Sep. 6, 2003
Well, the trip started auspiciously. The plane was leaving at 6:45am.
My friends were
going to pick me up at 5:00am so that we could be
at the airport at 5:20am. I decided
to call them at 5 o'clock to
make sure that they were on their way. They weren't!
They left soon
afterwards and arrived at my house at 5:30am. We arrived at the
airport at about 5:50am and got in the check-in line. I checked in okay
but my friend
had a problem -- The airlines required a passport (or some
similar identification; a
drivers license wasn't sufficient) in order to
get on the flight. The airlines had a person
stop by to give my
friend a temporary permit. Per my friend's suggestion, I took the
original flight to Phoenix. (I had to cut into the security line in order
to make my flight
on time.) I arrived in Phoenix and waited at the
gate for my friend for the flight to
Cabo San Lucas. He arrived 5
minutes before they closed the door. Bring on the
tequila shots
because we NEED them, even if it is only 8:15 in the morning!
Soooo, we took a 45-minute bus ride to the resort -- Villa del Palamar.
It was very nice
-- 2-bedroom, 3-bathroom suite with a balcony.
There were 2 swimming pools, one with
a water slide, water volleyball twice
per day, a view of the ocean, etc. We met a couple
and their two
pre-teenage daughters who had recently moved there from Portland,
Oregon.
That night, my friend and I walked around town and went to a few bars.
(There's a good sports bar called "Caliente".)
Sep. 7, 2003
If you ever go to Cabo San Lucas, bring plenty of money! As admitted by
the locals who
work in the hotels, bars, and restaurants, Cabo San Lucas
is arguably the most
expensive place in all of Mexico. They say that
the primary reason is because it's very
convenient from The United States.
One example is that it costs $3 per minute to make
a phone call to
The United States from the resort. Another is that it cost $7 for a taxi
ride to go to the town from the resort, a 5-minute/3-mile drive.
One of the people at the resort said that Brad Pitt was staying at the new wing
called
"La Estancia". (Later, an American stated that he
was actually staying at a different
resort.) That morning, my friend
and I had breakfast and then sat through a sales
presentation for the
resort so that we could get " freebies" such as free airport
transportation, meals, etc. It took 2-1/2 hours! (Note: Never ask questions or else the presentation will
last longer.)
That day, my friend and I went to a local store and bought food supplies in
order to
reduce the cost of eating. That night, we went to a local
Mexican restaurant for dinner. Afterwards, we went to a couple of bars.
On our way home, my friend was
pickpocketed by a couple of women who
stoppped him along the street and were flirting
with him.
Sep. 8, 2003
That morning, my friend and I recovered from two nights of hitting the bars by
vegging
out and watching movies at the room. (Fortunately, we had
cable TV and were able to
watch channels such as HBO and Cinemax.
Afterwards, we hung out at the beach in
front of the resort. After
that, we stopped off at the activities center and made
reservations to go
on a snorkeling trip. (Some time that day, I realized that I had
forgotten to bring my ATM card. I didn't bring my entire wallet so that
I wouldn't lose
too many things if I got pickpocketed. D'oh!)
During those first two days, and it turned
out to be the same thing during
the entire trip, the weather was tropical-like with high
temperatures (in
the '90s) and high humidity (also in the 90's). If you want to avoid that
type of weather in Cabo San Lucas, go there between November and July.
I didn't take
notes about what we did during the rest of the day,
but I assume that it was the typical
routine -- Had dinner at a local
restaurant and then go to some bars.
Sep. 9, 2003
After eating breakfast, my friend and I decided to do some exploring, so we took
a local
bus from Cabo San Lucas to San Jose del Cabo. We walked
around town (mostly
accidentally) and ran into a couple of Americans who
were working for a real estate
company. They took us to a very nice
restaurant -- Zippers -- and mentioned that
another good restaurant in the
area was " The Rusty Putter". We had dinner there
while we
watched the sunset. Again, I didn't take notes about what we did for the
rest
of the night, so we probably went to some bars. Oh, the fun
never ends in Cabo San
Lucas!
Sep. 10, 2003
Well, get ready for our next adventure! After breakfast, my friend and
I went to the
main pier to catch a boat to go snorkeling. We rode
past "Lover's Beach" and "The
Arch" on our way to the
snorkeling cove at St. Martin. We met a couple who lived in
Alpine,
California, which is relatively close to where my friend and I lived and also
where I drove past every time that I went to do astronomy.
After arriving at the cove, we snorkeled for about one hour. My friend
had bought
some food at the store at the resort but had left it behind, so
he used his gloves to pry sea
urchins from the coral, cut them open with
the coral, and feed the fish with them. It was
fascinating to see
the fish go after the urchins. There was no mercy!
After returning to the boat, they fed us lunch. Also, we continued
having drinks at the
open bar. Now, are you ready for the next
adventure? Well, one of the Americans on
the boat got VERY drunk.
My friend guessed that he had 8 shots of tequila. And the
shots were at least double shots! After a while, this guy could no longer
stand up
without help. When we reached the pier, my friend
volunteered for us to help him get
back to his hotel. My friend
watched him, trying to keep him from getting arrested for
public
drunkenness while I searched for his car. I couldn't find his car and
when I
returned to find them, there was a security guard closely watching
my friend and "our
new friend" as the latter person was falling
all over the place, into a trash can at that
moment! I suggested
that we get a taxi and I would take him to his hotel while my
friend tried
to look for his car, drive it back to the hotel, pick me up, return to our
hotel,
and return his car to him the next day. So, we walked him to
the street at the front of the shopping mall, got him into a taxi, and I went
with him to his hotel. With the help of a
person at the hotel, I
helped him get into his hotel room and onto his bed. I waited for
my
friend for one hour and decided to go back to our place.
When I got there, my friend was napping on the couch. !!! He woke
up and told me
about his side of the adventure. He found the car and
tried to drive it out of the mall's
parking lot. Unfortunately, he
didn't have the permit for the car, nor his drivers license
or any cash.
(They were in the sports bag that I had taken with me when I went to the
hotel with our new friend. He ended up going to the mall office to
explain what
happened. The person left and returned, right before
leaving for the day, to let my
friend know that he wouldn't be able to take
the car. My friend was VERY angry,
yelled at the person, and stomped
out of the office. (Note: Don't yell at people with
authority.)
As my friend was walking out of the mall, two police cars pulled up
beside him, 6 officers got out, handcuffed him, and put him in the back of
one of the cars.
After sitting in the back of the police car for a while
(and calming down), the police let
him go. Since he didn't have any
money, he walked back to the hotel. After he finished
his story, I
informed him that I left our resort name and telephone number for our new
friend so that he could contact us when he was able, hopefully to compensate us
for the
taxi rides, if not more.
As you can imagine, the rest of the day and night were relatively eventless.
I think that
we didn't even go out to any bars that night!
One thing was that an American Navy
cruiser had anchored in the bay,
apparently for some shore leave for the crew.
Sep. 11, 2003
After breakfast, my friend and I walked to one of the local beach side
restaurants to catch para-sailing rides. I had never done it before and
I was pretty nervous. But after the
initial "shock" of
getting pulled into the air behind the boat, it was great! There was no
wind, there was no sound, it was one of the most peaceful feelings that I
have ever
experienced! If you haven't done it, I highly recommend
going para-sailing.
The crew took me past "Lover's Cove" and "The Arch".
I was able to "scope out" the
area where my friend would scale
the hills near the beach where he would later walk
back around the bay --
The next adventure. After my friend got his ride and we
watched
another passenger take a ride, the boat took my friend to "Lover's
Beach".
He got off, we returned to the beach on the other side of the
bay, and I returned to the
resort.
Well, here's the next adventure. When my friend returned from his 2-hour
walk
around the bay, he told me that it was an "interesting"
experience. He said that the
walk up the hill from the beach wasn't
too bad. After walking a few hundred yards, he
encountered a barb
wire fence. He climbed over it and proceeded on. After walking a
little farther, he came across 6 guard dogs in pens. He "calmly
" walked past them and
continued on. After some time, he
encountered a shack with 2 Federal police cars in
front of it. He
walked past the shack and saw another guard dog in a pen. He said that
he acted like he knew what he was doing, continued on to the other side of
the fence
nearby, climbed through a hole in it, and marched on. The
rest of the trip was less
eventful and we wondered if he had been
trespassing on federal land.
When I returned to the room earlier, I found a note that was slid under the
door. It was
from "our new friend". He said that
he would contact us the next day about getting
together that night.
Sep. 12, 2003
We had breakfast at one of the beachside restaurants -- Juancho's -- for only
$5! (After
having been there for one week, we found some places to
eat that were relatively, to put
it mildly, inexpensive.)
Afterwards, we walked down to a couple of streets off the main
road to buy
souvenirs. My friend bought some things for his family members and I
bought some things for both one of my friends for his birthday and for me.
We had
lunch at a "Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)"
restaurant, mostly to get something cool
to drink. We walked back to
the hotel, something that we usually did because of the
high cost of a taxi
ride to it, and took naps. After that, our new friend picked us up and
we drove over to a restaurant -- "The Trailer Park" -- for
dinner. It had a great
atmosphere and the food was very good.
Then, we hit a couple of the bars back in town.
Sep. 13, 2003
We caught a taxi to the airport at 10am for our airplane flight at 12:40pm.
When we
arrived at the airport, it began raining -- very hard -- for
the first time since we had
arrived at Cabo San Lucas. (There was
another time that it had sprinkled while we
were there, but it was
trivial.) Our airplane was late flying out of Phoenix and we
arrived home at about 4:45pm.