We did the same included tour today that we did on our very first visit to Cabo (Episode 52), and again on the 21/22 world cruise (Episode 167): An Introduction to San José del Cabo. It’s a lovely little town, which makes it worth revisiting and taking more photos.

Plus, honestly, the touristy stretch of Cabo, with 4 ships in port, didn’t hold much attraction – although that didn’t stop us from wandering around for a while. After all, we’re headed into 2 more sea days before Los Angeles, and a long stretch of them to Hawaii.

The tour description read:

Get acquainted with San José del Cabo, the more subdued sister city to Cabo San Lucas. The oldest Spanish mission on the Baja Peninsula, San José was an important city during the Spanish colonization and a stopover destination for ships heading farther into the Pacific Ocean. You will tender ashore and meet your guide for a drive along the highway that connects all the resorts between Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo. Set out on a guided walk to explore its charming mission, inviting town square and low adobe homes that evoke an old colonial atmosphere. A Spanish mission here, founded in 1730, replenished galleons making the long journey to the Philippines. Walk through the main plaza, enjoy the town’s artistic flair and browse the many art galleries before returning to your awaiting ship.

But first, breakfast. Since our tour timing means we’ll miss lunch, I headed to Mamsen’s this morning for one of their signature vanilla-infused waffles “with everything”: fresh strawberries, juicy sweet blackberries, tart blueberries, sour cream, real maple syrup, and the famous Norwegian whey cheese Brunost (literally “brown cheese”). Ted headed to the World Café for his less photo-worthy but equally satisfying breakfast of pancakes and bacon.

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Cabo San Lucas is an extremely popular cruise ship port, but is not actually big enough to allow cruise ships to dock, so we sat at anchor and boarded tenders to take us to shore.

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We headed into the crowds on shore, took the obligatory tourist photo at the Cabo sign , and headed for our tour group going to the much less crowded San José del Cabo.

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But first a quick detour to see the sea lions.

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Even though we’ve done this tour before, each tour guide has different facts to share. This time, we learned that Cabo was originally the site of a large tuna canning factory, but after the designation of the waters where the Sea of Cortex meets the Pacific were determined to be a unique ecological environment, commercial fishing was banned. As a result, Cabo’s economy completely switched from fishing to tourism.

In San José del Cabo, Christmas decorations still adorned the town square, so I got to be both Cinderella in her golden carriage, and the centre of a Christmas ornament.

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After walking around on our own for about an hour, and enjoying some helado with chocolate-covered coffee beans, cranberries, and almonds, we re-boarded our tour bus and headed back into Cabo to board our tender.

One of the other new things our guide Alejandra shared was the origin of the margarita. A beautiful actress named Margarita Cansino, living in Tijuana, and already famous in Mexican films, desperately wanted to go to Hollywood. In order to meet Hollywood directors, she frequented a bar that they were also known to patronize, since they often partied in Mexico during the US prohibition era. The bartender fell in love with Margarita, but lost her when Orson Welles “discovered” her and took her to Hollywood. After a period of desolation, the bartender created a drink in honour of his lost love: salt for the tears he had shed, ice for her cold heart, lime for the bitterness he felt, and tequila to help him forget. He named it after his lost love Margarita.

And Margarita? Orson Welles married her and helped make her famous under a new name: Rita Hayworth.

That story is not quite accurate, and there are several other possibilities for where the drink’s name originated, but it has elements of truth in it, and made for a good excuse to have a margarita when we returned to the ship.

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After our pre-dinner drinks it was time for our second dinner at Manfredi’s.

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What’s better after a lovely dinner than an excellent show? Some of Viking’s best shows are those that, like tonight, feature their own cast.

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And that wrapped up our day.

We’re headed into two more sea days before reaching Los Angeles, where the approximately 400 passengers currently on board who were only booked for the Panama Canal cruise will disembark and be replaced by 400 world cruisers, among whom will be many friends from our 21/22 adventure. We’re looking forward to welcoming them aboard!