November 20, 2009: A Sea Day
	November 18, 2009: A Sea Day
	Return to the Index for Our Panama Canal Cruise

Arriving in Cabo San Lucas

As it turned out, yesterday was our last stop on the Central American mainland. During the past sea day, we have crossed the Gulf of Baja California and our last non-US stop of the cruise will be on the Baja Peninsula, also known as Baja California.

Today's port is Cabo San Lucas, known to locals and jet-setters as simply "Cabo," an appelation that I will begin using here. Cabo is a resort city on the southern tip of Baja California. The actual tip of the peninsula is a rock formation known as The Arch. Its mysterious-looking crags have intrigued people for centuries. Accortding to geologists, the Baja California Peninsula, once connected to the mainland, resulted from violent seismic activity along the San Andreas Fault between 10 and 15 million years ago. Powerful earthquakes caused Mexico's west coast to split at about the same time, and Baja was born.

The Sea of Cortez (the Gulf of Baja California) rushed in to fill the newly created gap between the peninsula and the Mexican West Coast. The world's youngest body of water, some of its more than 100 uninhabited islands have never been offically explored. In the modern era, earthquakes have subsided, but they have not ceased- the region is still seismically active.

Fred took a great many pictures of the craggy rocks that jut out from the end of the peninsula, and if you want to have a look at some of them, you can click on the thumbnails below:

The sea around Cabo is home to a wide array of marine life, including large sea mammals such as grey and humpback whales. The villages of "Los Cabos" have merged into a single resort during the years. the area has mushroomed in the past few decades, but is still a charming place. Trendy restaurants and bars cater to happy vacationers and the central district is compact, centered around the zocalo (central plaza).

We cruised all day yesterday, and by about 5:30 this morning, just as the sun was coming up, we were within sight of the coastline and the harbor here at Cabo. Both Fred and I were up on deck to watch our ship come in and anchor. There were two other ships here also- Royal Caribbean's "Radiance of the Seas" and Princess Cruise's "Sapphire Princess."

The Harbor at Cabo San Lucas While we were on deck early this morning, Fred made a nice movie of the entire harbor scene here at Cabo, from the craggy arch point all the way across the harbor and our ship.

We had breakfast with the guys, and planned to leave the ship to go ashore about ten o'clock. The Oosterdam had swung out some lifeboats (which of course doubled as the tenders) just after seven, and launched them by eight. So by ten o'clock, our group was all ready to leave the ship and go explore the harbor at Cabo San Lucas.

Fred took a number of very good pictures as we were coming into the harbor at Cabo and going through the anchoring and tendering process. First, he took some nice panoramics, and you can have a look at those below:

Our Harbor Walk to Puerto Paraiso

Since the harbor at Cabo can't accommodate a cruise ship dock, all three of the ships here today used tenders to bring their passengers to shore. We left the Oosterdam about ten in the morning, filing down the gangplank and onto one of the tenders. When everyone had gotten seated (and there was quite a bit of luggage as some of the entertainers were leaving the ship here in Cabo), we started off, passing around the bow of the Oosterdam.

After a short trip of about twenty minutes, we were docked at the cruise ship tender pier in Cabo, and just after we left the tender, I got a nice picture of Chet and Fred. Fred also took some pictures as the tender was cruising into the dock, and you can have a look at them by clicking on the thumbnail images at left.

Tendering in to Cabo San Lucas I made a movie as the tender was leaving the Oosterdam and heading into Cabo. You can see the inside of the tender and some of the guys on board.

The first thing we did when we got ashore was walk over to a large, upscale mall that's at the northeast corner of the harbor area- Puerto Paraiso. It wasn't that we wanted to do any shopping, but Paul had told me there was a Baskin-Robbins there, and if there was, I wanted to visit it. It was a nice walk around the harbor to get there, so the other guys were fine with that as a first destination.

If you'll take a look at the aerial view at left, I've marked the route in to the dock that the tender followed and then, in red, the path that we took walking along the borders of the harbor on our way to Puerto Paraiso. We were all just walking along together looking at the shops and stores and restaurants on our left, and the harbor and boats that were on our right. The day was warm, but not oppressive, and the walk was really pleasant. Fred and I took lots of pictures along the way, and we certainly want to show you some of them.

As soon as we got ashore at tender dock, we started, as you can see, walking clockwise around the border of the harbor/marina. No sooner had we got off the tender dock, where you need a ship card to go, than we were greeted by a great many local tour guides wanting to entice passengers into all manner of boat tours, city tours and country tours, or to visit this restaurant or that shop. There were a lot of them for the first few hundred feet along the side of the harbor, but they weren't too insistent and they pretty much disappeared after we made our first turn to the northwest around the marina.

We walked in that direction for a while, then turned another corner to head northeast, and Fred got a good picture of the rest of us walking along. Along this third leg of our walk around the marina there were lots of restaurants, shops and bars. Some of the signs were really colorful and inventive, like the one for Gricelda's Smokehouse and one for a restaurant that, I can only imagine, specialized in lobster. One of the restaurants was already advertising its Thanksgiving dinner; I can only conclude the it would be American residents of Cabo that would partake. After all, Thanksgiving isn't a Mexican holiday, and there wouldn't be any need to advertise to ship passengers since, unless their ship docks here on Thanksgiving, they'll be long gone. (I also started to think that while we have not been on a cruise on Thanksgiving Day, if we were, the ship would undoubtedly serve its own version of the traditional feast.)

There wasn't much to see on the land side of our next leg, going northwest again. Apparently, land had been cleared for a new development, and there were already some condos going up when we reached the northwest corner of the marina. Just before the northwest corner was the building housing the offices of the Cabo San Lucas Marina. That isn't significant, but I thought the building was interesting, and you can have a look at it here. Also right at the northwest corner was a restaurant with a patio that overlooked the marina. Looking out the patio, we could see the last leg of our walk along the northern border of the marina towards Puerto Paraiso.

Generally, all the buildings in this upscale marina area were modern and quite colorful, and you can see a couple of good examples of them if you click on the thumbnail images at right.

When we got to the northwest corner of the marina, we turned northeast to walk directly towards Puerto Paraiso. Now there were larger stores and a small open-air mall before we crossed a small canal to reach Puerto Paraiso.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

If you would like to see some more good pictures of the harbor here at Cabo that we took during our walk to Puerto Paraiso, you are in luck. I've taken a bunch of them and put them into a slideshow.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

Puerto Paraiso

As we rounded the north side of the marina, we crossed over what at first looked like a little canal but which turned out to be a boat launch ramp. If you look at the aerial view below, you can see where some boats are parked up at the head of the street that leads to the launch ramp. We crossed that street and found ourselves at Puerto Paraiso.

The first thing we noticed was the lovely area of waterfalls and pools that formed a kind of inner garden here at Puerto Paraiso. It reminded me of the upscale mall we visited in Palm Springs a few years ago- just a wonderful, calming place to wander around. I thought that after we located the Baskin-Robbins we could wander up the stairs that led through the garden to the third level we could see above.

We didn't see the Baskin-Robbins right off, so we all walked into the mall to see if it was inside. Not finding it, I left the guys for a minute and went into a store to ask one of the people inside if they knew where it was. I discovered that Paul had been mistaken- there was no Baskin-Robbins here.

When I returned to where I'd left the guys, I could not find them. I looked further into the mall and also went back outside to see if they were wandering around the pools and fountains that formed an open-air plaza between the buildings of Puerto Paraiso. I could not find them anywhere. I waited for a bit to see if they'd show up, but they didn't. Then I walked back inside and through the mall, passing an interesting water feature in the middle of one of the atria in the mall. I still couldn't find anyone else, so I decided I would go ahead and explore the waterfalls, fountains and pools, thinking that they must have gone into a store or something and would show up at some point.

(I did not find out what happened to the guys until much later that day when I returned to the Oosterdam on my own. As I can see in the next picture that Fred took here, they had turned away from the plaza (where I had thought Fred would want to spend some time) and walked through an area of the mall that led back towards town. I hadn't expected them to leave so quickly, and that's what tripped me up.)

In any event, I went back out to where the pool at the bottom of the three-level series of waterfalls, pools and fountains were and worked my way up to the third level, taking pictures and movies as I went. At one point, I crossed a bridge over the watercourse to the Puerto Paraiso's observation tower, but found that it was, unfortunately, closed. I would have liked to have seen the view from the top. When I finally got up to the third level of the mall, I was treated to an expansive view all the way down the series of water features and to the harbor of Cabo San Lucas beyond.

I took some other very nice pictures of the water features here at Puerto Paraiso and of the views out to the harbor from the various levels. Just click on the thumbnail images below if you would like to have a look at them:

Puerto Paraiso Water Features This first movie was taken from the bottom pool panning upwards to the third level.

Puerto Paraiso Water Features This second movie was taken from the second level of the series of water features. It looks up at the third level and down to the harbor level.

Puerto Paraiso Water Features This last movie was taken from the top (third) level of the Puerto Paraiso water features series.

My Walk to the Jetty Point

After wandering around the water features at Puerto Paraiso, I was a little unsure of what I might do, having gotten separated from the other guys. I decided that I'd just walk to wherever seemed interesting and hope that I might meet up with them again.

I remembered that when we came in on the tender, there was a nice beach and a jetty to our north, further on around the harbor from where I was now. So I thought the first thing I would do is continue around the harbor in the direction we had been going. Eventually, I would have to arrive at that jetty, even though I couldn't see it from where I was.

So from Puerto Paraiso, I turned SSE along the marina, eventually turning west for a while. After that turn to the west, I could look back and see the Puerto Paraiso Mall. Then, when I got to the end of that leg to the west, I turned SSE again and was walking between the harbor and what appeared to be new stores and condos. Walking along, I passed a really beautiful sailboat, and when I got to the end of that SSE leg I found another large sailboat docked at the far southeast corner of the marina. There were three people aboard having lunch. Power cruising is certainly easy and fun, but there is nothing to compare with sailing. (Grant would have loved this cruise and all the marinas that we have visited during it.)

From the sailboat dock, I turned east again. Here, there is a new building that's going to be a new marina terminal. I found an open door and went in to take a look around. Apparently, there will be some new docks and this building will be used for administration or something. From here, there were some good views of boats going through the inlet and also back to the Cabo harbor.

When I got out to the jetty, I had a wonderful view of all three cruise ships riding at anchor- including our ship, the Oosterdam. I spent some time here on the jetty just relaxing in the sunlight, admiring the views and taking pictures. I have selected some of the pictures I took here at the jetty, and some of the ones I took on the walk out here for inclusion in this album. If you will click on the thumbnail images below, you can have a look at them:

An Interesting Fountain As I was walking southeast from Puerto Paraiso, I came across a neat fountain at the end of a set of buildings, and I made a movie of it you can watch here.

The Harbor at Cabo San Lucas From the jetty, I made a 360-degree movie of the harbor at Cabo, the Inlet, the cruise ships and the beach.

Walking Through the Town of Cabo San Lucas

From the jetty, I retraced my path back to Puerto Paraiso. From there, I thought I would walk through town to the other side of the harbor and see if I could climb into the hills to get some good views of Cabo San Lucas.

I have marked the route I took through town to the other side of the harbor on the aerial view at left (repeated from above). Along the way, I took some pictures of typical street scenes or of whatever caught my eye. You can click on the thumbnail images below to have a look at these pictures:

When I got to the other side of town, and the main road that ran along the base of the hills, I took a promising side street up towards the ridgeline. I went a few blocks up the slope and then found that all the hillside roads were blocked off- everything up here was either a gated residence or a gated community, and there were little guardhouses that were manned (or I might just have walked around them). I did ask one of the guards who, fortunately, spoke some English, how I could get up high to get some good views. He suggested going to a nearby hotel- the Playa Grande- and going to their rooftop pool where the views of the harbor were, he said, wonderful. I headed off back down the hill to do just that.

At the Playa Grande Resort

Walking along the main street eastward, I stopped at a corner to ask directions to Playa Grande, and just happened to talk to one of the parking valets who not only told me how to get there (by taking the next driveway to my right and following it up and around the bare hill) but also what to ask at the front desk (directions to the rooftop spa). That advice turned out to be spot on.

As I walked a bit further along the main avenue, I could look up at Playa Grande perched on the cliff above me. It was really quite an impressive sight. Shortly after, I reached the road that served as the driveway for two resorts, one of them being Playa Grande, and a couple of condo developments. I took the driveway on my right, curving around into the entrance drive for Playa Grande.

As I came around to the actual entrance to the resort, I looked to my right and saw that the hotel had been built on and into beautiful red rock cliffs. Surprisingly, the resort had built a miniature golf course at the base of the cliff and surrounded on its other sides by the buildings of Playa Grande. (I discovered later that the health club and other exercise facilities were all on the lower levels near the golf course.)

Right in front of me was the porte d'cochere for Playa Grande, and in front of that a nice fountain with croton plantings. The entrance to the hotel was very nicely done, and I hoped I wouldn't have any problem getting to a place where I could take some good pictures.

When I came into the hotel, I went to the front desk and explained that I'd talked to one of the valets about getting up to the private pool level to take some pictures. The desk clerk was very nice and called one of the bellpersons to come and use his keys for the elevators to let me up to the spa level. (Apparently, all the common areas here at Playa Grande, including the elevators, are key access only, although I did discover when I came down that if you are willing to walk up and down stairs, the doors to them are not locked!)

Lobby Fountain at Playa Grande While I was waiting for the bellperson to arrive to take me up to the spa level, I made a movie of a nice fountain right in the middle of the hotel lobby.

Just a few minutes later the bellboy and I were walking down the hall to the elevators. He used his keycard to access the spa level button and said to take my time and just come back down when I was done (the elevator wouldn't need a key from the spa level). So I headed up. When the doors opened, I was facing a desk and receptionist to directed me to an outside balcony where I could take pictures.

Once I got outside, I saw why this view had been recommended- the views of the harbor and of the town were just spectacular. I took pictures in a number of different directions, of a number of different things, and if you want to see some of these pictures, just click on the thumbnail images below:

The Views from Playa Grande From the observation area at the top of the Playa Grande hotel, here is a 360-degree view of Cabo San Lucas.

My Walk to Beach Point

The last destination I had in mind was a hill overlooking the cruise ships. I found the hill to be fenced off and closed, so I settled for a walk to the beach that we'd seen from the cruise ship when we first entered the harbor.

I thanked the receptionist on the spa level and took the stairs back down to the lobby level of the Playa Grande, then left the hotel and walked back down the entrance drive to the street at the base of the cliffs. Then I turned right intending to make a beeline for the rocky peak that you can see at the lower right in the aerial view at left. As I came around the street, though, I could see that the barren hill was fenced off and that there were "No Trepassing" signs about. The fence was pretty substantial, and these looked pretty official, so I eschewed climbing the hill and continued to walk around the roadway until I came to a circular drive that wound around a building that housed the office of the two-pier marina that you can see in the aerial view. From the other side of the building, I had a clear view of the harbor and of the cruise ships anchored out in the bay.

There was a rock jetty that stuck out into the water, defining the other side of the inlet from where I'd been on the other jetty earlier today, and I had the same view of the tenders and boat traffic going in and out of the marinas here at Cabo You can see this rounded jetty in the aerial view; it actually only stuck out maybe fifty feet or so into the water. To my right (SSE) side when I was on the jetty there was a curved beach leading to a rocky hill that I thought I might try to climb.

I climbed down from the jetty and started walking along the beach to the southeast. It was a nice beach, but there weren't many people here, probably because there are no resorts or condos out on this point of land; the ones back by Playa Grande have their beaches on the Pacific. When I got to the end of the beach, I found that the coastline turned into a rocky promontory that was really quite beautiful, with the rocks coming right down to the shore and entering the water. From here, I could see the cruise ships out in the harbor. There are a couple of thumbnail images below for two of the pictures I took of the cruise ships from here on the rocks, and you can click on them to have a look:

I went ahead and climbed along the shoreline out onto the rocks for a ways. I could see above me that the hill continued to be fenced off, so I had to put aside ideas of climbing to the top of it. I did get some nice pictures from here, just sitting in the sun and enjoying the view. There was no one else out here, so to get a picture of myself I had to set the camera on a rock and use a time delay. Click on the thumbnails below to have a look at the best of the pictures I took from here:

After sitting here for a while and just enjoying myself, I started back for the tender dock to return to the ship. As I walked along the beach back to the jetty, I prevailed on a young couple coming down the beach to take my picture, and you can look at the result here.

Fred's Pictures of Cabo San Lucas

You might remember that earlier today I got separated from Fred and the other guys somewhere in Puerto Paraiso Mall. In the preceding sections, I've shown you where I went and some of the pictures I took. But Fred was also taking pictures as they walked around Cabo. Since I wasn't with them, I can't tell you for certain where they went. And since I didn't take the pictures, I can't always know why they were taken or perhaps what they are of. But I can make educated guesses. So what I want to do in this section is select the best of the pictures that Fred took and try to organize them into some groupings to make them a little easier to view. My explanations of the groups may not be completely accurate, and since I don't have Fred handy to interpret, my approximations will have to do.

The Colors of Cabo

Fred took a number of pictures that show off the colorful side of what they saw on their walk. Click on the thumbnail images below to have a look at them:

The Harbor at Cabo San Lucas

Click on the thumbnail images below to see some interesting pictures that Fred took around the harbor at Cabo:

Fred took one other interesting picture around the harbor that happened to record where I was at Playa Grande when I was taking my photos of the harbor area. I've marked the location in the picture below:

Cabo San Lucas Street Scenes

Below are some thumbnail images for pictures that Fred took of various street scenes and buildings around the town of Cabo. Click on them to view the full-size images:

Getting Back to the Oosterdam

From the rocky point and beach, I went back along the road by the harbor until I found an entrance to the docks, and then I headed back towards the docks where the tenders were. On the way, I passed two of those "human sculptures" that are often found in tourist areas. (The last ones I saw were last year on La Rambla in Barcelona.) The human actors in costume stay absolutely motionless for extended periods of time, only moving once in a while to give folks a start. They make their money from the donations of appreciation that are left for them. It seems that a common characteristic for these performers is that they and their costumes are monochrome, as you can see here with the soldier and the pirate. Click on the thumbnail images at right to get a better look.

I got back to the tender dock with no problem, waited just a few minutes, and then boarded a tender back to the Oosterdam. On the way back, I took just a few pictures worth including here, and if you will click on the thumbnail images below, you can have a look at them:

Fred and I got back to the Oosterdam at two different times; Fred and the other guys arrived back on board about one-thirty, while I didn't get back until two hours later. As it turned out, we both took pictures of the same event, which allowed me to synchronize our photos again. Fred took a long movie of the Oosterdam crew bringing tender #16 back on board. He took this movie from the stern of the ship. I happened to be forward and on a different deck, and I took some pictures of the same tender being raised. You may already have seen these pictures and movies on the album page devoted to a tour of the ship itself.

Before and after Fred took his movie of the lifeboat, he took some excellent pictures of some various scenes around the harbor at Cabo. If you will click on the thumbnail images below, you can have a look at the best of these:

Evening Activities

This evening, we are holding a birthday party for Greg- whose birthday is actually today- and we'll be eating in the Pinnacle Grill. Before we get to that, though, I'd like to include here some very beautiful sunset pictures that Fred has taken from our balcony. Click on the thumbnail images below to have a look at them:

At eight o'clock, all of us gathered at the Pinnacle Grill for Greg's birthday party. I had the maitre'd take the official photograph for the occasion; in it, you can see (L-R) Fred, Greg, myself, Gary, Steve, Bud, Chet and Paul. Have a look at that picture here.

We had a really good meal in the Pinnacle Grill- good steaks and good conversation. They had also made special individual birthday cakes for each of us (and you can see one of them at left). Here is my official photo of the birthday boy.

Greg's Birthday Party During our meal in the Pinnacle Grill, I made a movie to record everyone's attendance. It's just a pan around the table to include everyone but me.

After a great time in the Pinnacle Grill, Fred and I walked around the ship for a while, and then retired to prepare for our last sea day tomorrow.

You can use the links below to continue to the album page for different day.

	November 20, 2009: A Sea Day
	November 18, 2009: A Sea Day
	Return to the Index for Our Panama Canal Cruise