Minion needs his passport for a night out on the town.
We are ready to leave Cabo, but Minion has insisted we stay as he has taken to hitting up El Squid Roe and Cabo Wabo late at night, coming home at dawn barely able to drive the dinghy. We aren’t sure if that is because he is a cat, or the heavy drinking.
Actually, we stayed in the marina the first couple nights to make it easier to accommodate our crew and friends visiting, and once we moved out to the anchorage the weather forecast called for a bit more wind than we cared to leave in. I think we also just needed to stop for awhile, as the end of the Haha marked the first time since our departure we had no deadline, goals or commitments. While I think both of us were ready to leave a day or two ago, we have been able to track down a few things we needed, chill out a bit and recover from our trip to Mexico, and get off the beaten path and explore Cabo San Lucas a bit, mostly on the streets away from the tourist hordes. And I tried my first plate of Chiliquiles, which I can promise will not be my last. What a bargain breakfast for $4!
Tomorrow, manana, we are planning to leave. We are hoping to day sail to an anchorage called Cabo Los Frailes, about 45 miles from here, about a third of the way to La Paz. There is a cruisers party in La Paz on November 17th we would enjoy being at, but we aren’t going to push to make it if weather and desire to move on don’t cooperate.
Today, hoy, we made the pilgrimage to the holiest of Mexican locations, Wal-Mart. We took a local bus for 8 Pesos apiece (the exchange rate is 13 Pesos per Dollar right now), and were dropped off on the wrong side of 6 to 8 lanes of highway, but with lucky timing crossing was not an issue. This Wal-Mart would disappoint the folks who take pictures for the People of Wal-Mart web site, nary a food stained sweatshirt or pair of stretched elastic waist band sweatpants to be found. It was in a shopping plaza and may be the cleanest Wal-Mart I’ve seen. There was a fresh bakery with a delicious assortment of Mexican desert pastries, many of which were less than 50 cents. So far the two we’ve tried have been delicious! The prices on avocados were less than potatoes, about $1.50 for 2.2 pounds (if my math is right). We stocked up on some groceries for the next leg, and some items we needed like collapsible water jugs for bringing fresh water to the boat when we can find it. Due to the bus trip back and carrying everything, we skipped buying beer which I’m kind of regretting at the moment as it is still quite warm at almost 7:00 PM. The bus back went smoothly, and we loaded our purchases back in the boat, swung by Dodger Too in the marina to deliver a loaf of bread and fill our new water jugs, then dinghied back out to the rolley anchorage. I discovered the downside of carrying 16 gallons of water near the back of the dinghy, it wouldn’t get up on plane so we had a bit of slow trip out to the boat.
Rock near Lands End
Yesterday, ayer, we heard some chatter on the radio by another boat about hiking out to the arch at the tip of the peninsula for snorkeling, so we asked for some additional information and said we would try to catch up. We did a quick dinghy inflate and deployment, and as I got it on the water I noticed the waves in the anchorage had calmed down. Glancing up, I found we had a cruise ship breakwater about 300 feet away that seemed to be helping block some of the swell that was moving us around so much. Just in time for us to leave, of course! We dinghied in (blog post coming about why we started taking our dinghy rather than pangas (water taxis), it wasn’t just the cost). We reached the dinghy dock about the same time as another couple from a boat anchored near us, and met Dave and Steph who were also headed to snorkel. We wove our way through the throngs of tourists from the cruise ship and the locals trying to sell them fishing trips, parasailing, and a variety of cheap souvenirs. Finally free of the masses, we caught up with the other cruisers headed out to the beach. Rather than take a panga, we did it the cruiser way and walked, even though we had to wind around a couple rocky headlands and rock hop around some sections of rock and sand where we waded up to our waists in warm sea water. After two tricky stretches it turned into all sand for walking, and we headed out to the end of the point, where Dave and I continued out and ducked some rather large waves to wind out way under the large arch that is a bit of a landmark of Cabo San Lucas. We found a little arch on our way back where we had to crawl for a couple feet and then popped back out on the beach where the girls were waiting. We tried some snorkeling, but thete wasn’t really many fish to see. Dawn and Patrick showed up with their dinghy and we walked from Lovers Beach on the harbor side to the Pacific side to see Divorce Beach and watched the waves crash in for awhile as young local boys skimmed out on boogie boards and tried to catch the waves, with mixed results.
Local surfing from the beach
Not wanting to get back too late, Jenn and I started the return hike when we came across an area filled with people in the water
Pelicans never get old
that had been empty when we walked by earlier. I stopped Jenn and grabbed the snorkel gear and jumped in. Bingo – This is where the fish where. There was a large variety of colorful and shiny fish, some darting around, others hanging around the rocks lazily. Since Jenn was waiting I only scoped it out for about 5 minutes, but it was a great time checking out my frist batch of tropical fish on the trip.
We managed to work our way back to town, rewarding ourselves with some bargain beers and chicken wings at one of the marinaside bars. As we returned to the dinghy we saw one of the cruisers on the dock and ducked down to say hi and realized we were next to Dodger Too, where we were invited aboard for a couple sundowners and some appetizers. After a pleasant visit, we headed back to boat to wrap a great day of just playing tourist and enjoying the sun, sand and surf.
Shades of Utah rock formations
Ventured 