Day 45 - Cabo San Lucas

Drink of the Day MiAmore

Cabo was not a new port for any of us so it wasn’t one that we could say was high on our list of expectations. But…we were pleasantly surprised. Cabo has always been a tendered port, which typically leaves something to be desired. Fortunately since the Mariner is now going to be a regular visitor to Cabo, they have built new tender loading docks that streamlined the process and made egress and reentry much easier. For those of you who have sailed you know that tendering can add a lot of frustration to the day. Happy to report…RCI got this one right and did a fine job of preparing for the new ship.

We had decided that since we were ‘shopped out’ we would try and do some whale watching. Both Humpback and Grays populate the area around Cabo and the Sea of Cortez from December through March as they birth the calves and teach them proper behavior for survival. We signed on with a local guide who promised us with a ‘money back guarantee’ that we would see whales. The first sight of our small sea going craft frightened us some and we all surreptitiously looked to see where the life preservers were.

Our fear was quickly assuaged as the pilot put the craft into a high speed chase with a finger point to the horizon. Yup…we now had to pay up…we saw whales.

The next two hours were spent at varying speeds as we either sped toward a ‘blow’ in the distance or coasted and watched the whales frolicking in the water. We have no definite count as to the number of whales we spotted but they were closer to us than any of us has ever seen them that they weren’t behind a glass wall. It was an awesome site that can’t be totally captured in pictures. Additionally, we saw several pods of dolphins jumping and playing in the water and even spied a shark. DeeDee was quite happy with the cruise and didn’t mind the bouncing of the small craft until Jaws was spotted.

As our two hours was up we headed back to the port. Our guide did, however, take the time to cruise over to Land’s End so we could see some of the interesting land features up close, including Lover’s Beach, Pirate’s Cove, Seal and Pelican Island, Keyhole Cay and the famous Arch that is so representative of Cabo.

At the end of our boat ride we did decide to walk into the main shopping area. We had never been to this part of town before and walked it with just mild curiosity. Souvenir shop…jewelry store…T-shirt shop…jewelry store…pharmacy…jewelry store…jewelry store…jewelry store…well you get the idea. It appeared in most ways to be just like any other Caribbean port, even sporting our first Diamonds International since leaving Barbados.

Needless to say we had to duck into more than a few jewelry stores…just to look you understand. A hint to all US jewelry store merchants that might be reading this…not everything goes better with Coke. Shortly after entering our last shop we were approached by the clever clerk that suggested we might be parched by our long walk and offered us a beer…a “pochito” one of course. Well the shop was delightful…the clerks were accommodating and the beer was cold. So what could be do but spend a little money on baubles. (More on that topic later) Anyway, our new trip motto, “Friends don’t let friends shop drunk.”

We concluded our day on Cabo with s fabulous lunch at the Shrimp Factory. Six different varieties of shrimp with the best guacamole and chips we’d had since the day before. Back to the ship…tired…well fed and definitely shopped out.

It’s Tuesday evening and we have left Cabo San Lucas, our last port. Tomorrow we sail to our final destination Los Angeles. The weather is getting colder and the days are getting shorter. Today the temps were is the 70’s-80’s, tomorrow is predicted to be only 62. Guess we will use the time to get our bodies used to the winter temps back home.