This is a photo of our simple hotel in Todos Santos. Do not mistake this for El Presidente, Hotel Intercontinental.
We enjoy an ample breakfast at hotel Intercontinental and check out. The all inclusive rate for our 24 hour stay is even less than we were quoted and I charge just $236.00 to my credit card, a remarkable rate for soft beds, ample food and the New Years’ Eve party. Nevertheless, I am glad to get out of our gilded cage and be on our way to Todos Santos. Art is once again the designated driver, having grown more comfortable with the Mexican traffic and within 30 minutes we are in Cabo San Lucas. We miss the turn to th
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hway North and retrace our path along back city roads until we connect with the highway North towards La Paz. The day is warm, the sky a brilliant blue and the single lane ribbon of highway slices through the desert terrain. We drive at 100 Kilometers an hour and in less than two hours arrive in Todos Santos. It is New Years’ day and as expected much of the town is closed but we park around the corner from Hotel California and poke into the few open tourist arcades. Lunch is a high priority and on the recommendation of a local expat couple we choose a local cafe with just two items on the menu. Both the chicken mole and the spicy beef are excellent. After lunch we explore the few block radius of the historical old town. The historic district is small with just a few blocks of buildings remaining, but there are signs of renovation and the brightly colored buildings of purple, salmon and ocher are very picturesque. Hotel California is fully booked but the bare bone hotel across the street has vacancies and we pay our $35.00 for a double room and settle in. The aroma of pinesol penetrates the room, and the sheets are paper thin, but it’s clean, the price is right and its time for a nap.
Todos Santos is famous for its surfing beaches so Art drives in the direction of the beach. The guide book mentions that finding the beach via the maze of dirt roads can be frustrating, but Art navigates the back roads and we soon arrive. We see a car up ahead, stuck in the sand of the dirt road that we are on, so we take caution, park and walk. For the next 45 minutes, Art, John and I do our best to help the man get his car unstuck. His three children stand along side of the car, wide eyed and watching. There is quite a bit of trash around and a large discarded piece of cement and a few boards, combined with push power eventually work. Our good deed done, we head to the beach to watch the sunset.
We have dinner in the courtyard restaurant of Hotel California. The atmosphere is ambient and wrought iron lanterns cast dappled patterns across the cobblestone floor. The restaurant is busy, mostly with tourists and the food, but not the service, is reasonably good. Perhaps the first day of a New Year should be more remarkable, but its off to a good start and we close the day early and walk across the street to our simple hotel room.