This trip was booked and planned one year ago when Westin offered me another time-share deal.
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| Cabo sign with our beers as it's open container in the city |
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Summary in a pic: Where did we go, what did we eat, what did we drink
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The Westin property is beautiful with beach access and infinity pools overlooking the ocean.
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| Bill and me on the Westin beach |
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| View from our favorite lounge chair for 4 days |
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| Westin Beach access and property facing the ocean |
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| Random shots of the hotel |
The room is a 2 BR villa that comes with full kitchen facilities that we definitely made good use this trip.
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| Our 2 BR room in Westin |
I always enjoy Mexico as I like the cheerful people and their food/culture. But Cabo is really pricy on the tourist side (the valley is cheap compared to Cabo and San Jose!). Looking down the city, it's divided by Highway 1 with the Pacific Ocean side called the Tourist Corridor. The food tour guide Robin said on that side, it's English speaking, Dollars as currency and resort pricing. The other side of Highway1 is called the local side.
Driving down Highway 1, the resorts are impressive and there's articles on average cost a night is >$500 and getting pricier and more crowded every year. To put things in perspective, 4 margaritas and a nacho at Corazon Hotel near the marina cost $98. The view is killer but I feel like I'm spending in Alaska or Canada, not Mexico.
This trip has been weird as Lidia storm was causing some rain, high humidity and less wind and ultimately affected our fishing trip. The weather is very tropical and uncomfortable.
https://thecabosun.com/tropical-storm-lidia-leading-to-los-cabos-beach-warnings/
We also got some drama on the flight coming back being put on stand by and not able to ask anyone if we got a seat? It did worked out in the end and we got on the flight.
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| Boarding Volaris flight that still use stairs |
But the flight boarding is all chaotic with air stewardess randomly moving bags to try and fit more bags. An upset American woman refused to check her bag as they gave away her seat and keep yelling at her husband that there's more space in the back for his bag. Other passengers telling her to stop shifting their bags. IF we fly Volaris again, lesson learned is to buy a seat.
Another weird situation was our car rental tried to charge us $198 extra after we have paid for the car online. And on enquiry that it should only have been insurance that we got at Cabo, the pricing dropped drastically to $102 for insurance. It reminds me again that it's always good to have your rental confirmation and know what you have paid for and always double check the bill.
Day 1 - Cabo san Lucas
Travel day and food tour day. Went for a food tour in Cabo San Lucas on the first day of arrival. When I was planning the trip they only had the tour on Thur night so I took a risk hoping we can arrive on time. Turns out they have stopped doing the seafood tour that I booked so Bill and I showed up and they wondered why there's 2 more extra person! =)
Good thing they still meet at the same place and same time so we joined the "eat like a local tour". They concentrated on the local side of Highway 1 and we had a good time.
Stop 1: Tamales
Went for tamales for the first stop. It's a street vendor who sells good tamales. Very good masa and flavorful pork with red salsa. He starts at 3pm and easily sells 1000 tamales a day. Good find that we will go back.
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| First stop Street vendor Tamale |
Stop 2: Mole at Burro Loco
We walked for 10 mins to get to a good mole place. Mole never disappoint me and this was an above average mole. What's interesting though is the guide showed us all the spices and chili that u can get, in a candy store! Apparently it's normal for dulceria to sell those in the back. Who would have thought!
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| The dulceria with all the spices in the back |
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| Good mole with jamaica in Burro Locos |
This is a typical taqueria and they got really fresh shrimp and good carne asada tacos. And decent el pastor tacos. Is it better than what we can get in TJ or Ensenada? probably not. But we enjoyed it.
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| El Paisa El pastor taco, carne asada and camaron tacos |
Stop 4: Fish tacos and tataki
we took a local bus that's clean and have AC. I was surprised! The bus took us to the starting point and we got fish tacoss and tataki at Wachinangos which is a famous tacos place in Cabo.. And the chef said he would cook our fish on Sunday if we do catch anything.
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| Fish tacos and Tataki |
Stop 5: Churros rellenos
we ended the tour with filled churros that's quite good. And we got some sweet bread for breakfast tomorrow.
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| Filled churros with either caramel, chocolate or condensed milk |
Day 2: San Jose
Woke up bright and early and enjoyed breakfast in our room with sweet bread that we got from the street cart lady
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| Donut style sweet bread with coffee |
We spend the AM at the pool and discovered they charge $15 for a margarita at the pool =) The cool thing is this is our first margaritas sitting & ordering on a stone chair inside the pool.
We did the time-share spiel in the AM and went to San Jose to check out the town.. Pretty cute with art galleries in town. The vibe is more laid back than Cabo San Lucas.
Navigated there via the church that is quite pretty with a nice square in the front
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| San Jose church |
Westin resort always have grills and we had pork chops for dinner at the hotel that night
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| Grilled pork chop with quesadilla and simple salad with a killer view |
Day 3: Todos Santos
After a simple quesadilla breakfast in our room with coffee
We drove to Todos Santos in the AM and it's even cuter than San Jose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todos_Santos,_Baja_California_Sur
Again, navigated by the church so that we can get to the main square. And from there we just walked around town and saw cute shops and lots of art/galleries
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| Besame mucho store next to the church |
Poked our head into a boutique hotel and they have a very nice little courtyard where we ordered a coffee. Turns out they are on the Guaycura route so we read up a little on them.
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| Boutique hotel on the Guacayo route |
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| Is it the real hotel california? |
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| Ice cream for the heat |
We tried to drive to the Todos Santos beach but can't find access. So instead we got a tip to go to hotel Cristóbal. Truly a place out of nowhere. We drove on a dirt road for 6 miles
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| Dirt road going to the ocean for at least 6 miles |
It spit us out into this nice hotel that overlooks the ocean with nothing else around it except for a few fishing boats that use the isla for shelter!
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| Hotel in the middle of nowhere |
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| View of the beach at the hotel pool side |
Prices for the hotel starts at $700 a night =) and we are not allowed to access the pool area and can only go around it to the restaurant.. =)
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| Good ceviche and grilled fish tacos. View: priceless |
On the trip back we stop at Cabos San Lucas and got rotisserie chicken from Pollo del oro. Good place, reminds us of the place that we go in Guadalupe valley where you get all the fixings with a flavorful chicken too. Definitely a local place.
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| Pollo del oro with its fixing |
Day 4: Fishing trip planned but didn't happen
Today is supposed to be fishing trip but tropical storm closed the port for small boats less than 15 m.
We tried driving in the AM in the rain (a little crazy for Bill driving in the dark, highway flooded.. whew) as we are not sure what is going on with the port rules. And we kept trying to see if the port will open up once the rain passed but no luck.. Grr.. it could be the open ocean is choppier than normal but it's aggravating looking at the calm bay at the arch.
We end up walking around the marina, across the Cabos beach (which is kind of icky actually). The heat finally drove us to a roof top bar to cool off and enjoy a view of the city and the arch
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| View of the bay |
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| 360 bar on top of Corazon hotel.. again pricy margaritas with priceless view |
Walking through the beach of Los Cabos, I have a better appreciation of the isolation of our hotel!
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| Los Cabos Marina- tourist central |
Los Cabos marina and American side of the town - Checked that I had seen it .. 🤣
That night we ate at the hotel as we have to use up the $60 resort credit. This gives u an idea of how far $60 will get you in a Westin at Los Cabos =).. with no wine or water.
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| Dinner at hotel with short ribs and shrimp salad |
Overall a fun trip and saw a lot of cute art work
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| Bill and statues in this trip =) |
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| hey, we got a real one on our balcony |
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| Elephants and art work this trip |
