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Sunday March 1 -> Tuesday March 3, 2009

We arrive in Los Cabo International Airport, a short about 3 hour flight from Sacramento. We have arranged for transportation to the Cabo Marina with a highly recommended driver named Arturo. Customs and Immigration is quick and quiet. Soon we are dumped out into a sea of taxi drivers slash condo timeshare salesmen. Arturo has instructed us to turn right but where do we turn right? It is very unclear. The hungry crowd of salesmen are now in our face. I search the crowd for anyone looking like Arturo's picture he emailed us. There he is, I think, just as our eyes meet he positions his face just inches from mine. I reflexively say "Are you Arturo?" He says in perfect English, "Yes I am Arturo." Just as he is about to show me the way to his taxi I spot the familiar face of a tall man in the crowd, Captain John. He is standing in the crowd outside a door to the right. My instincts tell me I had been had; this man's name is probably not Arturo; he was about to put a condo timeshare deal on me that I could not refuse. I graciously thank the would be Arturo and indicate I see my ride. Moments later the real Arturo appears behind John looking like the imposter's brother.

I highly recommend Arturo; his large late model white air conditioned van had enough space for 7 of us and our luggage. He served us cold cervesa, Corona and had a large screen laptop positioned to entertain us with gorgeous pictures of sites in the area where he could drive us. There were beautiful waterfalls in the mountains and the best beaches, playas. As we quickly entered Cabo on the expressway we crossed a bridge and Arturo said, "look down, this is where the Baha 500 car race ends."

Sitting in the fly bridge of Bella Donna in Cabo Marina, it is quite warmer, more like summer, that 18 days ago when last here. There are the pleasant smells of the port, puerto. It is a mixture of sea, Mexican food, tequila among other things. The activity of the city is settling into an expected mellow Sunday afternoon pattern. In the tropics the sunset is very quickly followed by darkness; the twilight period of the sunset at a higher latitude is much longer.

Monday morning starts slowly as we are now in Mountain Time relative to the US. The morning starts much like those I remember on Hermosa Beach when I lived in Southern California. Both are essentially deserts on the ocean. The morning is spent making a provisioning trip to Costco. It is fun to see how progressive Mexico really is; you hear so much about how poor people are here and you get here to find how really well the people live. One thing is how easy medications are to buy; there are very few prescriptions. Even though no one in Costco's pharmacy speaks English I was able to communicate well enough to get the "prescription" medicine I left on my bedside table at home.

Provisions put away we are off to lunch at a great courtyard restaurant several blocks from the marina called, Mi Casa. It is great primarily because of the margaritas, very large, grande. Lunch leads to shots and the afternoon suddenly turns into a typical Cabo first day experience. Some of us, Nancy in particular, do not remember everything.

After the "quick" lunch we walk back to enjoy the marina just in time to enjoy the sunset in Bella Donna's fly bridge. Bed comes early.

Tuesday is better than Monday. The sky is crystal clear, not a cloud in sight. After a relaxed breakfast in the cockpit we leave to anchor and swim off the beaches next to the harbor where the hotels are. Before anchoring we decide to join the whale watching chase tourist boats following a mother and its baby. For about an hour we chase and take pictures. About half a dozen times the whales come high out of the water and sometimes close enough to clearly see their eyes and glistening tail fins.

We try anchoring in front of the hotels but the spring break crowd has begun. There are so many small boats and jet skis buzzing around Bella Donna we think swimming may be hazardous. We have a nice lunch watching all the scene.

After lunch we move down to a beach with a huge hotel that looks like it is owned by a Saudi Arabian oil sheik. There are many horseback riders on the beach, but no spring break people. The swimming is fabulous.

Just before sunset we sail to Land's End, the Cabo where Cave Rock, Lover's Beach and Divorce Beach. Then back to Cabo Marina and Bella Donna's fly bridge to have an after sundowner and watch the tourist booze cruises come in.

God Bless Bella Donna