Transcript
[00:00:16] Kelly: Joe, we are, we're going back to San, Miguel, and there is, there's a couple of distinct memories that we have and there on the west end, we've been a couple times, and then there's also us going up to the north and then there's us having dinner. And, and while I'm little sensitive is just us kind sharing these stories.
[00:00:37] I think that there's some incredible lessons that we learned in each one of these. So we wanna talk about . We wanna talk about vertical mist and then finding Freddy. Right? I Fred. So we, I don't mean you're gonna
[00:00:56] correct me. You, you always do. Cause I always get this out, outta sorts.
[00:01:01] We're back out on the west coast, west end of the island.
[00:01:04] We're out there to chase sunsets or something. Were we
[00:01:09] there? What happened?
[00:01:11] Joseph: Oh, we had, for as impactful as this trip was, only two nights there. And on this night, we, this is our second day,, to my memory. Save going through all of the timestamps on the photos. And
[00:01:33] the goal was to circumnavigate the island clockwise. We were just bumping against the coast the whole way. The Google maps were, you know, telling us in Portuguese, things we didn't really know The goal was to drop down into as many villages as you, as you could, as we could. And we had dropped into one, I was gonna pull up a map and figure out what it's called, but, large, giant outcropping.
[00:02:05] Probably what? Like a thousand meters off. Maybe more. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of like plunked in there
[00:02:13] Kelly: Is I is out cropping
[00:02:14] the right
[00:02:16] it's they're islands.
[00:02:18] Joseph: Well, they don't really look like they're islands to boat to there's
[00:02:23] no beach.
[00:02:23] Kelly: No, no for sure. But they are, they are just for clarity, they are giant massive.
[00:02:29] Land structures that look like the photos I've seen from the far islands, which is vertical. There's nothing but sea
[00:02:36] birds, right.
[00:02:38] Joseph: Cliffs. You could go up to them with your rock climbing gear. Yeah. And maybe get to the top. Yeah. So as we're descending into this spot, there's, the rolling clouds of the Western.
[00:02:53] Portion of the island. Yeah. And all of the architecture of what is very white buildings. Yeah. Kind of dotted along and the deep, deep green lush. And it was still morning-ish. And. We had some drones to put in the air and I remember we kind of went through town quietly and took a left by the trash cans and ended up be like sandwich between a bunch of cows eating and just rocks down into this
[00:03:24] view.
[00:03:25] Kelly: Yeah. And, and for clarity, we're in Mosteiros is the name of the village out on the
[00:03:31] Western end.
[00:03:33] Joseph: Got it.
[00:03:35] Kelly: Not because I have some prolific memory, but I just looked it up
[00:03:40] Joseph: the Google machine. Yes. And it was incredible. There were many, many, many, many, many, many gulls trying to take down drones. And I've got the shot where the drone is behind the car and it kind of rolls over the top of the car and then out.
[00:04:01] Where you start on a dirt path and then the escape of, or the expanse of the ocean shows up. Yeah. But just alive. I think we had found some coffee and we had done some of that stuff and had this incredible time shooting. And we're gonna go back. Like, we gotta get around this island. We only have a day.
[00:04:22] We're not, we're not here very long. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. And as we're pulling through the town, there's a man with, I think he had all of his wetsuits on still. And he was walking with fins around his waist he had, weights. And we were a couple blocks away when we first saw him.
[00:04:50] Yeah. I'm driving. We rolled. I think you were like "roll down the window." like, okay, we don't know Portuguese, but we'll give it a go. And you take it from there.
[00:05:04] Kelly: Yeah. And we're, we're going down, going down this tight road and there he is. And he's the nicest, nicest, nicest man. And he's, you know, Polvo and he holds up his octopus and it's clear to me.
[00:05:15] He's he's just gone to get dinner maybe. And he's got on a wetsuit, but it's one of those tank, top web suits. So the top is, you know, he's got his, his arms. He's probably in his early fifties and he's got a little bit of a pot belly, he's joyous and he's laughing and he's more than happy to engage.
[00:05:32] The two of us driving in these tight little, tight little streets in, in Mosteiros house, in this village, I can't say enough about it. There's some really wonderful drives around the edge. You can pull over and you can just dump the family out and you can enjoy it. And it's, it's so well put together and there's, restaurants there and there's some things, but it's not built.
[00:05:51] I mean, this, this place was founded in 1480, Joe. This part of the island started to first get inhabited. And it was because of just, it was actually maritime access. They just became a fishing village. And there's a beach there. You can go. It's like black, sandy, there's all kinds of there's tidal pools.
[00:06:11] You can walk around. And just the fact that he was willing to be so, so nice. And in hindsight, and you and I have talked about this, in hindsight, what like, Ugh, breaks, stop, get out. Let's engage this guy and learn and understand him in his day. And what is he doing and what are the lessons? And how do I come back the next day and go in with them and get one that's that's what I want to do.
[00:06:38] Joseph: I think the, our goal again, was to get around this thing and we didn't have a lot of time, but as we, as we
[00:06:45] Kelly: pretty American of us,
[00:06:49] Joseph: Well, you know, it's a habit. Um, and then when we got done, it felt really successful. So
[00:06:55] Kelly: Basically like Magellan, circumnavigating,
[00:06:58] Joseph: Totally. The opportunity exists. And I think we see it.
[00:07:03] We see it differently now. Yeah. Um, to engage versus observe. And here we were observers, we just flying through this and stopped. He exuded joy, like, ah, like, ah, I don't know if it was because he hadn't had a successful catch in weeks. I don't know if it was because he does this every day. Yeah.
[00:07:32] I don't know. I have no idea. And those are questions that could have been answered if we would've disengaged from observed and engaged him. I think we might have been, maybe we're too optimistic to think that we were candidates for guests at dinner, lunch, this was lunch. This was before lunch. But how amazing would it have been to?
[00:07:58] And I think we've done a better job of this over time. We'll we'll poke each other when opportunities like this come up on new adventures. Yeah. To find our way into, a more engaged experience. Could you have yeah. Gone. Yeah. Fishing with him?
[00:08:16] Kelly: Yeah. Maybe. And, and for me, whatever it is, I don't know, four years, five years later, what jumps out at me in a lesson for me here is the moment.
[00:08:25] The moment is about him, but it's also, how can I show up and what are my, how do I interact with other people on the other. How many versions of this, am I going through every day where I live? Cause there's people visiting my city and I'm bumping into them. How do I be Octo guy? Yeah. How do I have a couple of tourists, five years later, talking about me and the moment that I help them create.
[00:08:49] So that's, if I were to take a lesson away from him, that was a lesson I grabbed. And then what you're saying too, is like, if we can just slow down and enjoy the moment and grab it. And stay with it and, and maybe expand it, but you know, no regrets just reflection, right?
[00:09:05] Joseph: No regrets, just reflection. And on the same island, we've got two more exchanges that we are reflecting on.
[00:09:14] Yeah. The next one is
[00:09:16] us bouncing against that coast again, more toward the north of the island. And finding a dirt road that terminated at what looked like. I don't know, just a grass field, but the grass field was 2,500 feet off the ocean. Yeah. Over the top of these cliffs. Yeah. And there was like an old marker there. GS something who knows.
[00:09:40] Yeah. I've got this photo of you just like so ecstatic to be there. And you've reflected to me that you've thought back on these moments. I have a photo of the little hut we found just to the south, that field. I,
[00:10:01] Kelly: I think you rewind a hundred years and people were living there. That was a house.
[00:10:04] Joseph: Yeah. But we're standing inside of it.
[00:10:07] It certainly didn't seem that way. But it's a magic, a magic moment in reflection back on it. But it was this moment where, we had been walking and it was, it was hot and humid. And I think I still had a jacket on and I was sweating and it was awesome. We walked up on this cliff where the ocean was beating the side of this rock.
[00:10:32] That you're way in the air on, after you've just walked through a field, really stunning landscape and the wind was pushing that mist from the ocean straight up the wall. Yeah. I remember like we had hustled, I remember needing to just stop and turn off the eyes and listen for the birds. Listen for the waves crashing, listen for, um, being more present.
[00:11:02] Yeah, definitely engaged that moment. And it was incredible, right? Yeah.
[00:11:08] Kelly: Yeah. It's, you know, maybe a little bit more of a setup is we're at that time, at least. And we still do this is we're driving along. And then it's how do we get out? How do we see what's out there? And we're really trying to we're chasing right?
[00:11:23] We're chasing views, we're chasing experiences and point on a map. We drive down a dirt road and we stopped. I remember a cell tower, a big cell tower is like how we got out there. And, then, the road terminated and we walked so giant, open lush green field, kind of like a bowl that tilt it up into an edge and you walk through it and you walk along the edge and you look down and you saw that marker.
[00:11:47] And then I remember us going through, it feels like sugar cane, but it wasn't, it was giant grasses. And we're weaving our way through these giant grasses that are 10 or 12 feet tall. And then we come out, on this cliff and I'm chasing I'm chasing photos, trying to get it all right. And man, in hindsight, oof, what a mistake. But you, you pulled over and then you sat down and you're like, yep.
[00:12:11] Give me a minute. And just, we didn't say that, but you, you can just, and there's a, I think there's a wonderful photo of you sitting right in the corner. Just taking in this vertical miss, blasting you in face. Over to the left is this little cement house that I mentioned, it's the end of this massive cliff.
[00:12:27] Like it's a little colder, like a, this little spot where the cliff comes together and you're out on the end, just blue ocean in the background enjoying it. And there's something about just end of a dirt road, walk through the grass and you find these, you find these things. So I definitely don't regret doing that.
[00:12:46] Joseph: No. Yeah, no, not at all.
[00:12:50] Kelly: And then, and then that night, this is my one struggle with the, a source is at least from a family standpoint when I was there, the family - hard to find really like great food or, but can eat meat. I don't care. Like whatever I can eat anything, I think you're the same way. But then we, we wanted to get up bite to eat in town and we wanted to go like a decent place and see what we could find.
[00:13:11] And I forget how we found La Tasca. Maybe you remember, but we found. La Tasca I remember taking photos of the door going up and it was cool and jammed. And we, and we shared before, like going in and meeting, meeting Freddy, but yeah, what a wonderful, what a wonderful human that we ran into. And it basically made a lot of, he helped make us make a bunch of decisions on what we wanted to do
[00:13:39] on future adventures.
[00:13:42] Joseph: Yeah. We had. Reflected on that together. Wondering if we could start a travel blog. Should we hear that? Should another travel blog? Well, yeah, also as we've kind of tipped our toes, dipped our toes in this. Yeah. Yeah. What we've learned is that person's around us go back to places that we've been.
[00:14:03] Yeah. And we wanna share with them. Yeah. What's there. We also know that we do this travel thing, adventuring a little differently than others, right? And so we've written these rules and when we share those rules, there's a resonance, there's a connection. There's people wanna see them write 'em down and internalize them.
[00:14:26] And, this was a haphazard trip, which is found a relatively inexpensive flight from mainland Europe. To some islands, cuz we had two days to burn. We had no idea that it was gonna set up this kind of, it, this trip instigated what we now do on a regular basis together. And this meal instigated what we're looking for on these trips.
[00:14:58] When Freddy. Tells us he lives on or he is born on the mainland. We had been to his town. And I asked if he was ever going back. His reply was "What? Why would I do that? , I'm a, I'm a clown by day. And I do this at night. Like life is good." And I think he just walked away.
[00:15:23] Kelly: A hundred percent.
[00:15:24] Joseph: Like you sillies, don't you understand?
[00:15:28] And we were left to unpack what had just happened. I don't think he knew that four or five years later. No. Um, we would still be doing it. Yeah. And I'm so happy to have had that exchange with Freddy to have had the opportunity to, to continue to unpack it with you. Because over time, we connect with, Jackie different in The Bahamas.
[00:15:56] Kelly: Mm-hmm.
[00:15:56] Joseph: We connect with, I think her name was Grace [mm-hmm] in that little cafe for breakfast in Enis, Montana. [Mm-hmm] right. And the list continues [mm-hmm] um, so really happy to have had this happenstance experience at this restaurant and for Freddy to just be Freddy.
[00:16:20] Kelly: Yeah. And, and I. Similarly take away from Octo guy, his ability to radiate joy in a moment with us.
[00:16:27] And then the whole point was finding Freddy, which we had talked about before, and we we've used it, but finding this idea that I can be peaceful and happy doing something that I enjoyed doing. And there's no pressure. And he's like lives on an island, he does his thing and he doesn't chase like half the stuff, the rest of this chase.
[00:16:48] He does his job and he a clown by day and just brings joy and like, come on, like good, good on you, Freddy. Like, how do we do that? And thanks for slowing down enough when your restaurant was jammed to give us a great little experience and to put some food on the table for us and a, and a crazy night, and be a part of it.
[00:17:07] And yeah, I'm, uh, I thought it was wonderful. And it's, I keep saying La Tasca, it's A Tasca I think, uh, and you should go, you can't miss it. It's one of. One of the more reviewed restaurants in downtown there, it's definitely worth it between reservation or just talk your way into it. Like Joe did.
[00:17:28] Joseph: I think, I think we found it because I went looking for "restaurant," that's it
[00:17:34] really, really, really wonderful. Well, As you're traveling as you're living your life. we're really interested in finding ways to integrate these, lessons into our lives that we've learned on travel. And if any of these matter, feel free to share with your friends and to share back with us stories of, of your travels and how they've integrated.
[00:18:02] How you've worked to integrate them with your daily life.
[00:18:05] Kelly: Yeah, I agree.
[00:18:07] And I think we both learned Joe. We don't have to go across the world to find our moments either. So, um, thank you so much doing this and helping us relive some of 'em.
[00:18:17] Joseph: Absolutely. In preparation for this conversation yesterday, I had to.
[00:18:22] Some screws for outdoor lights on the house. My wife was very interested in me installing them cuz she purchased them many months ago. And I was at the hardware store, just a little too happy and, and uh, definitely lightened the load of a Saturday, rush at the hardware store with the staff there. And it was fun.
[00:18:47] It cost me nothing. Very good.
[00:18:52] Kelly: All right. Well, on to the next
[00:18:54] Joseph: On to the next, okay.
[00:18:56] Kelly: Take care out there.
#10 • Octo Guy, Vertical Mist, & Finding Freddie