Noche Buena en Cabo

    As the title suggests, I spent Christmas Eve in Cabo San Lucas.  (Noche Buena means Christmas Eve, btw)
    It was originally home to the Pericú people but today is a massive tourist attraction.  When you first leave the pier, vendors and people advertising tours come at you from all directions.  They have kind faces, calling you "amigo", and offering you toothy smiles.  It's almost regretfully that you must tell them: "lo siento. Ya tenemos un tour", in your heavily accented Spanish.
   We didn't have as much time in Cabo as we did in Mazatlan or Puerto Vallarta, but it was time well spent.  We docked just before noon, and watching the Norwegion Star pull into port was a treat.  We had to be sent ashore via tender boats-to my extreme delight and my father's dismay.  He's easily seasick, you sea (haha!).  But I'm not.  I love the feel of cutting through the waves and sun on bare shoulders. 

Getting into the tender boats. (I'm the one with the blue backpack)

 I thought of an Elizabeth Taylor quote I once heard as we neared Cabo.  My memory butchered it, but I didn't have the luxury of google then.  

"You can't possess radiance, you can only admire it."

   We had an hour to kill before our tour of downtown Cabo, so we walked along the pier, directionless.  Just outside of the duty-free shopping area was a tented market.  A flea market.  A golden opportunity to practice my cringe-worthy Spanish.  And I did, although I didn't end up buying anything.  The vendors were very kind, with the good breeding to tell me-untruthfully-that my Spanish was very good.  Someday I'll go back to Cabo and actually buy things, but bargaining is the fun part.  

  Our tour guide was a good humored Mexican named Armando.  His English, although hardly perfect, was very agreeable.  He took us to a church:

La iglesia de Cabo San Lucas, circa 1700s

and what used to be a commercial tuna fishery.  Cabo used to generate revenue as a fishing town, but now all the fishing is for sport.  Indeed, the world's largest marlin tournament is held in Cabo.  

  After our tour was over, we bid farewell to a still beaming Armando and left to find the location of our glass-bottom boat ride.  It wasn't hard; the pier isn't where you necessarily have to worry about getting lost in.  Downtown is perhaps a different story.  But I digress.

   The glass bottom boat ride was probably my favorite part.  The waters surrounding Cabo are very clear, and fish came right up to the bottom of the boat.  The tour guide told us laughingly that he had rubbed guacamole to attract them.  I still don't know if he was serious.  

The view from the glass-bottom boat ride

   The sun had begun to go down before our ride was finished.  The surface of the water was stained orange and red.  It was something I've never seen before, something I can never forget.  The ocean spray dried on my arm, leaving behind tiny salt crystals, each perfectly formed.  Beautiful. 

  There was a smell, as we neared Scooby-Doo Rock.  (Don't ask me what the real name is because I don't know.  That's what the guy called it, and that's what I'm sticking to(: )  Anyway, it was kind of salty, kind of decaying.  It made my brother sick, but I kind of liked it/couldn't stand it.  There were a number of sea lions calling to each other and swimming about in the water, sunning themselves on the rocks.  I guess I just assumed they were the cause of the odor, but I've seen sea lions before without encountering that smell.  One of life's mysteries, it would seem.  

   A lovely, sunshine-y day.  I wish you could all go there, because even though people call it "California-Mexico" it's still deeply rooted in history.