Baja Adventure Author Graham Mackintosh

The Mexico Living Home Show is pleased to announce that Baja adventure author Graham Mackintosh will be joining our impressive lineup of quest speakers at this years event.

In 1983 Graham Mackintosh was a lecturer at West Kent College in England, teaching social sciences and special education to unemployed teenagers. In the hope of showing his students that a shoestring expedition could be the adventure of a lifetime, Mackintosh, who described himself as the "least adventurous person in the world," set out to walk around the beautiful but dangerous coastline of Baja California.

The two-year, 3,000-mile trip changed his life. When Mackintosh emerged from the cactus-strewn wilderness, he returned to England to write Into a Desert Place and there received the prestigious "Adventurous Traveler of the Year" award. Mackintosh was soon drawn back to Baja. After years promoting Into a Desert Place in the USA and Baja California, and scores of trips below the border, he eventually decided to walk down the rugged, mountainous interior of Baja, visiting many of the old missions along the way. Journey with a Baja Burro, his second book, was the result. It describes his arduous thousand-mile journey with a pack burro from the US border to Loreto -- a trip that began exactly 300 years after the October 1697 founding of the Loreto mission, the first permanent European settlement in the "Californias."

In 2001, Graham spent four months in Baja’s Sierra San Pedro Mártir with two street dogs, which became the subject of his third book – Nearer My Dog to Thee."

His fourth book, Marooned With Very Little Beer, appeared in April 2008, and tells of his two months kayaking and hiking the second largest island in the Sea of Cortez -- Isla Angel de la Guarda.

Graham Mackintosh now lives in San Diego, California. He continues to give lectures and slide shows on his trips, writes articles on Baja and has guided tourists south of the border on various tours. He is married to Bonni, a nurse, who shares his love for Baja and nature.

Baja Fever and Baja Legends author Greg Niemann

Greg Niemann, the author of Baja Legends will share his tales of great Baja legends and much more.

Greg Niemann graduated with a degree in journalism from California State University, Los Angeles, and is an accredited business communicator. He was a communications manager and publications editor with United Parcel Service for over 34 years before he retired in January 1995. Niemann was president of both the Los Angeles and Orange County chapters of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and was named Communicator of the Year by that organization. He has also served on the board of directors of the Outdoor Writers Association of California (OWAC).

Since retirement, he has been a newspaper columnist and still contributes regularly to several publications. Presently, Niemann is on staff of the San Clemente Journal, writing the South of the Border column and a travel column featuring Palm Springs and other desert destinations. Most of his articles are travel- or Baja-related, including a series on the Baja missions along with numerous fishing and off-road racing articles.

Niemann’s books include Baja Fever, Baja Legends, Palm Springs Legends, and his newest, Big Brown: The Untold Story of UPS. The memoirs brought out in Baja Fever created a loyal following of Baja fans. Baja Legends, which focuses on the characters, events, and locations that put Baja California on the map, won an award from the Outdoor Writers Association of California, and is in its third printing. Palm Springs Legends has been one of the top sellers in all Coachella Valley bookstores since its release, and is in its second printing.

A popular speaker, Niemann has presented numerous slide shows and/or book signings at venues including:

Barnes & Noble, Borders, Costco, Discover Baja Travel Club; Distant Lands Travel Club, BookExpo America, and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. He is a member of the Friends of the Palm Springs Library, the Palm Springs Historical Society, the Palm Springs Desert Museum, and The Living Desert in Palm Desert. He enjoys big game ocean fishing, fresh water fishing, and other outdoor activities, like hiking, bicycling, and rafting.
Niemann is a fourth generation Californian whose great grandfather at one time published the Pomona Progress and Independent. He and his wife reside in southern California. They travel as much as possible and also have a weekend home in Baja California, Mexico.