Day 3 - Cabo San Lucas

Day 3 - Cabo San Lucas

Can the days get any brighter? It was another day of bright sun, blue skies, and emerald green waters. Today we were meeting friends from the DIS board for "non-excursion" excursion to Medrano Beach.

Cabo is the only port we needed to tender so the group met at the Promenade Lounge and headed to the gangway together. There were 40+ in our group. DL passed out the tender tickets so we could all ride a boat together. I stopped to pickup water bottles and a lanyard carrier (and was the last to get on the tender boat!).

After an uneventful ride across the bay, we arrived at the docks. All around us were arid, dusty mountains with growing buildings gouged into the mountain sides. There was building projects everywhere you looked. Oh, and did I mention it was HOT! Although it was only 80 degrees, the sun was searing. Glad we had put our suntan lotion on before leaving the ship.

At the docks we gathered around our leader, Roger (who had been to Cabo many times and knew just the right place on the beach), as he was attacked by water taxi drivers wanting our business. Negotiating for taxis in Mexico is always an adventure! First it was $3.00 per person. Then we walked two blocks and oh, sorry, it's now $1.00 more to enter the private dock (did I mention how HOT it was!!). So we said, "NO" to the $1.00 which meant we now had to walk back to where we started and continue for another 3-4 blocks (actually docks in the marina) to get to the water taxi. Now, our driver wanted $10 to give us a tour and to be there to pick us up. You could hear the chorus as we all chanted $3!!! . . .LOL

At last we were getting on the water taxi. Now this vehicle was not what I imagined. It was basically a large brightly colored rowboat with an attached outboard motor and a canopy to keep a bit of the sun off. The tender ride across the bay was fairly smooth, but the water taxi was rough! You were going fast enough to capture the spray off the waves and a few good ducks into the waves, the water washed aboard. I was concerned that we might sink before getting to the beach!

Then we landed on Medrano Beach, but at the wrong end of the beach . . . it was the CLOSER end for the taxi. A few of our riders made a fuss that we paid to get to Tabascos NOT this end of the beach, and the taxi driver reluctantly took us around to the beach we wanted to go. We were thankful we pushed it as the "5 min walk" was really about 1/2 mile in HOT sand!

We had a blast at Medrano Beach. The waves were VERY strong. I don't think we would have let the kids play in the water at home with such a rip current, but we all got used to strength of the waves and had a great work out! The sand was rough and grainy, but the beautiful water was crystal clear. YOu could see your feet when the waves weren't crashing.

Tabascos allowed us to used their beach chairs as long as we bought some food or drink. Their fresh salsa was delicious. I love the fresh veggies here.

One other interesting phenonemom was the vendors. We were on the beach for about 3 hours. Every 5 - 10 minutes another vendor wandered by and open a box or a bag or display their heavy load while asking us to purchase in broken English or great Spanish. What was amusing was it was the same 4 or 5 vendors, but they kept coming by with different wares. From blankets (who needs blankets on a hot beacH??) to jewelry to ceramics, they had everything! I must have said, "No, gracias" aa thousand times . . .LOL

It was getting HOTTER and hotter. We decided to head back to the ship around 1 PM. The sun had already worn us out for the day. Ken signaled a water taxi and they raced to the beach. It had been an adventure getting OFF the taxi (they just ran up to the beach and you jumped from the front!). Now, we had to figure out how to get BACK into the boat . . .LOL. The strong men held the boats in the surging surf while the women and children jump, slid or crawled into the boat. And off we went back to the tender terminal.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with the boys in the clubs and mom and dad resting in the adult pool.

Tonight's dinner was at Parrot Cay. We had big plans after dinner, but as soon as we hit the cabin to change our clothes, we all fell asleep. Tomorrow was the big day with our zip line excursion. We wanted to be rested.