Tag Archives: Cabo San Lucas

Chile-to-L.A. — Cabo San Lucas, last port before home


La Ultima Piedra de la Peninsula Baja (Last Stone of the Baja Peninsula)

Ultima piedra Peninsula Baja (“Last Stone of the Baja Peninsula)

The Golden Princess made one more port before our long journey from Chile to Los Angeles would come to an end.  That would be one of my favorite ports, Cabo San Lucas, at the very tip of the Baja Peninsula.  We arrived on March 25, 2015, four days after our departure from Nicaragua.  Cabo doesn’t have a harbor and dock suitable for a cruise ship, so once again we found ourselves anchored offshore and tendering into town after some spectacular views of Land’s End, Lovers Beach, and La Ultima Piedra de la Baja Peninsula, which translates to “The Last Stone of the Baja Peninsula”.  Land’s End is the beach and large rock on the right side of the picture below, and the last rock is on the far left.

Land's End

Land’s End

I’ve blogged on Cabo San Lucas several times in the past, so we’re not going to spend too much time on this again today.  If you’d like more information I’ve posted links to my previous blog posts at the end of today’s article.  In those articles you find information on El Arco (The Arch); seals and pelicans; a sea tour out to Land’s End, the charming town of Cabo San Lucas, and a spectacular native demonstration of “Pole Flying (Danza de los Voladores — Dance of the Flyers).

Yachting Around

Yachting Around

One catching sight out here at Land’s End is Lovers Beach on the harbor side of the peninsula.  Perhaps intuitively, Lovers Beach butts up against Divorce Beach, which is on the Pacific side of the peninsula.  If the waves are just right you’ll catch some spectacular geysers of water shooting into the air from the Divorce Beach side, as shown here:

Lovers Beach (Divorce Beach behind, where the waves are crashing)

Lovers Beach (Divorce Beach behind, where the waves are crashing)

Don’t forget to have Scoody-Doo pose for you while you’re out here.  But he is shy, so he’ll be facing away from you.

Scooby-Doo

Scooby-Doo

For the uninitiated, “tendering” is when your cruise ship has to anchor offshore and passengers are ferried into port using either the ship’s tenders or locally hired water craft.  Today we used the tenders from the Golden Princess:

Tendering out of Cabo

Tendering out of Cabo

Here is a shot of one Golden Princess tender safely docked in the Cabo San Lucas Marina:

Cabo San Lucas Marina

Cabo San Lucas Marina

So, why am I spending so little time today blogging on Cabo San Lucas?  Because we had another destination on mind this trip.  On Wednesday we’ll be heading 47 miles/76 kilometers to the north, to a charming little town on the Pacific Coast side of the peninsula — Todos Santos.  Until then, enjoy some more photos of Cabo San Lucas and links below to previous articles:

Cabo San Lucas

Cabo San Lucas

Scooby and Friends

Scooby and Friends

Cabo San Lucas

Cabo San Lucas

Ultima piedra Peninsula Baja

Waves crashing into Ultima piedra Peninsula Baja later that afternoon

Cabo San Lucas

Cabo San Lucas

Previous blog posts on Cabo San Lucas:

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Filed under Photography, R. Doug Wicker, travel, vacation

Fun Photo Friday — Danza de los Voladores


One Ritual, Two Names — Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers) or Palo Volador (Pole Flying)

One Ritual, Two Names — Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers) or Palo Volador (Pole Flying)

There is a ritual originating from the deep, central regions of Mexico known as Pole Flying (Palo Volador) or the Dance of the Flyers (Danza de los Voladores).  Today it’s more associated with the Totonac people along the eastern coastal Veracruz region of Mexico.

One Ritual, Two Names — Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers) or Palo Volador (Pole Flying)

One Ritual, Two Names — Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers) or Palo Volador (Pole Flying)

But you won’t catch me doing it.  Pole Flying entails climbing up an unbraced, 100-foot/30-meter pole along with four other individuals.  You and three of your fellow climbers then bind your feet together with the ends of segments of rope tightly wrapped around the top of the pole.  The four of you then fall backwards while the fifth person rides atop the now spinning platform atop the pole while you slowly (hopefully) descend while rotating toward Earth.

So, what has a ritual from Veracruz have to do with a peninsula off the west coast of Mexico?  It turns out that the Totonac like to show off in many places in Mexico, and on this day we were fortunate enough to see a troupe perform upon our arrival into Cabo San Lucas.

One last shot for today’s Fun Photo Friday.  This one is of the Buccaneer Queen.  We didn’t go on her, but she looks to be a lot of fun.  Check out the video (not taken by me) at the end to see what I mean.  And while you’re at it, note how fast she goes even with the sails furled!  (just kidding; I know she’s motorized)

Buccaneer Queen

Buccaneer Queen

Buccaneer Queen Video:

By the way, if you’re reading this and other material authored by me on The Destinary website, this post was not “Posted on (fill in the date) | By destinary” as they’ve been erroneously claiming; this material was in fact reposted.  The Destinary have also been claiming the right to do so, without links back to the original and without full attribution (“by RDoug” and a nonworking link is not proper attribution) with a rather bizarre interpretation of U.S. copyright law in which they claim I’m responsible for changing my RSS feed settings so that they cannot skim my material for commercial purposes.  That would make reading my blog less convenient for you, which I’m not willing to do.  As such, I’ll be running this little diatribe on all travel related posts until they cease and desist, along with this:

© 2015 R. Doug Wicker (RDougWicker.com)
All right reserved — that includes you, Destinary

Final note:  Considering The Destinary is a site listed as owned by Sonia Bosquez-Platt of Indianapolis Tour & Travel, you may want to rethink doing business with her or her company.

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Continuing Our Tour of Land’s End and El Arco (The Arch)


Land's End as seen from the Golden Princess

Land’s End panorama as seen from the Golden Princess

Cabo San Lucas does not have a pier in waters deep enough to handle a large ship.  That means your cruise ship will be anchoring offshore in the Bahia (Bay) San Lucas and you will be transported ashore via either ship’s tender or one of the many local tenders that the cruise lines hire.  That has both advantages and disadvantages.

Land's End as seen from the Golden Princess

Land’s End as seen from the Golden Princess

The primary advantages are the view of the rock formations at Land’s End and the view of Cabo San Lucas as you tender in to the marina.

Land's End as seen from the Golden Princess

Land’s End as seen from the Golden Princess

The disadvantage is that you’re, well, tendering, and we all know what a pain that is.  Fortunately this port does not have the usual long waits associated with tendering, because the cruise lines hire local tenders to supplement those carried by the ship.

Cabo San Lucas-051

Rock pillar surrounded by glass-bottomed tour boats

But as I indicated on Monday, don’t be content with the view of this area solely from what you see aboard ship.  Get up close and personal or you’ll regret it later.  For one thing you won’t see the wildlife from the ship.

Pelicans on the rocks

Pelicans on the rocks

You also won’t get the sense of wonder that you experience from being near the crashing waves, peering into the deep blue waters, and bobbing in the shadow of tall outcroppings with steep walls.

Intensely blue waters with many fish

Intensely blue waters with many fish

You’ll also never see from the ship the caves hollowed out into the sheer cliffs by eons of crashing waters.

Caves among the cliffs

Caves among the cliffs

And perhaps the best reason of all, you won’t get a shot like this of El Arco by peering off into the distance from your offshore anchorage:

El Arco

El Arco

By the way, if you’re reading this and other material authored by me on The Destinary website, this post was not “Posted on (fill in the date) | By destinary” as they’ve been erroneously claiming; this material was in fact reposted.  The Destinary have also been claiming the right to do so, without links back to the original and without full attribution (“by RDoug” and a nonworking link is not proper attribution) with a rather bizarre interpretation of U.S. copyright law in which they claim I’m responsible for changing my RSS feed settings so that they cannot skim my material for commercial purposes.  That would make reading my blog less convenient for you, which I’m not willing to do.  As such, I’ll be running this little diatribe on all travel related posts until they cease and desist, along with this:

© 2015 R. Doug Wicker (RDougWicker.com)
All right reserved — that includes you, Destinary

Final note:  Considering The Destinary is a site listed as owned by Sonia Bosquez-Platt of Indianapolis Tour & Travel, you may want to rethink doing business with her or her company.

5 Comments

Filed under Photography, R. Doug Wicker, travel