Mexico to USA (FINDING A GAP in THE BORDER WALL) // Hasta Alaska // S03E19

You're watching the last episode of season 3 Aster Alaska. Last time on Aster Alaska we got trapped in the Kombi in a horrific storm. It was the craziest night of our lives but we survived to share it with you. This time we're pushing north to our most feared border crossing to date and we finally arrive in the USA. Let's go exploring. Even in the most touristic places we still get the best views. Right at the beach. How's the view this morning Lucio? It's amazing. The dreams are different near the sea. You can hear the waves all night. Yes. I feel like I'm getting up all day. For the final leg to the USA your Kombi crew will be Lucio from Argentina, Flo from Germany, myself and the world's most travelled street pub Alaska. We have a seriously long drive ahead of us. Let's see what the road brings us. From Mazatlan you have two routes north. A ferry to the wild surf-blessed peninsula of Baja California or a grueling multi-day drive through one of the sweatiest parts of Mexico. Unfortunately my six-month Mexican visa was running out real soon and we simply didn't have enough time to explore Baja California. We literally drove all day every day even grabbing our food at the gas station. We noticed the further north that we got people got more and more excited about our license plates. You'd never think that would happen. The guy just flagged us down on the main road on the highway and said to us like, here take some mangoes, take some guayaba. But by far my favourite reaction to the Kombi on the roads was this one. But no matter how friendly the locals were in the daytime, in northern Mexico at night it's a different story. Where are we? We've just arrived in the north of Mexico. We didn't really think too much about where we were. We were just looking for a plaza and it's been a bit of a strange atmosphere since we've got here. A real cold reception. I went to a club to ask some people if there was you know a decent bar around here and they wouldn't even stop walking or turn around and look at me. They just went yeah Then I asked them a second question and they didn't even answer me. Yeah there's a lot of fear. That woman over there, we tried to ask her the time and she wouldn't even tell us the time. She was just walking away. A security woman walking back into the upper building. After just chasing a man away he was trying to get some food out of the bin. I asked him hey what's wrong in this town and why the people are so reserved and so quiet and he told me yeah this is a pretty dangerous place. People are killed. It's kind of starting to dawn on us that we're in the north of Mexico. You know we just stopped for a night and yeah it's pretty weird up here. You know you hear the stories and stuff and yeah you can definitely see it in the people. I don't know man do you think it's safe to sleep here? If we're three guys they're not going to rob us in a convey surely. We've just got this camera sitting out on display with the doors wide open. I've got to be honest we did stick out like a sore thumb and I'm kind of glad that we had to keep moving. As we headed into the desert the first border crossing presented itself long before the Star Spangled Banner was in view. We decided not to cross here but to try our luck at the busiest border crossing in the world, in Tijuana. But as the highway runs right along the border in the middle of the desert we couldn't resist stopping for an early celebration. America! To America! Let's go to America! Wait wait I want to come to America. I want to come to America. We had finally made it to the top of Latin America. I'm ready! I'm ready America! America! Mexico! Let's stay in Mexico a bit longer. The closer we got to the USA the more time we put in getting to know the Mexican officials. It's weird isn't it it's a random inspection yet we have to stop at every single one. Why is that? Every single time. All the other people going past but no we have to stop again. My main concern was that our temperamental engine is air-cooled and when you're crossing a desert it needs to be running and moving to prevent overheating especially with what was coming up. Completely unexpectedly a mountain appeared from nowhere and we had to climb it after a long day of desert driving. Just climbing this mountain range to get over to Baja to the coast to the surf and smelt a bit of gasoline. Stopped on the side of the road just to check to see where it was coming from. Couldn't find the leak but did notice that the drive shaft was coming off. It was pretty loose so grease everywhere and just had to get dirty again for the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, millionth time. Still at least the view is nice. We'll be right back with the Combi Life adventure after these words from our producer. Oh hang on look that's me. Would you believe guys this is our hundredth video that I've uploaded to Combi Life. Now most people share their adventures and their travels by blogging, taking photos and adding their own inspirational words but right at the beginning of this adventure I decided that I was going to record everything in HD video so that you could feel like you were in the Combi with us. I've since come to realize that there's a good reason why most people don't make videos and that's because it's a heck of a lot of work but personally I think it's worth it and I hope you guys do too. The thing is though guys we really need to grow this channel and I mean a lot if we're going to continue to share these adventures with you. You guys have come so far with us figuratively and literally. You want to see the next season of Astro Alaska right? You want to see what happens next? You want to see what happens after we give away our Combi? You want to see the next adventure right? At the time of recording this video we have 45,000 subscribers so I'm asking every single one of you guys new subs and old to please help us grow our channel. Our project and our channel is different from everything else that's out there and I think it's pretty damn entertaining but the future of Combi Life is quite literally in your hands. So please help us to grow our channel. Please share our videos and please share our trailer with your friends. I'm going to leave a link to the trailer in the video description box below and up there on the i icon so please find that and share it with all of your mates and help us grow our channel so that we can keep sharing our adventures with you. Now back to the episode. We awoke the next morning just south of the border to discover that Baja California is where RVs come to retire. The place is full of them. We managed to find an empty lot with a view and we were quickly invited in for a meal by our Mexican neighbours. It had been a long drive so the hospitality sure was appreciated but we still weren't sure if we were allowed to camp here. We and she's got a couple of gifts for us as well. Check this out. We've got a new stove just as our stove is broken and a new tent just as our tent is broken. Couldn't possibly be any better timing. Thank you so much. High five. We started to make preparations for our border crossing. I wanted everything to go smoothly, nothing out of place so we emptied the combi of absolutely everything. By now over 100 people had travelled in the combi over years and thousands of miles through 14 countries. Who knew what could be in there? I wasn't taking any chances. Besides it gave us a chance to look for Pepe, our Mexican stowaway. We've been dining and travelling at our expense for the last 3,000 miles. Cheeky beggar. Lucio and I were really keen to catch a wave in Baja before crossing over. Unfortunately that meant we had to say goodbye to our good buddy Flo. I'm going to miss you man. I'm going to miss you. Sure. Catch some waves from me here. How was dinner last night Pepe? Mexican mice they just come with their tortillas. Yeah that's kind of how I feel Alaska. We only spent a few days here enjoying the last of the cheap living. And now we have fish. I made this in fire so it's time to eat. I know you don't like it girl but it better be clean. I'm going to America. I didn't actually touch anything. We were parked at the very tip of Baja California and 27,000 square miles of unexplored Mexico laid to the south. On our last day we discovered this spot and the K38 surf house. A seed was planted, friends were made and deep down we knew that this wouldn't be the last chapter in our Mexican adventure. But for now we had to focus on the most difficult border crossing of the entire trip. Here comes the busiest border crossing in the world. Tijuana baby. Let's get Alaska ready for traditional clothing. The TJ Mexicans bartered for the last of our pesos but it wouldn't be a cheap souvenir that I'd be taking with me because what I was taking over the border was a fortune in memories and experiences that would last me a lifetime and change who I am forever. I learned firsthand that everyone you meet is afraid of something, has lost something and loves something and at the core of everything we are all essentially the same. To be able to meet these people and discover their culture in their world has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. The road so far has been far from easy. In fact it's been harder than I ever imagined it could be. At times I've been quite literally sent to my knees. It's a humbling experience to be the foreigner, to stumble in somebody else's language and to be reliant on strangers to pick you up when everything around you has fallen down. Some of the kindest and happiest people that I've met on this journey so far have been the poorest and from them I've seen that you don't need to have a lot to give. You can start by just giving your time. That and so much more is what I'm taking with me across this border. We're about to start an entirely different chapter of this cross-planet expedition. We're headed to the most powerful and secure nation on the planet, the United States of America. Fingers crossed they let us in. Oh man why are they sending us back to Mexico? That's the end of another incredible season of Astro Alaska guys and what a season it was. I'm so glad that I got to share what happened with you. Thank you for watching and I'm really hoping that we'll be able to share a lot more in the future but that is up to you. We need your help to grow so please subscribe if you haven't already and be sure to share our trailer with your mates. With your help it won't just be Alaska that we take you to.