Just Send Them Your Money

I have just returned from Mexico. A country that I swore never again to visit after our Mexican adventure in 2012. I had every intention of honoring that promise until my son and his (then) fiancé decided to get married in Cabo San Lucas. I was given no choice. I was required to attend (and pay for a portion of) their “destination wedding.” I left the cold behind for the warm climes of the Baja Peninsula and returned much poorer and with a head cold.

There were about 170 people in attendance t the wedding, which was an amazing number considering the distance and expense. The wedding was held at the Sheraton Hacienda Del Mar Spa Resort on the Sea of Cortez, about seven miles east of Cabo. The setting was fantastic, not to mention expensive. There is something wrong about having to pay $15 a day for slow Wi-Fi when staying in a $500 a day suite.

If you are planning your first ever trip to Cabo I must warn you of the “free rides” from the airport to your hotel. Once you have made it through immigration and customs you will enter a large room where you will be mobbed by men offering you a free ride to your hotel. DO NOT make eye contact with, speak with, or in any other way acknowledge the presence of these people or you are doomed. Walk straight through this room and out the other side. Do not stop. There is no “free ride.” You may eventually arrive at your hotel but not before being given the “opportunity” to purchase a time-share. You should arrange and pay for your airport transportation in advance of your trip. Then look for someone holding a sign with your name on it. Then, and only then, should you allow yourself to relax. Let the man with the your sign take your luggage and you follow him to his vehicle.

While in Cabo, be prepared to spend one hell of a lot of money. This place is very expensive. Two words of advice. If you will worry about how much money you may spend, DON’T GO!

The area was devastated by a hurricane last fall and a lot of damage still remains to be repaired. Many of the resorts have yet to reopen. The Sheraton is one of the few that has been repaired and reopened. There is much ongoing reconstruction but it is still a beautiful area. You have the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez with beautiful beaches and deserts and mountains beyond.

There are numerous places in which to pursue the national past time of drinking beer and tequila. If you enjoy loud and noisy crowds of young people bent on setting records for the most alcohol consumed in one night then you will find no place better.

Maro’s Shrimp House serves excellent shrimp dishes and is known for their house drink, the Bulldog. This is primarily a concoction of lime juice, tequila, and Corona, which I found not particularly tasty. The records for the most Bulldogs consumed in one night are painted on the walls. The men’s record is 19 in a little less than 3 hours (an average of about one every 9 minutes). The women’s record is 13 in a little over 8 hours (a more leisurely average of one every 37 minutes). I don’t know if barfing resulted in disqualification or not.

One last thing. Don’t bother with exchanging any of your US dollars for Mexican pesos. We charged everything to our room at the resort and then paid the total bill by credit card. As a matter of fact, we paid for almost everything we did in Cabo by credit card, thereby not incurring any exchange fees or returning home with a pocketful of useless change. If you must pay in cash, everyone is more than happy to accept US dollars. In fact, many establishments list their prices in both pesos and dollars. If you must worry about something such as exchange rates, you simply cannot afford Cabo and should stay away.