Surf’s Up

After the paid excursion didn’t meet our standards, we decided to try planning our own outings some more. On Tuesday we decided to hit the beach for surfing. At least, we wanted to give James a chance to learn to surf. I was considering it, but Cyndi’s description of it combined with the frigid water and wind discouraged me from the activity.

The beach we chose was Playa Los Cerritos (which came highly recommended by Hugo). It is a safe, surfing beach up near Todos Santos on the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula. The beach was decent, but there was no shade without paying for it, and there was a bit of a breeze. When we arrived, the road makes it seem like you must pay $5 to park in a safe area, but just a bit farther north, there was a spot to park (no security, however) for free. We decided to save money as nothing was in the car anyway. Then on the beach there were a couple of vendors renting out surfboards and such. We got James a board and sent him out into the water with a couple of words of advice from his mother with the surfing experience. True to his athletic ability, James was catching waves in a couple of tries, just needing to perfect his timing.

And for the ladies…

Meanwhile, Jonathan and I enjoyed reading books on the beach. I tried to avoid the sun as much as possible, but I managed to get a bit darker and my nose caught more sun than the rest of my face. Oh fun. After a bit, I managed to order a pizza from the beachside restaurant/bar. They brought the meal out to us on the beach and provided a table and such for the pizza. The pizza was not too shabby, but the cream-cheese- or ricotta-stuffed crust (couldn’t tell which) was a bit much for some of the family.



When everyone had enough fun in the sun, we drove up the rest of the way to do some browsing of the artistic town of Todos Santos. Then we called it a day and headed back to our place in Cabo San Lucas. Along the way, we spotted the water spouts of several whales along the coast. However, we couldn’t find a safe road to the coast to see them up close.

For Wednesday, we thought we would like to try kayaking. There were some beaches along the southern coast that were recommended kayaking and snorkeling. So we drove out to Playa Bahía Chileno. There was supposed to be a palapa on the western end of the beach offering kayaking and snorkeling gear. However, when we arrived, we couldn’t find any such vendor. It was a beautiful location, though. With nothing to do on the beach but sun (which isn’t Jonathan and my favorite pastime), we decided we would try the second beach and see if it had the gear.

The next beach, Playa Santa María, was rather busy but did have the kayak and snorkel vendor, so we picked out a kayak and a couple of snorkels and picked out a spot on the beach. The afternoon was enjoyable with everyone rotating the various activities. Cyndi and I went out and kayaked into a small cave at the end of then of the cove that was inhabited with lots of crabs.



That evening, we made our way to Tacos Gardenias for an early dinner. They hadn’t yet tried the famous fish tacos of the Baja, so Jonathan and I thought we would introduce them. Tacos Gardenias had high ratings for the having some of the best. We tried the fried fish taco, I think it was fried halibut. It wasn’t too bad. I could have used some different sauce/topping offerings to make it delicious, though. Another interesting menu item that we tried was the cactus quesadilla. I liked the cactus; it was kinda like a green bell pepper, but without the bitter spice. We ended the evening with a walk to the marina and the Puerto Paraíso Mall.



Spanish Words of the Day:
Whale: la ballena
Wind: el viento
Sun: el sol
Sand: la arena