Cabo Sat 1/26, Sun 1/27/2019

Cabo – Sat 1/26, Sun 1/27/2019 

Mango Deck

Well last full day so decided to make it a “beach” day.  Most popular beach recommended is Medano Beach.  Arrived around noon, so lunch in order.  Found a place called “Mango Deck”.

Medano Beach

  Most know what beach life is, ie; Umbrella’s, deck chairs, and beverage of choice.  Well how can I describe this.  Um. Maybe like Las Vegas Strip on the beach or New Orleans Mardi Grai on the beach.  Well, let’s just say “very” active.  Tequila shots everywhere.  Bikinis galore.  Sexual innuendos sold. Marketing hawkers everywhere.  (Kathy purchased) Stage contests that we can’t discuss.  Well not the beach we intended, but entertained us for a couple of hours, then the “old farts” left.  I think we were the oldest there.   We could still hear the music from Mango Deck  at our Condo at 3am in the morning, we think just on weekends.

Kathy Purchase

Leaving around 3pm, took a little road trip North along the beach observing the resorts along the way.  Stopping downtown Cabo for some side street shopping and a specialty coffee shop.

Dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant off the beat and path.

Italian Dinner

Saturday, prepare for departure around 11:30 am for a 2:46pm flight, change in Houston.  Back to Orlando 11:00pm, so it will be a long day, home by 1:30 prox.

Cabo summary, It was a great week!  So happy Kathy and John could join us but missed Tom & Helene.  Not sure a return is in order for us, “been there done that”.  But glad we did.  Very heavy tourist area.

Cabo - Friday 1/25/2019

Cabo – Friday 1/25/2019

Today a “Road Trip”.  Decided to get out of Cabo tourist area and take in a little “local” color.  Headed up Hwy 19 NW to Todos Santos.  About one hour, maybe 45 miles,  just in time for lunch.   Their name to fame is the famous “Hotel California”. 

Hotel California

 

Hotel Court Yard

While not connected directly to the famous Eagles Song  “Hotel California”, the song certainly made them an attraction.  Nice place with lodging, dinning, bar, and gift shop.  The “Banos” doors an attraction itself, click to enlarge.  (wish I could do that)

Bano's

 

Lunch Pecaddos

Anyway, found a more local place for lunch, (Pecados), shared a burrito and burger along with a Margarita of course.  After lunch inquired about a public beach seeing they are located right on the Pacific Ocean.   Directions challenging and lots of bumpy dirt roads.

Lunch

  Lots of local color as well.  Finally asked a young man and daughter, pretty good English.  Continued on our way, lost again.  Connected with the young man again on way back.  Stopped and he said “follow Me”.  Got to the beach and tried to tip him 30 peso’s  but he adamantly refused.  Found this to be indicative of the locals.  Nice people.

The beach was very long and sparse with people or dwellings. 

Beach

Not a good swimming beach, way too much breaking surf.  Beautiful sand though.  Spent a little time walking and then decided to head back towards Cabo.  Late afternoon DQ desert.  Stopped at a Casino, Kathy & John a small try at slots, a small donation.

Back to the Condo, make plans for our last day.  

Cabo- Thurs 1/24/2019

Cabo – Thurs 1/24/2019

Whale Watching!  Beautiful day, sunny temps Mid 70’s.  Arrived at Cabo Whale Watching at 11:30 for a noon departure.  Young German Lady led us with a young male assistant.  Boat was a 32’ Whaler type boat, open bow but covered top.  Captain was local Mexican.  After  some safety briefing we headed out of harbor.  Life jackets on. 

Some scenic discussion on the way out of harbor.

Our first sighting was a “spectacular” Humpback Breech".  Rare but beautiful.  Numerous more sightings of Humps and Tail Dives.  After some time, Capitan opted to move to hopefully a move active spot.

 Unfortunately, the wind picked up creating some four foot swells, bringing spray over the bow and all very “wet”.  Oh well, part of the adventure.   More sightings with a partial breech.  After 2-1/2 hours we head back to harbor.  A good trip but a little wet.

Head back to condo, shower and dry.  Dinner out to a local steak house, “Patagonia”.  Kathy, John and Shari ordered Tenderloins and I did Rib Eye.  Tenderloins great, Rib Eye not so good, tough, unusual for Rib Eye.  Oh well.  Anyway, the place was quaint and nice. 

A little bit off the beaten path.  Waiter offered us four free Tequila shots for the bad steak.  Feel better now!  Back to Condo for an early night in.

Cabo - Wed 1/23/2019

Cabo – Wed Jan 23, 2019

After a morning Mexican breakfast in the shopping food court

Mexican Breakfast

we decided to check out the Visitor of Tourism Center located in the Harbor.  Not much new as most attractions are “hawked” by local vendors.  Some interest in perhaps a road trip away from the tourist area to a local community, Maybe “Hotel California”, perhaps Friday or Saturday.

Leaving the Tourism center, we stopped at a “Dolphin Center” where you can swim and touch.  We opted for a “Window View”.  Further on in the Harbor we found a local feeding Seals.  They were very loud and begging to be fed.

Begging Seal

  Tourist of course offered fish scraps to attract.  One person held the fish tale by their mouth as the seal jumped air born to retrieve.  Fun!

feeding Seal

Our day ended with the dinner sunset cruises.  Boarding time at 4:30 for a 5:00pm departure.  Line already fully formed at 4:20pm.  Nice boat offering Sun Set cruise to the Big Sur Arch, probably one of the most photographed natural settings in the world. 

Arch

Slow cruise from harbor to Arch, then after sun set along the Pacific Coast.  Two Hour duration.  Absolutely beautiful!  Enroot, Mexican Dinner served and an open bar, mostly beach drinks and Margaritas.  A wonderful experience.

Resident

  More pictures than I know what to do with.  Again, the wealth of coastal housing is unbelievable.  Hardly a foot print left to build.

 

Sun Set / Foot Print ?

Back to Condo to finish another wonderful day.

Cabo Mon 1/21

Cabo – Mon, January 21, 2019

Lunch WTF

Well we moved a little slow in the AM, adjusting for travel fatigue and the two hour time adjustment. 

Marina

 Went shopping to provision the condo with some basics, ie; booze, water and ice.  Wal Mart of course.  Time Share sales people everywhere, even in the Wal Mart isles.  Swear if you can “breathe” down here your selling time shares.

Shopping done, we headed downtown to the marina area.  Lunch or meal of the day at WTF.

Shopping Mall

  Let your imagination define the meaning of the acronym. Food was good! Margaritas Great!

My Guest House

  After lunch we walked the marina and found a bank to convert some US dollars to Pesos.  18 Pesos to One Dollar.  Did some shopping downtown.

Took a road trip up the mountain to the “High Rent” district.  Wow!  Awesome homes.  No idea this kind

My Cottage

of wealth in Mexico, of course we are in Cabo.  Drove back down to the beach area.  Actually looking for the “private beach” for our Condo Association, but not sure we found.

Anyway, spectacular views and incredible properties.

Bob designated driver again.  Navigations getting a little better.  John helpful by drawing a map as we go.  Traffic still an issue to learn, in one word "caution", nobody yields or stops it seems.  Speed bumps only form of traffic control, and they are "big".

Back to the condo for a quiet evening and a gorgeous view of the “Full Blood Moon” on our balcony.

  Infinity swimming pool right off our balcony, but water is cold, not heated,

Full Blood Moon

Cabo Tues 1/22/2019

Cabo Tues 1/22/2019

Today was a “Tourist Adventure Planning Day”.  Options were Fishing, Whale Watching, or Dinner Sunset Cruise.  After much consideration and local input that Fishing wasn’t very good, we opted for Dinner Sunset Cruise Wed Night and Whale Watch on Thurs.  So we booked on line and proceeded to check out the boarding locations.  Both in the Marina area, so somewhat familiar already.

Medano Beach

  Found both and knowledge of parking options, always a challenge here.  So all set for the next two days.  While in the Marina area did some high end Mall walking, and checked out the most popular public beach , Medano.

On the way back to our Condo, we still wanted to find the “Private Beach” for our Condo village “Pedgral”.  Directions confusing so it was a “hunt & Peck” search.  Finally a local security patrol guided us.  Wow!  It was worth the search.

Rich & Famous

Private Beach

 This is definitely the “Rich & Famous”.  Beautiful!

Private Beach House

Back to the condo for a little R&R before dinner.  Chose Captain Tony’s back to the Marina.  Great Food, Shrimp, Mexican Combo’s, all good.  Quiet evening walk around Marina and then back to Condo.

Private Beach Entrance

Private Beach House

A good full productive day.

Gorgeous Beach Couple

Cabo San Lucas Jan 2019

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

January 20, 2019

Well, another adventure.  Planned a trip to Cabo some 6 months ago with friends Tom & Helene Kiefer staying at a very well reviewed Airbnb.  Turns out, Tom is faced with a heart valve problem requiring open heart surgery, so a cancellation was in order.  God bless everything went well and he is in recovery.  Based on the loss of deposit money, Shari and I decided to go and invited sister Kathy and John Albion to join 

Kathy & John

So happy they accepted and so sorry for Tom and Helene, but grateful he received the necessary care and doing very well.

A very early departure from The Villages for an international flight out of Orlando to Cabo, with a flight change in Houston, required a 3:00am alarm.  Travel uneventful with flights pretty much right on time with United Air.  Arrived at Cabo 2:30pm prox. Mountain Time. 

Cabo Plane

 (Gained 2 hrs).  First order of business after clearing customs was to get a car rental, prearranged by Bob.  Cactus Car Rental was very prompt and organized.  Directions to our condo very confusing.  Driving in Mexico can be

Cactus Car Rental

challenging particularly when you don’t know where your going.  Bob designated driver.  Finally got Bob’s Android GPS to use MapQuest.  Helpful but marginal.

Went through some very interesting areas, poor and rough.  Finally found our complex, but finding our unit was a different story.  Very large complex with very little building or unit identification.  Asked four to five people with little or no success.  Parking a major challenge as well.  Kathy “accidentally” found our unit, elevator button for floor #1 for unit #502, go figure.

Condo

Well, tired with full day of travel, housekeeper welcomed and calmed us down offering some beer and bringing to our unit .  Very nice lady.  Unit is simple / nice, but with a beautiful view.

View

After getting settled in, Now 5:30 prox., needed “drink and food”. 

Back to the car for a very interesting tip to downtown Cabo trying to find dinning with a couple of wrong ways on “one way” streets.  Ouch!!  Many places closed do to Sunday.

Well, after a few bad turns and interesting neighborhoods, we found a

Ramuri Resturant

lovely restaurant on the main drag.  Ramuri, greeted us with a welcome and the bonus was the NFL playoff game between the Chiefs and Patriots.  Great game except the ending for us, rooting for the Chiefs.

With a little local knowledge under our belt, drive back to Condo was uneventful, arriving back around 9:30pm prox.  Sat up for a little, Kathy and John checking out the pool, in bed by 10:00pm, tired.  Day one done.