Slow Baja

Edie Littlefield Sundby was arrogantly healthy when she received word that she had stage-four gallbladder cancer. The doctors gave her three months to live. "I had to kill cancer before it killed me," Sundby said. Seventy-nine rounds of chemotherapy, five-and-a-half years, and four radical surgeries later, she was in remission. The battle took half of her liver, ten inches of colon, two inches of her stomach, part of her throat, and all of her right lung. Amazingly, her spirit was intact! While driving up highway 101 to Stanford Hospital for surgery, she noticed the Mission bells denoting the El Camino Real. "I had this obsession to hug them, to follow them, I had to walk the old California Mission Trail. I had to walk all 21 Missions, saying a prayer of thanksgiving at each one." On a cold, rainy day in February 2013 -six months after losing her right lung, she started walking from Mission San Diego to Sonoma. Fifty-five days and 800 miles later, she made it. "When I got to Sonoma, I was soaring; I did not want to stop!" In 2015, when cancer returned, and she knew it would, she reflected on how happy the walk to Sonoma had made her. In an instant, she decided to walk all the Missions in Baja. "It was wonderful to have that to look forward to; I had another walk; I had a mission I had something larger (to focus on) than what was going on inside of me." Through the internet, she found guide and outfitter Trudi Angel in Loreto. "I had the promise of a burro for ten days and a vaquero for five days, that was good enough for me." She walked across the border to Tijuana and boarded a flight to Loreto, Mexico. Tune in for the rest of this inspirational story. Visit The Mission Walker website here Follow The Mission Walker on Facebook

When Jonathan Roldan was departing for a year-long job at a remote hotel on the East Cape of Baja, he needed a break. He had already had multiple careers as a fishing guide, deckhand, chef, broadcast journalist, 900-number entrepreneur, and, most recently, an attorney. A year in Baja would be a nice break from his stress-filled life as a courtroom litigator. After he got fired from that hotel job, he drove up to La Paz -a mere six dollars in his pocket, to start over. He built what he refers to as “a little lemonade stand” and started selling fishing trips. From those humble beginnings, hawking fishing trips, guiding by day, packing the catch, and running his one-person taxi service by night, Roldan did everything to keep his clients happy. He went from selling on commission for other skippers to owning a panga of his own. Eventually, he and his wife Jilly would build Tailhunter Sportfishing into a thirty panga fleet, a waterfront bar, a transportation company, and a staff of nearly 50. Tailhunter operates two full-time sportfishing fleets to provide clients with the absolute best fishing in the best conditions. The La Paz-based fleet fishes north around the fertile Espirito Santo Island. The Las Arenas Fleet operates off the beach at Bahia de Los Muertos and fishes the legendary waters around Cerralvo Island. As Roldan likes to say, he’s blessed to be a part of his client’s vacation, a maker of their Kodak moments. Please note at approximately 40:00 minutes, we had some technical challenges, and the sound quality and volume drop off. Listen to the podcast here Visit the Tailhunter International website here Follow on Instagram Follow on Facebook

In this Father's Day Edition of Slow Baja, we talk to fifteen-year-old off-road racer Jax Redline. At two-years-old, he started riding a Yamaha PW50 dirt bike with training wheels. He was so fast, his father had to tie a rope to the bike to keep young Jax from racing away. By the time he was in kindergarten, he had competed at national events like the AMA Amateur Motorcross Championship at historic Loretta Lynn Ranch. From that first 50cc motorcycle, Jax Redline rapidly moved up the racing, and horsepower ranks. From go-carts to mini-sprints to UTV's to his current mount, a 900HP Trophy Truck. It's safe to say young Jax Redline thrives on speed. To fill the void left in the racing calendar due to the Covid-19 situation, Jax Redline and his father Shane, have been in Baja keeping sharp and having fun riding dirt bikes. "I pretty much won the dad lottery!" Jax quickly admits.  We agree. Enjoy the conversation and Happy Fathers Day. Visit the Redline Racing Texas website here Follow on Instagram Follow on Facebook

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 Follow on Instagram Follow on Facebook

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 Follow on Instagram Follow on Facebook

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 Follow on Instagram Follow on Facebook More podcasts@slowbaja.com

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 Follow on Instagram Follow on Facebook 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