Show Notes for Podcast #137
Sinuhe Xavier on Living in the Moment of Adventure
Summary:
Scott Brady interviews Sinuhe Xavier, multi-time podcast guest, Director, Photographer, and international traveler. Sinuhe shares his recent adventures and the start of his new project vehicle, an AEV Bison Colorado.
Guest Bio:
Sinuhe has a resume of 100 men. He’s raced the Mexican 1000 and enjoyed a night inside a Colombian jail cell. Traversed axle-snapping routes from Panama to Guatemala in a 50-year-old Land Rover. And handled the road and seaside repairs with his own bare hands. Sinuhe knows his way around firearms and fishing rods but you’d never know it. He exudes that experienced, calm, and patient demeanor of someone who’d been there, done that, and doesn’t have anything to prove. Nor does he don the expected uniform. His quiet confidence. That reserved, self-confident badass swagger that instills trust the minute he shakes your hand. It’s all there. Sinuhe can fjord Icelandic rivers through cement-thick volcanic mud just as well as he can hang with the well-heeled set at The Explorer’s Club. He can pull off a tweed blazer just as well as he can a t-shirt and jeans while wrenching on an overlander’s dream bike. Sinuhe is at home waiting out a storm inside a snow cave as he is quarterbacking the wine list at Noma. Simply put, Sinuhe is a man of unimpeachable experience with the work to back it up. The man you want to raise a scotch with after a stormy day filming in the Highlands slop. God made Sinuhe Xavier, then broke the mold.
Press
Host Bios:
Scott Brady
Scott is the publisher and co-founder of Expedition Portal and Overland Journal and is often credited with popularizing overlanding in North America. His travels by 4WD and adventure motorcycle span all seven continents and includes three circumnavigations of the globe. His polar expeditions include two vehicle crossings of Antarctica and the first long-axis crossing of Greenland. @scott.a.brady
Camp Yoshi Info:
LOSE YOURSELF IN THE WONDER OF CAMP
OUR VISION
The vision is to create a space for BIPOC and our Allies to unplug, in order to reconnect with the wilderness. The Camp Yoshi collective pulls this off by custom designing guided outdoor adventures that speak to our shared experience. We carefully architect routing, gourmet menus, supplies and visual documentation for each expedition. We partner with key brands that understand our mission to empower, and help provide these amenities. Our adventurers just need to show up and unplug… we’ll handle the rest.
BACKSTORY
Camp Yoshi was founded in late 2020 by Chef Rashad Frazier, along with his wife Shequeita and brother Ron at a time when the world was battling a global pandemic and racial injustice issues were coming to the forefront. Rashad and Ron would often plan what they called “trips to nowhere”, camping in remote parts of the country surrounded by nature and beauty. It allowed them to unplug from the world, connect with nature, and seek healing. The trio met up for a trip to Montana’s Glacier National Park in mid 2020 and realized just how profound these trips had been in their lives and wanted their friends and family to experience the same. And thus, Camp Yoshi was born.
THE TEAM
THE BELONGING SERIES
Since 2020, Camp Yoshi has disrupted the outdoor industry in an authentic and meaningful way by getting more BIPOC communities outdoors in Camp Yoshi style. Our Bucket-list worthy adventures have proven to be life changing for our campers, and through testimonials and feedback, we’ve been able to evolve our opportunities for greater community building and bridging.
In 2022, we tested these adventures with a few corporate partners in an effort to drive meaningful, tangible progress within their DEI, retention, and talent attraction strategies by focusing on increasing engagement, driving connection and fostering belonging amongst their teams. Today, we are excited to announce we will now open up these experiences to help organizations of all sizes.
To find out more information or book your adventure with Camp Yoshi follow the link:
Website: https://www.campyoshi.com/
Instagram: @camp.yoshi
Facebook: CampYoshi
Twitter: Camp Yoshi
2022 Mexican 1000 Rally
Check out LOOT, the galery in Mexico City where hes showcased some work: LOOT Gallery
LOOT Gallery Instagram: lootmx
HODINKEE
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Limited to 1,100 pieces, the Hamilton Khaki Field and Pilot Pioneer Limited Editions For Hodinkee can be purchased individually or as a Collector’s set: with 800 Field, 100 Pilot, and 200 sets available. The set comes with a limited-edition Pelican case for storage and travel, and both individual and set options include a pack of custom-themed Field Notes inspired by the watch’s design. Strap one on and become an explorer – strap two on and become an expert.
– https://limited.hodinkee.com/hamilton-khaki-collection-2022/
To follow Sinuhe on his adventures you can check out his website here: https://www.sinuhexavier.com/
Transcript
Scott Brady: Hello and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I am your host, Scott Brady. And for today’s interview, I spend time with Xavier Sinuhe. Sinuhe has been a longtime personal friend. He’s been on the podcast before and was one of our most popular episodes. So in this particular conversation, we talk about his new vehicle, which is a Chevrolet Bison, a e v, and he’s doing a bunch of cool modifications to. We go into detail about his recent trips and adventures, including some into Central America, and we talk about what’s next for Sinuhe. Sinuhe is an amazing creative, there’s always these incredible insights that come from him in the podcasts. There’s some of our most popular podcasts that we have, for the show, so please enjoy my wide ranging conversation with my great friend, Xavier Sinuhe. This content is brought to you by Overland Journal, our premium quality print [00:01:00] publication. The magazine was founded in 2006 with the goal of providing independent equipment and vehicle reviews along with the most stunning adventures and photography. We care deeply about the countries and cultures We. And share our experiences freely with our readers. We also have zero advertorial policy and do not accept any advertiser compensation for our reviews by subscribing to Overland Journal. You’re helping to support our employee owned and veteran owned publication. Your support also provides resources and funding for content like you are watching or listening to right now. You can subscribe directly on our website@overlandjournal.com. Let’s talk about some of your recent travels.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, I mean, since the last time we were together, I’ve, I’ve done quite a bit. [00:02:00] And I think, if we were just to go, go back a little bit, one of the most recent was driving from Panama to Mexico in a 1968 Land Rover Series two A. And you know, my good friend Miguel in, in Mexico City sent me this, this text as he does often , and it, it says, Hey, I just bought a, he sent me a picture, actually it was a picture of this, this Land Rover in Columbia. He’s like, Hey, I just bought this. Do you wanna drive to Mexico with me from Columbia ? I said, yes, because I love a great, terrible idea, and this was, jeez. This was probably July or August of 2021, and by February of 2022, he still hadn’t gotten the truck, but he, he had it right, but he hadn’t gotten it. You know, he finally.
Scott Brady: Did it need to be driven through part of Columbia or was it just getting get shipped? [00:03:00]
Xavier Sinuhe: He initially tried. I mean, you’ve got a Mexican dealing with Colombians and I mean, it’s, it’s a perfect analogy to our friendship. His mexicanness dealing with my Colombianness. And it’s like.
Scott Brady: Cultural difference.
Xavier Sinuhe: It’s a culture, cultural difference. I mean, it’s just, it’s comedy. Yeah. So, you know, six months later he finally flies down there to Medel. And drives it from Medellin to Carthan to have it shipped from Cartha, HNA to, Panama. I couldn’t do it for whatever reason. I think I was busy, with the project. And you know, he’s texted me from the road. He’s like, oh, this thing’s amazing. It works great. Like it’s, we’re gonna have such a great trip. It’s gonna be in Panama in three weeks. I’m like, okay, just let me know. And this is, you know, early, early on in 2022. And as those things go, there’s some quagmires happen.
Scott Brady: Sure.
Xavier Sinuhe: Things. You know, things don’t Exactly. I think we were [00:04:00] supposed to, it was supposed to be kind of an end of February, my birthday type of, of trip. Fast forward to May, early May, I fly to Mexico City to meet him, to fly to Panama to get the truck. And I’m hanging out in Mexico City and I keep, he’s, he’s a, this, this ball of stress just, you know, like, I don’t know what’s going on. You know, like it hasn’t left Carthan. They keep telling me they’re putting it on the next boat. They’re putting it on the next boat. Sure. And I’m just like, you know, whatever. Like, I, you know, these.
Scott Brady: Mexico city’s not a bad place to be.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. Mexico City’s a great place to be. Yeah. The food’s the best in the world. Scott Brady: Oh, that’s interesting.
Xavier Sinuhe: We have to dig into that.. So I’m hanging out in Mexico City and you know, meanwhile I have, my friends are all, you know, my California LA friends, they’re all going to Baja to race the Mexican 1000. And I’m like, Miguel, what’s up with this, this car? Cuz I’m gonna fly to Baja real quick, and race the Mexican [00:05:00] 1000 and then we can go do this, this trip. And he is, Go do the Mexican, you know, he’s, he’s so frustrated with these, these people. He’s like, go do the Mexican 1000. So I go do the Mexican 1000 and finish that and then fly by then he has jumped through so many hoops. I can’t imagine the stress that he’s had. Because he’s literally flown to Panama City, taken a taxi out to the port town of, I can’t remember what it is, cuz I, I’ve never been there. It’s the port town out on the east coast on the Caribbean of Panama. Picks up his car. You know, and has to pay bribes and all this stuff, you know. The, the port’s on strike, but it’s not on strike if you pay them money, you know, like all the weird Panama stuff. So I fly to.
Scott Brady: But usually Panama’s pretty good as far as Central American countries go on shipping. They’re usually pretty good.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. I mean it’s, that’s what that economy is, right? It’s a shoots the Panama Canal. So I fly down to Panama. I [00:06:00] get there at like six in the morning and I meet, meet with Miguel, and I’m like, how, how’s the car? He’s like, so good man. We’re dialed. We had a few little things. There was a leak there. You know, we had, it’s at the mechanics right now, but we’re dialed. I’m like, great. So I’ve got a full day in Panama City while they’re finishing things up. You know, the next day we get on the road and it’s pouring rain, you know, like Central America. Full on rain. And literally day one, it’s just spewing coolant out of the back of the engine. You know, day one, hour four. And come.
Scott Brady: Yeah. So you’re barely out of Metro?
Xavier Sinuhe: Barely out. I mean, we were like three hours out of Panama City to the north. You know?
Scott Brady: All right, yeah sure. And that’s a good road. That’s a, that’s a road to drive.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. Pan American Highway. We’re, we’re cruising along. And come to find out, you know, after, you know, being in the car with Miguel and actually being able to catch up on, on what was going on is, You know, on those little series motors, they’re [00:07:00] in England and in Europe and North America, there was the, the back of the engine had a, about a, I’d say a one inch hole in it. That was your heater.
Scott Brady: Oh, shit.
Xavier Sinuhe: You know, went to the heater core. Well, that in South America and the, the equatorial countries, they just plugged that up with something.
Scott Brady: Yeah. You didn’t need it.
Xavier Sinuhe: Didn’t need it. You didn’t need a heater. You didn’t, you know, so it just stayed, plugged. Well, this plug had rotted to nothing. And was spewing coolant out of it, and it was such that it was in the back of the engine. You had like, you know, an inch maybe to get back there to actually see it pretty seriously.
Scott Brady: Clearly where it’s coming from. Yeah.
Xavier Sinuhe: Clearly where it’s coming from and I mean, to the point where like when it actually broke open, you could feel it against the firewall of. You know, the bulkhead of the, of the Land Rover. So spewing, we, I don’t, you know, JB Weld every type of thing. I think we had maybe the bottom of a, of a soda can , like covering it, you know, whatever it [00:08:00] took. But we get down the road, you know, like it’s going. We figured it out on this little shop. And the amazing thing about any developing country that I’ve ever been in is when you’re a traveler, those guys are rooting for you.
Scott Brady: They are.
Xavier Sinuhe: They will drop anything to help you get back on the road. And not that these guys at the first shop that we stopped at had anything going on. They were literally like, all right, we’re gonna figure this out and get you back on the road. You need to get, get going north. I mean, what a novelty to see this 50 year. Car with a Mexican and a Colombian. Like, so we, we cruise north and we make it that night to, not as far as we’d hoped, but we make it to this little, you know, we pull in and it’s these little cabanas that. Cost like 60 bucks a night.
You know, it was amazing.
Scott Brady: That’s expensive. 60 bucks a night?
Xavier Sinuhe: But they were great.
Scott Brady: Oh, okay. Gotcha.
Xavier Sinuhe: I mean, they were like First class, like.
Scott Brady: Yeah. So like a little hotel room?
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, like a little [00:09:00] hotel room. Gotcha. But it was a cabana, you know, with a pool and got fed dinner. You know, like the full in program.
Scott Brady: All inclusive.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. It was amazing. The next morning we get on the road it’s, it’s, you know, this foggy scene and jungle and, you know, I literally look over to Miguel and I. Dude, this is it. We’re driving north on the Pan-American Highway, like doesn’t get any better than this. Like how lucky are we? You know, and we’re cruising along. And then poosh, you could feel whatever we’d use to plug that hole hit the bulkhead and just steam everywhere. And there we are on the side of the road, just dead. Everything’s wet. Because we’re in a Land Rover and it’d been raining. I just get out and I start hanging my clothes up and everything that’s wet and I’m like, here, we we’re not going anywhere. And so we get towed to David, which is a northern city in Panama.
Scott Brady: Yep. Yeah. I’ve been there. Nice spot.
Xavier Sinuhe: We get.
Scott Brady: It’s a little bit more resources there too.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. There’s some more [00:10:00] resources. It’s a, it’s a decent town. You know, it’s not, it’s not a, a small place. It’s not big by any means. There’s nothing over four stories there. But we’d heard about a European mechanic. A Czech guy. He’s been in, been in Panama for a while, and, we get the, the car towed there and the guy’s just looking at it and he’s speaks perfect Spanish. So he and Miguel are, are going back and forth and, he’s never worked on a Land Rover before, but how complicated could it be? You know, like. Yeah, it’s a Land Rover, blah, blah, blah, blah. We end up within the span and, and like, like I said, drops everything. And, and the only thing in this, this shop, and I say it’s a shop, it’s, it’s literally a palapa, right. You know, with, with a lift in it. And on this lift is a Range Rover sport that is in a million pieces like. I’m familiar with Range Rovers and I’ve never seen a Range Rover in this. Like the MoCo shell was off of the [00:11:00] tray on the bottom and the engine was sideways with all the pieces off and You know, there’s BMWs but no old cars. But he takes, we take the engine out, we send the engine, like the engine disappears on the back of a truck. To go get it machined so that we could machine a plug and, and actually do it. You know, so it’s not gonna corrode that whole thing. And then it’s just gone. And we’re just hanging out at this shop with a pit bull on a chain, and, you know, we’re just like, all right, how, how long’s this gonna take?
Well, I don’t know. It’s, it’s at the shop. Can can we check? No, it’ll, they’ll get to us. So a day goes by and we’re like, how, how long’s this gonna take? When they get, when they get done? Yeah. Manana, manana. When they get done, they’ll get done. And we’re just like, okay. Like this is what we’re doing. It’s such a blur. I think we [00:12:00] were there two nights.
Scott Brady: That’s not too bad.
Xavier Sinuhe: No. All things for pulling an engine. You know, the engine comes back and we, we put, put it back in. You know, Miguel had traveled with a new clutch, some other parts that he decided to put on.
Scott Brady: Might as well do it while the engine’s out.
Xavier Sinuhe: Might as well do it while the engine’s out. So we get the engine back in and as soon as we try and drive I’m like, dude, this clutch isn’t, this clutch isn’t right. This is, there’s, there’s something completely off with this clutch. He’s like, I don’t care. We’re going. I’m like, all right. I mean, it drives like we barely get in the first gear, but let’s go going north. And we just head north and we get in
Scott Brady: Probably got into Nicaragua next.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. Well, Costa Rica.
Scott Brady: Oh, Costa Rica.
Xavier Sinuhe: Costa Rica, sure. Yeah. And we get to the Costa Rica border and it is a quagmire like I’ve never seen, it’s pouring rain. There’s all these semi-trucks that are block like sure. A mile back. We walk up and we talk to the people at the window and they’re like, well, [00:13:00] if you just, and they show on the map, if you just go up. Head east along the border, you’re gonna see an alleyway that gets you through. And we’re like, what? What do you mean? They’re like, yeah, just go through like, and then go to the Costa Rican side and they’ll, they’ll check you in. They go, but don’t we need to check out? I’m like, it’s Panama. They’re like, nobody cares. So we literally crossed the border through this. Muddy alley, you know, and end up in Costa Rica and Pav bons. And it was really, really like Pav. Bonis. Is this the one of the longest left breaks, surf breaks in the world? And I’m not a surfer. I don’t identify as a surfer. I don’t get surfing, you know, like Mahalo. It was going off. And to be in this town and see the energy of the surfers and these people just so psyched about that wave was incredible.
Scott Brady: That is incredible.
Xavier Sinuhe: You know, the next. We get on the road, the the truck’s running great. Torrential rain, the kind of rain you read [00:1400] about. You know, I’m sitting there, Miguel’s driving, and my windshield wiper just goes flying off like it’s gone.
Scott Brady: It the arm, the arm goes.
Xavier Sinuhe: It’s full, like thing is gone. It’s just like, all right, so that’s just how we’ve got one windshield wiper. It’s cool and we’re cruising along. And then the, we’d filled up with gas and then the truck just dies right on the highway on the inside of this turn and Miguel was like, I’m gonna back up down to the bottom. I’m like, dude, we’re not backing up anywhere. I’m just super safe guy. You know, like abnormally safe, but you know, there’s trucks coming by and everything and finally, you know, we get, get a tow again into, I can’t remember what town it was, but it was a terrible coaster, like super touristy. You know, everyone like trying to sell you a picture with the iguana, you know, type of player. We’re there and it’s like, all right, we need to figure out this car. Let’s try and find a mechanic here that can [00:15:00] figure out like, did we get bad gas? Do we need to drain the gas? Does what’s, what’s the issue? You know, we had a mechanic come and he’s like, you know, your battery’s good. I don’t know. I called my contact in San Jose, the Capitol, who was a very. Tied into the whole Land Rover. Nice world, you know.
Scott Brady: Good guy to know.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. Super good guy to know Jose. And he was basically like, here’s the shop, you need to get to this shop. He’s Land Rover guy. He’ll take care of it. And I was like, you know, I’m not going to San Jose. I’m over this. You know, if you can get the car fixed in two days, cool. If not, I’m going today to Santa Teresa to my buddy’s hotel, and I’m gonna hang out . Okay. You can fix the Land Rover. Yeah, you can fix the Land Rover that was supposed to be fixed by the time we got on. And then, you know, if it’s fixed in two days, we’ll continue going north. If it’s not fixed in two days, I’m flying home. Over, over the Land Rover that breaks down every day. He gets it fixed [00:16:00] and it’s great. Like, and we get on the road and we’re cruising. You know, after two days, it was two days. I had a wonderful two days in, in Santa Fe, so with my friends at House of Somos. And.
Scott Brady: You were ready to get back on the road?
Xavier Sinuhe: I was ready to get back on the road. Like I, so I fly from Santare to Liberia. and we jump in the truck and we’re heading north to Nicaragua. We’ve got lots of time. It’s super cool. Like we’re cruising. The truck’s running great. The great, the best it’s been. We get to the Nicaragua border and they’re like, oh, you need a negative Covid test. It’s like . We go get the negative Covid test. Have to, you know, it costs us an arm and a leg. In Costa Rica cuz everything’s expensive in Costa Rica. We get back to the border, get through, and then it’s like they’re looking at our passports and they’re like a Colombian and a Mexican. No joking, no. Like anything, it’s Where’s the drugs? Like we don’t have any drugs. Like go through, go through our stuff. No. Where’s it hiding in the truck? It’s [00:17:00] like, Take the truck apart. It’s a tin can. Yeah. You can’t hide drugs anywhere. And they’re underneath it, like knocking on stuff, patting it down. All our stuff’s just flipped out of the truck, you know, it’s getting dark and it’s raining , you know, and, and here we are at the, the Nicaragua border and they take it, they’re like, well, we’re gonna go X-ray. Go ahead. Go X-ray it. You know, like there’s nothing in this truck. Like, you can, you can you, you don’t need to x-ray it. There’s no hidden band. They’re like, well, it’s in the frame. We know it’s in the frame. Okay. like, yeah, whatever. So they go the x-ray and like, well, the x-ray doesn’t show anything. We’re gonna have to drill holes in the frame. They drilled eight holes in the frame. Four on each side. With nothing, you know, and at this point it’s almost midnight. We’ve been there since 6:00 PM at the border dealing with this, and they’re about to close.
Scott Brady: I’ve never heard of a frame being drilled at a point.
Xavier Sinuhe: Oh yeah.
Scott Brady: This is the first time for that.
Xavier Sinuhe: Oh yeah. [00:18:00] It’s midnight and they’re, and like.
Scott Brady: That’s clearly not the drug running vehicle of choice.
Xavier Sinuhe: No.
Scott Brady: A classic Land Rover.
Xavier Sinuhe: Classic Land Rover. Yeah. It was ridiculous. I mean, it’s slow. It’s, yeah, exactly. Doesn’t.
Scott Brady: There’s no place to hide anything.
Xavier Sinuhe: There’s no place to hide anything. Yeah. So it’s midnight and they close the border at midnight. Like you can’t go on after midnight and Miguel goes running in cuz he’s got the stamps from all of our stuff. You know, he goes running in and the guy like pulls the blinds. And then he brings him back up, gives us our stamp, and we’re into Nicaragua. You know?
Scott Brady: And what a beautiful country.
Xavier Sinuhe: Oh, Nicaragua was amazing.
Scott Brady: The roads are, the roads are pretty bad.
Xavier Sinuhe: The roads are great.
Scott Brady: Well, they’re so, they sound better than when I was there. Oh, the roads. The roads were super rough. I remember one out of Leon was just, it was probably the worst potholes I’d ever seen.
Xavier Sinuhe: Really? No, the, the roads were great. We cruised through Nicaragua into El Salvador. We had to go through Honduras.
Scott Brady: Right. That one little, that one little corner.
Xavier Sinuhe: That one little corner. And we [00:19:00] had planned on getting to Honduras earlier, but we got into Honduras just about as the sun was going down. And we didn’t wanna spend the night in Honduras. We just wanted to get through it, get to El Salvador. And it’s raining. I like it’s just take that like the rest of this story. It’s raining because it rained the entire time. But we get into Honduras and we’re driving along and we, we have like maybe another two, three hours in Honduras and the headlights just go out.
Scott Brady: They don’t get dim. They just stop.
Xavier Sinuhe: They just go out. Lucas, the Prince of Darkness, is living up to his name, and we pull over on the side of the road and we’re in Honduras. You’ve heard nothing but nightmares. A Honduras, right?
Scott Brady: That could be a challenge.
Xavier Sinuhe: Dangerous place. It’s all these things, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we’re on the side of the road with no lights in this truck and, you know, aandra and stops and, you know, he is like, Hey, can we help you? And like, uh, you know, I sure like we’re not exactly sure what’s going on. [00:20:00] He’s got a flashlight, you know, he is poking around in there and he is like, oh, I don’t know. And then Miguel’s in the, in the driver’s seat and, and he’s flicking things around and he did something. You like one of those one up three down? Yeah. Cross your fingers for sure. And the lights come on and miguel’s like, okay, we’ve got lights, let’s go. Yeah. And we, we have no idea what it was. We had lights and we can.
Scott Brady: Figure it out later.
Xavier Sinuhe: We’ll figure it out later. And we get on the road and we just, We make it in El Salvador. And El Salvador because.
Scott Brady: What, how far is it between those two? Because when I went through Honduras, I went through Taguchi Gupa and I went, I came into Copan City in the north, so we took the long way through. But yeah, that little corner looks like it’s fairly short.
Xavier Sinuhe: It’s super short.
Scott Brady: 50, 60 miles.
Xavier Sinuhe: 60. Yeah. Something like that. In, in the, the time suck is always the, the cross. Because especially Nicaragua, coming in and out of Nicaragua was.
Scott Brady: Was a challenge huh?
Xavier Sinuhe: It was absolute. I mean,[00:21:00] paperwork isn’t right. It’s your paperwork. You know, the guys on the other side did that. It’s not us. You know, and they’re just super, super tough. Yeah. You know, to deal with everywhere else it was a breeze. You know, just super.
Scott Brady: Oh, it’s good to know.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. So, yeah, coming out of, Honduras and into El Salvador, it’s, it’s late at night, it’s raining. But, you know, El Salvador was great, you know, and I learned that El Salvador has more. Volcanoes than any other country. And it’s one of the teeniest countries.
Scott Brady: It is a small country.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. Yeah. Teeny country. And I drove all the way through El Salvador and we had one stop, before Guatemala and. That clutch had just wrecked me. I could barely walk By the time we got to Guatemala, my leg was.
Scott Brady: They’re, they’re so heavy. Those clutches are so heavy.
Xavier Sinuhe: You know, Guatemala again, uneventful. I got to spend some great time with my family there. They live in, Antigua and Guatemala City and it was just wonderful. That is a great bookend of the trip. It was [00:22:00] just, it was one of those trips that anything that could possibly go wrong, went wrong. And we just, we, we got into a, you know, squabbles with each other. As travelers do, but then there’s that mutual respect that kept you going. You know, it was one of the great trips of my life that was completely on pavement, and yeah, I mean, I, there was a few. A few things that we did that were off pavement, but it was brutal in that truck whole.
Scott Brady: Well, and that’s the thing is over landing, you can go around the world over landing and not go off pavement and you can still be over landing. And if you, if you cross all of Russia and you drive all the way the length of the Pan American, most of it is, paved. If you want. And you’re having one hell of an overland adventure. Yeah.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. So, and the fun thing about that trip is I’ve always, always, I’ve done it here in the US a few times, where I’ve, I’ve bought a car, bought a motorcycle or something, and flown there. Grabbed it, and ridden back. Driven back. And it’s fun, you know, [00:23:00] super fun. You’ve got this new thing that you don’t know, you know, you’re trusting somebody that says it’s great. And I’ve always wanted to do that internationally. And my friend Miguel did it. And we pulled it off and it was just, it was so much fun because. We just figured it out as we went.
Scott Brady: Did you have any lessons, any takeaways from that?
Xavier Sinuhe: I think at my stage it’s reinforcement of previous lessons. You know, of just like, Hey, it’s not the end of the world. You’re, no one’s hurt. No one’s life’s in danger. You know, you just need to be patient and things work themselves out. Kind of that constant forward motion too that I learned.
Scott Brady: Yeah. Keep moving through the obstacle.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, totally. Well, it’s, you know, I, I think I learned it in mountaineering and, and something that, a mentor of mine, ACE Cavalli always says is constant forward motion. You know, you just, no matter what, you just keep, keep moving, moving, especially after you’ve reached the summit because, Some, it’s only halfway there, you know, it was that constant forward [00:24:00] motion of not getting discouraged, you know, cuz it’s easy to just throw your hands up and go, the car’s broken. We don’t know what’s wrong with it, right? But let’s keep pushing it forward. Let’s keep moving.
Scott Brady: And you had a heck of an adventure because of it.
Xavier Sinuhe: Oh yeah. It was amazing.
Scott Brady: And I think that’s one of the things that a lot of people that maybe even look down on a classic Land Rover for travel miss, is that it kind of guarantees adventure. I mean, I don’t wanna speak for you, but for me, That’s kind of what I signed up for. I wanted things to be difficult and I wanted to learn about myself and to grow and to have challenges along the way. And if you drive a, what year was that?
Xavier Sinuhe: It was a 67, 68.
Scott Brady: If you drive a 67 series Land Rover, you’re gonna have one hell of an adventure. Pretty much guaranteed.
Xavier Sinuhe: A hundred percent. And you know, and much to Miguel’s credit, he had all the right tools. All the right spare parts. As well as he could. You know, without carrying a, without towing a, a totally separate truck. That makes it easier. Does [00:25:00] that makes the adventure easier?
Scott Brady: It really does.
Xavier Sinuhe: And you know, the, it’s part of, of the way I personally learned being out there and having these types of trips is be as prepared as you can be. And the breakdown, the getting stuck is part of it. You know, you know, our mutual friend Jack Quinlan really embraced that. You know, and I really learned from him to embrace that. You know, Hey, this is part of the deal, and if we get into camp or the next town at 3:00 AM it’s part of the deal. I But we had this time on the side of the road, like the time you got stuck in. Columbia. Oh yeah. Exactly.
Xavier Sinuhe: That was all the empanadas.
Scott Brady: You did.
Xavier Sinuhe: I had all the empanadas.
Scott Brady: The little empanada shop. You know, like their kids are going to college now and everything else. It was good. Yeah. You know, and I’m just sitting there on the side of the road with a broken BMW and, and you know, just waiting for you guys to come back. But it’s part of the talking the locals. It was great.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. Part of the thing, you know, it’s part of the, [00:26:00] part of the deal. Scott Brady: Yeah. It kind of forces you to be. To work through it. Yeah. Which is really good. Yeah. Awesome. Well, you’ve also, did you recently, you, you also did a trip with Campos. Yeah, a couple of ’em actually.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. We’ve done a couple.
Scott Brady: Let’s talk a little bit about who they are and maybe a little bit about the adventure that you did.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, so Camp Yoshi and I, two brothers, Ron and Rashad, and very different brothers.
Scott Brady: Where does the Yoshi come from? What is, is it a last name or what? Do you know what it, it means?
Xavier Sinuhe: No, Yoshi, it’s Japanese and I forget exactly what it means. It’s something good. You know, but you know, Ron and Ron and Rashad are brothers and very different backgrounds. Ron is in, in finance of some sort, and Rashad’s a chef. That was in finance at one point. And they started this travel company essentially to open the doors for people of color.
And it’s something that I’d never really considered, you know, [00:27:00] generationally black folks didn’t feel comfortable. In the outdoors because it was a dangerous place for them. You know, in the, in the forties, fifties, sixties, that was a very dangerous place for a black person to be. Was out in the middle of nowhere. And we’ve evolved and we’ve come to a new time, but generationally the, the guys that are our age. Their parents didn’t take them camping. You know, and what Ron and Rashad want to do is they want to open the outdoors to them, show them that they’re welcome there, show them that there’s nothing to be afraid of. That it’s, and all the.
Scott Brady: It’s incredible benefits.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. There’s an incredible benefits to it. You know, that’s, it’s an incredible place to be. So they started camp Yo. I was introduced to them on their second or third trip, their first trip to Moab, essentially. And they wanted to like, how do we do Moab right. And what really impressed me about them was we don’t know anything about. [00:28:00] Camping in the desert, traveling through the desert, right? How do we do it right with minimal impact? We want to teach our clients the right way to do this word on the street. And I can’t remember how the word on the street got to them that I was the right person to ask. But you know, they reached out and I ended up there and we had an incredible, you know, four or five days. And I hooked them up with Nina Barlow. Who taught them about driving and minimal impact. And I taught them about, you know, minimal impact when you’re camping, you know, about wag bags, about, you know, and these guys. When they heard about wag bags, you should have seen their faces. They were like, what?
Scott Brady: We’re gonna do what?
Xavier Sinuhe: You were gonna do what? But then there was that initial trip with them and then I actually came back cuz I wanted to see how this was implemented with their clients. And when I went back on their first trip, It really, it just really made me [00:29:00] proud that here were the, the two guys, my, my two guys that I taught the best that I knew how, and then they had, I think it was 12 clients and then there are three or four support staff.
That they. Were, you know, basically repeating almost verbatim about Cryptobiotic soil, about how to travel through washes. About sanitary issues.
Scott Brady: Packing out your stuff.
Xavier Sinuhe: And just, and then here were these 12 people that, for the, their first camping trip, it was, I think for those 12 people. 10 of them. It was their very first time camping. You know, definitely their first time in Moab and then they were learning this very low impact way of traveling through the desert. So from that, you know, they, they basically said, well, sim, how can we do something else? How do we go to Canyon Lands 3 0 1, you know, the AP course? You know, how do we get our masters? So we went out [00:30:00] and we basically did, instead of a a base camp type of thing that they did on their inaugural trip, we did more of a car camping, overland trip where we went, was it three day, three or four days. But you know, we went out and explored. With our friends from Huckberry as well. And we went out and explored like, okay, how could we put this trip together where it’s a little spicy with some driving? Amazing topography. I really want to introduce ’em to the, the cultural, the ancient Puebloans that were there previous to us. So they, they have a history. Like this isn’t, I think for me, and, and, and it comes back to how my perception of the area, as soon as I realized that the desert wasn’t this wasteland and that had nurtured life for thousands of years, it made me tweak my perspective on the Colorado Plateau and.
Scott Brady: And you’ve gone through that process over decades and I mean, you’ve been traveling the [00:31:00] Colorado Plateau for at least 20 years.
Xavier Sinuhe: Having just turned 50. It’s now 30 years. You know.
Scott Brady: We both just turned 50.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. My first time I’d been mountain biking there quite a bit. You know, Bob Allen took me down there for the first time to mountain bike, but then my first time to really get deep was with, with Seldom Scene Smith. Of, you know, ed Abbey history. And I’d been, I’d been mountain biking up on poison Spider in this old Jeep flat fender Jeep. Comes creaking up behind me and this guy just goes outta my way You sprocket, head. You know? And I’m like, who is this guy? Like whatever. Get by, you know? And he cruises by and a couple miles down the trail. He’s in a nice shady spot and he is got his igloo cooler with water out and he’s making a baloney and mayonnaise sandwich. And I ride up and he is like, he goes, oh, you want a, you know, you want a sandwich, you want a some water? And I’m like, yeah, sure. You know, [00:32:00] shady spot. I’ll eat this. We get to chattin, you know, he finds out I’m from Montana and he asked me about Doug Peacock. He goes, well, you must know Doug Peacock. I go, well, Doug Peacock, who you know in the book is, Hey, dude. And Doug Peacock was my creative writing professor. Recently, you know, so I, I tell ’em this and he’s, you know, eyes light up and he’s, of course, you know, Doug, and he goes, well, you ever been down into Canyon Lands? And I go, no, what’s, what’s Canyon Lands? You know? And like to me, Moab was it. You know, cause that was mountain biking and my world was Moab and I was getting a little bit explorer getting, you know, out into Jackson Hole, which was towards Canyon Lands, but not very deep.
And he goes, oh, it’s, you know, the needles. And he’s really excited. He’s like, you gotta get, you gotta get down there. And he says, well, what are you doing in the next couple days? I’m like, nothing. I’m living in my van in Moon Flower Canyon. Yeah, sure. Let’s go hang out. So I end up going down to the Needles district. And we go up [00:33:00] over Elephant Hill.
Scott Brady: Oh wow. In his Jeep?
Xavier Sinuhe: In his Jeep. Oh, yeah. I mean, in his Jeep. And we camped it, I think it’s Devil’s Kitchen. In there. I still remember it. Like you know him telling me about the Ringtail Cats and to watch my food. You know, we, we didn’t sleep in tents. We were just sleeping, you know, out in cowboy camp style. That to me was the, the mind-blowing entrance into the Colorado plateau.
Scott Brady: And it recalibrated probably so many things. Of how little you need and how simple the vehicle can be and the setup can be, and just get out and explore.
Xavier Sinuhe: A hundred percent. And it was, yeah, it was the first time that I’d seen. You know, the ancient Pueblo homes and the An ancient Pueblo writings, pictographs and whatnot. And it just really blew my mind. It made me want to come back out here. So with Camp Yoshi, I wanted to try and recreate that sense of wonder, an astonishment [00:34:00] with with them first. And then let them recreate it with their clients. So we went out for three or four days and we wrapped down through, through the Bear’s Ears got pretty remote, you know, and I think that that’s an important part of teaching people how, you know, hey, we can be super remote where you’re 70 miles in each direction if you’re on the highway to the next gas station. But you’re gonna be all right.
Scott Brady: You know, so give people that confidence.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. So y yeah, we put together a great route for them. Ancient Pueblo dwellings. It’s pictographs. It’s off-road. It’s on-road. It’s slot canyons. And they’re doing that this fall in October.
Scott Brady: Yeah. What a neat organization. Yeah. And we’ll put link in the show notes too. Yeah. Camp Shi. Camp Yoshi’s doing amazing things. The gathering event that you and I both went to recently. They’re doing amazing things. Sonya and Nakota. Yeah. Just awesome [00:35:00] stuff that we’re seeing happening. And then you, you did fly and do the Mexican 1000, so you gotta talk about that a little bit, cuz that sounds, first of all, the, the vehicle you did it in is like everybody’s dream Baja experience.
Xavier Sinuhe: So yeah. I mean, the Mexican 1000, it’s not the Baja 1000. You know, a lot of people get Mexican 1000, Baja, 1000 confused, Baja 1000. They do it in a day and maybe 36 hours. But you have to complete the full thousand miles. In one shot, the Mexican 1000 is more of a rally. You know, you’ve got like a classic car rally. It’s, you’ve got five days. To make it from Ensenada to San Jose Del Kaba. I’d been aware of the Mexican 1000, hadn’t really been interested in it. Early on in my career I worked with Mouse McCoy who’d, who’d won the Ironman.
Scott Brady: I remember that. That was such a great story.
Xavier Sinuhe: Justin Glory, you know the whole thing.
Scott Brady: Great movie.
Xavier Sinuhe: So it was kind of, you know, like, ah, my, my perception of the Baja 1000 and Mexican 1000 was [00:36:00] very, Motorhead. Like trophy trucks, you gotta have millions of dollars to do this type of thing. Wasn’t really on my radar. It was something that I was interested in doing early 2022. My buddy Tim. Sends me a message and Tim’s, Tim’s a great guy. I’ve known him for a long time, actually knew him through the motorcycle world, and he sends me a message and he goes, I just bought a Myers Manx. It doesn’t have an engine. I’m gonna race the Mexican 1000. Do you want to do it? And I’m like, well, it kind of depends on my schedule. A week’s a long time. And at the time, it wasn’t really, wasn’t something that I wanted to do. You know, it wasn’t it. Yes.
Scott Brady: Yeah, sure. Exactly.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. You know, and, and that’s the way I, I determine a lot of things either. Fuck yes. And if it’s not a fuck yes, I’m, I’m out. Yeah.
Scott Brady: Or otherwise it should be a no.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I was, I was a, but it was interesting that I loved him and he is, he’s a very, he does things right. He does things. So I was, I was interested, but I had a lot of things going on, you know, and it kind of depended on how.
Scott Brady: Including [00:37:00] this trip driving an old land road.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. Yeah. That was falling right in there. And I kept in touch with Tim as he, he’s like, oh, I got an engine off Craigslist. For the Minks, I’m like, like, oh my God, this is never gonna happen. Right? This is never gonna happen. And then my buddy Stefan got involved and then my buddy Dustin got involved. They started coming together and I’m like, oh, this, you know, and I started getting a little bit of fomo cuz I was, I was going to Panama right to, to do this thing. Panama thing fell through at the time and I end up in the Tijuana airport at 9:00 AM you know, drinking Tecate, eating Webo Rancheros, waiting on my buddy Stephan to pick me up, you know, to go an Sonata. It was awesome. You know, he pulled it off. He built this Myers Manx with a Volkswagen engine that he bought.
Scott Brady: Is that’s what they had originally.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, so it was a, I don’t know if I’m using the right terminology cuz I’m not super familiar, but it’s the, the Myers Minks is basically a fiberglass tub. That sits on the [00:38:00] Volkswagen Bug trade chassis. You know, cause it doesn’t have a chassis, it has a.
Scott Brady: Kind of a uni body.
Xavier Sinuhe: It’s kind of a uni. It was one of the first uni. And it sits on that. So it has the, the little Volkswagen engine in the back and you know, it’s a bug. It’s the little dune buggy. You know, you know, we had such a good time. I mean, and that thing only goes. 50, 60 miles an hour.
Scott Brady: It’s not that fast.
Xavier Sinuhe: At best, you know, but what the Mexican 1000 did was they hooked up with this guy Michael from Slow, Baja, and I forget his last name.
Scott Brady: I’ve heard about them. Yeah.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. He’s a, he’s a really nice guy. He drives an old FJ 40 and they created the Safari class. It’s just this class that is all about vintage, all about cruising. You know, you’re not racing those, the trophy trucks are there. And the, you know, the big bikes, you know, the, the rally bikes are there. The, the big enduros are there. And all the, all the things are there. But then in safari class, you’re just kind of cruising. [00:39:00] Like you’re just cruising along, having fun. You stop at the pits. You have some beers, you have some ceviche you get a ta Molly from the lady down the road. And you work your way down, you know, the peninsula.
Scott Brady: So it’s kind of, it’s kind of like a, you’re, you’re racing to a degree cuz you’re having some fun with a little bit of speed. But then you’re experiencing the whole place. You’re experiencing the whole place. And it’s not a race though, it’s a rally. You know, and I think some people. There’s definitely the people that take it more seriously than others. We weren’t that you know? Like we were just, we were so stoked that we made it to the finish every day. You know, and then it was getting it back. To where you could start in the morning. Yeah. You know, figuring out why we were burning a quart of oil every half hour, you know, that type of thing.
But it was just super fun to the, you know, to the point where I was like, all right, I’m definitely, I’m in, I’m on board again for 2023 you know, and.
Scott Brady: And you’re gonna do it [00:40:00] again?
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, yeah. A hundred percent.
Scott Brady: Yeah. We’ll make sure we throw a couple photos, of that into the show notes. Oh, that’s so great. That’s fun. Well, I want to super fun. I wanna pivot a little bit. One of the things that so many people that listen to the podcast know you for. Is your creative work and the quality of the creative work that you do. Also that you tie a lot of that in with the passion that we all have for overlanding. So let’s talk a little bit about your art. Recently you had an art exhibit in Mexico City. Let’s talk a little bit about that.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, so it was my first gallery show. It all came about because in the, the early days of the pandemic, I take that back. It wasn’t the early days of the pandemic, it was after, you know, it was, we’re in into the pandemic. I was, I was driving back and forth from Colorado to LA to see my son. I never take the, the same route and I’m always kind of looking for something new. And I started coming across, you know, I’d always [00:41:00] kind of blown through it, but these areas of, you know, there’s the, the salt mines. The borax mines. These different, topographies. This one time I, I just kind of threw up the drone, you know, it’s bored, threw up the drone and, you know, looking down.
Scott Brady: Yeah. Such a different perspective.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, it looked like a medical cross section of epidermis. You know, like I was just kind of going, what is, why are, why is it purple and red and green and, you know, it made me kind of take into consideration the one in particular was a borax mine where they, they pumped water underground to, to get rid of it, basically. But then they’d pumped so much that it had created its own volcano. And that’s why we got all these crazy colors of copper and purple and, and whatnot. And it made me just kind of think of, you know, why we [00:42:00] were, you know, kind of doing this, like what. Benefit is this, and we’re in a constant state of evolution on this planet, you know? For better or worse, it’s.
Scott Brady: I’m not, things are always, things are always changing.
Xavier Sinuhe: Things are always changing, and I’m not, you know, smart enough to decide whether it’s better or worse. It’s, you know, everything’s for now. So it made me kind of go on this mission whenever it gave me a purpose beyond just going home and or going to see my son seek out these, these landscapes that were in a state of change, you know, that were. Maybe being changed quicker because of, of the mining operations and, you know, whatever. But they were beautiful. You know, and, and I just wanted to shoot ’em. So we had this, this gallery show at, at my gallery in Mexico City called Loot. And the photos we.
Scott Brady: How do you spell that?
Xavier Sinuhe: L o o t. And I believe the, website’s, l o ot.mx.
Scott Brady: Got it.
Xavier Sinuhe: And you know, the photos, we printed ’em there and we did ’em, you know, six feet [00:43:00] wide. Just huge. It was a great experience to have my, my first gallery show there.
Scott Brady: Yeah. Awesome.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, it was really cool.
Scott Brady: Yeah, those photos were beautiful. And they were in Overland Journal not that long ago.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, that’s right. The Latitude section. It was a full latitude section. Yeah, which was very cool.
Scott Brady: And then can people see a few of those images on your website?
Xavier Sinuhe: They’re not on my website, but I, let’s. Put a gallery up. So we can have it in the show notes.
Scott Brady: We’ll put a couple, couple examples so people can kind of see what, because they are super impressive. Yeah, just such an interesting way to look at humans’ impact on the environment. When I shoot the environment, I always think about the big, beautiful mountain or the carved canyon or the erosion or something like that, but to also capture those other influences is pretty interesting.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. And like I I said, I don’t know if it’s, it’s good or bad because.
Scott Brady: Yeah, it just is.
Xavier Sinuhe: It’s what it is. Yeah. The salt and the borax, they’re, they’re natural. You know, and it’s just the way that they develop it. I, I suppose.
Scott Brady: And then you [00:44:00] did, I mean, it’s something that people gotta check out and, we’ll, we’ll put it in the show notes as well cuz it’s so great. But you did this project with Oinky. Where you were down, where you were in Costa Rica or Panama, where were you at, where you were shooting all that? With the motorcycle and the airplane.
Xavier Sinuhe: We did a, my friend Gray reached out to me and, and Gray I’d worked, I’d met him in, in Portugal quite a few years back, and he reached out to me about, doing a project with Hamilton and Hokey. Hamilton is a great Watchmaker. And they’ve, they’ve done really amazing.
Scott Brady: Yeah. They have excellent field watches, really practical, well-made.
Xavier Sinuhe: Exactly. And you know, wanted to know if, if I wanted to do a project with ’em and I was like, yeah, let’s, let’s do it. And we went to my friend’s place in Zi Wat Ajo called Musa, the Modern Utopian Society of Adventure. And it’s an incredible place south of Zi Wat ajo and as far as location to film [00:45:00] and ride motorcycles.
Scott Brady: Yeah. Looks so good.
Xavier Sinuhe: Fly airplanes and drive Jeeps. It, it was really fun. We were there during the rainy season. It was right smacked dab July, but we lucked out with great weather where we were able to, My friend Jonathan, who’s Canadian, lives in Mexico City, has this incredible plane and we flew in from Mexico City and then shot on the beach with motorcycles and planes and yeah.
Scott Brady: That one, that one shot of you on a dirt bike with the plane coming in behind you. I mean, that was like right out of a James Bond film. I’m. My friend is really freaking cool.
Xavier Sinuhe: Well, you know, I have to say.
Scott Brady: It’s so, it’s so good. It’s so, yeah. It’s really fun.
Xavier Sinuhe: I have to say that I have a friend, Victoria Casanova, who lives in Zi Wat Ajo in, in Los Angeles, and we were down in Musa. She, she was the one that said, I really want to get a small plane down here. And she was just learning how to ride a motorcycle. And she was like, how cool would it be to be just riding down the beach and a plane come [00:46:00] flying by? You know, and that was kind of the idea, having Jonathan down there.
Scott Brady: It looks so, it looks so fun. It’s super cool.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. I mean, it was really fun.
Scott Brady: It’s so well shot. It’s literally looks like it’s right out of a James Bond film.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, it totally, it was. It was really fun. And that’s, you know, that’s part of the fun of where I am in my career now, is the advertising and commercial world is realize that there’s a real value in the authenticity of telling these stories, you know, and going out and having, having fun with it, right? Not trying to create some hokey, bourgeois thing.
Scott Brady: It didn’t look hokey, it looked, it looked cool as hell.. Nice work on that. So we got, we got a little bit more time, but we gotta talk about, one of the more interesting things that’s new as far as gear and stuff for you is you have, you’ve pretty much been a Land Rover guy since your first discovery one manual transmission truck, and you recently bought a new vehicle. So let’s talk about how you went from Range Rover Mark three that had been [00:47:00] serving you well to what you’re driving now.
Xavier Sinuhe: I think to, to get to where we are now, we. Back up a little bit.
Scott Brady: Let’s do it. Let’s back up as far as you want.
Xavier Sinuhe: What year was that? That we did Speed channel? Was that 2008? 2009?
Scott Brady: I think it probably was. Yeah. Some 2000 somewhere. 2009.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. Somewhere in there I’d met.
Scott Brady: Was it the Deadliest Roads or the, something like that?
Xavier Sinuhe: Something like that. It was ridiculous.
Scott Brady: Dangerous drives.
Xavier Sinuhe: Dangerous drives. You contacted me about putting a route together. For those guys. You know, we went to Moab in November and it snowed 30 inches.
Scott Brady: Nuked.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. Just nuked. And I met Dave Harrington you know, for the first time. And Dave is the, the founder of a e v and he had a brute there and a couple of Jeeps. I don’t know. Scott Brady: Yeah, jks.
Xavier Sinuhe: Jks, yep. Yeah, I mean.
Scott Brady: With their kid on it.
Xavier Sinuhe: Just built, I mean.
Scott Brady: They’re super sweet.
Xavier Sinuhe: And I had my, my discovery, you know, we, we did this trip and by the end of the trip I was missing a headlight out of the discovery, but it kept up with the, a EVs.
Scott Brady: Even in that really deep snow. I remember you. You, you’re looking at me like, [00:48:00] Scott, there’s no way I’m like this just. We’re just gonna keep airing down until there’s almost no air left in the tire. And it worked.
Xavier Sinuhe: It worked. It worked. And we got through. And I’ve always, you know, Dave is such a great guy. He’s so smart, he’s such a talented designer, businessman.
Scott Brady: Yeah. He’s just awesome dude.
Xavier Sinuhe: Just a great guy. And I’d always appreciated his product. The way he, he does it. But I’ve never, you know, I’ve never really strayed from Land Rover for whatever reason, and Dave has been very generous with letting me drive a brute, letting me drive, you know, jks.
Whenever I needed a truck, he. Let me drive it.
Scott Brady: It was the gateway drugs.
Xavier Sinuhe: He was, it was the gate. I know. He was like, give it to him, give it to him for free, then he’ll buy. He was using a little bit of that Hood. Hood economics.
Scott Brady: No dummy.
Xavier Sinuhe: Which is pretty good for a Montana boy. Yeah. Fast forward to, I’ve recently started using, first it was a Ford Ranger that Tjm out of Australia had built, and [00:49:00] I used that with, with my son on a spring break trip. And I really liked the platform of a truck with a rack on it and the rooftop 10 on top. And if anybody that knows me knows, like I’m not a fan of rooftop tents. I’ve never have been. I hate finding a flat parking spot. Generally I’ll sleep outside Camp Cowboy Camp, not into it. My son, however loves ’em.
Scott Brady: Yeah, they’re tree forts.
Xavier Sinuhe: It’s a tree for he. He.
Scott Brady: They transform, they pop up. It’s like all the things.
Xavier Sinuhe: He’s into it. Basically what I’ve learned ever since having a kid is I’ve lived my life. Now I’m gonna do everything I can to make his life as awesome as it can.
Scott Brady: As meaningful as it can be.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, exactly. So we had this trip, had the rooftop tent. He really loved it. I started thinking about that platform, and this was probably four years ago.
Scott Brady: It was a pickup truck. You were in Ranger.
Xavier Sinuhe: It’s a Ranger. It was a, it was a Ford Ranger.
Scott Brady: Three or four years ago.
Xavier Sinuhe: Which was a great truck, really great truck, and the Tjm stuff. The, the way they [00:50:00] had it was very thought, thoughtfully built out and it was kind of on the back of my mind. And then I did, you know, the Camp Yoshi project. And I had the Gladiator way out, their concept vehicle. That Scott Brown sent me same deal, rooftop tent platform on the back. Had the deck system in the back. It’s kind of cola. So I started thinking like, what, what is it that I need out of a truck? And the, the problem with both the Ford Ranger and the Gladiator was the range. The gas mileage. I just couldn’t, I couldn’t fathom driving those either of those because. You know.
Scott Brady: You get too remote. Yeah, and just long, long trips.
Xavier Sinuhe: I, yeah, I have long trips. I don’t like carrying fuel. I don’t, you know, it’s like, I try and keep it as simple as possible. And, you know, in a conversation with Dave Harrington, he was like, have you checked out the, the diesel, the Duramax, Colorado? He wasn’t even, he didn’t even mention aev. He was like, bison. I didn’t know about the bison. But, you know, checked [00:51:00] it out and it kind of checked a lot of boxes, a lot of boxes. And then.
Scott Brady: Yeah, it was our mid-size truck of the year a few years ago.
Xavier Sinuhe: Right. Yeah. So the bison, the way that Dave has outfitted it and designed it really worked. You know, so late last year, I picked one up because they’re not making the diesel anymore. It’s, it’s really gonna. Serve the purpose, I think, you know, as far as what I’m doing. Yeah.
Scott Brady: You said you were getting mid 20 mile per gallon?
Xavier Sinuhe: Oh yeah.
Scott Brady: Over 500 mile range in the 10, yeah, yeah.
Xavier Sinuhe: Over 500 mile range. Yeah. You know, 24 to 26 miles of the gallon. It’s been winter and we’ve had a heck of a winter, as we all know. There hasn’t been a lot of opportunity, but yeah, some, I’ve done some stuff in and around Utah. It still. High teens off-road, which I’ll take all day long. So yeah, it’s, I’m really excited. We’ve been here in, in Prescott the last few days, kind of figuring things out with it, like.
Scott Brady: Kind [00:52:00] of stage one.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. Stage one and, super minimal. I don’t need a lot. I really liked the deck system that I found on the gladiator. The fact that you can have that organized storage. That’s secure and waterproof also came across the light. I, I believe it’s Lightner. Rack System. I vacillated a lot on whether I wanted to go with a camper top like a superPAC Pacific or a G ffc or an at Overland. The thing that. Kind of kept me with the open, with the rooftop tent system is I’ve never dealt with a camper system that didn’t keep dust out. So if I’m gonna, if I know I’m gonna get dust in there, I might as well just let it fly and I don’t, I don’t know. It may change down the road.
Scott Brady: Well, it for sure. And, and the configuration you’ve got now, you still have a truck. Yeah. I saw you haul, you can haul motorcycles around. You can go to Home Depot and yeah, you can get, you can use it as a truck. You can go to Home Depot. You can haul your motorcycle, you can, you know, bring home a new washer and dryer, like you can use a truck as a [00:53:00] truck, which I think is kind of nice. So I, I do like that. A little more open bed configuration.
Xavier Sinuhe: Exactly. This is, this is new to me. I’ve always been in, you know, a fully enclosed suv. And so I’m gonna let it kind of evolve. I’m not, I’m I’m gonna keep it very, cuz part of what I’ve learned over the years is the more. Complicated the systems get, the more chance you have to have to fix it in the field.
Scott Brady: Or just be distracted from the reason why you’re going out. To go see nature and spend time. Yeah.
Xavier Sinuhe: And spend time with my kid. You know, that’s is what it’s about. And I don’t wanna, as much fun as he has sorting bolts, I don’t wanna be doing that in the middle of nowhere.
Scott Brady: And then you put a tent on top of it.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, I did put a tent on top of it.
Scott Brady: OU Cab Ouab.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s an OU Cab to me. I had my choice of quite a few. And looking at the alley cab, it was the most durable.
Scott Brady: It looks bomber.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, it’s, it looks bomber and I’ve heard nothing but good things about them.
Scott Brady: Again, and it has [00:54:00] the ability to run some accessory rails on top. So you could put your mountain bikes up there or, you know, firewood stack some kayaks.
Xavier Sinuhe: Kayaks, you know, like what, whatever kind of weird sport I want to do. I can put a, but I don’t want to go any higher than it already is. And again, it’s gonna be pretty minimal. But the Alley Cab to me, like it’s one of the beefiest.
Scott brady: It is for sure.
Xavier Sinuhe: Ones out there for and for sure tend to, again, one of the reasons, and I didn’t touch on this earlier, is one of the reasons I went, I never even looked at full size. I did look at the Power Wagon for a bit. And once I drove the Power Wagon, it was way too big for what I, it’s an incredible vehicle. But way too big for. The places I like to go.
Scott Brady: And a back to the fuel economy.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah. And the fuel economy. Yeah. So this mid-size diesel, this.
Scott Brady: This truck gets twice the fuel economy of a of a power wagon.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, exactly. So this mid-size really knocks it outta the park for me. And being, you know, small and compact and having the. The all cab being as beefy as it is, [00:55:00] it’s not gonna get torn up by no by branches or anything and that sort of thing.
Scott Brady: Yeah. So you’ve got, looks like a Z R two bison, gives you rear locker, front locker, multimatic suspensions, got some, a bunch of aev goodies on it. aev bumper. You’re getting ready to put a winch on it. You’re gonna be ready because you always do so much solo. That you need to be very self-sufficient, including getting unstuck.
Xavier Sinuhe: It, it’s interesting cuz Caleb from Adventure Imports, has been helping me with this, this truck over the last few days. And, you know, he was, he was lamenting that he can’t find people to go out with. You know, and I was like, Just go by yourself. Don’t ever let that hold you back. And you’re gonna realize that going by yourself, you don’t have to worry about anybody else’s agenda. You don’t have to worry about how anybody else feels. You just go out. Scott Brady: And you get to learn a lot about yourself too.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, exactly. And for me, you know, it’s, I don’t want to, you know, my schedule’s so wonky with my career and my son, and if I have the [00:56:00] opportunity to get out there, I wanna be out there and I, I want to be self-sufficient. And, having a winch. Definitely one of those things that gives you the confidence that, you know, it makes so much sense. Yes, I can get outta here. Makes sense.
Scott Brady: And you like to really go into rugged remote places, so, yeah. Well that is, it’s it, the truck looks great. We’ll throw a photo up and you’re just getting started. It’s gonna be featured in Overland Journal and Expedition Portal, and we’ll end up doing a wrap up video. We’ll do a bunch of great things on it so people can follow along with your, with your new project. Pretty amazing that you, strayed from Land Rover, but if you’re gonna do it, that’s the vehicle to do it. With a diesel mid-size truck. Yeah. Awesome. Aev.
Xavier Sinuhe: I think so. I mean, the fact that someone of Dave from aev’s Caliber has given it, its blessing. There, there’s not a whole lot of other people in this space that I respect as much as Dave, so.
Scott Brady: No doubt. Yeah. Yeah. It’s the one to go with. Sinuhe. Thanks so much any, but let’s talk [00:57:00] about how people find out more about you. What’s. Your social media, your website, how do people follow you and engage with your content?
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, so any, I mean, Instagram is Sinuhe, Xavier, all of my socials are Sinuhe Xavier, my website, Sinuhe, Xavier, type in my name. You can, you know, Google me, whatever it takes. I’m out there.
Scott Brady: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it’s been so fun to have you on. Is there anything that else that you want to talk about? Anything that you’d like to share with the audience or some recent insights or things that you’ve learned that you wanted to share?
Xavier Sinuhe: You know, I, not, not really. I’ve, I’ve had such a, you know, great time over the last couple years coming out of the pandemic and getting back to just letting the, letting the universe suggest. Lay, lay, its suggestions out and being in tune to those suggestions and falling ’em around. You know, [00:58:00] ending up as kind of everything we talked about. You know, the, the Camp Yoshi thing was a little suggestion. The, the trip through Central America was a little suggestion and you know, being open to that stuff and not being locked into what I think. Is the, the path.
Scott Brady: You know, you’ve, you’ve been saying yes to the hell yeses and a lot of no’s to other things.
Xavier Sinuhe: Yeah, exactly.
Scott Brady: That’s, that’s good.
Xavier Sinuhe: Exactly.
Scott Brady: So anyway, it’s always such a joy to have you on the podcast. Thanks for being. A great friend and for bouncing around the world with me all these years, and we look forward to having you back on the podcast. And we thank you all for listening and we’ll talk to you next time.