Sam And Saundra's Second Time Around - Part 31

Sam And Saundra’s Second Time Around – Part 31

Mexico

11/1/10-3/1/11 – Yuma Break – Cabo – Lover’s Beach

Cabo Portal To Tropical Paridise

Carrying a bag, our sandals and happy hearts, we dashed out of our room, through the courtyard, slowing only to admire the pools, palms and people. We sped up again as we reached the beach and headed back towards main Cabo.  We did not go far.  We again took a sharp left and ran into the surf. An awaiting Taxi tour boat hauled us up and zoomed off to see the ‘Cabo Rocks’ up close. As you are facing the sea, the ‘Cabo Rocks’ feature is at the left.  The hole that you look through is much bigger than a Tiger Eye – I call it the ‘Cabo Portal To Tropical Paradise’.  Definitely a good name. ‘Cabo Portal’ for short. As you circle ‘Cabo Portal’ around the left, you reach the Pacific Ocean and get a good view of Divorce Beach.  We don’t linger here as the water is much more turbulent than the Sea of Cortez, the wind is much colder and stronger and I don’t like it.

Lover's Beach Towards Our Resort

We turn around and go back to the land side of the rock feature and travel past the portal again, take pictures of pelicans on Pelican Rock, glimpse Lover’s Beach and get a good look at a nice snorkeling inlet.  We turn around again and are released for some good behavior at Lover’s Beach.  The wind is much calmer. The sun is shining oh-so friendly like. The sand is finer, softer and gentler on the toes. Sam snorkeled and I played in the surf. We ate our picnic lunch, got tattoos and lolled and lazed. We have tanned so much – I no longer glow in the dark.  My tattoo is a gecko on my ankle and Sam got a cross on his bicep, circled with somesuch. Hope the kids don’t mind. Five hours later, we catch a ride back to the main land.  We definitely loved this day.

Entertainment

Sam And Saundra's Second Time Around - Part 30

Sam And Saundra’s Second Time Around – Part 30

Mexico

11/1/10-3/1/11 – Yuma Break – Cabo Fishing Trip

Mornin'

Judi, Jerry, Sam and I got up way too early in the morning, but made it to the dock to catch our 8 hour fishing trip.  We are there before 6 am, bought our licenses and were ready to board our hired 28 foot fishing boat.  It was not there. The guys at the dock had to call the company to get the chartered boat to pick us up.  The fishing part of the trip went really bad from there.  It was not a good experience. Problems finding bait, running all the way to Cabo San Jose to get it. Neither the captain nor the mate showed any interest in fishing.  Rusted hooks and poor equipment, other than the poles Jerry and Judi brought with them, made fishing very difficult.  Judy caught a Spanish Mackerel and pulled it in. One more small mackerel and the captain decided to leave that spot.  We did not get any more bites. Well, not from fish.  Sam did get a duck and a pelican on his line.  Not at the same time though.  Both lives were saved and they flew away chastising him fluently and loudly.  

Not Happy

We tried to get the captain to go further out, but instead they started to troll, going in close to the shoreline. It was scary.  I could have “surf fished” and had my line further away from shore. Our trip lasted a total of about 6 hours, with most of the time going up the coast.  While speed-trolling back, neither the captain nor the mate paid any attention to the lines and Sam had to yell when a small Dorado hit one.  Sam reeled in the only Dorado of the day.  In other words, this trip was not good and we do not recommend the fishing trips that are booked with Solmar Fishing Fleet. Big, nice boats, but communication was totally absent and it was not due to a language barrier.  They were unprepared and were obvious in their desire to get it over and done, before it even started.  The number of fish is not always a reflection of how hard the captain and mate work their knowledge. In this case they just did not care.

Li'l Dorado

On the positive side, we spent a great day on the water with family, talking, sitting in the sun and watching whales spouts and birds fly.  We would like to do this over on a simple panga.

Sam And Saundra's Second Time Around - Part 29

Sam And Saundra’s Second Time Around – Part 29

Mexico

11/1/10-3/1/11 – Yuma Break – Cabo- Whale Watching and Dolphin kissing.

Example

We signed up for a Whale Watching Tour and enjoyed it immensely.  The guide was an Australian woman named Beth, who spoke Spanish fluently.  She was extremely knowledgeable about all marine life, especially the whales.  This is the perfect time of year to whale watch in Cabo, since many are there to either birth their young or to breed.  It takes a year of pregnancy, so those here for breeding should be back next year to birth.  Life cycle and all that.  We saw them.  Lots of them.  Most not too close to the boat and the ones that were close. were not within camera shot since the boat sat down in the water and was full of other people who wanted to take pictures.  We saw a few Humpback and the rest were Gray. One of the best whale watching tours we have been on, if we do not include Valdez.

Beth Whale-spotting From Rail

The same company had a Swim With The Dolphins adventure and we signed up.  The salt water tank is a huge affair located right on the wharf area.  Even so, you have to know where to look, as the entrance to the non-sea side tank is from the top of the tank, about a floor above sea level.  We opted for the Dolphin Encounter and the 45-minute adventure was again amazing.  Our dolphin made spectacular jumps, splashing a lot, but her best ‘act was to allow us to interact with her. We touched her, talked to her, signed to her and hugged her. In return, she kissed us and in general showed off while the trainer trained us on her.  The interaction with the dolphin renewed our sense of wonder regarding the intelligence that can be found in the sea. 

Dolpin Tank From Dock Level

Sam And Saundra's Second Time Around - Part 28

Sam And Saundra’s Second Time Around – Part 28

Mexico

11/1/10-3/1/11 – Yuma Break – Cabo ATVingers

Start At Main Road North Of Cabo

The Baja Adventure van picked us up at the door of the hotel.  We were cramped, but took it in stride.  The van took us out of Cabo San Lucas on the main road that goes north through Baja Mexico.  We followed the Pacific Ocean coastline for about ten miles. We turned left into one of three side-by-side ATV businesses. It turned out that many of out fellow van riders were there to ride horses and only one other couple was there to share the ATV tour through the desert and beach.

We Are Ready

After a few words of instruction, we got on our ATV (Sam driving) and took off.  No offense to Sam intended, but our ride out of the yard was not too smooth.  In fact, it took quite a while before I could unclench my fingers from his ribs.  Hope that didn’t hurt.  He said he had so much fun he did not even notice.  Once he got the hang of it – off we went.  A rocky, dusty, uneven path led us down to the area where we were ‘freed’.  We took off toward the beach.  It was fabulous.  It turned out that Sam had not been going too fast in the first place – my mistake.  I instead had to urge him to go faster – every once in a while, in my zeal, I would poke him oh so gently in one of those same ribs to let him know that it was ok to speed up.  He laughed and away we went.  Whales were jumping near enough to shore to keep us looking.  Surf pounding. We had a great time.  We want to do that again!

Rumpus Room

Sam And Saundra's Second Time Around - Part 27

Sam And Saundra’s Second Time Around – Part 27

Arizona

11/1/10-3/1/11 – Yuma Break – Cabo Hotel

We are Gold Members of a Mexico hotel chain. This is the first time we have used the vacation club.  We had 4 weeks paid for and it really was time to try it out.  We used air miles to get here.  There was a separate travel deal of 6 nights, all inclusive (meals and drinks) for $699 for two people going on, and we pouted a little that we did not get the “all inclusive” as a thanks for being members.  We did get a free upgrade from a studio to a one-bedroom suite that included two full bathrooms that put together, were bigger than our travel trailer.  That was rather COOL! We also got 15 to 25 percent off of all activities, such as fishing trips, whale watching tours and such.  COOL! We also got to have two other adults stay with us free, which came in handy when Sam’s sister Judi and Jerry came to visit from Loreto.  WAY COOL!  We stopped worrying about it and had a great time in this a Mexico 5 la estrella hotel. Our patio overlooked the courtyard that had numerous pools, waterfalls, tasteful whale slide, hot tubs, palapa restaurants and bars, along with a view of the ocean. We were at the perfect height that allowed the palm trees to kiss our patio rails. Luxury shock. I spent time wondering how did Sam and I ended up here.  This is not the everyday Mexico – but for a week or two - We loved it.

Tropical Luxury

On top of this (which included so much more), we were able to take a bus from the hotel to Walmart.  Since our suite included a fully furnished kitchen, we took the bus to Walmart for 8 pesos, loaded up on supplies and took a cab home.  The cab was a van and they helped load and unload. What a deal!  We really did not miss the $80 per day, per person, all-inclusive package offered at the hotel.  We did buy one evening meal/drinks/entertainment package for the Mexican Fiesta Night and had a great time.

Closest Neighbor

PS. The Vagabundos have an RV park on the beach side of the highway from Walmart.