Mango Deck

After 3 meals at Mango deck , I feel like it deserved a special place in my blog. We arrived and had our first meal at Mango Deck. Since then, we figured out that we could eat much cheaper if we ordered domestic drinks, which included margaritas, tequilla sunrise, long Island ice tea etc and shared our main dish. Drinks were 2 for 1 all day ( $4 each) and serving portions were huge. The most entertaining part of Mango deck were the contests! While it is not suitable for young children, high schoolers would surely be OK. We saw push up contests, arm wrestling and beer drinking contests. Winners usually got beer for their whole party. The place has great ambience and is right on the beach. The food was one of the best we had eaten and so we went there one last time just before leaving for the airport.Good place to end up on your last day.

If you have an hour before leaving, where do you go??? Mango Deck :))

Mexican Coffee: The greatest show in Cabo

You can't leave Cabo without seeing the greatest show.....Mexican coffee! And there is no better place to see it than at Romeo & Juliet. Mexican coffee is a heavenly mixture of coffee with tequila, kahlua sugar and cream. The alcohol in the coffee is served flambe style which creates an impression of a fire waterfall. When done in the correct ambience, it is a visual delight.

Romeo and Juliet serves italian food with live music. You can dine al fresca or inside the Ac comfort ....no prizes for guessing where I was:) One of the things this restaurant is famous for is its Ceaser Salad. It cost $20 and serves two!!! I was curious to see how good could it be that everyone who ate here suggested I try it.

Just like the coffee, the preparation of the salad was also a presentation. The chef created the dressing from scratch and served it to perfection. Not being a great fan of Ceasars salad, I must say that this one was one of the best ceasar salads I have ever had, but with no meat in it...I still think $10 is too much for a salad.

The music here is interesting. An old gentleman, who looks like he owns the place played away on the piano. If you have a birthday, he will take requests and play you some of the old classics. Overall , great place to spend a nice quiet evening.

La Princessa: the ultimate party boat!

Returning home without snorkelling in Cabo is a sin. There is so much fish in the waters of Cabo that you could stand on the beach and watch the fish frolick. One of the best snorkel tours in Cabo is on a Catamaran called "La Princessa" While there are cheaper snorkel tours available, this one is a class apart. This departs at noon from Dock D in front of Luxury Mall.From the moment we stepped on board till the time we got off, it was one non stop party. For those of you that drink, there is an open bar through out and I was quite amused to see the amount of alcohol consumed by people on board. At last count, the person next to me had already downed 9 beers, 6 cocktailsand was reaching out for more:)

While this may sound like a group of college kids on spring break, most people on board were with families of little kids. Unfortunately, lady luck did not accompany us on this trip and so when we reached Santa Maria Bay ( close to Chilleno bay) we found the water infested with jelly fish! Snorkelling here meant that we would have to take the risk of being stung and so most of us decided not to snorkel.

Fresh lunch of tuna sandwich, tortilla chips with guacamole with soft drinks was served on board after which the party boat returned to Cabo marina. The music was awesome, company was awesome and the service was awesome, so in spite of not doing what we had boarded the boat for, we all left happy leaving a fat tip! This was the first 3 hour boat trip on which I wasn't sea sick!!!!!!!!!!!

Day trip from Cabo: To do or not Todos Santos

If you are tired of the ocean and would like a change, one hour away from Cabo lies the sleepy artsy town called Todos Santos. While there are many tours that will take you there for a mini fortune, you are better off renting a car for a day ( ~$70 with insurance for a compact) . Make sure you take food and water with you if you are travelling in the summer months.

The drive to Todos Santos is an interesting one. Having been to Cancun before and seeing the orads there, I was unprepared for the drive to Todos Santos. The entire way , you are driving through desert and huge cactii. Mirages are common and often the road completely disappears to give way to paved roads where crazy people drive at 70kms an hour!!

At the risk of offending some people, I would say that there is really nothing much to do here. There are a multitude of galleries filled with highly priced handicrafts. Hotel California is a majot tourist point which caters to tourist by having them believe that this is what inspired Eagles to compose the song! Reality is much different. The walk around the city took us no more than an hour and so we ventured to find the beaches. There are 4-5 beaches, but none of them have swim access and road access is pretty bad too. The lady at the restaurant said that if you are worried about damaging your car, I would caution you against the trip! So we returned without ever seeing any of the beaches. Overall, it was a disappointing trip with not much happening and not much to do. Maybe, this is a place to return too in high season....

The Perfect Arch

El Arco- Cabo's greatest tourist attraction

From the time you start approaching Cabo, you begin to see the " Arch" or El Arco. A trip to Cabo is not complete unless you see this gorgeous place. There are a zillion tour operators who will try to sell you their tour. Make sure you see the boat before you buy. Most boats going to the arch will boast glass bottoms, but smaller boats hardly have any viewing area. We chose Baja tours as they started from Medano beach and have tours operating every hour. You could go on a trip, stop at the arch and then take a boat trip back an hour later on any of Baja's 4 boats.

El Arco marks the point where the sea of cortes meets the pacific ocean.The arch is usually not visible as it is underwater. Every 5-6 years the water shifts and the arch becomes visible over a beach. This is a unique phenomena which usually lasts no more than a week. Once again, we were lucky enough to see it and photograph it like all postcards in Cabo!

The landing on El arco happens on the Lovers beach. Ons has to cross that to go to Divorce beach to get to the arch. Why it has this name, no one knows but divorcing life from you is a very high probablity on this side of the beach! The pacific is furious here and people have drowned just standing on the beach!! While it was scary crossing that beach to get to the arch the results were so worth it.

On the way to the arch, the boat stops at Pelican rock to see the fish. Believe me, you dont need a glass bottom boat! The picture you see is a picture of the fish taken from the boat while holding the camera above the water. Carry some tortillas or bread to watch jump out of water to come eat it. If you are sea sick, you might want to take some medication before you get on to the boat....the ocean is very choppy on the Pacific side.