Cleo woke us, just like a kid on Christmas morning, climbing into her parents’ bed to inform them it was morning and time to open the presents! We obliged, opening the back door to a clearing marine fog over the waves. We all used the bathroom before retreating back into the van for a couple more hours of snoozing. It was the first time in a few days we’d been able to sleep in because the van wasn’t getting too hot from the sun thanks to the wind off the ocean.
The beach below us was still deserted, which seemed a complete waste. We wondered if the house and property below was owned by some rich white guy who only brought his wife here a couple of times a year. Seemed an incredible shame that not many people get to appreciate the view we had. The wind was still strong, but the sun was warm enough that we could have showers at the side of the van without heating up the water.
We hung around camp stark naked, soaking up the warmth of the sun and still not getting over the beautiful view that lay below us. Dan got going on breakfast while I sat out in the sun writing. We couldn’t find the sunscreen to protect my seriously sunburnt nose so Dan offered me his ridiculously big Mexican hat, which was functional enough apart from being much too big for my head. After having it nearly fly off once, then actually fly off requiring me to go chasing after it, I took the hint and retreated into the van to finish my writing. On the way in, I managed to drop my laptop on the rocky ground. I’d just been thinking yesterday that I was lucky to have not dropped it once in the time I’d owned it so I knew it was coming. Thankfully, I got away with it. Only a small dent and a minor scratch, nothing more.
Breakfast was delicious. As we enjoyed it, Dan noticed people on the beach! After seeing the couple on the sand with their four dogs, Dan spotted what looked like an Astro van parked near the entrance to the property. Was it the owners? Tourists? Or locals who figured out the property is abandoned? Whatever, it meant we probably wouldn’t end up going down to the beach. The waves didn’t look very surfable anyway. When one of the people started walking up the road towards us, we thought maybe we’d be getting in trouble but Dan was resolved that if someone asked us for money, he’d flat out say no.
We had something else to think about soon enough when Dan, wandering around the car having a cigarette, let out a gasp and pointed to his front tyre. It was flat. Shit! It wasn’t the brand new tyre he’d just bought a week ago, but it was the second best one he had. We figured it had to have been a slow leak since we didn’t notice it was flat last night. After some inspection, we found a small cactus plugged into the sidewall near the tread. Bugger. Oh well, that made our decision for us about going to the beach, we got to work putting on the spare. Thankfully Dan had brought a proper trolley jack so we didn’t have to muck around with a shitty scissor jack.
Fifteen minutes later, we were dirty but had a spare on. While all that was happening, we were continually nervous about the person walking up the hill with their dogs but just as we got the spare tyre on, we noticed they’d walked right by us. Now we wanted to get out of there. Dan took the wheel and we drove out the way we’d come, hoping like all hope that statistics would prevail and not give us another puncture. It was 1pm, we’d had a very, very easy start to the day.
We figured we’d head straight to Cabo so we could find a tyre shop. We didn’t even get two kilometres on the highway until we found a mechanic in El Pescadero painted bright yellow right on the side of the road. They had plenty of tyres on their racks which was a good sign. We walked in and explained we had a flat and they told us to bring it in. Without much talking, they were straight on to fixing it and didn’t mind us hanging around watching.
They wrestled with the stupid cactus spike for a while, trying to get it out from the inside, then the outside of the tyre. Because it was such a small puncture and it was on the sidewall, they didn’t use a plug, instead they heated up the tyre on both side, slightly melting the rubber to seal the hole. Something I’d never seen done before. We trusted that it was effective and couldn’t believe it when they asked us for 150 Pesos ($7). We left them with 200 Pesos ($10) and hoped they didn’t mean anything suss when they said “Hasta luego (see you soon)”.
A little further down the road in El Pescadero, we stopped at an Oxxo for more beers and parked the car on a flat section of concrete to put the repaired wheel and tyre back on to replace the spare. Our roles were so backwards when I did the tyre and Dan went into the shops. Still unable to believe we’d just got a flat tyre only a few kilometres from a tyre shop, we drove on, looking for tacos and the beach.
At KM marker 65, we turned down an unmarked dirt road in search of Playa Cerrito. I think we’d been premature in our turning, ending up at a dead end, but we eventually found our way through a network of houses and shacks, most of which looked empty for the low season. We ended up exactly where we needed to be where a few other cars were parked, right in between a bunch of flashy resorts. Before doing anything much, we went down to the beach to scope it out. It had beautiful white sand and the boutique resort that stood out on the point had beautiful architecture that complemented the beach. We checked out the beach bar for tacos and balked at the 240 Peso price ($12) opting to go hungry. Keen to get into the surf, we head back to the car to get our stuff. As we walked past the surfboard rental place, I noticed a bunch of scraps by the fence at the back of the beach. Among them was a massive beach umbrella which in my eyes, had not a whole lot wrong with it. I was excited to score it and made to take it back to the car while we got our stuff but Dan advised I leave it there since no one else was going to take it.
I was nervous the whole time we stayed at the car, worrying that someone would take my umbrella and Dan took the piss out of me for it. We ate some yoghurt, bananas and granola for some energy, then got the surfboard off the roof, the wetsuits out and we were good to go. Poor Cleo was wanted to stop under every car for some shade since the sand was so hot. To my great happiness, my umbrella was still there in the trash heap so I grabbed it and we set up on the sand. It was a perfect shade tool with plenty of room underneath it for a couple of people and a perro (dog).
I took first surf. Despite the perfect air temperature, the water was cold enough to warrant the suit. There were plenty of surfers in the water, but they were all in one area by the hotel so I head out somewhere by myself. I started by paddling out all the way past the furthest break. After trying a couple of waves there without much success since they were too big, I stayed closer in, aiming for some smaller stuff. It was choppy so I still didn’t get many great waves, but I got enough to make me happy. My stamina let me down again, my arms unable to push me up off the board anymore so I came back in to the beach.
Cleo and Dan were having a great old time, the former sleeping in the manufactured shade and the latter chewing on sunflower seeds. Dan gave me the usual feedback with my surfing, making me feel better about what I considered a feeble attempt. Soon enough, he was suited up and out in the waves, leaving me and Cleo to people watch. There were plenty of people on the beach, set up under their umbrellas while the resort goers enjoyed the lounge chairs laid out for them.
Dan nailed a couple of big waves but he also got smashed a few times. It was fun to watch him surf as well as a couple of women on short boards who knew what they were doing. After Dan had been out much longer than me, I was getting irritated that he could have so much stamina! He just kept paddling, surfing, paddling, surfing while I could hardly lift my body up after half an hour! Here was a guy who drinks, smokes and doesn’t work out that much and he’s creaming me! Hmmph. Finally he came back in and Cleo ran out to greet him, happy that her man was back. Dan surprised me further still after he went out for another stint after a quick chat when he told me he was going back in to catch some of the small easy stuff. I watched all the while, trying to pick up tips.
Surf session finally over, I contemplated going back out again, mostly because of my competitive nature, but I’d been chilling out under the umbrella too long and the wind was getting cooler and cooler. While Dan took his suit off, I went for a quick sprint down the beach and back just to get my blood pumping a bit. It was a bit past 4pm in the afternoon and we felt we’d spent the day well considering the flat tyre. We decided to take the umbrella with us since it was such a good score and we predicted more beach hanging out would be happening in the days to come.
Still with plenty of time in the day left, we figured we’d head for Cabo, desperate now for fish tacos. There were a few beaches between Cerritos and Cabo but no taco stands so we didn’t stop. The double highway wove through the hills until, all of a sudden, we came over a rise, the radio found a station and we saw Cabo. It was massive. It reminded me of driving into San Francisco that first time, the hillsides covered in housing as far as the eye could see. This was Baja’s Mecca.
The closer we got, the more built up it became, with two lanes turning into three and buses flooding the roads. We were worried we’d be unable to find a cheap taco stand here. We drove without direction, just following the main drag towards Centro Cabo until Dan expertly spotted a roadside restaurant serving tacos. The price was right at 20 Pesos so we parked at the nextdoor fashion shop that was blasting obnoxious poppy music and took a seat at one of the plastic tables. No pescado (fish), so we settled for steak. These guys definitely weren’t a contender for the best tacos, serving tiny tortillas loaded with meat so that with toppings they were hard to manage. Still, it wasn’t bad food. We only had a taco each, figuring we’d try some tomales from the street vendor around the corner but when we went to said corner after finishing our tacos, he was gone!
Since I had phone service, Dan was looking around on Google maps for a camp and found a Walmart. Ha, this was something we had to see. Maybe we could even camp there! We set the navigation and drove towards it. There were people milling all over the city, playing sports and going for after work runs. We were on a highway heading east when we saw the Walmart pass us by. Dan missed the turn off which meant we were on for a 5km u-turn so we lost interest in the Walmart idea. I started scanning Google maps trying to find a camp. There were a couple of dirt roads leading to the beach but we couldn’t get to any of them. All we could find were resorts. As we made a u-turn on the highway to go back into the city, we were both feeling bad vibes from Cabo. Maybe this wasn’t for us. I navigated us to a spot by the beach that looked accessible and when we made our way to it, we balked at the sign that said we had to pay for parking. When Dan noticed there was no one manning the parking station, we drove on in anyway. Just as we reached the gate though, a man with a clipboard walked up and explained it was 35 Pesos to park. $1.50 isn’t so bad so we paid it and we could stay all night. Pretty sure we just found our camp! Sarah did good.
The parking lot seemed to be a local spot with vendors lining the lot and crappy cars that had been abandoned after getting stuck in the sand. We parked up and head for the beach. The sun was just setting behind the city and the moon was up over the ocean. There was hardly anyone on the beach because of the late hour and it was gorgeous. We were at Playa Médano, which seemed like the beach for every gringo that travels to this city. The sand was backed by resort after resort and tables and chairs were set up everywhere for tourists to enjoy. We sat and watched locals fish, standing in the water knee deep and casting nets out, often getting success in the form of dozens of fish which they scrambled to get into a bucket. A few sailboats dotted the ocean and the cliffs clearly showed the southern most tip of the Baja peninsula. When Dan pointed out a group (there’s probably a specific name for it) of stingrays out near the boats jumping out of the water and temporarily flying, we couldn’t stop seeing them. They kept jumping out of the water and flapping around like idiots.
We walked a while down the beach, but it didn’t last long because poor Cleo was tired from the driving and lazing around in the sun and she was hungry just like us. Not many stalls were open since they’d probably run out of seafood, so we settled for the only restaurant hut that had its lights on. There’d been a band playing music only a minute ago so they were still open. They didn’t have tacos, so we tried their Ceviche Tostados for 40 Pesos ($2) a piece. After getting used to spending only 20 Pesos a meal, it was hard to stomach. The food was beautiful, refreshing and super healthy.
After soaking up the beautiful colours of the sunset over the city and the moon over the water, we retired to the van for the night. Since we had internet service for the first time in ages, we watched some MotoX out of Thunder Valley. The first round of the 250s was a stunning race, the top six changing positions constantly. It was just enough to keep us awake but we were done after one race. Lights off, we went to bed. It didn’t last long though, it seemed we’d parked in the party corner where people were tailgating, playing music out of their cars and drinking. With me and Cleo on the bed, Dan drove us to the other side of the lot where it was much quieter. So nice that if you don’t like your neighbours you can just move. It was so nice out that with our van backed against a wall, we could sleep with the back doors open looking up at the palm trees at the resort right next to us.