To wake up and feel the heat - we are in Mexico. Bernie and I have been visiting Mexico for almost two decades now and it always feels like we are coming home. Now Cabo San Lucas is not our favorite place, a bit too much money here - not the "real" Mexico, but we are off to find some "real" Mexico while we are here.
Cabo is a tender port and we are here only until 2:00 pm, so we are determined to get off as soon as possible and we are down to the tenders first thing. We must of been on the third tender and grabbed a seat in the open tenders that you see above that are run by the Port of Cabo. Highly recommend waiting for the open tender as you will hear more about the experience in the tender coming back.
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| Our home away from home - the Island Princess |
Now when you get off the tender you go thru a pier area that has the duty free shops. Once you exit the pier you walk along a dock. You will see people lining both sides of the dock offering you EVERYTHING, a simple "no thank you" usually works but it is amazing because the next person asks you the same question. It can wear on you but just remember this is how they make their living. If you are wanting to take a boat to Los Arcos or the beach this is where you can find a deal.
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| Los Arcos |
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| the town of Cabo San Lucas from the ship |
Ah here is one of the "Princess Recommended" stores.... don't worry you will get your paper with the "recommended stores" as soon as you get to the gangway. As we are walking we look across the way and see that Shelley and Laurie/Jim are in the store and Rob is running across the street to us. I walk into the store to see what the ladies are up to and both are looking at amazing diamond rings. I tease the sales person by saying "oh that diamond is kind of small I think you need a bigger one" and then I laughed.
Bernie and I wish luck to Rob and we head off in search of the Starbucks, I know, I know I said I was looking for the "real" Mexico but heck Starbucks is a necessity in my life. The last time we were here two years ago they were just building this Starbucks so we knew it was now open.
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| Vickie is happy she has her latte, an iced latte but still a latte - did I mention it was hot here |
We handed out Canadian pencils and lanyards to the staff.
And of course Jasper wanted part of the action. The guy on the left is wearing a totem pole Canadian pin we gave him.
We left Starbucks rejuvenated and started walking away from the harbour, and walked and walked. We checked out some local stores, went by a school, and came across a large open air restaurant. We sat down and the waitress came over and asked in Spanish what would we like.... ahhhhh Our Spanish is not that good, but we looked up on the wall and there were pictures and we muddled thru. We were hoping for a cold beer but she rambled off something and with my broken Spanish figured out that they don't have a liquor license but we could go and buy some beer and bring it back. Nah, we ordered two Cokes. For our meal we ordered two tacos and two quesadilas and a potato with steak and peppers with cheese. They had a salsa bar with about 10 different salsas. In total the meal cost us about $15, now that is a deal.
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| the staff pose with Jasper |
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| This is the cook as he prepares our potato |
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| Here is Jasper enjoying our Coke and the potato with steak and cheese |
We start to head back towards the harbour and check out a few local stores. Bernie has promised his nephews some t-shirts with specific designs so he is hunting, and he find the blue t-shirt with dolphins.
Below is a craft/flea market where you can find tons of crap.
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| and did I mention there were quite a few dolls, including Jasper |
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| Jasper gets into the Mexican spirit |
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| Now Jasper really gets into the Mexican spirit |
We are heading back to the ship - we get back to the tender around 1 pm and the last tender is suppose to be 1:30. We made the mistake of being some of the last people on one of the tenders and we get on in one of the enclosed tenders and I grab a seat all the way forward right against the wall. It got so hot in there I thought maybe I would pass out and started getting dizzy. Thankfully a man across from me saw this and opened one of the forward windows - which caused a bit of spray to come in but everyone was glad just to have a bit of a breeze.
As soon as we get back on we head straight for the Sanctuary for the 1:00 - 5:00 allotment, which costs $10 but is well worth it. We noticed we still hadn't left at 2:00 pm, we didn't really head off until around 3:00 pm apparently a few of the tours were running late because of road work.
As we set sail we noticed a pod of whales following us, and followed for about a half hour.
Tonight we had dinner in the dining room early with Jim/Laurie and Shelley/Rob.
Tonight we find out that Jim proposed to Laurie! YEAH congratulations.
We all went back to our cabins and changed into much more comfortable clothing and grabbed pillows and snacks for the movie called Invictus starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon which was playing on the Movies Under the Screen. It was a fun day and a great night!
