Mexico is a weird place. As an American, bartering for goods is a skill few posess, and even fewer know how to do well. I for one am not one of those people, and it shows. Also, safety is something that is apparently not high on the list of concerns for the Mexican government. Even though everything is regulated by legal forms needing to be filled out in triplicate and bureaucracy that even the Nazi's would be proud of, it seems that nothing is ever inspected for compliance. And Corruption. If there's one thing that Mexico can take pride in, it's corruption. Sure at times it's bad. But for the wayward gringo tourist, corruption is a good thing.
Day 1: Fremont to San Jose del Cabo.
The one thing I hate about traveling is waking up early. Our flight was at 7:50 am. That meant waking up at 5:45 to make it out of the house by 6:30. Luckily we had a direct flight from Oakland to Cabo, so I slept most of the way there. We got to Cabo at around 2:00 pm-ish and we were all beat. We spent the rest of the day on the beach, by the pool, and on our backs sleeping.
Here's Kim and Ali waiting enthusiastically for their first margarita of the trip.
Sibling torture never ends.
Day 2: Cabo San Lucas & San Jose del Cabo.
Chris and Kathy were to arrive later in the day. So Ali, John, Kim and I spent the first half of the day walking around Cabo San Lucas. We did a little shopping, a little drinking, and a lot of sweating. This was the only day of bad weather. Hurricane Otis was sitting about 150 miles offshore, and decided to send some rain our way. We later went back to the hotel to meet up with Chris and Kathy.
The Giggling Marlin is a great night spot. It's one of those, "What happens in Cabo, stays in Cabo," sort of places.
Half gallon margarita: Check. Salt: Check.
Intoxicated or brain freeze? You decide.
John eating his guacamole bowl.
Me on the patio of our room.
Shhhh... He's sleeping.
A random shot of the beach outside of our hotel.
Some of the clouds left behind by Hurricane Otis.
The obligatory self shot on the beach outside our hotel.
Me looking at the ocean.
Day 3: Cabo San Lucas.
What did Chris and Kathy want do do for their first full day in Mexico? That's right, go to Cabo San Lucas to go shopping. So we spent all day out there. Went back to Margaritavilla to get the half gallon margaritas again. Also saw a few things we missed the first time we were in town.
You could actually drive these cars on a track outside of town, but for $250, I didn't think it was worth it..
The Shrimp House was shrimply delicious, just as advertised.
Look kids, it's Pancho Villa.
Yes, iguanas are good kissers.
Chris posing with the mariachi-esque guys at Margaritavilla..
Kim trying octopus for the first time. What's it taste like? She said it tastes like fish with the consistancy of rubber. YUM!
Ali, Kim, and Kathy polishing off another margarita.
It's often hard to believe that Chris never rode the short bus to school.
This place was the home of the worlds largest margarita. It was a full gallon. Yikes!
John didn't buy this sombrero because it was too small. They ran out of outrageously ginormous sombreros.
I'm guessing the guy who made both signs had one too many cervezas.
Um... Yeah....
Public safety was definately not in this contractor's budget.
Ahhh.... Senior Greenberg's... Where you can get a good old fashioned ruben on corn tortillas.
Day 4: San Jose del Cabo.
We pretty much spent this day at the hotel both poolside and on the beach. So, no pictures from the day of laziness.
Day 5: Cabo San Lucas.
We went back to Cabo San Lucas to do some snorkeling. First they take you on a short tour of the cape (or cabo in Spanish) then drop you off at Lover's beach for a few hours. Later in the day we decided to go to a resturant in the barrio of Cabo called the Trailer Park. After making a mistake and pulling into a real trailer park, John and I remembered seeing a sign in town with an arrow pointing the way. So we drove back into town, found the sign and followed the arrow. Only problem was the arrow pointed us down a one way street... Guess what? We were going the wrong way. Halfway down the street, a police officer was sitting on a patio chair. We're guessing for specifically this exact reason. He pulled us over and pulled John out of the car. He basically gave John a choice. If he gave the cop $50, he wouldn't write him a ticket. Otherwise he'd have to take him to jail, and the ticket would be $100. Hmmm... Tough decision there. We eventually found the Trailer Park. Yeah, it was closed.
Here's Kim, Chris, & Kathy on the glass bottomed dinghy.
Yaaaarrrrr! It be a pirate ship matey!.
Water taxi dropping tourists off at Lover's Beach..
Cool looking rock formation.
The formation on the left is in upside down map of Baja California... Well, sorta.
This is the Pacific portal. On this side, you're in the Sea of Cortez, looking through the portal is the Pacific Ocean.
This is El Arco (The Arch for you non-Spanish speakers). It's kind of Cabo's trademark.
Cool looking formation just to the left of El Arco. This is the extreme southern point of Baja California.
In Cabo San Lucas, sport fishing is king. Here's a boat speeding back to the marina. No flags flying means no fish caught.
John catching some sun on Lover's Beach. In the background is the Pacific Ocean.
Raccoon fish I believe.
Here I am hamming it up for the camera. I'm about 20 feet below the surface here.
Damsel fish I think. It was a real pretty dark blue.
Saw a few morish idols swimming around. These are pretty cool looking fish.
A cloud of fish. They were about sardine size.
I chased this spotted puffer to get a shot.
The Baja rock from water level.
Yellow puffer trying to hide in the coral.
If parrot fish were edible, this guy would have made a good meal. He was big, and fast.
I caught back up with the yellow puffer again. Here he is posing for the shot.
Here we all are relaxing in the Sea of Cortez.
Kathy and Kim playing in the Pacific.
More self photography with the Pacific in the background.
Sunset in San Jose del Cabo.
Day 6: Cabo San Lucas & San Jose del Cabo.
We had to drop Ali off at the airport this day, so that left us with a party of 5. We decided to go para-sailing. I can now say I've done it, and will more than likely never do it again. The rest of the day was spent by the pool at the hotel.
Here I am acting like a tough guy. Yeah, I'm so not a tough guy.
The guy at the dock told us the weight limit for riding double was 300 pounds. Kim and I were planning on going single, but the wind started picking up and the guy told us we had to go double, or not go at all. He asked us how much we weighed, and combined we were about 320 pounds... He thought about it for a minute and said, "Okay, let's go."
Day 7: Cabo San Lucas.
Chris, John and I woke up at 6:00 am, and drove to Cabo San Lucas to wait in line for free tickets to see Sammy Hagar at Cabo Wabo. Afterwards, we ate breakfast at Sr. Greenberg's (Yes, it was great), and spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool. We decided we were going to eat at the Trailer Park before the concert. It was worth the $50 directions we paid earlier.
I thought I'd fish for great whites like rednecks fish for catfish. That turned out to be a bad idea.
Eating a great meal while the band plays Guantanamerra.
Here's the line of people waiting to get a limited number of tickets to see Sammy..
Sammy Hagar and the Waboritas.
Sammy at the end of the show. It was well worth waking up at the butt crack of dawn to wait for tickets.
Day 8: Playa de Santa Maria.
We woke up late, had a good breakfast, and spent the rest of the day at the beach. This is a small bay with great snorkeling. John took a bag of patato chips in with us, and was instantly swarmed with fish. It was pretty cool. This beach however has the coarsest sand on the face of the Earth. It's more like pea gravel than sand.
Here's a few people relaxing in the 80+ degree water.
Day 9: San Jose del Cabo.
Our last day in Mexico. Chris and Kathy left at around 11:00 am, and John and our flight wasn't until 5:00 pm. So John had found out about a resort in San Jose that had kayaking in the estuary. So we packed out bags, checked our of the hotel, and made our way over to the El Presidente resort. Apparently the storms generated by the hurricane filled the estuary with sediment, and kayaking was impossible. So we decided to kill some time by walking into town to check out the old Mission.
Here's the mini van we rented while in Mexico. It's a VW Sharan. It was quite possibly the coolest mini van on the market. It even yelled at us in German every time we started it up. It kept saying something like, "Service Jetson!" and when it ran low on fuel it said, "Bitte tanken.".
Huge lizard just kickin' it.
Here's the sign giving the history of the mission.
The mission itself.
Town square.
And a random shot of sewage water flowing out of a crack in the street. Ahhhh Mexico.... Gotta love it.
