Nurturing Humanity While Navigating the Globe with Sasha Lezhnev

My guest , sasha Leshnev , is someone who thrives on the endlessly changing horizon . From traveling in an RV for a year and slow traveling several weeks at a time the following year , sasha and his family are always on the pursuit for their next adventure . Hello everyone , my name is Jake Bushman and I am the host of Journey with Jake .

I am once again very blessed and fortunate to speak with another adventure seeker and just an outstanding human being . Sasha Leshnev and my apology , sasha , for butchering your last name is someone who just embraces adventure . You will love the energy that Sasha brings to the conversation . We talk about some crazy mountain hikes .

In his wild wedding that included parasailing . I think one of the things I love about Sasha are the simple moments as well . What could be better than participating in a cherry spitting contest ? Welcome to Journey with Jake . This is a podcast about adventure and how , through our adventures , we can overcome the challenges of life that come our way .

While I expect you will learn some things about different adventures , this show will entertain you . Each episode will feature different guests or guests as they share experiences and stories from the different adventures they have been on .

Not only will you be entertained , but you will also hear the failures and trials each guest faces and what they have done or are doing to overcome the hardships that come their way . My goal is to take each of us on a journey through the experiences of my guests , with the hope that you'll be entertained and inspired to overcome your day-to-day challenges .

After all , it's not a lot about the destination as it is about the journey . Welcome back to another episode of Journey with Jake . We are on episode number 71 today .

First , if you want to reach out to me to talk about an adventure or something adventurous you participate in , or heck , just to say hi , there are a couple easy ways to get in touch with me . First , by email . My email is jake at journeywithjakenet , or you can DM me on instagram at journeywithjakepodcast .

I would highly suggest following me on instagram just as a way to get to know me a little better , as well as my guests . As most of you know , I am just a couple months away now from participating in the Snow Canyon Half Marathon in St George , utah .

While I was really excited to do my first ever half marathon last June , I am just as excited for this one because I feel a lot more prepared , and I feel that way thanks in part to Jacob and Melody Bateman , who are running coaches , and they are helping me to feel prepared .

Melody has given me some strength workouts to do after my runs , and the difference I feel while I run , especially on my long runs , has been huge . If you want a little extra push or need some guidance with your runs , please reach out to Jacob and Melody . You can find more information by visiting trail to 100.com and be sure to let them know .

Jake from Journey With Jake sent you All . Right , let's get to some energy and fun for my guest , sasha . Well , I'm excited today because I have Sasha Lesnev . I hope I said that right . I have him on the show today with me . Sasha , welcome to Journey With Jake .

You talk a lot about being off the beaten trail , so to speak , finding hidden gems , so we're going to touch on some of that . But , like I always do on the show , I want to know a little bit about your background first and kind of who you are . If you don't mind introducing yourself and who you are .

My parents took me on a bunch of what I deemed very boring trips when I was a kid . We went , we visited a bunch of churches and museums and art galleries and I was like bored to death and only child . And then one day they took me to Scout Camp . I really hated it at first , but then I really thrived .

It was like pushing the comfort boundaries right away . They dropped me off and they were like good luck , we'll see you in a couple of weeks . And this is one of those Scout camps where you literally have to build everything from scratch everything from the bathroom to the kitchen to like there was nothing set up .

We went to a virgin forest and built everything and then tore it all down on me when we went home . I kept going back to that camp and then did my first backpacking adventure when I was 10 . The backpack was probably bigger and heavier than I was and I nearly froze to death .

It got down to the 20s that night , I think that sort of started my thirst and love for the outdoors . So I've been trying to do a lot of that over the years . I have a background in human rights in Africa .

I lived in Uganda for three years doing conflict resolution work and I started a nonprofit that helps rehabilitate former child soldiers there Still going 16 years later and that was an amazing experience . My wife is from Ethiopia and so we go there pretty regularly to see her family , and I've worked a lot on the Democratic Republic of Congo .

I helped found a movement on something like the new blood diamonds called conflict minerals , which go into electronics . So I've traveled a lot in these kind of funny countries . I love it . It's so interesting , it pushes your comfort zone .

A friend of mine told me one time who I used to live with said do one thing every day that gets you out of your comfort zone and that'll make you a cooler person . And so since then I've really tried to take that to heart and we go on a lot of adventures .

But my wife and I quit our full time jobs two years ago to travel full time , mostly in the United States . We bought an RV it's called Lazy Days and we towed a Jeep Wrangler behind it , and so we would stop in all these places and take the Jeep out and go off-roading , and it's been wonderful .

We hit 44 states and then we did a second year , ran out of money after one year . It's not working , and so then we decided to work part time my wife full time , but remotely for a second year , and then we have been doing that for the last year is like spending a month at a time in different places , renting an Airbnb .

Then you get major discounts if you rent monthly and so we lived in these places for a month at a time that we like . Maybe we'll move to one day . So it's like Montana , seattle , portland , several spots in California , colorado , santa Fe a bunch of places , hawaii and that's been really fun . So , yeah , and we moved back home now to Northern Virginia .

But we're planning many more trips . We got three planned and a fourth one in the work , so adventure is definitely not going to stop now .

I went to Sierra Leone during the war . I helped build a school in Ghana , traveled all over Congo , and I was like I can't , you know , so I was just looking for people that were into Africa in some way , and so it was a perfect perfect fit .

Okay , how did you get involved with Africa to begin with ?

So I went there , we helped build a school and I nearly died . That was pretty wild . I contracted some sort of a stomach bug to which they have never found the real diagnosis of . I did all kinds of scans but they were about to operate me , operate on me at a hospital in Ghana , and then the electricity went out .

So the whole hospital was without electricity , didn't have a generator , nothing . And they're like well , I'm sorry , we can't operate , there's no power . So you have to wait till the morning . So we'll hope you'll be okay . And I just I said a bunch of prayers . I was like , oh my God , and that was way before cell phones , this is in 2000 .

Yeah , there's 2000 . I woke up next morning and they're like you know what ? You don't need surgery . Actually , the thing that we thought you had you don't have . So just recover and you'll be okay .

And that's pretty much what happened , but that really opened up my eyes so much to the level of poverty and neglect , that and exploitation that has happened in Africa , and so we really wanted to go back , and so then I moved to Uganda .

I got a like a research job to just , you know , sort of look at the causes of the war in northern Uganda , which was , at the time , 25,000 child soldiers that were there , and so that was amazing . And then one thing led to another , and then I founded this organization .

Once you sort of meet , you know , someone who's a child soldier or somebody who has been raped repeatedly by rebel commanders or something like that just can't get out of your head . You got to kind of really it stays with you . And so I wanted to do something to help out .

And so , yeah , I founded this organization 16 years ago and I've been going back and then working on human rights on Africa ever since .

We're helping reconcile them with their communities , because a lot of them get ostracized and stigmatized and then group yeah , so that's it grassroots reconciliation group .

Some of them are forced to perform other tasks , like carry equipment for miles and miles , or a lot of them are raped repeatedly . Some of these young girls are given to commanders as so-called wives and then they have children and those children are , you know , they call them children born of war , and those are really very , very tough situations .

So we deal with a lot of those , a lot of those people . But you know there's is a many ways to help them build up their lives again . A lot of it is through little , small economic projects , so farming and animal husbandry and microfinance . We train them to be entrepreneurs and a lot of them start small businesses . We found it over 300 small businesses .

And then a lot of it is trauma counseling too . We have a trauma counselor . We train different counselors in those communities . So you know it's a joy I love to

go visit . I was , I was able to go visit last year again and that's it just , you know . So heartening to meet these people and hear their transformation stories . Several people told me that they were suicidal and , and you know , our organization basically brought them out of the darkness . Other people were refugees .

We also work with refugees and these people left south Sudan , which there's war going on , with nothing , and they now they now have an income , they're able to send their kids to school , because you have to pay , like small school fees and pay uniforms and that sort of thing . So so I love visiting .

I I try not to spend the money on my own plane tickets because I could then , you know , for $1,500 , whatever it costs , to fly all the way to Uganda . I could just donate that money to the organization . So I try to do that . So I try not to go too often because it's selfish , but it is , it's .

It's so wonderful to go see , see the impact , and we actually have a former child soldier who's running the projects on the ground now , which is which is so inspiring that is fantastic .

Let's jump into kind of your , your full-time traveling , a little bit off the beaten travels kind of I think that's the name of your . Your website is that . Your new website is at off the beaten travel dot com you , you got it , you got it .

And then over the last year , we were doing more slow travel , which was still , I think , full-time travel , you know we were doing like a month at a time , you know . So we were into our house . We didn't have like a full , like a home base per se . Everyone was every , every stop was a base .

So so that you know , and and some people do that , like they move around yearly or you know , whatever it's , it's been so inspiring . Meeting people on the road , especially in Mexico . That was like really eye-opening .

We saw the , the level of adventure go up a lot more when we , when we RV'd to Mexico , and these people like they had been all the way down to Argentina in their RV , or you know that this guy like knocked on the door of El Chapo's house in Mexico . You know , obviously El Chapo was in jail , but he's just like I wanted to see the compound .

So you know it's so inspiring to meet people who are way more adventurous than you . In fact , like my wife and I have toyed that the idea of doing our own podcast , of kind of like yours , like interviewing adventurers around the world .

I think that just taking a different path to work or , you know , doing a little hike on Saturday morning , or going to a restaurant with you know some ethnic cuisine that you've never tried before , all that is really adventure . You don't need a lot of money to do adventure and you don't need a lot of , you know , exotic places to do adventure .

Adventure is possible anywhere you go . I think it's just doing something that is not your routine , where you , where you're sort of you know , sleepwalking , doing it . It's something that you , that you are very conscious of and you are aware , much more aware than you would be , just sort of brushing your teeth in the morning .

Something that you and that's what I love about travel and adventure is that it wakes you up , it makes you feel alive . You know , we , we kayaked down the Colorado River with my kid for a few days and that was exactly one of those moments like totally out of our comfort zone , but it was amazing and everybody adjusted fine and it was a great adventure .

But there were .

We were paying way too much money for some daycare slash preschool here in northern Virginia and so when we hit the road we're like , oh , we're gonna lose our income on our jobs . Well , we don't have to pay for daycare now .

So that was a big one and it was wonderful because , you know , like preschool dick here , like they just , you know , I mean they need some basics , like I was , you know , teaching him how to read and do a little math and , and now he reads , which is phenomenal . I'm very happy about that , very , very proud , um , that he can do that .

So there's some book stuff , but you know so much of it is just experiential learning . So you know he's learned to surf , he knows how to climb . He goes to a climbing jib , he has his own harness and climbing shoes . What else has he done ? Uh , you know all kinds of outdoor adventures he's . He's gone on backpacking trips with us .

He has a trail name , you know he's . He's been on glaciers , been to 30 , 30 national parks wow , yeah , yeah . So he will not remember a lot of that , like I have to show him the pictures because he was like three when we started . That's okay , it's , it's built into him .

He's become so much more of an adaptable person easy to make friends with stuff like that .

So I kind of want to touch on some of your off the beat and travel things that you've done , some of your hidden gems .

But I want to touch on some things that I saw on your website first , that you've done and if you can kind of just share some background and some things like that for us , if you don't mind , you were engaged in Bolivia , yeah , by some lake or so can you tell them kind of ? Give me the backstory on that , sure yeah , it's a funny one .

sort of thing . And then we went camping in Yellow Stone and we and I and I was like I'll push it , even , for she had never been camping in her life , and I pushed it even further . I took her on a and a back backing trip . It's in the back country of Yellowstone , which of course there are there are lots of grisly , so we did that .

It was really cool . We camped in this hot springs under a waterfall which is in the southwest corner of Yellowstone really cool area called the Beckler region , and that went okay . We sort of didn't sleep , so nice because you're , you know , you basically have your bare canister like in your hand right and I was like you know what ? This is the one she can .

She can travel , she's got it all .

So so let's go adventure down in Bolivia and we'd heard about this Salar de Uyuni , which is kind of like the Great Salt Lake in Utah , but but it's in Bolivia and and there's a lot of other cool sort of geothermal geyser activities down there and it looked amazing and see the sunrise on this little island with a bunch of cactuses , it's cool .

So I was like we both looked at that , being like let's do it . And so we did it , and and so the first thing you do is you fly to La Paz , which I think is the highest capital city in the world . I could be wrong . It's very , very high . It's something like 12,000 feet , like that's the city . That's pretty wild . It's very , very high .

And so you like you fly to Denver . You're already getting a little dizzy , like just imagine going there .

You arrive and you've got this like earth splitting headache , and so the the plan was that we were gonna spend one night in the Capitol and then take a little bus to Lake Titicaca , which is on the border with Peru , and I was gonna propose there I got the ring and everything and I woke I was doing the morning .

So I woke up in the morning and was like , okay , this is my moment . And , man , I couldn't lift my head out of bed . I was just like it was like a worst out of migraine . I'm gonna take like five ad bills and go back to bed and see if it's gonna work again .

So I did and I think maybe I took three ad bills and then I was like , okay , let me do it . And then I have a little . I think I put my phone on video but I pointed it the wrong direction and I proposed and yeah , it was amazing .

It was amazing I had like a mild headache all day , so Pisco Sour probably made it worse , but yeah , anyways , that's the story . Yeah , bolivia and Chile is a magical place , probably one of the coolest places I've been .

I wanna hear about that because I was like what , what's this ?

We got married in a castle and that was pretty affordable to rent , honestly . Well , way more affordable than anything in the Washington DC area . We're like , okay , we're gonna bring these people all the way here , like might as well do something fun . So we found this park it's called Monte Sibilini , absolutely gorgeous . It's the truffle capital of Italy .

So these truffles and then lentils I was like lentils and these beautiful wildflowers . And then you could also paraglide from mountains , slash hills , like across the valley , and it's super picturesque . I have a couple of photos and reels on my Instagram from that . So something like 20 guests said , yeah , let's do it , and thank God , nobody died .

I only later realized , like you know , the paragliding is not maybe the safest thing in the world , but whatever , we did it , and I mean it was tandem , right , I mean you're going with an instructor , so , but it was phenomenal , yeah , it was great and yeah .

Then there's this other waterfall that the Romans had built , and so it literally turns on and off , and they turned it off when we were there . It's like a waterfall and all of a sudden there was like no waterfall . Pretty fascinating , and it was from Roman times .

We're like , hey , we want to climb the mountains . We're like , well , you really have to acclimatize . We're like , well , whatever , we're just there for a week . So you know like we'll be fine . And they're like , well . So anyway , we went there and it Pito , ecuador . The capital is a very high city too , not quite as high as La Paz , but it's high .

And so we get there immediately . We're like , oh my God , like I'm feeling dizzy headache again , and like next morning , like we're climbing . And it was like , oh geez . So we climbed four mountains . We submitted two of them . I was like throwing up sick on one of them . My wife thought she was going to get a heart attack on the other one .

And then the last one is Kodopaxi . It's a huge volcano which overlooks the capital city . It's absolutely stunning and gorgeous . You can see it from the city and it's a real mountain .

We had hiked the day before with , like on the warm up mountain , with we were paired You're always paired with somebody else and so we were paired with this guy , so we're having breakfast with him . And they're like oh , have you done some climbing before ? And we're like , yeah , you know we love hiking . That's what I think was my answer .

And we turn to him . He's like what about you ? We're like , oh , yeah , yeah , you know I just finished the seven summits . And we're like what's that ? And we're like , yeah , yeah , the seven summits , you know Mount Everest and the highest mountain on every continent . We're like what ? So we climbed , we made it .

I will say we made it to the top of this mountain . That was 17,500 feet , 5,000 feet , moly , moly , yeah , 5,000 meters . But it took us 13 hours to do . And these people , like this guy and his wife , did it in like six hours , but we shared a vehicle , so they had to wait in the car for us for seven hours . It's very embarrassing .

So then the next day we were off to climb Kodopaxi , the big volcano . We attempted and it's a serious push . So it's one of those ones where you have the alpine start at night , and so they're like , ok , well , you know , get some sleep in the daytime , because we're going to start our hike at 11 PM , like great .

So then you climb because you have to avoid the avalanche risk in the daytime . And so we got our , we got our gear on , we got heavy backpacks and crampons , everything .

We probably made it like about three hours and then we really felt the altitude sickness and we were getting really dizzy and so we just we weren't with a guy , but we , we , we found a guy and we're like dude , we got to go home , we got turned back because we're starting to get in this like deep snow and stuff .

So at least we summited that one mountain , even though it took us 13 hours . But we never made it to Koto Paxi . But it was a great experience , you know , and now we know to prep for mountains .

Your wife feels like she's going to have a heart attack . So , with all of that happening , why do you keep doing it ?

It's much shorter , but it's still high and so . But for that we like trained . You know , we were like doing a lot of hikes with putting rocks in our packs and I was doing all this stair master and this kind of thing , and so we would have made it .

Our guy , we had a guide and he said we would have made it , except there was a blizzard on the mountain . And so every single person who was on the expedition turned back because it was . It was a real white out blizzard . But we were like , no , we've trained , we're ready for this .

So the guy's like , okay , cool , we'll just set up our tents here and try to wait it out . And so we stayed on the mountain in a blizzard . We had to wake up every half an hour to scoop the snow off the tent to prevent it from caving in , and we melted ice for for water . It was great , it was a lot of fun .

Look at these stories you have now , these things you can tell people and share with me , which I love . I love hearing these stories , so I think it's fantastic and it's just enjoyable for me to hear . So thank you for sharing that .

It was fun and we met somebody who was 84 , who was like a good 10 miles into the trail and you know I think that my kid is probably the youngest person on the trail that day and she was the oldest it was . It was a really awesome experience . I'm like , who am I ? You know I have no major health issues . Like gotta keep it going , right .

Tell me a little bit about that , tell me some of your favorite spots that you hit along the way and just kind of some some thoughts from living in an RV for a year . It was great .

. But , yeah , I mean it's so cool because you can . It's a , it's a means to get to cool places that you wouldn't otherwise get to . And , like you know , the badlands doesn't have a hotel . In the park or the Bistai wilderness in New Mexico , there's no , there's nowhere to stay there . You're in a tent and you're not going to sustain .

I , most people would not be able to sustain themselves living in a tent for a year . I mean , that's , that's really hard . You could do it , I suppose , but I sort of beyond my comfort zone .

I can stay in a tent for a few days at a time , no problem , maybe a week or two , but , and of course I have done for a week or two , but but you know , for a year , like I don't know .

But the RV , like you have your own bed as a mattress , a pillow , a blanket , a heater , you know , a fan , if you need that , the kitchen at a shower , it's , it's pretty awesome . And so it gets you to all these places , especially out West . For you there's , like so many public public lands .

Out East we really don't have the public land thing , and so out West you have this public lands . You can just go park yourself for up to two weeks , then you can move two inches if you want and then park yourself for another two weeks .

And I loved especially going to places like that because the other adventurers , other campers , other RVers you meet and RV is a very loose term like people sleeping in their cars , they convert their Subaru's , you know you have those people in , like the van , the van life thing . You know a lot of older women do that . I find that very inspiring .

We've stayed in touch with some people like that and just meet a total different walk of life . And these people who are called trainers , like they , they go on the back of trains , freight trains , and you know they hit the hitch a ride that way for free , and it's sort of this vagabond lifestyle you know people live in .

You know that town that's featured in Nomadland , the movie what is it called ? Courtsite , arizona ? Yeah , you've been to Courtsite , I've driven by there Right right .

It's kind of like RV wasteland , right , but it's kind of depressing but it's at the same time really inspiring because you talk to the people there and it's amazing and what they do and you know they can live for . I think the fee at Courtsite is something like it equals out to like $5 a day or even less , and you can sustain yourself that way .

But at the same time I think that year for us like we really wanted to go see everything . You know it became a little stressful because you know they're just constantly moving and driving and like where are we going to go ?

And the first six months of our travels everything was planned like day by day , by day , and that became annoying because then all of a sudden like well , we have to be somewhere . And it's like , well , wait a minute , you know this really cool park we'd never heard of , we can't go there because we have a schedule .

So it became work almost and so we stopped . So the last half of the trip we didn't plan at all and so we just go kind of day , sort of a few days at a time , which was really cool because then we had the flexibility , but then you had this stress be like where am I going ?

But then the second half was kind of more , more loose , but that stressed you out too because it was you know , what are we going to do ? Where are we going ? Kind of not having the plan . So if you compare the two side by side , just in that year of living in the RV because I'm a planner , I like to plan , I like to have plans .

But I've learned listening to this podcast . I've learned , hey , it's okay to go with the flow sometimes and do some things . I'm trying to adjust my way of thinking a little bit . But putting those things side by side living in the RV , was there an advantage to one or the other , I mean , or was it really kind of evened itself out ? I mean , what do you ?

What do you think ?

You know one thing that I have a big lesson for me of life in the last couple of years , as we've been doing all this travel is you know , decisions shouldn't be that complicated because really you should just listen to your gut and listen to what your heart is telling you .

And you know when , when we decided on the RV trip , our hearts were telling us we got to leave Northern Virginia , we have to leave our jobs , we have to go somewhere , hit the road , and that felt so good to get out . I mean , just remember that feeling of leaving the area just felt very freeing .

And then , you know , we did different things and that felt freeing . And now actually coming back here feels freeing . So you know , it just depends on kind of what your , what your gut is telling you .

For us , I think , you know , freeing up the calendar , so to speak , to go and be flexible and pursue those things that really seem to be calling you , was really

really cool . In the second half of that RV trip , like we , for example , we had only planned on going to California for like a couple of weeks . We had some people from friends and family wanted to see there . And then we were like , all right , let's go , because the real plan was like Montana and you know all the whole amazing sites of the Southwest .

And then , like I found a surfboard and it was like whoa , there's this whole other world out there and we got my kid on a boogie board and it was just like paradise , right . So that was , that was amazing . And then we saw the Redwoods and found this place to go skiing inside your 70 National Park .

You know , it was just like all these , like like we went to Yosemite on a whim . That was crazy . And then we just kept extending to the firefall where there was totally random . That's like where this light shines on .

I'm so glad that we had those spontaneous , but the RV thing is really cool for really getting out to places that you wouldn't otherwise get , to , these really wild areas , and I miss that . Because you really get to these places , you get to meet these people that you would never otherwise come across in your normal life .

If you go out of your comfort zone once a day or something ? So I think that's great , great words of advice . I appreciate you sharing that . Going on to the slow travel portion of it , I liked that idea because I like the idea of being able to explore where you're at a little deeper and having a place that you can kind of call home for a little bit .

Sounds like you said , I heard , I thought I heard Seattle , I thought I heard Portland , a couple of places in California , santa Fe , any particular area there that you were just like wow . I'm glad we were able to stay here for a few weeks or a month or whatever it was .

We started our sort of slow travel thing in Montana and that was we loved that during summer and like we could swim in the lake , we could . I caught my first fish , haha , 40 , 43 , I think I was no , it was a 42 , then the 42 .

I caught my first fish and then my son caught his first fish like a month later at five , or actually he was four I think then . So , anyways , and his fish was bigger than mine , haha , so that was really cool . We went on these hikes . It's a little south of Glacier National Park , on Flathead Lake , and there was a cherry spitting contest .

My kid won the cherry spitting contest in this cherry festival in Montana and so we won , like this big bag of cherries . It was fun . We did all these hikes that are in a on the Native American reservation , the Salish Kootenai Reservation , and that was really cool . We saw bear scat and bear claw prints like whatever you claw marks on the trees everywhere .

And then later we learned it was a grizzly protection area . We're like what does ? that mean and they're like , well , when the grizzlies come to the valley , you know people like tranquilize them and then we'll , and then bring them up to these woods . I was like really we were hiking there , but anyways , that was a really great experience .

And then we went to Portland . You know , portland is wow , like the nature . It's kind of like Seattle , but the nature is like right in your face . It's like 45 minutes away or an hour Like . You can get to the beach , you can get to Mount Hood , you can get to the rainforest . It's wonderful . And the restaurant scene is really really great in Portland .

I think the place that we the two places we liked , sort of that we would even consider moving to at some point would be Occidental California , which is in Sonoma County . It's kind of a hippie area . It's in the redwoods and then you're next to all these amazing wineries and the food . The farm to what do you call it ?

Farm to Table food scene is just out of this world . Like every meal tastes incredibly fresh and really cool .

And we actually lived in the redwoods In fact we lived maybe too close to redwoods because there was a storm and one of these , what they call the Widermaker branches , fell on my car and smashed up the car completely , so we had to get some emergency , an appropriate name .

Emergency repair is exactly the way and they're like , oh , you're lucky , you didn't go through your ceiling . I was like thanks . So we like lost power for a few days and my wife's like freaking out . She had to work remotely . She was like how that's gonna happen ? But so that was one .

But we loved it , the people are amazing there and the food in the , and then you were half an hour from the coast , so that was a great place . But I think the place we loved probably the most was San Diego County . That you know . The weather there is great . We love the beach vibe . Everyone's super friendly . It's a great food scene down there .

I was out surfing like almost every day . My kid was boogie boarding . It was . You can do it . There's a lot of hiking there . There's even slot canyons . So yeah , there's a lot of cool places out there , man , just in one country .

We were sort of down , we were leaving San Diego and , you know , going towards Arizona . Somebody there's a Lazy Days that's literally the name of the manufacturer of my RV . It's called Lazy Days and there's a Lazy Days listserv and somebody right at that time posted her name is Desert Diva . That was her .

It's like one of these really old school messaging boards and like text only , no pictures . No , anyway , it's like the opposite of social media . And so Desert Diva posted like hey , if anyone wants their RV repainted , there's this great shop in Puerto Pena , mexico . We're like what that's so cool ? So we called the shop .

This guy spoke like no English and I spoke no Spanish , and but Desert Diva vouched for it . So we're like we're sitting in Yuma , arizona . So we're like you know what , screw it , let's just go . So we just went and we have to get some kind of insurance to go to Mexico . So we did that and it turns out that was probably a total waste of money .

We went and we just we literally rolled up at this guy's shop and said , hey , can you repaint our RV ? And they said , sure , yes , we can do it . And how long is it gonna take ? Oh , eight days , maybe nine . So we're like , okay , when can you start ? Oh , I can start now . So like , okay , great . So where can we stay ?

So like , well , you can stay in the parking lot . So that's what we did , man , we stayed in this dirt parking lot for nine days in Mexico and , like these people were blasting the music , like at two , three in the morning , as they were painting and , you know , stripping the paint . And it was . It was awesome , we loved it .

There was , we went like swimming . Every day . We went what do you call it ? Stand up , paddle boardy . You could buy the shrimp . They catch shrimp .

Like most of the shrimp we get in the United States comes from there , or a lot of it and so you get it fresh off the boat , the best shrimp we've ever eaten , and people were super friendly , it was very safe , it was a blast .

So , yeah , that was another One of the next adventures that we wanna go on is to replace our current RV with a truck camper and do the whole central and South America thing . So that would probably be another year or something like that . On the road maybe more so , at some point . At some point we'll do it , but I just don't know when . So but we will .

. Before we kind of wrap up here , though , I did wanna touch a little bit , let people know a little bit about your website , what you're doing there , a little bit about your book . If you don't mind , just kind of give a little little ad for yourself and what you got going on , if you don't mind .

We hate visiting , you know , the Eiffel Tower or the Washington Monument or the , you know the top five things you'd find on TripAdvisor or Lonely Planet . We like to go to those places that are real , authentic . You meet the real people , you get a real flavor , for you know what , the , what , the actual location .

So you actually feel like you're traveling and you're not just , you know , being in your own town and eating at the same restaurant chain that you would at home , and so we've created what we want to make as a hub for such things . So we have like top 10 countries to visit in 2024 , top 10 cities , hidden gems what else ? We have hidden beach locations .

I've got six no , sorry , seven hidden gems in Africa . We have a number of places in Latin America . I've got hidden gem wineries , a whole bunch of stuff . But the thing that I am most excited about really is that , the community aspect of this . So we have several guest blogs that are coming on and I'm talking to a bunch of people about doing others .

So in the next couple of weeks we will have hidden gems of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates , uzbekistan , southeast Asia , korea Just talking to somebody today about Indonesia , other places in South America . So there's a lot coming and you know and you can . There's like a forum on the website .

You just click and you say , hey , I want a guest blog about X topic or here's a hidden gem tip in my city . That's kind of the idea . You know , there is something out there called Atlas Obscura , which is for really obscure places , which is a really cool thing in of itself .

I think the concept of our website is more places that are not totally hidden and not obscure , but that are not the obvious places . So I will do a hidden gems Washington DC in the next couple of weeks . We live for Santa Fe , we live in Santa Fe , so I'll do a hidden gems Santa Fe .

So not sort of like the downtown plaza of Santa Fe , but you know here are some cool restaurants that mostly locals go to , but you know that are that are neat , and then we will have a newsletter .

You know , please go to the website and sign up and then and then , in every time we post , you know , like once a week or once every two weeks , you'll get an email with the latest stuff so you can think about your trips and you can always ask me I'm the person behind it , sasha at off thebeatentravelcom about if you have any feedback or questions or

something like that . My website is not big enough yet so I'm not inundated with a zillion requests . I post a lot of the stuff on Instagram . My Instagram is Sasha traveler , pretty easy to find , and , yeah , my wife and I are writing a book . That's kind of our next project . The working title is travel more , spend less .

We had a budget of $36,000 for the year for for our year of RV travel and we stuck to it . A lot of people's concept is basically that you know , oh , I can't travel because I can't afford it , and you're like well , wait a minute , maybe , maybe you can .

I think what we learned is you know , once you leave your your sticks and bricks house , there's so many ways to save money . You're not like double paying for , like if you go on a vacation trip from your house , you're still paying your rent or your mortgage and then you're also paying for a hotel .

But if you go and travel full time , you've eliminated that first expense , right . And so , like we were in Hawaii for two weeks and it was like no more expensive than as than we lived at home , literally we would shop at Costco . Actually , costco Hawaii is a gold mine .

They had the most amazing fish I've ever eaten in my life and and the prices are the mainland prices . So you know , there are all these ways to save . So , anyway , it's not just about money , it's about a whole bunch of different things . How do you plan it ? What about schooling ? What about working remotely ? So we did , you know .

So we'll have chapters on all these things . Sustainable travel , responsible travel , yeah .

They , like I said , they have the form where you can share some of your thoughts of maybe some hidden gems or , if you want to send in a blog or whatever , just reach out to them and definitely get on that . So I appreciate that .

There's one , the Spanish Fork River Trail , which is just beautiful and it's not very crowded enough people to where . It gives me enough energy , because I like seeing people running and biking . Those are the kind of things I love . I love just , and it's real close and super close .

I can get there easily and that's the kind of thing I like of these little trails and these different things . And I want to get more out into the mountains and see some things and go up north and there's Bear Lake and there's so many different places here in Utah . So thanks for asking . I think there's a lot of hidden gems right here , close to me .

We parked ourselves in Durango for a little bit in Colorado , which is really cool . That was very close . So then we went to Moab for the weekend and did the parks there , but that's pretty on the beaten track , so it's just Moab , right , yeah , Moab , yeah . Candleland's Orchards yeah , yeah , exactly Dead horse , but there's a lot more there .

So I would love to , in fact the people , our friends out in California , that's where they would go . Utah was the place that inspired them the most . They were like , oh , it was so in love with Utah , it was funny , and they were right there on the beach in California . You'd think that that's paradise . But anyways , I'd love to go back there .

But I think probably our next big journey is probably abroad somewhere . Our next trips , like I'm taking my mom to Portugal next week . She has her dream to go . She's 85 . So I really wanted to be able to do that for her . So we're doing that .

And then Puerto Rico , and then Ethiopia happened in December , and I want to get to more of these like abroad places . Like our two weeks in Mexico were like so eye-opening and really like the adventure really starts there .

That's kind of how we felt , and so I'm dying to get this truck camper as soon as I could , tear my wife away from her job , which she loves , and we save enough money , because it'll cost more than $36,000 to spend a year in South America , I think .

You can always like over plan and overthink it , and I think that's one thing that we realized when we were on the road is like well , wait a minute , we actually don't have to book every night . In fact , it's probably bad if we do and just getting the experience of traveling will help you . And not just traveling , but you know anything .

Any adventure I mean you're doing the half marathon that's a huge adventure in and of itself . Like that's way beyond what I can do . It's very convenient when you have kids because you're like oh , my kid can only do seven miles .

And like also for our kid , like we took him camping for the first time he was seven months old and then we took him like for a bunch of camping in Yellowstone when he was 11 months old . I can't remember the I think , the first backpacking trip .

He was like one and a half and and and that was like I think those times were easy because he was light , like , he was like super maneuverable , it was great . Now it's like he's 59 pounds , like , oh , how am I going to carry this guy ? Yeah , just , and now he's much more adaptable .

A lot of friends of mine will say , oh , we don't want to travel with our kids until they're eight , mike . Well then , there's going to be harder to travel with them when they're eight . Anyways , just just the thought .

Check him out . He's got a lot of cool things to offer , so check him

out . Thanks to each and every one of you for listening to journey with Jake . I really appreciate it . I would love it if you could leave me a rating and review on Apple podcast . That would mean a lot to me and I'd like to hear from you . Reach out to me . Follow me on Instagram at journey with Jake podcast . Send me a DM .

Let me know what you're up to . Let me know what you'd like to hear about . Maybe , if you have a referral of somebody who does something adventurous and you want to hear about them , let's talk about it . Get with me , let's talk about it . Let's do this thing . Just remember , it's not always about the destination , as it is about the journey .

Take care everybody .