Cabo San Lucas
First, we just want to issue a disclaimer that traveling on airplanes is not the ideal method of travel during a pandemic, especially on United Airlines. We recommend flying Delta.
After a crazy year, I took a much needed trip to Mexico with my friend Karese to the southern tip of Baja California Sur where we were met with the most pandemic precautions that we had yet seen. Everything from sanitation baths, to temperate checks at every building entry, and way more masks being worn than in the States. Other than our flight there, we felt super safe. And when we got back, we tested negative, so there’s that. Here are the details of our trip.
First, we started our adventure with a short weekend trip to Baltimore, where Karese and lived for a few years. We relived some adventures there and took in a few sights, but mostly just enjoyed each others company. Early Sunday morning, like, 4am, we took a Lyft to BWI for our the first leg of our trip. After a layover in Chicago, we had soon left the cold air of the Northeast, and touched down in the very warm sun-kissed air of Cabo San Lucas.
We were temperature checked upon arrival and then found Chris (Matthew’s brother) waiting at the outside bar with a few beverages waiting for us. We took a shuttle to our rental car, then drove into town. It’s worth noting that the Cabo landscape was quite barren, all the rivers were dried up. That a topic for another day, but it really raised our attention to climate change and that there is a water shortage in Mexico.
Upon arrival to our resorts (we had separate resorts), we were again met with temperature checks, and this time, a sanitation bath. You literally step into a glass box, spin around a couple times, while you are being showered with sanitation fluids. Our resort, the Pueblo Bonito Pacifica was exactly what it means, a Peaceful and Beautiful Village. We were greeted our butler, Israel, who took great care of us for our one night stay (we ended up coming back after extending our trip). Israel took us to our rooms, got us acquainted with the resort, the restaurants, and even offered to get us drinks while we freshened up. We took full advantage of the resorts amenities. We had dinner and drinks at the first of three restaurants at the resort. More about the other two later.
Side bar. On November 15th, while we were on the road to Baltimore, large gatherings in Virginia were reduced to 25 persons or less for the foreseeable future. We were supposed to come back from our trip on Thursday, November 19th, because we had three weddings on Saturday, November 21st. But… due to the new restrictions, those weddings were now forced to reschedule. So… we took the lemon-like news and made lemonade. We extended our trip.
After our first night/morning at Pueblo Bonita Pacifica, we decided to extend our trip with few more nights there later in the week. What did we do in the between time? Well, we grabbed Chris from his resort, the Playa Grande Resort (which he would stay at again later in the week), and met Karese’s sisters at our shared rental house for the next few days. It was a pretty cool experience and the first time all of our siblings were in the same house. And let me tell you about the house. It was a pretty sweet spot with a security check point to enter the gated community called Cabo Bello. It had 2 bedrooms and a Master Suite, a sprawling open kitchen slash living room, which had pocket doors that opened up to a back patio with a pool and hot tub. We stayed here for 4 amazing nights.
The first night at the Cabo Bello house we went into town for dinner and a tequila tasting at Pancho’s. It was here that we learned about different types of tequila and we found a new love for Extra Anejo. We ended up buying a bottle later in the week to enjoy. The next day, Amanda (Karese’s second oldest sister) had chartered a boat. Full disclosure, this was technically Amanda’s birthday trip, but the brothers (Matthew and Chris) may have been crashing the adventure. So the boat was a birthday present to herself #treatyoself. We were lucky enough to be invited, so we went to the marina and found our captains. Minus a little mishap involving a missing phone and not being able to play music from a speaker, everything was smooth sailing. We were treated to delicious cocktails and tasty treats on board, we toured the surrounding waters, and we even had a quick dip in the water before returning to port. The last day, we went back into town to grab lunch at “The Office”, which was right on the beach. Aside from the folks trying to sell stuff to all the tourists, it was a pretty awesome experience. We ended up strolling down the beach after lunch to snag a few jet skis for an hour, which, let’s be serious, was a blasty blast. We closed out the night with home-cooked dinner by the pool followed by a night cap of extra anejo tequila. We killed the bottle.
The next day, Thursday, we went our separate ways. Chris went back to Playa Grande and the sisters stayed one more night at the Cabo Bello house. On Monday, we had postponed our flights and extended our trip by booking another three nights at Pueblo Bonita Pacifica, this time without the butler service. The resort was all inclusive, so we took full advantage.
The first night back at the “pretty village”, we decided on sushi dinner at the second restaurant on the resort, which turned out to be a good idea. Not only did we enjoy the food, but we also ran into some folks that were there to celebrate a wedding that weekend. Did we perhaps make friends with these wedding-goers? You bet! Later that night, met up with this crew in at the resort hot tub where we were introduced to the groom. Did we get an invite to Saturday’s festivities? You bet. More on that later.
The next day we had breakfast brought to our room and enjoyed it on our balcony. Then we set out on a bit of an adventure. We walked from Playa Grande into town, visiting a couple spots, and briefly met up with a friend that Matthew had met at last year’s Wedding MBA. A little spent, we took a taxi back to Playa Grande, then drove back to Pueblo Bonito to get ready for the night. We went to dinner at the third restaurant at the resort, which was more than magnificent. By the way, every restaurant was a four course meal, because you know, all-inclusive. And all the tables were very spaced out, all the staff wore masks and face-shields, and the entrances to each facility had sanitation mats for your feet. After dinner, we met up with Chris for a Friday night on the town. For the most part, everything was pretty safe, temperature checks and social distancing were the norm. We decided on a not-so-busy spot called Casa Amigos which had a live band. There were only like 20 people there and everyone was pretty socially distant, so we felt safe and enjoyed the atmosphere. It was a fun night under the circumstances.
Our final full day in Cabo was also wedding day for Chris (not brother) and Kylie from Texas. We decided to have a day unplugged and enjoy the resort. We kicked it off with a couples massage on the beach which was absolutely amazing. Then we took a stroll on the beach, got a cabana for a couple hours, did some group aerobics in the pool (drinks in hand), and eventually we made it back to the room to freshen up for dinner, which was brought to our room. Then, we went down and crashed the wedding. They had an LED dance floor which we decided to show off our dance moves on when everyone left to grab drinks. The newlyweds may have cheered us on. No big deal. Such a fun bunch though. They were so nice too, they invited us to a beach ceremony where they lit lanterns that float away in the air like balloons. Apparently, it is supposed to represent the departure of souls. At some point the lanterns burn up in the sky. Twas a fun evening and end to an yet another amazing adventure.
The next day we gathered up our things and headed to the airport. We checked our temperature at the door, then our bags, then we boarded our plane back to reality. In hindsight, we do regret flying during a pandemic, mostly because United didn’t make us feel safe, even though we tested negative when we got back. All in all, don’t fly United, but definitely take a trip to Cabo when all this mess clears up.
For more information on our trip, shoot us an email at hello@bowtiedexperiences.com and be sure to follow our socials at @bowtiedexperiences. See you soon!