Day Dos
I woke up on Saturday not very rested as I had a truck flipping nightmare. Elise woke up around 10. While she was sleeping, I went out onto the patio and wrote for the website, downloaded photos from the camera and chatted with our next door neighbors, Tim and Keisha.
After Elise got ready we walked to the beach and headed south to find our way to the Office. We unknowingly walked way past the Office and found the marina. We walked past all of the fancier shops and restaurants near the marina and found the street that we had walked up and down the night before while in search of a market.
We walked for an hour or so and eventually found ourselves back at Blanco. We asked the friendly doorman where we could find the Office. He pointed us back to the beach where we had just walked. We walked slower this time and found the Office. We waited for half an hour for a table. Luckily we made it for happy hour (1 p.m.?!?). I had a couple Coronas and Elise had a bloody mary.
For lunch I had the Burritos Baja. Elise had the Combanacion de Officina. Both meals were excellent (thanks, Terri, for the recommendation). After lunch we headed back to the room where we changed into our swimsuits, grabbed some towels and filled our 32 oz. Styrofoam cups with rum and Coke. We walked down to the beach, found a couple chaise lounges and sat on the beach for too many hours. We mingled with a few other sun worshipers and eventually bought into one of the beach combing buzzards. These buzzards were peddling local wares. We bought a cool fish plate that we’re going to hang on the kitchen wall.
We both went into the ocean for a bit. Note: The Sea of Cortez is saltier than Hell. I don’t know if Hell is salty… anyway – Cortez is Hellusalty.
Elise swam out halfway to the buoy. A surge came in, dragged her halfway to where I was sitting and when she got up, her top was halfway off and she had droopy drawers from all the sand she’d brought upshore.
I went in after her and swam up to a few feet from the buoys. I caught a decent wave and body surfed the rest of the way. Needless to say we found ourselves winded after our individual outings and need to endure more physical activities more often.
At one point one of the buzzards walked by and said he’d write our name on a grain of rice. I said, “No thanks.” One of the Californian ladies that were lounging next to us said, “Don’t you want your name written on a grain of rice, Mr. Texan?”
“He’d have to write it on a watermelon. Everything is bigger in Texas.”
She laughed and bought a cheap beach basket.
Now that we’ve been here for over 24 hours, it’s much easier to ignore (and haggle) the buzzards. I think we were travel shocked yesterday and have since adapted well.
We had an excellent dinner at La Golondrina. The atmosphere was beautiful, the food was excellent and the service was fantastic. Our dinner began with a couple bottles of Pacifico and a taco salad with a great smoked chile dressing. The soup of the day was black bean. I had to have the recipe. This black bean soup is amazing. I asked the sister of the owner if I could have the recipe. She walked to a table where her family was sitting, came back with a few post cards and said I could mail them to the restaurant, request the recipe and they would send it to me. If I had to guess, I’d say the soup had smoked guajillos, cream, jack cheeses and a hint of chocolate and cinnamon to make it to die for. For the main courses I had the filet mignon and grilled shrimp with Diablo sauce. My steak and shrimp were grilled to perfection and the Diablo sauce left my mouth burning after we left. Elise had the jumbo shrimp and bay scallops with a combination of Firecracker, Wow and Diablo sauces. After dinner we met with the owners and praised them on the ambiance, food and service. They were all very friendly a graciously welcomed our comments.
Dinner cost $810 pesos (after a 10% discount for paying cash) and we both had two huge doggy bags to take back to our room. That was one of the best meals and best values that I’ve ever paid for. If you find yourself wandering Cabo proper in search of a romantic, fine dining experience, definitely dine at La Golondrina.
We walked back to our room to stow our leftovers and to download photos to the iBook to make more room on the cameras memory card. We walked up the beach, through the marina and into hopping downtown. After asking for directions from a cop, we found Sammy Haggar’s Cabo Wabo. We found the bar and bought a couple Pacificos and checked out all of the rock and roll memorabilia.
The bar was packed and the crowd was excited. A band was playing and the patrons were all screaming and dancing to what we agreed was covered versions of corny nineties pop rock songs. The crowd was singing along in unison with the band. Elise finally asked who the band was. Come to find out we were listening to the swanky tunes of the Gin Blossoms. We stayed for a couple more songs, just long enough to finish our beers. We walked out onto the crazy street and made our way past all of the nightclubs. Elise debated on whether or not she wanted to go to another club. We peaked our noses into a couple of them and agreed that they all reminded us of the cheesy meat market dance clubs on Sixth Street back in Austin. So we decided, when in Rome… just go home. We got home around 1:30 a.m. and conked out as the heads hit the pillows.