Skipping the Little Bit of Amerika at the End of the Baja

Short Version:
Futbol, things get hot again, we find a balcony

Long Version:
Next morning was an early start, due to Janine-is-hungry. No televisions anywhere on the hotel property, which meant a foray uptown to watch Mexico play Uruguay in their final group match. The time zone difference between here and South Africa means we're watching at breakfast time, which is generally awesome, and especially so when we're watching at a cafe with quality espresso coffee and top-notch delicious eggy goodness (huevos buenos!) like Cafelix in Todos Santos. The whole town seemed to pause for the match, with schoolkids stopping in the courtyard on their way to school, most shops shut until after the final whistle, and pretty much no traffic on the roads. Mexico went down 1-0, but progressed to the next round on goal difference, which is good for us, as football's a great conversational opener, and one which lends itself well to miming when the words run out. New Zealand's valiant but ultimately doomed efforts have reflected well upon us, and bowing out of the tournament after a respectable showing and with Mexico still in the running probably will too.

We headed back to the Hotel once the game was over, and relaxed in and around the pool until the checkout deadline hit and forced us to drag our reluctant selves and our bags out to the van. The bags stayed in it, but we hit the town in search of best-example-at-best-price hammocks and hammock-chairs, glass- and silverware, and other items of Mexicana we wouldn`t know we needed until we saw them. Like wrestling masks. We looked at LOTS of stores, but bought nothing, as we`d been tipped off about a warehouse-cum-store at Cabo San Lucas - our next port-of-call - which had more variety at better prices. So we paused at our first roadside taqueria and ate delicious foods, then hit the road, for the last southwards leg of the Mexico journey.

Not long before we reached Cabo San Lucas, the temperature both in- and outside the Reaper went up a notch or two as we carved inland, away from the Pacific Ocean. That translates to a change from near-perfect levels of warmth, with just enough cool breeze to feel exquisite, but not enough to disturb... to a blazing inferno. Once again, the wind in through the open windows was akin to an enormous hairdryer on full, and the desert on either side of the road started to look more and more hostile.

Then we reached Cabo San Lucas. We might as well have been in LA. It was horrible. We looked at a tourist spectacle or two*, then got the hell out, as the store we were looking for had closed for the day. Eastwards, past massive resorts and luxury hotels, past golf courses with incredibly verdant, lush green fairways separated by stretches of barren desert, past some of the most beautiful beaches imaginable, where no-one was swimming due to the well-documented unfriendly currents, and eventually to San Jose Cabo, which was a perplexing maze of one-way streets, and baking like an oven.

The first hotel we looked at was basically some dirt-poor people offering to move their kids out of a room to make way for the tourists. The second was really expensive. The third was full. The fourth had a decent-sized room for a decent price, a decent-looking restaurant with a reasonably-priced menu, and a shady balcony upon which we took up residence, partook of delicious foods and drinks, and played 500. For hours. The waiter was quite young, and really helpful and nice. We practiced languages on each other, with various levels of success**, and tipped him well enough to make up for accidentally stealing his pen. We sat there playing cards and mangling Spanish and watching the undertaker from across the road head out on late-night collection missions and listening to the mangos plummet from the tree above us and crash onto the roof of the balcony where we were ensconced, or that of the car someone had parked next to it, for probably slightly longer than we should have, but eventually we figured out that every other staff member had gone home, and every light was off except where we were sitting, and that we should probably make ourselves scarce.






* = One.

** = The bit where my `definitely vegetariano` meal arrived with a pork thing and some chicken was disappointing, but I had enough carnivores around that it wasn`t a major. And the guy obviously felt bad about it, as he brought me an additional cheesy jalapeno quesadilla to make up for it. And some mangoes, fresh from the tree, when we asked what the noisy bombardment fruits were.