Josh & Elise’s Cabo Blogo

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.

At 5 a.m. the alarm clock sang its lovely and upbeat Mexican music. It wasn’t hard for your humble narrator to rise from bed as I hadn’t slept much the night before as I was anticipating the day’s fishing trip. My stomach also hurt from the fajita buffet on the Sunset Cruise the night before.

I quickly showered, shaved and got dressed. I woke Elise up so she could get ready while I walked to the ATM as we had spent our last pesos the night before.

I walked back to the room to find that Elise wasn’t ready yet. I walked back downstairs and waited for our taxi. Our taxi pulled up a few minutes after 6 a.m. I asked the driver to wait so I could run up and get mi esposa. Elise was already on her way down the stairs when I left the taxi.

We hopped in the taxi and drove next door to the Rose to pick up two other couples who were going fishing.

The ride to the marina was tough because 1) I was extremely exhausted (too much sun, not enough sleep, I’ve been looking forward to this fishing trip for months and I’m still fighting off a cold) and 2) my stomach was killing me. We arrived at the marina on time and stood in line next to the docks to check in. I walked over to our driver who was standing at the check in line and asked if there was a bathroom that I could use. He pointed to his left and told me to walk around the corner. He said, “Go ahead, you have plenty of time.”

I walked around the corner and found the bathrooms but both the men’s and women’s were padlocked. My stomach was gurgling and brewing with anticipation. I stopped at coffee stand and asked the vendor where the bathrooms were located. He said they were further down the marina. A local overheard me and told me to follow him. I followed the local for a couple hundred yards and he pointed me to the banos.

I only mention this because I rarely have gastro-intestinal “issues”. I was not going to be on a Mexican fishing boat for eight hours with gut rot. I rushed into the bathroom to find another person, uh, taking care of business. I found the stall furthest from the other guy and I, uh, took care of business.

I’m usually very Seinfeldian in that I will usually hold off on taking care of business until I can make it home. This wasn’t one of those occasions. The fajita buffet and all of the excitement had taken its toll on my large intestine. It wasn’t the prettiest of sights and sounds but it had to be done and my entire body shivered with heavenly relief. I could now enjoy the rest of our chartered fishing adventure with no more stomach issues.

As most people do when they finish up their business, it was time to do the final “paperwork”. I looked at the toilet paper dispenser to find that there was no more paper. Panic set in but I eventually had to laugh. I sat there for a while and contemplated my next step. I laughed some more and thought, “This is just perfect.”

I thought about doing “the walk” to see if there was toilet paper in any of the other stalls. I decided against “the walk” and resorted to using the only option at my disposal: The Gringo Times, Cabo San Lucas’ newspaper for honkies. It was quite the experience and I’m sure I’ll remember it for the rest of my life. I didn’t bother to look but I’m sure I had a nice print of page 8 on my hind side for the rest of the day.

My happy digestive system and I walked back down to the docks to meet up with everyone: Elise, Sean, Jennifer and our crew, Captain Ed and deck hand Saul. Sean and Jennifer are on vacation from Houston so it was great to be on a fishing boat with other Texans.

We shoved off from the dock at 7 a.m. and headed straight out from Land’s End. We made small talk while trolling the ocean with squid lures in search of marlin. We trolled and trolled and trolled. Nine o’clock rolled around and not a nibble. At almost 10 a.m. Saul jumped from his seat and down to where us fishermen were sitting (the girls were our cheerleaders for the day). He handed me the pole and told me to start reeling in. I hooked a little tuna. Finally, a little action. I celebrated by cracking open a Pacifico,.

Half an hour later Sean hooked a good-sized dorado (mahi mahi). We trolled where Cortez and Pacifico (not the beer, the ocean) meet for another hour or so. After constant radio communication between us and other pangas, El Capitan saw a big fish. He threw a line into the water where he saw the fish, waited a few seconds and it hit. He yelled something in Spanish and Saul started reeling in the troll lines. He told Sean to sit down and handed him the pole. He instructed Sean on how to reel in a marlin (pull up and wind while going down). Sean felt the fight of the fish, looked over at me, sitting next to him and said, “Shit, I’m going to need your help on this one.”

Just as he said that a gorgeous sailfish flew out of the water, into the air for all to see and then crashed back into the water. I think this fish wanted to go out in blaze of glory and one last breathe. The fish pretty much died after that. Or maybe when he came out of the water for the brief moment he caught my cold and called it a day. The sailfish didn’t put up too much of a fight but its weight alone made for sore arms for Sean.

I got excited because I was up next to reel in the big one. I went to the cabin of the panga and scarfed down my boxed lunch so as to have some energy. We trolled for another hour or so and I caught a pequito dorado. We trolled for another hour and Captain Ed saw a big marlin. We tried to bait it but came up with no luck. We trolled the Cortez for another two hours with no nibbles.

Eight hours after leaving the marina and four fish caught our fishing trip came to an end. Saul hung our flags as the birds followed closely behind to get leftover live bait.

I was pretty bummed that I didn’t catch a marlin. Oh well, we’ll come back in a year or two and charter a better boat that will take us deeper into Pacifico. I tipped our crew and had our catches measured and weighed. Nobody told us how much our fish weighed so I can’t make up any good fishing lies. Just by guessing I’d say that Sean’s sailfish was over 9-feet and weighed a little over 150 lbs. The four Texans then followed our fish to the skin and filet shack.

I took the meat of tunas and dorados and Sean took the bill of his sailfish. We exchanged e-mail addresses and handshakes and Sean and Jennifer went on their way. Elise and I went back to our room, put the fish in the fridge, showered and headed back out to town to do some shopping. Elise really wanted some silver while in Cabo. We found a great little shop where we were given samples of almond tequila and free beers. Elise was impressed with my Mexican merchant haggling abilities. We got her a nice necklace, pendant and matching bracelet for a price that I felt was acceptable.

We were sun-beaten, tired and hungry so we went back to our room to get our fish and then headed down the beach to the Office for dinner. We had to wait half an hour to be seated. I was about to fall asleep when we were called for our table. While waiting we gave the host our fish and he gave us our options for the preparation. We had the tuna seasoned, baked and served with a rich garlic butter sauce. The durado was breaded with breadcrumbs and tortilla chips and served with an awesome tomato and chile salsa.

Dinner was great. I told Elise all about my awkward spa experience for the day before. We had a nice little date on the beach, eating the fish we had caught that day and laughing the night away. We paid our bill and walked hand-in-hand along the beach to our room where we both immediately conked out when our heads hit the pillows.

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.

I took the day off from work on Thursday so I could do things around the house as well as some shopping for our trip to Cabo. Elise had to work all day and didn’t get home until around 9 p.m. I had all but two shirts packed (they were in the pile of laundry that Elise was doing). I went to bed at midnight. Elise pulled an all-nighter packing and putting a contract together for work.

Elise woke me up a little before 6 a.m. We scurried about the house, bumping into each other as we rushed to get our luggage into the truck, say bye to the cats and whatever other frenzied activities that usually happen before leaving on an international vacation.

I drove all the way to Dallas while Elise slept. We were making good time and didn’t have much traffic to contend with. We stopped in West for kolaches.

DFW airport at 10:30. On time. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 12:22.

We were in front of a family of three in the check-in line. The family was also traveling to Cabo San Lucas. We chatted with them for the half hour wait in line. We exchanged cell phone numbers and planned on getting together to split the cost of a charted fishing trip.

Security was relatively pain free this go-around. Our plane took off ten minutes late. So far so good.

We landed in San Lucas on time at 2:10. As we flew over the Sea of Cortez and over the southern end of the Baja peninsula I took in the mountains, desert, bone-dry river beds, cactii and old ranch houses.

As everyone exited the plane, I stepped onto Mexican cement, took a deep breath, sighed and my inner monologue spoke, “Hello, Mexico!”

Mexican customs was simple to get through and we made our way through the airport. Soon we were bombarded with “senor, senor, senor, where are you staying?!?!” That’s when it all started…

Everyone in Cabo wants you to go to their resort so you can be subjected to a timeshare presentation. The worst, so far, was a the airport. We politely told each buzzard that we knew where we were going. I will affectionately refer to the locals as buzzards.

We found our Cape Travels bus, loaded up and rode the 45 minutes to Cabo through San Jose. Elise noted that some of the surrounding areas looked like war-torn cities. Buildings looked as if they had been ravaged by bombs and battle. Store and house facades are old and free standing – damaged and forgotten.

We arrived at Pueblo Bonito Blanco at 3:30. We were greeted by smiling faces who said, “Hola, welcome to Cabo San Lucas”, took our bags and open doors for us. We checked in and were told that our room would be ready in half an hour. In the meantime were instructed to walk across the lobby to introduce ourselves to the hostesses and to receive our complimentary drinks. Meeting the hostess meant meeting with buzzards. The hostess asked if we would be interested in seeing one of the company’s new hotels on the pacific side of Cabo. We politely told her that we just arrived, we were tired and we’d like to settle in first. She gave us our drink tickets and we walked south out of the lobby to the pool where we sat for a while and tried to regroup.

At 4 o’clock we went back in to see if our room was ready. We were told with a great big smile that our room wouldn’t be ready for another hour. We were very tired. I’m usually non-confrontational. We both turned away and in my non-confrontational way I mumbled to Elise, “S___! F___! Why the hell isn’t our room ready yet?!? We confirmed our arrival! Why isn’t our GD room ready yet?”

We walked around the pool, took in the scenery of land’s ends and took a seat at Cilantro’s, the pool-side restaurant. I had a Miami Vice. Elise had a mango daiquiri. We split and order of beef nachos. I also ordered the ceviche but it never came. I think that was because the waiter thought I was trying to say something in Spanish. The beef nachos tided us over and the drinks were weak despite the waiter telling me that they packed a punch.

Carrie, a nice buzzard, hostess and transplanted Californian came to our table and talked with us for half an hour or so. She gave us the skinny on the buzzards. Everything in Cabo is a sale. If you go to a “meeting” a buzzard will give you a free booze cruise, parasailing, horseback riding, cash, snorkeling, wave runner rentals, fishing, ATV Baja trips, glass-bottom boat tours – anything there is to offer in Cabo. 90% of the buzzards work on commission only. They schedule a meeting and they get paid. The less they give you, the more they earn. Carrie told us that she wasn’t planning on making much this month so she would get us whatever we want and the best discount. From what we’ve gathered, if you schedule a “meeting” through a buzzard we can get one or two free activities and discounts on other activities. For example, free parasailing and a sunset cruise and dinner and 40% discounts on a spa treatment, horseback riding, etc.

We’re yet to figure out what we’re going to try to get for “free”.

We walked back toward the lobby and I saw a flamingo out of the corner of my eye. I proclaimed, “Holy shit! It’s a flamingo!”

We finally checked into our room and had our bags brought up. Then we tried to find a local market where we could buy staples such as bottled water and booze. We tried to find our way to City Club (Cabo’s version of Sam’s or Costco). On the way we were relentlessly attacked by buzzards.

We finally stopped at a local dive of a market and picked up a bottle of rum and scotch. We went back to our room and Elise decided she was hungry. We walked the beach to Las Palmas where we ordered a couple margaritas. We waited for our waiter to come back so we could order dinner. He never came back. Elise tracked him down and Elise decided she wasn’t hungry anymore. We paid our bill, went home and had a couple cocktails and called it a night.

I slept okay but was awakened by a bad dream. I dreamt that I was driving the Expedition through Cabo proper. To make a long story short, I wrecked, flipped the truck a few times and landed in someone’s yard, damaging their house and car. I got out of the truck and was about to call my dad to see what he thought I should do. That’s when I woke up.

Today is Saturday. A new day to fight buzzards and try to enjoy this vacation. We’re going to have lunch at the Office and call Carrie to see if we can get in on some activities.

You can see photos here.