Continued from yesterday”¦ The grocery store was in another new and posh, though much smaller, mall. Most of the people in the mall were gringos (white people). The grocery store is like a Super-Target, with a humungous selection of food, house wares, clothes, etc. We did a quick stock up, then Patrick took us to see the brand new marina that they have just built in San Jose del Cabo. We didn’t even know the marina existed. It is very nice, but the marina prices are ungodly in this area. The reason we decided to anchor out was because a slip in the Cabo San Lucas marina would have cost us $250 per night. And this new marina is not much less expensive. Here is a shot of it.

We met the dock master. It just so happens that he wrote a book on how to do the Baja Bash, so we bought a copy from him. Knowing we have a book full of pointers is making us feel a little less nervous about the last leg.

Next on the “to do” list was to go to the airport to pick up Trevor, who is going to be crewing for us to Ensenada. It turned out his flight was early, so he was waiting outside and ready to go when we pulled up. That was easy! By now it was lunch time and we were ready to eat again. Patrick took us to a non-touristy part of town, a place where local Mexicans live as opposed to the ex-pat/tourist communities we have mostly seen so far. This section of town looks a lot like La Crucecita and has a blue-collar, lower middle class feel to it. Here is a street shot to give you a feel for what it looks like.

Patrick took us to a restaurant that serves only one thing: carnitas. Carnitas are shredded pork fried in lard and coca-cola, and seasoned with salt. The restaurant is basically a concrete patio with plastic patio tables and chairs. Off to the side is a small, open kitchen where a woman was making fresh tortillas on a grill. Yum”¦ fresh tortillas. This was going to be good. It had to be.

Like the al pastor meat restaurant in Huatulco, the menu offered carnitas served in a number of different styles, such as tacos or burritos. We took Patrick’s advice and skipped the individual meals and simply ordered a kilo of meat for the 4 of us to share. It was served with several baskets of tortillas, four kinds of salsa, radishes, limes, jalapenos, onions and cilantro to build your own taco creation. We like carnitas a lot in general, but these are definitely some of the best we have ever had. And, it is cheap! Patrick said that this place will often have a line around the block.

While we were eating, some mariachi singers came out and performed. Mariachi singers are pretty common in Mexican restaurants. They wear traditional Mexican costumes and play traditional songs, and will take requests if you tip them. They add some local culture to the meal.

After lunch Patrick took us to the historic part of San Jose del Cabo. The town was first established in 1730, though none of the buildings here today are anywhere near that old. And before that, pirates used to hide out here in between raids on Spanish ships. San Jose is kind of like Barra Navidad in that the village is old and charming, though it looks much different than Barra. The buildings here are mostly low one stories. The village actually looks a lot like the oldest parts of Del Mar and is really cute. There is an artist district that Patrick wanted to drive us through, but, unfortunately, the streets were blocked off so we couldn’t see it.

We didn’t actually stop in old San Jose, and after driving around some, we went back to Patrick’s condo, which is along the road between San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas. He has a great place on the beach with fabulous views. Here are Patrick, Trevor and Christi on the beach with Patrick’s condo complex in the background.

After a quick tour, we all piled back in the car and went back to Cabo San Lucas. The plan was to take a water taxi over to Kosmos so that we could give Patrick a tour and drop off our groceries and Trevor’s luggage, then go back to shore to get dinner.

We had to wait for a few minutes at the water taxi stand before we took off. We were surprised to see that there were a lot of sea lions in the water around all the boats. We watched them happily play, doing somersaults and flips and general frolicking. One sea lion was especially cute. He was lying on his back, with his feet, fins, and flippers sticking straight up out of the water. What a great life sea lions have!

On board Kosmos it was unbelievably rocky. There were a lot of jet skis, water taxis and glass bottom boats zooming by at high speeds, leaving behind big wakes that caused incredibly confused seas. We are so glad that we haven’t been on board all day. This anchorage is really uncomfortable by day. We were thankful that we were going to be back on shore before the obnoxious sunset cruises started, which would just add more discomfort to the setting.

We are always bummed when people see Kosmos for the first time when she is looking bad. After such a miserable passage, the inside was an absolute mess. The outside was completely encrusted in salt and dirt, even at the top of the pilot house! She was looking well used at the moment. We are just thankful that she cleans up so well. After a good scrub down, she’ll look new again.

Anyway, back on shore we went to dinner at a sushi restaurant inside the fancy mall. We tried a couple rolls with some Mexican flair that were definitely different from anything we have had before. One had scallops, shrimp tempura, tuna, smoked salmon, avocado and was topped with cilantro sauce. We liked that one a lot. We are big cilantro fans. The other had soft shell crab, mango, cilantro, mint, smoked salmon, asparagus, and cooked tuna. It was dry. We think if the tuna was raw it would have been much better.

The water taxis only run until 1800, and when we had come to shore, we had made arrangements with the taxi driver to take us back at 2000. He had agreed to it since it wouldn’t be dark yet, but had demanded payment up front. We thought the payment up front was reasonable. After all, if he waited around an extra 2 hours after work and we never showed up, he would have waited around for nothing.

Anyway, coming back from the restaurant, we got caught in horrible traffic. We started to panic as the clock went past 2000. At about 2010, we realized we could walk faster than we could drive and Patrick dropped us off where we happened to be, at a hotel on the boardwalk. We said a quick goodbye and ran around the outside of the hotel towards the boardwalk. We were crestfallen when we saw a big fence. Drat. Rather than wasting time back tracking, we jumped the fence, then ran down the boardwalk as fast as we could, arriving at the water taxi stand at 2020. The whole time we had been praying he would wait for us. Otherwise, we had no way at all to get back to Kosmos.

We were so relieved to see our driver at the stand, looking annoyed as heck as we ran up. He was furious that we were so late, keeping him from his family. Once again, we are amazed at how selfless most people are. The agreement was for him to wait until 2000, and it would have been perfectly justified if he went home at 2001 and refused to wait for us. But, he knew we would be stranded and he didn’t want to leave us in a bad situation, so he waited. We thanked him profusely and gave him a big tip.

On board Kosmos, we were rolling like crazy. There was no wind at all. The wind usually keeps you pointed into the waves, so you kind of bounce along them. But with no wind, the boat just rolls around in the waves. And we were really surprised by how wavy it was. We felt like we were at sea. It was no fun. Thank goodness we aren’t staying here.

We got Trevor situated and then all went to bed. We were planning an early morning departure and we needed to get as much sleep as we could.