Cantinflear

Most people come to Cabo sit on the beach, drink margaritas and work on their tan. I’m here to take a bath, then a shower then another bath. After 8 days living out of the truck and no running water I figured it was time for a real cleaning. I did manage to get out and see the town a bit. A brief, yet hopefully non-borifying (for those new to my writing style I tend to like to make up words to entertain myself. oh and because I have a poor grasp of the real ones) recap of the day.

Woke up after a very comfortable night’s sleep. I pretty much camped in a ravine/dump just outside of Los Barriles. Regardless of the filth and an unkindness of ravens (although I prefer a conspiracy of ravens) squawking around me I slept soundly after a long day. I guess writing helped relax me. I got on the road early after learning that you can indeed close a one liter water bottle into a rooftop tent and not notice until after you’re driving down the road looking to take a drink. I had no real agenda. Just drive to the end of the peninsula and figure it out from there. I am sure there were plenty of benefits of doing a trip like mine, 10, 20, 30 years ago. However, technology has simplified a lot of the headaches. I pulled over just outside of San Jose del Cabo, 15 roadside mins later and I was headed to my newly reserved hotel thanks to Orbitz. Room wasn’t ready yet so I took the time to wander the town away from the coast. So I have this theory that I often postulate when anyone is willing to listen and it goes like this…

If you ever find yourself wandering lost around a city, any city, whether it be Vanderhoof, BC, Worcester, Mass or Cabo San Lucas, Baja you’ll run into an LDS church. It’s true. You may not realize it if you’re not LDS but it happens. And so it happened to me today. Meandering through the roofless, cinderblock homes and dusty streets I run smack dab into a church. No one was there so I didn’t go in. I went back 3 hours later still no one there. So I guess I’ll save that cultural experience for another day. In the meantime I ate some more adobada, wandered some more streets then came back to the hotel to get my room key.

I worked a few years in the tourism industry. An average Best Western $100 a night motel in Juneau, AK and a 4 Star resort in Deer Valley, UT with some rooms costing $3500. I learned a lot in those years about how people behave while on ‘vacation.’ Well it all came flooding back today as I stood in line waiting for my room key. I hadn’t showered in 8 days, I was covered in dust and my beard was causing a rash on my neck. I still had no reason to be impolite. (yes racker, once upon a time I pretty much told you to go f yourself but that was after 3 days of 54 holes of golf in 110 degree heat) I watched as 3 straight people complained about their room, or the pool, or the people in room above them. Not civil requests for a room change but demanding and full of guile for the guy at the front desk. I walked a couple miles into downtown and saw no fewer than 4 families/couples in arguments about unimportant things. Not my idea of a vacation. I’ve never understood why vacation places in people’s minds an unreal set of expectations or entitlements. Yeah I paid more than I wanted. Granted I had a view of the parking lot and bell stand but hell, I’m on the beach in Cabo. I guess that 200 yard walk to the water is just too far for some people. I’ve always thought it’s okay to be frustrated and expect a business to follow through on their commitments but there is no need to belittle someone over it. It’s just astounding to me and a reminder that I will try my best not to be the ugly American. Dumb, lost and mono-lingual American but not an ugly one.

My walk ended in what could have been La Jolla, Ca. Ruth’s Chris, Haagen Daas, Johnny Rockets. I found the one ‘Mexican’ restaurant down there. It was quite the culture shock from the roadside taquieras that have been my staple for 5 days. It was a good chance to practice my Spanish since everyone down there spoke English also. I had a steak and rice and beans. Decent but not great. The joint was lined with old movie posters. One name kept popping up. Cantinflas. I really want to rename my blog but perhaps just this post will be enough. You’ll have to research yourself what cantinflear means. According to the definition I found it’s pretty accurate for my drivel. I took advantage of the opportunity for some mango sorbet in a waffle cone and made the walk back to my hotel room. So blogging, emailing (I promise I’ll catch up eventually, be patient), tweaking web pages etc is how my time in Cabo has been spent. I’ve added some links to the main blog page. I also threw up some pics into the gallery (http://www.expeditionamericas.com/gallery1.html) in no particular order. I thought that it would be an easy format for uploading pics but it’s not working as seamlessly as I’d like. Some possible changes may come shortly if I can’t get the back end process streamlined.

So I’ve been fighting the urge all night to walk out to the southernmost tip of the Baja peninsula. It just seems like something I should do. I keep telling myself it is just hamburgers for the apocalypse and that I should save my ‘southernmost’ statements for Tierra del Fuego. We’ll see if I make it through tomorrow without taking that walk, since my time in Cabo has apparently included the word wandering a lot. You know just wandering the earth like Cain from Kung Fu I might just have to do it again tomorrow. One of my top 5 songs to listen to while on a road trip is Mexico by the band Moe. How many songs do you know that mention Baja by name? Whether the studio version or a 27 min long live jam it’s one of the more entertaining songs around. Although I tend to alter one of the lyrics (in red) to my own liking “well I’m a million miles away from home and I can’t find a telephone, my folks don’t even know where I am, hell I don’t need to know where I am.” That has pretty much been my attitude for the last week or so and I hope it doesn’t change. I’m sure my friend Ryan thinks this Moe. song is more appropriate, however. I’ve already worked 3 movie allusions into this disjointed paragraph can I manage to sneak in a fourth? Or use a blatantly obvious one like…

The cookie stand is not a part of the food court.

There I did it.

Adios,

Dave Connors

Lead - Expedition Americas

http://www.expeditionamericas.com/