Our Mexico trip has finally come and gone, and it was heaven! My secret (or maybe not so secret) wish was for Calgary's snow to melt by the time we got home and - shockingly - that wish came true and the weather is up to the low 50s this week. Hardly warm compared to Mexico, but local Calgarians are walking around in tee shirts and sundresses and grilling out already!
It's hard to believe that all the time Ben spent in Mississippi last summer actually paid off in the form of the mother load of all Hilton points, allowing us to stay at a luxurious resort in Los Cabos for the week. I'll do my best to give a trip report, though it's tough to describe in words just how blissed out we were!
When we pulled up to the Hilton, we were immediately checked in and handed margaritas - my kind of place! Our room had a king-sized bed, ocean-view balcony and huge shower and bath-tub with shutters that could open up to view the beach. I certainly didn't expect to stay somewhere like this until a major anniversary or some other special occasion! But I suppose surviving a seven-month Canadian winter is just cause for celebration. These first two pics are of our balcony view and the Hilton's infinity pool.
We had talked a lot about doing activities like kayaking, hiking, etc., but we pretty much immediately turned to jello in the hands of the Mexico sun and beach and poolside waiters. By the end of day two we made the executive decision that we get enough exercise and adventure in the Canadian Rockies and would use this trip to lay around and take in the ocean, while also filling up on all the good Mexican food we'd been missing in CA! Here we are, hard at work at the task at hand!
The Hilton is in the Corridor section of Los Cabos, which is a quiet and expansive section of beaches
in the middle of the cities of Cabo San Lucas (the party town) and San Jose del Cabo (the historic Spanish-mission town), so on our first day we went to a popular beach strip in Cabo San Lucas and spent the better part of the afternoon drinking margaritas, eating ceviche (from a huge sea bass that was caught that same morning), wiggling our toes in the sand and watching the waves crash onto the beach. Our table was quickly surrounded by a mariachi band, who convinced me to get up and play the drums with them, so that was how we kicked off the Mexico experience. Ben cozies up with a local, while I jam at The Office, a fab beach-front restaurant...Also in Cabo San Lucas is the famous Cabo Wabo, Sammy Hagar's bar, so after tracking down an authentic, hole-in-the-wall taco stand I'd read about for dinner one night (Gordo Lele's, where Gordo, the owner gave us our own personal romantic serenade!!), we headed there for some local tequila and a bit of dancing. We had a blast, but Cabo San Lucas' party scene wasn't really what we were after, so we spent the rest of our evenings exploring San Jose del Cabo, one of the most charming towns I have ever seen.
It comes complete with a town square that filled with local families in the evenings, tons of art galleries and some great little restaurants. On our third day we also discovered a little beachfront bar and grille that was filled with locals and surfers, and finally felt we were getting a more authentic slice of Mexico. These photos show a slice of life in the San Jose area, including contemplating hitch-hiking when the bus was taking forever!
Ben noticed that on Thursday nights, San Jose del Cabo hosts an Art Walk,
where the galleries all serve a bit of wine or snacks, and you can chat with the owners and artists, so we beelined for that after a satisfying Thursday at the beach and poolside! We met some really friendly locals and fell in love with a few different paintings - I LOVED the Mexican style of art - so bold and colorful and full of emotion! Ben and I like to randomly look at art, and we always talk about how one day we'll be able to invest in that $2,000 painting that we fall in love with, or how we'll start collecting one fabulous piece from each trip we take. We'll see how that goes! Here's San Jose's square by night, and check out Ben enjoying a Cubano, a habit he picked up from my dad!
For our last night, we took a taxi to a beach-front restaurant that's part of an adorable boutique hotel called Cabo Surf. We were in time to watch the sun go down, and then we saw the spectacular sight of the full moon rising over the horizon of the ocean. It glowed orange, a sight I've never seen before. We enjoyed a great dinner and a bottle of wine as the moon climbed higher into the sky, until it left a silver ripple of light down the middle of the ocean. We ordered desserts and coffees and drank them very slowly, just for an excuse to linger at this fabulous little secluded restaurant. Ben managed to snap this awesome shot of the full moon over the ocean:
For our last day, we woke up at 6:15 and went for a walk on the beach to watch the sunrise - something I always used to do on beach trips as a kid, but had not done for years! It was gorgeous, of course, and so peaceful. The previous day, we had picked out our favorite lounging spot by the pool, a big canopy bed overlooking the ocean, and decided that try to claim it since we'd be up so early! We succeeded and spent our last few ours laying there taking in the view and drinking one final cocktail (our theme drink of the trip was the Hilton bar's "Dirty Monkey," a scrumptious blend of Kahlua, vodka, bananas and coconut milk, or something along those lines). Here are some parting photos from the day!
It was definitely hard to leave, but I have a fresh resolve to learn how to make good Mexican food of my own (the most important dishes to replicate being: 1) Tortilla Soup, 2) Fish Tacos, 3) Veggie Enchiladas, and 4) Fresh Guacamole). I found Ben last night looking up information about Spanish classes - we were both still saying "Gracias" as we arrived back in the Canada airport, sad to abandon our very small grasp of the Spanish language!
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