We made landfall and put in to the fuel dock in Cabo around 1045 this morning. While Mike and Joe were busy meeting with the agriculture inspectors and taking on fuel, I went to meet with the immigration agent and get our documents squared away. It is a scary feeling when he takes the passports and says that he will have them back to us the next day. After my dealings with expired passports and immigration in French Polynesia I am always hesitant to have my passport leave my hands. But having an agent take care of all the offices and details is very nice. First and foremost, he speaks Spanish and none of the crew does. Secondly, it seems that dealing with Mexican authorities is painful even under the best circumstances. You have to do the check-in two step and it inevitably turns into a three or four step and next thing you know, your entire day is gone.
A major problem arose during this whole process at the fuel dock, but everyone managed to keep a smile on their faces and we anchored, inflated the dinghy, and went into Cabo. The town apparently has grown exponentially since Mike was here in 2006 and Joe was here in 2010. It is really the Mexican Riviera. The restaurants and bars along the water are ridiculously overpriced for the food that you get. We were drawn into one establishment right near where we moored our Zodiac with the promise of two beers for the price of one. It turns out that they can do that because one beer runs around $7. Food was out of the question at that restaurant so we went exploring and the group accidentally broke apart. Mike and I ventured into the local section of the city and found a wonderful hole in the wall that was serving basic but phenomenal local cuisine. We sat around for an hour eating and chatting. After that we headed back to the zodiac so that we could get home before dark seeing as we didn’t have any lights for a ride back in the dark. Joe and Jamie were nowhere to be found.
After about a half an hour of sitting around on the dock waiting, I could tell that Mike was getting restless and was about to leave without them. They could just get a panga ride back to the boat. I decided to walk down the boardwalk in the general direction that I thought they had gone off to. I arrived in the nick of time to save them from haggling with a panga that was about to rip them off at the traditionally inflated Cabo prices. We got back to the boat right as it was getting dark, sat around and discussed my life ambitions for a bit, and now everyone has gone their separate ways to read and sleep. Tomorrow I plan on exploring off the beaten path and finding somewhere with Wi-Fi to finally post these blogs and Skype with a few people back in the States. So far my impression of Cabo is a completely Westernized tourist destination that resembles a Disneyland for adults. It is loud and obnoxious but at the same time it is nice to be back amongst people- especially people where the mean age is not over 50.
On a side note, I was surprised to see all the Mexicans that were also tourists. Cabo used to be an American hotspot and that is clearly reflected around the town. But there seems to be an emerging, influential upper class in Mexico that likes to flaunt their money. It is nice to see that Americans are not the only one’s indulging in the excesses of this city. It really is a Mexican Riviera. We will be here for about 4 more days so I will be able to make some inroads into the community and get a better picture of the economy and how locals are eking out a living.
No comments:
Post a Comment