As I sit here in my tent writing this, somewhere in the middle of the Baja California desert, I’m sipping on a yogurt drink and having a nice chocolate pudding which I scored for $0.00. How did I manage that you ask? Well we’ll get to that.
When you’re travelling around the world and taking a couple of years to do it you probably aren't making much money. Yet you need to eat and that usually cost money which over the days and months adds up to a hefty sum. Therefore a good skill to learn is how to get food for free. So what I’m going to try to do is, as I travel through the various countries I’ll recount the ways I’ve found get a meal for $0.00. Now mind you I’m still supplementing these free meals with bought and paid for food (at least for now—hopefully by the end of the trip I’ll be able to eat every meal for free). Also, a word of warning, some of these methods may make you sick so use your own common sense. I take no responsibility for any harm you incur by following these methods. In fact don’t take anything that follows seriously.
Okay, the story of this whole business of eating for free started back when we were traveling along the coast of Washington State. When you’re travelling long distances by bicycle you’re eyes wander (or at least mine do). One of the things I started noticing along the side of the road were hundreds of blackberry bushes. But alas none of the blackberries were ripe. Needless to say I was bummed out since blackberries are my second favorite berry second only to the strawberry. As I cycle past these blackberries I think to myself, “Hey, we’re travelling south into warmer climates. Maybe they’ll be ripe further south.” With my hopes lifted I soldier on still eating the small meals Kevin allows for at grocery stores. We make it to Oregon State and still they are not ripe and they don’t look any bigger than those in Washington State. With cold and rainy days my hopes are fading. Then one morning, after waking up from after a night spent free camping near a highway overpass I roll my bicycle across the on ramp and lean it against the guard railing so I can pack it. And to my surprise what do I see hiding behind the railing but bunches of ripe blackberries. I start gobbling them all up, everyone I can find, big and small, mushy or firm; it doesn’t matter I’m ecstatic and jumping for joy. I call Kevin over to see if he wants any, but he’s not too big on the idea of eating berries from the side of the road that aren’t washed and where most are not totally ripe and a little sour. Also he still thinks fruits are the cause of his ongoing stomach pains. So he ends up only eating one or two and passing on all the rest. I gladly eat the ones he passes up.
Well, with my first free meal in my belly I’m on the hunt for more. Now I’m really watching the sides of the roads for more blackberry bushes. I tell Kevin to keep his eyes peeled too but he’s no use and seems to be completely oblivious to these things. Either later that day or the next day (I can’t remember exactly, but still in Oregon) Kevin is complaining of malnourishment. However, rather than looking out for blackberry bushes he’s looking for the next mini-mart. I spot some blackberry bushes with black dots on them (we were travelling quite fast so I couldn’t quite tell if they were ripe or not) and yell out to Kevin to see if he wanted to stop and check them out. No, he pushes on as he sees an off ramp up ahead which leads to a miniscule town. We make it into town and he checks the lone mini-mart which, to no one’s surprise, had a small selection food and for astronomical prices (or at least out of Kevin’s price range). He learns that there’s another market 1 mile back or another town with markets 20 miles ahead. I really don’t like backtracking and am against heading back. Instead I suggest looking for the blackberries I had spotted. Kevin reluctantly agrees. We head back to the off-ramp and look for blackberries. There are none to be found; they were further back down the road, maybe a third of a mile or so. We decide not to head back and look for them. While deciding what to do, I notice that we’re standing right next to an apple tree. I quickly hop off my bicycle and start grabbing at apples. I give one a try and find that they aren’t really ripe but hey, beggars can’t be choosers. So I keep on eating. Kevin decides to give some a try but can’t take much of them as he really doesn’t like sour apples. Oh well, more for me. We eventually make it to the next town where Kevin buy’s his meal.
As we made our way into California more blackberries were ripe and they were juicier. My original hopes came true: the further south you go the riper they get. Now the question was when would the tables turn? When would they start disappearing? Well the answer is: after San Francisco. The day we travelled from Sacramento to San Francisco was my last day of eating free blackberries straight from the bush.
Tip #1: Blackberry bushes are everywhere and for the traveling cyclist the best places to find good blackberries are on and off-ramps to highways and freeways. If you’re lucky you might also find an apple tree too. However, blackberries are only abundant along the low lying coastal areas. You’ll also need to time it right as they ripen in summer months.
Tip #2: You can’t be choosy. Take what you can get. Sometimes you’ll find ripe fruit growing on the side of the road in which case consider yourself lucky. Other times you’ll find unripe fruit which is sour. In which case learn to like sour fruit. It’s free after all so you can’t complain.
With my supply of fresh berries gone I needed to change tactics and step it up a notch. It was not until our last day in the United States that I scored my next free meal. We were in San Diego eating our sixth and last free Denny’s meal at around 8pm. (By the way, another way to get a free meal is to go to Denny’s on your birthday. You can get a free meal if it’s your birthday.) We gobble it up and start making our way to the camp site (Silverstrand State Beach) which is, according to the GPS, 11 or so miles away. By now the sun has gone down so we turn on our headlights and make our way along unlit back roads. Luckily I’ve cycled around San Diego on a previous occasion so I sort of know where I’m going. We find the bicycle path which cuts the distance down to 5 or 6 miles. Eventually we make it to Silverstrand State Beach. Unfortunately we find that they only over RV campsites; no hike-and-bike. Well, we’re not in a position to find another place to camp so we decide to setup camp near the washrooms of this RV Park. The park attendants have all left for the day and most of the RV’ers have retired to, what seems to pass for camping these days, their RV’s. We’ll be gone before anyone realizes we were ever there so we go ahead and setup camp. After setting up camp I go use the washroom and then wash-up at the sink. Out of the corner of my eye I spy a package containing something round. Hmmm, I think, that deserves a closer look (it’s rather dark out so I can’t quite make it out). But wait there are some RV’ers coming out of the woodwork to use the facilities. I’ll have to come back later and investigate further. I head back to the tent and get my floss, toothbrush and toothpaste. When the coast is clear I head back to the sink to brush my teeth. And while doing so I also take a closer look at these objects. Yes, they are what I think they are: a bunch of cookies in a container lying there in the trashcan. Being the good boy that I am and not letting any food go to waste I diligently snatch the cookie container out of the trash and haul it back to my tent for safekeeping. I’ll dig into them in the morning for breakfast. I show Kevin my find and he doesn’t seem interested; something about, “Who knows who has touched them? And they’ve been in the garbage and aren’t clean.” All of which is nonsensical to me. I nod off to sleep knowing that I’ll be eating well the next morning.
The next morning I get up excited to eat some cookies. After coming back from the washroom Kevin asks if I dropped some of my cookies. I say no, I haven’t even opened them up yet. He points to three cookies just lying there on the sidewalk. I promptly go over to take a closer look. Yup, three perfectly fine white chocolate chip cookies and not from the ones I had found the night before. I go ahead and gobble them up on the spot. Not bad, a little moist from the sea spray and a little sandy but good nonetheless. With those out of the way I head back to dig into my find from the previous night. I open up the Choc Chunk, Snickerdoodle & Double Nut Kirkland Signature Cookie container to find 2 Double Nut (white chocolate chip + macadamia nut) cookies, 2 Snickerdoodle (gingersnaps) cookies, and 1 Choc Chunk (chocolate chip) cookie. All my favorite cookies. I offer Kevin some but he doesn’t want any. So I slowly enjoy each and every one of them. They were quite filling and ended up keeping me full for the whole day. Not a bad start to our day heading into Mexico.
Tip #3: Look for edible treasures in the trashcan especially at camp sites (families and large groups are notorious for throwing away half eaten meals). If street bums can do it why can’t you?
Tip #4: Eat what you find on the ground. If the birds can do it why can’t you? But be quick about picking food up off the ground otherwise the birds will beat you to it.
Now in northern Mexico I had to adapt once again to my new surroundings. In my preparations for this around the world journey I read http://canadatoargentina.blogspot.com (two other Canadian brothers who traveled from Canada to Argentina). On their blog they mentioned that they happened upon a trashcan overflowing with expired pastries and other yummy treats. This trashcan was situation in the middle of the desert at the side of the road with nothing in site for miles. It seems that some mini-mart overstocked their shelves and had to get rid of their expired inventory. So rather than do the obvious thing (at least to me) and eat it all themselves, they drove out to the furthest dumpster they could find and left it all for two passing cyclists (that was nice of them). Well, having read this I had my hopes flying high that I’d be the lucky recipient of a similar treasure. Mexico, here I come, give me your expired food; I’ll put it to good use. Day 1 in Mexico, I search all the dumpsters I can find: nada. Okay, no big deal, you can’t expect to find such treasures every day. Day 2, again I search all the dumpsters and again nada. Kevin repeatedly tells me those other Canadians were just lucky and to stop wasting time checking every trashcan. On day 3 I give up, my hope has completely faded. I can’t keep checking every trashcan I come across, it’s time consuming and really hard work (it’s really, really, I mean really, really hot out, and only getting hotter). I give up.
Bummed that I won’t be finding my food in every trashcan, I resort to plan B: scavanging. The first thing you’ll notice after you get out of the border towns is that Mexico (or at least Baja) is one big garbage dump. There’s garbage everywhere: in the trashcan, around the trashcan, nowhere near the trashcan. When presented with this your first impulse might be to become disgusted and saddened by all the garbage. However, if you’re trying to find a free meal then consider all this garbage a treasure trove, because you’ll find sustenance in amongst all the garbage strewn about. There are literally thousands of drink bottles on the side of the road. Most of the time they’re empty, but sometimes they are partially full. – Some of you may see where I’m going with this. You might be saying, no Trevor, no. Don’t stoop to such lows. Oh yes, I’m going there. You have to understand that on this third day in Mexico it is really, really, really, really hot and I’m cycling up 800 meters in the dry desert. I need my fluids and by gosh I’m going to get my liquids one way or another. – Anyway, during my endless hour of staring at these thousands of bottles I notice some are indeed partially full of liquid goodness. I stop to pick up a partially filled Coke bottle. I unscrew the cap. I hear the carbon fizz. I take a sniff (could be urine or gasoline). Smells like Coke. I take a sip. Why not? The bottle, having sat in the sun for who knows how long has been baked to kingdom come. Anything harmful has surely died of heat stroke. Surprisingly it is pretty good. Really, really, really, really hot, but still good and it’s still carbonated. Pleased with my find I now spend my time searching for more partially consumed bottles; forget those trashcans. On that day I found three more bottles: a couple more Cokes and a Strawberry Fanta (that was good). And it was a good thing because we didn’t find a mini-mart until late afternoon (Kevin, not stooping to my levels was seriously parched as we had run low on water. We weren’t expecting 60km of nothing). Finally we find a lone house on the horizon and Kevin sprints to it. He hurriedly jumps off his bike and runs past the silly dog nipping at the buzzing bees (usually he’d notice such things and take a picture, but not this time). He comes out with a 4L jug of water and a couple of other cold drinks. I can tell it is still not enough liquids for Kevin, but now that he’s partially reenergized his penny-pinching ways kick in again so we hop back on our bikes and press on. The shop owner told us the next stop isn’t for another 80km, but Kevin has high hopes that something will be around the next corner. And what do you know he’s right. Not 10km down the road is another mini-mart. Kevin almost chooses to pass it by, but at the last second decides to stop and stock up on more water. I wait patiently with the bikes by the trashcan. Hey, why not? I peak inside. Jackpot! In the trashcan are a bunch of unopened yogurt drinks and puddings. There are people around so I pick my opportunity and reach down and pull out one of the yogurt drinks. It only expired 4 days ago. It should be okay to drink. I open the cap, and take a sniff. Smells okay. I take a sip. Still good! I chug it down. I go for seconds, thirds, fourths. Kevin comes out with his water and I show him my find. For some reason he doesn’t care; something about milk products go bad in the sun and give him stomach pains. Again him and his nonsensical mumbo-jumbo. I reach in and take out a chocolate pudding. Seriously that’s the best pudding I’ve ever had. I grab a bag and start packing this stuff away for later. Slowly, though, don’t want draw too much attention (can’t have Mexicans thinking we Canadians eat trash). In the end I packed away 16 250ml yogurt drinks of various flavours (mango, strawberry, apple, walnut, peach, mixed berry [blackberry, strawberry and raspberry], strawberry with extra fibre, strawberry [low fat]) and 8 chocolate puddings.
Tip #5: One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure. It bears repeating: look in the garbage and yea shall find a free meal. Be that garbage in a can (where it should be) or strewn about across the land. But beware of the piss filled bottles lurking about (I almost got fooled by one—those orange drinks, you never know).
PS: Those yogurt drinks and puddings sustained me all throughout Baja (that’s 9 days). In fact I still have one yogurt drink and one chocolate pudding which I’m going to savour after I post this. Who knew yogurt and chocolate milk could last so long even after having baked in the sun.
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