I’m Going To Get A Geocache If It Kills Me

How is that we already only have 2 full days left? Time goes by so fast on vacation. Today our goal was to take the water taxi to the arch and Lover’s Beach, so right after breakfast we gathered the gang together and bought our water taxi fare. We had to wait about 15 minutes for our ride and then we scrambled into the boat before the waves took us out. It was a short ride to the arch where we saw the different rock formations, sea lions sun bathing on the rocks, and the infamous arch. We then circled back to disembark the boat on the beach. Again, no easy feat with the waves.

The beach was quite beautiful and on the Pacific side the waves really came crashing down and we were not allowed to swim on that side. We only had about an hour to spend before the taxi was coming back to pick us up. I looked at my geocaching app and found there was a geocache just .13 miles away. You know what I did. Yup . . ditched the family and made my way to hike the hill where the cache was. Unfortunately I didn’t bring tennis shoes (I didn’t pre-plan or look at the caches before we left) and didn’t think flip flops would be safe, so I made the venture barefoot. Going up wasn’t so bad, but coming back down felt a bit more precarious. Once again the GPS was not budging and it was only at 178 feet. I climbed pretty high and then read the description. It described a rock where the cache was located so I went back down to see if I could find it. No luck. Either I hadn’t gone up the right path on the hill (although I think I did), or my geocaching skills are just seriously lacking on this trip. However, I did have the clock running against me and I was pretty conscious about my safety not wearing shoes and all.

So down I came and searched the beach to find the family. They had moved to the swimmable side and Ryan and Tom were snorkeling. I sat and relaxed for about 15 minutes until our taxi came. Ryan and Tom were still snorkeling and we had to try our darndest to get their attention. The boat had to leave it’s spot and come back in to get them. With us all piled back in, the taxi dropped another family off near the marina and then headed into the marina to get gas. Now that I saw the view of the beach and marina from the water I knew I would be able to walk the beach and get into town no problem. I think that’s when I decided with all my failed geocache attempts so far, that I need to make the venture by myself, with no pressure to try just one more. So after we got back and ate lunch, I put my jogging clothes on, had Tom take a picture of me so he knew what I was wearing in case they needed to search for me, and off I went.

The walk down the beach in the sand was another workout on the calves and took about a half an hour. I was happy when I made it to the cement of the marina. I walked back down the same way we had been the other day and headed into the mall to get out to the street. The geocache I was attempting was just 3 or 4 blocks up from the mall. The GPS got within 12 feet or so and I thought finally I might be on the right track. It had placed me near a bunch of electrical boxes on the street and after looking under them and not finding it, I was fearing I might come up empty again. I sat on the ledge and read through some of the logs and walked up and down the sidewalk a little bit, when I finally spotted a painted electrical plate matching the post it was on about 20 feet from where I had been looking prior. Finally success in Mexico!! Feeling satisfied, I thought why not walk back down to Cabo Wabo and give that another attempt. That was silly though as that place is just too busy for me to feel comfortable really searching, so I abandoned that idea after a short search. I decided to go back down to the mall and wonder around a bit, but I purposely walked on the opposite side of the street as the day we had met Carlos. Although he was super friendly and I enjoyed our time with him the other day, I didn’t really feel like bumping into him. Sure enough if I didn’t spot him across the street talking to some people. I quickly turned my head and kept walking. After roaming the mall for a bit and then deciding not to buy anything, I headed back towards the marina, to the beach, to the hotel. All-in-all I was gone about 2 1/2 hours.

While I was gone Tom was helping Ryan with a speech for school on how cryptocurrency has affected the price of video cards. Ryan had actually picked this topic out well before he knew that Tom has just gotten into the cryptocurrency mining business. I was surprised to find them still working on the speech when I got back, so I grabbed my book and headed down to the beach to get some reading in.

As it turned cold, I headed up to the front of the hotel to get reservations at the Japanese restaraunt, only to find out they were closed, so I made them at the Mexican restaraunt instead. That ended up being a good alternative as Tom and I really enjoyed the chicken fajitas we ordered.

Another stroll back to our room and the day was complete. Early to bed as we had to be up early for our whale shark excursion the next day. Most steps completed of the trip for me today!

Stats of the Day

Steps Walked: 24,641

Geocaches Attempted: 2

Geocaches Found: 1 (About darn time!)

Cruise Ships in Port: 0