Ah, winter vacations are wonderful http://www.ideaspace.net/users/wkearney/archives/entries/000595.html Don't ya just love being able to skip town for a week? Especially when it's been 20F at home and... wkearney 2004-03-01T20:22:29-05:00 http://www.ideaspace.net/users/wkearney/archives/entries/000595.html en-us Home Don't ya just love being able to skip town for a week? Especially when it's been 20F at home and... 2004-03-01T20:22:29-05:00 Don't ya just love being able to skip town for a week? Especially when it's been 20F at home and where you're going is in the 80's?

]]> Don't ya just love being able to skip town for a week? Especially when it's been 20F at home and... Chris an I had a just such a break last week on our trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Nothing like catching a tan while Felix and Juan Carlos marched up from the beach to fetch us cold cocktails from the bar.

I prefer travelling to places where there's likely to be a diverse mix of nationalities. If you like that sort of thing then Cabo's not the place for you. I had no idea that there'd be such a lack of foreign tourists. This is the polite way of saying Cabo had way too many US residents on vacation there last week. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love my fellow countrymen but if I wanted to hang with them in the sunshine I'd have gone to Florida. I've a few other more cynical observations I could make but, well, I'm still riding the post-vacation buzz and don't wanna spoil it.

While the weather was beautiful it was a little cooler than we had expected. It dropped into the 50's at night but the intense daytime sun made the 80 degree days seem a lot hotter; nicely so. That and the water was just a wee bit too cold for decent swimming, let alone snorkelling. The double kayak to the Arch was fun but you'll smell the sea lions well before you see them. Talk about a stink! The view from Lover's Beach was sublime; Pacific on one side, Sea of Cortez on the other. If you're not the rowing type then one of the glass-bottom boats will ferry you there for a few bucks.

Renting a Jeep to visit some more remote beaches was a welcome break from the incessant beach vendors. But free range cattle does indeed mean road kill will be a full sized COW dead on the roadside; feet/udders up. The Fodor book warns of this but you don't actually expect to see roadkill of that size. Fortunately the rental jeep was incapable of going anywhere near fast enough to made it much of a risk to us. Suffice to say, if you ever think about buying a used car from a rental fleet, make sure it wasn't ever in Mexico. Talk about rickety. But it was handy when negotiating the dirt road to the beach.

Apparently there's no magic hand signal you can give to the beach vendors for no I don't want a hat/bracelet/blanket/plate/weed, so leave me the hell alone. They were relentless. Their constant presense and activity on the beach absolutely ruined any hope of it being a 'restful' period. This, beyond the lack of tourist diversity, makes me disinclined to recommend Cabo to any friends. Fortunately the bar was nearby and it's effects mitigated the annoyance nicely.

Nightlife was, well, think of partying it up in some midwest US town and you'd get the gist. We'd have preferred something a bit more upscale or at least less infested with loud, drunk, old and fat American tourists. There's just no nice way to put it. If you're looking for action, scratch Cabo off the short list.

All in all, I've had better times in Mexico travelling to places like Playa Del Carmen instead. Perhaps it's because the eastern coast is closer to the islands and, as a result, Europe. The western coast seems to attract less of the continental crowd, sad to say.

But hey, we can't really complain THAT much. It was a delightful break from the ordinary winter routine. Hopefully the tan will last long enough for decent weather to emerge here in DC.

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