Trip Into Town

I woke up this morning and decided I should go for a run or walk. I stopped by Pete and Laurie’s room and found that they were about to head out as well. We decided to walk the beach back towards the rocks. This time I had my shoes on so when we got to the rock pile I could climb up to the peak to peer over and see what was on the other side. What I found was more rocks and then a short strech of beach. I am glad that we have such a nice long stretch of beach on our side. The walk on the beach is a workout though. The wet sand near the ocean is not hard and it is on an angle due to the big hill of sand leading down to the ocean. We chose to walk up top, but beause it is all loose sand it gives your calves quite the workout. By the time we got back we were ready for some water and a shower.

Upon getting all cleaned up Tom and I headed to breakfast and then by the pool. There was a rowdy game of volleyball going on in the pool, so I once again decided to enjoy some peace and went down to the beach. I didn’t feel like starting a new book, so I looked at the excursion book we were given at check-in. I found that we are here during whale shark season and they offer tours to swim with them. This is something that I had wanted to do when I was in Djibouti, but never had the opportunity to. I came back up to the pool and found our gang and thew that idea past them. I think after some slight hesitation they were all on board. We had also decided that for this afternoon’s adventure we would head into town to do some shopping.

We got a cab from the lobby of the hotel and had them drop us off at the mall/marina area. There was an AT&T store that we stopped in first to see if there was anything they could do about Ryan’s phone, but they were busy so we moved on. We roamed the stores and found ourselves walking along the marina where we were approached by several people trying to sell us tours. Laurie did the talking and the first operator offered us the whale shark tour (normally $189 for $150). They called the company and found that we could only do it Wednesday because of the high winds. We said we would think about it and moved on. A few steps later some other guys offered us the tour for $100 and could take us tomorrow. That didn’t really sound legit. We kept on moving. As Tom, Ryan, Laurie and I were in a store Pete talked to another tour booking group. They seemed friendly and legit and offered us the whale shark tour for $130/person and also told us Wednesday was the only day because of the winds (I think they talked to the same person on the phone as the first group). We decided to go for it. Fingers crossed these guys are legit and the weather holds. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to price out the tour with the Apple guys, but I have a feeling they would have been the original $189/person price.

After booking the tour we found a nice place to eat a light snack along the marina. Our light snack turned into a full-blown meal where we had guacamole made at the table and salsa. I had shrimp tacos and Tom had fish tacos. We were stuffed by the time we walked out there. We enjoyed watching all the ships coming back into the harbor and in particular the sea lions who would hitch a ride on the back of the boats hoping to get some of the fish from the fishing expeditions.

We ate so much it was definitily time to do some more strolling around town. We headed toward Cabo Wabo and I attempted to do a geocache, but neither Laurie, Ryan, or I could find it. As we were walking back towards the mall a guy working one of the tourist booths stopped and chatted with us by getting our attention by saying “Hey you know Russ Darrow?” Forgetting Tom was wearing a Milwaukee, WI t-shirt he drew us in talking about how he used to live in Wisconsin and how he had worked for Russ Darrow. He was super friendly and was teaching us some Spanish, and then there it was . . . the sales pitch. He wanted us to come see his property and he would give us a personal tour of Tados Santos (a town not far from Las Cabos with the famous Hotel California). I looked at Laurie and Tom and they both seemed they wanted to, so what the heck. Carlos will personally pick us up tomorrow at 8:30 and take us to his hotel for breakfast, and after sitting through an hour presentation (cross our fingers it’s only an hour), he will take us on a personally guided tour of Tados Santos. We enjoyed chatting with him and share the Wisconsin connection, so what the heck. We’ll give it a shot.

We headed back to the mall and after some Haagen Dazs ice cream we got in a taxi and headed back to the resort. It was only 6:30, but we were all still full from our light snack at the marina and tired from walking that we retired to our rooms. Of course the first thing I did was read reviews on the company we are going on the whale shark tour with and was pleased to find mostly positive reviews.

Here’s hoping that we have a good day tomorrow with minimal time receiving the “sales pitch”, and enjoy a free tour with time to get back to the resort to hang out at the pool or beach.

Stats of the Day

Steps Walked: 17157

Geocaches Attempted: 1

Geocaches Found: 0