Cabo San Lucas

Monday 31st December 2018

We had a very early morning flight leaving El Paso, Texas to fly to Dallas before being able to fly into San Jose Cabo airport! It was very strange flying a short distance of only 3 hours and suddenly your in Mexico where its warm, sunny and a completely different culture! We had to organise a private transfer to our hotel as there was no public transport to Cabo San Lucas where we were staying which was about a 30 minute drive away - this is where we miss London as it was literally $100 USD ($147 nzd) to do this transfer return! It took us awhile to find our Airbnb as it didn’t show up on the map as it was in a new subdivision. Not to mention we had no wifi since we realised once we arrived that 3 Mobile doesn’t cover Mexico! Gosh we get lucky just showing up to any country in Europe and it works! Once we eventually got into our new pad it had the most beautiful view out over the city below and down to the waterfront. It was stunning! We fought the urge to take a nap and instead went out to find some groceries to fill our massive American style fridge for the week! Once again we missed London a lot as there were no small shops close by like we have about 5 Sainsburys in walking distance from our house in Stockwell! Instead we had to walk around an hour to the closest supermarket. It was actually nice getting out and walking through the suburbs but we didn’t have a clue whether it was safe or not! Everyone seemed pretty friendly however. The supermarket was massive and suddenly in my exhausted state I realised it was now on my shoulders to meal prep for an entire week - oh my! We kinda fumbled around buying heaps of veggies and fruits since we felt we had been a bit deprived whilst in El Paso after visited the local corner store there with shrivelled up fruit and brown bananas. The avocados were the BEST thing as it was literally $5 usd ($7 nzd) for an entire 1kg bag of them! We were absolutely in our element at this point as iv never seen such cheap Avos in my life. There was no doubt we were eating these for breakfast lunch and dinner! We collated up enough to get us through the week and thank goodness the place had wifi as we were actually able to order an Uber home! The man only spoke Spanish so I was translating what he was messaging us using Google translate and then replying to him in the same fashion so he could find us and our big cart of groceries! We had an absolute feast of a dinner with tray bake chicken, courgettes and potatoes. Of course when in Mexico drink margaritas! So we had picked up some pre mixed bottle where you just have to add the alcohol and Lew set about shaking and blending it all together! It was New Years Eve after all!!! Ok so guys I have to admit we both crashed by 10pm….but we had such a massive week with the wedding and many late nights! We both did get woken up by the fireworks at midnight of which we had the perfect view of out on our balcony. The hotels each put on a big show of it all and spent millions with these fireworks so it was quite the display! As soon as they were done we crashed again. Happy 2019 everyone!!!!

Shopping for alcohol is not our usual activity

Been a long time since we physically grocery shopped since it gets delivered to us in London!

Tuesday 1st January 2019

This was an absolute chilled day! We mucked around all morning and I spent a fair amount of time working on my Arbonne business since I can work remotely which is the huuuuge benefit of it when we are away for such a long time and I don’t get any holiday pay with my nursing job. The famous Winter Classic was on at Notre Dame stadium with the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks playing against each other. We made fresh guac with a margarita and watched the game so pleased to have some down time! I had a goal setting call with one of our incredible mentors and Zoom allows us all to be connected from wherever we are in the world. This is my year guys!! Im saying this in here as you can all hold me accountable for what Arbonne is going to do for me this year! Im SO passionate about educating people how important it is to use non toxic products I could rave about them for hours! Anyways by the afternoon the sun had come out and we were getting a bit of cabin fever so we headed down to the Marina and beach for a walk. It was stunning but rather American-ified- if thats a word? Lets just say it wasn’t a small beach side town as it has a mall, all inclusive hotels, a beach front club and many bars. The sand was soft and the water an acceptable temperature so I won;t complain too much. Especially whilst our peers back in London are getting snowed on! Plus we got to see the locals feeding these giant sea lions that were almost so fat they didn’t even want to eat the food they were handed! We scouted out a few good places for dinner that had been recommended to us - Las Guacamayas, Taqueria Paisa, Maria Corona to name a few for you! Dinner was pretty chilled with home made burgers at home again since we had so much fresh food we needed to use up. Another day in paradise down!

They built the footpath around the cactus!

Wednesday 2nd Jan

Today we promised we would head out to a beach! The sun was shining and it promised to be a warmer day than the last. The plan was to try and get to a place called Lovers Beach which we had been told you could walk to. After all our taxi driver on Monday told us that all beaches in Mexico are public! We packed up our things for the day and walked down to where the marina is and carried on around. The path that we were supposed to be taking seemed to be all fenced up and was a private property so we just continued around the corner to the other beach called Cannery Beach (Playa Empacadora) but this was right in the middle of a channel with all the boats heading out for the day so it wasn’t that pleasant. The best beaches are the ones you have to spend a bit of energy getting to right? So we continued down over the rocks and around to another beach hoping to continue to Lovers Beach but it seemed that wasn’t possible. We struggled to find the perfect place to settle into and thought we would walk back and try and make the climb over through the private property. I thought it was a good idea to walk in the water around the rocks but as soon as I did I got slammed with some ferry wake and was very concerned about my brand new phone in my pocket and scrambled up the rocks to get away from the water. Little did I know that I had cut my toe open until Lewis asked why I was now drenched from head to toe and why there was blood pouring out if my big toe. I exclaimed that it surely wasn’t my blood! A hand wipe thankfully sorted it out although I felt like the most unprepared nurse and we had to buy some plasters! We hobbled back to the gate where we though we could enter into. Turns out no you have to book into a hike through Facebook where you have to pay. Typical. We went back to one of the beaches feeling fed up with hunting for the perfect spot and sat in the sun for a bit. Neither of us swum as the sun had ducked behind the clouds and I had to put Lew down vest on to stay warm. We decided to head back and chill in our nice apartment and get ready for our first experience of local Mexican food! We decided to try out Las Guacamayas since that was a short walk down the road. The food smelt incredible as we walked in the door and we proceeded to be welcomed by a very friendly local Mexican waiter. We order two margaritas which were absolutely massive and Lews one had a full sized Corona beer in it as well! Dinner was a mixture of guac, fiery dressings, tacoes and enchiladas and I have to admit it was very tasty! Although it wasn’t quite as cheap as we were hoping for! We walked home in the dark and watched this very inspirational Netflix show called “Tales by light” - highly recommended!! It did make me crave to be able to do some aid work and I vowed in that moment to make my new business venture so successful that I can do that!!

Thursday 3rd Jan

Another day in paradise, although the temperature is never overly warm in the mornings. We know for sure it’s nicer weather in New Zealand right now! We had a sleepy start of the day as usual. I got up, did some work on the blogs and made myself a smoothie. I’m starting to enjoy having one for breakfast and I better get used to it since thats what up be having for the next 30 days since Arbonne’s 30 day plan starts on the 7th! I’m actually very excited about improving my gut health and I believe this is the answer to many of my current issues. Once Lew finally emerged he decided today was the day we would head out for a run and see some sights! He had clearly been doing some research last night as he had it in his mind to run to the west coast of the spit where there was a long golden sand beach you could see on Google maps. He plotted the run and we sun blocked ourselves up ready to see how exercise proof this new Arbonne sunblock of mine really is! Leaving the house I knew it was bound to be numerous hours until we return home and I wasn’t quite sure what I signed up for. We brought my phone just in case we needed it for photos and of course more importantly navigation! Running over the hill where our house is located meant we were in a much more local Mexican area and the houses were identical but in many different colours. In parts it did remind me a little of Casablanca in Morocco as there was a collection of white houses. However, at this point we hit a road block with a security guard who only spoke Spanish basically saying we couldn’t go through as it was a private hotel. Despite the beach not being private! Frustrated we tried another way around having to run through areas where we were the only white skinned people. Sand, rubbish, barking dogs, large American trucks and colourful houses is how I would sum these streets up. We managed to run up a few dead end streets and the once again was stopped by some guards with a road that seemed quite clearly the one we wanted to be on as it lead straight to the beach on the map. He was a lot kinder and even rung a few friends to translate to English why we couldn’t go through. In short it was private American land. Are we even still in Mexico?! Third time we almost failed again having run into yet another large gate that made us believe the land was once again private. A couple of local workers approached us and using some broken Spanish (I mean very broken - si? and hola! Is about all we have!) and some broken English on his part he opened the gate for us. We gathered he thought we were from one of the hotels that he named and Lewis enthusiastically saying “Si, Si!” to this! This was a fantastic track of hardened sand surrounded by cacti and other local scrubs. They were clearly building a new hotel down here as there were sprawling side walks amongst the sandy cactus tracks. Groups of Mexican workers from the hotel stared at us with confusion as we ran past. I agree, it was midday, the sun was at its hottest and we had no food or water! There finally ended up being a track up to the lighthouse on the hill which was one of the points of interest and we climbed our way up red faced and thirsty. The view from the top showed a small collections of local Mexican villages amongst large pockets of land with huge swimming pools and very out of place green grass of the golf courses. It was a little bit of a shame since all this land is American owned and this means the local arnt able to access it . Heading down from the lighthouse there is the original one on the rocky cliffs above the sea, this one was built in 1905 . We hoped to continue down onto the beach for some time but had to run back up the hills that the golf course was situated on to do so. We passed many hotel guests out for their round of golf and surprisingly not one of them even glanced at us or said hello! I never want to be the type of person that comes to a beautiful location like this and play golf anyways. Sorry if there’s anyone out there who does! I was beyond thirsty at this point and I think Lew was too. The golf course restaurant was our only hope of some water and I would have drunk out of their fountain at this point of time! Red faced, sweaty and smelling of the Mexican we had eaten the night before I walked into the outdoor restaurant and asked for some water. Thankfully no questions asked we were given two full cups of iced water! It was heaven and we sat on some steps in the shade savouring it. We walked down to the beach and as usual Lew decided to swim below the man in the watch tower who he figured was a lifeguard. We were a little amazed there wasn’t a single other person on the beach but guessed it was a) hard to get to for anyone not staying here b) everyone was out playing golf. We only realised why when Lew was about to get in the water and a whistle blew stopping him and the man proceeded to tell us it was “prohibito”, but couldn’t tell us why in his little English. We walked down the beach hoping for somewhere where you could swim but noticed that the waves were pretty dumpy onto the shore and perhaps that’s why. Still nothing we couldn’t handle! We hoped to continue down the beach and around the end of it but another man in a watch tower told us that was also prohibited and the only way back was up and over the hill. Can you do anything in this country! Struggling to make our way back up the hill in the hot sun we tried to make it to another beach called “sunset beach” which turned out to be another hotel and a waste of time. Finally we got back on the main road and passed by the original guard that said no to us- Lew had a fair bit of speed on by this stage concerned we would be questioned but they were only concerned about those entering. We pushed through another km of so and iv never been so pleased to see the white building of our Airbnb! We jumped straight into the cold pool and finally relaxed! Turns out it was a 20km journey of which we ran about 13km! Wow what a mission! We made guacamole, a smoothie and ate the remaining burger from the other night as our celebratory lunch! Later that evening though we headed to the main street to catch a bus into San Jose Cabo where they have an Art Walk every Thursday 5-9pm! The bus was very very local and we were the only white faces on it as many men were heading home from work . It was a much longer bus journey than I expected at about 40 minutes. We hadn’t been into San Jose Cabo yet so it was exciting to get out of the small beach town we had been the last few days. Our driver from the airport the other day had told us the exact stop we needed to get off at to go to these markets and that was a massive billboard that said “Elecktra” that was bright yellow and hard to miss. The bus was going so bloody fast that we didn’t even see the sign but Lew has done his research earlier as to where we needed to get off and we just missed it. The bus literally picks people off from any old place if they flag it down and before it’s even slowed down the doors are wide open! We had a short walk down some dark streets before the lights and musical became closer. We passed so many small local restaurants that I’m sure would serve you up a smashing taco...with maybe a bit of dysentery on the side. Is that too harsh? Have to admit I’m a lot more cautious now that we have been to Morocco. I bring anti diahorrea medication literally every trip we go on. As we rounded the corner the cute street was lit up with fairy lights and locals and tourists mingled around the streets and shop entrances. I knew we had come across a wee gem and I was so thankful of our driver for telling us about this! We went into the first shop we came across and it was full of hand made artwork that came in anything from napkins, tablecloths or pillow cases. The colours were beautiful and I would have loved to have a large blue one lying across a white bedspread in our house. But we are a little overweight luggage wise already so it wasn’t an option! We continued downwards popping in and out of jewellery stores and art gallery that caught our eye. One place in particular grabbed my attention and I walked across the road to photograph a very clever chair in the shape and colour of an avocado! I then noticed the rest of the shop through the doorway and there was no stopping me. These shops I absolutely love despite not having a beautiful home to furnish just yet. But I can dream and collect small items right? A lot of the items were difficult to get back to the UK and I glanced over them. But I have a bit of an affliction for pillows currently and I picked up this one brightly coloured pillow of greys, greens, pink and blues. Can I say it was love at first sight when I speak of a pillow? Well it was but looking at the price tag which read $90 usd ($132 nzd) I promptly put it down again. Perhaps a little to much for a pillow. Carrying on and trying not to glance back at it as Lew showed me some amazing rugs which were lovely colours. That’s when I noticed some table mats out of the corner of my eye. I had already been admiring the funky placemats in the other room but now these were amazing. I shortly realised why exactly that was....they were the exact same fabric as the cushion! Bingo! These are easier to transport right? Alas they were the same price but I still LOVED them. I began speaking about how we could use these and pull out the different colours to use when decorating our dining room and that they would look beautiful on the wooden table we would have. Once I have an idea like this I’m hard to sway. Anyways I took a few photos and grabbed a card hoping to purchase them when we were back in London. We carried on and I left a piece of my heart back in the shop. Haha that’s very corny. The rest of the art market wasn’t quite as impressive as this street but there were numerous bars and restaurants about that boasted tasty looking menus. We were eating at home since we had quite a bit of food to get through still!! I tried to find some free WiFi so I could make sure I had $90 USD in my account as there wasn’t anyway I was letting this go. There wasn’t any WiFi though. I thought I would just go back and ask how much it would be to ship to the UK and see if it’s an option. I asked the women and she gave me an insane cost of about $200 usd ($294 nzd) and asked why I wasn’t purchasing them now? I told her I needed WiFi to transfer some money and she promptly gave me their password. Lew was loitering outside the door despite giving me the thumbs up meaning that he loved them too. That reassurance was all I needed! I swiped away and was handed the bag full of my goodies. I certainly hope we won’t need more that 4 place settings in the near future as that’s all I have! But they were the last ones and the women explained to me that they are produced in a place called Chiapas in the south. This is their only store although with the popularity of it im sure another one will be open soon. We decided to get a quick drink and then head all the way home on the bus. The place we chose was pretty hipster with a car bonnet open as the grill and graffiti walls. We perched up at the bar and decided we would order a margarita to share after last nights episode. When the strawberry margaritas turned up it was tiny! But it was only 100 pesos ($5 usd/$7.60 nzd) so it was nothing really. As tempted as we were by the menu we paid and left and walked to where the bus would meet us. This literally costs us 75 pesos ($5.70 nzd) total for two people to go all the way back to Cabo! A bit of a bargain really if you can handle the run down dirty seats and fast driving. But trust me it’s worth the money saving as a Uber would cost more like 27 USD ($39 nzd) one way. We made some quick dinner and headed to bed ready to wake up feeling like we had been run over after the 29km we did during the day - 13km of that running and the rest walking!

Friday 4th Jan

Lew had spend the morning on the phone and basically the entire week stressing about our flights tomorrow going back to London. So the deal is that we are flying with Norwegian and they changed our flight time to be earlier by 30 minutes. This was a few months back but we were so busy travelling when I got the email and they offered nothing other than fully refunding our flights which would have 100% put us out of pocket since we purchased these back in May so we decided to just go ahead with it. We didn’t realise how much of a mistake this really was until we started on the trip and had time to work it out. So this leaves us an incredibly short connection time of 1 hour and 40 minutes between our flight landing into LAX and then leaving to London. That sounds ok right but that actually means from the moment we touch down if we are on time we have 40 minutes to get off the plane, clear customs/immigration, pick up out bags and then get to the check in desk. Thats the first hurdle and then there is getting back through security, immigration and onto the plane. Sounding a little more impossible right? We had thought about getting them to change our flight to the non direction one going via Sweden but they wouldn’t. They literally couldn’t do a thing about it. Lew spend so much time studying the flights and seeing whether they have been early or late over the last few weeks. He also studied the map of LAX’s terminal and knew where exactly we would be. He managed to change us to the front of the plane at no cost and we booked an extra bag for the flight to London so we had done as much as possible and would have to deal with it on the day. To stop him pacing up and down the apartment we made some burgers for lunch and walked down to the main beach Playa El Médano since it was actually warm today! We tried to relax as locals tried to sell us products. we managed to get a swim in as we knew it may be awhile until out next one! Friday night I had another goal setting call with one of my mentors before we cooked our final dinner and enjoyed watching the sun set over the city. We called it an early night as no doubt tomorrow was going to be long and very stressful!

Editing the Morocco blog whilst having dinner

The locals inspire me! They don’t let the NOs get to them

Saturday 5th Jan

Today was the big day! I had been up since 4am and couldn’t sleep so I got up and did some work knowing the next time I lie flat could be a long long time away! 11am came around fast and before we knew it we were packed up and hanging around the pool waiting for our ride to turn up to head to the airport. It was a stunning hot day and we couldn’t believe we were heading back to miserable cold London. But it was time to get back to work since Egypt is only three weeks away! Our driver was called Mustafa and was absolutely so funny. He had a cooler full of beers and drinks for us and we ended up getting a bit of a tour around the island since we picked up a few other passengers. Lew and I were feeling a bit sick thinking about the possibilities today had in store for us. We had decided that the first thing was the incoming flight needed to be on time, we needed priority on out baggage, then we needed to leave on time, then we needed to get in to La early or on time. These ducks needed to line up first before we could think of the next step. So I came up with a code for us to communicate to each other and stay positive. I kept telling Lew we need to be positive about this and believe we can make it. So the code was “quack” like a duck when the ducks started lining up. So yes we were that strange couple quaking at each other for motivation! The incoming flight was early and the check in lady gave us priory for free on out bag!! Plus we managed to get it relatively to the right weight although I had stuffed a heap of heavy things into my jacket pockets since its not like they will weigh you jackets if they weight your carry on right. Wee travel tip right there! I quacked to Lew as we walked away getting more positive as we went. The flight was short and we managed to swap into the isle seats so we could get out quickly. The flight landed early but Lew knew that because of the runway we were on we had a long taxi. we were both sitting on the edge of the seat looking at out watches and quacking in our heads. The seatbelt sign we off and Lew was up a record speed but not fast enough for us to get past everyone. But at least we only had to wait for 5 rows to get out instead of 20! We ran so so so fast past everyone to get to immigration as we knew these lines were notoriously long. I felt sick trying to keep up with Lew as I was wheeling my roller bag along as well! The line wasn’t bad at all and a man helped us get into a shorter line. It took us about 5 minutes to get through here and we got to the baggage carousel. We realised this is what was going to slow us down since we had no control over the part. We had priority which eased my mind a little. We had already made plans for this part and that was that I would go on without Lewis and give him the directions as to where he needed to go to meet me at check in. I felt sick leaving him as we quacked each other goodbye. There was a wee shortcut I was guided through for transfer flights but because we couldn’t check in online we couldn’t use this. But it did mean I could tell Lewis exactly where we needed to get to. Reaching the check in floor my heart sunk when I saw the line for Norwegians check in desk. They were calling out for London passengers and I put my hand up. I begged them to check both of us in and that Lew was coming asap but they wouldn’t. There was no way I wanted to check in without him so I was forced to wait watching the elevator where he would come up. We needed to be check in by 5.10pm with our previous flight landing at 4.30pm and our flight out leaving at 6.10pm. Very very short and even Lews friend whos a pilot for Alaskan airlines said it wasn’t possible. Lew messaged me at 6.55pm and said the bag still hasn’t come out. My heart sunk and I wondered if we could even do this. I kept quacking to myself and sent him a few also. I tried to begin the check in process at 5pm but she was pretty uncertain Lew would make it. I didn’t get into the part where they had changed these flight times and then not been of any help about it. It was 7.05pm and I saw Lew emerge from the elevators!! I jumped up and down so so so pleased and waved him towards me. I ran to the man who said he would help us and he begun the check in process with literally 2 minutes to spare. WOW. I was overjoyed!!!We ditched our two bags and walked away with Lew a sweaty mess and his heart pounding. I couldn’t believe it. Now I said to him that we have an hour till we board right. And he laughed and said no the plane started boarding 5 minutes ago!!! So we set off again running through the terminal! The line for security was long and there was no way I was letting this stop us getting on this plane after what we had just been through. I took the lead pushing through everyone apologising as I went and most people were yelling encouragement to us. There were three staff members standing up future and I asked them for help and they just told me we would be fine. They didn’t bother lifting a finger to help so we stopped pushing out way through taking their advice. Man would I be angry if they were wrong!!! Lews lap top wrongly got diverted to the area where it needed to be checked and with our heart pounding we waited as the security people dealt with a stupid couple who had put a drink bottle through full and didn’t want to lose it. She went with them to throw it out and we were left jumping up and down trying to get someones attention as the screening man had already said Lews laptop was fine and he made a mistake! Once we got it back we ran life the wind and thankfully saw the line for out plane to be boarded. I scooted into the bathroom knowing we had time and we took a quick selfie for the parents who didn’t believe we could do it! Sitting on the plane was an unreal feeling and we felt the stress wash away! Funny thing was that the plane was delayed for at least 40 minutes !!! We were shattered and got only a little sleep as we made out way back into chilly London where we had to catch the train home and slept for a few hours. Back to work tomorrow and excitedly I get to start the 30 Day Plan!!

Fizz stick to get me through the stress!

Sweaty but made it to our plane - absolute miracle!!!!

ShannenJanuary 2, 2019