Matt Bowles: My guest today is Jordan Campbell. She is an offbeat traveler with a penchant for tasty beverages and the creator of the award-winning brand Global Debauchery. Her travel content is devoted entirely to the overindulgence of Wanderlust. She left her six-figure corporate job as a creative director working on multimillion dollar brand campaigns and websites to pursue her passion for travel and helping other people to travel deeper. She has now been to over 75 countries, all 50 U.S. states and all seven continents.
Jordan, welcome to the show.
Jordan Campbell: Hello Matt. Thank you for having me. I’m really excited to be here and I am super excited for podcast wine night.
Matt Bowles: Podcast wine night it is, and it had to be on brand for Global Debauchery. I have been looking forward to this interview for quite now. You and I know a ton of people in common and I’m so excited to have you here tonight. But let’s just start off by setting the scene and talking about where we are recording from today and what we are drinking. Because it was you, because it was the Global Debauchery brand, I went out and got a special bottle of wine tonight to step my game up a notch. I have just opened a bottle of Barolo from the Piemonte region of Italy. So, I am going to be drinking through that throughout this episode. Where are you tonight Jordan? And what are you drinking?
Jordan Campbell: So, I am actually based in metro Washington D.C. which has been a really good time lately. So, wine helps. And I am drinking Rodney Strong’s 2023 Sauvignon Blanc. They are sponsoring me, but it is really delicious. I have left it over for a recent campaign and I absolutely love it. And it’s Sonoma County in California.
Matt Bowles: I am familiar with Rodney Strong and the fact that you have wines sponsoring you is something that you and I about because I drink wine on almost every episode of The Maverick Show. I do not yet have a sponsor. I’m not even sure I thought about in the realm of sponsors to talk to wine brands. But I really love the inspiration that you are providing me, Jordan. And I feel like that is an excellent place to kick off this interview. I want to ask you, in all of your travels, can you share one of your most epic, most memorable wine experiences around the world? Where were you and what was it like?
Jordan Campbell: So, I think the most epic one, and this might be coming to mind for me because it was recent, but also it was just so much fun. I actually attended a Tea Becks conference in San Sebastian, Spain last year and I think it has the second most number of Michelin star restaurants in the world. Just in this tiny little northern Basque country village. And outside it has all these wineries. There’s a winery that was built by a famous, famous architect that unbelievable. That said, you literally just stand in the middle of this medieval village. They have high top tables, and they have essentially Pinchos, which are like big hors d’oeuvres. And you go up to a window and they have 40 different ones and you’re like, I want number 23, number 13 and 35. And you go, and you stand at these high-top tables outside and they serve you chacoli, which is a fermented white wine.
So, it’s almost got a champagne feel to it. You have to know that if you go to Bilbao, just a little way away, it is not fizzy chacoli. You have to be in San Sebastian for it. But that said, they do the high pours with it, and you stand out in the streets, and you just eat and drink all day. In addition to that, we did a fam trip afterwards that was all the wineries in Rioja Alavesa in that region. And I think we did eight wineries in two days and three, six course plus meals with wine pairings. And every single day, despite that, I woke up feeling happy as a clam. I was not at all tired, I was not hungover. And all we did was just drink wine for 10 days straight. It was amazing. And then I came back to the U.S. and then I was like, oh man, the tomatoes just don’t taste as good and where’s the chocolate gone? And it was just amazing. I’m on the hunt for San Sebastian chocolate.
Matt Bowles: For me, I will tell you, the Basque Country is a magical place. I lived in Bilbao for about a month and then I separately went back, and I went to San Sebastian and then went to the Rioja region as well when I was up and did the wine tasting all around there. But the culinary scene in San Sebastian, like people need to understand. And Anthony Bourdain used to say this. I mean, I remember, and I know you’re a big fan as well. He used to say, outside of Asia, San Sebastian is the best culinary scene you will find that particular place is truly something special.
And in fact, I have talked about my greatest dining experience, three Michelin star experience, which was in San Sebastian. We went to a restaurant called A Lare and it was one of those eight hour long, 12 to 13 course meals with a different wine pairing with each course. And you’re just tasting things and seeing things that you’ve never imagined was culinarily possible before. And your mind is being blown. And each of the different 12 wines that they serve comes in a different shaped wine glass. Just from the stemware to the quality of the wines to the explanations.
One of the courses was a cheese plate and they brought two different glasses of wine, and they were like, this wine pair with that one piece of cheese and the other wine pair with the rest of the cheese on this plate. I mean, it was that kind of a night. And so, by the time you leave something like that at like 2:00 in the morning, whenever you’re done with this eight-hour long experience, you’re just, wow. And I’m talking about this many years later because it was that extraordinary experience. So, I tell everybody, if you’ve never been to San Sebastian, that is truly a bucket list location.
Jordan Campbell: Yeah, definitely. I can’t speak highly enough about it. It was just amazing to just wander the streets every day. And I do have to put a plug in that. As a solo female traveler, totally safe. I would go out, I would meet people out downtown, we would have drinks, probably drinking a little more than I should, but literally zero concerns. Just walking back at whatever time at night felt super safe to me.
Matt Bowles: And it’s gorgeous. I mean, it’s right on the water. The architecture, you’re just like, where am I? How is everything so amazing here? It’s just absolutely a super special place.
Well, Jordan, I also feel like we need to start this off with the trip that you just recently got back from. You went to Antarctica. I have not been to Antarctica. For me and other people that have never been, I have talked to people that have gone. So, I have a little bit of a sense of what’s involved. But for people that maybe don’t have a sense of what’s involved, for example, in getting to Antarctica, how do you get there? What is involved with that? What is that experience? Like, can you take us on this journey from the beginning and talk about your trip to Antarctica?
Jordan Campbell: Oh, it was truly otherworldly. It’s the only way I can describe it. We did a tour that took us through Buenos Aires first. So, we did get to spend a couple of days in Buenos Aires, and then we flew to Ushuaia, the end of the world, I believe they call it, with the sign. And of course, I took a cruise. I actually did not realize how many people were unaware that the only way to get there is by cruising. I’ve had a lot of people ask me, there are hotels there. And I’m like, no, no, there are no hotels there. You have to take a cruise, and you stay on the cruise ship the entire time. And, of course, the famous rite of passage, the Drake Passage, which they told us it’s going to be a rough night. Here’s when you want to take all of your Dramamine, put your patch on, whatever you need to do. They were like, we’re going to get there around midnight.
And I think it was around 11pm I started feeling some significant shaking. And I was like, oh, man, it’s starting. What I didn’t realize is that it was not yet starting. We were just getting closer because at 12 sharp, it started swaying like nothing I’ve ever imagined before or experienced in my life before at all. It was crazy. And this went on for two days. We also made them. I don’t know if it’s a mistake, but our cabin was towards the front of the ship and higher up, so we were really going for a ride. And they call it the Drake Shake. Not because of the waves, but because when the front of the boat lifts up and slams down on the waves, the entire ship shakes and rattles. It sounds like the very first one. It sounds like something exploded on the hull of the boat. And it was like that for two days.
You got up the next day, you could not let go of hand railings. Everybody was walking around like drunken sailors. Anytime we were on the Drake Passage, it was very quiet, not an awful lot of people around. I think there were a lot of people getting adjusted to it and on the way back too. What was worse is there was a big incoming storm, which is scary down there because you have to have travel insurance. It’s a must board any of these ships. Most travel insurance or all do not have medevac or anything like that from Antarctica. They only cover down to a certain, even the most extreme ones that I could find, extreme for BASE jumpers and stuff. The extra fantastic Base-jumping package, they did not cover Antarctica. So, the thing that they tell you is that if you’re injured or if something happens, in all likelihood, or something happens to us on the entire ship, it’s going to be another ship coming to your rescue. It is not going to be a fleet from Argentina coming to save you. It’s going to be another cruise ship somewhere.
And I was like, dear God. So, we had this huge storm rolling in. We had to leave the day early. We tried to go out on the Zodiac as many times as we could and basically ended up spending three days on the way back on the Drake Passage, 30-foot waves the whole way back. And I will tell you, after getting used to that, where you’re going to sleep bracing yourself against the wall because you’re going to roll out of bed. And we woke up on the third morning and it couldn’t have been calmer. And I was like; this feels like a whole other world. Am I in heaven? What happened overnight? And I just looked outside, and I was like, oh my God, we’re back in the channel on our way to Ushuaia. You got used to it, but it was a blessing. And oh, I have to add that showering on the Drake Passage is like an Olympic sport.
Matt Bowles: So, Jordan, once you get through the Drake Passage on your way to Antarctica, what then is it like in Antarctica?
Jordan Campbell: So, you have all these different stops that have a lot of different wildlife, obviously is one of the biggest highlights that they have there. But also, the sense that you are so remote, it is you and your ship. And they only allow so many Zodiacs out at a time. Everything is timed. They only allow so many people on land at once. So, it’s very special. And I think the biggest thing that you’ll run into in the Galapagos as well is that the wildlife there, they don’t have human interaction at all. It’s so rare for them that they interact with you in ways that you never thought possible. They walk around like you exist and get very close to you, and they’re very curious.
They do not have any fear that you might run into, for example, in, like, Yellowstone, which is amazing in its own right, but they just don’t have that kind of fear. We would go out on the Zodiac. We had one day where even the guides were saying, this is incredible. We’ve never seen anything. We were just surrounded by whales very close. We’re talking 25ft, multiple whales right next to us, just hanging out. Coming up, checking us out. Penguins. I mean, it was really incredible. Oh, I got on video a sea lion actually catching a penguin, having a little snack. And the boat very clearly became divided into Team Penguin and Team Sea Lion.
Matt Bowles: Which team were you on?
Jordan Campbell: I think I was kind of on Team Sea Lion. I felt bad for the penguin, but this English guy walked by and he’s like, well, that’s life, isn’t it? I guess that’s how you can sum it up, you know, survival of the fittest food chain and all.
Matt Bowles: I love what you said about the animals because I have been to the Galapagos Islands, and one of the most striking things. There were many striking things about the Galapagos Islands. I mean, that is also, when you think about true bucket list things that are totally fundamentally unique and different from anything else in the world, that should definitely be on the list. But I feel like that dynamic that you described with the ecosystem being so protected that the animals are not afraid of humans because they’ve never known humans as predators. And so, they just kind of see you as someone that they want to play with. And so, animals just swim up to you, whether it’s a sea turtle or a sea lion or whatever, and just do some swimming around you and try to say, hey, want to play with me? You want to chase me? And you’re just like, whoa, this is crazy.
Jordan Campbell: Yeah, it was definitely just an extraordinary experience. Some of the funny things is we went to islands that are just hundreds of penguins, and they do this thing where they run after one another, but if they’re going downhill, they’ll skid. I don’t know if anybody’s ever seen this. I think I’ve seen it may be on Happy Feet or something, but not like. Not even on that Geo, but they skid downhill on their bellies, so they’ll be chasing after one another, and one of them will just go into, like, the belly skid and just take off down the hill, and then the other one would come after it. We were on one of These islands. We were coming up on the Zodiac, and I was so enthralled by that. I didn’t realize we had a glacier calve right into the water when we were in the water on the edge. And they immediately started reversing us back out because they were like, you want to be either at the top of the hill or way far out in the water. But basically, where we were was, like, the worst possible case. I got part of the glacier calving on video as well, but it sounded like a thunderstorm. It was incredible. The noise was startling. So, I was completely enthralled with the penguins doing the belly skids, and then all of a sudden, a whole glacier calves, and they’re like, we got to get out of here. I was like, well, I survived that one. I feel like I just keep going for these experiences where things like that happen. I’m like, today’s not my day.
Matt Bowles: Well, you have had so many amazing experiences. I feel like, though, what I would love to do at this point is just go back to the beginning and just give folks a little sense of your background, because I feel like some of your travel inclinations and travel experiences started super young, with your upbringing and so forth. Can you share a little bit about your background, where you grew up and how you grew up and what that was like for you?
Jordan Campbell: Sure. So, my first transatlantic flight was actually at 2 months old from England to the United States. So, I am a dual citizen. My dad was an American Air Force soldier. My mom is English. So that started very young. And from then on, we would spend a year in the U.S. several years in Europe, come back to the U.S. go back to Europe, and eventually we ended up doing six years in Belgium at the NATO base there. And I came to call that home. It was the longest I’d ever lived in one place as a kid. So, from fourth grade all the way through my sophomore year in high school, I lived in Belgium and then came back to the States and moved around all over the states. And even when I graduated high school and went to college, I still went to four different colleges on my own volition. It’s kind of just stuck with me. Every time we would go from Europe to the U.S. My dad would road trip, so we would go from Virginia and New York, where my family members were, and we would road trip cross country to Colorado or Utah or New Mexico or wherever we were stationed out west. So that also gave me sort of a leg up on my European countries, but also all of my 50 states early on.
Matt Bowles: When you think back, what was that like at that age? Can you share some of your memories from some of those places where you spent time in Europe growing up? And thinking back to your impression at that young age, what was that like for you?
Jordan Campbell: I will hear a lot of military brats say they really didn’t like it. They wanted to be one place forever. That was not me. I’m an only child. I think I got used to at a very early age and especially being an only child and going to a different school every couple of years and just running solo. I think I very much just learned to be super independent and march to the beat of my own drum. I have been that way since I was little, and I am still that way. I was very outspoken; I think it just was normal for me. And that’s the way you learn to survive and adapt, right?
And I think unusual things that really sort of shaped probably my love for travel, but also an appreciation for just cultural understandings that come along with travel is we were in Europe during a lot of really politically rocky, formative times. We were only a few hours from the Berlin Wall fall. We were there during the troubles. The military wasn’t allowed to go to England and my mom, and her family were from there. We were there for the disintegration of Yugoslavia. We were there for Desert Storm and Libya at the time and Lebanon at the time. And our parents were shipping to these places. And in many cases, we wouldn’t know where our parents were going for. It could be six weeks to six months sometimes. We wouldn’t know what they were doing, how long they were going to be there, no idea.
At the same time, our only English speaking TV station, well, we had BBC and we also had MTV2 back in the day, but was AFN. And they don’t do commercials, they do public service announcements, basically. And literally growing up at 12, being like, this is how you identify a car bomb. This is how you identify a mail bomb. Because all of these things were going on and in certain regions of Europe there was a lot of anti-American sentiment. So, we did deal with that. There was some uncertainty there. My parents were really good about dealing with me about that when I was that age. But I look back now, and people are like, that’s absolutely insane. And I’m like, I don’t know. That was just my life. I didn’t know anything else. So here we are.
Matt Bowles: Didn’t you have an experience where your dog got kidnapped?
Jordan Campbell: This is a true story. So, I was very little at this time. But my parents have some really wild stories from this era. So, we were stationed in Naples, Italy, which nowadays people love Naples. But this was Naples, Italy, in the early 80s. The mob, which we knew there more locally as the Camorra, ran the entire city. This was a pre-garbage crisis. It was a thing. It was to the point when I talk about anti American sentiment. So further south in Italy in particular, soldiers were not allowed to wear their uniforms off base because of American sentiment. So, my dad would have to drive to base, get on base, change into his uniform, then change out before he headed home. So that put us in a position where our house, which we were pretty broke, you know.
At the time, my parents were very young, my dad was enlisted, we were very broke. We didn’t live in a great neighborhood. The kids would, like, throw glass bottles at my dogs through our iron gate on our fence. But with all of that happening, one day, two guys just walk up. We had this. My dad still says he’s a major animal lover, so am I. But he says to this day, the most boring dog we’ve ever had in our entire lives. And I was like; Spike was the most boring dog. One of my childhood dogs. He was a beautiful Doberman, and he was a former police K9, so he was very well trained. And my dad was just like, boring. He was boring. But sure enough, two men approach our gate and are basically like, our boss wants your dog. And my dad is like, okay, so what you do? We gave them our dog because they’re like, our boss wants your dog. They want to stud him with the boss’s bitch, basically. And we were like, oh, my God.
So, they take the dog. I think it was for a couple of weeks, we didn’t see our dog. My parents were like shitting their pants this entire time. And eventually they bring the dog back. And then we wait and there was no magic. And then my dad was shitting his pants even more. So, they came here back again to get our dog for the second time. And fortunately, magic happened. You know, the stars aligned romance, a bloom, whatever. And yes, our dog, the boring police canine Spike, impregnated a Kimora boss’s bitch. And we got our dog back. It’s a little emotionally tumultuous time, but everyone came out okay.
Matt Bowles: That is unbelievable. Well, you mentioned that you were in Belgium for a number of years, and I wanted to ask, is it true that this Global Debauchery journey of appreciation for alcoholic beverages around the world began around 12 years old in Belgium?
Jordan Campbell: Yes. We lived about 45 minutes off base. And I don’t know what happened to my key. I left my key. And my parents also worked off base and pretty far out. And so, I got dropped off at my house and nobody lives out where I lived, so I was just kind of hanging out and I’m like, I don’t know when my parents. This is pre cell phone days. So, I went to our landlady’s house, who was this old Belgian lady. She spoke zero English. She invites me in. She lets me use her phone to just call my parents and be like, hey, I’m locked out of the house. And she sits me down to let me do my homework at her dining room table. And she’s basically like, let me get you an after-school snack. So, she brings a little bag of pub chips, which is pretty standard after school snack. But then she brought me a beer. So, I was 12. My mom is English, so she’s kind of like, you know. But my dad was like, absolutely not as an American. And I sat there, and I drank the whole thing because I was trying to be polite. And my parents came to pick me up and they were like, what is happening here right now? I was just trying to be polite and honest. But we actually did have. When you grow up in Europe, you kind of adopt a much more laissez faire attitude towards drinking and alcohol and enjoying yourself so early on, yes. A lot of us, even in high school, were going downtown Mons and. And having beers at 14, 15 at the pubs. That’s what you did.
Matt Bowles: And Belgium is a really good place to drink beer as well, I will say. So. I’m curious, Jordan, how did your passion for travel evolve? Would you say that those experiences really instilled that? Or as an adult, did you then have other moments that really instilled the travel passion of you independently as an adult?
Jordan Campbell: I think it was definitely the start. My dad and his parents are all big travel lovers. My grandparents, the Catholics, my grandmother, my dad has seven brothers and sisters. But my grandparents would pack them up every summer and road trip all the national parks in the U.S. and then when I was in Belgium, my parents would send me back to the States to visit my grandparents on one side or the other. My dad’s parents would take me around in the same RV, the same shitty old RV, and we would go all over the place. So, I think there was a lot of that sort of ingrained in me. Like, let’s just not go from point A to point B. Let’s make this a fun thing to do. Let’s find all the stops, all the places to see along the way and make time for that. It’s not just that I need to be here on this day.
I think there was a gap where graduated college and you’re completely broke and you’re just trying to get by where I didn’t travel as much, but I broke that when I went to Costa Rica with a couple of friends. And this was mid-2000. So, it was definitely on the cusp of earlier tourism days. It was not what it was now. It was still. Everything was very unregulated there. I wouldn’t say it was dicey at the time, but you didn’t hear of a lot of people going at the time. And I was just like, yeah, we’re going to go do this. And so, we did that. And kind of after that, I started on my own all over again. I have been doing budget travel for a long time. I was doing hostels. I stayed in a teepee in Alaska once. That was miserable. Don’t do that. It was 18 bucks, though, and it had a shower. You insert the quarters. So, you had to keep inserting quarters while you’re showering. And then that turned into what is today, which is a little higher level. I’ve gotten used to a little bit different level of comfort. That doesn’t mean I’m too good for a hostel. I will still do a hostel. It’s still a great place to meet people and get some really good stories and just have a fun time. But I do love a little room service these days and, like a balcony and a view. That’s good, too.
Matt Bowles: I’m curious about this teepee in Alaska, and I’m curious about just overall as well, because you’ve been to all of the U.S. States. I have been to most of them, but not quite all 50. I have been to Alaska, though, and I will say that is one of the most unique distinctions and stunningly beautiful states that we have as part of the U.S. So, I’m curious if you can share a little bit more about your experience in Alaska and what some of the highlights were for you there.
Jordan Campbell: Well, we did a road trip, so we flew into Anchorage, and we went down to Seward and the Salty Dog Cafe with the salty toe cocktail. Kenai, maybe. And then we went up to Denali and Fairbanks and came back down. So, it needs to be known, obviously, that Alaska is massive. And even what we saw, there’s so much more to be seen. It can’t even like, I’m all about going to the Aleutians. Those are still on my list or way north. That’s on my list. We had an interesting experience at a, this is one of our budget trips. We did have an interesting experience outside of Denali where we’re like, oh, I found this amazing hostel. It’s these little two person cabins that are right on this river. It’s going to be great. And it was 35 bucks a night. The catch was if you had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, you had to walk out woods on your own and go to the Octagon, which was a tent in the middle of all of this.
So, by yourself in the dark in Alaska. Little did we know that wouldn’t even be the biggest of our concerns. There was a local pub right across the street from this place. So, we were like, oh, we’re going to go have a drink. We went over there and for us, total culture shock. It was very local. We’ll say that there were people sitting at the bar packing heat in their waistbands while they were slamming beers. We could hear rifles going off in the back for sport. And I was just, okay, I’m all good and well with that idea in general, but I like guns and drinking about as much as I like drinking and driving together. That said, we stayed, we were having beers and one of these locals befriended us. He called himself Caribou Dundee and Jeff, who I call my adventure partner for life. My AP4L always makes the joke that Caribou Dundee and Jeff’s a big dude. I mean, he’s over six-foot, barrel chested, that this guy could probably bench press him with his pinkies. He was a trapped trapper who lived on county lines who he could trap in counties and beat the trapping amounts that you’re legally allowed to basically trap.
So, he was telling all of us while we’re having this conversation with him, he must have slammed eight beers while we were sitting with him. Like we witnessed him. No problem. It was clearly already on the up and up. And he was convinced that he wanted to invite us, specifically me, which made it even weirder. Up to his cabin, which is just up the road from where we’re staying, so he could teach me how to shoot his 40. And we were like, no, we’re all good, thank you though. We’re just going to go back. We have a big date hiking in Denali tomorrow. He was so insistent, so insistent. And he was drinking more and more and we basically just had to like to extricate ourselves because we were like, this is going to go bad. Like, we’re in a very local place, clearly, and we don’t want to make anyone angry, right? So, we just had to promptly remove ourselves. I have got to go to the bathroom. And then run away across the street to our little cabin. And like, thanks, Caribou Dundee. You left us with a good memory.
Matt Bowles: That’s amazing. Well, I also want to ask you about one of your trips to Asia. And I think I want to ask you about your experience in Korea. I have been to Korea. You and I have both been to the DMZ, the demilitarized zone on the border with North Korea, which for me was one of the most, most interesting travel experiences. And I was based in Seoul. I nomad around the world, so I usually stay at places at least a month or so. So, I was based in Seoul for about five weeks and from there I went down to Busan, and I saw that. And then I went up to the DMZ and wow, was that an interesting thing to do. And I’m curious if you can share for people that have never been and maybe have never even heard about it, what was it like? What did you experience there?
Jordan Campbell: It is actually insane. I think a lot of people don’t realize a few things about it. And let me start too by saying my dad was actually stationed in Seoul before he met my mom. So, I always had this fascination with, oh my gosh, my dad was so young, and he went to this, to Asia by himself, literally, to protect the most militarized border in the world, right? The most contentious border in the world, especially at the time. So, I was really, really excited to go there, really excited to check out the DMZ. One of the misconceptions I think that people have is that it’s just this borderline. It is not just a borderline. It is an area, a no man’s land. Like a lot of borders. A lot of well-known travelers or well-traveled people will know that you can go through one border walk across and then you get into the other country. But there is this weird never land in between the two where you’re not in either.
And that is always a little, for me, brings up a little bit of anxiety time. It doesn’t matter. So, the demilitarized zone is an entire region between north and South Korea that you could actually enter into and tour. They have things like a train station to Pyongyang that never ended up going anywhere. It was supposed to be a sort of peace offering, but it is totally unused. It is in pristine condition. They have things like the third tunnel where folks from North Korea tried to dig under the entire border. And you can see how far down the tunnel goes. And actually, I don’t get claustrophobic, but I was going further and further and further and further down in there, and I started getting, like, space was getting a lot tighter, and I had to turn around after a while. Cause I kept thinking, you’re almost there. Keep going. You’re almost. And it just kept going. The air feels really thick. I got to go. So, I ended up turning around.
But funny about the third tunnel, too, is that you have to wear hard hats because it gets lower and lower. And there are these sorts of rafters above. And so, when you’re walking down in it, you will just randomly hear like a ‘thunk’, and it’ll just echo down the tunnel and you’ll hear ‘thunk’. So, you keep hearing this, and it is people hitting their heads with their hard hats on the rafters repeatedly the whole time that you’re down there. That was one of the entertaining things. Oh, they also have what they call unity villages, also referred to as Potemkin villages. So, the unity villages, people actually live there, and they don’t pay taxes. And they are fully functioning small little villages. And then they have the Potemkin villages on the North Korean side, which are fake villages that were kind of built to meant to show off North Korea’s prosperity, but nobody lives there. They started realizing on the South Korean side that all of the lights go on at the same time. All the lights go off at the same time, and they don’t see any other activity going on there. So, they realize these are literally fake villages that you can see where nobody lives.
Matt Bowles: Wow. Well, Jordan, I also want to ask you about some places that you have been that I have not been. The first one, I think, is I want to ask you about The Bahamas. It’s close to the United States. I have still not been there. I see people posting pictures of swimming pigs and things like this. What is The Bahamas like, and what is the deal with the swimming pigs?
Jordan Campbell: Well, The Bahamas are really beautiful. They’re absolutely beautiful. And of course, thousands of islands. I think hundreds or thousands. I don’t know how many. It has a lot of islands. It’s not just the couple. Like you could spend days there and still never go to every single island. But yes, they have these famous swimming pigs, which a lot of people have heard of, a lot of people have seen on Rose Island. They are wild pigs. I don’t even remember how they got there, to be honest. With the sort of origination story of them being there. I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s somebody who brought a pig over, and before you know it, there’s all these wild swimming pigs. People go to see the pigs. Obviously, you don’t feed them. You’re not supposed to touch them, anything like that. But people have given them beer and food, and it’s. It didn’t go over well.
So, understanding all of that, this was never my intent at all, but I was like, I wanted to go see the swimming pigs. Right? The wild swimming pigs. So, we signed up for a tour, and we went out to this island, and we get there, and I suddenly realized that it is literally just a farm of domesticated pigs on this random island. This is not Rose Island. This is like. Like, Rose Island is a really long day trip. Apparently. It is just domesticated pigs, and they give you little pieces of fruit on a skewer, and you stand there, and they let the pigs out, and the pigs come running down this ramp and jump in the water with you and are basically almost attacking you to have your skewers. And you’re trying not to stab them. Apparently, they get sunscreen multiple times a day, but also that they’ll have, like, baby pigs. So, these were domesticated. So, I did not feel bad about this. They had the baby pigs, so they had one that they were, like, picking up and hoisting over so everybody could get photo op.
So, I did a photo op with Georgie the pig. I posted it without as much context as maybe I should have online. I got a lot of hate from animal lovers that were like, you’re not supposed to handle the wildlife. And I was like, he was domesticated. It was Georgie the pig. He gets sunscreen, for God’s sake. Yeah, that ended up. I mean, the food was okay, but I was really disappointed. So just a heads up for people looking to do that experience. There are a ton of the fake pig experiences in The Bahamas. So don’t do what I did and don’t fall for it. By the way, my swimsuit smelled like pig for the rest. I could not get the smell out of my swimsuit for the rest of the vacation. So, I just smelled like a barnyard.
Matt Bowles: Well, Jordan, another place I have not been that is super high on my list, I want to ask you about is Iceland. Can you share what it’s like there and then what was your specific experience like in Iceland?
Jordan Campbell: Obviously, Iceland is huge, huge right now. It’s an amazing place to go. I would encourage everybody to go there at least once. You must, you have to. And it is also very much like Antarctica. Otherworldly, you’ve never seen geology like this. I think the first time we went was in April. It was very cold. They don’t tell you; you look at the temperature and you’re like, oh, 40 something. Not bad, right? What they don’t tell you is that the winds are 50 or 60 miles an hour and will strip the paint off the front of your brand-new rental car. And that you will basically be white knuckle driving the entire ring road. So, if you go during that time of the year, pay attention to the wind. Winds. But that said, lots of green, lots of mossy lava rock that looks like little green marshmallows that time of year. They’ve got black sandy beaches, they have the mountains in the middle, the volcanic rocks in the middle that are red and green. It’s really incredible.
And I think a lot of people do a huge disservice to themselves by only doing Reykjavik in the Golden Triangle. I mean, I’m all for if this is all the time that you have and you can do, go do it. But if you can, you will not regret going all the way around Iceland on the ring road. It’s a bit like a carousel in the summers, but it was beautiful enough that we did actually go back a second time, which for us that’s a big deal because we always look at a return trip by returning to this place where if we’re going to a new place that we haven’t yet been, which could be equally or more fantastic. So, the fact that we went back again is significant for us. And we did the West Fjords at that time, which most people leave out entirely. That’s the awkward peninsula off the northwest, which was crazy driving but incredible. And Iceland is the only place in the world that you can snorkel between two tectonic plates, and they prepare. You just don’t read about the experience online because it’ll bring up all kinds of frightening stuff like how unregulated it is. They also talk a lot about it. About dry suits, which I’d never been in a dry suit before.
So, for anyone who doesn’t know dry suits are inflated, you can’t just lift your head up and breathe like you would in a normal wetsuit. So, they have to take you through, literally show you in five minutes. And then they’re like. And off you go. That you have to roll over onto your back to breathe because the back of your neck is inflated and you can’t lift your head up out of the water. It is freezing cold. Your face will be ice cold. Your lips will be blue. But actually, once you got in it, it was really like a lazy river. It was no big deal. Super, super clear water. It was pretty cool at the end. You had to do a little bit of swimming. And in the dry suits, if you’re not in great physical shape and then you’re in a dry suit, it can take a little bit out of you. But awesome experience and would not trade it for the world.
Matt Bowles: Well, I also want to ask you about your experience in Panama. I have spent a reasonable amount of time in Central America. I’ve been to Nicaragua and El Salvador and Costa Rica and then jump over Panama. I’ve been to Colombia and spent many months there. I have not yet been to Panama. It’s high on my list. What was your experience like, though?
Jordan Campbell: We did Panama over Thanksgiving. So, another where can we go and really just maximize our time? So, we went to Panama. We stayed outside of the city on a beach. So, we stayed at a resort. So, we had a couple of beach days. We did some city tours and then we did some rainforest tours outside. And I have to say, Casco Viejo is incredible. Like, the downtown old town of Panama City is really amazing and super vibrant. The sad part was we were literally at the airport on the way out. And for the first I think it was my 70th country, you guys, 70th one. I finally got extorted by the police. It finally happened. I guess it’s like a traveler’s rite of passage. But the stupid thing was about the whole thing is it could have been anything. They’re looking for anything to slight you on, right?
For me at the time, it was that I was smoking across the street from the airport. You’re not allowed to smoke here. And I was like, oh, I’m so sorry. And I went to go put, like, I was across the street, I went. And I was like, there are no signs here. You know, like, I thought I was in the clear. And he’s like no. And he points way down at the end of the airport. And I’m like, you can’t even see that. But also, when I went to go put my cigarette out and throw it in the trash because you don’t also want a litter in front of him, right? There are all these cigarette butts everywhere, you know, And I’m like, ugh. And I was like, I already know what’s happening here. My husband was not catching on for the longest time. Was not catching on to what was going on. He was like, you’re going to be in trouble. You’re going to miss your flight. Do you want me to call my supervisor? And my husband is like; do you need to call your supervisor? You know, I’m sitting there. That’s not what’s happening right now.
And he kept walking us further and further and further down, basically out of line of sight from the windows at the front of the airport. And finally, was like, I’ll do you a favor. And I think he said, 40 bucks. And we literally had $23 cash on us. And Jeff takes it out, and he’s flipping, and I’m like, no, man. And I, like, palmed it and tried to give it to him. And he was like, no. And he opened his notebook so I would put it in the notebook. So basically, he has set it up entirely. I was like, that’s slick. I wasn’t expecting that move. He’s setting it up so that I’m handing him cash so that I am offering it to him in his notebook. But the whole walk down, he kept opening his notebook. And I’m like, what do you want from me with this notebook? You know? And then I finally realized, oh, he wants me to put cash in the notebook.
Matt Bowles: So, did you negotiate it down from 40 to 23?
Jordan Campbell: I just put it in there and he closed it right away, and we walked away. And he goes, don’t smoke. It really, actually, for a while, just chilled my bones. Because by and large, I love travel. I do not know what I would do without it in my life. And that experience, though, I know, like I said, it’s a rite of passage for a lot of people. No big deal. For me, I was just terrified. And I’m an overthinker, too. I think of 30 miles out, right? I’m going to end up in a Panamanian prison. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know how this is going to go. I was like, I’m not even posting about this on Instagram or texting anyone about it until I am, like, have landed in Miami and have gone through customs. That’s how terrified I was.
Matt Bowles: Well, in terms of some of these less touristy experiences that travelers encounter around the world, I actually want to ask you about Anthony Bourdain and what he meant to you and what his travel style and his travel content meant to you and how that impacted you.
Jordan Campbell: I actually really connect with him on a lot of things. And I will tell people the easiest way that I can describe my brand to other people is I, I want to be the female Tony Bourdain. That is my brand. That’s who I am. That’s what I’m going for. I’m not trying to be a 20 something in a bikini on a beach somewhere. That’s not my jam. And he kind of embodies what I want for my own brand. And it goes all the way down to his love for music. I’m a huge music lover. His authenticity, the way he just tells it like it is, I am very blunt. I’m very straightforward. I enjoy profanity. So, I feel like we would be friends in real life if I ever met him. I feel like we really would. But mostly, too, I think he’s this guy that wasn’t inherently a traveler who went out and saw the world and started having these experiences and started asking himself really culturally relevant questions and sort of opened it to the masses.
The things that you come across and the things to be thoughtful of when you’re traveling. Right now, there’s a lot of political upheaval and there’s a lot of uncertainty for a lot of people, but I think we still forget sometimes how fortunate we are to be even where we are right now. Because, I mean, the levels of poverty. If you’ve ever seen a shanty town up close and in person and heard stories, I recently went to Cuba. The stories of the people there were just incredible to me. And I just thought, wow, the resilience of people throughout the world and their experiences, it’s just mind blowing to me and incredible.
Matt Bowles: All right, we’re going to pause here and call that the end of part one. I’m going to put direct links to everything we have discussed in the show notes, as well as all the ways to find, follow and connect with Jordan. You can just go to themaverickshow.com and then go to the show notes for this episode. And if you would like to meet me and Jordan in person, we’re both going to be at the WITS Travel Creator Summit in New York City, May 16th to 18th, 2025. Jordan is going to be presenting a workshop called From Beginner to the Essential Guide to Becoming a Successful Content Creator. So, if you want to come through for all of that and hang out with the two of us and a bunch of other Maverick Show guests that are going to be there, you can get a special discount on your ticket. Beth Santos, the founder of Wanderful, which puts on the Wits travel creator so Summit, has been a guest twice on The Maverick Show, and she has offered Maverick Show listeners a $75 discount on the tickets to WITS. And you can get that by going to themverickshow.com WITS. And there, of course, you can see all of the details about the event and get your tickets. And if you do grab tickets to Wits or you’re going to be in the New York area that weekend, shoot me a direct message on Instagram @maverickshowpod. Let me know that you’re coming, and we can make plans to link up in person. And with that, be sure to tune in to the next episode to hear the conclusion of my interview with Jordan Campbell. Good night, everybody.
