Gates and Guards

Cabo San Lucas, BCS, Mexico

Staying in the marina in Cabo is a lot like living in a gated community.  We have electronic keys to let us in or out of our dock, 24 hour marina guards walking the beat, along with some military types and tourist police, all eager to pounce on any seedy looking stranger that does not seem to belong.  Somehow, so far they have let us get by - people don't get much seedier than long-term cruisers.  Notice our pet pelican that has taken up guard duty on the end of our dock.

For the exorbitant price (around $130 per night), we get all of this security, use of some very clean, modern washrooms and showers, access to laundry facilities, Internet and the use of a small boat-owner's only pool.  Since it appears that business is quite slow right now (the busy season for the marina is in October / November), we have these facilities almost completely to ourselves.  We have made friends with the boat-boys who look after the yachts on our dock - generally a happy bunch - always eager to practice their English on us.  Our Spanish, on the other hand, is getting nowhere.  Being in a tourist trap means that everyone speaks English to us.  Somehow they seem to sense that we are not locals.

Here are the views from our boat as we wile away the afternoon in the cockpit.

I should take a moment to address you die-hard sailors out there.  We are aware that most of the sailors we know and that we have met on our cruise down the coast would shudder at the thought of spending time in the marina here.  Cabo is too expensive.  Cabo is too touristy.  Cabo is too commercial, etc. etc. etc.  But for us, we are really enjoying our time here.  We have found some relatively inexpensive restaurants just a couple of blocks away from the marina (prices comparable to Canada), and the food is great.  Even the trendy dock-side joints have special deals on - it is almost always happy hour or 2 for 1 drinks, 3 tacos for about $5, etc., and they are great places to sit and watch the touristas parading up and down the malacon.

And we have used our time here to get some things accomplished, most notably I have managed to work on a sticky-throttle issue we have been having on the last few passages, I have mounted our new boarding ladder (ready for anticipated swimming opportunities that will soon abound), we have caught up on our laundry and may even get around to more mundane things like hair cuts tomorrow.  We do try and restrict ourselves to one job a day - no need to overdue it.

Cabo is quite a large town with lots of interesting streets to wander up and down, chatting to the shop-owners and street hustlers.  Anybody interested in some Cuban cigars?  How about some silver jewelry or shiny whistles?  We may actually go a far as buying a tee-shirt before we leave.

Yes, we enjoy anchoring out in the peace and quiet of some remote bay for days on end as well, and no doubt we will do lots of that, but we feel that this is a part of Mexico too, and it is all good!

{GMST}22|53.1|N|109|54.617|W|Cabo San Lucas|Cabo San Lucas{GEND}