Cabo San Lucas

relax|beach: LOS CABOS 

by Beth Powell

In January 2014 we went to both Cabos, there are two - Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo.  It was a spectacular beach vacation, in fact it was the best beach vacay we've ever had. It was not the cheapest, but it did reinforce that saying "you get what you pay for." (Which isn't always true.)

Cabo San Lucas is a party town. Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Cantina is an iconic bar & music venue and there are many other watering holes to choose from. We visited Cabo San Lucas for dinner and drinks our first night in town.

There is an urban legend that The Eagles wrote Hotel California while staying at a hotel in a town around the peninsula corner from Cabo San Lucas. As with most urban legends, it's untrue, but also as with most urban legends, people don't care and they still flock to the hotel in Todos Santos for t-shirts and photo ops. We refrained.

Sammy Hagar is to Cabo what Jimmy Buffet is to Key West. He liked hanging out there before it was cool. Although, I think it was really Hemingway who made Key West relevant (& it's location) but Buffet certainly added to its je ne sais quoi. Cabo Wabo Cantina opened in 1990 with an MTv event that Van Halen played at (this was back when MTv actually played music videos). It's since been voted one of the top 10 party spots in the world and we agree that it's a fun party spot. During our visit it was crowded with international travelers who were all very friendly, tipsy, and dancing. We lucked out and got a great table near the dance floor, it was prime real estate.

Cabo Wabo Cantina Entrance

Chris did the obligatory shot of Cabo Wabo tequila at Cabo Wabo Cantina.

Cabo Wabo at Cabo Wabo

We stayed at, and highly recommend, the Hotel El Ganzo. www.elganzo.com  The hotel was comfortable and fun. A lot of the vacation glory was due to the hotel so I'll include several hotel pictures.

Cool Retro Sign

View of El Ganzo from the water

The hotel's style is what I'll call Mexican modern. It mixes modern architecture with rustic furniture, leathers and bright paint colors for a groovy vibe. Complementing, or perhaps completing, it's groovy-ness they also host an artist in residence program.

Mexican Modern Dining Patio

Mexican Modern

The El Ganzo design/architecture team was very detail oriented in executing their vision. Even their luggage racks are cool.

Luggage Rack

This was a pre-fitbit vacation so I have no idea how many steps we took. I suspect it wasn't very many because we spent an entire afternoon in these hammocks. They are near the hotel's private beach and include access to the beach club grill. Yes, we enjoyed a wait-service lunch in hammocks. Yes, it was indulgent and yes, we'd do it again.

The perfect nap spot.

Speaking of the private beach, I mentioned previously that this vacation was in January 2014, in January 2015 we went to Jamaica and were continually harassed by beach vendors. As a result, we've come to have a rear view mirror appreciation for El Ganzo's private beach. We napped, we swam, we did whatever we wanted, quietly without bother and we enjoyed the serenity of a beautiful sunset.

We spent a lot of time at the hotel's rooftop infinity pool. The views were astonishing and since it was just an elevator ride away there was none of that getting to and fro hubbub required. Convenience aids leisure. Don't we look properly relaxed?

Rooftop Infinity Pool

The rooftop hot tub was glass.

We didn't stay in the hotel the entire vacation. As is our usual mode of operation while traveling, we stepped out and walked around to familiarize ourselves with the local culture. We saw the shacks for houses revealing the poverty level that exists in most southern locales. During a long beach walk we saw this property for sale. One of you should buy it, renovate, and let us visit. 

The town of San Jose del Cabo was clean and nice, for the most part, with lots of boutiques and artisan shops as well as galleries galore. During our jaunt about town we stopped in to visit this church.

We found a great Talavera pitcher at one of the shops. Talavera pottery is pretty, I like it. I learned that authentic Talavera pottery comes from Puebla, Mexico and, if it's authentic, it will say Puebla on the piece. You may recognize the name of the town Puebla from your extensive knowledge of the Franco-Mexican war. No? Oh, well let me enlighten you with a history story. 

Emperor Napoleon III initiated a French intervention in Mexico in 1861 because he wanted a Mexican government that was friendly to him - he was interested in silver from Mexican mines. They replaced Benito Juarez as the ruler of Mexico with the Austrian born, Maximilian I. The Mexican republicans kept fighting and Maximilian issued a degree called the "Black Decree" that said any Mexican captured in the war would be executed. Later, after Maximilian was overthrown the Black Decree was used against him and his execution was painted by Edouard Manet.

The Execution of Emperor Maximilian I, Edouard Manet

You're wondering what any of this has to do with pottery from Puebla, right?  I was just getting to that, the French tried to take Puebla but the Mexicans won the aptly named Battle of Puebla. This was a big win for the Mexican army because the French army was larger and better equipped. (When I say that I mean they had guns and canons and the Mexicans basically had shovels and picks.) The French lost over 400 men in the battle while the Mexicans lost only 83. This battle occurred on May 5, 1862 and it is celebrated today via the Cinco de Mayo holiday. Therefore, we bought a Talavera margarita/sangria pitcher allowing us to properly celebrate this Mexican victory. Sometimes we're arrogant Americans who appropriate other cultures holidays. What can we say, we like sangrias and margaritas, and at least we know why Cinco de Mayo is a holiday. Here's our arrogant American pitcher. By the way, we'd like a matching set of glasses so if any of you see some on your travels please snag them for us. I'm thinking solid blue to match the handle. What do you think?

Margaritas anyone?

I think we've made it abundantly clear that we loved our hotel but the most amazing part of this vacation happened away from the hotel. Sometimes you just have to get out there and chase good times. Chris speaks decent Spanish and the hotel fronted a marina so he chartered a small fishing boat to take us down to the tip of the Baja peninsula to check out El Arco (the arch), which we saw and smelled. Seals hang out on the rocks and they poop. It's pretty (the rock formation, not the poop) but it stinks to high heaven. As an aside, Shakespeare made that phrase famous saying in Hamlet "O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven."

Seals lounging at El Arco

The return trip from El Arco was the really special slice of the pie because we saw whales! We were watching for them but never really expected to see them. It seems that people more often go whale watching without seeing whales than those who go and actually get to gander at the ginormous beauties. It was super-fantastic-beyond-our-wildest-dreams-cool.

One of more than a dozen whale pictures we took.

We also saw a blue marlin because it swam right next to our boat but he was too fast and this was the photo I got. Impressive isn't it?

Blue Marlin wake

Needless to say we don't have a blue marlin mounted on our living room wall (thank goodness for small favors). The last topic I'll cover is one that's near and dear to my heart - FOOD. We ate at a lot of good places, some fancy and some not so fancy (like the restaurant housed in a shipping container). Our favorite spot was Flora's Field Kitchen at Flora Farms. It's a farm to table restaurant in the purest sense of the concept - the restaurant is located on the farm property. Now, that's fresh food. Learn more here: http://www.flora-farms.com/

The Container (walk-up restaurant)

Los Cabos is a fun and relaxing spot. If you're looking to plan a beach vacation I'd tell you to definitely go there but wait until after October because that's when El Ganzo is reopening from their hurricane renovations. I'm sure it will be even better after it's renovation.