Time to kick off this blog with my first post! Let’s roll back time a bit to get an idea of where we are. In December 2021 I wrote the very last final exam of university ever — truly a weird feeling. The start date for my new job was at the end of February 2022, so with almost two months of nothing to do, I figured filling it with good old-fashioned curiosity was the way to go. What was I interested in? I wanted to know what the bottom of Baja California Sur was like, so I booked the cheapest hotel I could find in Cabo San Lucas and hopped on a plane to Mexico.
My Spanish was in relatively decent shape, but it was definitely a muscle I haven’t flexed in a while. At one point I could understand it well enough to get a scholarship from high school, but it’s been a long while since then.
Day 1
I flew out from Vancouver, Canada and landed in Los Cabos International Airport. Getting through was pretty straightforward since I already printed and filled every single form I could beforehand, including the declaration forms and others related to COVID. I like being prepared so this let me zip to the front of the line when I got there. No visa was required with my Canadian passport, so I got the green stamp on arrival. At the time, some countries were already starting to lay off the COVID test requirements, and Mexico was one of them. That meant no need for an expensive PCR test!
To leave the airport, I got a taxi and had the option to pay in Pesos or US Dollars. You can choose your currency at nearly every transaction you make in Cabo, including at point of sale terminals. You need to decide on a case-by-case basis which currency you’d like to use. An item for US $10 might not also be worth its equivalent in Pesos (USD $1 ≈ MXN $20 when I made this trip) because merchants could offer the item at a discount or markup depending on how you pay. Ask for the item’s price in US dollars and and Pesos, and if it matches the exchange rate, then you could choose either. If you have Pesos you’d like to get rid of near the end of your trip, maybe that’s the better option. However, if you have Canadian dollars (like I did), keep the CAD/USD and CAD/Peso exchange in mind too. In any case, it’s always best to have both forms of currency just in case. I entered Mexico with US dollars and Pesos in cash.
After I paid for the taxi, they gave me a slip of paper and I was greeted by the driver. Why did I get a taxi and not an Uber? Well, at the time there was a pretty harsh relationship between the Uber drivers and taxi drivers making it illegal to pick up a passenger at the airport. You could take one to, but not from the airport. Anyways, when I got into the taxi, this is where my high school Spanish knowledge started working at 100%. I spent enough time in what I recall being a Dodge Grand Caravan to get to know the driver. I can proudly say I talked in Spanish with this guy the whole ride, sounding like a preschooler. I learned Jorge had relatives in California, and he pointed at some apartments (which basically looked like resorts) that retirees from the US would live half the year. We talked about the weather, where I was from, how long he’s been driving, what his sisters were like — those sorts of things. I arrived at the Holiday Inn in Cabo San Lucas, and tipped him as a nice gesture for our fun conversation.
The nice thing about Cabo is a lot of English gets thrown around, since it’s a tourist town. This made practicing Spanish pretty convenient because everyone could understand what you were trying to say and could help you out. This happened when I was checking in. I started talking to one of the receptionists in English, and when everything was set, I switched to Spanish to ask whether I could use USD or Pesos in the city. After an awkward stare and short glance at the other receptionist, she exclaimed “Yes! Either!”. I asked where the lobby’s restroom was, and the time for breakfast, which both got me straight answers without the awkward stare this time. For all I know, maybe my first question sounded right, but she was just taken aback. That’s happened before when I was in Hungary trying to order at McDonald’s. The manager came out of his office and shouted “Canada?!” while all the cashiers turned to look. I have absolutely no idea how they knew, but that’s a story for another time. This reaction was way less intense.
I was hungry after all this travelling, so I walked down the road to find a restaurant called Fish in Taco. That’s where I had my first beer ever in Mexico!
I asked the waiter what kind of meat he thought was best in the tacos here and he said fish, of course. Not sure I expected a different answer. He did mention he liked corn tortillas the best, so that’s what I had. While I was eating, I couldn’t help but notice the Canadian flag right in front of me. If I expected a foreign flag at all I thought it would be a US one. It made me feel pretty comfortable and welcomed! At this point it was getting late, so I wanted to see the beach before it got too dark. It was tough to access, except through the Riu resort down the road. There was a sign indicating public beach access if you walked through the resort, which was great because the rest was privatized by the other big resorts. I could only find three ways to get to the beach from the Holiday Inn: through the Riu, through Blvd. Constituyentes (which has beach parking for cars), or by going all the way to Fin del Muelle (the very west side). Lucky for me, Riu was right next door. It was so awesome seeing the Arches at the end of the North American west coast as the sun set.
After relaxing a little bit, I headed back through the Riu and down the alleyway to my hotel. It occurred to me I’d be making this walk every night and needed a better way of getting home but couldn’t really find one. (Luckily?) nothing ever happened to me during this trip.
I visited La Taquiza beside the hotel for more fish tacos and one or many Pacíficos, then headed to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a big day!
Day 2
I was extremely excited for today as it would be a new “first”. I rose pretty early and headed all the way to Cabo Adventures at the far west side. The morning walk was refreshing, the sights were stimulating and Spanish text everywhere was fascinating. I waited outside in shade as others started showing up. I was right on time, but I guess that didn’t matter. I got to know some others from Texas, Colorado, New York and our actual guide from Tennessee. It seemed like everyone was from the US, except me (from Vancouver) and the other guide (from Mexico). We were here to talk about scuba diving safety, something I’ve never done before. We did some training in a dive pool that was made out of a shipping container. When I got back, one of the girls was explaining to our guide how she wanted to propose to her girlfriend while scuba diving. The guide wrote something along the lines of “Will you marry me?” sign on the back of a sign she was planning to turn around while we were underwater. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, and was so curious to see how this unique proposal would turn out.
When we were underwater near pelican rock with tons of fish, one of the girls whipped out the sign. Her girlfriend was so surprised she almost lost her mouthpiece. Luckily there was an instructor to help right beside her, so everything was fine. It was a pretty surreal experience for everyone involved, and it was the first proposal I’ve ever witnessed.
About 30 to 45 minutes later, we hopped back on our boat and had a trip to the Arches. It looked even more beautiful the second day! I absolutely loved getting the opportunity to scuba dive. It was so intriguing to see underwater life, from fish and turtles to the coral reefs. Most of all, it wasn’t even that difficult! There would be a round 2 in the near future…
The girls invited me out to a sushi restaurant by the pier after their near-death scuba diving trip. I learned their names were Nadia and Keisha, from New York. They mentioned to our waiter they just got engaged, so the staff brought out cake with the brightest candle I’ve ever seen, with smiling and clapping. That was a really heartfelt moment I was happy to be part of.
The rest of the day involved exploring more parts of the beach. I found Playa Coral Negro which is a enclave to the main beach, meaning it was quieter and more relaxed, but harder to get to. I kicked back under a straw umbrella for a few hours before meeting up with a friend of a friend who owns a restaurant I had to try.
The name of this place was Casa Martín. Try it if you’re in Cabo! It’s a little tucked away, but so worth it. It’s got a cozy vibe and really great dishes. It turns out the owner, Rosario, went to university with my long-time friend, Francisca. Rosario sat down to have a beer with me, and we talked over dinner, even managing to get Francis on WhatsApp with us. I shook hands with Rosario’s husband and felt really welcomed here.
After dinner, I walked back to my hotel and caught beautiful sights of the harbor. It was an end to a really awesome and eventful day 2!
Day 3
I walked past many establishments on the way to the beach for the last 2 days, one of which was a Walmart. I was so curious to know what a Mexican Walmart was like, and unsurprisingly, it was just like a usual one. The only difference is prices seem a light higher because of the currency conversion and the fact they still use the dollar sign. It took me a minute to realize things weren’t actually as expensive as I thought they were. USD is used all over Cabo, so it’s reasonable I had my initial suspicions! It was there I really understood the concept of immersion language learning. If you’d like to learn a language, going to a country where it’s spoken for a long time is a perfect way to do it. You’re forced to study all the time no matter where you are, and I loved doing it in Spanish.
After I got some breakfast in the mall-area the Walmart was in, I headed back over to the beach through the Riu again. During my walk, I wanted to see what would happen if I sat down in one of the chairs in the resort… and nothing did. I really enjoyed sitting there for a bit and avoiding the solicitors on the beach (yeah, there are tons) so I did some thinking. My hotel was something like USD $53 a night, which was the cheapest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. My goal was just to experience Cabo San Lucas — see the city, do crazy stuff, etc. so I didn’t care for sitting in resorts. But, wasn’t staying in a resort part of the whole experience? It didn’t have to be all of it. I made a split-second decision to book a room for one night in Villa Del Palmar. Overall, I’m happy I got a chance to have this experience because it’s a wild story, but oh boy, wait until you hear some of the nasty stuff next.
The whole check-in process was… long. A concierge woman greeted me and asked so many questions about what I was celebrating, how long I’m in Cabo, where I’m from, what my interests are, and showed me a map of all the amenities, paid events, and sections of the resort. There was even somehow a free lunch the next day for “people with jobs”. I just graduated university so I didn’t technically have a job at the moment, but I was starting it the following month. I guess that was close enough because I got invited to the lunch, though I didn’t see how it mattered if you had a job or not since it was free. That’s where my naïveness would began… The rest of the day involved eating at the resort’s restaurants and putting back some margaritas. There was a liquor store in the resort where I picked up a bottle of tequila for later that night. It was priced like those back home in Vancouver, so I was used to overpaying. Buying that thing was such a goofy mistake. I sat on my deck later that evening and sipped it a bit, then me neighbors appeared on either side. That bottle was a great way to make friends fast. After that, I went down to find dinner. That involved me running into the same concierge woman, and failing to remember how human communication worked because we just laughed at each other. She suggested I attend a show that was going on (which was paid), so I walked in and just sat down. I got asked for my ticket 10 seconds later and realized I didn’t have one; I got up and left — the show would have to be another time. To get back on track, I focused on finding dinner. An hour and a half had gone by since I started wondering around the resort after the tequila took effect. I somehow ended up ordering grilled vegetables on the beach, which is probably not what I even wanted in the first place. About 20 minutes later, a fireworks show started in the distance. It was a moment of pure tequila-fueled bliss.
Day 4
Luckily I didn’t need to walk through a dark alley back to my old hotel. It was so much easier to hop in the elevator and head straight up to bed, but it was harder than ever to get out of bed. I was woken up by the terrifying sound of my room’s phone at 7:45am. The same concierge woman called to ask if I was coming down for the free breakfast. I’m not sure why it changed from a lunch to a breakfast, and that was the last thing I wanted because I had a splitting headache. However, it could be a good reason to get me up instead of being inside all day. I had a huge headache from the tequila and wanted nothing to do with it for the rest of the trip. There was a bottle of water in the kitchen that I chugged down to soothe the hangover. The next thing I knew, I was downstairs and ready for whatever this breakfast was. I was greeted by a woman who was also conveniently from Vancouver, BC as well. She gave me a disclaimer that this was a marketing event and she was going to try to sell me something. She spun it off an opportunity to use a points system to get free rooms at a number of resorts across Mexico for 50 years. I like using rewards programs and credit card deals, but this wasn’t really one of those. It was more of a timeshare, and I’ve never heard of that before, so I just wanted to keep an open mind and sat through the thing — this was also a “first” for me. After all, we got to chat and have free food. At one point we talked about traveling with COVID tests and how you didn’t need one coming into Mexico, but you did going back to Canada, to which she mentioned “I’ve faked my friend’s COVID tests”. I didn’t know how to reply to that. I’m not a fan of paying for those tests either, but I’m also not a fan of putting others in danger by spreading it around. There’s more I could say but we don’t need to go on a tangent. Anyways, she showed me some pretty nice rooms that I could have for free with this points system, then brought me into an office where I was offered a variety of drinks, from water, to coffee, to (you guessed it) more tequila. The alcohol was the first thing they offered by I declined and asked for a coffee instead since last night was a bit much. I was presented with a form that incentivized me to pay $12,000 to get access to this program for 50 years. That amount of money was a lot for a student who just graduated, so I called some people I trusted to get a second opinion, and both of them told me not to do it.
I came back inside the office and was met with a disgruntled person at the other end of the desk when I said it wasn’t of interest to me. From there, I was brought to another woman outside when I thought it was over. This new person presented me with two counteroffers, to which I also declined. Our conversation ended with her telling me “shame on you” which left a sour taste in my mouth. I thought about them waking me up at 7:45am after a hangover, and wasting 5 hours, so I didn’t feel guilty by any means. The rest of the day involved eating at the resort’s restaurants, relaxing on the sectioned-off beach area, then heading back to my old hotel through the Riu. That’s the story of how I learned what a timeshare was! I ran into some street cats which lifted my mood as I tried to forget about what happened. If there’s anything I can take away, it’s that I was pretty naïve about what people offer in tourist-ridden areas. At least now I don’t have to fall for these types of things again.
I flopped down in my old bed with the cursed bottle of tequila staring at me from the dresser. Tomorrow was a new day (a rather exciting one) so I headed to bed to rest up.
Day 5
Today I was going to do something wild in near El Trampuchete, about 55km north of Cabo San Lucas. I was excited to get out of the city (not that it wasn’t fun!) and explore more of Baja California Sur. A pre-arranged bus picked myself and others up in the morning. It was absolutely incredible to see massive stretches of beach for kilometers on-end, all completely empty. This was also the first time I’ve seen wild cacti, which made the scenes even more amazing and unique. For as far as I could see, there was blue ocean, untouched beaches, and dark green grass with cacti. One of my guides later described it as a “tropical desert”.
I arrived at at Rancho Tierra Sagrada where I partook in a couple interesting things, including meeting some animals on the farm, and eating some spicy chocolate. The real fun part came when I hopped on a camel and rode across the isolated beach with a few others.
First of all, riding a camel? Never done it. Second of all, in Mexico? I didn’t even know they had camels in Mexico. It turns out these were rescue camels, imported somewhere from California if I recall correctly. This was indeed a real novelty to me, but I’m happy it lasted only 20 minutes. It was surprisingly pretty uncomfortable, but the scenic views definitely cancelled that out. I got a chance to talk with another woman near Port Angeles, Washington which is near where I live now (depending now how far you think Seattle is). After we headed back to the stables, we had an awesome lunch and tequila tasting — my worst enemy returned in numbers.
Near the end of our tasting, I ran into a couple wearing Seek Discomfort hoodies from Toronto. As a fairly early fan of Yes Theory, I had a long-sleeved shirt being shipped to my home in Canada, but it didn’t arrive in time for this trip. My face lit up as I knew they were like-minded adventure-seekers who just wanted to do fun stuff that made them just uncomfortable enough. They were in Cabo for two weeks and had come on this bus with me to drive ATVs around the beach. That sounded like a ton of fun — something I should try next time somewhere else. I got up early in the day, so I had plenty of time left in the day when the bus got back to Cabo San Lucas. I walked around the marina and lost count of the Del Mar pharmacies in a 2 block radius.
I finished off the day with a seriously awesome meal at Mango Deck right on the beach. It steadily became more intense as the night went on. There was a stage and dinner tables right on the sand, but honestly, I’m happy they didn’t put me there. When the sun set, it was half rowdy party and half dinner time. I was happy to observe whatever was going on from a distance. That gave me a change to practice some Spanish with my waiter Martín. I always enjoy talking to waiters and waitresses to ask where they’re from and what it’s like to work here. Martín said he liked living in Cabo because there was always something going on, and honestly I couldn’t disagree.
Confrontation time!
After dinner, I walked along the beach and tried to enter through the Riu again to get back to my hotel, as usual. It was at that point things went south. I didn’t have a Riu wristband and realized the beach public access route closed at 6pm, and it was well past 6pm. Uh oh! If I couldn’t enter through there, then I’d have to walk all the way to the west side of the beach, exit it, then walk back the same distance along the roads. There were a couple guys who were asking for my wristband in Spanish which I didn’t have. They probably thought I was some random person on the beach trying to sneak into the resort at night — fair, I guess, but you can technically do that during the day. I explained I wanted to go back to my hotel and didn’t want to walk all the way around the beach. They had someone escort me through the resort to the back alley that led to my hotel. That’s the way I was going to walk anyways, but hey, I had a friend to talk with for 5 minutes. This whole ordeal happened in Spanish and I only had to ask for clarification less than a handful of times so I’m guessing they like they I tried? Anyways, lesson learned: get off the beach before 6pm if you’re near the Holiday Inn and have to go back there. What a crazy day!
Day 6
Ah yes, day 6! That’s the day I had to get my PCR test. It was 2900 Pesos, or around USD $145 at the time. I got it from BlueNet Hospitals, which was pretty easy to book online. I needed that for flying back into Canada. When I arrived, the person I talked with took a picture of my driver’s license and sent it somewhere on WhatsApp, then walked inside with it, leaving me behind. I immediately freaked out and followed her inside which started a commotion. Someone at the other end of the room told me to wait outside but I explained I had no idea what this person was doing with my driver’s license. I was given it back and had the pleasure of waiting for half an hour more. Thinking back to this moment, in other countries if I reacted this way it could have gone a lot worse. Still, it creeped me out. In any case, I’ve since moved to the US so that old license is now invalid.
I don’t recall the test taking too long to come back either. Other than that strange encounter, the whole process was fairly easy. I could walk to the hospital from my hotel and do the test in the parking lot outside.
The rest of the day? Relaxing on the beach and trying out weird drinks by the marina. I’ll let you guess which one this was below. Hint: it was MXN $250.
There were some soldiers holding what looked like AKs on the beach with some women flirting with them. Can’t say I’ve seen something like that before at all.
I spent the rest of the night at Fisherman’s Landing and caught the sunset. It was really beautiful that evening! I wandered around at night a bit, but learned my lesson regarding the beach and stayed off after 6pm as I didn’t want to walk to the other end.
Day 7
Today was unofficially the last day, so I got to sleep in a little for the first time.
If there was anything I got out of staying at that crazy resort, it was a snorkeling trip. I wanted to see how it compared to scuba diving, so I took the opportunity to hop on a boat and do it at a discount through the resort before I left. Today was the day for that! On my way over to the marina, I passed by a McDonald’s and had to try it out in Mexico. They had a bunch of menu items I haven’t seen before in Canada, including this thing called McMolletes, which looked nothing like the picture:
When I got to the boat, in classic Cabo fashion, I was asked to upgrade my ticket to an “unlimited drinks” tier for USD $25. I had to decline for the sake of my liver.
The snorkeling was somewhat interesting but not particularly exciting. The coral reefs and variety of sea life by Pelican rock while scuba diving a few days ago was on a different level than this. On the upside, I met this cool guy from San Francisco on the boat named Marco, and after we finished swimming, we inevitably partook in some tequila shots on the boat.
The boat turned into a huge alcohol-fueled party which was a nice ice-breaker as I got to meet more people on board. We even saw some whales swimming in the distance.
Later in the day I booked a ride to the airport using Transportes Josefinos, and regrettably realized they only serviced from the airport, but not to it. I cancelled that reservation and thought I’d just get an Uber the next morning instead. I wanted to avoid that due to potential Uber confrontation, even though that only happens if you get an Uber from the airport. I went to bed early to rest up before my flight.
Day 8, going home
Getting an Uber ended up being an alright idea after all! I had a nice chat with my driver on the way back. It was a great 7 days that I’m happy I spent in this unique part of Mexico.
It’s typical of me to over-prepare and arrive early at the airport, so I went into one of the lounges to kill a few hours before the flight. It turns out Marco (from the snorkeling boat) was flying out the same day, so he joined me in the lounge! I learned he was also traveling solo to broaden his horizons some more. He was super tight with his brothers back home in California and an all-around nice guy to hang out with.
When Marco had to catch his flight, I said bye and we parted ways. After that, it occurred to me that I haven’t shown anyone my negative COVID PCR test yet. That didn’t happen at security, so I figured it would at the gate. Coming from Canada, I was pretty used to the song and dance by now. It turns out nobody cared about the $145 test I took because everyone on the flight was told to board as usual. When I landed in YVR, they made me do a (free) COVID test at the airport on arrival, so I started questioning the need for a pre-arrival test. Neither Canada nor Mexico checked the one I paid for. In any case, I was back to the crisp, cool weather in January. It was a real contrast to the 7 days of heat.
Conclusion
I learned at least one thing on this trip and met some cool people along the way.
There are folks who prey on naïve tourists. If a limited-time deal at a commercial hotel or resort is too good to be true, it probably is.
Even despite that, I loved the experiences I had and the people I met along the way, including Marco, Kesha and Nadia (congrats on your marriage)!
The next time I visit, I’d love to see Mexico City and how it contrasts a typical tourist town. This was a wonderful first step into exploring a foreign country alone. I’m exciting to turn it up a notch next time!
