Chilling in Cabo San Lucas, Laid Low in La Paz 1st - 10th December

Our week in Cabo San Lucas was spent doing precious little; lots of lying by the pool, walking on the beach, watching the sunset (and lots of telly!), cooking and of course eating nothing but much-missed home-made food. We also enjoyed a home-cooked and very chatty dinner with Cliff and Julie from Oregon, who we’d met in La Paz. On the way home that night, we had a look in some of the bars that Cabo has to offer. These revealed that Cabo is indeed the United States’ answer to Ibiza, Tenerife and Aiya Napa (where young people go to get wasted, and indulge in all sorts of uninhibited behaviour, usually much to locals’ bemusement). In one bar, we were thoroughly amused to watch a couple having to simulate a number of sexual positions in an allotted time before being drowned in more tequila. At another music-blaring bar we stopped for a nightcap. Naomi, having been fascinated by the American obsession with margaritas, finally decided to try one but was disgusted not only by its tongue-numbing bitterness but also the absolutely rank taste of cheap tequila. Curiously, many Americans who come to Mexico seem to drink nothing but margaritas while Mexicans seem to drink mostly beer, the same goes for sangria in Spain. Where do these stereotype tourist drinks come from? Luckily, we decided it was time for us to go home before more antics revealed themselves.

Another exciting day included a boat trip to Santa Maria (a beach up the eastern side of the cape) for a spot of snorkelling, and although being advertised as just this, turned out to be more of a booze-up than anything else. Free alcohol was offered from the off, though those snorkelling were advised not to over-indulge too early. A group of middle-aged ladies had obviously decided that they wouldn’t be doing much snorkelling and by half way through the trip were posing for photos with deck hand Cristian, quite the looker with his dark eyes and long lashes, as he poured shots of tequila down their throats. We stopped to watch a pod of whales near Cabo’s famous rock arch as we cruised slowly home but it failed to distract people from the drinks for long. We were, of course, as abstemious as usual.

The days passed by far too quickly and of course on Friday it was time to jump on a bus back to La Paz (our day of cycling into Cabo was enough to put us off cycling anywhere near that town again). Much to our delight, we were told that this time we did not have to take wheels off bikes which made the whole palarva of getting on and off the bus an awful lot easier.

Finally, (after 5 months!) a good opportunity to go kayaking presented itself as our hotel in La Paz also ran tours, so we arranged to go on a trip snorkelling and kayaking around Isla Espiritu Santo on the Saturday. Unfortunately, however, P came down with a bit of indigestion so N, after much humming and hawing, decided that the kayaking opportunity could not be missed and went off to leave Paul to nurse himself for the day. We were very lucky with the weather as the sun was shining, and although it was a bit cloudy the sea was very calm and silvery. We were whipped off around the island and stopped at the north end, where we snorkelled near an interesting rock formation covered in bird poo and a bunch of barking sea lions. Things got very exciting indeed when one of the sea lions swam right around us in a circle. Next on the itinerary was kayaking from one beach to another, following the coastline around. This was a truly wonderful experience as we got to see some of the amazing rock formations and caves close up. Stupidly I did not take the camera at this point for fear of dropping it in the water and so missed an excellent opportunity to photograph some brightly coloured crabs and starfish we spotted on the rocks. After some lunch on yet another beach, we set off for a coral reef where we indulged in more snorkelling, even more exciting this time as the water was a crystal clear turquoise blue which meant we were able to see all sorts of different tropical fishes, the names of which N can’t remember now (but one of them looked like Nemo!).

The idea was to get to the Mexican mainland on the Sunday, but that was not to be as P’s indigestion got nastier and N developed her own stomach problems after absent-mindedly gulping some tap water while brushing her teeth. As a result, the next couple of days were spent laying and feeling very low in La Paz, eating bland food, watching the unexpected downpour of rain outside and trying to build up the energy and courage to jump back on the bikes to the ferry terminal 22kms up the road.

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