BONUS EPISODE: The Hidden Hustles of Cabo’s Beaches

In this bonus episode of the Fit For Radio Podcast, Drew sits down with Jesus Romero for a wild conversation about the art of bartering, reading people, and navigating high-pressure situations when everyone is trying to make a deal. Jesus shares firsthand stories from his time hustling on the beaches, breaking down the psychology behind negotiation and how to spot when someone is working an angle.

Drew also shares his own unforgettable experience of things taking a turn while renting jet skis, forcing him to get out fast when a situation escalated. Together, they unpack the lessons they’ve learned about staying sharp, trusting your instincts, and avoiding costly mistakes when traveling and negotiating in unfamiliar environments.

This episode is packed with real-world insight, entertaining stories, and practical advice on how to avoid getting scammed when the pressure is on.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

We're going round and round out there. And I'm like, he didn't crash the boat. I'm trying to like talk normal about it. It's not working. But we're starting to get like surrounded now. Like it's getting awkward on the beach. And so the guy goes, he whispers to his wife, he's like, I got a passport. Let's just get out of here. And so we just start walking up the beach, but like, there's all these guys back there, and I think they want to they want to kick our ass right now. Like, this ain't good. All right, it's the Fit for Radio podcast. A special little short here with Jesus Romero, a guy I met on the beaches of Mexico 15 or 14 or 15 years ago now, which is totally insane to me. It was uh before I even had children, is when I met Jesus in just a chance meeting outside of the Rio Santa Fe, where I was staying uh with my wife. I walked down to the beach to check out some trinkets, talk about some excursions, and I met this guy, and I was partying for sure. I had I think I probably had two drinks in my hand at the time, big smile, and uh just full of trouble at that point, which made us fast friends. Um now, Jesus, welcome to the show. I'm glad you're here, buddy. Thank you. Um now I wanted to just talk to you. We did a full uh length podcast about your life and the things that that you've been through, but I've always been a little bit curious about the workings of the beach, right? So, like when you're at the beach and there's all the people selling plates and bracelets and you know, you name it, sunglasses all the way down the line. So, do people get up in the morning and do they go to like a warehouse to get all that product? Because it's it's all kind of the same stuff, you know, down the beach, it's just a different person holding it. Um, where do they get all that? Do they pay for that ahead of time? Are they borrowing it till they pay for it? How does that work?

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Uh some of it, what they do, they is buy their product. Sometimes they'll buy it from a Sado Mexico, let's say a hat. Example, right? A hat. So they buy it from like Saro Mexico, and um they pay, let's say about uh five dollars, let's say that a hat. And you just sell it out for ten. So you make yourself like five dollars. That's how we do it. So you just gotta buy your stuff and you just resell it for like a little at a higher price.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

So all of that is their stuff then. Yeah, like so they've already purchased it.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

They already purchased it, and now they gotta make their commission and kind of get their money back so they can reinvest their money, you know, kind of get more highs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

And that's probably why they're so thoroughly annoyed was as you're trying to like get the price down one more dollar and one more dollar, because that's the profit margin. You're cutting into the margins here.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

That's right. Yeah, that's when they like, oh, come on, man. You know, you're messing with my money. Trying to pay me five dollars.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

So I got a question. So one time, um, and you're not even on that beach anymore, so I'll just tell it straight. You hooked me up with these guys uh who I went on a jet ski. We went jet skiing. Now, beforehand, I've been taught to walk around the jet ski and to circle everything that has a dent, a scratch, or whatever. Well, we had met these people from Texas, and you know, they're all they're all so Texas, and they're like, let's go down, let's ride some jet skis. And I'm like, uh-uh, okay. So I went down and saw you. You get me with some guys who give me a pretty good deal. Um But things get weird though, because after we get done, and we're out in the middle of the ocean, like nobody's nobody's jet ski touches anything, right? I mean, it's you're in the wide open ocean unless you slammed into each other, which we would know, nothing's happened. So we get back and the the guys are there and they've got like a couple of guys behind them that have like not taken their masks off with the glasses, they look real shady. And they're like, No, no, no, no, you crashed the boat. So there's these guys, and like, you know, a couple of them have masks on and glasses, but you know, it's hot, it's the beach, I don't know, and you know, people are shady, whatever. Um, but one of the other people from Texas, they're like, No, no, no, you crash this boat and you need to pay us $250. And he's like, I ain't paying no $250. Now, what these guys did not know at that moment was that this guy is a police officer in America, and so he he's not used to taking any crap from people, you know, and so like whereas in my mindset changes when I go to Mexico and I'm like, I'm no longer in control, I have to like maneuver all of these things, and that's the smart way, that's the survivor's way. But this guy was like, nah.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Oh, I think I'll tough and then one run three, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

And so what he did, what he did was the the guy goes, I'm not giving you your driver's license back until you pay me $250. And so, like, we're we're going round and round out there, and I'm like, he didn't crash the boat. I'm trying to like talk normal about it, it's not working. But we're starting to get like surrounded now, like it's getting awkward on the beach. And so the guy goes, he whispers to his wife, he's like, I got a passport, let's just get out of here. And so we just start walking up the beach, and there's like this I've I forget which hotel has like a pirate ship type uh feel to it.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Breadless.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Yeah, so so we walk up to it and they're like, Hey, bracelets? I'm like, we don't have any bracelets, but like there's all these guys back there, and I think they want to they want to kick our ass right now. Like, this ain't good. Because the guy has the guy has run his mouth a little bit to them. He's had a couple of cold drinks and he's feeling like he's being ripped off, right? And so the people there like let like they took us through the hotel and got us a uh uh got us a car and got us out of there. So we were gone, right? And the uh right before we left, they're like, the police are coming, they're coming to your hotel, all this stuff. And I I was freaking out. I'm like, oh my god, the police are gonna come to my hotel. So I go to the front desk at our hotel and I kind of give them the cliff notes. I'm like, hey, yeah, so this happened. And they say they're coming to the hotel, and the lady just smiles at me and goes, Sir, they are not coming in this hotel. She was so relaxed, and she's like, you can forget about it. She's like, I suggest you go grab yourself a drink at the bar. She was like, I was like, that's it. And she's like, that's it. And so I'm like, okay. So I walk away, and I'm just gonna tell you something that happened after that. This is crazy. And I and maybe you can explain why. But you know, he had thrown a bunch of what felt like empty threads at them about being law enforcement, about how you can't do this to me and all this. They sent him his driver's license back in the mail. The guys from the beach. They did. How? Like six months later, maybe five months later, because his ID had his address on it. Okay, they put it in the mail and they sent it to him. No, he didn't pay the damage? No.

unknown 7:34

What?

SPEAKER_02 7:35

He never paid the dam he never talked to him again after that beach, but one day in his mailbox was his ID. I don't understand. Do you is there do you think that maybe that his threats, somebody was like, uh, I don't want to deal with him?

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Nah. It seems impossible. Nah, it was I don't know. Or somebody just had a moment of kindness. Or maybe the owner of the company, he's like, okay, whatever, I'm just gonna send his and dig, because uh the guys that were fighting there, running their mouth, they were just employing, he's working there. So the owner is not there. Sometimes he is, so he's always at home.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

Uh so he probably was like, I just don't want a bunch of bad blood.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Let's just a guy, maybe he did a review or something, or I don't know, or on his company, because this is how he can get your stuff back. You know, he's telling, hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna do a badass review on your company. I'm gonna tell them about you and all this stuff, and people you're like, okay, uh, don't worry, don't worry. I don't know. He's just yeah, but it was lucky, bro, because they'll make you pay. You watch this. If you don't pay, they'll call the police.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

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SPEAKER_00 10:38

You do uh the easy way to do it, you just pull up your phone and then just recording JST around and just record a person, and that way they're gonna be, oh no, it wasn't me, it wasn't me, uh uh I wasn't one, uh-uh. And then you can't work. Yeah, because to be honest, that's that's a lot of tick tips over in the cables. Like a lot of them things want to take your money and kind of so you know.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

So, what what for you, what's a tip for someone who's going on vacation, they're gonna be staying on the beach, and they're gonna be down there trying to get excursions and all that, and um pretend it's not your company on the beach, because obviously we would want them to go see you, and you'd give them the best deal and and bing bong boom. But what if you're just on a random beach in Mexico, what's the best way to go about getting yourself an excursion?

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Okay, first, uh, you gotta make sure he has like uh his ID or he has um his name tag, you know, from a company he works uh for. Second, uh make sure his company is online, and then once you see that, I mean, you get it. But other than that, if he's just telling you, like, yo, I got a good deal for you, man. You gotta put a deposit. And then tomorrow you just gotta pay the balance. Sometimes you gotta forget about that deposit. And sometimes when you pay in full, you forget about uh money because they don't show up. There's a lot of people doing that on the beach now because he's a lot of Twinkers or whatever. You see a lot of them just is smoking that are like under a black uh plastic bag, bro. He's hiding. You see when they pull out their bag.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

That's what they're doing under there.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Yeah, if you see one of them, that's what they're doing.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

It's funny, it's like, oh yeah, let me let let me hide that I'm doing drugs with a giant black plastic bag over my head. Like, oh yeah, very incognito. That's amazing. Which is sad, it's sad because I love, I love, love, love Cabo San Lucas, but I love Mexican beaches in general. Um, and it's just too bad that that part has uh has gotten a little rougher around the edges. What do you think? Do you think that it goes back to the way that it was ever, or are we stuck in this rotation?

SPEAKER_00 12:51

I think we're stuck in this rotation, bro. Like we are. Because it's a little bit hard, to be honest, because once you uh trying to will with uh deal with an addict, it's hard. I mean, it's hard to deal with them. So I mean, it no matter how many lies they'll tell you, they're always gonna meet that person. You know what I mean? Because they don't drive.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

So I guess that's something to keep an eye on. Uh, you know, if their jaws moving a million miles a minute, they're bug eyeing out, then they're probably on drugs. You know what? Back in my days on the beach, I always just find somebody that because there there was always the guy on your beach where he'd come up to me and he'd give me good deals on stuff, but he would always come up, and you probably know him just based on this comment. He'd walk up and go, Rum and Coke. And I'd go, What? And then give me a rum and coke, the older guy.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Okay, okay. Well, actually he passed away. He didn't talk about this. No, it's because I kept bringing Rum and Cokes.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Yeah, that's I loved him. I know. I think I forgot I didn't get there on time. But there would be times where I would get stuck back up at the pool and I'd promised him a drink, and like I would hold I would always come through. I'd come back down there. I'm like, You thought I forgot about you.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

He's like, Yeah, I know, I know.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

I wasn't always on time, but I always made it back. Uh but thank you so much for uh taking a few minutes. Uh I want to stay in touch. I want to talk about more of these types of things, especially when something big goes on down there. Uh, you can give me a little insight from beyond the border. And congratulations as my first international guest. Um, where the show has been heard in I think something like 20, 22 countries, something like that. So um, yeah, that's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

So more of that. I'm just happy for you, man. Big ass hug, brother. You know, it's it's a true true uh a true one, you know, man. It's just yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Thank you, bro. Well, I appreciate the support, and I'm I'm uh I'm a big supporter of you too, and I can't wait to see what you do next. And uh with that head on your shoulders, you're gonna be just fine. So uh cheers to you, and next time I'm on the beach in your neck of the woods, you know who I'm calling. Alrighty. All right, cheers, buddy. All right, cheers, brother.