Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

January 27, 2019

Well, the good news is that the seas and wind were much calmer than in 2017 when we missed many Pacific ports due to bad weather. So we were scheduled to dock in Cabo at noon, and the Captain made it about 45 minutes early. This is a port where the ship needs to anchor and we use the lifeboats to tender into the shoreside dock. We had planned to meet 2017 cruise friends Tori and Bill (Doc), but they had their daughter and family visiting so it didn’t work out. To say nothing about the long trip they would have had to make – with a pretty short time frame. Instead, Tori served as my shoreside travel guide and helped choose a great whale watching trip. We saw some spouting from the ship but nothing close enough. Grey, blue, humpback and sperm whales winter here. During this time of year, the whales bear their calves in the warm waters here. We were very excited to see them.

When we arrived in Cabo – which is at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, we saw the iconic rock formations that are on almost all the pictures you see of this area. This is also called Land’s End or El Arco. One of our friends had been here only 6 years ago and couldn’t believe how it had changed. It is a big fishing and tourist destination.

We waited until almost all of the ship’s tours departed so it would be less crowded on the tender, and got to shore well before our 2:30 departure time for the whale watching. Here is Norm among the bright surf boards near the dock.

There is a large marina and some very impressive yachts. This one (don’t know who it belongs to) has its own helicopter as you can see on the right of the picture. Some of these are used for leased charters.

Lots of my favorite birds, the pelicans!

The other thing they have here is a lot of pharmacies selling medications that you need prescriptions for in the US. There were at least 8 of them in the immediate marina area. Apparently Viagra is in great demand.

Who is that man behind the ad?

Well, then the bad news. There were 8 of us (others were not from the cruise) for the whale watching. We got into the boat, donned our life jackets and were on our way out of the marina when our guide got the phone call that the port was closed to small boats. She said we needed to go back in and Phillip was going to try to get a bigger boat for us to be able to go out. He tried 3 places with no luck. So, no whale watching tour for us today. The rest of the group rebooked for tomorrow, but of course, we leave here tonight at 11.

We then resorted to plan B. Margaritas at Solomon’s Landing overlooking the marina – recommended by Tori.

They were pretty darn good, but we were disappointed about the tour. Later we heard from others who could not get out and also some passengers who were out when the wind kicked up and they got tossed around pretty good and were very uncomfortable. So I guess these port people know what they are doing. We thought it was because it was Sunday and the boat captains wanted the day off. One boat on Phillip’s list had the boat available but no captain.

We had a nice walk around the marina and another chat with our resident artist, Frank Hyder. He found the spot in the surfboards to set up his Janis Project art.

And of course there are always the street artists. Here’s the pirate that rarely moved a muscle.

Once we got back to the ship, there was a local Mariachi band that came on board to do two shows up on the deck. There were 8 performers and they were a really professional group – terrific. After their second show, the entertainment team on board and the Insignia show band performed and we danced the night away.

We have 2 sea days before arriving in Los Angeles. This will be the embarkation port for the last of the world cruise passengers and also boarding will be some passengers who are doing segments of the world cruise.