Finding Our Way Around Town
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April 27, 1997 (Sunday) |
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We went into town Sunday morning to attempt to locate the Port Captain and the Immigration Office. We got a lot of help from a lot of friendly people and successfully located both offices. We completed our forms the next morning and headed for the government offices a second time. For those who plan to come to Cabo2 the Port Capitan4 and Immigration Office5 close at 2:00 PM local time. The correct sequence to check in is to go to Immigration5 first and then to the Port Capitan4. We learned the hard way that Cabo time is one hour ahead of California time. We barely made it to the Port Capitan4 and Immigration Office5 in time. We quickly reprogrammed ourselves and our watches. We began to check out the town once our paperwork was done. |
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Some of the first things we took care of after checking in with the Port Capitan4 and Immigration Office5 was to locate the Pemex station and the Post Office. We needed to replenish the fuel we had used and we wanted to have some of our mailed forwarded to us from home. The Pemex station and the Post Office7 are both on the outskirts of the town but are within walking distance. We also located a small little computer store that processes e-mail and let's you surf the Net. They charge US$5.00 for 15 minutes and give you a local telephone number to use. We hope we will be able to find similar accommodations in the rest of the ports we enter. |
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As you might have already guessed, Phill went to the chandlery first thing. He has to make sure that they don't have any 'toys' that he doesn't already have. Fortunately for our budget, we have most everything (multiples of most of them) and have not suffered any serious breakage. |
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On our first adventure to town we stopped at Latitude 22 because it was the closest establishment to the dinghy dock. This is a pretty well known restaurant / bar but we didn't know that at the time. We had some of their wonderful margaritas and chips, salsa and nachos. We recommend this place to anyone who is planning to visit Cabo. Their two resident kitties (Sam and Simba) also adopted us. Sam fell in love with Phill's ‘Pink Floyd' backpack. He snuggled on top of it and did not move an inch until we got ready to leave. If we weren't going to countries where pets are discouraged (to put it mildly) we would likely have a fuzzy little cat on Mouse Pad. Unfortunately we plan to visit New Zealand and they make life miserable for cruisers who want to bring in pets. |
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Every time we go to town to run errands, eat, flavor the margaritas or go just for some site seeing, we try to take a different street to reach our destination. We have discovered so many little restaurants this way that we would not have discovered otherwise. This city has so much to see. Our experience has been that the less commercialized section of town is a lot less expensive. You can get some pretty wonderful authentic food for practically nothing. The more commercialized part of town caters to the ‘touristy' types. You pay dearly for this commercialism. We prefer to see as much of this city's culture as possible while we are here so we venture onto as many new streets as our little feet will carry us. We also prefer to support the small businesses over the larger ones. |
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We also learned of a place that caters to the cruisers (sailboat cruisers). The Restaurant San Lucas is known to the cruisers as the ‘Broken Surfboard'. This little restaurant serves a wide variety of authentic Mexican food as well as offering a lot of services that make a cruisers life a lot easier. They have fax service. The will do your laundry if you are inclined. They quoted us a price of 25 pesos per load. They also willingly run to the local telephone card vendors and purchase metered calling cards for you so you can easily call the states for a nominal cost. They have a two-for-one exchange library. I suspect that there aren't many services that they don't offer. All you probably have to do is ask. |
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Each time we dinghy to town we tie up at the dinghy dock at the marina. Most of the cruiser's guides indicate that you must pay two US quarters to gain access through this dock. We have never experienced the gate on this dock to be locked and the coin collection box has been removed. |
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We have been very successful in finding grocery stores. The prices are pretty comparable with what we were paying in California. If you are a wine lover, bring enough along so you don't have to buy it here. Any imported wine is expensive here. They do have local wine. Since we visited the Todos Santos winery in Ensenada a couple of years ago and liked their wine, we bought some again in Cabo2 on this trip. We also found a wonderful fruit and vegetable store on one of the side streets. I got my salad fix. The fruits and vegetables in the stores are generally not very good looking. This was not the case for this little market. They were plentiful and very fresh. We also noticed that the markets have a very nice selection of fresh meat. We plan to refill our freezer before we depart. |
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On Tuesday we helped Erick celebrate his birthday. We went into town to do a little sightseeing. We offered to take one of 'Island Girl's' kids so there would be an equal number of people in each of the dinghies. Erick rode with us. Little did he know but as soon as we were far enough away from his parents such that they could not rescue him, we gave him an old-fashioned birthday wish. Phill grabbed him by the collar and turned him over his knee. I proceeded to give him his twelve lashes. I'm sure he was not expecting this. Later that evening we invited the ‘Island Girl' crew to dinner. Phill fixed his famous spaghetti sauce. At least he started it. I had to watch it and keep it from burning. Phill was busy introducing ‘Island Girl's' crew to his video library. They were truly in awe. Phill has what I would guess is about 300 videos on board. He let Erick pick the video that was to be shown, as it was his birthday. Erick picked ‘White Squall'. |
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One thing we have noticed when we are at anchor in any of the ports that we have visited so far is that the other cruisers are very friendly. We frequently have someone knock on our hull. I'm not sure if it's the Mouse Pad logo or the St. Neots, England home port printed on our stern that attracts them. Whatever the reason, we enjoy their company. We also like to introduce ourselves to other cruisers. We either admire their boat, some piece of rigging or maybe they also are flying the SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Association) or PCA (Pacific Cruising Association) club pennants. This was the case with ‘Princess Del Mar' here at Cabo. We noticed their SSCA Commodore's pennant and were anxious to meet them. They had just completed a 10-year circumnavigation and were headed home. As it turned out, they had visited the South Pacific and had some information to share with us. They also said that South Africa was one of their favorite places to visit. Maybe on one of our future cruises we can consider South Africa. |
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While at this anchorage we have learned to be very tolerant of our surrounding neighbors. I don't mean boats at anchor. Rather, I mean all of the ‘amusement park' type of vehicles. Starting at about 7:00 AM there is a mass exodus of fishing boats leaving for their ventures. Shortly thereafter, about 8:00 AM, the jet skis converge on the water and begin their steady swarming. They take advantage of the sail boats at anchor and use them as though they were on a slalom course. As though this isn't enough excitement, the parasail boats also converge en mass. Oh. I almost forgot. Beginning on Thursday we saw a steady flow of cruise ships take over the horizon. They lay anchor at about 6:00 AM and begin their broadcasts to their passengers, announcing the plans for the day. They then lower their lifeboats/shoreboats and begin ferrying their passengers to shore. They seem to have a serious schedule to adhere to because they move very fast and make for a lot of wake in the process. If you haven't figured out by now, this anchorage is like being at an amusement park, we are on a roller coaster and are constantly rocking and rolling unless we head into town. |
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NOTE: Comments and suggestions should
be sent to JReese@JRDelta.com
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