January 16, 2022. 79°F/26°C

#myvikingstory

After tendering in from our ship anchored in the Sea of Cortez, a process which involves using the ship’s lifeboats (“tenders”) to take us in to ports where the waters are either too shallow, or the docks too small for a cruise ship, we took the bus into San José del Cabo this afternoon for a low-key stroll around the town. There were many other excursions offered, including whale-watching (nothing will ever measure up to our experience in Provincetown Massachusetts ), desert ATV rides (not for us), paddleboarding (not for non-swimmers!), and rides through the outback on imported “rescue” camels (we’ll wait for Egypt, if then), but none of them appealed to us. Nonetheless we wanted to get off the ship for a few hours.

San José del Cabo was in bloom in all the myriad colours reflected in its photo op sign. It’s such a treat to be among flowers in January!

San José is a lovely small colonial town founded as a Spanish mission in 1730, and is home to a picturesque church, pretty town square, and lots of colourful colonial architecture, but we noticed big differences from our visit in December 2019. First, on the drive from Cano San Lucas to San José del Cabo we noticed a ton of big new chain stores replacing the former independent smaller stores, road and infrastructure projects going on everywhere, massive new oceanfront hotels going up and older ones being renovated. The area is going to be more than ready for a post Covid surge in tourism. Second, we noticed that San José itself has grown; an influx of expat Americans and Canadians have sought refuge – and bought homes – here during Covid. Prices in the realtor’s window were almost double what we saw 2 years ago, and (again)many of the small shops have become americanized/anglicized. The one thing that seemed to have suffered from disrepair was the church. To me it looked somehow sadder, it’s beautiful blue and gold interior paint in need of restoration, and its exterior walkways suffering from cracked and missing stones. Still, it appears to have a thriving congregation, based on the number of people exiting mass and being blessed by the priest just as we arrived in town.

Pre-dinner, we were invited to a cocktail hour Meet & Mingle by Jim, the moderator of our World Cruise’s Cruise Critic Album group. What a lovely way to meet in person the folks we’ve been chatting with online for months. The event took place on the Aquavit Terrace, an outdoor dining area on Deck 7 Aft, where the infinity pool is also located. As an added bonus, we had some tunes from King, and all got to witness a glorious sunset as we sailed away from Cabo.

Then it was on to more food: a Baja California Style Taco event. Chef Thomas is really setting the standard for culinary events on this world cruise! We thoroughly enjoyed everything we tried; coconut shrimp tacos, mahi mahi tacos, Baja fish tacos, enchiladas, coconut and pineapple gelati, and WAY too many margaritas. It was the perfect evening to dine al fresco, so we did. (No food pics today, but it was delicious!!)

There was a movie showing on the top deck tonight under the stars, with individual sets of BOSE headphones and blankets in case it got cool, but we chose to take in the live entertainment in the Star Theater, which was another musical variety performance by our ship’s entertainment team. It’s always fun when the entire team gets together to showcase their talents, and this time we also got a better introduction to our two Assistant Cruise Directors, Damian and Sarah-Leanne.

Goodnight and farewell to Cabo!