Cabo Pulmo

This was one of my favorite pictures from our trip. 

  While we were in La Paz we read about an organic farmer's market in Cabo San Lucas and decided we'd make an excursion south. I was overall pretty disappointed with the quality of food I was able to find in Baja and was excited to find some fresh organic produce, ranch eggs, and other goodies. Our drive around the cape proved to be different than what we expected but we were glad we made it all the way down the peninsula! We drove through Todos Santos, reputed to be Baja's "art colony" and decided not to stop. What little we saw looked pretty touristy, but I've been told I'd love it if I gave it a chance. If we're ever in the area I hope we can stop and explore it a little more, but on this day we chose to keep on going. 

    

    As we drew near to Cabo San Lucas, the view was beautiful. The Pacific stretched out to the right as far as we could see and I even spotted a spouting whale! But much of the coastline was filled with large estates, expensive hotels, condos, and golf courses. The city itself was full of American restaurants and big box stores. We drove on through to San Jose del Cabo, where we hoped to spend the night and attend the market the next morning. What we found is that almost all the RV parks have sold their land to big developers and been closed. We did find one that wanted to charge so much we decided to skip it altogether and just keep driving. After a grocery store stop that included popsicles, we drove about an hour north up the eastern side of the peninsula to La Ribera where we parked for two nights. While there, we drove south a little to Cabo Pulmo, one of few places in the area that has a coral reef. These pictures are from that outing.

    

Erik put in a lot of hours behind the wheel, driving us all the way from Oregon to Cabo San Lucas and back! He is an excellent driver and did a great job pulling our trailer on roads that are often steep and winding. 

I was happy to see a growing awareness about recycling. Judging from the trash piled behind the bins though, I think it may take a while to really sink in! 

Peregrine and Erik were able to do a little offshore snorkeling. Unfortunately the water was pretty rough so Peregrine wasn't able to go out very far. Erik saw a sea turtle, which was pretty exciting! I tried to go out but didn't feel comfortable swimming alone with the surf the way it was. 

It was a truly beautiful place. We had fun exploring rocky areas along the shore and enjoyed a picnic lunch. The kids chased crabs and dug in the sand. It was a windy day and because I didn't feel too hot I ended up getting more sun than I should have. 

Pearl inhabited a hole that one of the other kids dug in the sand. 

The kids had their very own clubhouse in the tower that was right above where we spent the day. They had so much fun climbing up and down, making passwords for their secret society, and acting like they owned the place. (And I tried not to worry about them falling off the ladders.)