My sister, Jane retired around New Years, 2016. Actually retired is a poor word for her - she sold her store in Des Moines, Iowa. She's been in the retail business for many years making a great go of it opening a variety of consignment stores - clothing, furniture, household and art, etc.... She will never quit working...she still sells things but now through other people's stores....nonetheless, it was a big change. Husband Jay will never retire....he is a security and safety system guru, did own his own business at one time, but now he's with Iowa State University in charge of female dorm inspections.
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| Jay and Jane Krogh |
Anyway, we decided to celebrate Jane's "retirement" in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. If you are not familiar with Los Cabos (as we locals call it), here is a map.
We stayed at Villa del Palmer, which is attached to Villa del Arco. These 2 resorts are attached and share restaurants, beach, bars, and guests. We spent a considerable amount of time at Villa del Arco.
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| Villa del Palmer |
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| Villa del Arco |
The restaurants are comparable....both have a lot of bars. I think the beach area is a little nice at Palmer, but the pools are better at Arco. Originally, Palmer was meant to be more freindly to families. One family that was there the same week we were there was the Mongols Motorcycle club from California....probably about 30 of them...lots of tattoos.
Mongols Motto is "Respect few, fear none"
Per Wikipedia, "The Mongols Motorcycle Club, sometimes called the Mongols Nation or Mongol Brotherhood, is a "one-percenter" outlaw motorcycle club and alleged organized crime syndicate.The Mongols members have had long-running confrontations with law enforcement concerning the illegal drugs trade (especially methamphetamine), money laundering, robbery, extortion, firearms violations, murder, and assault, among other crimes." The folks stuck to themselves, partied hard and didn't seem to bother anyone. They hung out at Palmer, so we spent a lot of pool time at Arco.
Lesa and I arrived around 1pm...Jay and Jane came in around 3:30 or so. It gave Lesa and I time to run over to a nearby Walmart (They are laid out exactly the same). We bought some snacks and a couple of bottles of hooch. It's nice to see old friends when you go to another country.
When you stay at Mexico resorts, you have several eat/drink strategies to contemplate....do I get the all inclusive eat all day / drink all day or maybe just the eat all day....all days or just some days. We did the all inclusive for 3 days and were on our own for 3 days. We figured we'd do some excursions, which we did, and be offsite several days. Worked out great. We would not have needed the booze from Walmart. We had something like 200 drink tickets to use in the 6 days. Proud to say that Lesa and I used the last 2 tickets for a screwdriver at 8 AM as we waited for our ride to the airport.
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| Jane and Jay found us waiting for them in the Sports Bar...we spent a few hours there during the week. |
After a couple of drinks and getting checked into our room, we got a drink and took our first stroll on the beach.
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| Th resort lobby is pretty much all marble floors - very pretty - as are the senoritas |
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| Nice room |
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| To access the beach, you passed by the taco stand and headed down the steps |
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This time of year the beach is fairly wild. It was not unusual for a 5-8 foot wave to break and send water all the way up to the umbrellas and edge of the resort wall. We had not gone 50 yards on our initial beach stroll when a decent sized wave broke and was on us before we could move. Knocked Jane down and she lost her sandal, but some young guy retrieved it prior to it flowing back into the ocean with the surf. So we went another 100 yards when a larger wave broke and knocked both Jane and I down. This time we thought we were going to lose her in the ocean...as she was drug by the surf back to Davy Jones Locker, a young 25-28 year old, good looking Mexican boy grabbed he and drug her back to higher ground. Jane laid there for quite awhile hoping for mouth to mouth resuscitation. I don't know where Jay was, but I could hear some very loud laughing. I had to buy a new pair of flip flops since the wave got one of mine.
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| I think this is how Jane would describe it.... |
We safely made it back to the resort and celebrated with a couple of free drinks before dinner.
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| Dinner was at Bella California - Italian |
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| We were celebrating not losing Jane on the first nigh's meal |
Sunday noon, we walked down to the Cabo marina. Marina is where you pick up your fishing boat or scuba boat or there are many, many bars and small restaurants. It was only 15-20 minutes from our place by foot.
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| Cabo Marina |
After lunch in a small Mexican dive, we decided a glass bottom boat ride and tour might be cool so we jumped aboard one of them. The tour guide impressed us - clearly Mexican - named all of the US Presidents in order...way smarter than we were. The next few pictures were taken during the glass bottom boat tour.
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| Goonies Boat if you remember the end of the movie - filmed here |
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| Jay admiring the boats...you can see the one has a helicopter on it. Our captain had beers for us |
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| The white boxes are what you look through for the "glass bottom" - saw a few fish |
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| When you go around this corner of rocks you go from Bay to Pacific Ocean. About 50 miles up that Pacific Coast is Hotel California |
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| Quite a few seals in this area...they smell horrible |
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| Lovers Beach |
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| Rock out croppings are huge |
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| Jay and I played king on the mountain on one of them....you can see who is king |
We walked the beach from the marina back to our resort - 30 minutes (and we were very careful of the rising tide and the waves), but we stopped by The Office. The office is a pretty famous gathering for Happy Hour and or breakfast - we tried both.
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| The Kroghs got serenaded by the Mariachi band - I think Jane liked them. |
Sunday ended with a few more drinks at the resort and a few tacos at the taco bar while we played euchre and piedro (card games).
Monday started our all-inclusive 3-day roll. The morning involved getting our annual timeshare update for a couple hours. We had a nice breakfast with our host and he convinced us to switch our timeshare plan to a more flexible points system...seems much better. He also lined up a deep sea fishing trip for us for Wednesday...more on that later.
Jay and I went for a 2-3 mile jog...thought about taking the trolley back The trolley runs between Arco and Palmer every few minutes.
Monday and Tuesday, we spent most of the day on the beach or by the pools. Jay swimming in the ocean and me getting pummeled by the waves. I'm not a good enough swimmer (at least in my mind) to get far enough out that the breaking waves don't kill you. Jay pretty much floated up and down. While not me, this picture pretty much defines my experience.
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| I would get slammed to the bottom and come up with sand everywhere - He'd just laugh (notice a theme?) |
The girls spent a lot of time sun bathing at the pool, drinking, looking at Mongols and then Jay and I would come up for a few more games of cards.
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| Nice whale slide in the pool - that's where the Mongols hung out though |
The bad news about Monday was that there was a guy in the pool showing scuba diving techniques. Like Jane was with horses, Jay said "that looks like fun". So we decided Jay should try this.....he had to get pool certified on diving. How to breath, how to clear mask, how to buddy swim, etc. Even though I have a dive card, the guy made me do the routine too. He quickly paid more attention to Jay, not the King.
Jane, being in retail, also spent considerable time haggling with the beach vendors. She told one poor sole to come back on Friday...last day...and she'd buy something. To her word she did - but not from him. These poor folks may be carrying 200 pounds of stuff - and it was scorching hot. We were told by one vendor that they work from sunrise to sundown, 7 days a week. Every 30 days, they get one day off! These people are not on welfare - they work!!
Up and at em early Tuesday morning. I told Jay to eat light...we were going to meet the scuba boat early early....had to be there at like 8 or some thing. However, we did our typical breakfast buffet.
Scuba diving requires 2 fins, a tank, weights for buoyancy control and buoyancy control vest, air hose and tank, and of course the wet or dry suit - depending on water temp. We only needed the wet suit. I didn't take any pictures underwater...the above water ones were more priceless.
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| We dove with Amigos Del Mar - we had to watch a 30 minute video when we finally found the place |
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| It took several folks to attempt to tuck Jay in |
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| Jay is beginning to think they may get this thing on him |
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| Success!!! I can't recall the last time I laughed that hard. |
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| Jay in between dives - we did two |
We saw a lot of fish like this, a shark, eel, etc... It was not the best dive I've been on, but when you see someone enjoy it as much as Jay did, it puts it toward the top!
Part of our all inclusive, was free attendance at the nightly entertainment and a buffet of some culture - Mediterranean, Italian, Mexican, etc..
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| A large entertainment stage with Broadway type shows. |
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| I found someone in Mexico taller than me - he was promoting the nights entertainment |
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...and Jay thought she was promoting the nights entertainment, too. Geez, does he look like a tourist? Jane bought him the hat from the beach vendor. Iowa State is a nice touch though. Still has his suit on from the scuba dive. n I think he still had visions of mermaids.
Up and at them early Wednesday morning for 1/2 day ocean fishing. We had to meet our boat captain at the marina. The fishing boats look like this.
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The next few pictures will show you the fishing trip.
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| 6:45 AM heading to the ocean....kind of cold. We did stop on the way out for drinks. Jane and Jay riding up by the captain |
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| Lesa instructing the captain on how to fish and where she'd like to go. |
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| Got our snacks which later on Jane might wish we didnt have. |
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| I always seemed to be in the bottom chairs, but if we got fish...that's where the action was. |
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| Bait for the Marlin...we did see one. |
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| Looks cold, but mostly windy. I think at this point, Jane was about to go inside the cabin for 30 minutes |
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| GOT ONE, GOT ONE! |
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| Tuna |
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| If he can get one. so can I. |
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| Yep....Got one.... |
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| This is a lot of work!! |
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| $600 worth of tuna...sometimes you take it to the hotel to cook. We gave it to the boat crew. It was a slow day. |
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| When you come in, culprits are always looking for leftover bait or food. Of course Jane wanted to take it home. |
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| Some swim, some fly |
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| Some come all the way in...just in case you were trying to trick them. |
We pretty much spent the rest of day swimming and getting beat up by the ocean....25 more drinks and 25 more games of cards. At one point, some horses went by on the beach...Jane said "wouldn't that be fun?" Next thing you know we are one horses riding single file up and down the beach for maybe a mile. Jane received special attention again as a young Mexican had to lead her horse by the reins. Did they run? No. Did they walk fast? No. Not a good buy for you money.
That night we had dinner reservations at the Neptune - the best restaurant on the property. View was great, food was awesome...it was part of our all inclusive....company was the best.
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| The food at Neptune was delish! |
On Thursday, it seemed like a good idea to walk back downtown and do some shopping. First stop was The Office - Breakfast. They really do serve good breakfast and the breakfast drinks are really good.
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W actually drank coffee
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These are the kinds of markets Jane hit.
Back to the ocean after shopping, but not for long. Jane started putting pressure on the vendors and made a couple of buys.
Then we decided to go see Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Bar. Very psychedelic lighting, gift shop and all of that.
Jay and I are having a drink while the girls go to the gift shop. We kind of expected them to come back with their purchases, but here's what returned!
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The brothers from Alabama....one is with the IRS and I think the other was a dentist. They come down every year on Sammy Hagars birthday hoping he'll show up for a concert. Many times he does
Anyway, we survived the seedy part of Cabo. Had dinner somewhere down there and made our way back to the resort.
The next morning, we had breakfast at Jane's favorite place.
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| Jane's favoite Deli |
Then it was off to the airport for Jay and Jane. Made the last day there for us seem a bit slow, but we hung by the pool, used up drink tickets and had dinner at Ediths. Ediths is a very famous, maybe the best restaurant in Cabo, in our opinion. We had a steak-lobster plate that we shared with a couple of over-sized margaritas.
The next morning, we used the last 2 drink tickets to nurse a screwdriver and off to the airport. Great trip, great place, the best company.
Coming next Williamsburg with Gomez's in April
Vancouver with Hubers in May
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