From Engineers to Adventurers: Navigating Van Life with Hayley and Jake

#063 - Here's your chance to embark on a vicarious adventure through the eyes of our brave guests, Hayley and Jake. This engineering duo decided to leave the conventional life behind and hit the road on a fascinating journey. They've transformed from mere engineers to accomplished vanlife adventurers, exploring the stunning terrains of Mexico, building their own van from scratch, and overcoming the challenges that come with an adventurous lifestyle.

Our conversation with Hayley and Jake takes us on a ride across the beautiful Baja Peninsula, through the streets of mainland Mexico, and into their personalized van that's a marvel of self-reliance. Together, we navigate through their experiences with the welcoming Mexican locals, and the breathtaking landscapes that make this journey worth every mile. They also share the struggles they've overcome, like language barriers and navigation issues, and the tech solutions that have come to their rescue.

But this episode isn't just about the road, it's about the journey within. Hayley and Jake open up about how this van life adventure has not just been a geographical shift, but a shift in their relationship and personal growth. From planning their wedding in the Yucatan to dealing with the grueling summer heat, they share insights that redefine the perception of van life. Whether you're a van life enthusiast, an aspiring adventurer, or someone who loves a good travel story, this episode is a treasure trove of experiences, advice, and the real deal about life on the road.

Be sure and follow along with Hayley and Jake on Instagram @hayleyandjake and on their Youtube channel @HayleyandJake.  

Please give me a follow on Instagram @journeywithjakepodcast to learn more about my guests and a little about your host as well!!  I would love it if you could leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.  Thanks for listening to Journey with Jake!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jake, who is one of my guests on today's show it's
not me he said if you build upall the highlights too much in
your mind, you might bedisappointed when you get there.
My guest today, haley and Jake,love the highlights, but
finding the opportunity to stopand smell the roses is such a
fantastic way to be adventurous.
I had the chance to speak withHaley and Jake, who are

(00:22):
currently road-tripping acrossMexico in their van.
Just like we all do in life,jake and Haley have found
themselves stuck literally atime or two while in Mexico.
What did they do about it?
They get unstuck and keepmoving together.
Hello everyone, my name is JakeBushman and I am the host of
Journey with Jake.
I'm happy to bring some moreadventures to you this week.

(00:45):
As we talked to vanlife coupleHaley and Jake, who are
currently traveling acrossMexico, it took a few moments to
access Starlink and chat withme about some of their thoughts
and experiences.
In fact, they were stuck in afield somewhere in the mountains
of Mexico as we recorded thisepisode.
Let's hope they find a way outso they can continue their
journey.

(01:06):
Welcome to Journey with Jake.
This is a podcast aboutadventure and how, through our
adventures, we can overcome thechallenges of life that come our
way.
Well, I expect you will learnsome things about different
adventures.
This show will entertain you.
Each episode will feature adifferent guest or guests, as
they share experiences andstories from the different
adventures they have been on.
Not only will you beentertained, but you also hear

(01:28):
the failures and trials eachguest faces and what they have
done or are doing to overcomethe hardships that come their
way.
My goal is to take each of uson a journey through the
experiences of my guests, withthe hope that you'll be
entertained and Inspired toovercome your day-to-day
challenges.
After all, it's not a lot aboutthe destination, as it is about

(01:49):
the journey.
Welcome back to Journey withJake, episode number 63 today.
Wow, the summer is just passingby quickly.
I hope everyone has been ableto get out, go on adventures and
create memories.
Be sure and tell all yourfamily and friends about the
journey.
I hope you enjoyed this episode.

(02:11):
I'm going to be back withanother episode.
Hope everyone has been able toget out, go on adventures and
create memories.
Be sure and tell all yourfamily and friends, as they
travel the rest of the summer,to download a few episodes of
Journey with Jake.
This podcast is a great way topass the time and entertain
yourself on the road or in theair.
Speaking of the podcast, Iwould love it if you could leave

(02:32):
a rating and review on Applepodcast.
That would mean a lot to me andhelps others know about the
podcast.
Also, please give me a followon Instagram at Journey with
Jake podcast to see somepictures of my guests and learn
more about yours truly.
There is a podcast I want torecommend to everyone Trail to
100, with the host, jacob andMelanie Bateman.

(02:54):
I've had quite a few enduranceathletes on the show lately,
including Jacob and Melody fromepisode 57.
And for anybody thinking youwant to get into running, don't
know where to start, don't knowhow to make it work, reach out
to Jacob and Melody they arerunning coaches and we'll find
something to figure needs.
Please visit trail to 100 commfor more information.

(03:15):
If you want to hear my episodewith Jacob and Melody, please go
back and listen to episode 57.
Let's get on with some van lifeadventures with my guests,
haley and Jake.
Haley and Jake welcome to theshow.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Thanks for having us.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Thanks for having us.
I was mentioning before we gotgoing here that I've watched a
couple of your videos where yougot stuck and you are currently
stuck.
You're stuck in a field, youhave your own van, that you live
in, that you're currently roadtripping across Mexico, that
we're going to talk about diveinto Pretty deep here in a
little bit, but, like I alwaysdo on the show, I like to know a
little bit about who each ofyou are.
So, if you don't mind, maybeHaley will start with you and

(03:50):
then we'll go to Jake.
Just tell us about who you are,where you from and all that
good stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
All right, so my name is Haley.
Originally, I was born inScotland and emigrated to Canada
when I was a teenager with myfamily.
I went to school forengineering and was, yeah,
working in Saskatoon.
That's where I met Jake, and heintroduced me to the wonderful
world of traveling in a van.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
What about you, jake?
I grew up in Vancouver and Iwent to school there, also for
engineering, and then I movedout to Saskatoon for work and a
few years later met Haley rightas I was on my way out of the
city.
So we ended up meeting at aWork Christmas party of Haley's
work and my friends work.
So I had nothing to do with thecompany, it was just I was
there as a plus one and then Iconvinced Haley to quit her job

(04:37):
and come traveling with me.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Wow, all on all on the first night.
No, I took a few months.
Okay, all right, I took alittle bit.
You're both engineers, so atfirst I thought, okay, somehow
this engineering connection itdid with companies, but
companies you both didn't, youknow, didn't work with each
other.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
So that's how you guys met.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, what was it, jake?
I mean, are you just alwaysbeen kind of like, let me go
road tripping, let me do this?
I mean, how did I mean, how didthat all come about for you?
I?

Speaker 3 (05:01):
really wasn't I was working for.
So I went straight out ofschool and to work, worked for
five years, I think.
In Canada there's a certaindesignation you can get as an
engineer.
We have to get your degree andthen work for four years and
then you can become aprofessional engineer, which is
kind of the next step inengineering in Canada.
So I had worked until I gotthat.

(05:22):
The couple years before I justhad seen videos of people
traveling.
I've just been working hard andI wanted to Spend some time and
make sure I was living my life.
When I was young as well, Ididn't just want to wait till I
was retired to travel, andbecause I was living away from
my family, I spent so much timeand all my vacation visiting
them, so I really didn't get todo the traveling I wanted to do.
So I worked for quite a while,got a certain milestone in my

(05:45):
career where it would be easierto get a job in the future, and
then I said, okay, I have enoughmoney to go traveling for a
while.
I can probably get another job.
Engineering is pretty highdemand, so I'm just going to.
I Was working towards this foryears.
It wasn't spontaneous, but atthat point I was ready to go
traveling, see some of the world, see something different, take
a bit of time off.
I was talking to my parentsabout it a couple years before

(06:06):
this point and my mom suggestedhey, if you're going to go road
tripping, you might end upsleeping in the back of your car
sometimes.
Why don't you look at likeputting a mattress in the back
of a van?
So I looked into it and Foundout about van life online, where
these people do up these reallynice vans, and she was like,
yeah, that wasn't what I meant,but that's cool too.
So I was interested in van lifebut hadn't tried it when I met
Haley.

(06:27):
We met Haley would been workingfor a while and then switch
jobs to Do a job that was moreflexible because she hadn't been
planning this for years.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, I wasn't really in a position just to quit my
job and go off traveling.
I had to.
I just bought a house and justgot Finley, so I had student
loans to pay off and Finley isour dog.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yes 6575 pound rescue dog.
He's kind of a mix between aGreyhound and a lab.
He's really big and reallyfriendly.
But yeah, so we had a dog atthe same time part of Jake
taking off to go traveling.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
I was working Monday to Friday, but a company I used
to work for it was a remote minesite and they were hiring and
Thankfully I got a positionworking up there.
So then I switched to workingtwo weeks on, two weeks off.
So then I could still workfull-time, but on my two weeks
off I could fly out and meetJake when he was traveling right
in between Haley's jobswitching, we had two weeks in
the summer where Haley wouldn'tbe working and I was off.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
I was wasn't working, but we only had about two weeks
notice to plan a trip somewhere.
So we ended up going to Icelandand keeping with how we travel
now.
We rented a minivan and did 12days touring Iceland in a very
small minivan which wasessentially two front seats and
a bed in the back, and that wasit.
It was incredibly bare bones,incredibly sparse, and we really

(07:44):
loved it.
The way the freedom to travelaround the Iceland as a country
was amazing.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
It was so much fun.
That was almost like our ourgateway drug into the world of
road tripping.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah.
So we came back and Haleystarted her new job and then I
was out in Vancouver.
I had moved back there to movesome stuff in with my parents as
a base.
I got rid of as much as I couldin Saskatoon, which is for
those who don't know,saskatchewan is above North
Dakota.
It's one of the Canadianprovinces, the prairies or the
Great Plains of Canada.
It's all farming and the northhalf is the boreal forest, so

(08:16):
the south half is like wheat andcanola and the north half is
forest.
So we came back and we decidedwe wanted to go see the fall
colors of Vermont.
I guess it was October at thetime.
So it was just about theperfect time.
And, yeah, and Haley was inSaskatchewan and I was in
Vancouver.
So we ended up buying a 1985Campervan that had been built up
in the 80s as a campervan.

(08:38):
It had been redone by two girlssince then, but it was quite
old that character.
It had character.
It was a quite a big upgradeover Iceland.
We started with very bare bonesso every step we took felt like
a big upgrade.
We had a bit of running water,we had propane so we could cook
inside, we could stand in partof it, we had a bit of storage.
So, after starting very barebones, the van that we named

(08:59):
Vincent because we named itVincent van go because it was an
old man it was and it was likeold brown van I mean we're
actually sure if it would go.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
It does.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
So the van go.
I like that.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
It worked well.
So the very first segment ofthe trip is we had to drive over
the Rocky Mountains, which isquite the drive if you're in an
old van that you don't know ifit's going to work.
So my dad drove out with me toSaskatchewan, spent two weeks
with Hailey.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
To make sure that Jake didn't get stuck in the
Rocky Mountains by himself witha van.
That didn't work.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
I had kind of a traumatic week, blitzing across
all of Canada to get to Montrealwhere Hailey flew into, and
then we went down to Vermont,saw the fall colors.
It was a very rushed trip.
We were still learning what wewere doing for sure, but we
really liked it and the fallcolors are beautiful.
And then Hailey flew back towork and then I had to figure
out what to do with myself.
For two weeks when I was in theEast Coast, when I lived on the

(09:49):
West Coast, the whole storyturned into.
We ended up doing a six-monthtrip.
We went down to Florida, wewent through that trip, we went
through South Carolina, kentucky, tennessee, louisiana.
We spent a month in Florida andthen we were in Texas and
Hailey was flying in two weekson, two weeks off.
So she'd be with me two weeks,I'd be with Finley in the van,
two weeks trying to figure outwhere to sleep, where to get

(10:09):
water, how this whole van lifething worked.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
But the reason why this whole trip took off in the
first place is because wintercame early to Canada, so Jake
could either drive back acrossCanada in the winter or it's
actually a shorter distance todrive to Florida.
So well, let's go that way.
It's warmer.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
Our old van was very poorly insulated and it had an
old propane heater that was 35years old and I didn't really
want to sleep with it on.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Be a little nervous, right.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah, it did work, but it was.
It had a lot of things thatcould be desired, which
ultimately led to us buildingthe van we have now.
So we were in Texas when COVIDhit.
We were in the bottom of BigBend with no cell signal.
We came out, looked at ourphones and were like, oh, the
borders are closed, we need togo.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
We had like 100 people like not exaggerating
people who we haven't talked toin years, messaging us like hey,
we know you're down there, areyou okay?
You have to come home.
Come and go home.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
Yeah.
So we spent four or five daysdriving an old carbureted van
that didn't really go about 80,80 kilometers, which is about 50
miles.
We drove from the bottom of BigBend up to Saskatchewan because
it was the closest bordercrossing.
We spent about a month therebefore heading out west to
Vancouver where my parents live,and we kind of went off grid
for just with them for a couplemonths, thinking it'd be a short

(11:23):
, short time.
We ended up selling that vanand buying this one, because
that van was okay, but there wasa lot of things that could be
desired.
For two people and a dog itcould be better.
So we sold that van and then weproceeded to spend the next two
years building this one.
Wow, we thought it was sixmonths.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
We were working as well.
So when COVID started, we sortof well, jake wasn't working at
the time and then I got notreally laid off, I didn't have
to go to work, so I had time athome and I was like, well, we
have all this free time, let'slike actually build this van,
let's do it.
And then halfway through I gotcalled back to work.
And then you ended up pickingup a contract.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
Yeah, so I worked for a year as well, because it
turns out van building is reallyexpensive.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
More than meets the eye, right?
I mean, I look at a van and Ithink, oh, there's not much to
it.
But I did I actually did watchyour video on your van, putting
it together oh thank you.
Incredible, like I'm just likewow, from the bare bones to I
mean everything.
You've gotten there and youtalked about your kitchen, your
little table, your bed and howyou, you know just everything
you had to do lighting andinsulation, and it was a real

(12:24):
labor of love.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
It was and also we had no building experience
before that.
I'm a mechanical engineer.
I have experience designingthings on a computer and then
getting somebody to build it forme.
So designing on a computer andthen building it myself in a van
that is not straight or flat orlevel was a challenge.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
We didn't even have any of the tools we we started
off with like a set of calipers.
Essentially, I think it's theonly tool that we had.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Calipers, but also don't know, is another.
It's like.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
It's like a really accurate tape measure.
Okay, I'm glad you said that,because I was sitting there
thinking I don't even know whata caliper is, so I'm glad you
said something You're measuringbolts.

Speaker 3 (12:59):
It's it's it's it's for fine measurement.
So we spent two years buildingthe van.
Hailey was working, I wasworking for a lot of it, and
then we we were taking trips init as well, like we went to
Saskatchewan when there wasnothing.
There was nothing in it, it wasinsulated and there was nothing
else.
And we essentially call it ourfancy tent trip because we slept
in it in the back with an airmattress and there was all of

(13:20):
our stuff all over the floor andthat was the whole van.
And then we built our bed, wenton another camping trip with
the air mattress and just it wasa huge step change, just to see
how having a little more donemade camping a lot nicer.
And we went on it again withsome of our shelves in power
working, and even that was nicer.
I had just finished my contractand Hailey had because she

(13:40):
works two weeks on two weeks offor worked.
She could take two weeksvacation and have a six week
holiday.
That's how we went to Baja lastyear the first time we came to
Mexico.
We wanted we had six weeks.
We wanted to drive the Pacificcoast highway, which I've always
dreamed about doing, and thenwe wanted to be adventurous and
a little out of our comfort zone.
So we figured we'd go into theBaja Peninsula in Mexico.
It was kind of like Mexico lightbecause it's separated from the

(14:03):
rest of Mexico, but it's.
It's fairly safe, it's a goodarea.
People go down there in vans isnot unheard of.
So we ended up having six weeksoff and we were, so we're
working so hard to finish ourvan for that trip.
They were actually about threedays into our Hailey's time back
when we said, okay, we need tostop building the van and just
go on.
Our trip Kind of took over thevan.
Bill kind of took over ourlives for about two years.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
So it was about 90% done when we went on that first
big trip.
It was an opportunity to justenjoy what we had built but also
kind of figure out the nextsteps, of what we need to do
next, like how is this going towork for us and what space do we
need, and all that.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
So we ended up doing two and a half weeks in the
Pacific coast highway, which wasbeautiful but a little hard to
wild camp at.
So with van life there'sobviously established campsites
you can say it's statecampgrounds.
You can stealth camp, which isessentially parking on the
street somewhere in cities thatallow it a lot don't or you can
sleep in parking lots.
We try to do free camping andthen just wake up and go to

(15:00):
somewhere nice, because ifyou're doing long trips,
spending $20 to $30 a day oncampsites really adds up fast.
The coast highway is beautifulbut very popular and what that
means is a lot of the.
You can't really free camp in alot of spots.
So we found some and sometimeswe paid for camping, but the
trip itself was beautiful.
But the beaches also with thedog weren't necessarily dog

(15:22):
friendly when we got toCalifornia.
So we really enjoyed that part,but we were excited to get to
Mexico.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Just to add as well, for anyone who isn't familiar
with van life or anything webuilt our van.
It's essentially a cargo van,but we built it so that it has
everything we need to live.
So it's got a kitchen, it's gota bathroom, it's got a bed,
it's got electricity, it's got aheater, it's got our fan.
Like, really, the only thingthat we need is a place to park
it.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yeah, we built our van to be totally off grid.
Some RVs and vans need to beplugged in, some don't.
We wanted the freedom, just togo anywhere and we didn't really
need plugins.
So we have enough power to runour laptops and our heaters and
boil a kettle of Mccoffey, andwe have an oven and a stove.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
Got solar panels on the roof to charge everything.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
Yeah, and we have a queen size memory foam bed.
We really designed this van tobe good for long term travel.
We've been in it for eightmonths now and it's not cramped.
We feel we like what we'redoing.
We still love it, so we reallyworked hard to just make this
comfortable for long, long term.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
And I've had a couple of folks who've done van life
on the show before and for meit's amazing what you guys do
and how you do that.
And you got a dog.
You said pretty big dog.
You seem to have plenty of roomeven with the dog.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, we built our van so there's a couch behind
the driver's seat and that's hisbunk bed, so that's where he
sits when we're driving.
It's where he sleeps.
He's actually kind of annoyedthat we're sitting on it right
now to do podcasts.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
He's like you're in my spot.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
Yeah, in our last van he slept on our bed with us.
But he's a big dog, he takes uphalf the bed.
So in this van we veryspecifically designed him a spot
to sleep.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, that way, hey leave the bed alone.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
The van is his home as well, so it's his safe place
that he loves it in here.
It's him.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah, yeah, he does really well in here.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
He's totally happy to go exploring his whole life,
Like I rescued him when he wasfour months old and then met
Jake two months later.
So his whole life he's beentraveling with us as much as he
can.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
So, yeah, so he's known van life, known both, yes,
that's his family.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
He was right here at Pesinas when we were building
the van.
He was helping.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
When we bought the van we initially had three seats
in the front.
We replaced it to two seats andwhen there was three seats he
used to sit up front with us,and when we took the seat out he
was so sad.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Oh that was his spot.
He liked being up there withyou, Wait am.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
I not coming with you guys.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
So now you've been doing all this traveling.
You went to Baja last year BajaMexico but now you decide to go
back to Mexico again this year.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Oh, we loved it yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
Did you hit Baja again and then also mainland,
because you're heading towardsthe Yucatan right, or if you've
not already, yeah, okay, tell meabout that.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
So the first time we visited Baja we were only there
for two and a half weeks, whichis enough to go down and see
Baja a little bit.
But it's kind of rushed becauseit's the second longest
peninsula in the world andthere's a lot to see and there's
a lot to explore and it'sreally easy just to park up
there and enjoy a week Like your.
Baja is so special because it'sa desert, it's a long peninsula

(18:32):
and it's next to the ocean andthere are loads of beautiful
beaches that you're allowed tocamp on and you can't just go
and see one.
There's so many and we wantedto go see all of them.
So the first time it was veryrushed.
We didn't even get down to thesouth of the peninsula.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
We're almost there.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
We almost did.
We left wanting more.
We wanted to come back.
So after that six week trip,that was sort of like the
instigator for, okay, what do wehave to do to be able to come
back here and spend an entirewinter here where we don't have
to leave?
And then that sort of got thethe wheels moving.
For we needed to.
We had our, we both ownedhouses.

(19:10):
We bought houses before we meteach other.
So we had two houses we had tosell.
We had all of our things topack up, we had our jobs, I had
my job, we had to save up moneyand all that.
So we got working the followingyear just to put everything in
place where we could leave onthis trip and not have anything
back home pulling us home.
Essentially.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
As a quick background as well, for those who don't
know, the Baja Peninsula is justsouth of San Diego.
It goes down about a thousandmiles, something like that.
It's connected to mainlandMexico by a very thin piece of
land on the top, just underCalifornia.
It's almost an island, the onlyway there's two ways off Baja.
Well, you can go through thestates, you can go through
Mexico, right at the top, rightby the border or you can ferry

(19:52):
at the bottom.
Baja is very separated fromMexico.
There's one road up and downthe whole peninsula and it's
quite controlled and quite safebecause of it.
So it's Baja is an easy spot tokeep safe, so it's a lot of
people go there in the winter.
So we actually went down thisthis winter.
We spent, I think, six weeksnational perk hopping through
the states and then we got toBaja just before winter started

(20:14):
and we spent the entire winterthere, which was really, really
fun.
So we went all over thepeninsula, we Baja.
The really beautiful thingabout Baja is there's a lot of
empty land and you're allowed tocamp on any beach you want.
There's a lot of sand, which iswhy we get stuck so much.
It's just, it's gorgeous.
It's very, very popular withpeople, with people in RVs and

(20:35):
van life.
A lot of people go down thereand say the entire winter.
Mm-hmm and it seems this was ourfirst time being down there
written a busy season.
But it seems now with Starlinkit's getting more and more and
more popular because people godown there and work.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
It's not just the retirees down there, it's people
who have online jobs as well.
Yeah you can't afford to takethe entire winter off, but they
can still go down and yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
So I'm picturing the Baja California and you've got
the Pacific Ocean on one side.
And what Sea of Cortez, is thatthe what they?

Speaker 2 (21:04):
call them the other side, the armpit of Mexico.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
So was there a certain side that you kind of,
or did you hit both sides?
You had Pacific Ocean side andsee a quartet size, what was
kind of your preference?

Speaker 2 (21:15):
Well, there's only one highway really that goes
down, so that sort of dictateshow you drive down the peninsula
, so you're sort of weaving backand forth.
For us we liked being on theSea of Cortez site because it's
a lot calmer, because of that,it's so sheltered in there that
the water is really calm andreally flat and you can go
kayaking, swimming, go out andpaddle boards, whereas when

(21:35):
you're on the Pacific sidethere's nothing stopping the
waves.
So that's where all the surfersgo.
Surfers love the Pacific side.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
Yeah, the Baja Peninsula.
Like you, if you're on a beachon the west coast, you get
surfing and gorgeous sunsets.
If you're on a beach on theeast coast, the Sea of Cortez
has also been called NorthAmerica's Aquarium or the
world's aquarium.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
The world's aquarium.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
I think was Jacques Cousteau something like that.
But it's a gorgeous area.
The water is turquoise, blue,crystal clear and there's so
much marine life.
So the Baja Peninsula is wherewhales humpback whales and gray
whales go to calf.
So if you're on the Pacificside, there are two lagoons you
can go to and do tours to seeTons of gray whales, and those

(22:16):
are the very friendly ones.
It'll come right up to the boatand you can touch them.
And then, if you're on thesouth or Right near the bottom,
there's humpback whaleseverywhere.
We saw so many humpback whalesthat we stopped paying attention
unless they were breaching.
There's so many whales and it'salso the Sea of Cortez side is

(22:37):
where whale sharks go in thewinter.
So that's the biggest fish inthe world.
They're technically a shark,but they're the size of a school
bus.
They don't.
They're filter feeders to theirown teeth.
They're not gonna bite you andit's really popular to do
snorkel tours with them.
So last time we were down here,you did it, we did a snorkel
tour.
We found with sea lions andthen we dropped in right in
front of a whale shark.
And they don't really care thatyou're there, you just you're

(22:58):
swimming aside a fish the sizeof a school bus until you can't
keep up and then you get pickedup by the boat and they drop you
in front again and you justkeep doing this until you're
tired.
Baja has amazing marine life,really good seafood and amazing
beach camping.
If you're not into camping,there are some cities you can go
to, but they're fairly remote.
The the real thing we loveabout Baja is that, with our van

(23:20):
being totally off-grid, you canpark up on a beach and
essentially live right on thebeach with your house right
there and everything you needFree.
The locals don't mind.
As long as you're respectfuland don't litter people,
generally don't mind.
You can always find a fairlysecluded spot if you want to and
you're never too far from.
Baja is very remote, but you'renever more than like a couple

(23:40):
hours from an area to get wateror to get whatever you need like
a little market or something.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
There's little towns that markets and things.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Okay, yeah there's towns all the way down the
peninsula where you can stop andwe supply and Continue on and
especially first time.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
It was just so different.
We don't speak Spanish.
We we picked up a bit, but wedidn't speak Spanish.
We didn't know the culture.
We weren't familiar with adesert.
I grew up in a tropical.
I grew up in a sort of atemperate rainforest.
I'm not familiar with a desert,mm-hmm.
And the beautiful beaches wereamazing.
It was warm while Canada isquite cold in the winter.
It didn't rain the entire timewe were there.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Oh wow, dry, dry desert.
Yes, I was very dry and I'mglad you did some fun things too
, like I'm glad you're out doingsome excursions and, you know,
swimming with these Whale sharksand things like that.
That's awesome the van.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
We didn't build the van just to live in the van.
We we built it to be able to gotravel and have all of these
fun experiences, like that's whywe enjoy traveling.
So the van is.
It gets us to these cool placesto go do the cool things.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
How do you decide on that?
Are you I mean, there's one ofyou or both you kind of plan it
ahead of time, because I'm surethere's got to be some planning
and there's got to be somespontaneity as well.
But I'm sure there's got to besome planning of, hey, if we go
here, we can go snorkel withwhale sharks, or if we go here,
we can do this.
How does that work?

Speaker 3 (24:58):
What we do to trip plan is there's two things we
have.
We bought a lonely plan inMexico guidebook which
essentially gives you thehighlights, and then any time we
come across something online,we pin it and make a note on
Google Maps.
So if you look at our GoogleMaps page for most of the world
it's covered in pins and Eachpin it has a category and a note
.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Ah, there we go.
I'll see if I'd love to showthis yeah you got pins
everywhere.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
So we started doing that when we were traveling in,
I think, iceland, and what itlets you do is Free plan,
populate all your informationand then you can go to a place
and see what you feel like doing.
So this is how we like to tripplan, because we don't have to
have a rigid itinerary.
We can wake up and be like whatdo we feel like doing today?
Well, these are the top thingsaround us.
There's a really good hike here, but I don't feel like hiking.

(25:43):
Maybe let's go check out thisthing today.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
And then, with that as well, we also have our
absolute must-have, things thatwe want to do when we're in a
place and that sort of dictatesa high level of route that we're
gonna take.
It's like, okay, we're notmissing this, so we're gonna end
up here at some point.
So we have to get from here tothere.
Yeah what can we do along theway?

Speaker 3 (25:59):
Yeah, and then we also Very carefully route, plan
our route and the mainland, themainland Mexico.
You can route plan Baja's,essentially go down and then
maybe go a little bit around.
We spent all winter in Bajathis year and then took the
ferry over April 1st To themainland.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
Okay, see, now I was wondering about that because you
didn't.
You said you could either drive.
You would have to drive all theway back up, yeah.
Take the little sliver of landthat still is Mexico, or pop
back into the States to comeback down.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
But you took the ferry with Baja the very tip is
where Cabo San Lucas is andthat's what most people are
familiar with.
That's where all the resortsare, but I think about two hours
north on the Sea of Cortez side, as a city called La Paz, and
that's where the, the big ferryhub is, and there's two ferries
there's a, a commercial ferry,and then there's a public ferry,
and they run back and forthbetween the mainland and Baja

(26:49):
Every day.
We took the commercial ferrybecause we have Finley.
He's not allowed on the thepublic ferry.
He would have to go into acrate.

Speaker 3 (26:57):
Yeah, you're not allowed to sleep in your vehicle
.
Public ferry and you are in thecommercial ferry.
Oh, I'm not a sleeper vehicle.
It's more comfortable for usthan Sleeping in the ferry bunks
.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yeah, so we we booked onto the trucker ferry.
We just have to do it a coupledays in advance and then you
show up the morning of, gothrough the whole process of
getting on the ferry, like youhave to get your ticket, you
have to get weighed, all that,and then you get ordered onto
the ferry and then that's it.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
And before that you have to get a permit to have
your vehicle in mainland yeah,baja Peninsula, you don't need a
permit Vehicle and essentiallyit says you're not gonna sell
your vehicle, that's all, it isa temporary import permit, yeah
how long did the ferry take toget across?
We got on maybe at 5 and PM andwe had dinner on the ferry with
some local people and then Ithink we got off at 9 am.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
Okay, so overnight yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
And it's not.
It's not glamorous.
You just parked in between abunch of semi truck.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
And there's a little cafeteria.
We can go up and get some riceand beans and call it good Local
food.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, it's not a cruise ship, right, I mean it's
a ferry.
Commercial ferry, as you'resaying.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
To backtrack a little bit before you decide to go to
the mainland in the first place.
We were in Baja about to leave,the first time there's.
But in the north of Bajathere's a good wine region, so
we were checking that out rightbefore going back to the States.
I think we did a wine tour andthen shared an entire ball of
wine and then we were sittingthere a little bit tipsy, like
don't come back here next year.
Yeah, let's do that.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
So we have all of our great ideas.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
Hey, so that's what creates them, right?
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (28:27):
So we ended up, before coming to sign, to come
to the mainland.
We wanted to make sure therewas a route from Canada to the
Yucatan that we could takesafely.
We've had no problems on themainland, everyone's been
Amazingly friendly.
But we wanted we were a littleapprehensive going in.
We'd never been down here.
Our familiarity with it wasessentially the media.
We wanted to be really carefulwith our, with our route.
So what we did is we taking aconservative approach.

(28:49):
We drew a map of every traveladvisory the government of
Canada has and we put it on amap and we said, okay, it is
actually possible to get fromVancouver to the Yucatan Without
really going through any ofthose travel advisers.
You just have to be verycareful on your route.
And we figured the governmentof Canada is going to be
conservative, so there'sprobably some areas in there
that are fine to go.
But we are coming here wasalready out of our comfort zone.

(29:10):
We figured the conservativeapproach to being out of our
comfort zone was safer than theRisker approach to being out of
our comfort zone.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
It's also helpful for family back home as well.
We tell them we're going toMexico event.
What are you doing?
It's like it's okay withthought about it.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
I'm glad you brought that up, because that was
obviously like the first thingon my mind too.
So it's like you hear, and likeyou said you hear, all you hear
is from the media, you know.
So you're thinking you're justgoing through Cartel owned land
and you know crazy stuff.
But no, you made, you madeplans and there's a way to do
that and it, like you said, sofar it sounds like you've had a
good experience, we've had nobad experiences.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Mexico is really set up for tourism.
Something that's really coolabout Mexico is they have this
program called Pablo Magicos,and these are cities and towns
all over the country that arespecifically set up for tourism.
So they've got places to sleep,places to eat, they've got
tourist attractions close by,they've got a tourism center.

(30:05):
They're like it's people, it'sa town of essentially people who
want tourism and we're thetourists.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
So and that would couple magical or Mexico means
is magic town.
For those who don't speakSpanish, we'd learned a little
bit.
So it's a program that Mexicotook from, I believe, france and
they're designated touristtowns essentially and there's
hotels and stuff for tourism.
There isn't necessarily easyplaces to like.
They don't have, say, go parkhere, but they also Mexico.
In general, people don't mindif you just park somewhere in

(30:34):
the leaf.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Mm-hmm, so you're respectful.
And yeah, another really coolthing about being Mexico as well
they have a program called thegreen angels and this is
Mechanics who are driving aroundit.
If you get stuck or you getbroken down, you can call them.

Speaker 3 (30:47):
They'll come out and they'll help you they're
bilingual and they will fix yourlike, have parts and gas and
everything at cost.
Yeah, so it's a governmentprogram to help tourists and
locals driving on the road.
It's not to make money, it's tomake the road safer.
And also, mexico is massive, soeven if there's Like a problem
in one part of the country, it'sa very, very big country.

(31:08):
Yeah, I was.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
I was actually peeking at the map before we got
on here, just to look at it, tokind of see, okay, here's, you
can, and it in Mexico is huge,it's massive.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
And before we came over here we knew very little
about Mexico.
We knew about the, the resorts,like here's part of our day,
here's cancun, but everything inbetween there with no idea.
And so it's been really funresearching about a place,
learning for what it's known for, and then going there and
experiencing it like you've got.
We've driven the Nairi coast,that's, which is from the

(31:38):
Mazatland down to Porta Vallartaon the Pacific side, and then
we went up to the HalescoTequila region, where is where
they're growing all the agavefields, all the agave to make
tequila.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Yeah, that's where all those worlds tequila comes
from.
Yeah, and the Nairi coast islike a tropical rainforest,
while Baja is super dry.
So they're very different.
And we kind of refer to thedifferent areas we go just kind
of joking to ourselves is likecoloring in the map, because you
see a map and yeah, there's theplace, but you have no idea
what it's like.
You don't know the topography.
And then afterwards you're like, yeah, this is such a rich
place, there's like these thingsthere.

(32:10):
It has its own climate and hasits own elevation mountains,
beaches, whatever people justliving their lives in this
really cool place yeah.
And before you, before we go,it's just a spot on a map.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
What has been a place I guess that's like because in
your mind you know you didn'tknow much about Mexico ahead of
time but has there been a placethat's kind of like exceeded
your expectations, where you'rejust like, wow, I didn't expect
this and you got it?

Speaker 3 (32:33):
A lot of places.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
Yeah, the whole country.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
When we first were planning coming over here, we
almost not that, we almostdidn't, but we were on the fence
like, should we do this?
Is this ridiculous?
Like, are we losing our mindsto ship our van over to mainland
Mexico when we don't speakSpanish?
There is possibility of like Asafety risk and all that, but
which applies everywhere.
But eventually we did do it,like no, we're going to bite the

(32:57):
bullet.
We've been talking about doingthis for a year.
Let's just go do it.
Worst thing is, we can drivehome if we need to.
And we've been here.
We've been on the mainland forthree months now.
Yeah, yeah, we've been inMexico for over six months now.
We absolutely love it.
The whole country has exceededour expectations.
It's it's just a really vibrant, rich country.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
I think a lot of the areas we find when van lifeing
or in road tripping, you find alot of places in between the
destinations that turn out to bereally cool.
Like you knew, they were thereand it was just a dot on a map.
You said, ok, well, it's on theway, let's go check it out.
And then it turns out to beawesome, like just last week.
We went this, we were, wewanted to go see, we want to go
see something very popular whichis tier two, hakan, which is a

(33:41):
giant Mesoamerican ruin incentral Mexico.
That was a highlight.
We specifically wanted to gothere, but on our way to Oaxaca
which we're not there yet ourroute is essentially from to
walk on to Puebla to Oaxaca weended up going to two volcanoes
the second and third highestpeak in the country, and one of
them is an active volcano.
Once dormant, you go up and youcan camp at the visitor center

(34:02):
and go hiking.
The visitor center is at 3700meters or 12000 feet, and then
you can actually go to anotherspot and camp there and then
hike, which is at 4100 meters,which is 35 ish hundred thirteen
thousand five hundred maybe.
And then we we've never been atthat elevation before Hi, the
one time we went above 10000feet in the past, I had altitude

(34:23):
sickness, so we weren't surehow it would be and we ended up
spending three days up there.
We hiked at the highest we'veever been.
We hiked up to fourteenthousand five hundred feet on a
volcano.
We experienced how much thealtitude takes your energy.
We spent a couple days hikingup there.
We went on a 10 K or six milehike, just through like a
metropolis, just through like ameadow.

(34:43):
Down there you can see all thedifferent places.
And then on the very last daywe were there for once, the
clouds opened up and we saw thevolcano smoking with a gorgeous
sunrise, and the whole time wewere there we've been trying to
get a glimpse of the volcano,but it just been cloudy.
The sunrise was amazing.
We got on the last day.
It was just such a cool areathat we didn't really we didn't
really know what was it.
We went up there just to seewhat it was like.

(35:05):
We'd heard there was an activevolcano.
We wanted to go check it out.
We heard you could like look atit, hike a dormant volcano and
look at it.
We're like that would be cooland all it's just all the little
places you find along the waymake the trip so much more
enjoyable.
Yeah, there are the highlights,but if you build up the
highlights too much in your mind, then you might be disappointed
when you get there.
Another thing really helps ustraveling both to find good

(35:25):
spots and be safe is an appcalled I overlander.
It's an app that is reallyhelpful because you can find
other people's experiences.
They can say, hey, I slept here, it was fine.
They can say, hey, go to thehike.
This is the thing.
They can also say, hey, I slepthere, go.
Woke up in the middle of thenight, maybe don't go here.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
It's a lot of good advice.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, it's really good to connect with people who
have done a similar trip and youmay never meet them in person,
but you get to hear what theirexperience was.
It's really cool.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
The volcano I was talking about is.
There's a longer name, but thename I can remember is Ixtapopo
National Park.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Say that again.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
It's Ixtapopo National Park.
There's a longer name, I justcan't pronounce it.
We'll stick with that one then.
A lot of the Mexican words aredifficult for us to pronounce.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
Yeah, it's all part of the fun, right.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Exactly.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
So what have been some of your biggest challenges
that you faced with this vanlife?

Speaker 2 (36:19):
Languages like what we're just talking about.
That's a challenging one for us, since neither of us speaks
Spanish.
So Jake, in school, took Frenchimmersion, so he knows French,
and then, when I was in highschool, I learned German, which
is nothing like Spanish.
We basically our first trip toBaja, we had to figure out what
words do we need to get over theborder?

(36:41):
And then each interaction afterthat is like okay, well, what
words do we need to know to beable to get water?
What words do we need to knowto be able to see if we can park
here?

Speaker 3 (36:50):
One of the first things we learned is how to get
gas.
In the Baja Peninsula it's hitor miss whether they sell signal
.
Most of it doesn't have sellsignal and it's hit or miss
whether they accept credit card.
The very first thing we learnedis how to say do you accept
credit.
We slowly built it in by sorry,I'm looking at a wasp we slowly
built it in by.
We learned how to get water.
We learned how to get gas.
We learned how to get, orderfood and go to the grocery store

(37:13):
.
For a while we were okay atvery specific interactions, but
anything outside of that we weretotally hooked.
We've been picking it up quitea lot.
Haley's been doing an appcalled Duolingo, which is an app
that helps you in Spanish.
She's been doing it for likethree years.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
I have a 1045 day streak on Duolingo.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
She started doing it.
She started doing it during thelockdown in COVID, when we
couldn't do anything, with thehopes that we'd be able to
travel one day, and it's comingin really useful.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
Yeah, here you are, you're doing it.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Yeah, and every day we learn a little more.
Every encounter we have, it'slike, okay, how do I get through
this?
What words do I need to know?
And the Mexican people are sofriendly and welcoming.
All we do is try.
We try our best.
Like we go into the interaction, we'll speak Spanish and we
also preface like we only speaka little Spanish.
And they're so friendly andwelcoming and helpful so they'll

(38:03):
try and communicate with us.
And we also.
We have apps on or we havewidgets on our phone, like we
had downloaded Google Translateand we just have that on the
home screen over phones.
Whenever we're in a situationor like I don't know what to say
here, type in English translateit.
We can either say it or show itto someone and you can read it.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
Sometimes we pass the phone back and forth.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
Usually, usually we're getting okay now, but
usually we just figure out acouple of words.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
We've been pretty immersed for the last couple
months and we're we can get bymost interactions now.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
We can get the general justice.
At least we think we have thejustice.
We might not.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
How's the support of your family been back home?

Speaker 3 (38:41):
It's been awesome.
Yeah, they're.
They've kind of bought in thispoint.
I have a satellite, we have asatellite phone that we can use
to text people anywhere in theworld, so we can never be.
We always will be able tocontact our families, and my mom
now wants us every two daysjust to tell us where we are,
Just in case Hayley's family hasalways been on board with
Hayley.
Go live your life when you'reyoung.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
When I was in university I would go
backpacking by myself, so I wentto the Philippines and
Nicaragua, Costa Rica.
They're sort of used to thefact that I'm going to go to
these places and I think they'rehappy to jakes with me now.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
Doesn't matter what they say, right, you're going to
these places.
But now it's like, okay, well,at least you got, you got Jake
with you, so that's, that'sexcellent.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
Every country that I've traveled to, I've had an
amazing experience.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
And back to challenges.
There's been a lot more thanjust a language.
Our van is 20 feet long andmaybe six and a half feet wide.
A lot of the colonial towns inMexico are very small.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
Small streets, small areas to park, small everything.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Most people drive motorbikes and scooters.

Speaker 3 (39:41):
Small streets, cars parked on both sides A lot of
the time Hayley's looking at onemirror, I'm looking at our
other mirror.
Sometimes we have to tuck themirrors in.
Sometimes in colonial centersparking is very challenging.
People don't always listen tostreet signs here.
Sometimes you get people justignoring four-way stops or
traffic lights or one-waystreets or whatever Driving is

(40:03):
always is always a bit of achallenge, especially in city
centers.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
Yeah, we got, we almost got stuck on cobblestones
.
We were in the San Miguel deAllende, which is a beautiful
city.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
Colonial city.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
Colonial city.
It's rated as one of theprettiest cities in Mexico and
it's one of its streets, orcommonly referred to as the
prettiest street in the world.
It's got all of these beautifulcolorful buildings, it's got
cobblestone streets, there'sflowers everywhere and it's also
sort of in a valley, so drivingdown into the city is really
easy Drive down the road there,but to get back out with our van

(40:36):
, that was when we startedhaving challenges.
It rained the night before andthe cobblestones were all really
slippy and wet.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
I'm sure there was a better way out, but Google Maps
took us first down an alley orvan didn't fit down and then up
a super steep hill.
Cobblestones don't give thebest grip, there's not much
surface area and they're wet, sowe had a nightmare of a time
getting a San Miguel de Allende.
That was more uncommon, thoughGoogle Maps frequently leads you

(41:03):
astray.
In Mexico, it'll generally getyou where you're going, but it
might be along my street.
A couple of days ago it took usthrough like a six foot
clearance tunnel, so we had toback down the street.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
The first time we ever got stuck.
It's because Google Maps wewere trying to get to a beach
just outside of San Felipe andit took us through a back road
which was a sand dune.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
So it was our fault.
We were following Google Maps.
You can't blindly follow GoogleMaps in Mexico and that's our
main navigation.
We have downloaded offline maps.
We can navigate everywhere withGoogle Maps and sometimes it
says a road is better because itmight be 100 feet shorter, but
it's just not the right road tobe on.
So you kind of have to be onthe ball.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
And just accordingly, you just got to take it in
stride.
You don't know that situationis going to happen until you're
in it.
It's like, well, you can sithere and cry or I can figure out
how to get out of it.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
In Baja Peninsula we off road a lot.
A lot of roads aren't paved, alot of roads are sand.
So, like Haley said, the veryfirst day we got to Baja ever
last year, the very first timewe were in Baja we'd gone.
We wanted to drive two hoursaway from the city, from the
border to the nearest city ofSan Felipe.
It was early in the morning.
We wanted to get this done andwe got there and we're like,
okay, let's go find a beach,we're in Mexico, let's go to the

(42:13):
beach.
We followed Google Maps and weimmediately got stuck in a sand
dune.
So we met a lot of friendlythere's people doing like in
dune buggies.
So we met a friendly local whotold us out and then we backed
up to turn around and go back tothe road.
We got stuck again.
So somebody else came andactually towed us out again.
We had ran online.
You could use ratchet strapsand two by fours to get out, so

(42:34):
we tried.
That Did not work at all.
So this guy towed us.
We managed to get about 100feet and we got stuck again.
So he towed us to the road andthat we were fine.
So that was our very first dayin the Exio, very first one.
The day after that we decided wewanted to see the south part of
the country.
Most of what we wanted to seewas in the south part of Baja.
I mean, we didn't have verymuch time to see the whole
peninsula, so we just drovestraight to Baja California.

(42:58):
Sir, the Baja Peninsula is twostates Baja California and Baja
California.
Sir, drove all day.
We were parking at some anothersand dude but we didn't go in
the sand.
There's a spot on ouroverlander.
It was starting to get dark.
We do not drive in Mexico atnight.
There's cattle on the road,there's unmarked potholes, speed
bumps, there's unmarkedpotholes.
We don't drive at night, so itwas getting dark.
We had to find a spot to park.

(43:18):
We ended up running into somepeople we've been talking to
online Total chance.
They ran the Baja Facebookgroup and they'd given us
recommendations a couple of daysbefore, like where to cross the
border, what are the top placesto see, some tips for driving,
because it again is different.
So we were talking to them.
Everything was fine.
We woke up in the morning.
We were parked maybe a milefrom the beach, but the tide was

(43:40):
coming in and seeping a littlebit, so water was coming near
the van, so we just wanted to goand park beside the people we
just met.
And we got right beside themand somehow got stuck in clay,
got so badly like.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
There was an a mad rush as well, so we had just
woken up.
We saw this water creepingtowards the van.
It's like, oh no, we got to goBack up.
Drive that way right into clay.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
We would have been pretty unhappy if it hadn't been
for the people we were with.
Everyone was joking, everyonewas laughing.
We used it as an opportunity tolike show each other's vans.
We all just kind of relaxed.
And then one van tried to towus out the same van as that we
have.
Didn't work.
Two vans tried to tow us outdidn't work.
We were still okay becauseeveryone was joking around.
But it took a guy from Arizona,super friendly, coming down.

(44:23):
He had a winch on his Jeep sohe had to anchor it to one of
the vans because he tried towinch and just pull himself to
us.
So he had to anchor on a vanand then winch us out and after
about three hours we got out.
So that was our first and thirdday in Baja.
Wow.
And then after that we werevery careful Didn't get stuck
that entire trip.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
Nice.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
And then we came down this year and we made it
farther than that.
We even went to the same spot,didn't get stuck.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
We learned our lesson .

Speaker 3 (44:50):
This year we were camping and there's a really
cool hike you can do.
You have to drive down a gravelroad for a while and get to a
canyon that has like a bit of awaist deep water and then you
can hike this canyon.
First Ways is supposed to bereally cool, so we were driving
in and we made it probably twoor three kilometers in.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
Just to backtrack as well the entrance to this canyon
.
You go through an active minesite.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
It's a quarry, a quarry.
Yeah, it's a gravel quarry.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
So you're driving through all of this machinery
and then there's roads.
There's a multiple roads thatthe quarry trucks are taking, so
you don't exactly know whichone is a dead end and which one
is the one you're supposed totake.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
So there's this really cool hike you wanted to
do.
We ended up going down thegravel road and we got stuck in
gravel, but this time we hadbought all the recovery gear we
didn't have last time.
So we have rat distress, wehave recovery traction boards,
which essentially is justsomething you shove under the
tire to get better grip.
A shovel and a shovel and weused those to get out.
We're patting ourselves in theback.

(45:48):
We were okay this time and wewent to a nearby beach.
It was too late in the day todo the hike, so we went to a
nearby beach I think it was NewYear's Eve and met some people,
conveniently enough, who livedlike an hour away from where I
lived in Vancouver, so we juststarted chatting, had a fun time
.
Then we got up the next day andtook a safer route to near where
we got stuck, parked where itwas dirt.

(46:08):
You couldn't go any farther butwe parked and then, because we
couldn't get so far into, wecouldn't drive any farther.
We had a really long hike aheadof us so I think we did about
10 miles, 16 kilometers in thedesert into a canyon.
We ended up going there.
We got to this canyon.
We were expecting waist deepwater, so we had water shoes and
bathing suits and when we gotthere the canyon was flooded.

(46:28):
So we started walking in likethis is deep and we thought
let's take off like drop ourbackpacks, take all of our stuff
away.
It was built as like a waistdeep water, a nice hike.
So we ended up swimming throughthis canyon, got to a spot with
a waterfall, we were like, okay, we can probably get up this.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
We also had Finley with us.
I wasn't just the two of us.

Speaker 3 (46:45):
Yeah.
So we climbed up but Finleycouldn't get up.
We left him for about fiveminutes and explored the little
area with Finley barking bloodymurder like we'd left him behind
, and there was anotherwaterfall and more water and we
decided it was too dangerous andjust came back.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
Yeah, that was the final straw.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
I love it, though, because it's the things that
happen that you remember, andthose are the memories you make.
Those are the adventures youhave.
I want to ask about you twobriefly here.
I know on your website it sayssoon to be married couple.
Is that still the case?

Speaker 3 (47:17):
Yes, Our wedding is in March 2024 in the Yucatan.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
Yucatan, march 2024.
Okay, very, in the Yucatan.
Very good, what has Van Life,what has it done for your
relationship?

Speaker 3 (47:29):
We've always been interested in traveling right
off the bat.
Our first trip in Iceland, wespent 24 hours together, 24
hours a day together, for 12days straight.
I think we've been dating forfour months at the time, so it
was a pretty good test of ourrelationship when we were
traveling in the States.
We've also spent two weeks fulltime together, two weeks not
together, and then during COVIDand this we spent a lot of time

(47:49):
together and we've kind ofrealized that we're totally fine
spending all of our timetogether.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
It's also a really good test and a reminder that
we're a team, like we findourselves in all these scenarios
and we're the ones workingtogether to get out of it, and I
think that's really somethingreally cool and really special
is, I don't know if everyonecould do this, but we've had
some sticky situations, likewe're currently stuck in a field

(48:14):
right now and we're going towork together and get out of it.

Speaker 3 (48:17):
We're not going to talk about that yet.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
That's current situation right now, so we'll
kind of hold off on that.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
We've also had all of these really fun experiences,
like we've spent so much timetogether.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
We're making all these fun memories, yeah it's
something we can look back onand we really want to have these
experiences now.
When we don't have kids, wedon't have that many
responsibilities.
We are in a position where wecan leave our jobs for a bit.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
We're also able, like we're physically healthy enough
, where we can't go do all thisright now.

Speaker 3 (48:44):
Yeah, like we were just talking a couple of days
ago how grateful we were.
We were young enough andhealthy enough to just go try to
climb a volcano.
We didn't try to get to the top.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
Yeah, whatever you can do.
So currently you're in mainlandMexico, you're on your way to
the Yucatan.
How much longer do you have?
And then, kind of, what's thefuture look like for the two of
you?

Speaker 2 (49:02):
Right now we don't want to rush to the Yucatan,
because down in Mexico you'vegot the wet season and the dry
season, and so right now it'sthe rainy season and it also
brings the hurricanes, hotterweather, everything like that.
It's the summer time as well,so temperatures are probably
like 40 degrees there right now,which is way too hot for the
bad.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
That's like 110.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
Yeah, yeah, so we're starting taking our time.
That's partly why we're in themountains.
Right now it's much cooler,yeah, yeah, so we're slowly
meandering through the mountains, enjoying the cooler weather.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
As a quick backtrack, we're allowed to be in Mexico
six months at a time.
As Canadians I think Americansyou have to get a permit
whenever you come across theborder.
It's called an FMM.
I can't remember exactly whatit stands for.
It's essentially like a $35tourist permit and it lasts for
six months.
So we renewed ours recently byflying back to visit Haley's
family in Ontario, and then weare flying back to visit my

(49:55):
family in September and to go toa friend's wedding.
So every time we fly back,we're allowed to be here for six
months.
Our van is registered as the RVin Canada, which means when we
got our import permit for Mexico, we got one for 10 years.
Yeah, if you just have a truck,it's only six months.
So we are able to fly out andback and leave our van here.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
That is nice.
That's a good way to do it.
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
So our kind of plans are to get to the Yucatan.
We have no plans after that.
We've talked about maybe doingbullies in Guatemala, maybe, but
we aren't sure.
Like the vehicle insurancesituation, we put a lot of money
and effort into this van and Ikind of wanted to have good
insurance, good vehicleinsurance if anything happens,
and I don't know if you can getit in Guatemala.
Also, safety is a concern, soit's something we're gonna cross

(50:38):
when we get there.
But we're not there yet.
The only thing we know we haveto do is be in the Yucatan in
March.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
For our own wedding.
For our own wedding.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Yeah, exactly, you gotta be there March of 2024 for
your own wedding, I love it.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
One of the big challenges I wanted to talk
about that we actually forgot totalk about well, I didn't
forget to talk about we've donewas heat.
It is the summer right now andin certain parts of the country
it is so hot.
So, the coast when we werethrough.
It was okay because you couldjump in the water, but the area
around Tequila and Guatemala,guatemala, tequila and Guatemala
, harap, which is Mexico'ssecond largest city, is

(51:12):
semi-arid and it was 36, atleast 38, which is maybe like
100 to 110.
It was just so hot and it nevercooled down really.
It got a little cooler at night, but it would be so hot during
the day that everything in thevan would retain the heat.
So when it got cooler outside,our van was just radiating heat.
So we have a roof fan, which isreally good, and we have

(51:35):
windows which we used to keepcool, and then we also have a
fan for Finley to keep him cool.
But it was just so hot, it wasexhausting, so we wanted to go
to the mountains.
The day before we left to visitHaley's family in Ontario, our
fan motor died, so we weresleeping in that temperature
with no fan.
Yeah it was brutal.
We're really lucky it happenedthe day before we left, not the
day we came home, because wewere able to get a place for a

(51:58):
part in Canada and bring it back.
Oh nice, and bring it with you.
Wow, it's very difficult to getparts out.
There are some things that youcan get on Amazon, but the
Amazon in Mexico is differentthan the Amazon in Canada, in
the States and a lot of placeswon't ship down here and if they
do, it's very expensive.
We've been having a hard timegetting any part we need for
anything.
We've talked about gettinganother battery for our van just

(52:18):
because it'd be nice to have,but we can't get it down here.

Speaker 1 (52:21):
You both have been on a ton of adventures.
You're going to make it to theU-10 at least by March next year
, because you got to get married.
So that's one way to do it.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
I think we can get out of this field.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
But you got to get out of this field first.
That's priority number one.
What could people do if peopleare listening to this and
they're like these?
Jake and Haley are awesome.
I want to follow along.
Where can they find you?
How do they, how do they followalong with your adventures?

Speaker 2 (52:43):
So we're active on social media.
We have Instagram, which isHaley and Jake.
It's H-A-Y-L-E-Y and Jake.
We post videos on on YouTube wehave a little YouTube channel
where we share all of ouradventures, and then we have a
website which is alsowwwhaleyandjakecom.
And yeah, if anyone isinterested in learning more,

(53:04):
feel free to send us a messageand can chat with friends.

Speaker 3 (53:08):
And if anyone is thinking about doing a similar
journey, you don't have to diveright in off the bat.
You can expand your comfortzone slowly.
So the way we did it we hadbeen.
First we got used to van lifein Canada and the States, so we
were used to sleeping in a car.
And then we expanded ourcomfort zone, slowly and more
safely for us in Baja the firsttime.
And then we expanded it more bylearning more Spanish, spending

(53:30):
winter in Baja, this timetalking to locals.
And even now we slowly expandedour comfort zone.
We stay in places we think aresafe.
We talk to locals to see ifareas are good.
You don't have to dive in anddo the thing that scares you
right off the bat.
You can slowly manage the riskand manage your expanded comfort
zone until it doesn't seemscary anymore.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Thank you both for coming on the show and sharing
some of your thoughts andadventures.
I'm kind of all in on Mexiconow.
I didn't realize how cateredMexico was towards tourism, that
sort of thing.
Like you said, we are from themedia.
It seems scary.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
It's not like that at all.
People are so friendly andwelcoming here.
I've lost count the number oftimes where we've just been
walking through a town andsomeone will come up to us, find
out we're from Canada andactually thank us for coming to
visit.
We've never had that happen inanother country before.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
Yeah, a lot of people are just happy that there's
tourism.
They're happy that we're there.
They want us to tell otherpeople that we're having good
experiences.
We are obviously careful wherewe go, but everywhere has been
beautiful, everywhere has beenfriendly, and they want tourists
.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
That's why I've stayed here for so long.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
Keep it rolling.
Keep it rolling, Hailey andJake.
Thank you both so much forcoming on the show.
Appreciate it.
Thanks for joining me.
Another Jake on Journey withJake.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
Thanks for chatting, thanks for having us.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
Special thanks to Jake and Hailey for joining me
on the show today.
I really appreciate it.
I did get a notice from them acouple hours after we got done
recording that they were able toget unstuck from the field that
they were in somewhere in themountains of Mexico.
I was glad to hear that.
I'm glad they're continuing ontheir journey.
Speaking of journey adventures,experiences, I want to know

(55:11):
about yours.
Send me a note tojakeatjourneywithjakenet or
message me on Instagram atJourney with Jake podcast.
Let's talk about youradventures on the show and just
remember it's not always aboutthe destination as it is about
the journey.
Take care everybody.