The word “fun” does not do justice to the trip that we had to Cabo San Lucas last week with wife Nancy and I, daughter Anna Lauren and her hubby Brooks, and Brooks’ brother Zack and his wife Caroline.
As I mentioned last week, the trip, which I had bid on and won at the Turkey Federation Banquet, was planned from last year but canceled due to Covid-19. We had never been to the Pacific Coast, where Cabo is located, near the bottom of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.
We stayed with friends from Jackson who own a time share there, and we were able to book through them. Part of the requirement to get the discounts we did was to go through the sales presentation of the property. I have been through these presentations before and actually considered buying in because the cost was much lower than at other places we have been.
Anna Lauren was all about Poppie spending money so that they could have access too. Brooks asked if we had to be there when they wanted to come down. The answer was no, so I asked, “Why don’t we go halves on it?” All of a sudden it was not such a good deal. At least they were honest, just kidding Brooks.
Nancy’s friend from Jackson and some of Anna Lauren’s pals were waiting with a Mexican greeting when we arrived and it was on. They had told us they were leaving that morning but ended up staying through Tuesday.
We checked into a place that was nothing short of a Five Star resort. We had a grand suite, an upgrade because of Nancy’s friend, Jan Miller. The others all had junior suites.
The only problem we had, and it was not a big deal to me, was that one of our bags didn’t make it. It contained my CPAP machine and all of Nancy’s shoes and make-up. If you know Nancy, it was a big deal to her, but she was able to scrounge some make-up here and there to make do. I had two pairs of shoes also missing.
We arrived on Sunday so we had time to have fun before we went fishing on Tuesday. I could not convince anyone to go other than Nancy so we rented a boat for the day for two of us. It turned out that several Blue Marlan were being caught in the area. We were told they were catch and release, and I was not interested in having one mounted anyway.
I was lucky enough to get one on the line. He weighed in at about 125 pounds and was 8 feet long. He broached the water twice so I had a blast. I did not realize that this was “the destination” for this type of fishing. It was worth the investment.
The place we stayed, Fiesta Americana, was on a golf course and while we had discussed playing we did not commit due to the cost-- $300 and $500 per round. That, along with paying extra to transport clubs, canceled that activity.
As it turns out there is no sewer system where we stayed in Cabo San Lucas. The golf courses, including one owned by Tiger Woods, are watered by gray water from the resorts. The high golf fees fund this operation.
The food at the resort was plentiful, and there were probably seven different restaurants on location. If you were in the pool, which we were often, you just got your cabana boy to fetch whatever you would like.
Evening meals were at a roof-top sushi bar, a steak house or an Italian restaurant. You could have all the food you wanted as well as drinks because the trip was all-inclusive. All you needed were dollars to tip.
Covid-19 hit the area hard, and everywhere you went people were masked. The staff took disinfecting the rooms very seriously. The same was true of the airports. In common areas everyone was required to participate. One of the workers said they had not had a single case of Covid-19, primarily because of their precautions. Every employee wore a mask, including landscapers, room attendants, house keeping and room service. Rules were more lax for guests outside at the pool or on the beach.
The beach was small with grainy pebbles, not sand. We had purchased water shoes (which were in the missing bag).
The food was great, the accomendations were excellent, entertainment was fine and the relaxation was over the top.
Nancy was trying to figure out how we could plan another trip down. If you make it to Dallas, which is only six hours away, you can get round trip air for about $200 a person. Out of Jackson a round trip was about $1,500. My take was I did not want to waste the time driving because as a rule we don’t take extended vacations like this.
Cabo really is fun and a great place to visit, even if you’re a year late doing it.
