Bonus Mexico Post

This was most of my week

So I debated with the idea of blogging for my week in Los Cabos, Mexico with my sister and then realized that I spent most of my time reading or relaxing on the beach.  Which was fabulous!  But doesn't lead to a lot of truly interesting stories.  So I'm going to condense my week into one post and hope that it's entertaining enough.

The first day was us just enjoying the sun, wandering around the resort and relaxing.  We did discover that, despite the signs saying otherwise, the fight for chairs was an early morning one!  We had to toss towels on our chosen chairs before breakfast to get the pick of the chairs.  But they did have a good amount, it just depends if you wanted the option of shade.  Which I did.  I burn so easily that it's better to have a little protection from the sun.

Los Cabos consists of 2 cities on the end of the Baja penninsula.  We stayed in the milder San Jose del Cabo, whereas Cabo San Lucas is the more famous of the cities.  And where all the nightlife is.  The resorts were right in town with a selection of restaurants right across the street for us as a break from the all inclusive buffet food.  And a shopping complex was about 15 minutes away.  Which was nice because wifi was 15 US$ a day.  Not worth it.  But worth buying a coffee and using it at starbucks!  Also in continuing with the trend of enjoying grocery stores in other countries the Mega was fun.  It didn't have a lot of touristy junk which is okay with me but they have a lot of really spicy flavors of potato chips.  And we had some guy try to convince us to waste our time with a timeshare presentation.

Me on the beach with the hotel behind me

Time shares seem to be a big deal down here.  We were accosted a few times.  When we checked in they were trying really hard to get us to sit through one.  The only problem was that we had already been delayed in Calgary due to weather and all I wanted was to sit on the beach and this poor man was delaying beach time.  Also I have no desire for a time share!  I felt bad about being rude but had run out of patience for the day.

Tacos and cerveza

After a day on the beach we hit the Mega store we did check out the restaurants across the street.  There was Rock and Brews which is owned by Gene Simmons of Kiss, but it looked like a different version of Hard Rock cafe so we kept going.  And found an awesome taco place.  I was a little disappointed with the lack of Mexican food at the resort.  But this place across the street was very affordable and delicious.  We went there a few times!

Feeding fish at Land's end

 Since Cabo San Lucas was a good 45 minutes south we opted to do a city tour that did both cities as well as a boat tour of the famous El Arco.  Cabo San Lucas sits at the very tip of the pennisula so they call the arch and the rocks Land's End.  It's also the divide between the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean.  On the way out we got to feed fish.  And I was highly amused that they gave us tortillas to throw out.  I get so used to bread at home but tortillas are what the Mexican's primarily eat for bread so I'm not sure what I was expecting.  The fish were plentiful and very excited for the food.

I was also happy to have seen the fish as we had scheduled a snorkeling trip a few days later that was cancelled due to high winds.  Which we could see in the waves on the beach and were more than happy to not be out at sea in that rough water.

El Arco

Our tour also gave us some time to do a bit of shopping and wandering.  But really there isn't all that much to do in either city aside from shopping and eating.  People come for the sun, sand and surf!  We did get to visit a diamond shop which our tour guide seemed disgusted by.  He told us that Mexico has no diamond mines so it's not a item actually from here.  But the company must have gotten a nice kickback.

Also out in the water was the sea lion colony.  There must have been a few dozen scattered all around the rocks.  My favorite was the one behind me in the picture.  It is real, she had laid down on our way back.    And on the way out we had a turtle swim past the boat.  Lots of wildlife for us to see!

Sea Lion Selfie

Glass blowing and Lenny our guide

Glass blowing is a big thing in Mexico.  We did get to see a guy make a few things.  It's an interesting craft and much harder than it looks.  A few people gave it a try and mostly made a giant bubble that would turn paper thin and break.  And Lenny is our guide in the green shirt.  He was a Mexican version of Pauly Shore.  It was amusing to me.  And the picture doesn't show his afro very well but he had in a man bun by the end of the day.

Cactus floor made of glass

Church in San Jose del Cabo

We got a nice Mexican lunch and a chance to walk around the church in San Jose del Cabo.  It was nice to have the city included in the tour as it was too far to walk to any of these places from the hotel and not really worth spending the time or money for an afternoon.  There were a few stores to wander around but everyone was pretty desperate to make a sale so it scared me away a bit.

calm waves earlier in the trip

Pool area at the hotel

The beach was really calm the first few days of the trip.  They still strongly told people not to swim due to the riptides.  A few people still braved the water but it was a steep beach with a few of little hills to go up or down so it wasn't much of a wading beach either.  But you could sit at the top of the rise and watch the water without getting wet!

The pool was nice but they had the guys with their microphones all day trying to keep people entertained so it could get loud!

Bird Estuary

The one direction from the hotel led to a bird estuary.  That we almost missed.  We did spot a few vultures eating and a few blue herons in the water.  The picture here doesn't do it justice but it was a fun site with the water, the palm trees and the mountains in the background.  It was worth the walk.

Crazy waves at the end of the trip

The waves the last few days were really intense.  Where they had been a few inches high before were now several feet high.  Really glad that they cancelled the snorkeling tour watching these waves.  On the last morning we went for a beach walk and spent the morning watching the stingrays.  You could see them and the fish when the bigger waves would roll up.  The birds kept diving to try to catch them.  Stingrays also swim funny, they have a few of their corners- for lack of better word- out of the water so it looks like a little party of sharks with all their fins sticking up a bit out the water.  We saw dozens of them as we walked the beach.  It was a great way of ending the trip!

And now back to real life and planning for the next vacation!