Puerto Los Cabos, Mexico

Nathan and I took a 5 day incentive trip to Puerto Los Cabos, Mexico with Nathan's company February 28 through March 4th.  The kiddos were left under the supervision of cousin Mallory and did well fending for themselves for the week.  Los Cabos was different than we expected.  It is a desert next to the most beautiful waters we've ever seen.  There aren't a lot of beaches, so it's a beauty you enjoy from the safety of a boat or beach chair.  And because it's a desert climate, there aren't a lot of lush plants and flowers.  There are lots of different cacti and a few palm trees.  There was lots of sand that was raked daily to make it look as attractive as possible given it was just sand.  However, the weather is incredible!!  It never changes ever!  It is the perfect temperature and humidity all the time, thus making it one of the most popular travel destinations in the world.  We stayed in a very private, fancy all inclusive gated resort on the opposite side of the island (its actually a peninsula, but felt like an island) from everything.  We felt like we had the island to ourselves except for the occasions that we went into town to explore.

Downtown Cabo San Lucas.  This is the biggest town on the pennisula where we gained water access and went for shopping.

Coastline view of Cabos San Lucas from boat.  It was not safe to go anywhere in town outside of the shopping and dining district.  We were swarmed by relentless street vendors everywhere we walked even in the "safe" areas.

  

One of the only swimming beaches on the peninsula.  This side of the beach is called "Lovers Beach" because it is safe to enter the water here.  The opposite side of the beach faces the ocean and is called "Divorce Beach" because the locals joked that when a couple goes on that side of the beach only one of them comes back.  In reality that is because it is highly dangerous and not suitable for swimming.

The famous arch!  It was created by waves and erosion over time.  Before a huge hurricane several years ago, the beach under and around the arch was accessible.

Sea lions!  They were all over the rocks to get some sun.  They were very noisy and stinky.  They were sometimes seen hopping on the back of fishing boats to get a snack, but unfortunately our two boat rides weren't on a fishing vessel.

It was humpback whale migration season while we were there, so we saw lots of enormous whales around the shore.  We took a whale watching excursion one evening, but this is the best picture I managed to snap of a whale.  We saw one jump completely out of the water directly in front of our boat just a few feet away, but of course my camera wasn't ready.  It was incredible!

Mexico flag reminding us we weren't in the States anymore!

Sunsets on the ocean are the best! 

My favorite tropical flower!  I was so happy to see them at our resort given the few flowers there were!

The long private beach at our resort.  This picture does not do the waves justice.  The waves were enormous all the time.  They crashed so hard on shore and pulled back so hard that we were scared of being sucked out to the ocean.  We did see a few tourists braving the ocean though.

A local selling treasures on our beach.

The other side of our beach.  It was empty the entire time we were there.  Most of the resort guests preferred the pools.

Our favorite pool at the resort!  One, it was always empty and two, it was an amazing infinity pool.  We spent time here everyday.

We were upgraded to the most amazing suite thanks to Nathan's position at his company.  We were on the bottom floor of this villa with our own private infinity pool!  We were told it was a $250 a night upcharge to get a pool room.  Thank you, Carrier!

Our private patio and pool.  We lived here :)  It was most fun to hang out here in the evenings before it got too cool.  Because of the desert climate, the evenings got chilly.

Heaven!

Another view of our pool.  We never saw anyone else in their private pools which was weird, but great for us!

We took a snorkeling trip back in San Lucas.  The water was incredibly cold, but we managed to adjust to it about the time the snorkeling was over.

Our snorkel tour guide was a former scuba dive instructor, so he was awesome at finding all kinds of exotic wildlife for us to hold.  He would take off to the bottom of the reefs and pop back up minutes later with some creature for us to hold.  Our favorite was this puffer fish.  I was scared to touch it for fear of hurting it, but he kept saying, "it's just like a bowl."  It was one of the coolest things I have ever done!  We had to be careful to keep him under the water though.  He was furry and felt like a hard balloon.

A crab of some sort.

The infamous Cabo Wabo owned by Sammy Hagar.  We were hoping he might be there since we heard he can sometimes be seen there, but no such luck.  We were celebrity watching the whole week since Los Cabos is a popular destination for the rich and famous, but no such luck.  We grabbed some great tacos from Cabo Wabo for lunch one afternoon.

Luckily most of the store owners, boat guides, and resort staff spoke English, but it was fun to use the little bit of Spanish we do know.

One of my favorite experiences of the trip: seeing/hearing a real mariachi band along the ocean at our resort one evening at one of Nathan's company's dinners.

This private dinner took place one evening on the beach at our resort.  We were well fed the entire week.  Because it was all inclusive, we would sometimes go to one restaurant for appetizers, hit another for dinner, and grab dessert somewhere else.  And then we ordered complimentary room service too!  We ordered fancy frozen drinks, fruits, or desserts whenever we felt like it while taking a dip in our room pool.

Getting in a little golf before another company dinner on the beach.

We never did adjust to the whole pesos thing.  We usually just paid with American money hoping we weren't getting ripped off.  It felt like we were getting a heck of a deal though when the price said $150 and it was only $5 US (something like that anyway).  It was difficult to see the extreme poverty though.  The locals live in such poverty that they were grateful for any US money spent in their shops.

With the perfect climate year round, the airport is mainly outdoors.  We had to walk out to our plane when it was time to board.