We left the cold and rain behind to spend a few weeks in Cabo over Christmas. We spent the first week at the luxurious Secrets adults-only all-inclusive, then moved to an AirBnB in the heart of Cabo San Lucas for the remainder of our trip.
Our week at the Secrets resort was relaxing. We spent our time there hanging out by the pool, walking along the beach, and checking out some of the resort's entertainment - our favourite was rock night with the local band Los Leones. The food was delicious (we know because we ate it all!), particularly on the evening when we had the perfect table under the full moon. I also enjoyed the great service at the resort's gym - they kept a fresh towel and water bottle on every cardio machine! Plus I got to try a water cycling class and enjoy yoga on the beach. We even got out for a group bicycle ride to check out the local area and wild life. When our week was over, it was tough to leave, but at least we didn't have to go home yet.
After Secrets we headed to the heart of Cabo San Lucas to stay at an AirBnb walking distance from the marina, beaches, and nightlife. As we were there for Christmas, I had packed a tree from home, and picked up a few decorations at the local dollar store (peso store??) to make our apartment feel festive. Fortunately the building manager was also in the holiday spirit and had the building fully decorated too!
On one of our first days there, we wanted to climb Mt. Solmar. The directions we found online to do so were a bit sketchy - we needed to go to a location and wait for someone named Enrique to open the gates at a very specific time and guide us up the hill. But it worked and up we went to get beautiful views of Cabo. We were even able to see flying rays and whales in the distance!
Later that day, we headed to the marina to negotiate for a water taxi to take us to the famous Cabo arch, past Lovers' Beach. We got lucky and were able to get a boat all to ourselves.
A few days before Christmas, we took a tour with Cabo Adventures to La Paz, where we spent several hours on a beautiful boat and snorkeled with sea lions. The adventure took us away from town for almost 14 hours, including several policia inspection stops along the highway. Snorkeling with the sea lions was quite an experience. On the one hand, it was super cool to be in a wild life sanctuary getting within touching distance of the sea lions who definitely want to play with you. On the other hand, the area is so tightly regulated by the Mexican government that you end up having to swim close together with your designated group and it's not quite as relaxing as it could be. However Cabo Adventures was great and they made sure we had a wonderful time all day by making us delicious lunches and keeping the party going.
I've been wanting to try Scuba diving for years. Between our La Paz tour guide telling me how much he loves diving, and being offered a 30% discount on my next tour, I decided to sign up for a beginner scuba dive. Though it took me a while to get used to breathing and finding my way under water, I loved it and can't wait to go back! I only have 1 photo though as I was too focused on remembering how to breathe!
After the craziness of Scuba diving, we spent the rest of the day having fun at Medano Beach. We spent the remainder of our trip hanging out on the beach, I went for lots of runs along the marina, and figuring out how to get laundry done (hint: the laundromats in Cabo do your laundry for you!). We were there for long enough that we started to feel like locals. On our last night, we decided we'd finally get around to checking out the night life instead of falling asleep. As we were standing in front of Coco Bongo (nightclub with full circus-style acts), one of the doormen recognized us as "living in his building" (aka our AirBnB) and ended up giving us Friends and Family bracelets to go check out the show for free. Though we only walked around at night once, the streets were full of energy with lots of bands and music, and I'm glad we got to see it.
