Transcript: “Listening Time” Episode 6

Welcome to the Listening Time podcast. I'm Conner, with www.polyglossa.com,

and you're listening to Episode 6 of the Listening Time podcast. For those of you who
are listening for the first time, welcome! I'm happy to have you here. This podcast is for
English learners who want to improve their listening comprehension. So, if you are at a
level where you can understand a lot of English, and you can understand me right now,
but you can't quite understand native speakers who are speaking fast, at full speed with
each other, this podcast is perfect for you. This podcast is designed for learners who
need to advance their listening skills to a high level so that they can eventually
understand real, native, fast speech.
So, welcome! In this podcast, I talk about different topics each time. And I speak
naturally, and I don't read a script. So, I'm not reading anything as I speak. I'm just
saying the words as they come to my mind, and so, you're listening to natural English.
And I, of course, speak a little bit more slowly and a little bit more clearly than English
speakers normally do, but I'm using all the normal phrases and words and expressions
that I normally use when I'm talking normally. So, the transcript to each episode is also
available, so you can read the transcript as you're listening to help you understand if
you need help understanding certain words or phrases. So make sure to access the
transcript if you need it.
So, in today's episode, I'm going to talk about my road trip through Mexico. A
"road trip" is a trip that you take by car. Instead of flying, you drive, and it takes a lot
longer to reach the final destination. So, I just recently got back from a road trip, and so
I thought I would talk about that for today's podcast. Also, before we start, remember to
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Alright, let's get started.
Okay, so let me tell you a little bit of backstory behind the road trip that I just got
back from. When I say "backstory", I mean the information that is behind some story...
the context, or just extra helpful information that will help you understand the main idea.
So, the backstory is: I'm in Mexico now... I live here, but I don't have a car. I've never
had a car during the time that I've lived in Mexico. And this year, I decided that I need a
car. So, conveniently, I already have a car, but it's in the US, it... or it was in the US. It
was in San Diego, which is where I'm from.
So, what I wanted to do, is I wanted to bring my car from San Diego down to
Guadalajara, which is where I currently live. So, in order to do this, I first flew up to San
Diego and I obviously spent some time with my family there and hung out with them.
And then after that, on the last day, my wife and my sister-in-law flew from Guadalajara
to Tijuana. Tijuana is the city which is right on the border with the United States and San
Diego. If you're not aware of the geography of the US or Mexico, in the southwest
corner of the United States is the city of San Diego, and this city is right on the border
with Tijuana. So they're connected, but they're just divided by the border.
So my wife and my sister-in-law flew to Tijuana, and then I drove my car from
San Diego across the border, and then I picked them up from the airport, and then we
drove together to Guadalajara. So, one extra piece of background information is that I
had to do the process of importing my car from the US to Mexico. So I had to pay a
deposit, and I had to pay another fee, and I had to bring copies of my different
documents like my passport, my driver's license, etc. And I had to wait in line at the
government office in Tijuana. And then I finally got my permit to import my car into
Mexico. So I had to do that first, because if you're planning on staying for a long time
with your car in Mexico, you have to import it. Right. So, I did that and then I picked up
my wife and my sister-in-law from the Tijuana airport, and then we started the drive
down to Guadalajara.
However, it wasn't the route that you would probably imagine if you were to look
at a map of Mexico and just imagine my road trip. Because if you look at the map of
Mexico, we have the mainland... the main part of Mexico, and then there is a peninsula
on the west side of the country. This is called Baja California. There are two states: Baja
Nore and Baja Sur, right, the north part and the south part of the peninsula. So, we
didn't drive from Tijuana down the main part of the country to Guadalajara. We actually
drove down the peninsula, and then at the bottom of the peninsula, we took a ferry... a
ferry boat with our car across the sea to the main part of Mexico... the... the mainland.
So, it was quite an interesting adventure. We crossed land and we crossed sea. Pretty
cool huh?
Well, let me tell you a little bit about the places we went to. So, from Tijuana we
drove south of course, and we went through some cities on the coast of the peninsula...
for example, Ensenada. That's a pretty big port city in Mexico. A "port city" is just a city
on the coast where boats and ships come and go. So, we went through some places
like that. And then we also went through the... the interior of the peninsula, through very
beautiful terrain actually... terrain where they grow grapes, right, to make wine and other
products like that. And so we drove through these valleys and saw some really beautiful
scenery, actually, in the... not the very middle of the peninsula, but not on the very coast,
either... so, a little more inland than the coast.
So we went through some really beautiful... beautiful countryside scenery in Baja
Norte. And then we stayed our first night in a small, tiny little town, but actually, we didn't
stay in the town. We stayed a little bit outside the town, right off the coast at an Airbnb,
which was very funky. So when we say the word "funky" in English, we refer... we're
referring to something that is weird in a positive way. It's strange, weird, but not in a
negative way. Right. It's kind of cool. So we stayed at a funky little Airbnb, right outside a
really small town on the coast of Baja Norte.
So, this Airbnb was very funky because it was on a small ranch, right, with farm
animals: chickens, roosters, pigs, horses, sheep, everything. It was really cool, actually.
But it didn't have the normal amenities that a normal hotel or Airbnb has. "Amenities"
refers to things like Wi Fi and electricity and running water and things like that. We didn't
have much of that. It was a very interesting experience. I loved it. I really enjoyed it. But
for people who are not used to being outside of civilization, it might be a difficult
challenge to stay in a place like that. So, if you're up for the challenge, I would
recommend it. If not, definitely not, then.
But yeah, so the second day we drove down from that ranch, and drove all the
way until the midpoint in the middle of the peninsula, and we stayed in a small city in the
middle of the peninsula next to the coast, as well, near the sea. And then from there, we
drove down towards the bottom, not all the way to the bottom, but closer to the bottom
of the peninsula, and we stayed in a town that is classified as a "magic town". In
Mexico, we have classifications of towns. We have a certain classification that is
referred to as "magic towns". So, when a town is considered a magic town, that means
that it has some important touristic value, right. It has cool architecture or history or
nature or something that makes it a good tourist destination. And so they maintain it and
preserve it much better than other towns in the country. So, they're all very nice to visit,
all of these magic towns.
So we stayed in one, and then the day after that, we drove down to La Paz,
which is a city close to the bottom of the peninsula, not at the very bottom, but pretty
close. And then from there, we took the ferry and made our way to the mainland. So, I
had to pay the money to drive my car onto the ferry, and take it with us on the boat
across the sea to the mainland of Mexico. It costs a couple hundred dollars to do that,
and you have to pay extra for each passenger that you have. So it's... it's not that
cheap, but it's a cool adventure, and it's a great way to transport your vehicle from the
peninsula to the mainland. So, we had a 13-hour boat ride from La Paz to Mazatlán
which is the city on the other side, on the mainland, where the boats end up. So we
went overnight and traveled by ferry and ended up in Mazatlan the next morning.
After that, we got our car off the boat, and we stayed for two nights at my wife's
cousin's house. So, he has a house in Mazatlán and so we stayed there with him for two
nights, and just kind of relaxed and ate good food and explored the city a little bit. So it
was more relaxing than the other days of the trip because I didn't need to drive that
many hours. And then lastly, we drove down from Mazatlán to Guadalajara, which is
where I am now. So in total, the amount of driving was about 25 hours, so I had to drive
for 25 hours plus the 13-hour ferry ride.
So it was a long trip. It definitely was. But it didn't feel too long. It didn't feel like
we had to really hurry every day to reach our next destination. I feel like we were able to
plan well, and it wasn't too hard. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, so I was
happy about that. So yeah, it was a long trip. It was fun, we... we passed through many
cool landscapes, and we got to see a big change from north to south, right, we got to
see a change in the land, a change in the weather, a change in the culture between the
different cities. So it was cool to see that diversity of land and culture and people in such
a short period of time. So, I highly recommend taking a road trip down the Baja
Peninsula. It's really cool. It's fairly easy, and it's very safe, so you don't have to worry
about dangerous areas because the peninsula is the safest part of the country. So, it's
very nice.
So, I want to take advantage of this episode to teach you a few words related to
road trips. So these are kind of general words that you might hear when someone talks
about taking road trips in the US or anywhere else. So, first of all, the thing that you're
driving on could be called a highway, or it could be called a freeway. So, we use these
words interchangeably. Some people say highway, some people say freeway, and some
people might say interstate. An interstate is also a highway, but it's a certain
classification of a highway in the US. But when we're talking in general, in any country,
we use the words highway, or freeway. And on each highway or freeway, you have
lanes, right, a lane is one space of the road, where you're driving on. Right, so the
highway, or the road, might have just one lane going in each direction. Or it might have
two lanes going in each direction. Or it might have more than that.
If you go to big cities in the US, like Los Angeles, for example, there are some
parts of the highway that have eight lanes going in one direction, right. So that probably
seems crazy to some of you, but that's fairly normal in places like Los Angeles. But
when you're taking a road trip, and you're on the highway, usually you have two lanes or
one lane, depending on where you are. So, most of the trip that I took through the Baja
Peninsula was on a one-lane highway, right, there was one lane going in both
directions. So, that is the word lane.
Another word I want to teach you is the word stretch. So we often say phrases
like a stretch of highway, right, a stretch of road. What we mean by that is just a certain
part, or a certain distance, a certain area of highway or road. For example, I could say
this is a dangerous stretch of highway, because the road has a lot of holes and is not
well- maintained. So, that could be referred to as a dangerous stretch. So, a stretch just
refers to a certain distance, a certain part of the highway.
A couple other words: speed limit. The word speed limit... or the phrase speed
limit, refers to the maximum speed that you can drive on a given stretch of road. So, if
this sign says 70 miles per hour, that means that the speed limit is 70 miles per hour. Or
if it says 45, that means the speed limit is 45 miles per hour. So this is the speed limit.
Another word that's important for road road trips is diner, a diner, is an American-style
restaurant that sells like breakfast food and comfort food, you know, like food that
makes you feel good: hamburgers and pancakes and grilled cheese sandwiches and
things like that. So, these traditional American restaurants are called diners. And the
reason why I'm including that word here is because when you take road trips in the US,
you see many diners on the side of the highway. These are very common throughout
the country, especially when you're taking road trips. You see many diners. This is one
of my favorite parts of taking road trips, is stopping at these diners and eating good
food.
Lastly, we have the phrases truck stop and rest stop. A truck stop is a designated
place where big trucks can stop and rest, and the drivers can eat a meal and... and just
relax. So we have many truck stops along highways in the US, where anyone, really,
can stop and eat a meal, but specifically we have designated stops for trucks. And then
the other phrase is rest stop. A rest stop is a place along an American highway where
anyone can stop their car and rest, stretch their legs, take a break and just stop driving
for... for a while. I always stop at many rest stops when I'm taking road trips in the US,
because these rest stops are often located in beautiful places. They often have a nice
view, or they have a nice park there. There's oftentimes beautiful nature where these
rest stops are. So, I like to stop there, relax, enjoy the view. And then continue on with
the road trip.
Okay, so we're about done for today. I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode
and hearing about my recent road trip. Hopefully, this inspires you to take a road trip
soon, and then you'll be able to practice with these vocabulary words that I just taught
you, especially if you're taking a road trip in the US. So, also remember to sign up for
our $1 listening practice seminars at www.polyglossa.com. And remember to rate and
review this podcast if you can, and share it with as many people as you can to help
them practice their listening as well. So thank you for tuning in to this episode and I
hope you'll come back for episode seven of the Listening Time podcast.

*IMPORTANT: This episode was recorded a while ago, and I don’t use the Polyglossa
website anymore. Now, you can access my Listening Practice Seminars by becoming a
member at www.patreon.com/listeningtime