My Journey ... in life and in the world: Los Cabos

Way down at the very tip of the Baja peninsula is an area known collectively as "Los Cabos," or "The End." It is comprised of the cities of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, and the area inbetween known as The Corridor.

I've been marinating an idea for several years, of wanting to buy a winter place and becoming a snowbird. I truly hate the winter months here in Utah! After doing a great deal of research, it seemed to me that Los Cabos has good potential to be a great fit. In addition to the warm winter weather, it is accessible by a short, direct flight and I believe I can find something within my budget (which is not generous!).

So in January I took what will probably the first of several trips down to take a closer look.

My friend/cousin, Sarah, joined me on this trip, which was awesome.

Our first week was spent in the Cabo San Lucas area, along the Corridor area. It was a short walk to a great beach (Medano Beach), one of the few swimable beaches in Los Cabos. The non-swimable beaches are gorgeous, but there are extremely dangerous rip tides. Since I'm not much of an ocean swimmer anyway, a nice beach is all I need. Closer to Cabo, there are an annoying number of vendors but where we were was not bad at all.

In between having a ton of fun with various activities my real estate agent Jesus took us around to look at properties for sale in the Cabo San Lucas area. It gave me hope that I really can find something that will work and affirmed my desire to follow through on my plan. I am not sure at this point in my quest if Cabo San Lucas is the right place for me to be, but now it's not so much an "if" I'll proceed with the plan, but more just working out the best situation.

As noted, we managed to find plenty of time for fun activities, and Cabo San Lucas is definitely the place to be for this. The prominent feature in this area is The Arch, seen in the above photo (though from a distance). This is literally the point where the Pacific meets the Sea of Cortez. In that area, there is Lovers Beach, and then from there, going to the Pacific side, Divorce Beach. The local joke is that couples go to Lovers Beach, but if one lover wants to get rid of the other they send their lover to the beach on the Pacific side. Divorce beach because it's so dangerous. Maybe it should be renamed Widow Beach.

Our first adventure was Whale Watching. The peak time is in January, and though I didn't make my plans with that in mind, it was a happy coincidence. It was pretty rough going on the boat ride to get to the whale watching area, with extremely choppy seas. But the whales did not disappoint. I am not even sure how long we were out there, but it was one breach after another. We were also on one of the glass-bottomed boats. That didn't really mean much in deep waters, but it was cool to see the marine life below us in more shallow waters.

The next adventure was para-sailing. Some people think of this as risky or an extreme sport, but really the rise is gentle, like an elevator. The only thing I really worried about was dropping my phone!

We also spent some time in town, trying different restaurants (including Cabo Wabo - perhaps a bit of a tourist trap, but fun) and souvenir shopping. I'm actually not much of a souvenir shopper (or any kind of shopper, really). I did want to buy some Mexican vanilla, and that was easy to find. I generally don't bring home gifts for my kids or grandkids, unless I find something great for a birthday or for Christmas. I have traveled so often, I'd be bankrupt if I brought back gifts every time! And my kids travel so much, it frees them from having to think they have to bring something back. But Sarah was in full shopping mode. I think she managed to find something special for all her peeps back home.

The last Cabo adventure was a Sunset Jazz cruise, which was just the right vibe. There were perhaps a dozen people on a spacious boat. Light refreshments were served (which was, in fact, our dinner) and included drinks. I tried a margarita, but it was a bit watery, so I switched to white wine. Mellow jazz played as we cruised around the Arch, and then up the Pacific side a bit. Perfection! As we were sailing along, all of the sudden one of the crew members goes rushing by. I thought maybe someone had fallen overboard, he was moving with such purpose. But no, he was just running to his fishing line...and reeled in a good sized catch.

It was time to move to San Jose del Cabo, since I wanted to consider both areas. I really liked San Jose - it's more laid back and more streets are paved - by far - compared to Cabo. Our Airbnb was again located not too far from the beach. A bit further than the Cabo location but still within walking distance, and the beach was good.

Activities are not as plentiful as they are in Cabo, so we decided to take the bus to Todos Santos, about 2 hours (bus time) north of San Jose. Todos Santos is an art town, so we spent the day eating, drinking and looking at art - mostly the first two.

Back in San Jose, we did a taco tour, and it ended up just being the two of us and the tour guide. We went from place to place, trying a dish at each location, including a tequila tasting stop. After the tour, we hung out at the Art Walk, which drew a lot of people.

A few practical notes: Uber is plentiful and very cheap. Most of our rides were in the range of $2-4. Regarding airport transportation, Uber is not allowed to pick up at the airport. Before we left on our trip I saw a name recommended over and over again in Facebook groups for transportation services, Juan Pablo. He met us at the airport, and made a stop at a grocery store (Fresco) so we could stop for supplies. Fresco is very American in nature.

Prices, Uber not withstanding, are actually on the high side compared to what I expected. More like prices at home. We stopped at an ATM when we got there to get pesos, but when we ran out of those towards the end of the trip we used US dollars with no problem. We also used credit cards in many places - just be sure to ask them to process it in pesos. Your card's conversion is almost certainly better than the USD price.