Cinthia's Spinnings

Cabo San Lucas, southernmost city in Baja California Sur, Mexico. As usual, we arrived around 7:00 am, but unlike our other two ports, Cabo has no dock big enough for cruise ships.

They probably like it that way. The cruise line has to contract with the local authorities and private companies for tenders to take passengers from the ships to the port. Since we weren't on a scheduled tour, we opted for a leisurely breakfast up top and waited to go ashore. We got there around 9:00.

As soon as we hit dry land we were bombarded with offers for boat tours, ATV tours, parasailing...you name it, someone was offering it. We took one guy up on his offer to take us along the coastline in his glass-bottom ponga (it had a canopy) for an hour and he'd show us the sights.

The above photo is probably the most famous sight in Baja California; Los Arcos, the Arch. If you saw Pirates of the Caribbean, you saw Los Arcos.

Pelicans, I've discovered, are wily birds. The fishermen buy bait and store it in floating bait cans, tethered to rocks. These sneaky guys above have figured out what's in those cans and they sit on rocks and wait until they think no one is looking then swoop in for a quick snack.
A little further up the coastline is a small colony of Pacific sealions. You can see just how concerned they were over our presence. Sorry the picture is a little blurred, I was in a boat that was doing it's best to imitate a rocking horse.
The photo you see up here is Lover's Beach. Probably named because it's so secluded. I'm sure you can access by land--if you're a goat. But otherwise, you're stuck swimming or getting there by boat. The odd thing about this little spot is that it's actually two beaches. The side you can see here is on the Sea of Cortez. Walk a little ways and you'll hit the Pacific Ocean.
Here's another spot that was shown in Pirates of the Caribbean. This cave is on the Pacific side of the peninsula.
Once our little expedition was done and our intrepid captain had us safely to shore, we walked along the malecon and into town. We were looking for fish tacos, but never found any that we could afford. Prices along the waterfront were higher than Los Angeles!

This poor pelican has a hook in his mouth and probably can't fish the way his cousins do. He's reduced to being a huckster. I took his picture, but sadly, didn't have any fish to give him. He doesn't look too malnourished, though. I'm sure the fishermen keep him in anchovies and mackerel.

We found a little mercado and went in to browse around. I wound up buying a couple of Talavera salsa bowls. They're cute. I'll take a picture and post them one of these days.

All that walking and sightseeing gave us a powerful thirst so we stopped at a little cerveseria and had a Pacifico (with lime, naturally).
This picture is for all my fibery friends. There was a shop in one of the more upscale shopping spots in Cabo that had the most amazing rugs. The wool is dyed using all natural dyes. The red is from the cochineal bug--a little beetle that lives on the nopal cactus. After the wool is dyed, it's handspun, then woven. The backside of these rugs are as perfect as the front. I wanted to take one home so bad but couldn't afford one even the size of a placemat. Maybe next trip.
This last picture is of Finger Rock. It marks the southernmost point of Baja California and the confluence of the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez.

January is prime whale season since the gray whales migrate from Alaska to have their babies in the warm(er) waters of Baja. I was really hoping we'd see at least one--and we did!

As our ship made it's way north, we had not one, not two, but three cetaceous escorts for the first hour! Two gray whales and a humpback.

Not only that, but just as we thought we'd seen as many biologicals as we were going to, a whole school of Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins gave us a rousing Bon Voyage by criss-crossing in front of the bow of the ship. :) We couldn't have had a more perfect sendoff.