Cabo San Lucas

I read Steinbeck’s “Log from the Sea of Cortez” just before I left. In those days, Cabo had not been “discovered”. The log consists of the prose from the “Sea of Cortez” which is a description of a scientific expedition. Steinbeck does include a lot of descriptions of various fauna – along with a dollop of philosophy – but he also includes wonderful passages about encounters with the locals, of which there were few at the time, mostly isolated primitive homes housing fishermen and their families.


Cabo San Lucas, commonly called Cabo, is a city at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, in the municipality of Los Cabos in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. As of the 2005 census, the population was 56,811 people. The largest community in the Los Cabos municipality, and second-largest in Baja California Sur after La Paz, it has experienced very rapid growth and development, often with adverse environmental impact.
Cabo is known for its sandy beaches, world-class scuba diving location, distinctive sea arch El Arco de Cabo San Lucas, and abundant marine life. The Los Cabos Corridor has become a heavily trafficked holiday destination with numerous resorts and timeshares along the coast between San Lucas and San José del Cabo. In the winter, pods of whales can be observed in the ocean. They bear their calves in the warm waters there.

A fishing village began growing in the area when in 1917 an American company built a floating platform to catch tuna and ten years later founded Compañía de Productos Marinos S.A. The plant lasted several years in operation and experts in the area say that this tuna plant was the beginning of development at Cabo San Lucas.
The warmth of the waters at Cabo San Lucas, the beauty of its beaches, the abundance of sport fish, and nearby surfing motivated a great number of both foreign and Mexican vacationers to spend their vacations in large-scale tourist developments there, starting in 1974 when the Mexican government created the infrastructure to turn Cabo San Lucas into a major center for tourism in Mexico. Upon completion of the Transpeninsular highway, tourist developments in Los Cabos often proceeded relatively unchecked. However, the rapid loss of vast stretches of desert and marine habitat has made the development of Cabo San Lucas controversial. There is now a growing collection of activists and attorneys now involved in preserving many of Baja's desert habitats, marine mammals and pristine stretches of coastline. A number of agencies including, The Gulf of California Conservation Fund and The Center for Environmental Law in La Paz are challenging the despoliation of wetlands and other ecosystems from Cabo to Ensenada.


We are only here for half a day and this is our first tender port of the cruise. The rumbling of both anchors woke me up early, so I jumped out of bed, dressed quickly and went out to take pictures shortly after sunrise. What a beautiful place. The rock formations are stunning and I could hear the sea lions barking.
Paul and Amy had signed up for a cooking course, but decided to cancel. I went whale-watching. I was worried about seeing any breaching because it was overcast. But off we went, passing the wonderful natural rock formation and a colony of sea lions whose barking we heard as we came in. Then out to where grey whales come to calve every winter after a migration of thousands of miles from their summer grounds in Alaska. At first, we saw spouts, some arching backs and a few flukes. We realized we were seeing the same mother and calf. Then the sun came out and mother and calf breached. Well, Mom did – she seemed to be teaching the calf who could only make it halfway out of the water. It was a wonderful sight….they were about 50 yards from us, which is as close as boats are allowed. You know me and animals, so you can imagine how excited I was.

During sailaway, we saw several pods of whales, some frolicking dolphins and leaping sting rays!
In the evening, we all went to the gourmet tasting dinner in the Verandah restaurant. Three and a half hours - 7 courses; 7 wine pairings and an introductory glass of sparkling Chardonnay. Wow! A tour de force from a young female Roumanian chef. It was a meal to remember! I will post the menu when I get home. Still impossible to upload photos.