Cabo San Lucas - gorgeous!

We spent two days at the port of Cabo San Lucas because the port call at Mazatlan had been cancelled.

Many cruise ships had pulled out of Mazatlan citing issues with personal safety, yet I've also read it is because of port costs involved.

Whatever the reason, we missed out on Mazatlan which was the port I most wanted to stop at, but Cabo San Lucas more than made up for my disappointment.

It was so beautiful.

It reminded me of the Whitsunday region in Queensland and a bit of Noosa in the old days - a haven for sun, surf and sand lovers.

And the very wealthy!

Day One

As was now our ritual, we woke and wandered out on to our verandah to watch the goings on outside before showering, having breakfast and then meet our group for our shore tour.

I had booked a 4x4 tour.

We ride quad bikes at home a fair bit and we live near the beach, so why I wanted to do something we do a fair bit escapes me, but we had so much fun.

If I had my way it would all be educational tours, but a mum's gotta cater to the rest of her family every now and then and have some fun.

And have fun we did!

The bus ride out to the desert was fun to say the least.

Australia is such a nanny-state where we are forever told we need to be 'saved' from our own stupidity and inability to use our commonsense, that it was good to see that 'safety standards' went by the wayside in Mexico.

Australian occupational health and safety officers here would have a heart attack if they saw how things worked here!

Our guide said that safety vests and gear were for 'wusses' in Mexico.

We had a hairy moment when we were approaching roadworks and a bridge was closed down to one lane.

A truck came out of nowhere behind us just as we were approaching the bridge and overtook us with only metres to spare and with oncoming traffic, only to pull in off the road just after the bridge.

We all laughed after releasing our held breaths!

So, we eventually got our jeeps, covered up our faces with bandanas (and felt rather like bandidos in the process) and put on our goggles.

The Groom travelled in his 4x4 with Little Man while I drove The Princess.

And off we went along a track out near the beach and underneath the same bridge where the roadworks were going on.

Right through the construction site, beeping and waving merrily at the workers!

It was so much fun.

We stopped further up ahead to look at some really old and very tall cactus and have a cold drink of water to wash out our throats as it was so dusty.

The tour guide who met us at the port was with us and had changed into more suitable 4x4 driving clothing so it took me a while to realise who he was at first.

I wish I could remember his name but I can't, but he was so lovely and explained to us about the plant life and the area.

He took photos for us of us as a family under these giant cactus plants.

You can hardly see us at the bottom of the plant as he had to move so far away to get all of the cactus in.

Then off we went for a drive along the beach and then a wander around.

I couldn't help myself, I got stuck behind a man who was driving really slow so when I could I pulled out and sped off.

Then the groom caught up and we were trying to race each other.

Some people frowned upon this I think ;)

Where we were was roughly on the same latitude as where we live and the guide said there was pretty much nothing between us and our home country.

I really do have to look that up and see if it's true, but I told the kids not to talk so loud or our dogs might hear us and come swimming across the oceans to find us.

It was so beautiful and all I could think about was that if this was at home there would be crocodiles or jelly fish in the waters waiting to eat or sting you.

After our tour we wandered around the port and then headed back to the ship for a shower and get ready for dinner.

Day Two

Today was a half day in port and we didn't have any tours booked.

We just wanted to wander about the port area and do a bit of shopping and eating.

So, we got to have a bit of a lie in before breakfast and as we didn't have shore tours we could go on the tender whenever we felt like it.

We wandered around the shops and bought some souvenirs for us and friends.

The t-shirt sizings for children were a bit odd, and some of the sizings seemed rather small for the number on the tag.

But we stocked up and headed off to find the pharmacy we'd heard so much about.

Many Americans, we were told, go to Mexico for cheap medications as it's so much cheaper.

We were offered certain types of drugs for male impotence as soon as we walked in, but in the end I got some Bactroban equivalent (Bactroban is great for infections and our doctor prescribed it initially for when Little Man came home from hospital after being born with a mild case of golden staph).

I also bought some headache tablets and some sunscreen.

We had our photos taken with some human 'statues' and some lion cubs (I felt very unsure about that but the handler claimed they were fundraising for some wildlife rescue place and the kids and The Groom basically made me agree to it - I worry about exploitation of animals).

The cubs were so cute and playful and one of them took a real shine to Little Man.

The one I held must have not long woken up from a sleep as it was just content to sit on my lap and let The Princess stroke its fur.

The it was time to eat so we went to the Dockside Tequila Shark.


The view was brilliant right on the dock and we could watch the comings and going of the world around us.


I didn't want to leave.


We ordered some calamari and chips, and nachos.


I can safely say this was the best nachos we have ever had.

I had heard so much about Senor Frog's and wanted to go there but the music was way too loud and we'd had a couple of Corona's and too much sun so decided it was time to say our farewells to Cabo and head back to the ship.

We waved goodbye to passers-by as we headed back to the ship.

And waved hello to fellow passengers on deck or on their verandahs.

She is such a beautiful ship.

Unfortunately, we'd forgotten to collect our souvenir photo with the lion cubs until we'd boarded the ship's tender so The Groom stayed on the tender to go back while we went back to our cabin to shower and get ready for dinner.

I wonder if he was tempted to stay in Cabo...

But this was our last port and it was time to head back to L.A.

But before we left there was Pirate Party night!

And fireworks at sea in Cabo.

It was so cool and unforgettable.