Derek and Diane invited us to head to Cabo with them for my 43rd birthday - which also happened to coincidentally be their 20th wedding anniversary. They got a house in a place called Playa Colorado (colorful beach I think) and we spent the week eating, swimming, napping, and doing a bit of snorkeling/diving.
2025-06-20
We started the day early, and somewhat irresponsibly. We left home just enough time to get to the flight, but we ended up getting stuck in a little traffic (it was too early for the ferry, so we had to drive around) and for only the 3rd time ever, the masterpark lot I usually use was full. We ended up just parking in short-term parking for a little extra money and we made it to the gate just as they started boarding. Thank goodness! Everyone started sending pictures of them as they got on the plane - we were all on our way!
We had a plane flight to San Diego and a few hour layover, and then on to Cabo!
We ended up having to wait about an hour for our rental car shuttle bus when we got to Cabo, but the rental process was relatively straightfoward. We had a 2ish hour drive along a very narrow dirt road before we arrived at the house. The house was in an amazing spot - right on the beach with a great pool/hot tub area and we were greeted with our first of many meals cooked by the house chef…
One of the first things we did after arriving was to get out the toys - we had an inflatable orca who was very photogenic and we found a little mermaid who also did some posing for us.
We did the trifeco, ate, swam in the ocean, and then hung out in the pool for a while. It was a trio we would repeat for many days to come.
I also found my new favorite food - Salsa Matcha. It’s basically olive oil with a bunch of different types of chilli infused in it. Definitely something I was planning to play around with when I got back to Seattle.
2025-06-21
We slept in - I was still coming down off of work a bit, so I only slept in until 7a but Angela had a glorious sleep all the way til 9a. We took a morning walk down the beach on the very hot sand and spied on all of the neighbors houses.
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There was a really cool section that seemed to have a bunch of pyrite swept ashore from the prevailing current - It looked like we were walking on a little path of gold.
In the afternoon, a couple of us went snorkeling right off the beach - unfortunatly, there wasn’t much to see but sand for as far at least the first 1/4 mile. Some small fish, but no coral heads or anything like that to see.
Then back to the house for our evening ritual - Eat, swim in ocean, pool, shower, repeat!
2025-06-22
We had an early rise this morning to head over to Cabo Pulmo to do a bit of real snorkeling in the national marine park located there. It was a pretty short drive down a dirt road to get to the site and there was a bit of confusion on where we were supposed to be going, but we made it. The marine park was pretty cool, but they had some very strict rules. We weren’t allowed to dive below the surface and we had to wear lifejackets the whole time - which took a little bit of the fun out of it. I think scuba would have been more enjoyable - but only Derk and Diane were able to but Derek had some stomach issues in the morning and Diane didn’t want to go by herself.
We took a boat out to our dive site and Angela was the first one in the water. I had assumed that it would be relatively warm given how warm the weather was outside and we were protected from any of the major pasific currents on the inside of Baja - but I was very wrong. Angela went in first and shrieked - I followed and shreiked just as loud. Despite the wetsuits. Once we were in though, it turned to amazing - we saw octopus, ray, parrot fish & etc, cool tiny red fish, tiny blue fish, turtle. I missed the roster fish, but others saw it.
We only did two trips into the water and back to the boats - each about an hour and a half or two hours. My hands and lips were numb by the time I got back into the boat both times. Part of the problem was the surface swimming and life jackets - I wasn’t able to be as active with free diving as I usually am. Either way, we had fun.
Mark was the MVP of snorkeling, he spotted the first octopus. They are hard to see - especially as far down as this one was.
We got a visit from a few turtles as well - I got some good pics, I think.
We warmed up a bit on theb boat ride back to town, but it wasn’t until we had been in the sun for a good half hour back in Cabo Pulmo before I was fully back up to temp. We had some delicious tacos at the grill in town before heading back to the villa.
Back to the house by 2p - then naps. We woke to find a few cows strolling down the beach - not exactly magestic, but we enjoyed watching them amble by. Not a bad life for a cow.
This was also a good time to mention our little gato friend who visited us in the mid-afternoon when the snacks came out. She was harmless, but she was always around if food were every to drop…
We did a little bit of our afternoon routine before dinner. Dinners were a very elaborate affair with at least 3 courses and it was a fun time for us all to get together and chat for usually 2-3 hours.
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We didn’t have any plans the next day, so we did some evening lounging by the pool before heading in for the evening
2025-06-23
Angela and I took a slightly shorter beach walk this morning - including some risque skinny dipping. We left before breakfast, so we had to turnb ack to get back in time that the others didn’t have to wait for us.
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The UV index got up to 11 by around 10a every day - and a UV index of 11 is not something I have experienced very often in my life. Hot!
We did some lounging and reading after breakfast - lots of sunscreen involved. There was also and hourly or so trip down to the ocean to cool off.
This was the day when Mark’s facial hair got really interesting - apparently he does this on most vacations, but it was the first time I got to experience the grandeur.
Lunches, dinners, even breakfasts were a thing of beauty. It was like a fancy resteraunt for every meal. We were already dreading the return to the real world where we had to feed ourselves.
To bed early, we have snorkeling tomorrow!
2025-06-24
We made the early morning drive out to Cabo Pulmo again, but the weather was much better today - less wind/waves and the water temp had improved dramatically (for reasons I still don’t fully understand). We hoped in the boats and the took us out to our first dive site - to see the jacks.
Apparenttly this school of jacks stays in pretty much the same place the whole time - they just swim against the current to avoid going anywhere. I wasn’t clear on why, but it was a pretty amazing sight to behold.
We found another octopus, and I got a pretty awesome video of him swimming around (in my opinion).
Overall, this was a much more enjoyable day snorkeling than the day prior. We saw just as much wildlife, but we got to keep all the feeling in our hands the whole time. Angela opted out this time (because of how cold it was the last time), but I got lots of pictures to share this time around.
We ate tacos at a different place today before heading back. After a quick drive back to our hacienda, we got our naps in and a few trips to the ocean/pool. This was our last day in Cabo and Angela/I were able to convince the rest of the team to go on a sunset hike up to this overlook called Cerras Crowne.
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The hike was pretty short, but steep. You could really see how dry this area was looking at the cactus and dry bushes during the hike. We got some great pictures from the top - of the surrounding moutains and of the coastal overlook.
Mark was very excited for dinner tonight…
2025-06-25
We had our last breakfast before heading off to the airport. Derek/Diane and Mark/Erin were the only ones staying for the whole week - so Angela and I were the only ones leaving today. We had 3 distinct crews througout the week - which was fun to relive the wow factor of arriving hear through each of the groups coming and going. Here were all three crews.
We all got a bit of the grumps on the way back, which spurred a ongoing joke for the next few weeks of how dissapointing it was to do all the things that we had done for us in Cabo. All good things must come to an end…
