Parasailing, ATVs and El Chilar

We woke up a little after 7 a.m. on Thursday, walked down to the beach and caught a water taxi to the parasailing boat. Elise volunteered me to parasail first seeing as how we were both new to parasailing and she wanted me to be the guinea pig. We both signed waivers, given our instructions and I was strapped in and was soon soaring high above the beaches of Cabo. The air was so calm, quiet and soothing. The only uncomfortable aspect of this parasailing outing for me was the harness. It made my hips and lower back hurt after a few minutes of being in the air.

After 15 minutes or so I was winched back down to the boat and then it was Elise’s turn. Midway through her ride the water taxi drove up along side our boat and four more people boarded our boat. This all while Elise is high up in the sky.

After parasailing we walked back to our room and ate leftover breakfast tacos and papaya with lime juice. After eating and resting for an hour or so we walked over to Rose and waited for the MotoSol shuttle to pick us up for our ATV tour of the Baja.

The shuttle picked us up on time and fifteen of us rode up to just outside San Jose to MotoSol ATV rentals. Again we had to sign waivers and put up a credit card for a deposit should something happen to one of the ATVs.

We were then given our helmets, goggles and bandanas. After the mandatory lesson in ATV operation, we were soon off and hitting the trail. Our guide let us ride around in on a training course for ten minutes before we headed deep into the desert. I thought it would be really cool to practice my donuts and launch myself off of the 4-wheeler. I did quite a number on my right knee, elbow and palm. Other than my minor injuries, we had a great time touring the desert on ATVs. The tour was a little longer than we would have liked and coming home with muddy boogers is always fun.

We were shuttled back to Cabo San Lucas and dropped off at our hotel. We went upstairs and took long showers to get all of the dust, mud and blood off of ourselves. After showering and getting dressed we called El Chilar in San Jose and made a 7:30 dinner reservation. In the meantime Elise wanted to take me back into town so I could get the metal-sculpted dorado that I had been eyeing all week. All of the dust from the ATV tour did wonders for my cold so I didn’t really feel much like heading out into the hot sun to shop at the flea markets.

Six thirty came around and we went downstairs and asked the concierge how best to get to El Chilar. We walked a few blocks down the street and caught the bus to San Jose for $40 pesos. We rode far into San Jose and never really recognized any of the street names in relation to our map. We asked the couple sitting behind us if they would look at our map and tell us where we were. We passed our stop a while back. We exited the bus at the next stop, ran across the highway, walked half a mile and caught the next bus heading south. This time we made sure to show the bus driver where we needed to be.

After walking a couple few city blocks I stopped and asked a couple guys if they knew where El Chilar was. Luckily I did or we would have kept on walking east and would have never found the restaurant.

Los Cabos is interesting in that you can be walking through the dumpiest neighborhood and then you walk upon an upscale restaurant, nightclub or office building,

We walked into the restaurant and were greeted by the staff and Monica. Monica is the sister of Hildelise who we befriended the week before last in Las Vegas at the oxygen bar. It was because of Hildelise’s recommendation that we found ourselves lost in San Jose eating at El Chilar.

Monica was a great hostess. Her and her husband, Armando own and run the restaurant. Although we didn’t meet Armando, he is a fantastic chef who changes El Chilar’s menu once a month. We also met Ulises, part owner/chef.

To start Elise had the fruit bead and tapioca gazpacho with chile habanero oil. I had the seared scallops carpaccio with garlic sauce. Both apps were great. Elise didn’t like the tapioca in her gazpacho. I thought it added a nice texture. The melon balls made the soup fun, fresh and inspired me to make a melon-based gazpacho soon.

My scallops were excellent as well. They were seared and sliced thin with an accompaniment of fried tortilla strips, garlic and balsamic vinegar.

For our main courses, Elise had the grilled flank steak with a chipotle-based pumpkin seed sauce and polenta and baby squash. I had the duck enchiladas in a creamy and sweet white mole and cilantro and roasted coconut rice. We agreed that our entrees weren’t as good at the appetizers but the meals were still good.

Monica treated us to a couple Mexican flag house margaritas and a slice of signature El Chilar mousse cake. She thanked us for making the special trip into San Jose and then called a cab for us so we wouldn’t get lost again.

The cab dropped us off at the bus stop and our bus to Cabo San Lucas picked us up shortly after. My cold had gotten the best of me and I fell asleep sitting up all the way back to Cabo. Elise nudged me awake as we got into town. The bus dropped us off closer to town which meant we had to walk 20 minutes back to our hotel. It was one of those depressing walks where you know your vacation is over and you have to wake up at 5 a.m. the next morning to catch a flight back to reality.