Despite the heavy sleeping caused by our drunken state, our night was disturbed by tailgaters partying right next door. We don’t know how long we conked out for, but at some time in the night, the noise around us became unbearable and we moved the car to the back of the parking lot. As Dan crawled back into bed, he realised we’d left the umbrella back at our park since I’d just laid it under the car. I wanted to go and get it, but he assured me it would be there in the morning. Who would take it? I wasn’t convinced, but eventually I fell back to asleep. What seemed like moments later, the sun was rising over the peninsula. Dan was in full hangover mode, but I was wide awake so I took Cleo out to see the sun rise over the hill. I really just wanted to get my umbrella.
Cleo was not only out for the bathroom, she was my protection and I was glad I had her! A homeless-looking guy was walking around near where I was, following slowly wherever I went, but he never got close enough to be a problem, probably thanks to Cleo. I walked over to where we’d initially parked and was happy to see our trusty umbrella laying in the sand. Unfortunately it was under a parked car with the owners sitting inside so I didn’t go up and retrieve it just then, but waited until they left. As I stood near the parked car, I looked down into the sand and was amazed when I saw a Teva sandal that I didn’t even know I’d lost. I picked up my left shoe and Cleo and I retraced our steps back to our beach spot just in case we’d managed to lose the right shoe as well. No dice, I had to hope it made it safely back to the van.
On the beach, the local fishermen formed black silhouettes against the brightening sky. It was beautifully cool and dead quiet. There wasn’t a tourist in sight, only a nice bay waiting for the first rays of sun to hit. By the time the sun was peaking over the hill, I saw the parked car over the umbrella drive away so me and Cleo wandered towards our bounty. Just as I approached the umbrella, a homeless lady out doing her homeless scavenge saw the brolly and picked it up. I started running towards her pointing to my chest and saying “Mine! Mine!” Not wanting a conflict, she dropped the umbrella and walked away. That was close! Umbrella and shoe in hand, I returned to the car.
After having a quick look in the living room for my other shoe and having no luck, I crept back into bed. Dan was still passed out but awake enough to console me on the loss of a shoe. Not able to relax without knowing the location of my right Teva, I got out of bed again and searched the back of the car under the bed. After pulling out the wetsuits, I found it stashed in with the rest of our shit. Don’t know how it got there but it didn’t matter. I still had a pair of shoes!
I was too awake to go back to sleep so while Dan still slumbered, I made myself breakfat to cure my grumbling tummy. I used the pancake mix we’d bought to make myself a very American breakfast. Dan wandered off to use the bańo as I ate and paid 10 Pesos ($0.50) for the priveledge.
We had planned on getting up early and doing a hike this morning, but neither of us were in any state. Instead we planned to hang out at the beach to manage the heat as best we could. I had a case of dirtbag syndrome and per my usual hangover craving, I set about cleaning the van. The floor was a mess and the fridge had started smelling thanks to some unknown juices at the bottom. I cleaned out the fridge, put everything back in its place, made the bed and cleaned the floor. Considering the size of the van, it took longer than you’d think. While I was doing this, Dan was feeling sorry for himself in the driver’s seat until Lidia and Christian showed up next to us. There’d been no sign of their car in the lot so we assumed they’d gone elsewhere to escape the noise but they did the same as us, parking in a different corner of the lot. Dan and Cleo went over to chat with them while I finished cleaning. When I was satisfied I’d removed most grains of sand from all the crevices, I met them over at the taco stand where they all grabbed breakfast. It was barely 9am and it was already bikini weather.
Christian and Lidia went into town to visit a pharmacy so we set up camp on the beach. We put our brolly up in a similar spot to yesterday and settled in to watch the crowds roll in. First things first, we both jumped in for a swim to cool down. After a bit of people watching, Dan was still feeling worse for wear so I offered him a back massage which he graciously accepted. I got the baby oil from the car and he lay himself down on the Thai mat. It was funny to be offering such a service for free when there were professionals all around us selling the same thing.
Another swim later, we were ready for our lunch round of fish tacos. I hot footed across the sand back to our usual taco truck only to find that she’d closed down for the day. I had a quick look around our parking lot, but found no other vendor offering fish tacos. Not quite knowing what to do, I returned to our umbrella. Dan took charge, thinking he’d seen a vendor in the corner of the carpark I hadn’t visited so he went off to do what I could not. Sure enough, he returned a few minutes later with two packages in hand and an ice cold Coca Cola.
As soon as we finished our food, our friends showed up having run their errands and explored the marina a little bit. They got in the water quicksmart then made their lunch out of their cooler. They were super generous, offering us anything they had as ours. All four of us managed to fit comfortably under our shitty umbrella, with Cleo in the middle. After food, we all fell asleep and stayed that way for a good hour or so, each of us enjoying a blissful nap. We all woke up slowly thinking what a good photo that would have been, four people and a dog all passed out under a derelict umbrella. Jumping in the water helped to wake us up, but our routine for the rest of the afternoon didn’t really change much.
I read the Gringo Gazette, a free newspaper I’d picked up yesterday which was well written with good humour. I learnt some interesting things, such as the boats we’d seen at sunrise the day before were not fishing charters, but entrants in a fishing competition that kicked off at 7am, which explains why they all sped off as fast as they could when the clock ticked over. A few touristy facts that surprised me is that there are 18,400 hotel rooms in the city of Cabo and that Mexico recently became eighth highest on the list of countries most visited.
I played soccer in the shallow waves with Christian for a bit which summed up the biggest amount of exercise I’d had in a while. He was skilled with his feet and he passed a few tips on to me in the hopes I could give him some sort of competition, which didn’t really work out, but we had fun anyway. Dan, Lidia and Christian shared a cold mango out of their cooler and with food envy, I actually bought something from one of the many vendors that had passed us. The lady offered us an array of chips and snacks and I went for what looked the weirdest. It was helpful having Lidia there to translate a bit! I got myself a bag of dried plantains (sort of like a banana) which were crispy, delicious and not too sweet. I passed them around, very happy with my only purchase from the hounding vendors. As the sun started going down, it was time to leave the beach. It hadn’t been nearly as busy as the day before when the cruise ship was in the bay, but we still stayed long enough to watch the crowds dwindle as happy hours started at the bars.
It was Christian and Lidia’s idea to walk downtown and we were happy to follow, though it wasn’t something we’d have done if it was just the two of us. In the end, we were both really glad they’d suggested it because it was a beautifully warm night and it was a nice experience to walk the streets of party Cabo. We started at the mall for a bathroom break and we were astonished at the American prices we saw in the stores. Dan and I needed dinner so we head to the foodcourt looking for a quick fix. We found it in some dirty Chinese food, sharing a plate. Lidia was waiting for Christian to finish in the bathroom while Dan and I found a table in the food court to sit. We felt like a highschool couple going on a bloody mall date on a Saturday night. Sigh! Dinner was yummy, L&C joined us as we finished with an ice cream so we got a couple of cones to prevent any food envy. We took the escalators upstairs to the cinema where we discovered that it was only 50 Pesos ($2.50) per screening and there were two competing cinemas right next to each other, offering the same films but slightly different services. Apparently this is a common thing in Mexico.
Outside, we continued our wander of the streets. There were plenty of people out, but the enthusiasm of the clubs seemed to outweigh the mood of the crowd on the sidewalk. Each club we walked near was pumping out loud music and ridiculous lighting. Those that had any clientele had poor singing emanating from them thanks to the karaoke. After we went past the street with all the strip joints, and dodging the restaurateurs along the marina front, we came to a particularly busy section where Dan was offered cocaine four times by four different guys in the space of about two minutes. I even saw one of the sellers show him his product in a small half-palm sized bag he pulled from his jean pocket. No thanks!
Having had our fill of the downtown vibe, we passed more empty clubs on the way back to camp. Christian stopped at a convenience store to buy a small bottle of liquor and even tried to talk his way into getting us into a hotel pool but to no avail. Back at camp, after collecting Cleo from the car (she was very happy to see us) we head to the beach to sit and watch the moon glowing yellow high above the horizon. Christian cracked the liquor but we denied his offer to take any, still enjoying our alcohol and (for Dan) cigarette free day.
Dan and I called it a night early, both tired from the unexpected exercise of a walk through town after such a lazy day. We said adios to our new friends and wished them happy travels on their way back to Tijuana (in two days) and they did the same for us. They stayed out on the beach a while longer, wanting to make the most of the short time they had in Cabo.
We proactively moved the car across the carpark in the hopes of having a quiet night. It also meant we could sleep with the doors open again. It almost worked. There was one guy who came and parked nearby with loud music, but other than that, we got pretty lucky.