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Published: November 29th 2014
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Watch out what you wish for....we drove for several hours south from La Paz on sand/dirt roads along the coast, past beautiful beaches....and by the end we were more than eager to be back on pavement. After a particularly rough and confusing stretch of unpaved road, we suddenly came to asphalt! As was well for about half a mile when the road was severely under cut by the hurricane rains.....at first it was just large holes on one side or the other but eventually we came to places where there was barely enough space to fit our tires between the deep holes and washouts! We made it through with no problem however, and we were just very glad we didn't have to turn back and retrace our path for 50 miles or more!
We had planned on swimming and snorkeling at Cabo Pulmo, about two hours from La Paz, and the location of the only coral reefs on the Pacific in North America. It was still too windy there, and the tourist info person suggested we go down the coast to the next cove at Los Frailes. This turned out to be a great suggestion and we swam and snorkeled
there for part of the afternoon. We continued down the coast from Las Frailes toward San Jose del Cabo, passing more beautiful beaches and huge mansions (off the grid...). Lots of ATVs on the road, and several encampments of RVs along the way. Only a several miles past the road I described above, we came into San Jose del Cabo and realized we'd not written down the address of our hotel... I knew about where it was, and we eventually found it with the help of taxi driver. The streets are all one way in this part of town and many were closed off for an art walk, which made it harder.
Once we found the hotel, things got even more interesting....our reservation didn't show up at all....we had received a confirmation a few days earlier, so we got out our computers and retrieved the email. That was when I realized we had booked at El Encanto in Las Cruces, NEW Mexico, not El Encanto in Cabo. When booking, Bill and I didn't realize we were looking at different websites while choosing the room, since we had looked at the hotel together on line a few days earlier... We
still got a room by the pool here, and while the hotel is recovering from hurricane damage, it's nice and very quiet....
It is amazing how much this town has already recovered from the damage of Odile in Spetember. There were over three feet of water in this hotel and little damage is visible today. Some of the trees were broken or toppled and some are being held upright with ropes. Furniture is slowly being replaced. Our room is missing the heavy curtains that are normally there, so we're in a bit of fish bowl during the day...!
The owner told us that she can't get carpenters since they are all working on the big hotels right now. Her own home still needs work. The wind pressure was so strong that it moved the concrete around here storm shutters and popped them off! She lost a very large window and several smaller ones. Only half the hotel rooms are back in business. The beachfront hotels are all closed it appears, with major reconstruction going on. The streets are all repaired and most shops are open. There is a large pile of debris on the hotel parking lot, but
little other evidence of the disaster here.
The town itself has much more charm than Cabo San Lucas, but gets filled with cruise ships tourists and people from Cabo San Lucas....we plan on relaxing by the pool here, and then pack for our return tomorrow to below freezing temperatures and maybe snow at home....
Sad to see the end of another wonderful trip...but it's always fun to get back home....
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Love this photo
Great blog and adventure. I'd like to go swimming, diving, snorkeling around there.