Day 14: Cabo San Lucas - Mexico - More Whales, Seals and Tacos (Plus the iconic Lands End Arch)

 

Day 14 - Two entries for now as I was late on Puerto Vallarta. Today (Friday, January 19th), we stopped in Cabo San Lucas, a town at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula. We moored offshore in the deep harbour, and had to take a tender into the incredibly busy marina. Two things immediately hit you as you dock in that marina - one is the smell of the seals, and the second, the realization that this is a finely tuned machine designed to suck dollars and pesos from tourists. 

At the marina, the tour guide marches us over to a large catamaran for the first part of the day's excursion. Narem, our guide, insisted that we pair up and walk two-by-two behind him. It felt like I was nine years old back in primary school. The cat took us on a short round-trip up to the Lands End rocks and the iconic arch. We passed Lovers Beach and Divorce Beach on the way. They are two sides of the same beach which border the Pacific and Sea Of Cortez waters. Locals also say there is Lawyers Beach in the middle.

The arch itself is about three stories tall and is made of granite rock created from intrusive igneous processes about 115 million years ago. The actual arch (the gap) is more recent - probably less than 1 million years. Fittingly, the locals call it "El Archo". You can't make this up. 

After the trip to Lands End, we disembarked from the cat, again in 2x2 formation, and jumped onto a bus. The bus took us to a local glassblowers factory. It was a transparent tourist trap, although I always enjoy watching them make their wares. Our sample/demo was a tequila-drinking turtle. 



Onwards to the Sunset MonaLisa. It's an independent restaurant nestled in the cliffs between Cabo San Lucas and Cabo San Jose. It's famous for some truly amazing views (even out of the bathroom window, I looked..) and being the #1 spot in the area for Valentine's Day proposals (31 last year). 



We continued onto Cabo San Jose. Can't say much about that journey as I apparently took a short nap on the bus. We arrived in the central square, and again marched 2x2 to our meeting point and had an hour of free time. Allison and I were in CSJ back in early 2020, so we elected not to shop but to find a local restaurant and have some real tacos. We found one, and we did. Yum. 

After lunch, we journeyed back to Cabo San Lucas, and saw all the tourist traps like Sammy Hagars Cabo-Wabo. Braving the hungry seals we boarded the tender back to the boat. That wasn't the end of the day's fun. The Mariner departed about 4:15pm local time and gave us another spectacular view of the Arch. And then we had a three-whale salute for the next 20 minutes and we pulled out and headed north. Nice way to finish the day.

Tomorrow is a sea day. I'll try to post something about the food on board and then we arrive in San Diego. Weather in California looks very wet for the next 3-4 days, so we have to rethink some of our excursions like the Zoo. 



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