Welcome to the Hotel California

This morning we attempted to find a beach to go swimming and do some snorkeling. Unfortunately, there is a tropical depression whirling around off the coast that is making (with the attendant high tide) for very high surf and unsafe conditions.

We first tried Chileno beach, said to have the best tide pools and coral for snorkeling, but when we arrived there, the lifeguard showed us the red flag flying and told us we could sit on the beach but no one could swim.

Undaunted, we packed back up and drove to another smaller beach, Santa Maria, but had the same result. Apparently all the public beaches on the cape were shut down due to the high surf and undertow.

So we returned to the condo and went down to the little protected cove beach we had been to Saturday, but even it had giant waves rolling in. Since there are rocks about 50 feet out, we didn't think that would be a good idea, either. The kids played a bit in the shallows, and Sarah climbed a huge rock on the beach.

A Mexican naval vessel went by.


Then we headed up to the pool and swam there and took pictures of lizards until lunch.

After lunch and rest time we took a road trip to Todos Santos, a small town up the Pacific coast about 45 miles. A Carnival cruise ship was pulling in to the small Cabo harbor as we left. Hardly any room for anybody else!


We gassed up the VW (gas is almost exactly the same price as in Savannah, despite this place being about 700 miles from anything), and started heading north. The road quickly becomes 2 lanes after you leave Cabo, and winds through the arroyos and hills. The Sierra de Laguna mountains run right up the peninsula, and get pretty high as you go further north. The road eventually parallels the coast, and passes dozens of small resort developments that appear to be closed up.

Apparently Hurricane Odile came through in September 2014 and in addition to wiping out most of downtown Cabo, flew up the coast and destroyed whatever small development had been able to happen there. So now there are entry gates, but no buildings, dirt roads to the beach but no buildings, and lots of broken up buildings along the road, many with For Sale signs. We saw a lot of the same on the road from the airport to Cabo, and lots of empty lots where you'd expect flourishing businesses. Now we understand why.

Eventually we got to Todos Santos, a small and unassuming village near good surfing and fishing on the coast. It's also the home of the famous Hotel California, from the Eagles' album of the same name. There is lots of lore about the events, but basically the band drove south from LA and ended up spending some wild times in this little burg. The hotel has changed hands a number of times in the 38 years since (lord, I'm old!- I remember it as one of their later albums!). The current owner, despite supposedly downplaying the Eagles connection (the song is NOT complimentary to the Hotel) seems to have a lot of Eagles-related music and 70's songs on his satellite radio channel. Also lots of signage.

We parked and took the obligatory pics in front,
 
wandered through, walked the streets of the town a little, (a bar across the street is now called Tequila's Sunrise- might as well cash in on a little cachet, et?,

 
and then returned to the hotel for an early supper. The place is quite upscale considering its location http://www.hotelcaliforniabaja.com/ and obviously caters almost exclusively to tourists.

We had some average Mexican food in the pretty courtyard 
along with about 6 other tables of Americans.


I think this points out the men's room. Hope so.

We checked out a few more arts and crafts gift shops and headed back to Cabo. The views are better going south, and the haziness from earlier in the day was gone, so we could enjoy some ocean and mountain views and the sunset en route. 

We got back and headed to the infinity pool for an evening dip. S and S had made friends on Thursday with a little girl named Emma from Utah, and played with her each day since. It was her last night here, so they enjoyed one last time together in the pool. It was oddly evocative of when we met the little boy Donnie in Costa Rica and had to say our goodbyes to him when it was our last day there.


Beautiful full moon tonight, although a little hazy still.




Tomorrow we'll try the beaches again, and head downtown for another dinner on the beach.
Hasta!