We left Magdalena Bay at 3am and made our way to Cabo, and arrived the next day at 4 in the afternoon. Winds were pretty light, so we ended up motoring the last 6 hours. I had never been to Cabo before, and it's always neat coming into a place for the first time by water. Completely different experience than flying in or driving in to someplace new. As we neared the end of the Baja Peninsula the edges of Cabo came into view. A few houses here and there, a couple of older resorts, a golf course, the old lighthouse, and then the new lighthouse. Then we rounded the point with the iconic pinnacle rocks, and there was the Cabo that everyone knows. A long sandy beach full of resorts, restaurants, people and more people, as well as numerous anchored sailboats, fishing boats, a huge cruise ship, pangas and jet skis tied up along shorelines. There was also a lot of traffic… pangas, canoes, jet skis, fishing boats and more. It was pretty nuts actually. We managed to weave our way through all of this traffic and anchored boats and dropped anchor at a prime spot close to the beach thanks to Greg's navigations skills! We had front row seats to all this chaos, LOL! We spent the entire evening people watching while enjoying the beautiful sunset behind the city. People on shore and people on the charter boats partied well into the night. Everything died down by 4am and the reflection of the still water of the city was beautiful.
The next day was shore day! Since this was my first time in Cabo, I was looking forward to going ashore and checking it all out. That morning we dropped the dinghy and rowed into shore, between all the traffic, through swimming areas, and right up to the beach. We wanted to get there before it got too busy. The restaurant waiters said we could leave the dinghy there, no problem. We set off to town. About a block in you have to walk up a small hill, past all the shops and restaurants. Then at the top of the hill you can see the old downtown area where most of the people live. Boxed houses all right up against each other in the valley and up a bit up into the mountains. Then above all of that is where the mansions are. Huge houses built into the cliffs and along the hills above the town. Some pretty impressive architecture.
We made our way down the hill towards the end of the marina where there were more restaurants and shops. This area is where the cruise ship passengers are dropped off, so it's where all the vendors are selling to the tourists and advertising their services. Typical cruise ship port. We had breakfast at one of the little restaurants on the main street before heading to the grocery store for supplies, but found that the local supermarket had closed, and the nearest one was Walmart about 5 miles away. We ended up finding a small grocery place that of course was extremely overpriced. We picked up a few things and then headed back to the dinghy.
By this time the beach was full of people and vendors. We wove our way through it all back to our dinghy that was safely sitting there, pushed off the beach, and started rowing back. The wind had picked up a bit, of course not in our favor! We made it out through the swimming area and started rowing towards the boat. That's when our Cabo experience changed from easy going to a total mess. A panga came racing towards us, completely not paying attention to where they were going. We started yelling at them, but it didn't do any good and the panga ran right into us, dumping Greg over the side right along with his wallet and phone in his shorts as I jumped to the far side of the dinghy while trying to fend off. The panga guy slowed down and said “sorry, sorry,” then raced off. What a total and complete asshole. Greg got back up into the dinghy bleeding all over the place as I pulled his phone out of his pocket and did my best to dry it off. Absolutely unbelievable. We regrouped and then finished rowing our way to the boat. Not a happy experience to say the least. Those panga guys are absolutely nuts and apparently, it's not uncommon for them to run people down. Crazy.
We spent the afternoon on the boat people-watching and being rolled all over the place from wakes and swell with all the traffic in the water. Boats and jet skis sped by, and I swear they were seeing how close they could get to anchored boats. After all the traffic died down, we rowed back to shore for dinner and drinks and after about an hour, I had had enough of the people and we returned to the boat. Once again rowing into the wind!
The next morning we fueled up, which ended up being a very quick and easy process. The guys at the fuel dock were super nice and helped us push off, so unlike the majority of fuel docks in the States. We motored on outta of the bay leaving Cabo far behind. If you like to party on the beach, or wanna take a cruise, Cabo is the place to go. If you're a cruiser, it's not the place to go except to fuel up! I don't think we'll be going back there anytime soon, if ever!! Cabo Wabo, what an experience.