We did not have a tour scheduled for the day so we figured we would go out to find some whales along the coast south of San Jose del Cabo. But before that, we had been passing this store near our AirBnB that had a bunch of Christmas stuff and Donna loves Christmas decorations. (You should see her house during the holiday, decorated inside and out, front and back yard, and is the spectacle for their subdivsion.
The store was 3 floors of Christmas decorations and eclectic furniture and decorations. I found this cool chair basket swing that was ultra comfortable and only $500 USD. Back in the states this one would be $1200 or more. They even had a fake (or it could be real) VW Bus that was made into a kind of gazebo. That one was 75% off at only $6k USD. It was definitely an interesting place where Tim and Donna found some Christmas decorations that were one-way mirrors that projected LEDs into the abiss. They purchased 6 of them and had them wrapped for travel. I found an interesting toilet with the sink to wash your hands as the cover… it drained back into the bowl.
We headed south to San Jose and Kathy guided us to a road that took us to where her and the campground girls had gone to a local market the previous weekend. The road started in a wash and then climbed up along the coast on a well aged, rutted, and rocky track. I was a bit nervous because we were in the rental car, not the 4×4, but in the end I did not hit anything beneath the car or damage any of the tires. (I had skipped the insurance with Hertz because instead of something reasonable, like $20 per day insurance, they wanted $600 (half the cost of insuring Howie for 6 months in Mexico). I was betting on chance and that my costco card and other insurance would cover at least some of it. We did see a few whales way off in the distance, but I was more interested in the homes constructed along the beach.
We found a path down an arroyo to the beach and proceeded to see if we could see the whales better down there. And then we found the wild donkeys. Kathy and Donna were quickly up to the herd and were feeding and petting them in no time. All were moms with their yearlings so of course the babies were all fluffy and cute. They spent about an hour getting their fill of animal interactions. Seagulls on day 2, Camels on day 3, and donkeys on day 4.
We got back to the car with the donkey herd escorting us the entire way. There was a restaurant called Zachs that was recommended by Chandra and Koby so we had lunch there. This was probably the most expensive place we had food. Two margaritas, 4 craft beers, two bean and rice burritos, some chips, guac, salsa, fish and chips, and two tacos was close to $100 USD. I talked to this guy I met on the morning dog walks named Carson who has lived in Cabo since 2004, and I asked him about prices. He said when he first moved down there the food was cheap, awesome, and the whole scene was a party atmosphere but in the last 15 years, all the resorts and restaurants have changed everything and the food, drinks, and atmosphere is just expensive. He said he rarely eats out and cooks his own food in the house he is building. Carson was an interesting guy in the several conversations we had.
We headed back to San Jose, stopped at Campoamigos RV park to show Donna and Tim and to say hello to Koby and Chandra. On the way home we stopped and visited some shops at the north end that Kathy wanted to go back to. We then hit up Walmart 1 and Walmart 2 for a few last minute shirts and trinkets for Donna and Tim to take back to their family. Overall it was a fantastic day hanging out with friends and putzing around the cape of Baja California.