It feels like not that long ago that hubby and I were vacationing in Hawaii, yet here we are with another vacay in the books. As it turns out though, it’s actually been four months since our last vacay and I don’t want to sound spoiled, but this one was much needed between our hectic work days, the many Saturdays spent tending to our backyard, and the many Sundays spent training for our century bike ride!

This was sort of an “impromptu” vacation since hubby’s cousins asked in April if we wanted to join in on a vacay with them when some other friends had to cancel. This is strange to say, but I was actually very hesitant to take this vacation because 1) hubby didn’t have much vacation time stored up after our Hawaii trip and 2) I wasn’t that crazy about the destination.

Can you guess where we went? What destination is half water, half sand, and has a million cacti?

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Cabo San Lucas, Mexico!

Hubby was ready to jump on board with this vacation because neither of us have vacayed in Mexico, but I was not ready to commit until I did some light Googling.

The first thing I found out was that Cabo is different than the usual beach vacation one might picture in their mind. It has a desert landscape! The second thing I found out was that Cabo was not the most popular place for snorkeling, especially in the summer when the water is less clear. I also came across many visitor comments saying that Cabo did not have very swim-friendly waters.

I grew up on a dry, desert border town in Texas. To say that desert landscape is the thing I least look forward to on a vacay would be an understatement. This girl likes her clear blue water and lush green foliage! But can beggars of vacations really be choosers?

Nope.

If all else failed, I would be drinking margaritas poolside the whole time and that was still going to be a win in my books.

Not much really surprised me about Cabo. The long hour-plus bus drive from the airport to Cabo San Lucas was filled with stops in dirty, run-down towns sandwiched between miles and miles of cacti-filled landscapes.

There were vendors at every turn waiting to sell us t-shirts and jewelry and other crap we definitely didn’t need. Even our bus ride from the airport to Cabo had two guys that got on only to serenade the passengers in hopes of getting tips in return. “We need your support!” the Hispanic man jovially said in a thick Mexican accent to my husband as he walked onto the bus down the aisle with a small guitar in his hand.

The one thing that did surprise me was the heat! We had just experienced temps in the high 90s in Denver the week prior and Cabo was expected to be low-90s at most. We thought we were going to be chillin’ in Mexico!

Instead, it felt like we were in an oven! Hubby hardly complained out loud about the heat, but it personally made me very grumpy and not want to do a single thing…which was a problem because the first thing we had to do in Cabo was walk almost a mile in that ridiculous heat with our luggage from the bus stop to our resort…and we were literally lost without cell phone service and Google maps. But we made it!

Hubby and I “only” spent five days in Cabo so there wasn’t time for much. We didn’t leave the resort much and we didn’t rent a car. Fortunately, the resort was on the beach and the marina was less than a mile away. And margaritas were always an arms-length away.

One of the fun activities we did on the beach near the resort was rent a small hobie cat for an hour of sailing. Hubby steered (in very little wind I might add, which is quite a skill!), while I just sat around trying to look pretty and not get knocked off the boat.

Another activity we did really early in the morning before all the motor boats started for the day was an hour-long kayak trip to the iconic land’s end of the Baja Peninsula near Cabo. There is a small beach at the tip of this peninsula that is popular for tourists to visit because one side is relatively calm (Lover’s Beach) and the other side is very rough (Divorce Beach).

The beaches of Cabo had notoriously steep drop offs just a few feet from shore that created strong under currents, so it was really scary getting in and out of the water in a kayak (and even scarier swimming)! People were strictly prohibited from entering or exiting Divorce Beach on the other side because of how dangerous it was.

After successfully getting on and off Lover’s Beach for a quick visit, we kayaked close to the famous arch of Cabo, El Arco. There was a small, flat rock formation nearby with a dozen or so sea lions hanging out barking up a storm! I thought this was the coolest thing ever to see a gaggle of sea lions in the wild!

We only ventured out of Cabos once to drive an hour away to a town called Todos Santos. There, we had lunch with the family and friends we were vacationing with and walked around to a few shops. While there wasn’t much in this town, it was such a delight to see the vibrant pops of color around almost every turn!

Before we headed back to Cabo from Todos Santos, we also visited a place out in the middle of no where called Art & Beer. I would not be exaggerating if I described this place as one of the most bizarre roadside attractions ever, but it was definitely a fun stop!

Before we knew it, our vacay in Cabo had come to an end. And that was just A-okay with me! I would miss drinking margaritas all day, but not miss Cabo! Adios Cabo y cardons!

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