Arrived at Cabo San Lucas in the late afternoon and met our friends Jesse & Katy (and baby Remy) and Matt & Erin. We stopped at the grocery store for suplies, beer and tequilla, and went straight to Cabo Pulmo and our awesome rental house: www.bajaparadise.com.
Cabo Pulmo is a tiny town 45 minutes northeast of Cabo San Lucas. It is barely a town and more a handful of houses, dive shops, and restaurants. We drove an awesome baja-esque dirt road to get there. I was having flashbacks the entire time to all our high school trips to Rosarito andSan Flipe and the many times we got stuck in the sand in the middle of nowhere..... Our Nissan rental car handled the road marvelously - with me behind the wheel. As soon as we arrived we began the obligatory intro beers and tequila shots and sat on the roof deck and looked at the stars.
Day 2
Dave slept pretty much the ENTIRE day. That's OK because there isn't much to say.
We just sat on the beach, drank beers, read books, snorkeled, and chatted. Katy and I had a great breakfast with Remy at Nancy's, coffee to die for! So fun, thanks Katy - that was one of my favorite parts of the vacation.
Let me just say that the snorkeling is great in Cabo Pulmo! The water temp is warm enough that even I was never cold. We saw all sorts of fish, eels, rays, crabs, pretty good stuff. The water is crystal clear with not a spec of dirt or trash anywhere. The government made the reef system a national park recently. With any luck the area will remain rustic and protected.
Our other friends (and super dive pros) Meg and Marty arrived this day and joined us for the obligatory evening of stargazing, beers, and tequilla.
Day 3
We did a great hike to the Northern point of the cape. From the top of the point we could see into the water and beach below, teeming with fish! After hiking we played in the waves. Then time for naps and dinner at Tito's. Just an exhausting day.
Then - stargazing, beers, and tequilla - yada yada.
Day 4
Field Trip with Erin and Matty to Los Barrilles and the beaches at Punta Arena and Punta Colorado. There is just no one on these beaches and miles of sand and warm water. Somehow I doubt it will stay that way forever, unfortunately. We got a little off course at one point and ended up stuck in the sand in front of some farm house - very dusty, cows, chickens - you get the picture. We all pushed the car and got it going again. I cannot imagine what the farmer must have thought.
We were fortunate enough to find a market along the way for more beer, chips, and avocados!
Day 5
Katy, Dave, Meg and Marty all went diving. I was not feeling like diving (too mellow) so I just sat around the house and snorkeled with Matt and Erin. That night I got super sick. As Dave would put it, I was like a tube of toothpaste with both ends cut off. Oh god that was not fun. Dave got it in the morning and the next day. We were thinking it was some peppers we ate at our amazing taco lunch in Los Barrilles on our field trip the day before.....
Day 6 (Happy Thanksgiving)
Jesse dove with the group while Katy watched Remy this time. I just sat in the hammock due to my stomach issues, though had I not had stomach issues I doubt I would have done much different. Oh the joy of laziness. In the afternoon, me, Dave, Marty & Meg all kayaked out to the point we hiked to the day before where we saw all the fish. Once we were at the point, we hopped in the water snorkeled with about 300,000 (this time I am really not exaggerating) little fish. They were like a giant swarm. When you were in the middle of them you wouldn't see anything below you, just the coolest. I wish I would have had the underwater camera with us. The water was crystal clear and there was not a soul around. You didn't even need a snorkel you could just look over the side of the kayak into the water.
We had a Thanksgiving turkey dinner at Nancy's, a tiny local restaurant run by a 70 year old ex-pat from Chicago. Thanks to Nancy's fuzzy math she under-charged us for the dinners, which made up for the charges for the drinks that we thought were free......no arguing with with a 70 year old lady over this though. Trust me, we tried.
Day 7
We drive to Cabo San Lucas to check it all out since we were all leaving from the airport there about about the same time. I believe Matty said it best about Cabo San Lucas, "This is everything I never want a vacation to be", as we drove by the McDonalds, the harbor with gigantic cruise ships, and the Walmart. I will say that the drive along the coast was lovely and the famous Cabo arches are stunning.
