Mexican Riviera Part One: Cabo San Lucas

This will be the first of a four-part series that recaps a Mexican Riviera cruise that BowlingWidow and I recently returned from. Today will be about Cabo San Lucas with blogs to follow for Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and, finally, the overall cruising experience.

The Baja Peninsula, approaching Cabo San Lucas
After a day and a half at sea that began in San Pedro, CA, the Royal Caribbean ship Vision of the Seas set anchor just off the tip of the Baja Peninsula. The cliffs, rock formations and beaches we noticed as we were arriving were simply beautiful. We were taken by tender from the ship into Cabo San Lucas (or Los Cabos as it’s commonly called). Los Cabos is a fairly small town population-wise (around 55,000) that has surged in popularity, particularly among young partiers on spring break, over the last several years.

.........................................................A beach near Cabo San Lucas....................
We had a couple of hours before we were scheduled to leave for the Mexican cooking class that we had signed up for so we set out to explore the town on foot, as most every part of the town is within walking distance.

There were two clear things we noticed upon disembarking from the tender boat at the harbor. First, there were a few heavily armed Federal police roaming around, presumably to protect visitors from the bad guys and generally “boot evil” as my friend Captain ILL would aptly put it. This was a theme that showed up at every port we visited.

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Los Federales son mas macho de todos
Second, literally every 10 feet we walked there was somebody aggressively trying to sell us a glass bottom boat tour, jewelry, hats, have our picture taken with an iguana, and so on and so forth. It was like the opening credits scene in the film Airplane! in which the main character, Ted Striker, was hurrying through the airport terminal being accosted by everyone from the Hare Krishnas through Jews for Jesus. And, sadly, even when we went to a place with a deck to get a refreshment, several kids (some as young as around five years old) were making the rounds trying to get patrons to buy necklaces and other little items. It was heartbreaking that they were doing that instead of going to school, learning and playing with their friends (this was on a Tuesday morning). But that’s reality, and that’s much of Mexico. The country is correctly described as one of contrasts with the very well off and the dirt poor often living side by side.

Our cooking class took place at a local restaurant called Desperados. We started by learning the proper way to make a Margarita (and of course drank the results). We then moved to the salsa area and made some incredible fresh salsa using a molcajete, a mortar and pestle tool made of volcanic rock that smashes the ingredients. Gotta get me one of those for Christmas! For the main course, it was Pescado Marinado Envuelto en Hoja de Platano. Translated, this was sea bass marinated in an achiote based mixture, wrapped in a banana leaf, and fried 6-8 minutes on each side. Again, with the help of our instructors and another Margarita we were able to cook up an amazing dish.

Culinary genius or just following instructions?
Finally for dessert, and using the same pan, the class of eight amateur chefs created some crepes with egg, flour, vanilla, butter, milk and sugar. It was then topped with goat caramel milk called cajeta.

When it was all said and done, we were well fed and needed the sightseeing walk to the tender boat that would take us back to our floating hotel.

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The tasty results of our labor
Aside from the culinary experience, which we both agreed was a top-notch land excursion, we felt a bit out of place in Cabo. I’m sure there’s good night life and that it’s earned every bit of its reputation as a party town. Rock and Roller Sammy Hagar even has a restaurant and night club here. But we tend to go to bed at around 10pm and get up early, even on vacation. And no doubt the beaches are some of the best in the world. But we ain’t beach people. And then there was the matter of having a target on our backs for the hundreds of street vendors that are everywhere you go in Los Cabos.

It was a great day, but in all honesty our first port stop in Mexico goes into the books as our least favorite.

On to Mazatlan!