Friday, January 8th, Toto Santos to Cabo San Lucas to San Jose to Zacatitos.
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| Todo Santos Art Gallery |
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| John, Art Gallery |
Art and I walk to a nearby cafe leaving the boys to sleep off their night before. When we wake them, John is still suffering from too much excess. We return to the cafe for breakfast, stop briefly at an art gallery and then head to Cabo San Lucas, an hours drive away. We park in the underground parking garage that services the Puerto Paraiso Mall adjoining the Marina and walk quickly through the high fashion mall, popping out at the sunlit Marina. The Marina is lined with restaurants and street vendors shove handfuls of beads and silver jewelry at us as we pass. At every corner, we are offered a boat ride out to Land’s End for 100 pesos each. We decline all knowing that John and Will will return here next week for a night in the party town. We walk the touristy strip and circle back around, past souvenir shops on our way back to the garage. As we leave town, we can see the arches of Land’s End behind us. We make a quick stop at Costco only to discover that Art has left his Costco card at home. Surprisingly, they are able to look up his membership and we are allowed entry. Art checks for golf batteries and I purchase two bottles of the Casa Madero 3V for 250 pesos each.
Our next stop is for supplies in San Jose. We successfully get money at the Santander ATM, compatible with our B of A checking accounts. We drop dirty laundry off at the laundry and stop at the Mega Store. I will return to San Jose with Will and John tomorrow, Saturday, for the farmers market so we get only basics, intending to check our stored supplies at the house before a more extensive shopping trip. We stop for a late lunch at a restaurant down from the main strip of San Jose but fish doesn’t taste very fresh and I am disappointed.
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| View from San Jose to Punta Gorda |
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| Waiting for Lunch |
It’s always wonderful heading home; and it does feel like we are going home when we see the “Witch Tit Mountains” and turn on the coast road at Buzzards Restaurant. The dirt road is surprisingly good or maybe it’s just that we finally have a vehicle suitable for these rocky roads. The road parallels the Sea of Cortez and everyone feels the awe of this wild and beautiful place.
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| Witch Tit Mountains |
When we pull into our driveway and climb the stairs to our house, John is literally jumping for joy! He repeatedly tells Papa and me how much he loves us and how awesome this all is. Opening up the house is easy enough but it is a process. It’s close to 4:00 P.M. and the solar needs time to regenerate and Art putters in the garage with the generator, the solar batteries and the water heater. I uncover the furniture, put sheets on our bed and we move the low table and the chairs outside. The boys carry everything upstairs, dump the ice in the ice chest and I unpack the food and arrange the kitchen. There is sweeping to do and gecko poop to clean off the counters and window sills. We are more or less settled by 5:00 P.M. in time for the important ritual of sundowners. I mix Art a margarita, the boys pop open beers and I pour a glass of wine. We are all very happy.
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| Roof Top Toast to Casa Magic Gecko and Zacatitos |
At 6:30 we drive to Zac’s and are welcomed “home” for the season. We sit inside their new enclosed dining room and John and Will are very excited about the new and very extensive menu. It’s a quiet night at Zac’s but Angel and Paul make us feel welcome, Tanya and Tyler are there as well as a few “old men” at the bar. We are proud to introduce John and Will to our friends and learn that tomorrow morning, Saturday, there is a work party to erect Cinema in the Sand and we volunteer to help. John, Will and I play cards before going to bed. Tonight the boys sleep on foam mats inside the house. Tomorrow, they will set up their roof top tent.
