it's the mushroom the mushroom rock, yeah.

Speaker 3: 33:41

That's like when everyone gets their picture by. Yeah, yeah, the landscape there. It's so gorgeous. It's to me, being from Texas, it's like like West Texas, so like Big Bend on the Mediterranean or in the Caribbean or something like this beautiful crystal blue water, like you said, with mountains and cactus in the background.

Speaker 4: 34:05

Can't think of anything better.

Speaker 3: 34:05

Yeah, it's like my two favorite things yeah.

Speaker 1: 34:08

Yeah, and then weather wise, of course, I'm assuming it was hot and humid.

Speaker 3: 34:13

We were there from November to February and the weather was perfect.

Speaker 1: 34:18

Oh nice, it was amazing.

Speaker 3: 34:20

There's a funny thing about that. Sometimes in La Paz it would be like 60 degrees in the morning or like 58 or something, and people would be, they would have mittens on and beanies and scarves and it would be like a little chilly, you know, and I'm not. I'm not from Colorado, I'm from Texas, so I'm used to heat too, but it would just be really funny to see like people were dressed for winter at some points when we were there and we didn't even have a jacket.

Speaker 3: 34:50

But the weather definitely the time to go weather wise. Is that going to be that, like October or November, through February and in February.

Speaker 4: 34:59

That's when the gray whales are migrating through there and having their babies.

Speaker 3: 35:04

So that's a good time, yeah, and there's always whales.

Speaker 4: 35:07

There are lots of different kinds of whales, but that February is like the time.

Speaker 2: 35:10

Yeah, and then what happens? After February starts raining, or it's just too hot, it gets hot.

Speaker 3: 35:15

Yeah, I don't. We haven't been there in the summer. I think we've been in September, which was fine to me again coming from Texas, but it's going to be in the high 90s 200 in the summer.

Speaker 2: 35:29

Is this humid or dry?

Speaker 3: 35:30

It's dry.

Speaker 2: 35:31

Oh, it's dry like.

Speaker 1: 35:31

California. Yeah, yeah, interesting, so it's not humid.

Speaker 3: 35:36

No because it's the desert, yeah yeah. Totally different than say like Yucatan, yeah yeah, or like mainland.

Speaker 1: 35:43

Exactly. It makes sense that it would be a nicer dry, or you know or not, I guess.

Speaker 2: 35:49

Yeah, it's interesting Kind of like. Think about like what happens to Texas that it just gets so humid because, like New Mexico is dry and then Texas, I think, is really humid, right yeah.

Speaker 3: 35:59

I don't know what happens there and you get into like the. I don't know that because there is a part I mean West Texas is way more dry than you get into, like the Gulf and then like the swampy piney woods parts.

Speaker 4: 36:18

Yeah, it's way more wet, yeah sure.

Speaker 1: 36:21

I just panned out on my US map and it's interesting because where we're talking about is all beige, brown, and then of course, all Mexico, mazalan, it's all green, then Texas it almost looks like it's cut perfectly in half, where it's half beige, half green. Yeah, that makes sense yeah.

Speaker 2: 36:40

All right. What about safety and, again, we don't expect you to make any claims, but what was your comfort level? Or just normal? It's a city. Be cautious and eat.

Speaker 3: 36:52

Yeah, we felt totally safe the entire time we were there. I mean, we took the obvious normal precautions, we locked our door, we locked our car, but we felt so safe. We talked to every kind of person there we want to talk to people, we like to meet people and we never felt any tinge of like, oh, this might be weird or this is the scale, and even with the kids just running around the beach or the main town, like we never felt like we had to be right up on them.

Speaker 3: 37:26

Yeah, okay. The only thing I've heard is that if you get stopped by the cops, you know, you kind of might have to like finagle a little bit, and also I've heard that that's not even true too. So that's probably that's one of those things where it could just be someone's experience.

Speaker 4: 37:43

And we've done that in Tulum. That's happened to us, but every time we've been driving in Baja, never even cops, never even take a second look at us.

Speaker 3: 37:53

Yeah, I mean, we are also like oh, go ahead.

Speaker 2: 37:56

Oh, do you need a special driver's license? No, american driver's license works. Yeah, nice, but did you ever hear of like petty thieves? Because I can? I heard in Costa Rica and then also in Hawaii. It's like you never want anything to be seen in your car because people will break into cars. Did you hear about much of that, right?

Speaker 3: 38:16

We never heard of like an instance of it happening, but we just heard don't leave anything in your car, okay.

Speaker 4: 38:23

But the same as like Dallas, you know, yeah, or anyone else yeah.

Speaker 3: 38:26

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 38:27

And California beaches, yeah, anywhere.

Speaker 4: 38:29

Right, right.

Speaker 2: 38:31

Cool, All right. Where to next? Where's your next big adventure?

Speaker 3: 38:37

That's a good question, because after nine months of travel, we were like so burnt on traveling with three kids that we decided, all right, it's oh hi for a while. And now we're here and it feels so good to be landed and the next place we go will probably be like, back to La Paz. Okay, if we go at the beginning of the year and our kids really want to go to Paris next summer, okay, so where next for us is probably La Paz in January, february, but, like, definitely next summer. Our kids are itching to go to Paris. How old are your children? We have eight year old twins and a two year old. So the two year old, he's just along for the ride, but the eight year old twins, they want to go to Paris.

Speaker 3: 39:21

What made them go to Paris? Who knows? Probably a YouTube video. They love Disney parks and so we've been to Disney World. We've been to Disneyland a few times. We went to Tokyo Disney and now they're like we've got to go to the Disney in Paris and also they really there's something that they think is magical about Paris. We've never been to Paris and I know it is magical, but the combination of, like, unlimited croissants, the Eiffel Tower and the Mona Lisa. That's what they always bring up, those three things.

Speaker 2: 39:54

Mona Lisa, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 39:58

That is true at eight they're bringing up the right.

Speaker 3: 40:01

They're like grandpas.

Speaker 1: 40:04

Crapes. Well, I was going to say crepes. That's what I was going to say.

Speaker 2: 40:08

Oh, they love crepes too.

Speaker 4: 40:09

Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1: 40:10

Yeah, oh yeah, crapes are big ones. They can have savory or sweet. Yeah, one right.

Speaker 4: 40:16

We were eating crepes all along that trip.

Speaker 3: 40:18

That's true, yeah.

Speaker 4: 40:20

Country we went to.

Speaker 3: 40:21

Crapes in Japan, crepes in Hawaii. Yeah, so they'll be, excited to be reminded, oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 40:26

Oh, my goodness, I can imagine and also I know with school and I remembered on a recent episode about that school wasn't working out so well with them and I don't know, are you homeschooling or what are you doing? And how has that been with traveling and having kids? Great question, the day-to-day is probably still the same. It's just how you get through it, right?

Speaker 3: 40:48

Yeah, yeah, a lot of our days, even when we were traveling, even though we would do a lot of things out of the house, there was still this structure that feels like it was home. We still get up early, we have breakfast at home, we go to bed pretty early All of those family things still happened. But when we were traveling, we were very much on schooling. We tried a homeschool structure. When we got to La Paz and we just fell apart and we were like this isn't fun and this isn't what we want to do this year. So we just said, ok, whatever. Right now we are doing it's kind of like a hybrid. So our kids are going to school three days a week and then we're doing some homeschool too.

Speaker 3: 41:31

OK, now that's great, and it's working.

Speaker 1: 41:33

Works out well.

Speaker 3: 41:34

Yeah, it's been awesome yeah.

Speaker 1: 41:36

Has it set them back at all? Are they still on pace? I'm just curious, just if others are interested.

Speaker 3: 41:43

Yeah, they aren't at a reading level that is for their age, but if you talk to them they're so with it. So I think being like saying set back and I know you didn't mean that in any kind of way, because I would say the same thing but, like, developmentally, they're not set back at all.

Speaker 4: 42:03

They're probably a little advanced.

Speaker 3: 42:07

And this year we have a plan of like we are going to tackle reading and really get them because they love books so much. So we can see I think it's interesting to have so much time together we can see more what they need and approach it in a way that's going to help them thrive and not be like not get stamped as I don't read. Well, yeah, you know.

Speaker 1: 42:34

Yeah, so just like navigating and doing I mean frankly this experience versus reading they're going to catch up. If it's constantly versus they won't have this experience. I mean it will. It's changing and shaping them, and way more than catching up a month of reading or something like that, that's true, so true.

Speaker 3: 42:54

This is exactly the best point, yeah.

Speaker 4: 42:56

Oh, and here's something interesting that we found towards the end of our trip. When we were in Toto Santos, the end of our Baja trip, we found out from some expats that there is a school there and there's probably multiples that your kids can just go to while you're there For like a month or two months or three months. Get them in the school there and it's all Spanish, spanish immersion. But that would have been awesome. I wish we would have known about that earlier in the trip.

Speaker 3: 43:20

Yeah, that one was specifically a Montessori school and we didn't really we didn't explore that on our trip. But as we implement this lifestyle more, because it does feel like this is our new normal, you know where we will slow travel for longer periods of time. We'll look into. Yeah, can they like go to a school for a month somewhere or something?

Speaker 1: 43:43

And then I have to ask professionally what you guys have been able to do. Did you have to save? And you have like, ok, I have three years, we can do this, or working remotely, or how are you structuring that?

Speaker 3: 43:54

Yeah Well, we saved for this trip and sold our house, and so that was. We sold our house, we sold the business we saved, and that was our ability to do this. We kind of naively thought work will just happen as we go and with three kids and everything that didn't really happen that much. So now, as we're settling in, it gives us a nice space to like build the next. What work looks like now?

Speaker 2: 44:26

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 44:28

That's great, yeah, and it's amazing right now, how, nowadays, what you can do I mean, I know I'm a recruiter, headhunter and I can do everything on my phone, and it's what we're doing now, right.

Speaker 3: 44:41

Yeah, amazing, it's so true.

Speaker 4: 44:44

Eugh. Can you find me a remote Joe yeah.

Speaker 1: 44:47

I'm looking, I know there you go. I'll have to talk offline, yeah yeah. Absolutely Sure. But it's amazing, now my daughter is logging and there's so many careers that allow, along with COVID, showing that it's possible to do not in an office but kind of traveling and being a digital nomad right it's true, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 45:10

And I think really going in our intention was to work as little as possible for a while, because we were so the opposite before with Commute and just everything. So we were like let's take this time and not work. And now we have the space to map it out how we want. And Brits work can happen anywhere. He's a podcast producer and photographer and that can happen anywhere.

Speaker 1: 45:37

Yeah, and how long did it take to kind of unwind where you felt like, ok, now we're kind of in a groove where we're feeling like the ties of life or where you were at. How long did that take? What do you think?

Speaker 4: 45:55

Well, we were so ready for this trip that it felt great the whole time. But there was definitely, I think we were. We were in Baja for three months. By the end of it, I think we were in our groove.

Speaker 1: 46:07

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 46:07

Yeah, but also. There's so much change, what's up?

Speaker 1: 46:12

I said what well then? What brought you out of that groove to just kind of want to explore similar places? Or if you got your groove in three months, be like, okay, we're staying here longer. What makes you move?

Speaker 3: 46:21

All right, I think it was setting out on this longer Journey we had the intention of, like, let's try on places. So it was always the intention to keep moving beyond Baja and then to go to ohai, and then to go to Hawaii, and then we went to Japan and Thailand and Australia.

Speaker 4: 46:39

I think it was more the groove of travel.

Speaker 3: 46:41

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 46:44

All right, so I we're coming towards the end of our hour and I have the rapid-fire questions, unless there's any other burning desire questions, kristen well, I'm trying to think.

Speaker 1: 46:54

I guess you know I didn't even ask food. I know you're gonna ask about one of the meals, but just in general, you know, burritos, tacos, just refried beans, cheese, fresh, fresh fish, fresh Veggies.

Speaker 3: 47:09

You can get everything there. You can get street tacos, obviously, for like a dollar, or you can get a fried fish on the beach for like Not very much, or you can go to a very high-end restaurant, and I would say that's true in La Paz and Toto Santos you can have the full gamut. The really there's. We mentioned this before, but on the Malacone there are so many amazing restaurants. There's ice cream, there's good coffee, there's awesome croissants. One of our favorite things to do was to go to this tiny churro stand that always had a line that was like 20 people long, and it's this little stand and you get like a bag of 10 churros for I don't I don't even remember, like fuck or something.

Speaker 2: 47:50

Yeah it's like dollar fifty or fresh. Oh fun yeah. And did you guys ever cook then, or did just make sense to eat out? We cook a lot.

Speaker 3: 47:58

We eat out a lot, we ate out a lot, but we cook a lot too, because we're Rolling with kids and that's what you do.

Speaker 1: 48:06

Yeah, so we would there's a wall.

Speaker 3: 48:08

in La Paz specifically, we would go either to the farm, we'd go to the farmers market there's Great farmers markets there and we would go to Walmart. There's like a Walmart, there's Sam's Club.

Speaker 4: 48:17

So you have like the best of both worlds even the local grocery stores or grocery store chains are amazing.

Speaker 2: 48:23

Yeah, wow.

Speaker 1: 48:27

That sounds incredible.

Speaker 3: 48:28

Yeah, I want to say it, sorry.

Speaker 1: 48:30

I go ahead.

Speaker 3: 48:31

I was just gonna say, I'm gonna say Toto Santos. There's several restaurants that are Farm based, so they're like on farms and have these huge gardens and then they build their menus out of the, the food that they're growing, because there's this pocket right there, pescadero, toto Santos. That is very fertile soil, even though it's in the desert and right by the water, but it has, this spring, fed water underneath it. Wow that there's a Gardens everywhere.

Speaker 4: 49:02

Yeah, and there's, to that point, there's this beautiful beach. It's kind of a hidden gem but it's cut. Was it called a palm us? Placeless palm us? And it's on. You have to really figure out how to get there. You have to look it up, but it's a turn off of a dirt onto a dirt road for like 15 minutes Down to where you know you're going through nothing but cactus and dirt, and then you see a palm grow, a bunch of palm trees on one spot, and that's where this beautiful Spring comes up and there's all this lush greenery and a little spring that flows out on To the beach and into the ocean.

Speaker 1: 49:45

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 49:48

Yeah, and there's wild horses. Don't, don't mess with the horses.

Speaker 4: 49:51

We've heard that yeah, yeah, I watched them from afar. Yeah, also, don't read the yelp about it or whatever I don't let it scare you like the first one that you see is gonna be like. Those horses bit me. We saw people walking up to the horses. It was fine.

Speaker 1: 50:06

That's great, Were they? What type of horses were they? I'm just curious. I don't know Very cool right horses, so it's just curious.

Speaker 4: 50:19

Yeah, but for more specifics, we actually have an episode on our podcast about our time there. So for specific restaurants, all that, we go into detail.

Speaker 1: 50:32

You have a website or just go, yeah for that.

Speaker 4: 50:34

You. I'll send you a link to that episode specifically if you want to link it in your show notes. That might be helpful for people. But we are. Can we start over pod on Instagram? Okay, can we start over podcast?

Speaker 3: 50:49

Okay, and can we start over? That's how you find us.

Speaker 2: 50:55

Okay, so the rapid fire questions. Was there any popular holiday traditions that were unique to the Baja that you've got to experience down there?

Speaker 3: 51:04

Well, we were there for Christmas, and Christmas was huge because, yeah.

Speaker 3: 51:08

So there were decorations everywhere. There was they kind of shut down on Christmas Day Um they are doing the Our Lady of Guadalupe holiday. Yeah, that was really cool. We went to the. There's a beautiful the church and like did the. I wanted the kids to experience like what the Ceremony was for the Our Lady of Guadalupe day, which is December 12th. Oh yeah, so those were like the you, not exactly unique because there's Christmas in the US, but it was cool to experience in a different place.

Speaker 2: 51:39

Oh yeah, definitely. And then what is like your favorite meal down there and La?

Speaker 3: 51:43

Paz favorite meal. Oh, you know what? There is this dish because it's not Mexican food. There's this amazing Pasta restaurant and it's Uruguay, right? Is that the Paraguay or Uruguay? It's something like that. And what is it called? Locusts Pasta, pasta, crazy for pasta. They make it. It's a tiny place. There's like five tables. They make all the pasta fresh. They have a window where you watch them like make your meal. So you order ravioli and then someone makes it in front of a window like from flour, like they make the pasta in front of you.

Speaker 4: 52:21

Takes a little longer, but boy is it good and everything moves so slow down there. So it's okay, no one's.

Speaker 2: 52:26

Having a lot of rice and beans. Oh, that sounds amazing. Oh, what a great idea.

Speaker 4: 52:31

We cooked a lot, lots of rice and beans.

Speaker 3: 52:35

And we went out a lot too.

Speaker 2: 52:36

Yeah, we did both. And what's the typical breakfast?

Speaker 3: 52:40

We mostly ate breakfast at home, honestly, since we're a family, but the typical breakfast is gonna be like yeah, like eggs, beans, maybe ranchero. Okay, a nice vegetable burritos. There's also really good. I wish I could remember the name of it. But the coffee place that we loved the most also made all of their pastries in-house, and so they had a really good croissants, chocolate croissants, yeah.

Speaker 2: 53:09

And I would assume that there's a lot of fruit, a lot of mangoes. And what kind of fruit? Or is it?

Speaker 4: 53:15

Yeah, there's lots of mango pineapple. They have these things called piña loca and it's like a hollowed out half of a pineapple filled with all this fresh fruit and gummy, worms and tahin. Yeah, and yeah, it's wild, you can get them anyway.

Speaker 3: 53:29

It's like a beach treat Not every beach you can get. It's a piña loca, Okay interesting.

Speaker 2: 53:35

I don't know, I've never heard that before.

Speaker 3: 53:36

And coconuts there's coconuts everywhere?

Speaker 2: 53:38

Yeah, all right. And then what's the money down there? The peso? Peso, yeah. And how is our dollar compared to Mexico right now?

Speaker 3: 53:48

Oh, when we were there it was like 20 to one. I think about 20 to one, for you know pesos to dollars, so about 20 pesos.

Speaker 4: 53:55

And it's like the way it's. I think it changed while we were there. It was at one point, I think it was like 18 to one.

Speaker 3: 54:02

Somewhere in there, yeah.

Speaker 2: 54:03

Yeah, and did you change your money down there, or?

Speaker 3: 54:07

We did change we used to. It was safe to use credit cards and debit cards too, but it's easy to have cash on hand, so we did change our money when we got there.

Speaker 4: 54:16

And we went to one. Just when you're traveling in Mexico, it's a good call to go to a bank to use an ATM. Okay, because some of the ATMs, and this never happened there, but once, when we were in Tulum, there was like a card reader stuck on the ATM and us and all of our friends that we were with had our accounts stolen from using an ATM just an ATM on the side of a dirt road.

Speaker 3: 54:41

Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4: 54:42

Yeah, so after that they can have it anyway, but we made it a point. After that, just go to a bank to get the money, if you can, yeah.

Speaker 2: 54:50

Okay, and we did type West African closest place to serve. Maybe Toto Santos Cerritos is going to be like the spot.

Speaker 3: 54:59

but and in Toto Santos there's good surf spots too the Cerritos are going to be the beginners. There are super spots in Toto Santos.

Speaker 1: 55:05

It's more advanced, right? I think so. Yeah, chris, it's kind of dangerous, I don't know if it's dangerous or not it's dangerous.

Speaker 3: 55:12

Yeah, we saw a lot of surfers, yeah.

Speaker 2: 55:16

That's kind of amazing Lots of whales we were seeing whales everywhere.

Speaker 4: 55:21

You could just sit on your porch and look out and see whales jumping.

Speaker 1: 55:26

That was like Maui. I was there in February and it was like that, where they they call it whale soup and I guess they said they're having babies and making babies, so they call it their nursery and their nightclub.

Speaker 3: 55:36

Oh my God, so cute.

Speaker 2: 55:38

Yeah, very fun. Great Well, thank you so much. It's just so great to get to know you two.

Speaker 3: 55:45

Yeah, it was so fun. Yeah, thank you for having us.

Speaker 1: 55:49

For sure. And then you mentioned where people can find you. I don't know if there's any other additional things. I think it's just a can we start over podcast and if they want to reach out, learn more about you guys and your travels and follow you with three kids, if they're inspired to try and do the same?

Speaker 3: 56:06

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely follow us there on Instagram. My Instagram is it's Lindsay Ake. That's my name, with it's at the beginning. I am a somatic practitioner and a mindfulness teacher, so I like do that on the road, and Brits a photographer can follow him on Instagram at jbrit underscore Robo show.

Speaker 4: 56:31

You can find it through our. Can we start over?

Speaker 3: 56:33

Okay, and we also, we now we produce podcast and edit podcast. So that's kind of like our fourth thing is right, kind podcasting.

Speaker 1: 56:45

Okay, wonderful. Well, thank you so much.

Speaker 3: 56:49

Yeah, so fun sharing about Baja.

Speaker 1: 56:51

Yeah, I'm super pumped about going there now. I'll have to go.

Speaker 3: 56:56

Yeah, we'll see you there.

Speaker 1: 56:57

Thank you so much Thanks.

Speaker 3: 56:59

Yeah, thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 57:01

Bye, bye. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the podcast, can you please take a second and do a quick follow of the show and rate us in your podcast app, and, if you have a minute, we would really appreciate a review. Following and rating is the best way to support us. If you're on Instagram, let's connect when next podcast. Thanks again.