It turned out that we were the only people on the 5th floor and it was kind of spooky up there because this hotel was on the energy saving program we had seen at other hotels. In this case, they had all of the hallway lights turned off on unoccupied floors and it appeared that no one got the memo that we were going to be on this floor.
Fortunately, our room was right next to the elevator and the light from the elevator illuminated the hallway enough for us to find the card slot for our keycard and we made it into our room.
We were very happy with our room and its amenities. The cable worked well and the internet was free and fast.
The only big problem was one that we experienced throughout Baja. The room was equipped with air conditioning that cooled but it did not heat. The room was cooling off as soon as the sun went down and got cold a short time later.
Fortunately, we had been warned that this was common in Baja, so we had brought a small electric box fan heater that was very effective at taking the chill off.
That night, Suzie hopped into the shower and that was when we discovered that the water temperature was only luke warm.
No matter how long she ran the water, it never got hot. I had the same experience. In the morning, we had the same experience so on our way out to explore, we spoke to the people at the front desk who seemed surprised and promised to have it checked.
While we were speaking to the front desk clerks, we told them that we were happy with the hotel overall and had signed up for another night. They reprogrammed our key card to add the second night and we were on our way to explore the surrounding area.
We went to the old town part of San Jose Del Cabo. There were lots of touristy shops and very old, interesting buildings, all built around a pretty central plaza and church.
There were very interesting trees around the plaza.
Lots of shops but very few tourists. There were more tourists in Cabo San Lucas near the marina.
This shop had unique hand made lamps of every color and shape.
After we left the downtown area, we went to a grocery store for supplies. We had visited numerous small Mom & Pop size stores during our travels but this time we went into a large store.
We were amazed at what we saw.
This store was big, clean and as nice as any upscale grocery store in the U.S.
We drove along the coast highway again and discovered that although the beaches were mostly blocked by the large hotels and condos, Mexican law states that the beaches are open to everyone. The problem is that you can't get to the beaches because there is nowhere to park except the private parking of the hotels, which won't let you park on their property . . . . . Catch 22.
As we were looking around, we saw a large hotel under construction.
Located beside the construction project was a small public parking lot with a nice foot path allowing access to the beach.
The beach was beautiful and the air temperature was about 80º but the water was a little too cool for our taste so we walked around a little and then continued to explore.
One interesting thing we saw was that they are still quite primitive in their construction and highway maintenance practices.
We watched as some workers were painting new lane lines and traffic control arrows using paint brushes.
We also saw interesting art work as it was being created . . . .
Please don't ask what he was painting on the side of this building, because we don't know.
In the late afternoon, we got to experience rush hour traffic again as we returned to our hotel. Since we weren't in a hurry, the terrible traffic really gave us a chance to look around as we inched our way back to the hotel.
At the hotel, we had dinner in the dining room and again thoroughly enjoyed our meal.
When we returned to our room, all of the lights were still off in the hallway, but we did enjoy the peace and quiet of not having any neighbors.
At shower time, we found the water was still not hot, but it was comfortable and we continued to like the hotel.
Around 9:00 PM, we heard lots of commotion in the hallway and I looked through the peep hole in the door to see what all the activity was.
As I watched, I could see about 10 uniformed airline flight crew members talking in the hallway before they split up and retired to their rooms. The hallway lights were still off and I could hear them trying to figure out where the room numbers were since you couldn't see the numbers in the dark. They finally figured it out and all disappeared into their rooms. We never heard another peep out of them, including when they met up and left in the morning.
That next morning, at shower time, we had all of the HOT water we wanted and we figured out that since we had been the only people on the 5th floor, we were not using enough water from the hot water pipes to get hot water all the way to our room, but since all of the airline people were also probably taking showers, they caused the pipes to be filled with hot water.
The airline people were only there for one night and by the next night, the water was back to being lukewarm, but everything else about the hotel was so nice that we didn't care.
During the next several days, we took numerous drives around the countryside and on one of the days, we drove northeast on Highway 1 to the small village of Cabo Pulmo.
Cabo Pulmo was a very small fishing and diving village. It was located on a dirt road that follows the coastline from an area about halfway between San Jose Del Cabo and La Paz where the paved road to La Paz passes close to the coastline.
Cabo Pulmo was a cute little village that was completely dedicated to tourists who wanted to fish or scuba dive in the crystal clear waters of the Gulf of California.
This was the outdoor dive shop.
We had lunch at the outdoor cantina. This was the view from the patio next to our table.
Another amazing lunch
We forgot to share and we were stuffed before it was over
After we ate, we watched as they got a group of divers ready for a boat ride out to the reef.
They didn't really have a boat launch ramp and they didn't have a pier but they had a plan!
They loaded all of the people onto the boat which was sitting on its trailer.
Once everyone was on the trailer, they would back the trailer into the water at the end of a very long trailer hitch.
The beach dropped away quickly and the trailer would drop away from the boat and the boat would back away and head of on its trip. The trucks were all rusting away from backing down into the salt water.
When the boats would come back from their trip, getting back onto the trailer was even more interesting.
A man would push the empty trailer out into the water until it was in water deep enough for the trailer to be floating due to the air in its tires.
Once the trailer was floating very low in the water, the Captain on the boat would motor the boat between the PVC pipes that were sticking up from the trailer.
Once the boat was centered over the trailer, the Captain would secure ropes attached to the trailer to the cleats on the side of the boat.
Then, a long rope attached to the trailer was attached to a truck and the truck, still up on the beach, would pull the trailer and the boat back up onto the beach where the passengers would then disembark onto the beach.
When we left Cabo Pulmo, we followed a dirt road southbound around the end of the Baja peninsula toward San Jose Del Cabo. It was about a 4 hour drive and was along some of the most beautiful coastline we have ever seen.
It was very remote and uninhabited and then all of a sudden there would be a small group of shacks with cattle and horses where natives were eeking out a life in the middle of nowhere.
Then, a few miles later we would come across a small enclave of obviously American get away homesteads.
Many of these homesteads looked like gigantic mansions.
These places were hours from civilization and resupply must have been at least a full day's project.
This place had the right idea. They had a long dirt runway next to their mansion and that would have made the commute much easier.
Although seeing how some people are able to enjoy this wild countryside was fun, getting completely away from everything was just amazing.
This coastline would really be fun to explore with a small motorhome because you can just drive right out onto the beaches and make yourself at home with no one else around for miles.
This is a spur road off the main dirt road that leads down to a beautiful beach
Every curve revealed another amazing view.
We finally came upon someone camping out. We didn't bother them.
The terrain was very rugged but the road was well traveled and maintained and was an easy drive.
We weren't the only people out there, but there weren't very many people in this part of the country. These 2 people seemed to be enjoying the solitude.
Every once in a while we would get into a traffic jam.
It must have been rush hour.
We finally made it back to the pavement and headed toward civilization. It was still a long, winding road back to town.
We ended up spending about a week at the San Jose Del Cabo Airport hotel and thoroughly enjoyed our visit.
The next chapter will begin the trip back to the U.S.
We hope you are enjoying our story and we hope you will stay in touch and share any travels or adventures that you have.
Tom & Suzie
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