It's all about the beach

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Cabos San Lucas turned out to be a bit of a surprise for us. We had been led to expect a very tacky dirty and generally unpleasant place. Instead the beach was beautiful, bars along the sand, fantastically clean cool sea water and an attractive town centre. Granted as with everywhere there are some ugly bits... but these weren't areas that you have to go.

The lonely planet guide said regarding budget accommodation - "there isn't any." Matt's Lets Go guide listed a few suggestions. The "el dorardo" our motel for the next few days was impressive. Huge rooms, very clean and all importantly - air con. Hmm - maybe I should be slumming it a bit more - the backpacker way - but when you get a room in the most expensive part of Mexico for less than £10 night I can't really worry about it. I'll spend less when I get further south and away from the tourist resorts. Though for now - it's all about the beach.

The beach - more beach, I've spent a lot of time on the beach over the last two days. Yesterday was basically an intensive beach day - sitting, standing, walking and drinking on the beach, swimming in the sea. The Sand Bar, turned out to be the cheapest drinking establishment that we could find. $15 pesos a beer, about a £1.

The day was spent being savvy, sorting out the following days activities for as little as possible. We met some American women who had bought a time-share and had received a jet ski voucher as part of the deal - $20 and it was ours. We knocked a tour seller down $10 a piece for a snorkelling tour on the Jungle Cruise. And we savagely beat the beach tattooer down to $5 a piece for 3 tattoos. Not good customers he told a fellow tattooer - but we gave him some of our beer. I managed to knock the leg off my Lizard tattoo before it was dry... it looks a little smudged now.

The nightlife in Cabo San Luca isn't quite what I was expecting - the clubs were extremely expensive for a beer, around $4, and there weren't really that many people in them. Maybe it gets busier at the weekends.

In the night the electricity failed. The first I knew about it was dreaming that I was in sauna, trapped. It was so hot the walls of the building were radiating heat, I woke and messed about with the aircon, eventually tried the light and then looked out across the motel to realise what had happened. Eventually it came back - life could continue - thank heavens for electricity.

At 9.30am we had the jet skiing to do - what a fantastic rush!! Probably the best $7 I've spent for a long time, we doubled up to ensure maximum time on the water and had 10mins driving each. None of us wiped out - though I came pretty close.

Next the jungle cruise snorkelling tour. At the gate we had to pay five dollars more than we were expecting - so the seller on the beach had had the last laugh... though we still paid about $10 less than the guys who had booked up the tour at the hotel. The snorkelling was fantastic - saw so many fish - I don't know what they were, though there was a big one about the same size as me that was blue with a rounded head - I'll look it up one day. I cut myself on some rocks... worried about attracting sharks I made my way ashore. Rested and swam out to catch the boat back.

On the tour we chatted with Jen and Jena some students from Illinois - told them that their photo would be on the web... here it is. There was one huge rock that you could climb and dive from - the photo shows Boghen mid air... I didn't have time to get there after waiting for the photo - oh well. I probably would have hurt either myself or someone else based on my current track record. Matt managed to jump though I didn't see him - so he doesn't have a photo either.

In the evening Matt and I headed down to the beach to meet Robbie for a beer. On the way one of the unfunny tour sellers starts at us again - "want to go on the booze cruise?" - "No, we're fine" - "You are girls" says the tour seller. So I flip him the finger. He took this way out of proportion ran over swearing, shouting and demanding $5 as a fine - or he'll bring his mates over - there were quite a few big Mexicans hovering around where he was heckling us from earlier. No way is he getting any of my money, and I'm not in a position to even think about fighting with him - which is what he really wants. Eventually he gets bored with trying to provoke me and goes back. I learnt a lesson there - don't flip the finger at bored thugs no matter what they say.

We meet Robbie down the beach - relaxing by the bonfire. Have a few beers and head back to town for a taco - by an alternative route.

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Photos

Ali, Matt, Robbie
We had to explain to Robbie about two fingers not being peace.

Comments

[anonymous]

can u swim in the ocean. i heard about the under tow. is it true - robert morelli

[Ali]

> can u swim in the ocean?
You have to be careful - the undertow is strong in some parts but there were some safe areas where most people swam.