Sunday, October 25, 2015

Back to Work

I wasn't planning on writing updates for this trip since it was not intended to be an adventure, merely a relaxing, one-stop hideaway in San Jose del Cabo in Baja California Sur (south). However due to the massive number of e-mails we have been receiving from family and friends.........are you safe from Hurricane Patricia?, what happened to your blog?, is it driving you crazy to spend time in only one place?, etc........I have decided it would be much easier to do some occasional posts in order to save some keystrokes at both ends.

First of all, we are doing fine. Cabo was not close to the path of Patricia, and our weather has remained constant, 30-32C and sunny every day since we arrived. We were very thankful to hear that the damage so far has been confined to sparsely populated areas of Mexico and did not deliver the catastrophic damage that was forecast.

We have settled into a fairly routine life, getting out for walks in the mornings when it is not so hot, and then returning in the afternoon to the air-conditioned comfort of our condo rental or a refreshing dip in the pool. So far we have explored many different parts of this lovely, clean town........several lengthy beach strolls, walks to the historic centre, Puerto Los Cabos (marina and fishing hub) and through the bird-filled estuary. The cheap (75 cents) local public transportation system consists of old school buses traversing 7 different parts of the city, but with no route maps available or even published, we are gradually assembling our own map by taking a few different rides. It has allowed us to see local life and neighbourhoods in the suburbs along with the most convenient way to return home (if we need it) from downtown pubs and restaurants, the food markets (organic and municipal) and the nice, secluded beach we found in Puerto Los Cabos on one of our 7-8 km walks. We still have lots of exploring to do, both in and around Los Cabos, and some hiking when the temperature gradually cools down.

Today, we are heading out to offer encouragement to the Ironman participants who have come here from all over the world to compete for spots in the Hawaii World Championship next year. It will be interesting to see how they manage a 3.84 km ocean swim, a 180 km bike ride and a 42.2 km run in 32C heat. We have cleverly marked out a rooftop Canadian-owned bar near the finish line in the town plaza.....but we will walk all the way there in support of the the real athletes!

Relaxing in our lovely rental property.

Deck view of the pool area and very quiet golf course

Malecon Beach across the road from our condo.

Egret, one of many bird species seen during our Estero San Jose walk.

Just two of the many yellow fin tuna we saw in the public fish-cleaning shelter near the Puerto Los Cabos marina. We watched (and videoed) the larger one (35 lbs.) get filleted in under 3 minutes.

Our sunset beach walk while the sun disappeared over the Sierra de la Laguna mountains.