Cabo!

Cabo!

Cabo, short for Cabo San Lucas, is located on the southern-most tip of the Baja peninsula.  Most people get here by plane or cruise ship; however, this trip we met people who drove all the way from Canada.  Regardless of how you get here, one of the first things you’ll see is El Arco; the arch-shaped rock formation on Land’s End.  This arch is the symbol of Cabo and I bet that anyone who has ever visited Cabo has at least ten pictures of El Arco!

Cabo has been a favorite destination for us for a long time, so much so that we bought a timeshare there about 15 years ago.  Since that purchase we’ve visited Cabo several times  and we always stayed at our home resort: Villa Del Palmar.  Its a great resort but this year we wanted to try somewhere new so we traded our unit and stayed at the Casa Dorada on Medano Beach.  It’s a beautiful resort and it’s within walking distance of the center of town.  It’s also adjacent to two of our favorite beach restaurants: Mango and The Office.  It’s hard to get better than that!

Why Cabo?

People from all over the world visit Cabo every day.  Some come for the beautiful scenery;  others for the incredible sport fishing; and others come to relax on the beautiful beaches.  We don’t fish, but while we love the scenery and the beaches, our biggest reason to visit Cabo is whale watching.

Whales!

Between November and April the entire Baja peninsula is the winter playground for hundreds, if not thousands, of whales.  Cabo is at the center of all this whale activity as it’s the point where the Pacific Ocean meets the Sea of Cortez and it seems like every whale in the ocean considers Cabo as a must-see destination.  (Maybe they come to see El Arco, too!)  You don’t even have to take a boat ride to see whales.  We’ve seen lots of whales from the beaches around Cabo and this time we even saw two whales from our taxi ride to the resort.  This year we took a Zodiac boat ride and got to see a male putting on an incredible display for his lady whale.  His jumps and splashes were the thrill of a lifetime!  (You can read more about our whale viewing on our blog post: Whale Watching In Cabo)

Food

Okay, we admit it, Mexican food is among our favorite foods and where better to get authentic Mexican food than Mexico?  Don’t get me wrong, Cabo offers food choices for a wide variety of taste or ethencity including; Italian, Japanese,  French, and sushi, but in our opinion the best choices here are the Mexican restaurants, particularly with local seafood.

By far, our favorite restaurant is Gardenias.  When we first started visiting Cabo Gardenias was basically a garage that had been converted into a small restaurant.  Now, it has come of age in a nice new building but it still offers excellent food at great prices.  Tacos are Gardenia’s speciality and you can get them with shrimp, fish, cactus, chicken, barbacoa and more!  Eating here is a taste treat and we always dine here two or three times per trip.

As I said earlier, our resort is adjacent to two of our favorite beach restaurants: Mango and The Office.  Both are situated on Medano Beach with incredible views of the ocean.  Both have great seafood and nightly live entertainment.  We love going to these places to eat and to people watch.  Sure, you get a little sand in your sandals, but that’s part of the allure!

Fun

There are lots of fun activities in Cabo.  There are lots of water-based activities like parasailing, wave runners, and plenty of glass-bottomed boats for viewing the sea life.  There are also lots of dry land fun like golf, off-road driving, zip lines and ATV tours.  However, our favorite fun in Cabo is the nightlife.

We love live music and Cabo is one of the few places we’ve visited that has live music every night.  There are lots of clubs in town like The Giggling Marlin, El Squid Roe and the famous Cabo Wabo.  All these have live music virtually every night.  There are also beach-side places like Mango and The Office where you can listen to Oldies, rock to Spanish and everything in-between.  I can’t count how many nights we’ve spent listening to music and dancing in Cabo.  We’ve even done the infamous Cabo Wabo a time or two as we walked home!

People

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the people of Cabo.  We’ve spent a lot of time in Cabo and we’ve always been treated with friendliness and courtesy by everyone.  Even the street vendors are pleasant and they’ll quickly walk away if you shake your head and say, “No Gracias.”  We have also been impressed by the honesty of the people in Cabo.  One time a waiter chased us down to return a credit card I had left behind.  Another time, Mona had lost a piece of expensive jewelry on a downtown street.  We searched desperately for it and had given it up for lost when a young girl (a local) came up to us with the bracelet in hand, asking if we had lost it.  She was very sweet and didn’t want a reward.  Cabo people are just like that…friendly and honest.  It certainly makes vacationing here extra special!

Cabo San Lucas is just one of those special places in the world where there is so much to see and do and there are so many friendly people to help you enjoy your visit.  Visit Cabo and enjoy!