diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index ae296f714..b343fd701 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -9,22 +9,32 @@ env:
    - DEBUG=True ENABLE_LOG=True DEFAULT_LOG_SEVERITY=debug XMLPARSER="libxml2" DEMO=False BENCHMARK=False CUSTOM_CXXFLAGS="" CUSTOM_LDFLAGS=""
    - DEBUG=False ENABLE_LOG=False DEFAULT_LOG_SEVERITY=none XMLPARSER="ptree" DEMO=False BENCHMARK=False CUSTOM_CXXFLAGS="" CUSTOM_LDFLAGS=""
 
+# travis + ubuntugis with gdal and postggis leads to many potential dead-end conflicts
+# the below is thanks to https://github.com/CartoDB/Windshaft/blob/d82fe08b32fc7907bbe907ab290f8a082215ae26/.travis.yml#L1
 before_install:
- - nproc
- - free
+  - export PGUSER=postgres
+  - sudo mv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg-source.list* /tmp
+  - sudo apt-get -qq purge postgis* postgresql*
+  - sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:cartodb/postgresql-9.3
+  - sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:cartodb/gis
+  - sudo rm -Rf /var/lib/postgresql /etc/postgresql
+  - sudo apt-get update -qq
+  - sudo apt-get install -q postgresql-9.3-postgis-2.1
+  - sudo apt-get install -q postgresql-contrib-9.3
+  - sudo apt-get install -q gdal-bin libgdal-dev
+  - echo -e "local\tall\tall\ttrust\nhost\tall\tall\t127.0.0.1/32\ttrust\nhost\tall\tall\t::1/128\ttrust" |sudo tee /etc/postgresql/9.3/main/pg_hba.conf
+  - sudo service postgresql restart
+
+install:
+ - sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:boost-latest/ppa
  # we need at least g++-4.7 for c++11 features
  - sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
- # clear out travis postgis
- #- sudo mv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg-source.list* /tmp
- #- sudo apt-get -qq remove postgis
- # grab more recent gdal/proj
- - sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ubuntugis/ubuntugis-unstable
- # more recent boost
- - sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:boost-latest/ppa
- - sudo apt-get update -y
- - sudo apt-get install -qq -y ttf-wqy-microhei postgis postgresql-9.1-postgis-2.0-scripts libstdc++6 libstdc++-4.8-dev make boost1.55 python-nose libicu-dev libpng-dev libjpeg-dev libtiff-dev libwebp-dev libz-dev libfreetype6-dev libxml2-dev libproj-dev libcairo-dev python-cairo-dev libsqlite3-dev
- - createdb -EUTF8 template_postgis -U postgres
- - psql -c 'create extension postgis' template_postgis  -U postgres
+ - sudo apt-get update -qq
+ - sudo apt-get install -y ttf-wqy-microhei make valgrind boost1.55 python-nose libicu-dev libproj-dev libcairo-dev python-cairo-dev libcairo-dev python-cairo-dev libpng-dev libjpeg-dev libtiff-dev libwebp-dev libz-dev libfreetype6-dev libxml2-dev libsqlite3-dev
+
+before_script:
+ - psql -U postgres -c 'create database template_postgis'
+ - psql -U postgres -c 'create extension postgis' -d template_postgis
  - if [[ "${CXX}" == 'g++' ]]; then sudo apt-get install gcc-4.8 g++-4.8; export CXX="$(which g++-4.8)"; export CC="$(which gcc-4.8)"; fi;
  - if [[ "${CXX}" == 'clang++' ]]; then export CXX="$(which clang++)"; export CC="$(which clang)"; fi;
  - wget http://www.freedesktop.org/software/harfbuzz/release/harfbuzz-0.9.34.tar.bz2
@@ -39,6 +49,7 @@ install:
 
 before_script:
  - make test
+ - source localize.sh && make grind
 
 script:
  - if [[ ${BENCHMARK} != False ]]; then make bench; fi;