I recently visited Baja California Sur — a state on the Baja California Peninsula in northwest Mexico. We stayed in Cabo San Lucas and also spent time in San José del Cabo, Cerritos Beach and Todos Santos.
The flight was an easy 2 hours and 20 minutes from Los Angeles International Airport. They are planning major renovations and expansion of Los Cabos International Airport which is badly needed because the airport has a tough time processing travelers when the planes from the United States and Canada all arrive around the same time. It can take an hour to get through customs and get your baggage after landing. The flights are going to increase as well with service starting between London and Cabo and South Korea and Cabo so European and Asian tourists in addition to the many Americans and Canadians.
The roads are very impressive in and around Cabo. My driver told me that the toll road from the airport was built for the 2012 G20 Los Cabos Summit of world leaders.
Our tour guide told us that Cabo only has a 2 percent unemployment rate. Tourism is the main industry and puts almost all of the locals to work. You can tell. The streets are clean with hardly any trash and there are very few homeless people.
We stayed at the Grand Fiesta Americana resort hotel and there were multiple layers of security. Cabo is very isolated compared to mainland Mexico so doesn't experience crime from the drug cartels. We did see the Mexican military patrolling for drug cartels on land and in water.
Our tour guide took us to a glass blowing factory, on a glass bottom boat out in the waters around Cabo and for lunch to San José del Cabo which is the colonial town and the quieter side of Cabo. The party town with the spring breakers is Cabo San Lucas.
On Friday night we celebrated Shabbat at the Cabo Jewish Center - Chabad Cabo.
On Saturday we took a trip north to Cerritos Beach which is the best kept secret in Cabo and maybe the best beach in North America. It is rapidly developing with new housing. There is a hotel and villas there and massages on the beach.
Then we headed to Todos Santos — a town on the Pacific coast of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, backed by the Sierra de la Laguna mountain range. That is where the Hotel California is which has no affiliation at all with the Eagles song of the same name but has an interesting history in its own right. Todos Santos is the quintessential Mexican town with all the warm and friendly Mexican hospitality you expect.
The last full day in Cabo we went whale watching. We caught the humpbacks near the end of breeding season before their migration north to feed on krill. We also used a hydrophone to hear mating sounds. The alpha male whale with the best song gets the girl to mate with and pass his genes on to the next generation of humpback whales.
The next day I flew back to LAX and made sure to get a window seat to see the amazing Baja California below.
I would definitely recommend visiting Cabo and other parts of the Mexican peninsula.
Viva Cabo!
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