San Jose del Cabo

We left Cabo San Lucas on January 1, 2018. It was a challenge getting out of the crazy Cabo harbor. It wasn’t made easier by the fact that we forgot to hail a security guard to give our key cards and electrical adapter to before we pulled out. This would incur a hefty fine, which we weren’t willing to pay! Realizing this, we pulled into the fuel dock. Of course, they couldn’t take them. We had to find security. Being a holiday, this was a major task. After over 30 minutes, we were again on our way. By this time, however, the cruise ships were emptying and MANY tenders with passengers were flooding into the area where we were. There were also ferries, fishing boats and private yachts. Also clogging the entry to the harbor were a string of lobster pots! They let them put these here?! We dodged and weaved, but made it out. Breathing a sigh of relief, we headed out into the bay. What a beautiful day! Lots of boats out, no problem, we will just go around them. As we approached a group of 8-10 boats (some quite large with passengers hanging over the railings) we realized that they were watching a pod of whales. On the other side were a group of fishing boats. Coming up down the fairway was a huge Carnival cruise ship. OK, here we go between the whale watchers and the fishermen. Almost there……wait….there are whales off our port bow! Cool! Not so cool when every single whale watcher zoomed right at us! So we switched positions again to get out of the way…..so did the whales! Seriously?! Here come the watchers! Good grief! Part of our problem was our speed….sailboats under power are less than half the speed of a power boat, especially the big ones. Our only solution, slow down and let them pass us, hoping that they would pay attention to where we were, not just the whales. There they go, chasing away…..whew!

Once we got out of the busy bay, we had a nice day sail in beautiful sunshine to the harbor at San Jose. We passed many luxurious resorts and beautiful cliff side homes. We entered with no problem, called security and they were waiting at our slip. Nice! They helped us tie up after one move due to a power issue and here we were secure in the beautiful and really huge marina of Puerto Los Cabos. We were greeted by several fellow cruisers and felt right at home in this quiet place.

We spent the next couple of days exploring. This part of San Jose, outside of the marina, is really Mexico. Dirt streets and little one room tiendas (stores). Nice locals. We ate at a couple of local cantinas and enjoyed their ceviche and fish tacos. On the third day we were joined by three boats that we had met in Turtle Bay. Nice! We visited and all decided to go to dinner together. There were 13 of us (4 kids). We crossed the street to go to the Marinero Borracho ( Drunken Sailor). It looked busy with not enough seating for all of us. One of the group had a recommendation by the laundry (yes, they do your laundry here!) operator for a small family run restaurant near here. We walked up the street. It was an outside “yard” with a few tables, a hammock, a climbing structure for the kids and a kitchen. The people were nice and welcomed us in. We joined a few tables together and proceeded to enjoy a really nice meal. As it got dark and we were finishing, we heard what we thought were firecrackers. Listening, Ken decided that was definitely NOT fireworks, rather automatic weapon fire! Looking across the road, we saw a group of people duck to the ground. The cantina owners rushed all of us behind a nearby building. Squatting down we waited. There was a long period of gun fire, nothing, then more firing. We waited for the policia (in their trucks with machine guns) to come. After what seemed like forever, the streets were flooded with policia. We came out from behind the building and sat at the tables waiting to see if it would be safe to walk the three blocks back to the marina. After almost an hour, we decided to go. We rushed back and boarded our boats. We felt sorry for the amazing locals that we had met to have to live like this! We found out that the gunfire was cartel and there was apparently a turf war going on! That wasn’t in the travel guide! Four members of one cartel were gunned down. Two right in front of the restaurant that we had originally decided to eat at! Providence, again on our side.