"Leonhardt, William J" <wjleonhardt_at_bnl.gov> wrote: >I'm taking my wife (or, more accurately, she is taking me) to Cabo San >Lucas , Mexico on Valentine's Day. >I'm looking for recommendations for kayak outfitters. All help >appreciated. Hi Bill, Cabo is really pretty--reminds me of San Diego. Shawn's Dummies Guide to Cabo San Lucas: Take a folder. Seriously...there is that company who will FedEx a folder to you before your trip, you take it on the trip, then FedEx it back to them. If you want to paddle, bring your own, and have a blast. There are no "kayak outfitters" in Cabo. They are all set up to take 20 tourons on a 3-hour, 2 mile tour in wide, slow sit-on-tops, and you will be shepherded around like small children. And expect to pay quite a few American dollars to do so. Or, walk up to one of the "kayak outfitters" on the beach and try to negotiate a rental--by yourself--with lots of negotiating (can you speak Spanish--it's the lingua franca for good negotiating...if you speak English, you'll get gouged). Poor high school/pidgin Spanish is better than speaking English all the time--but if you only speak English, you won't have any problem communicating with anyone---everyone speaks English. La Paz--a day's drive north--would have kayak outfitters like you might expect. The snorkeling is really good. You can swim from Lovers Beach out on the cape proper (near El Arco - "The Arch") about halfway back to town, and there are some incredible tropical fish. The other side of the cape is "Divorce Beach", which really isn't any good for body surfing, as it's a pretty steep beach break with dumpers. Rent a car for the day and drive up to Todos Santos (return before sunset so you don't run the higher risk of a collision with the roadside Mexican beef....lots of cows on the road at night). I'm told Hotel California is all renovated now...not quite the crusty place the Eagles knew and loved. There is a good surf beach about 3 miles north of town--decent body surfing--or try to find a boogie board. Beer is very expensive downtown--$4.50 or $4.75 for local beer. Beer is cheaper in the small Spanish-speaking "convenience stores"...you can also get a good bit back for your bottle deposit. I also understand the Pacifico distributor north of town will sell beer even cheaper. There's a great little market on the north side of downtown (sort of on the break between where the "tourist Cabo" starts and the real Mexican Cabo begins--where you can buy cheap groceries and limes. Cabo Wabo must have been having an off week while I was there--I was unimpressed. The Giggling Marlin and El Squid Roe would be fun if you were into the "meat market" scene. We did have some great fresh seafood, and some great Mexican food. Ask for directions to Gordo Lele's taco stand--it looks like a dive, but he had some of the best food we ever tasted--certainly the best food we had while there. I got the recommendation from several other American "regulars" who said that some of the other stands' food safety was suspect, but Gordo's is always good. I liked his carne asada best. The sport fishing is incredible--we went out with one of the boats in the Sol Mar fleet for a day. 6 Yellowfin tuna, 2 dorado, no marlin. Ate one of the dorado while we were down there and froze the rest to bring home. If I were in CSL again, I'd go fishing 2-3 days--and I'm not a fisherman. Don't buy anything in the markets while the cruise ships are in the harbor--prices double. "No Gracias" means 'no thank you'. Works well on timeshare salesmen, silver hawksters, pot dealers, and small children selling chicle (gum). Most of the street vendors (silver, pot, gum) are controlled by the local Mexican mafia...the innocent little urchin selling gum sees maybe 1 peso ($0.001) of the 10 pesos she sells the gum for. "No gracias." You can thank me later. If you do decide to get suckered into listening to a time share presentation, skip all the offers of bottles of tequila (0.5L), car rentals, free hotel stay (you already have a place, I assume), and go for cold cash. Many of my fellow employees go to Cabo every winter and can usually hold out for $200 cash for a timeshare presentation. If you go to a presentation, read all the fine print. You'll get drawn in off the street by a huckster who will take you to another person who writes up the "presentation package" who takes you to another person who has lunch/breakfast/brunch with you, who takes you to the high pressure sales person, who signs off that you listened to the pitch after you say "NO" a dozen times, and back to the person who gives you the "presentation gifts". At every step, they rewrite what you're going to get...make sure they don't tell you you're getting $200 to start off, and you walk out the door with $20 and a little bottle of tequila. [We were to have a rental car with unlimited mileage, free dropoff at the airport (so we could save the cab fare when leaving), free insurance, and free gas. When it was all done, we had a free rental, free mileage, and paid $30 in gas, and $50 to get the airport dropoff] Kahlua and real Mexican vanilla extract are both very inexpensive. Buy lots for family back home. Don't pack glass bottles in your luggage--carry on--and don't ask me how I know this! There are different places in Baja to meet all your kayaking expectations...Cabo is not one of them. I knew I would be on the ocean--I expected to do a lot of kayaking--I was disappointed. Go with no expectations, and try to avoid all the throngs of other Americans. Don't think of it as a kayaking vacation...think of it as a "second honeymoon" vacation--and have fun! Shawn *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Feb 02 2005 - 16:14:32 PST
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