Today we are visiting Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. This is a tender port, and we have not ever experienced a tender disembarkation with Viking, so it will be interesting.
We had set an alarm for 7:00 AM, giving us two hours before our designated meeting time of 9:00 AM at the Theatre. Since we have to take a tender, all of the tours were assigned meeting times so that we could all go onto the tender together. We were almost to Cabo San Lucas by the time we were ready for breakfast, and took some pictures as we approached. There is a famous rock formation on the tip of the peninsula at the harbor, and we were able to get some good photos as we \headed more into the protected area of the harbor.
We went ahead and ate breakfast in the World Cafe Buffet first so that our food would have a chance to settle before we left. The World Cafe was practically empty, so we easily found a table and got our food. It was once not to feel rushed for breakfast and that is why we try and leave plenty of time before the tour to eat and get everything ready.
Today’s excursion is called The Mexican Outback & Camel Safari
We had plenty of time to get our backpacks packed with my camera gear in mine and Stephanie was taking some shorts and a pullover in hers, along with the bottled water that they would give us when we depart the ship. It was a little overcast today, and the temperature was only forecast to be 74 degrees. It was in the low 60’s this morning, so we both wore longer pants, Stephanie wore her 3/4 length leggings and I wore my Capri hiking pants. There was some recommendations to wear long pants, but we were not sure why. We both took a pair of shorts just in case it got too warm for the longer pants we were wearing.
At about 8:55 AM, we headed to the theater and checked in. We were assigned Group 2 for our excursion. At 9:00 AM, the cruise director made an announcement that the ship was still not cleared, so we would not be leaving right on time.
About 9:15 AM, an announcement was made that we had cleared customs, and shortly thereafter, the person in the theatre called for Groups 1,2, and 3. We all headed to the gangway and boarded the tender.
It was a little choppy in the harbor where we were anchored, so getting into the tender was a little tricky, we had to wait until the tender and ship were in sync before we could step aboard. The tenders were quite large and roomy and held quite a few people.
The tender was about 75% full when we were cast off and we headed into the harbor. There were a lot of boats moving into and out of the harbor channel, there were a lot of mooring tours heading out already. In addition to our ship, the Viking Mars was also anchored in the harbor. They had arrived an hour or two before us, so they were already running their tenders when we just started. It was about a ten-minute ride to the dock where we tied up and got off
There were some sea lions on the dock there and they were really large, and of course, smelly.
We were directed to our groupings for the excursion, and we had to be weighed and then sign a waiver for our tour. That took a little bit of time, we had about 25 people in our tour group. Once that was completed, our group was led to a bus that was waiting to take us to the tour location. It was a pretty good walk to the bus along the harbor.
We boarded and took seats near the rear of the bus to have a little more space. The bus left shortly thereafter and we headed out of Cabo San Lucas. It was pretty slow going for the first fifteen minutes, there was some traffic and a lot of four-way stop signs that were more like yield signs, no one really stopped, just slowed down and went their turn. We passed several large stores and a couple of outdoor malls with several large stores that were unfamiliar names.
Soon, we were on the four-lane highway and were making better time with the 90 kph speed limit, which is about 55 mph.
We soon could see the Pacific Ocean on our left as we headed northward. This is an interesting area, there are mostly only a lot of cactus varieties and other thorny plants growing here, and it is dry. We crossed over a couple of “rivers” but they were just dry riverbeds without any water. I guess they do not get mich rain here, but if it rains hard, there is a lot of flash flooding and these dry river beds then have a lot of water flowing in them. They were quite wide, and are mostly used as paths for 4-wheel and dune buggy-type excursions, we could see a lot of vehicle tracks on the dry riverbed.
After driving about an hour in total, we turned off the highway onto a really narrow roadway, and it was not an impressive-looking area at all, there were a few partially built houses and some abandoned campers. We went about a mile on the dirt road and then entered the nature preserve gates where ur excursion was being conducted.
We got off of the bus and were led to a covered area where there were some bathrooms and tables, and also a desk for purchasing tickets if you came there on your own.
After using the restrooms, we met our two guides. Our group of 23 was roughly split in half, and we were with Diana, one of the two guides for our group. The other group headed to a covered area and we headed to another smaller covered area. We first passed by the coral where the camels were and we got our first close up look at them. There were two one-year-old camels in the area. Photos were hard, the walls of the coral were wooden slats, so we could not get clear photos of the camels, and we were not allowed to get close to the coral to get photos between the slats.
The other group was going to ride the camels first, so they were in an area where they were given helmets and head coverings to cover the helmets, which added an Arabian style to the headgear.
Meanwhile, over in our area, Diana was giving us some of the history of the park and the camels. They have a total of 43 camels, and they all came from the USA. The oldest camel was 7 years old and had cost $60,000. All of the camels came from either a zoo or a circus. There were also some other animals here, but mainly the camels. There were both single hump and double hump camels at the preserve, but mostly single hump camels. We learned the camels’ humps are fat that is stored up for the camels to use when they have no food or water supply. The camels are not born with the humps, they are developed over time based on their normal food supply, if there is a lot of food, the humps are smaller, if not, they are larger. The single hump camels come from warmer areas and the double hump camels come from cold, arid deserts located in places like Mongolia.
Contrary to popular belief, camels do not actually spit like llamas, they actually are throwing up, but it looks like they are spitting. This happens when they are upset. Camels live to be about 45 years old on average.
They brought over a two-year camel named Lola for us all to have a photo session with everyone, and it was done by couples together. We were not allowed to photo this ourselves, the handler was also the photographer. This was all conducted about 30 feet from where we were all sitting under a covered area. We got several photos of us together with Lola, and then individually. It was a lot of fun, and the camel was really friendly. Of course, the photos were available at the end of the camel ride for purchase.
It was now our time for the camel ride and we were given a head cap to wear under the helmets for protection. Once the helmets were adjusted, we were given the headgear to wear over them to make us look like real camel riders in the desert.
We were lined up in singles and couples and were assigned seats on specific camels as they were paraded by a raised platform. Since I was heavier, I was assigned to the front. Camels have stronger legs in front, so since I was heavier than Stephanie. that was my seat. Unfortunately, that made it harder for Stephanie to see forward. We were told to mount the camel like a horse, swinging our legs over the “saddle”, which was a metal framed seat with a handle for each person. We needed to get on the camel at the same time and that was a little difficult. We had the tallest camel in the group, Harvey, so it was hard to swing our legs over from the platform, but we made it. The camels are really wide, especially in the front where I was sitting, and it was really stretching my hips out.
Once everyone was on their camels, we were led out to the beach for our walk along the water. We could see some whales far out in the distance flapping their tails, and the ocean was really beautiful, with large waves crashing on the sandy beach. The ride in total was about 20 minutes and that was really about all we needed. They moved in a really slow walk, but it swung us from side to side and a really strange motion of up and down and side to side.
We headed back to the platform we had used to get on our camels and got off, this time it was one by one, and that was much easier than getting on. Our guide Diana helped each person to steady themselves so we could swing our far leg over the saddle and get onto the platform.
Once everyone was off their camels and had taken off their helmets, we all gathered in a group to do a short nature walk over to the area where they were serving lunch. The nature trail was not long, but we were shown all of the different types of cacti and several other indigenous plants. Some of the cacti were very old, one was said to be over 300 years old, and it was very large. The largest were the Cardón cactus, and according to one reference are defined as:
The large and impressive cacti that you can see all around the Los Cabos area is the Cardón cactus (Pachycereus pringlei) which is the largest cactus in the world. There are about 1200 species of cactus, all of them native to the Americas however the Cardón is endemic to the deserts of the Baja California peninsula.
There was also a small round cactus that did not grow very tall, and grew extremely slowly. It was one of the cacti that you can drink the water out of the heart. Our guide Diana said that you can only drink water out of cacti without any arms. The cacti with arms will cause you to be sick and hallucinate.
Once we finished the short nature walk, we arrived at the large open area with tables where we were going to eat lunch. First off, we were directed to the restrooms, and then to the photo viewing area. They had uploaded all of the photos from both the camel ride and the individual photo session with Lola, There was also a drone video that was shot while we were on the camel ride.
There were three packages available, and we chose to purchase the one with all of our photos in digital format and also included the drone video. It was not cheap, but the photos were really good, and it was the only way for us to enjoy this experience long term.
They loaded the photos and video up onto our Samsung phones, and we asked them to be loaded onto both phones just for backup.
Once this was done, we headed back to our designated table for lunch. Lunch was served to us, and there were quite a few choices. Mainly it was beans, chicken mole, pork ribs, salsa, a cheese quesadilla and some chips. We chose the spicy salsa and boy was it hot. The meal was pretty good. We were offered either Pacifico draft beer or Corona in the can, and we chose the Pacifica Draft.
While we were eating, our guide Diana gave us a demonstration of making fresh tortillas out of white corn. The corn was soaked in salt water for about an hour, and then she used a special curved, flat stone as the base, and a tapered stone as the roller to crush the corn into a consistency of Playdo.
It looked like a lot of work, and it took a lot of effort to grind the corn. Once it was in a ball, the demonstration was complete, it was not going to be cooked, but we all did get to feel the texture of it, and it was exactly like PlayDo. Not sure it would be something we would want to ever do….it was too much work.
Then came the Tequellia Tasting. We were told all about Blanco, Reposado, and Mezcal tequilas. The first two were pretty good, we had a small serving of both of them separately, and we each had a lime that had salt added to it to suck on afterward. Then came the Mezcal. It is made from a different part of the agave plant, mainly the prickly “leaves”, and not the heart of the plant. Then it is aged in smoked barrels. It was really smoky tasting, and none of the people in our group liked it. It was served with an orange slice that had chili powder on it, but neither of those was enough to cut the smoky flavor.
Next, we tried a liquor, and it was in a clear glass bottle with the shape of the bust of a pregnant woman. It was made out of a type of plant also used as a “medicine” to help women get pregnant, or so that was the story. Officially, it is described as “A light, herbal-based liqueur made from the dried leaves and stems of the damiana herb that grows in Baja California”. It was not bad, it was sweet, and we sipped on that one instead of taking it as a shot like the tequila. It is called Guaycura Licor de Damiana
After the tasting, we all loaded up into a large 4-wheel vehicle with seats in the back in the bed of the truck. This truck took us to the area we had first entered from the bus. After restroom breaks, we all loaded back onto our bus with the other half of our group that had a different guide for the day. It was a really fun experience, and the weather was much better than we had thought it would be from the forecast.
It was much more sunny and was only just getting cloudy as we rode the bus back to Cabo San Lucas. It was another hour-long drive back, and that’s certainly a deterrent to having had more of the Pacifico beer at the sanctuary. We were not even sure where the restroom would be once we arrived back at the port.
There was about the same amount of traffic in the last fifteen minutes of the drive back to the port, we got to see a lot of the shops and restaurants near the port including the famous Cabo Wabo. Once we were dropped off, we headed over to an area at the port where we had heard someone talk about restrooms when we were heading to the bus this morning. Sure enough, we entered the door we had seen this morning and there were restrooms inside, along with an armed guard.
After the restroom break, we just looked around in a few stores. Most of them seemed to sell the same touristy stuff, none of which looked like it had a lot of quality. It was mostly to waste some time.
Once we were done looking at a lot of the same items in the stores, we headed back to where the tender was docked. It had just dropped off a load of passengers, so once we boarded, we had to wait about 30 minutes for it to leave. By that time, several other tours had ended and it was getting full.
We headed back to the ship on the tender. It took a while to off load everyone, some people were really struggling to get across to the ship, and one or two people took about 4-5 minutes before they were able to get off, waiting for the ship and the tender to synchronize so the step was not that higher wide to cross. We headed to the cabin and dropped off all of our gear in the room. We decided to see if the laundry was crowded, we needed to do one more load before we get off in three days.
There was no one in the laundry and all but one dryer was empty, so we were able to get our load in right away. We headed up to the Explorer’s Lounge for a glass of Pinot Grigio and ran into several people we know and we all talked about our different excursions. One couple had gone whale watching and had seen several whales breach, but were only able to get one video, but it was great. Everyone looked at our camel pictures and the drone video.
It was time for the clothes to be put into the dryer so Stephanie headed down for that task. Once again, there were empty machines, so there was no delay getting it started. She came back up and we talked with some other folks at the bar.
We left to go back to the cabin and then went to retrieve the clothes from the dryer. After folding the clothes, we took showers to get ready for dinner, which was going to be in the World Cafe because we were tired from today’s excursion, and it was already 7:00 PM. We watched the last tender arrive, it had been designated only for the sunset cruise excursion, which ended a little later because of the sunset time. It was not that great of a sunset for them, it had been mostly cloudy at sunset.
We watched all of the activity going on in the Port area of Cabo San Lucas. It appeared that there were several different ships and boats doing sunset cruises. They were all playing loud music and had bright colored lights on them. By the time we pulled up our anchor and started to leave, most of the loud boats were done with their tours, and it was finally peaceful in the harbor area.
We headed to the World Cafe and had dinner, which was good, but not spectacular, it just hit the spot. After dinner, we went to the Living Room Bar for a drink or two but did not stay long because we were tired. We set the clocks back another hour tonight, the last of the three to adjust to West Coast time.
It was only 8:45 PM on the new time, but it did not take long for us to fall asleep, even that early.
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