Mexico or Bust!

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Since Jeremy and I never really had much of a honeymoon, we decided to take a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico to celebrate our 6th anniversary. We left Arizona the morning of June 30th and were to spend the following 4 nights in a posh resort in Cabo. We decided to go with a rental car to save on taxi fees...good idea. We also decided to rely on Stewert for directions (our Garmin has the voice of Stewie from the "Family Guy" and I call him Stewert)...bad idea! We updated all of our maps before we left, but that didn't help. First off, the street we needed wasn't in his database, then he was telling us to go on streets that didn't exist and turn the wrong way down one-way streets. After about 30 minutes of driving in circles, we finally stopped and asked for directions. Once we got to the hotel, we were blown away at the sheer luxury of it! It was built into a steep slope of rocks that look fake, but aren't, and was completely decked out with marble everything! Our room was a studio with kitchenette, huge bath tub, amazing ocean view, and cobblestone tiled floor. However, upon closer inspection, the workmanship was a disgrace! Streaks on the walls and wood from the varnish and stain, leaking tub, no stopper for the tub (we had to use a wash cloth), hair dryer only works on one setting, one burner on the stove didn't work, and the overall finishing was just bad. I'm surprised it passed inspection! Anyway...nice enough room....really nice rest of the resort. The first night we just hung out a the hotel...had some room service (which was delicious!), walked the beach, checked out the hotel offerings, etc. The beach front at our hotel was very private, but not swimable. We were on the southern side of "Land's End", which is the giant rock formation that juts out into the ocean where the Pacific and the Sea of Cotez meet and is where the famed Arch is located. We had Pacific Ocean waterfront with huge sandy beach and giant rock formations on either end, but it had a horrid undercurrent. The next day started off with the timeshare presentation. We originally said we weren't going to do it, but it was just 90 minutes with free breakfast and a $100 USD food and beverage credit, so we said what the hell and sat throught it. It wasn't actually half bad. We had a really good presenter who explained everything and was not pushy at all. After that, we decided to take the car out and see what Cabo San Lucas had to offer...which wasn't much. We went Walmart to get groceries and discoverd that they do not stock frozen meals or Mountain Dew in Mexico. We didn't want to eat at restraunts every meal, especially since we had a kitchen, so we ended up with some cereal, PB&J sandwiches, mac 'n cheese, and a few other small things. Most importantly...water!! We did some looking at the little shops off the main drag and were not impressed. All they had was little touristy trinkets and very poor quality for unreasonable prices ($5 USD for a tiny felt sombrero decorated with glittler glue and sequins...ridiculous!). The parts of Cabo San Lucas outside of the tourist coridor were pretty dirty and rundown. There wasn't much to see or to do, unless you count seeing the mall and different eateries. Needless to say, day two left us with a pocket full of pesos and a lot of time on our hands. We had dinner in our room that night were I showed Jeremy that a frozen pizza could be cooked without an oven. Ha ha! On day 3 we decided to walk the marina, which is basically the center of Cabo San Lucas tourist attractions. This is where most of the restraunts are, where you can book water cruises and tours, and where most of the tourist shops are. There is a big swap meet type market at one end of the marina, so I was hoping I might find some hidden treasure in there. I did find some cool ironwood sculptures (it's local wood, carved then polished smooth) but again, ridiculous prices. We decided to walk over to the other end of the marina to find Medano Beach and see the arch, which is on the Sea of Cortez side and is the only swimable beach in San Lucas. Walking the marina was like walking the strip in Vegas...we were constantly being hounded from people trying to sell this and that and trying to get you to book a cruise through them. It got to the point where I stopped saying "no, gracias" and just ignored them. We got to the mall, which was all very high end and confusing to maneuver, and made our way to the very end of the marina, still without finding a way to the beach. Every way we tried was closed off by fences, hotels, or other obstacles. We decided the only way to get to the beach would be to drive there and went back to our hotel. We spent the rest of the day hanging by the beach at our hotel and planning out our next move. By the end of the day, we were left with sunburns, blisters, and a few pictures. We decided to take a drive up to Todos Santos on day 4 (our anniversary =]). I knew it was the location of the famed Hotel California (yes of the song) and heard it was a big artsy town. Since we weren't finding much in San Lucas, we decided to suffer the 46 mile drive to Todos...and suffer we did! The road construction was outrageous! Their version of road construction is blocking off the highway and making you drive on a poorly kept dirt road...ugh! The landscape was the worst I have ever seen...everything was dead except the saguaro's, and they were half dead! But we finally made it to Todos Santos and it was well worth the trip! This is a quaint little town on the Pacific coast. It has a lot of history, a laid-back feel, an art backdrop, and was clean and very friendly. We went and saw the Hotel California and the mission of Santa Rosa de Todos Santos, and spent some time in the local shops. Here, they had quality pieces for reasonable prices. If you are into Mexican hand painted pottery or rugs, you would be in heaven. I'm not into either, but I did find some amazing hand hammered, hand painted copper pieces that I couldn't live without, and met a shop owner who was an American-Mexican relocatee who was willing to give us a lot of information on the local artworks. She also gave me a lot of background on the catrina dolls (skeletons figurines) and the celebration of la Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Mexico. I found it all completely facinating! Anyway...Todos Santos definatly delivered!! I told Jeremy that if I was ever in Mexico again, I would rather stay in Todos that Los Cabos. We got back to San Lucas and went to Medano Beach, which was crowded and had even more scavengers. We still couldn't see the Arch, which was really the only reason for going in the first place. We went back to the room to hang out. I decided to take a nap and Jeremy went back down to the marina to try to haggle for an ironwood sculpture. He couldn't get the guy to budge on a big Dahl sheep, but got a reasonable price on a Grizzly bear. We ended the night with an amazing dinner at the hotel steakhouse, Brigantine, (for free thanks to our $100 credit!) and a nightime stroll on the beach. We got our bags packed before heading to bed and set out early the next morning to go home. We had a good time, but there wasn't much to hold our attention. If you are a person that can sit on the beach all day everyday, then you would like Cabo San Lucas. If not, like we aren't, then I would suggest finding some where else to visit.

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