Cabo Travel Log, 2/12/2006, 5:30pm PST

(Writing in Chili's at LAX).

Wanted to jot down last impressions while they're still fresh.

Rose around 9am, packed, checked out, then ventrued to the Playa del Amor ("Lover's Beach"), right next to land's end, and reachable only by water taxi. My taxi took a brief sightseeing trip around the cape. I got to wave at my old scuba instructors, Fausto and Mario, as we passed then, and I snapped some good photos of rock formations and sea lions.





They finally dropped me on the beach itself. My guidebook said that it was one of the world's ten best beaches, and I don't doubt it. Uncrowded, surf the only sound, with towering sandstone and granite formations in striking relief to sand, sea, and sky. I arrived early, beat the rush, and claimed the shade beside a large boulder where I lounged away my last, warm hours in Cabo.




A rush of water taxi, land taxi, and plane has brought me to the familiar, stress-filled cocoon of LAX. But my brows are light, and I smell like sunscreen, and my hands feel like Cabo sand.

Cabo Travel Log, 2/11/2006, ~5pm

El Quetzal was great! Very laid-back, simple, authentic, and cheap. It sounds ridiculous, but I wasn't really prepared for the amount of Mexican food I'd be eating on this trip. Still, even if you're getting tired of meat, tortillas, and cheese, El Quetzal does meat, tortillas, and cheese better than most. Also enjoyed a cerveza Pacifico with lime. The limes are remarkably flavorful here, as the guidebook predicted.

Now off for a quick splash in the pool followed by a much-needed siesta.

Cabo Travel Log, 2/11/2006, 3:50pm

After being a beach bum for 3 hours, I've stopped for lunch at El Quetzal. Everyone here is speaking Spanish, which is a good sign! The beach was lovely. Tortilla soup has just arrived. More later.

Cabo Travel Log, 2/11/2006, 11am

Got lost in Cabo with no sense of time at all (no clock in the room, no cell phone, no watch). By the time I found a beachfront drug store to ask for the time, I was sure that I'd slept through the morning, and that I was wandering during the afternoon.

Returned to The Office on the drugstore clerk's recommendation, where I'm about to enjoy a breakfast of orange juice and huevos con machaca. I'm sitting at a wrought iron table, my chair digging straight into beach sand, with a sea of blue umbrellas above and the Sea of Cortez stretching out before me.

Cabo Travel Log, 2/10/2006, 10pm

Forgot to mention earlier: animated conversation with Neal Norwitz of Python and pychecker fame at Mi Casa last night. And the fact that seasickness caused me to literally lose my lunch in front of Benjy after stepping off the boat!
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The Office was a bust; turns out that a private party rented it out tonight. But Benjy, Susannah, Chuck Karish and wife Joanna showed up, and we eventually landed at nearby Raphael's. Kitschy piano bar followed by gorgeous, elegant outdoor poolside seating. Food was tasty but expensive.

Having no desire to go do tequila shots with the boisterous tourist crowd, I'm cuddling up with a good book and turning in early. Tomorrow I'll be completely on my own. I see lots of beach exploring and simple, local fare in my future. I can't wait.

Cabo Travel Log, 2/10/2006, 6:30pm

Arrived mid-afternoon yesterday at the Hotel Tesoro Los Cabos, after uneventful Alaska Airlines flight and harrowing bus ride through downtown Cabo San Lucas.

Relaxed by the hotel pool with the other 21 Googlers on the trip, snacking on nachos, quesadillas, and cervezas of all stripes.

Then, it was off to Mi Casa for a delicious and apparently authentic Mexican meal. I tried some sopes for an appetizer, with three kinds of tamale for an entree, and different flavors of margarita to help the medicine go down.

We then headed to the El Squid Roe nightclub. Benjy and I had booked an early-morning scuba dive for this morning, and Squid Roe was pretty workplace-inappropriate, anyway, so I didn't stay long.

Rose early this morning for my first-ever scuba dive. The one other beginner, a Marin county doctor named Susan, was very nervous, despite the wonderful ministrations of our instructor, Fausto. We did finally get in the water, and the dive was honestly a high point of my life -- peaceful and weightless for a half hour, exploring fish-filled coral down to a depth of 60 feet. At one point, Fausto broke open an abalone shell, and Susan and I fed a school of tropical fish from our hands, just like feeding pigeons in the park.

Mom's genes caught up with me on the short boat ride back to the marina, and I suffered from seasickness for most of the afternoon spent with Benjy and Susannah.

Now, I'm off to meet the remaining Googlers for dinner at a restaurant fittingly named The Office.

Cabo is lovely. Wish you were here.

Cabo!

The posts that follow are transcriptions from napkins and other scraps of paper I scribbled my journal on during my trip to Cabo San Lucas in February, 2006.

All my pictures are up in my smugmug space.