arch
The famous arch at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Two weeks ago, my wife and I took a week long vacation to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It was one of the most fun we’ve had and it’s a place we fell in love with right away, for many reasons. I loved it because I like warm places and beaches and an ocean view. My wife loved walking and seeing the city and enjoying the excursions.

wyndham sign
The hotel we stayed at

We stayed at the Wyndham Cabo San Lucas, which is also known as the Tesoro Cabo San Lucas. It’s a nice hotel and the room was good, with comfortable beds and a nice view of the marina from our balcony.

marina view
the morning view of the marina from our room at the Wyndham

Other than a few late night party people making noise at 4am and a car alarm going off in the parking lot, we liked our stay here. But our next visit, we will want to go stay at another resort.

Beaches

lovers beach
Lover’s Beach – the Pacific Side

There is no shortage of beaches in Cabo. All along the coast – both part of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean. One such beach was called Lover’s Beach.

reba lovers beach
My wife on Lover’s Beach

It’s easy to get to from a couple of the resorts or by water taxi, which is how we got there. The area is quite small for a beach, but there’s a lot of sand here. On the Sea of Cortez side, swimming is safe and easy. On the Pacific Ocean side, it’s harsh with warnings to not swim.

no swimming
The entire Pacific Ocean side is not meant for swimmers

Most of the areas along the Pacific have “No Swimming” warnings. If you want to swim, you should go find a beach on the Sea of Cortez side.

lovers beach
The rock formations on Lover’s Beach – the Pacific side

The beach on one side is in the Sea of Cortez. The other side in on the Pacific Ocean. There are many rock formations here, which are incredible.

santamaria
Santa Maria bay

During a snorkeling excursion, we ended up spending a few minutes on the beach at Santa Maria bay.

grand solmar beach
The beach front from the Grand Solmar resort

Further north from Lover’s Beach on the Pacific Ocean side, is the beach front area of the Grand Solmar resort. The sand is not the finest I’ve set feet on, but it is a golden tan color that looks great.

marty reba grand solmar beach
Me and my wife on the beach at Grand Solmar resort

I’ve always loved an ocean view, which relaxes me each and every time.

Chilaquiles

chilaquiles
Chilaquiles – my favorite food while in Mexico

When I travel, I always try to have a meal that is local to the area. I instantly fell in love with chilaquiles, a tortilla-based breakfast entree that I had five times in the week I was there.

chilaquiles
Another serving from a different restaurant with a fried egg

Each place seemed to place their own touch to this traditional meal that began life as a bunch of leftovers. Adding a fried egg to it made it even better. This is one meal I am going to look forward to not only making at home, but also enjoying again when I go back to Mexico.

Booze

tequila
A shot of tequila

Booze flows a lot here in Cabo San Lucas. There’s not really any restrictions on the serving of it. You have to be at least 18 years of age and you can walk around the marina and about town with an open container. Very much like Vegas, only further south and with real beaches.

We started off our first night in Cabo and a place that had $1.50 tequila shots. It was a nice repasado that went down smooth… no tequila face made!

bloody marys
Bloody Marys

Most mornings, we had bloody marys, which were made with a nice kick to them.

tequila corona
A shot of tequila and a Corona

I drank a lot of tequila and a lot of beer. Corona flowed, as did Pacifico.

marty margarita
Me with a drink – a familiar sight

The drinks weren’t really cheap, although some places, they just got bigger.

dirty monkey
Dirty Monkey.. a mudslide w/ banana liqueur

We found a drink pool side called a Dirty Monkey. And they were two-for-one in the afternoon. We had a few of these while enjoying tanning time.

duty free
The duty free store at Los Cabos airport

Even as we were leaving, there was booze. At the duty free store at the airport, you can take 2 liters of with you back to the states.

Out and About

cabo night view
Cabo San Lucas at night

The city is composed of many streets and roads, with a population of around 68,000. The local vendors and stores were nice, mixed in with shop owners always ready for the sales pitch to come inside their stores.

pesos
Pesos… not really a lot

The US dollar is accepted here at just about every place we went, even though the peso is the national currency. The exchange rate of the peso to the dollar varied by store and street vendor. We exchanged our dollars for pesos, mostly used to buy bottled water and other small items we purchased.

street view
A busy Friday night in downtown Cabo

The town gets busy at night and is much like other towns of it’s size. During the day, the timeshare pushers made their best efforts to annoy us on just about every street corner.

The End

We both enjoyed our week in Cabo San Lucas and plan to go back in a couple of years. It was safe, warm, had great beaches, lots of great drinks and many other sites to see [which I will have another blog post that covers other things we did while there]. I highly recommend this part of paradise at the end of Baja California for a vacation and time in the sun.