Casually in Cabo

So, I went to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for two days. And it was…quite the [great] journey.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Ilse found out that she would have days off that fell on my days off. Considering it was her birthday week, we decided to travel together to somewhere warm where we could have fun and relax at the same time. Enter: Cabo San Lucas!
Getting to Cabo was sort of a hot mess. Originally, I sent out on a 7:30 a.m. flight out of Dallas to connect in Houston on the way to Cabo, while Ilse would fly nonstop on American. As luck would have it, the first flight out of Dallas to Houston got canceled which rolled paying customers onto the next flight. I fly standby which, for those who don’t know, means I do not have a confirmed seat. I kept getting rolled over so I assumed I wasn’t going to make it out of Dallas and ended up canceling. I decided to Uber home from Southwest headquarters and made it out to the employee shuttle, but somehow ended up getting on the wrong shuttle.
Considering I had to be taken back to the airport anyway, the passengers on the shuttle convinced me to give my trip one more try and to ask a gate agent to help me out. Once I arrived back at the airport, a lovely lady named Summer helped me out by re-routing me to L.A. I made it onto the flight with a minute to spare and one seat left. Once I got to L.A., I had four hours until my completely open flight to Cabo where I spent most of my wait time chatting with a couple of people at one of the restaurant bars. As we prepared to board, two of the ladies I was chatting with asked me about my plans and offered to drive me to my hotel considering they were already getting a rental car for their week-long stay in Cabo as well. Yay! Or so I thought.

After we landed, we took the airport shuttle to the car rental location only to find out the service that these ladies used in the past in Mexico suddenly had a different policy for their rental price. Pretty much, the price listed on the site did not include insurance fees. After going between rental places, I suggested we just go back to the airport and take the shuttle Ilse took earlier that day for $17. Once we arrived back at the airport, we found out that the shuttles were no longer available. Our only option left was to take a $95 taxi. It is also probably important to mention that I realized I also had no service.

Finally, as I was assuming that my friend and family thought I was dead and we were going to give in to potentially paying $95 to get us across the island, a woman named Teresa came out and said her car rental service was offering $15/day including fees and insurance. We thought it was a scam, but she called their shuttle and rode with us to the rental place. Everything ended up being just fine with no scams in place and, for safety purposes, I turned on my roaming to update all the important parties. I got to our hostel, Cabo Inn Hotel, around 11:00 p.m. absolutely starving and feeling disgusting. Ilse and I walked to the nearest open restaurant where we enjoyed some delicious, brick-oven pizza at Restaurante Il Forno and I immediately crashed that night.

The next day, we set out early to conquer a hike. I did not bring any clothes appropriate for hiking, but thankfully I had my running shoes. According to one of the locals, the hike to Mt. Solmar has only recently become popular. The best way to go about it is to go to this man named Enrique’s home as the trail is behind his property. You’ll find a chainlink fence with a bunch of dogs (that he trains) where it says to ring the cowbell. We rang it and nobody answered so we headed back, but, much later, a couple of locals knew exactly what to do and it turns out if the gate is unlocked and nobody answers, you can just go in as long as you absolutely close the gate behind you.
We were told to follow the orange flags up and the yellow flags down. Mind you, once you get to the point where the path is unclear and the orange “flags” appear, they were really just little orange ties. I should also let you know that this hike is not for people who are over the age of 35 who are not active. The point of the Mt. Solmar hike is to reach Lovers Beach, but please do not try this hike in your beach gear or bring your children. I seriously thought at one point I was going to slide to my death. You will absolutely need your hands to climb this thing. But once we got to the top–and I regained my strength with my trusty Nature Valley bar–the view was absolutely worth it.
Considering how much we underestimated the hike, we decided not to go to that beach and instead headed back down the “yellow” path to get some food. The yellow “flags” were extremely weathered ribbons that look more white than yellow, but it was definitely the safer and faster way down. Once we got to the bottom, we walked what felt like another mile to get some food. After refueling, we headed to the beach along La Marina where we spent a couple hours lounging and tanning. I will try to make this next part short, but I absolutely have to share this story.

As we were people-watching, we noticed a man walking and holding an iguana. He put the iguana down on the shore and, as the time of day would have it, high tide came in and swept his iguana away! He ran in the water after him, but the iguana had gotten too far. This other man in his speedboat named “Lupita” was driving close enough to shore for the man to get his attention about his iguana. The boat owner managed to grab the iguana, but as he approached the iguana’s owner, the tide swept up again taking the man in the water with it while he held on for dear life on the side of this other man’s speedboat. He eventually came back to shore with an iguana on his shoulder and put it in his bag. I guess our eyes deceived us though as he headed back out into the water to retrieve ANOTHER iguana! The man in the speedboat brought the second one to him as well and they both carried about their days as if this was totally normal. As you can tell, I am still not over this moment.
After getting properly sunburned, and formally meeting our downstairs hostel neighbors coincidentally on the beach, we headed back to take a much-needed shower. We chilled for a few hours upstairs on the hostel’s cutest terrace with our neighbors. I am so mad at myself for forgetting to actually get pictures of the hostel outside of my Snap story (@alexasdrawde). 😦 Fortunately, we had an amazing dinner at Mariscos Mazatlán where I had a giant Tequila Sunrise and jaiba con ajo (crab with garlic) for a total of $17 with tax. For my Tequila-lovers out there, take advantage of the cheap tequila if you are ever in Mexico! Afterwards, we hit the town for a few hours before ultimately succumbing to dead legs from the morning’s hike and calling it a night.
The next morning we chilled upstairs on the terrace with our neighbors again while they sifted through their Snap stories reliving their experiences of being able to legally drink in Mexico (they were all 18-19). I managed to get my customary shot glass souvenir and handle the whole transaction in Spanish. I didn’t get nearly as many pictures or videos as I would have liked on this trip, but all the more reason to go back, right?
The island is small enough that all you really need is a weekend. And while I managed to get through everything with just a debit card (and Ilse’s help), I definitely recommend bringing cash in U.S. dollars or pesos; it just makes everything A LOT easier. I will definitely be more prepared next time because now I know if I end up with leftover pesos, it’s okay because I will definitely be returning.
#Cabo2017 was a success ❤