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- A Little History
- Birds, birds, birds
- Morning Activities
- Our Dinner with Guillermo
- Celebrity Amenties
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Cabo San Lucas: A Little History
On St. Patrick’s Day (March 17), my friend Bea, her erstwhile daughter-in-law Patsy, and I took off for a week in Cabo San Lucas , on the tip of Baja California, in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. We left home at 3:30 in the morning, not very awake and not at all ready to eat before traveling 8 hours to our destination. But given what we all know about airline pretzels, we carried some power bars, fruit leather, and the like. I’m sure most US citizens and probably the rest of you know that you can’t take anything on the airplane of a liquid or gel nature that’s over 3 oz unless it’s been purchased in the gate area after going through inspection. (It’s actually 3.4 oz. which must be a ml. equivalent?) We bought water every chance we got. First we landed in Phoenix, which was 98 degrees and had palm trees. Then we landed in San Diego, which was 56 degrees and had palm trees. And the airport has rocking chairs. Which was a good thing because we spent over 2 hours cooling our heels there. Finally we landed in San Jose del Cabo, which was 98 degrees and had palm trees.
The reason we had to wait in San Diego was there was too much air traffic at the San Jose del Cabo airport, which boasts one runway and five gates. The pilot explained that it was the first day of Spring Break and that the Cabo airport was always extra busy on Saturdays anyway. Apparently many of the time-share weeks run from Saturday to Saturday. You’d think they could get together and stagger them so as not to overload the infrastructure. Bea says they do, but apparently not enough. There appears to be a new runway going in right now at the San Jose airport and we’re told a new airport facility is in the works at Cabo San Lucas itself, so it could improve. This and the return trip were sufficiently annoying, however, that we took steps to avoid it in the future.
The Los Cabos (either “the capes” or “the ends” depending on who you ask) area has glorious sandy beaches because, as their geographical maxim says, it’s “…where the desert meets the sea.” It’s also where the Sierra de La Laguna Mountains (I think) meet, and march into, the sea and many of the resorts and gulf courses have  to tunnel through or skirt around great rock formations. Our resort, the Playa Grande, is no exception. But they’ve also built some artificial rocks on the grounds--to make it look more authentic, I guess--and then duly labeled them as artificial and unsafe to climb on. No matter, it’s all very Grande. The other major effect of the mountain marching into the sea is that not all the beaches are safe for humans. The drop-off at our beach creates some significant undertow and grand waves. Wonderful visuals, but you can’t wade there.
This is definitely resort country. From Land’s End--which is the tip of Baja, separating the Pacific from the Sea of Cortez (alternately known as the Bay of California, but not to Mexicans, I gather)--for 20 miles east and slightly north up the peninsula to San Jose del Cabo, all is now covered with resorts and golf courses. And in case you’re wondering, the water, at least in Cabo San Lucas, comes mostly from desalination plants, so I guess the golf courses aren’t too awful. It looks pretty obscene though, when you see one just starting with a great swath of green in the middle of the desert.
The peninsula has the usual history of exploited native hunters and gatherers starting in the 16th century. First Europeans--in this case the Spaniard, Hernando Cortez on his last major expedition---looking for wealth and/or a passage to India. Then lots of battles, riches discovered or rumored (silver mines and black pearls among others), religious missions, uprisings and quelling of uprisings, finally killing off the natives with small-pox and measles and abandoning the region back to whoever was left. There it languished, a population of about 400 until World War II military planes spotted LARGE schools of fish and LARGE blue and black marlin and migrating whales. After the war, word quickly spread to wealthy sport fisherman and in the late 40’s John Wayne and Bing Crosby (among others) built a resort here. For forty years or so, Baja Sur was pretty isolated, a laid-back, private playground and fishing adventure for the wealthy with a few resorts, some ex-pats, some vacationing celebrities and not much else. According to my friend, Harry, who made the drive down the peninsula in a WWII jeep with his father in the 50's, there wasn't any place to sleep for folks like them except the beach.
Now there are thousands of resort rooms, large marinas and a ferry terminal and cruise ship anchorages, 8 or 10 professional level golf courses, and, as we noted on our drive in from the airport, a wide range of commercial enterprises representing the integrating cultures -- McDonald’s and Super Pollo, Hertz and Turimaz, Coldwell Baker and Baja Propriedades, Dominos Pizza and La Fabula, Costco and Tiendas Comercial Mexicano, etc.
Besides the luxury resorts, one of the most defining phenomenon about the region are those celebrities. I’ll have a few words to say about them later, but first, our first day and birds at sunrise.
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