CABO TRIP – March 28, April 3, 2003
As reported by Vera Crews
THE
REASON:
Don't let this 'too-large' map turn you off to reading my report on our great trip. You need to get a feel of the vast area of Baja, and even at this size, La Paz is just off the map to the north. The corridor between the two
Cabo's shows clearly, and it is turning into another
Cancun with its strip of fabulous luxury hotels. So on with the story . . .
Last
September, I went to a travel agent presentation by Mexico Unlimited, and was
surprised to win the grand prize, a trip for two on Alaska Airlines to Cabo San
Lucas, plus six days/five nights at the Hacienda Beach Hotel. I invited a good friend to go with me. She is Darby Castle, and altho' her main
residence is Las Vegas, she was in Anchorage for an extended visit, her former
home town, and was a great companion, as we think alike in our interests,
politics, men, etc.
THE
FLIGHT:
Alaska
Airlines operates over a dozen flights daily to Seattle, but ours connected in
Portland. We went thru security several
times, and made it just fine in Anchorage, but in Portland, Darby had to have
her birth certificate notarized, which a nice friendly Alaska air employee did
at no charge, so we had no more problems on that. I use a passport, so of course, had no trouble. The last segment had some San Francisco
fellows on going for a fishing getaway.
They were a lot of fun, and we laughed a lot on that part, making the 2
½ hr. flight go faster. Alaska Air is
one of the few that still serve snacks, so we arrived at Cabo not too
hungry.
THE
TRANSFER: As I suspected, there were
several time-share people at the airport offering complimentary rides to town
(and back) if we'd sit thru a presentation.
The bus costs $13 for the transfer, so naturally, we said,
"Yes!" . . . and were transported via a Lincoln Taxi, since the buses
were on strike, thereby saving $75 each.
They let us off at the front archway to our hotel, the Hacienda Beach
Resort, right on the beach near the wharf.
THE
HOTEL: 
Altho' this is an older hotel,
it has been well maintained, and our deluxe suite was quite massive . . . the
living room was about 30' x 25' and had a kitchenette stocked with coffee. . .
and refrigerator, but no microwave. The
bedroom was also quite large, separated from the living room by sliding stained
glass door/windows.... the king size bed was very comfortable. Surprisingly enough, there was no fan, nor
air-conditioning, but the ocean breezes kept the temperature acceptable. Looking out the patio doors, we watched the
waves roll in, but we were separated from the beach by bushes and shrubbery, so
to walk to the sand required a longer walk to the end of the sidewalk and
across a lot of sand. I should mention
that our suite's rate is $330/night.
THE
SUNSET CRUISE: When we checked in, a
message awaited us – invitation to go on sunset cruise with my Seattle friends,
George and Mary Landrum. 
Since we
hadn't slept all night (most flight in Anchorage do leave early a.m.) we
grabbed an hour of sleep (ha, let's say, we tried to) and Mary picked us up, to
drive down to the boat slip. 
They have
a charter fishing business from the Fly Hooker, a beautiful 31 ft. Bertram
usually run by Juan and Manual, since George is an American Citizen and not
allowed on the boat when they are running paying customers. We had a beautiful 2 hour ride around the
bay passing the famous lover's beach rock, whatever it's called. . . having a
few suds, and seeing all the beaches,
watching the setting sun, which was more beautiful than I could ever
describe. The other couple on the ship
were a newly married duo, Lauri and Bill, who were a heap of laughs.
THE
TIME-SHARE PRESENTATIONS: It was our
duty to sit thru the high-pressure sales pitch for buying a time-share on Sunset
Beach, put on by Pueblo Bonito ... for
that, we did get a blanket, glass bottom boat ride and two $50 dinner
certificates. However, we left,
wondering why the price dropped from $13,000, to $3,000 as we kept saying
"NO". We signed up for
another presentation the following morning and went to the entrance of the
hotel to meet the second man, but when we came out, he said he couldn't take
us, because we had been to a presentation the day before. Well, they never asked us when we signed on
for that one, but the rejection became a blessing in disguise, because we walked
down to the dock en route to 'downtown' and signed up for a 3rd
one. This one worked great, altho' we
didn't get a lot of free gifts, we received a half price tour to La Paz, which
is what we both wanted to see. . . also, a small van tour up the Baja is
preferable to renting a car.
THE
LA PAZ TOUR: A van picked us up for the
all-day trip to La Paz. Then we stopped
at two other hotels, La Palmilla and the Westin Regina, to pick up more people until we were eight
in all. The driver was very nice and
informative, as we stopped (northbound routing near the Sea of Cortez), at the
blanket factory, then on to La Paz.
We
stayed there an hour, and no one liked it and were all on the van waiting for
Darby and me, who were easily on time, but just kept shopping 'til we were to
meet. The city is not too desirable,
except for the pretty square, and the cathedral they usually visit was closed
(all right by us). We stopped for lunch
at a non-descript Mexican restaurant just a few blocks from where we had parked
by the square. We continued on the loop
by returning along the west coast and we could see the blue Pacific Ocean at
several places en route to Todos Santos, a pretty arty community, which has the
Hotel California there, famous for the song written about it in the 80's. . . Shopping was much better here, too, and we
felt fortunate that we left the bad taste of La Paz behind.
Our
tour continued south, and we made one more stop – at a lovely natural rock
covered beach... huge rocks, huge waves, and lots of fun spashing barefooted in
the ocean. 
We returned to Cabo around 7
p.m. pretty worn out again, but glad we had taken the tour with nice people,
for half price ($30).
CABO: This is a fairly new city – at least, the
development of it as a tourist area. It
is mostly a fishing village, with a huge yacht basin. The cruise ships that visit have to anchor in the harbor, and the
passengers are lightered in. There were
two cruise ships there the day we left, the Dawn Princess, and another. The streets are jammed with the usual
restaurants, gift shops, arcades, etc.
Mary showed us a little bar under the stairs of Hotel Viva Cabo, run by
her friend, Sandy. and The Fish House, owned by Brad, that served the ladies
complimentary Pacifica or Corona beer or Margueritas from 4 – 6 p.m. daily, so
we took advantage of this the whole time.
We had our first dinner in the Fish House, which was excellent. We did a lot of walking around thru the
streets, and went to the supermarket for some bottled water. Also, learned how to take the water taxi
back and forth to our hotel, as it was a long walk around the basin (but close
in spitting distance). We thought the
prices of the souvenirs was reasonable enough, but the food was fairly
expensive. We also used our $50
certificates for excellent dinners at a restaurant near our hotel called
Cilantro's, which served great sea bass, and another Pueblo Bonito hotel called
Mare Nostrum, which had a great buffet, plus guitar music. But forget the mariachi bands ... none of
them around anymore ... it's an American resort.
THE
CORRIDOR: This is a strip around 20
miles long with beautiful hotels with golf courses and all the amenities,
condos, timeshares, and a few luxury homes.
The Westin Regina, Hilton, Cabo Real, the Cabo Melia, and Las Palmilla
(?) are a few of them, each more beautiful than the last. Altho' they are a few hundred feet off the
highway, they all decorate their part of the corridor and overpass with
beautiful flowers.
SAN
JOSE de CABO: This is the original
developed city, and actually larger than Cabo, however, the transports from the
airport just skirt this city. We went
into town for lunch on our last day there, at a neat open air restaurant called
Putters, which referred to the miniature golf course which was right by it on
the ocean side. You did also have a
view of the ocean, and it provided a great finale to our trip. Mary drove us back to the airport with her
friend, Sandy, mentioned above, and gave us a great send-off.
This
is kind of a long version of our trip, for sure, but I wrote it mainly so I
could enjoy reading about it later in life....
Hope you enjoyed reading it, too.
Remember, I can book you on this, too. . . . v
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