Information Overload

School ended and I spent several days in quarantine, marking portfolios in my office, so Rod and I could spend a week’s escape in Baja Sur.

We spent most of our time in San Jose del Cabo, fortuitously arriving on Art Walk night in the Arts District. There’s an interesting community there of expat artists, and it established our M.O. of the next few days which was mostly, walking around San Jose. In fact, I flattened a pair of flip-flops.

We stayed in town at a hotel called the Tropicana Inn. It was good there. It was in a great location, had a lovely garden with pool, simple continental breakfast and a well-regarded restaurant and bar. The rooms weren’t fancy but who cares. We loved stopping by for happy hour on the patio in the late afternoon before going out for the night. The restaurant was a bit pricey for our budget, but the appetizer sampler of Mexican bites that we ordered was one of our favourites, and everyone we talked to spoke highly of the restaurant.

Baja Sur didn’t feel like the place I should buy my winter home, but it was good to check out a new place.

After a few days exploring the streets and markets of San Jose, we moved to a lovely resort on the beach.
Every morning we drank coffee on our little terrace and then walked to the sun chairs on the beach.

By the last day, I finally relaxed.

Travel Notes:

The Tropicana Inn : a good choice if you want to be centrally located in town. We walked to everything except the beach from there. There was a taxi stand right there, too.

Playa del Sol Los Cabos : a timeshare resort with beautiful grounds and friendly staff. The timeshare sales area was fascinating, eavesdropping on the salespeople selling to the people while sitting on sunchairs, dozing. Our room was lovely and new, with a small kitchenette that we used every day for coffee, at least one meal, and margaritas. Restaurant food was eh. Restaurants around the resort were nothing special– everything, including Zippers, was to be expected. The walk to Zippers watching the moon rise was great, though. This is a great resort for relaxing, the sort of place you would go if you JustWantToBeAlone, or, if you had a car for the whole time and wanted a solid home base from which to explore. It is not a party resort. Sometimes, Rod and I felt like the youngest people there. In certain places, all of San Jose felt like that.

The Municipal Market
Fresh tortillas and the luncheonette along the side had amazing fresh fruit drinks and other Mexican food.

Baja Brewing Company
We enjoyed this place so much Rod bought a tshirt. The beer was worthwhile, the staff and owners wonderful, and it was just lovely to sit in the open-air and watch the activities. Happy hour was so fun. Slightly North American, but that is a dominating influence in this part of the world.

El Fogon and Taqueria Erica (here’s a link about it)
It was my mission to eat tacos every day. These were the places we found in San Jose, just down the street from one another. Apparently the Hangman was noteworthy, too. Lots of other options.

Organic Markets (English-language paper magazine down there have listings)
On Saturday and Sunday in San Jose del Cabo there are two organic farmer’s markets. The Saturday one is larger, at the Tropicana Jockey Club, with a big circle of vendors. It was definitely a community meeting place and there were also things for sale like jewellery and trinkets and people with giant hula hoops playing around. We had some delicious ice cream. I regret not buying empanadas and still think about those amazing tomatoes that we had. Sunday’s market was much smaller, along the side of the road, with small tents with farmers selling what they had. Much more of a factual, get-your-produce kind of environment. Both are worth visiting.

The Town Square at night
Kids playing soccer in the square, drummers, a snack cart with people lined up.

Road Trip
The drive from San Jose del Cabo, up through Cabo San Lucas, Todos Santos, and Los Barilles. Stop in Todos for a stroll and some lunch, then drive on through and stop for a cervesa in Los Barilles. Our favourite part of Baja California Sur was the section between Todos Santos and Los Barilles.

The Ins and Outs of the Mega
So many people in the hotel district used the Mega store, a giant, North American style box store. We bought big bottles of water, Mexican coffee, honey, beer. We found it to be significantly cheaper for tequila than the so-called specialty shops. The selection was limited, but you could still get some decent tequilas for much better prices. The produce at the two organic markets, on Saturday and Sunday, was so, so much better than what was available at the Mega, so don’t settle. But, Rod found a great frozen mango puree that we used all week in margs. The timeshare people who roamed the Mega were exasperating, but, for me, enjoying all the beautiful Mexican packaging kind of made up for it.

Next time:
Rent a car for the whole time and pick it up at the airport.
Spend more time on the East Cape.
A drive from Los Barilles on the smaller dirt road up to La Paz.
Damiana, a restaurant on the Town Square in San Jose.
A street of small, Mexican-style loncherias that ran parallel to the Tropicana’s street.
And finally, stay for two weeks.