My Mexican Cruise Adventure – Part 1

18 de September de 2012
Our Mexican Riviera cruise started when we boarded the Mariner of The Seas cruise ship in San Pedro, California.

After a relaxing sea day, our first port of call was Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  We woke up as the ship was anchoring in port. I jumped out of bed and looked out the balcony window to see the “Los Arcos” rock formation, also known as Land’s End. It was so beautiful!!

Cabo San Lucas is a tender port, and once we boarded the tender it raced us over to the dock where we stopped at a nearby tours desk and booked a private tour to take us on a tour of the town, then out to the rocks at Los Arcos.

The tour started at one of the local resorts, high up in the hills of Cabo. We were permitted to wander the grounds and take photos, while our guide Ernie spoke of the local attractions, and gave us a very detailed history of the hotel and surrounding areas.

After we left the hotel grounds we then drove through the city and stopped at a silver shop. Here we were given a free bottle of water each which we enjoyed while browsing the beautiful silver hand crafted jewellery for sale.

We then made our way through the busy city streets towards a glass factory. Here we were given a demonstration on glass making. The two men giving the demonstration made a glass turtle wearing a little Mexican sombrero.  It was truly amazing to watch them work.

It was now time to return to the meeting point for the glass bottom boat trip out to Los Arcos. We paid Ernie for the tour and added a tip, then made our way over to the glass bottom boat for the second half of today’s adventure.

As soon as we were on board the boat our guide headed out of the marina past the dozens of boats, which ranged from small fishing boats to what looked to be million dollar cruisers. Some of the boats in this harbour were amazingly beautiful.

We sailed past rock formations called ‘the skull’, ‘the turtle’ and the ‘upside-down Baja peninsular’, then on towards Lovers Beach. We turned right past the last little rock formation at Los Arcos, and the guide told us that this tiny rock was the one known as true Land’s End, as it was the last of all the rocks or land on that side of the peninsular.

We then passed Pirate’s Cave and the last of the beaches, which the guide joked was called Divorce Beach as it was directly opposite to Lover’s Beach.

Here we did a turn around and sailed back into the marina, passing the Mariner of the Seas on the way.

Once back at the dock we were informed by some other tourists that there was a lion cub to be petted nearby. I was off like a shot with US$25 ready to go! This was one adventure I had no intention of missing.

We were asked to sit in certain positions and hold our hands in a certain way, so that when they placed the cub in our arms we’d each have one hand supporting his tummy and the other supporting his arms.  He was so squirmy and playful. They placed him in our arms and took one photo of us with their camera, which they then printed to a 5 x 7 print and put in a little cardboard frame for us, and then used our own camera to take at least a dozen photos of us with the cub (who’s name was Daniel).

We were allowed to pat and play with the cub for a few minutes after the photos were taken. It was so cute to see him pull his paws away when I touched them, just like my own two kitty’s do at home!

After we said goodbye to the oversized kitten, we made our way back towards the marina, stopping at one of the local shops that had all sorts of Mexican souvenirs for sale, including clothing, playing cards, tequila, sombreros, etc. You name it, they had it.  We spent the last of our cash there, then at just after 5pm we finally headed back to the tenders and back onboard the Mariner.

Sailaway was at 5:45pm so we sat on our balcony enjoying a late lunch and a cold drink while waiting. After a while we noticed a couple of seals jumping out of the water and playing near the shoreline around Lover’s Beach.  Not long after that we saw flying fish jumping out of the water near where the seals had been.  It was so incredible to see them all flying out of the water.

Right on 5:45pm the Captain gave three short blasts of the very impressive ship’s horn, and we were slowly turning in the harbour and heading towards our next stop, Mazatlan.

To be continued…

We would like to thank Jo very much for sharing both her passion for travel and her cruise experiences with us. If you would like to contribute to our blog by sharing your travel experiences with us, please contact us.

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