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Here is a story I wrote about Mr. Bajagypsy's and mine first experience going to Cabo. Hope you enjoy it.

Cabo, Where the Hell is Cabo?
I remember the first time my then boyfriend Todd said he wanted to go to Mexico it was around September of 2003. I thought great, I know just where I’ll take him, we can fly into Cancun, jump a taxi, take the ferry to Isla Mujere’s, spend some time there, then go on to Chichen Itza, he will love it!!! He then said, “Yeah, I want to go to Cabo!!!” “Cabo, where the hell is Cabo?” I replied smugly. All the while thinking to myself, he doesn’t know Mexico, he hasn’t even been south of Wyoming, let alone Mexico. “You know, Cabo San Lucas, Baja” he replied. My heart dropped. Ever since I was little, I had heard that Baja, isn’t really Mexico, all Baja is was an extension of California. I was utterly disappointed. “Don’t you want to go to the REAL Mexico?” I asked. “Nope, I want to go to Sammy Hagar’s bar in Cabo San Lucas, I want to see the Lands End Arches”. That was the last we spoke of it for some time.

Around November we were sitting at the kitchen table, having a drink and just talking about our week, when Todd says “I think my bonus check will definitely cover us going down to Cabo”. Now this took me by surprise, as I had totally forgotten the conversation we had three months earlier. “Cabo, where the hell is Cabo?” Now I must explain something before I go much further, Todd can give a look, like nobody I have ever met. It is a cross between pity and are you serious? You really can’t be that stupid. That is the look I received before he answered. “I told you three months, ago, Cabo San Lucas in Baja, I want to go see Sammy Hagar’s bar, and the Lands End Arches. It will be fun, we can fly down, and stay in a hotel, and it will be a vacation for us”. I was stunned. I had totally forgotten that conversation three months earlier. “I really can’t afford to fly down to Baja, and I don’t really want to go to Baja. If you want to go to Mexico, let’s go to the Mainland, that is the real Mexico anyway, it will be a lot more fun”. Again I got his special look before he replied “I will pay, and it will be fun, I want you to go down there with me”. So we went to the computer and went to the travel websites typed in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to Cabo San Lucas, and waited. As the computer screen flashed the “retrieving your requested information” message, I said to Todd, “This is what you want to do for sure?” He nodded, simultaneously, the price page popped onto the screen, and Todd said “You’ve got to be kidding me, $3,500.00 US dollars for one person, for one week?” Inside I was secretly smiling, I knew I could find a cheaper flight to Cancun, and from there we could rent a car, and go exploring. “Well, we could always try a different city, I bet I can find a cheaper flight to say Cancun, and then we could rent a vehicle, and drive around till we find a spot that we like”. I could tell from the disappointed look on his face, that what I had suggested really was not an option. I then understood why my mother had said that real relationships were a give and take situation. It was time for me to give something to this relationship. Somehow we had to make this dream of his come true. What was two weeks of my life? Maybe I really would like it and we would have a blast. I racked my brains for what seemed like forever, and finally blurted out “We can drive, we will drive down, there, how far can it be?”

I will post the second part at a later date.

When are we going to get to read the second part?

Look forward to reading it!

Y

Thanx for the replies here is part two

Part 2 Planning the Trip



Now that I had committed myself, I was absolutely determined that Todd and I would drive to Cabo, and have the trip of a lifetime. “You know we probably could.” Todd said. So back to the computer we went, logged onto MapPoint and typed in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to Cabo San Lucas, Baja, and waited, and waited some more. I was just about to go and get us another drink, when finally pages upon pages of directions popped up on the screen. We looked at each other, and then back at the screen. “Holy crap, it is far, like 3,000 miles far” Todd sighed. My heart was somewhere in the vicinity of my kneecaps by that point. I pasted a smile on my face and said “actually, 3,000 miles is nothing, we can do that no problem. All we will have to do is take turns driving. When one of us gets tired we will stop for gas and switch drivers.” A new look crossed Todd’s face, it was one of absolute horror, mixed with, Oh my God I think she is serious.
The other problem that faced us is the fact that combined, we have four children. Apparently we both missed sex-ed in high school. Todd has custody of two kids, and I have custody of two kids. What in the world were we going to do with them? The oldest was only 13 and the youngest was 6, it was not like they could be left alone for three weeks. Which one of our friends was crazy enough to take on that adventure? We poured another drink and than tossed out names in the air. “No, if we managed to convince that friend, they probably won’t be our friends anymore” seemed to be the common answer to any name that came up. Finally we figured it out, His mom and dad would take his two kids, and my cousin could come and take care of my two and the house. That settled all we needed now was a date, and apparently a binder to put our directions in. After many drinks and much discussion we finally settled on a date. We would leave snowy Saskatoon on February 12, 2004 at 5:00. We were set!!! 

Yes, yes and what happened next?

*This is gripping stuff*

Y

Part Three Tijuana Here We Come!!!

The night before our trip was a busy one for us, so much to do, and as per usual we had procrastinated until the very last moment. The weather outside was horrendous, snow, blowing snow, -30 Degrees Celsius. Todd was trying to do the necessary vehicle maintenance for a trip that long, I was packing for children and ourselves, buying groceries, and assuring four somewhat sad children that yes we would return. Exhausted we finally fell into bed, expecting sleep to just over come us. After about an hour of lying there Todd finally asked “You asleep?” “No”, I practically yelled, “I’m so excited, I feel like a child at Christmas time!” We talked and talked into the wee hours of the morning, discussing our hopes, dreams and fears of this trip. 6:00 am comes early when you have only fallen asleep at around 4:00 am. Groggily we crawled out of bed, did the final checks, of luggage, got dressed, sent the kids to school and ourselves to work.

The day dragged by, like when you are at work, and have a ton to do, but none of it is what you really want to do. Every 15 minutes we emailed each other, “Is it time to leave now? How ‘bout now?” Finally the clocked said 4:00 pm, we could leave work, both of us speed home like our house was on fire. Hurriedly we ran into the house changed into our pajama’s for comfort on the drive, hugged, kissed and promised to call our children made promises of the gifts we would return with and jumped into the car.

The first thing we realized that we didn’t plan oh to well for was our departure time. Now Saskatoon isn’t a big metropolis or anything like that, but we do have rush hour traffic. The biggest hurdle in driving in Saskatoon is the horrific drivers. Either everyone has gotten their license from a small town with a population of 8, or they are 150 years old and should not be driving anymore. I looked over at Todd as we were waiting at a red light, for what seemed forever (in actuality it was probably only 2 light cycles), and noticed the vain in his temple starting to throb. This is always a sure sign that he is going to loose his mind. “We should get something to eat” I blurted out before I could stop myself. “No, behind schedule already, we need to make up time” he replied. My theory behind stopping for food was two fold. I was absolutely starving, it is almost a perpetual state for me, and I also thought that if I could raise his blood sugar to a normal level, it might stop the vein in his temple from exploding as it now looked like a rope coiled under the surface of his skin. “I think you will feel better if we get something substantial now, and then just snack along the way”. I got his special look, and tried to give my version of the special look; although I’m sure I looked like an absolute half witted moron. After many words back and forth and promises of a 5 minute stop max, we pulled over at a subway, just on the outskirts of town. I quickly ran in and wouldn’t you know it, every single person from the age of 5 – 105 was at this store ordering, much to the dismay of the SINGLE, person working there. I looked down at my watch, and back out to the car, I could see Todd, tapping his thumbs on the steering wheel. How was I to get in and out of here in 5 minutes? I knew it was an impossible feat, so I decided no matter what he said when I returned I would stay calm, and make him think it was only 5 minutes. Twenty minutes later it was finally my turn, I practically screamed my order at the poor sub maker and waited, I got our order and ran out to the car, expecting a “What in the hell took so long?” I got in the car, barely closed the door when the car was backing out of the parking stall, quickly I unwrapped the sub and handed it to him, noticing that the vain was slightly large than when I had left. Todd took a huge bite chewed, took a drink of his Coke, looked at me and smiled and said, “Thank you honey, it was just what I needed”.

Now when we originally printed off our directions from MapPoint, we had chosen the quickest route from Saskatoon to Cabo the reason being, is neither one of us has any patients. We want what we want now, not later. Both of us had skimmed he directions, not overly concerned on what they had to say, figured we would read it as we drove along. The most difficult portion of the trip seemed to be near San Diego, when you leave the I15 and get onto the I5 to enter Tijuana. We had been driving along for about an hour, when Todd asked If I wanted to do some driving, so that he could rest and then do some driving later on. We pulled over, made a quick switch, and Todd picked up our mammoth binder of directions. “All we have to do is turn just before/after we get into Medicine Hat, I’m sure we will find the turnoff, they are bound to have signs saying Canadian/Us Border this way”. Utterly confident we speed away in the dark.

Now I’m not the most confident driver when the roads are icy, and it is dark outside, after about half an hour of my driving at 100 km/hr (exactly the speed limit), Todd couldn’t take it anymore, and had me pull over so that he could drive, till we got to the US, he promised the road’s would be better there, and I would feel better driving on them in the dark. After all the excitement of the past day and a half, I promptly fell asleep. After a few hours had passed, Todd woke me up. We were in Medicine Hat, Alberta; did the directions say anything about where to turn? Try as we might we could not find the street we were to turn on we only had one choice, ask where we were. I know that both of us were feeling a little apprehensive now. Good God, we hadn’t even left Canada yet and we were lost!!!! Todd got out at a gas station, filled the car with gas and got detailed directions on where we were to go. Back in the car, and the race is on. The road was only half a block away, thank God, so we were back on our path of adventure.

Going through the US border was no problem, it was around 2:30 in the morning, I think the boarder crossing guard, was just to lazy to get out of his booth to check our vehicle, looked at our passports and off we went. I drove for awhile, and when we got to Idaho, I needed to pull over in the mountains for a pee break. Let me tell you, it was another moment when I wished I could pee like a man; it wasn’t much warmer than it was at home, and I literally froze my butt off!

I’m not sure about any of you, but Utah, is not my favourite state. I do not want to offend anyone from Utah, but man oh man, does that state go on for ever. When driving it I feel like it takes about ¾ of our driving time just to get through Utah.

We finally pulled in to Vegas, and needed to seriously stretch our legs. It was February 13th now around 6:00 pm, and we had been driving for 24 hours straight. We drove down the strip, as neither one of us had ever been to Vegas, and it was something we both wanted to see. We found a parking lot, parked the car and went for a walk. Now having drove for 24 hours straight, we looked a sight, both of us had food stains all over our clothes, and probably seriously smelled like a dead rotting carcass, strangely enough people didn’t even look at us twice, although I did notice that know one got overly close to us either!!! After about an hour of walking around, we figured that we should get back in the car, as Todd’s Aunt and Uncle were expecting us at their house in Palm Desert. Little did we know that traffic from Vegas, to California is as crazy as it is. Todd is a real pro driver though and got us to his Aunt’s and Uncle’s house in record time.

I have to hand it to his Aunt and Uncle, they welcomed us with huge hugs, (even though we really smelt), a big glass of wine, a wonderful sit down meal, shower and then a soak in their hot tub. I was content to stay there forever. As we were having our wine in the hot tub, I looked over at Todd and could see that he looked like how I felt. We decided to hit the sack, as we were planning to be on the road first thing in the morning.

We awoke to the smell of fresh coffee, and toast, not the way we usually wake up at home, with 4 children clomping around the house in what I swear are heavy army boots on the tile and hardwood floor. Aunty made us breakfast, and a lunch, while Todd and his Uncle figured the best way for us to get to Tijuana. With many hugs and a promise to stay with them for a few days on our way home, we jumped in the car with our lunches and headed for the border.

If we thought we were excited leaving Canada, let me tell you, we were about as annoying as a bunch of kids let loose in Santa’s work shop. I was bouncing in my chair, and felt like my heart was going to explode, Todd had a big burro grin on his face, we could see the ocean!!

Finally the signs started showing up, dire warnings of what will happen to you if you bring firearms into Mexico, Beware of children and mothers crossing the highway, the anticipation was going to kill us. Then finally we saw the border sign, there was a bit of a wait so we took some pictures.

Finally the traffic started moving, with great anticipation we were thrust into Tijuana, and suddenly, we were in downtown Tijuana, with car’s honking at us, and we had no idea where to go or where we were. “Quick look at the directions, where are we suppose to be?” Todd asked, with a note of panic in his voice. “I’m looking I’m looking, I can’t find anything”. We both looked at each other and realized we were royally screwed, we were lost in Tijuana. I knew that we needed to get Visa’s, knew that we needed to get onto Highway 1, but had no idea how to accomplish this, was this the end of our adventure, would we ever get to Cabo?

Come one, come on, spill the beans!

Y

PS. Shame about the spelling mistakes.

Part 4 Cabo, Here We Come, Maybe!!

We were driving around like a typical bunch of tourists, all that was missing, were the tacky shirts, and the camera attached to our neck, when we pulled up on an auto body repair shop. Now Todd is a mechanic/auto body hobbyist (actually he is an industrial mechanic/welder by trade), and what he saw made him cringe. They were sanding, with a belt sander, all the paint off the side of a car, to put a flame decal on. “Mister, Mister, come here we do flames on your car”, the auto body person called out to Todd. I have never seen anyone get off a one way street so fast in my entire life. We figured that we could get back to the border if we just went north, so off we went.

In our city, they took out the only traffic circle we had as 98% of the people could not drive it. After about our third traffic circle Todd made the comment that if this was in Saskatoon, people would go around in circles for hours. He was getting very good at driving them, when suddenly he said “What the hell is that? A cat?” Meandering across the fast moving traffic circle was a rat. Now in Canada, our rats do not get as big as they do in other parts of the world. Ours are normal rat size. After explaining to him that it was indeed a Rat, we continued on our way.

After around two hours of traffic circles, swearing, laughing, almost crying (by me I might add), and wondering if we would ever get back to the border, we finally found the big screen TV’s that announced we indeed were back at the border. I must say that this was the shortest wait time we have ever experienced in returning to the US. After explaining to the border guard what had happened, and learning from him that we could have gotten our tourist visa’s in Ensenada, we zoomed down the highway, looking for a way to get back into Baja!!

We got back into the road that shoots you into Tijuana, but this time se stayed to the far right. When we got through we quickly pulled over, purchased our visa’s got back in the car and looked at each other, and burst out laughing. We had left Canada looking for adventure, and so far 5 hours into our Baja adventure, we had experienced more adventure than most people do in a lifetime. We were contemplating on how we were going to get to the highway, when a bus driver approached our car with a huge smile. I rolled down my window, and he excitedly informed us that he had a tourist from Saskatchewan just last week. Now most Canadian’s can’t say Saskatchewan correctly and this gentleman pronounced Saskatchewan like he had grown up there. He went on to explain, that the person from Saskatchewan was so very nice and polite, and that he himself was so happy to meet us, could he be of any assistance? Having had enough adventure for one day we both exclaimed “How in the world do we get to the Highway?” After much drawing in the dirt, and explanation, we had rock solid directions. After profuse thank you’s and good bye’s we jumped in our car and started off for Cabo!!

The first thing that struck Todd was all the shops that we saw in the city/towns in northern Baja. You have to agree that the Mexican’s are a very resourceful bunch, the can make a store/house out of anything. Then next thing we realized is that we would create our all time favourite Baja game, yes you guessed it, it is called “name that breed of dog”!!! The most upsetting thing that we saw were the amount of dead dogs that were on the side of the roads in many towns that we drove through. My first reaction was, we should pull over and burry that poor dog, after that, it became almost the norm, and that upset me a little.

Once we got out of the hustle/bustle of the populated northern part of Baja, and gave way to the beautiful landscape of the mounts, you could almost feel the tension leave our bodies.

We drove and drove, for what seemed like forever, how is it possible that 200 kilometres in Canada roughly takes two hours, but in Baja, it takes four? As we pulled into Guerrero Negro at around 9:00pm, absolutely drained, dusty, thirsty and starving, we realized that it was Valentines Day, or VD as we call it in our house. We pulled into a little hotel, got ourselves a room and went to go put our bags in our room so that we could look for a place to eat and have a beer. The first thing we realized when we walked into our room was how clean it was. Sure it wasn’t a five star resort that is not what we came to Baja for, the room was immaculate, and you literally could smell the bleach radiating from the sheets, and floors. Happy with our choice we went in search of life giving beer!!!

The next morning, we decided to call the kids as promised, and let both sets of parents know that we were alive, well and still together (my mothers biggest fear, that we would break up during this trip!!). We eagerly put on sorts, and tank tops, like only a truly Canadian person would and ran out side. Much to our surprise/shock, it was freezing outside. Well ok, maybe not freezing as in -30 freezing but it was definitely chilly. Back in the room we went to get sweaters, and then we were off.

The day before we had gotten into a routine, after a bit of trial and error. I am terrified of heights, and we quickly learned that if we ever were going to make our destination, I would not be driving in the mountains. Todd drove the mountains and I drove the desert, it is a practice we still use. I am not even capable of explaining the absolutely beautiful scenery that we encountered. It was so beautiful at times I wanted to cry. As we got closer to Conception Bay it looked like the end of the world, the water was dazzling, and everything was so calm and beautiful. The window’s in the car were open, the breeze was blowing in the car, we had our tunes playing, and as we were approaching one of the many twisty corners of the mountains by Conception, I held up the map to get a look, to see if there was anything we needed to know, when whoooooooshh, out the window the map went. Panic stricken I looked over at Todd to see if he noticed, if he didn’t I wouldn’t say a word. If asked where the map was at a latter time, I would simply say, “oh, I guess we put it in the trash at our last gas stop”. “Did you just chuck the map out the window?” he asked me, and yes I was once again the recipient of his “special” look!! Todd slammed on the breaks (looking back now, it was probably one of the more stupid things we have done), and I ran out on the road to retrieve the lost map!!! We stopped at Conception, and had a lunch of fruits and such that we had picked up along the way. Realizing that we could have camped on the beach, we were very upset, we could have stayed there forever. Back in the car we went, as we were pushing on to Cabo.

It was a fairly uneventful trip, until we hit La Paz. Now our directions were very poor, in fact they were down right crappy, looking back we should have just left them on the road. It seemed every second road sign said Cabo San Lucas This way, with an arrow, and I think we were just going in circles. By this time it was 5:00 or so in the afternoon, realizing it would be quite late when we arrived in Cabo, we decided to stop and pick up some more fruit, and beer. We finally got on one road that looked like a highway. To this day, we have no idea what road it was, or if it was maybe just a dream! Suddenly the paved road gave way to a gravel road. That was ok, as both of us grew up driving and grid roads, we kept on going. It was getting quite dark by this point, (it was around 7:00 pm) when suddenly, it felt like the front end of the car had slammed into the ground. Now my first reaction was we have hit one of the many cows that we had seen on the road. I looked over at Todd, with I’m sure a look of fear, and he looked back at me. We both got out of the car, to see that the gravel road had now given way to a sand/dirt road. What else do two Canadian’s do in this situation. You sit down, and open a beer. We discussed what we were going to do, if the road was passable, If we should keep going, or turn around. Will one beer turned into two, which turned into three, so we now had all the courage we needed!!! Onward we went. I have to admit, we were in the middle of know where, every so often you would see a cow on the side of the dirt/sand. The road was horrid, you could only travel at around 20 kilometres and hour. If anyone know where we were, we would appreciate knowing!!! We went up quite a big sand hill I thought I would have to get out and push the car up actually, When all of a sudden we see lights!!!! Oh my god, could we actually be in Cabo, had we reached our destination? As we drove along, I noticed that it wasn’t a very big place, and I was quite sure that Cabo would be bigger. I asked Todd about it and he agreed, we were definitely not in Cabo. We pulled over and asked a girl at a Taco stand if we were in Cabo. With patience and wisdom beyond her years, she informed us that no we were not, it was further south. We were to go along this one road and then turn at the end of the road. Somewhat disappointed, we headed off into the night, it was by now 9:30 pm.

We were on a real paved road, and going at quite a decent speed, when once again, we saw lights of a city, and not just a few lights, it was a bunch of lights!! We were about to start our real adventure at any time now!!!

As we pulled into this town, we kept our eyes peeled for a hotel, and came across a sign that said, hotel row, we pulled down that street, and instantly our hearts dropped. They were the massive all inclusive hotels, that do everything for you, and cost your first born child. We were just looking for something modest, something around the $60.00 usd a night range. We drove up and down the strip a couple of times, each of us getting crankier by the second, exhausted and beginning to smell once again, we decided that for one night we would pull into the all inclusive and in the morning we would find something a bit more reasonable, when suddenly out of the corner of his eye, Todd noticed a nice modest looking hotel, he quickly pulled into the parking lot. It was 11:30 pm by this time, and all the lights were off. Todd walked up to the hotel office, and noticed that there was a door bell. After several attempts of ringing the bell, a very tired man opened the door for him and he went inside the office. Ten minutes later, a smiling Todd emerged, with keys. We had our room, and it was $40.00 usd a night!!! Exhausted we fell into bed, eager to start our real adventure in the morning!! 

This bit made me laugh.

They would be in real trouble over here!

Anyway, am I the only person avidly reading BG's master piece?

I await your next installment.

Y

*taps fingers on desk*

*sings, why are we waiting, why are we waiting*

Come on woman get on with it!

Y