Some Much Needed Vitamin Sea in Cabo

For our 10 year anniversary, Chels and I headed to Cabo San Lucas. We stayed a week, and it was a great vacation. When we arrived, we were hit up everywhere to see a time share presentation. From the airport to the grocery store, everyone was pitching something. Most offered an excursion to do this of that, So we decided to negotiate to see how much we could get. If we were going to do this, we needed to get hooked up, and we were. We worked out getting a free breakfast buffet, 3 excursions (camel rides, snorkeling, and a dinner cruise), $50 gift card to the grocery store close to where we were staying, and $300 pesos cash! It cost us sitting through a two hour sales pitch, and saying no repeatedly during that time. This with the fishing trip I had booked, and we had our week planned.

 

We headed into San Jose the first day to do some sight seeing and shopping. it was during one of the Mexico World Cup games, so we had the place to ourselves. There were some old churches, and a cool town square.

 

The view from our balcony.

A monument to some of the leaders of Mexico (I think).

The mission De San Jose. Founding April, 1730.

The next day we headed out to Wild Canyon to go on a Camel ride. Camels are taller than I thought, so we were about 7 feet up when riding. We rode a few miles through the desert canyon, before we stopped under a canopy and learned some about these neat animals. They also had a bird sanctuary with lots of exotic birds and parrots.

 

At Wild canyon, they also have zip-lining, ATV trails and bungee jumping. one of the trails involved am Indiana Jones-like hanging bridge. naturally we had to cross it. It's made for ATV's, but it still swayed quite a bit.

 

A ride through Wild Canyon.

The camel wanted no part of this...

Chelsea feeding the birds.

Mexican Military Parrots.

 

This reminded me of Indiana Jones.

Walking across the hanging bridge at Wild Canyon.

Some surfers enjoying the waves by Zippers restaurant.

Wednesday we spent the day fishing. I booked our trip through RedRum Sportfishing. They came highly recommended through several friends, and they didn't disappoint. We left the harbor at 6:30 AM, and we had our first fish in short order. The Dorado fought hard, and my arms felt the burn a little before getting her to the boat. Chelsea fought the second Dorado, and did fantastic! This is the first time she has fought a good sized fish. She said she was surprised at how hard the fight was, and that she felt the burn wrangling in her catch. I was proud of her to say the least. We also had two other fish on, but only for a few seconds before they got off.

Sunrise at the arch on the way out to fish.

First catch of the day. My first Dorado.

Chelsea Battling her first Dorado.

Victory!

Some time past before our next hit, and a short fight led to a small bonito. After that, it slowed for a two-ish hour stretch. During that time, the side effects of the motion sickness patches kicked in (drowsiness) And the next thing I remember is waking up slumped in the fighting chair to the guide setting the hook. and handing me the rod. I yelled to Chels, who had also fallen asleep, to get the video camera. We hooked into what I had wanted a shot at which was a marlin. It made to awesome jumps at the first and that was it for the rest of the fight. Constantly pulling up and reeling down quickly made me realize how out of shape I am. My arms and lower back really felt this fight, but I wasn't going to give up. This fight lasted about 25 minutes before I had him leadered. He then made one last run before I got him in for good. It was a striped marlin that the guide said was in the 140 pound range. It was a great experience to see one of these great fish up close. We got a quick picture, and sent him back to the deep blue yonder.

A small Bonito.  Another new species added to the list.

Striped Marlin!!! My first bill fish. Guide said it was around 140 lbs.

String up the flags for the ride back to the harbor.

lots of fish caught by the RedRum fleet.

This pelican traded a quick picture for a few fish.

Zippers cooked up some of the Dorado we kept. The cat liked it just as much as we did.

The rest of the week we snorkeled, went on a catamaran cruise, and did lots of sight seeing. Cabo and San Jose. We made some great memories, met some new friends, and found a place that we will definitely come back to.

A replica in the harbor. Enough to make any fisherman want to get back on the water.

The famous Cabo Wabo stage.

Many places around the harbor willing to cook what you catch.

Some of the great food we had on the trip.

The last view we had of the arch from the catamaran cruise.