Sunday, September 05, 2010

Baja 2010, San Jose del Cabo

[Shelley] Well, we had a rather adventurous morning! After breakfast we decided to walk to the marina. This seemed like a new feature on the map since we'd been to San Jose del Cabo a few years ago.

Baja 2010 #6

The road we were to follow turned out to be a 1 km stretch of raised highway (still partially under construction) over a rather barren area of land which probably floods during the rainy season.

At the other end is the sign for Puerto del Cabo and a huge sculpture depicting a person holding a fish over his head. (We'd read about this set of sculptures in the "Gringo Times" newspaper but didn't know the location they were talking about.)

Just past here we went into this fabulous park area via what felt like "the back way" as we didn't see any formal entrance. The park had a three hills with palapas that offered shade at the top of each and rows upon rows of stone and different kinds of cactus surrounding them. A pathway with stones laid out in the shape of a snake led to the top of each hill.

As we were hiding from the sun and heat under the first palapa and taking some photos we saw an official looking guy in uniform watering a small grassy area. He started walking toward us and our first thought was that the park was closed and he was going to kick us out. But he smiled and waved as he approached so I figured he was at least going to do it nicely. But he was very friendly and welcomed us openly. His English was slightly better than our Spanish so we had a somewhat mangled conversation as he gave us a tour, told us the names of the wide varieties of cactus and even toured us through one of the greenhouses. There was also a lovely circular labyrinth made out of different colors of bougainvillea.

He understood we wanted to get to the marina and offered us a ride via the beach on his ATV. Due to the sun and heat we took him up on the offer. As we sat on the back hanging on for dear life and went through some remote back trails lined with trees, I was thinking this would be a really great place to stop and rob us of our rather obvious cameras and wallets. But luckily his friendliness wasn't just a facade.

He dropped is off at the marina but unfortunately the restaurant didn't open til 11 so no cold drinks awaited.

Andrew gave him a good tip and we wandered on our own for a while. As we started to walk back and were about to start the trek back along the highway, he found us again and offered us another ride which was much appreciated. We had to make our way up onto the highway and crawling over the railing was a bit of a feat in a skirt (I was wearing the skirt, not Andrew in case anyone is wondering).

Anyway it was a very fun and unexpected morning. Now back to the yummy French Riviera bakery for lunch before catching my flight home and Andrew catching the bus to Todos Santos to start his journey home.

1 comment:

  1. Andrew, an ATV ride? Really? See, I told you it's not so bad! And I'm glad you let Shelley where the skirt this time :o) The cactus garden and the labyrinth look amazing! Now hurry home!

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