Fun in the Cabo Sun!

We spent 6 days in Cabo, Mexico compliments of our son-in-law Jamie.  He actually won the all inclusive package for two from Papa Murphy's and then he gave the tickets to us!!  Is he the greatest or what!!  Of course, his wife, Dina wasn't exactly thrilled that he gave them away, but when we pointed out that it was for TWO (2!!) not five and that I WOULD NOT keep their darling, energetic little boy for 6 days, she agreed that it was probably for the best!

We stayed at Riu Palace down on the tip of Baja about one mile from the town of Cabo.  The Riu was all inclusive, so all meals and snacks and ALL DRINKS were FREE!!  They really made out good with us because we don't drink and we did not go overboard on the food (it's kind of like a cruise, help yourself all day long!!).  We decided to rent a car and see some of the area and also so that Scott would have transportation to golf courses!!

                                                                         View from room

The first full day at the resort after we rented the car, Scott went to a golf course and hit some balls.  The second day we decided to take a road trip up the east side and inland a bit.  We were told there was a "rain forest" (I am thinking, didn't I just come from a "rain forest" LOL!!) and it was about a 1 1/2 hour drive.  At one point we did have to get off a paved road and travel for about 15 minutes on a washboard dirt road.  We were certainly wondering when we would see a 'rain forest' because all we saw was saguaro cactus and desert looking plants!  There were bulls along the side of the road and they all had big bells around their neck - the cutest thing really!  Except for when Scott stopped the car for me to take a picture of this big one with horns who was about 10 feet from me and as I was trying to focus and find him on the camera he decided to get up!  OMG!!!  I snapped the picture and Scott took off!  Not surprisingly, I missed the bull!

                                 note the 'cow bells' around their necks

When we got to our final destination, we learned that we actually needed to hike down to a very small lake that was formed from a waterfall.  It was beautiful, but the hike down was a long way and very rocky, I didn't think my knees would like to tackle that terrain, so we just went a short way and then stopped and took some pictures.

 The grates across the road to keep the cows from crossing!  It was a little scary,we weren't sure they would hold!

 On our drive we noticed that along the side of the road there were many "memorial" mini houses.  At one particular place there were about eight of them.  We later learned that two tour buses collided about three years ago and eight people were killed. 

Many of these memorials had pictures of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the back wall.  Some had pictures of the deceased along with a letter.  It was very sad, but something that we saw frequently along the road.  Some of these little memorials were small but many were 6 - 8 feet tall!  Really quite amazing!

The next day Scott was able to play at a course called Eldorado, it is another Discovery property.  A rather exclusive property, way out of our price range.  However, son in law Jamie came through again with a contact person to get Scott on the course and he played with a golf pro and another twosome joined them and one of them was none other than Christian Slater!!!  OMG, can you believe it?  When he called and told me, I asked if he got a picture with him, and he replied, "NO, but I got a picture of a pelican!!"

I wanted to point out the house in the background.  It is owned by a doctor who has 72 patents for Aids related products.  George Clooney, Cindy Crawford, Sylvester Stallone all own houses on the course in the 20 million dollar range!!  Even Jennifer Aniston owns a villa there and I bet he would have gotten a picture with her if she was playing!!

The next day Scott was able to play at a new course on the Pacific Ocean side of the Baja called Diamante.  It is a lynx golf course and Scott fell in love with it.  He came back to the hotel to get me as we were invited to have dinner up at their Cantina.  And we were invited to return the next day and get a tour of the whole course on an ATV.  We rode the sand dunes and went down to the beach where we saw groups of pelicans sunning themselves on the sand.  It was so much fun and we could just picture Aaron and Caleb drooling over our sand dune adventures as they are huge 'quad' fans and go down to southern Oregon several times a year to ride their quads on our dunes.

  Here we are outside the cantina, the pacific ocean is behind us and the green grass is the golf course.

 Look at that sand!  Doesn't it look like fun to drive all around and up and down?  How about that sky!!

Now for some hotel shots:  the pool was fantastic, it had one of those edges that look like the water just floats right off the ledge.  There were two big pools to choose with bars at each pool and even a "pool bar" with places to set your drinks while you relax in the water!

There were cruise ships nearly every day.  There was para sailing, glass bottom boat riding, snorkeling, horse back riding and lots of adventures right on the beach.  However the water drops off very quickly just past shore and there is a strong undertow so it was not recommended to swim in the ocean. 

Our last day we took another road excursion up to a town called "Todos Santos" which means All Saints and it is considered a "magical city" and apparently all 'states' of Mexico have a magical city.  This one was about another 1 1/2 hour drive.  We saw the original Hotel California and walked around their gift shop.  And of course we had to go into their church.  The outside was getting a face lift and new patios and sidewalks.

Our final morning after breakfast and heading up to get our luggage I snapped a picture of Scott on the bridge overlooking the pool and the ocean.  From Cabo we flew into Phoenix and as we looked out and saw the big vast blue sky Scott turned to me and asked if we could stay a few extra days in Scottsdale.  Sure!!  Why not!!  So our vacation was extended a few extra days and it was just perfect.  We hadn't been back to the house in a year due to building our home in West Linn and the weather was really nice and warm, so Scott was able to continue his golf game and I was able to read more books and relax.

Well, that's it folks, I do have more pics, but I think this gives you a good idea about Cabo and what we did.  I must admit to being a bit nervous at times being down there especially after talking to some of the other people who were in our group.  One day a couple walked to the town which was only about a mile, but when they had a meal, the waiter said it is not a good idea to walk, people have been known to disappear!  Wow!  We never even went into the town of Cabo, figured it would look a lot like all other seaside tourist places.  And of course we were told stories about bribing police officers if stopped for any reason.  They seem to be very corrupt and that is their way of life.  And it seems a lot of men want to be police officers...sure they can make extra money that way from all the pay offs!  And of course it was the day we were leaving that 10 people were killed by gang wars and even in Arizona they reported more killings and advising Americans not to go to Mexico.  I am thinking there are many wonderful, sunny places in our good old USA that we can discover!