BAJA CALIFORNIA ROAD TRIP // Hasta Alaska // S04E07

Last time on Asta Alaska we explored northern Baja California with our friend David and new Combi crew member Tara. We searched out and surfed some of the best waves of our lives and grew confidence in our ability to get ourselves out of trouble. This time we're heading even further into remote Baja and seeing what life is like for the locals that live there. Let's go exploring. As we left northern Baja in our tracks we pushed further south. Despite stopping at all the major towns we weren't able to find more people willing to join the Combi crew, which to be honest was a real shame because the drive was something very special. Our Combi was experiencing a fuel problem at this time which meant our reliable range was about a hundred miles per tank and that can be quite problematic as there are some sections of the road and I use that term loosely where there are long distances between gas stations. Fortunately where there's a need there's usually an entrepreneurial Mexican ready to meet that demand. With a tank of what we hoped was gasoline we dusted off our compass and made plans for a particularly remote section of desert. We keep our tires at around 55 psi when we're on the highway. Off-road we drop them to around 35 psi which gives us better traction and a more comfortable ride. Our hard drives thank us for this too. When we get into trouble we can drop them to around 25 to 20 psi which will help us get out of loose sand and dust. In the rare occasion we'll go to 15 psi but any lower than that and we run the risk of throwing the tire off of the rim. Tires get hot and damaged quickly when they're under inflated and used at speed so we always inflate to the appropriate pressure at the earliest opportunity after recovery. One of the problems driving through this desert is there's obviously no signs and there's a lot of roads or previous tire tracks which are leading off in many different directions and it's kind of almost impossible to know which one to take. It's kind of like I have to guess. If it gets too far and it's too sandy turn around and try the other one. Which one? Oh we can get closer to the beach. I've got to say I'm pretty happy with our little combi. For a two-wheel drive vehicle he sure does How are you talking? Pretty nice. Pretty nice spot. This'll do. So this is Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving dinner. We're going to put gravy on top of everything so it really makes it for today. Just traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We would have stuffing usually and probably some apple crisp but we have coconut cookies instead. You go a long way with coconut cookies. How many Thanksgiving dinners have you been in charge of before? This is my very first Thanksgiving dinner. I'm pretty excited actually. First one I've ever cooked. Combi style. Combi style. We're improvising. They're gonna be really lumpy carrot and mashed potatoes. Why do you have that huge protruding thing? That's not a headlight. It's from Peru. It's a fashion statement. You know I've met some pretty cool people on this trip and Tara was no exception. Of all the landscapes we've explored so far this one, the Baja California Desert, was for sure one of the most isolated and a tough initiation to the van life for our new friend. A little plant. But with great challenges come great rewards and I did manage to score a perfect wave at the end of that long road. Even if that wave did happen to scare the crap out of me. It's an exceptionally rare thing to have a wave all to yourself these days. Believe me, I know. I've seen a lot of them. This was a day that I will not be forgetting in a hurry. So after a week of being in the Baja Desert we are filthy. There is dust everywhere and the motor is pretty dirty. The car's not really running very well. It's not holding an idle. The idle's all over the place. It drives itself basically in second gear. There's a huge vacuum leak. I think coming through this idle valve. I've been told we've got no chance of finding any parts for a beetle engine on the whole of the peninsula of Baja. I don't know if that's true but I'm going to have to see what I can do. Just cleaning it up and hopefully it will fix the problem. It's a tough day. I'm at the parking lot for about 3 hours to fix the car. But I think it's ready to go now. I met some really nice kids there. I shared some cookies and stories with them. Went and got some great tacos. And fixed the brakes. So it's been a pretty productive day I'd say. After a lot of tough driving we were hoping to find a place that we could stay for a few days. And that is exactly what the road delivered. Do you want to try this? Yes, how do you open it? I'm going to open it with a knife. A fisherman's kitchen. It smells pretty fishy. Definitely a Mexican kitchen. Look how much hot sauce I've got. How do you feel about eating this? I'm pretty excited about it. It looks amazing. Are you ok with raw shellfish? On the beach in the Mexican sun. It's fresh. It's going to make for an interesting experience living together in a bus. If this doesn't work out. Hi Benjamin. Hi mate. Lemon. Mina! It just moved. No joking. It's definitely alive. A bit of this. Alright. It's pretty good. It's really good. We don't need to spice this dish up anymore. It's moving. How is it? Does it taste good? Pretty good. I like it. I'm going to taste it. I have everything in front of me. Everything you can see over there. All the crops. We started out with little by little. And now we're going to commercialize it. To the United States. To Europe. To Japan. With the auction. I saw that people were asking for it. And that's how the restaurant was born. I've been in the kitchen since I was 5 years old. My mom had a restaurant and that's how it all started. I'm kind of loving it actually. We had octopus today. And now we're having Olmeja Bruja. For the first time. Do you even know what's in that? I do now. Now that you're writing the menu in English. They've employed us but they're paying us in seafood. Exactly. They've got kind of like clams. Cheese. Oh my gosh. And butter. Wow. Awesome. Ants. Shut up. Open your mouth. It's moving. Pick it up. Incredible. There's an orange. Here? And then? Pull it and turn it. Turn it. There you go. Is that all? You have to turn it completely. 360 degrees. Oh. This poor thing is suffering longer than it needs to be. Nice. How was your first octopus killing? I think it suffered longer than it needed to. That's for sure. That was not very successful. Nice and slimy. You get the first fish. Well done. Look at it. It's so cool. It's a big one too. High five. Second fish. And it's bigger than the first one. What? I spent the whole time with my hook caught on a rock. How many fish are there? Three. And me? Zero. Three to zero. Women are winning. And I'm not going to eat until tomorrow. Four to zero. That's not fair. Or... He didn't even get one. He did a little nibble. And she's like, ah, fish. Oh, it got away. It got away. So we've offered to give these guys some help. They've been really great to us. They've been very hospitable. So we've translated their menu to English. And now they've asked us to paint a sign for them in English. And instead of giving us paint, they've given us some tar and... What is it? Diesel. To paint the sign with. So Ben and I are going to create our very first sign in Mexico together. Let's have a look at the paintbrush they gave us. A stick. Literally a stick. Like just a piece of wood that they found. That's the paintbrush. We've just upgraded our painting gear. Now we've got some ink which has been freshly squeezed from an octopus. A toothpick and an old cigarette butt as our brush. I'm not even kidding you. He gave it to me with a straight face. How's the paint spell Tara? Fishy. Yeah, very fishy. We eventually went to town to upgrade our painting equipment. Although we appreciated trying it their way first. The fact that we found this spot was a complete fluke. The result of driving aimlessly with nothing more than curiosity for a compass. That curiosity was rewarded with one of the best cultural experiences of all of our travels. We learnt a lot from this family, not least of which was a serious improvement to our fishing skills. And we have this guy to thank for that. A man named Pacquiao, after his striking resemblance with the Filipino champion boxer Manny Pacquiao. We definitely recommend to you that you stop by and see this family and when you do, be sure to say hi from the Kombi Crew. From here we head south a little more and to the bottom of this rugged peninsula that is quickly winning our hearts. We've got over a thousand more miles of Baja adventure to share with you and plenty of drama to come. But for that, you'll have to join us next time. Next time on Asta Alaska we're picking up two new members of the Kombi Crew and we're going to show you just how good off-grid living in Baja really is. Oh yeah, and we're going to pay the Kombi life price for having too much fun. Don't forget to subscribe amigos!