Cabo San Lucas- The Edge of the World, and the end of my travels...

July 17th-July 24th, 2006
Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur
Mexico

At the southernmost tip of the Baja Peninsula, hundreds of miles south, and a bit east of San Diego lies paradise. Cabo San Lucas is what Cancun must have been like many many years ago- gorgeous, pristine, up-and-coming. Nestled between the Sea of Cortes, the Pacific Ocean, and the vast desert that makes up most of the Mexican portion of the Baja Peninsula is a stretch of land which is dotted by golf courses and enormous luxury hotels, but is not by any means crowded.

We arrived at the Riu Palace Resort on Monday afternoon after a direct flight and I knew this was going to be a great week. Two things struck me immediately- the natural beauty of Cabo's location, and the astounding price of everything there (the latter being magnified by the fact that I just spent 8 weeks living out of a backpack in the 3rd world). But once you're there and the wrist band for the all inclusive is secured to your wrist, it's nearly impossible to worry about anything- school, bills... even the bombs constanly falling on the middle east become just a background thought as you drift asleep to the droning of CNN on TV between an afternoon at the swimming pool and an evening at the disco. It's really extraordinary how much power this place has to induce relaxation in everyone. I think it's the harmonic blend of music, sunshine, water, breathtaking views, frozen drinks, and pool volleyball.

The Riu Palace turned out to be pretty palacial- an enormous spread of a hotel with two huge pools, separated by two swim up bars and a buffet spread open most of the day. The sun shone constantly while I was there. The hotel was built down against the beach and from the pool and any southern point of the hotel you can look out literally to the tip of the Baja Peninsula, a stretch of sheer rock faces, one with a beautiful arch, which extend outwards onto the water. The extreme tip has been broken into several pieces of rock jutting out of the water where time has worn away the land mass. The local people call it "fin del mundo," the end of the earth, and the view at Lands End was certainly incredible

We spent most of our week at the resort itself, venturing into town a few times to check out some of the discos (Cabo Wabo being the most famous) and to grab a few really good meals. We also got a chance to go deep sea fishing, although more members of my family caught sea sickness than the number of fish we actually caught (3 versus 2). Myself included... man I felt SO nauseous.

I think the highlights of the trip were having the opportunity to bond with my brothers after spending two months abroad in Central America, getting to truly relax on my vacation, without worrying about my personal safety or keeping close track of my expenses, golfing in the desert, and getting to meet some really good people. I'm going to post some photos of the trip tomorrow and then this week I think I'll find a forum in which I can post the entire set of photos from my trip, since this website isn't the most efficient way to upload all of them.

There's not that much more to say about Cabo. It was a fantastic time and a great way to cap off my travels. I think in the next couple of days while I'm putting together my photos I'll take some time to post some final thoughts about my 9 weeks abroad this summer, and some facts from my trip. I've really enjoyed writing about my trip while I've traveled, and perhaps my only regret is that I wasn't able to post more photos to allow you to truly soak in my experience and my perspective. Until the final post...

Ben