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| The Sunrise View of Land's End from Bob and Sharon's home |
The end of December 2021 gave us a broken window (fortunately, it was the inside pane of a double-paned window), trees down from snowfall and excessive winds, and a water leak at a property that I rent out. January became the month of setting everything right. Somehow I did manage to do something I haven't done in almost two years. I got a pedicure so my toes would look lovely for our visit to Cabo San Lucas to visit our neighbors, Bob and Sharon, who have a home there.
Our Jan 29 to Feb 5 visit was for relaxing which was something I truly needed. We visited Bob and Sharon in 2014 when the palms trees were short and the landscaping less vibrant. Every morning at first light we too a cup of coffee up to the rooftop to look for whales and ease into the day. We took several morning desert walks with our friends and their friend Cathy.
Most days we passed by a sweet little shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe. She was cemented onto a large rock and passersby left remembrances and tokens at her feet. Our last day we took our last desert hike and were dismayed to see that someone had destroyed the shrine and removed both the Virgin and the travelers' tokens.
The longest hike was to the top of Antenna Hill with an elevation change of over 900 feet. It is on this hill that evidence remains of Hurricane Odile's destructive path through Cabo San Lucas in September 2014. One of the antennae was knocked over and lies in a twisted mass on the other side of the hill.
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| Turkey Vultures |
In addition to the vultures, on our hikes we saw quite a few less common birds. Cardinals winter in Cabo and we saw several. We saw white-winged doves, gilded Flickers with their gecko-like noise, Gila woodpeckers, Ash-throated flycatchers, and Magnificent Frigatebirds.
Sharon and Bob took us to Todos Santos one afternoon. Todos Santos is on the Pacific side of Baja. Todos Santos is the home of the Hotel California of Eagles' California Hotel Album fame. Guests are now allowed to check out.
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| Lovely Chandelier at Hotel California |
It is a colorful, picturesque town with lots of artist studios. After seeing a sculpture of the Holy Family at the Church of Santa Rosa, we happened upon the sculptor's studio. The sculptor,
Benito Ortega Vargas happened to be minding his great-grandchild, and he was extremely gracious in letting us take photos of his works and of him.
On the way back to Cabo we stopped in at a beach at mile post 58 south of Todos Santos. The dirt road takes you to a parking lot. From there, you walk through an oasis of Palm Trees before arriving at a magnificent beach with compacted sand. A fresh water river flows into the ocean here creating interesting textures in the sand.
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| My friend Sharon |
A mirror effect is created by the waves as they spread thinly over the compacted sand.
One morning we went to breakfast at The Cape (a Thompson Hotel) built on the beach. When we visited 8 years ago this was the site of a surfing beach. Breakfast was phenomenal as was the location.
Mid-week we gave Sharon and Bob a break from us. We Ubered to downtown Cabo for a taco and tequila tasting tour followed by whale watching. The tour with Juan More Taco (arranged through TripAdvisor) began and ended at Mercabo Gourmet Street Food. We went to four spots for taco tasting, had a paleta (a delicious Mexican frozen treat made from fresh natural fruits), and then tequila tasting with churros for dessert.
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| Roasting Pork and Pineapple at Taqueria el Paisa |
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| Fish Ceviche on a tostada at Los Claros |
After tasting six tequilas we walked to the marina to find
Cabo Trek for the whale watching adventure. We did take a dramamine just in case. The water was very rough but we saw lots of humpback whales on this afternoon. One of the baby humpbacks (about 1 month old) kept doing back flips and quite unusual, he had his eyes open while he was playing. He was with his mom and an escort whale. The escort whale is the one who kept slapping its tail.
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| Baby and Mom |
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| Whale with propeller scars |
Angelika Ludwiczak the naturalist on our CaboTrek trip told us that if we had a photo of the underside of a whale tail, we could upload it to Happywhale.com and they would be able to ID the whale. I uploaded 2 photos and one month later I had the IDs. Happywhale.com is able to identify the whale based on scars and spotting on the whale's tail. Humpback Whale CRC-16893 is a male and he was first spotted in December 2010. The data available shows all the places where he has been spotted. Based on the 12 sightings it looks like he prefers to move from Cabo to San Francisco and back. If the whale hasn't been named, you can name it, and you can also "follow" the whale.
Humpback Whale CRC-18585, sex unknown, was first spotted in June 2019. He or she has not been named as of yet. The reported sightings show that this whale has been spotted between Los Angeles and Jalisco.
Heading back we found more whales near the opening of the marina.
I believe we saw 11 whales. We had a great afternoon whale watching and a great week with Bob and Sharon.
