Cabo San Lucas is open for Business!

We were originally surprised that the cruise line was still planning to visit Cabo just 3 weeks after the hurricane Odile (Sept. 14, 2014) but the town is ready and waiting for tourists. Commercial flights began again on Oct. 8th and the local newspaper, The Los Cabos News, had a list of all the hotel re-openings. It also mentioned that some hotels are taking this opportunity to do upgrades. The locals we spoke with said that the news coverage has been all about the bad, but things are functioning and would we please tell everyone that!

There is still a lot of visible damage, but the debris has been gathered into piles and unsafe areas have yellow tape around them.

There were a lot of roofs that came down or blew away, but they have been repaired, or are being worked on.

The shop owners that we spoke with said that the first 4 days were the worst. The locals were invited to come into grocery stores and take away anything perishable as the power was out for a week or more. A bar manager told us he had a sale on warm beer for the workers at the harbor, and a pharmacist told us that he and his wife slept in front of the glass doors of their pharmacy until the Federal Police arrived to protect against looters. We heard from more than one person that the local police were as bad as the looters.  But, everyone seemed to be taking it all in stride and are trying to get on with business as usual. All the ceiling tiles in the mall were down, but this jewelry store manager was happy to show us all kinds of pretty things.

Apparently a lot of boats leave at this time of year so the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been in the harbor and we didn't see any damaged boats--just twisted docks. There were still plenty of fishing boats.

And some fish!

The water taxis are running.

And, best of all, most of the bars are open and still offering 2 for 1 mango margaritas!

At home we complain about the cold and rain, so for a change of pace-it's beastly hot and humid here! Time perhaps for a Cerveza!

While we were busy slurping the guys went in for some water sports. First they took a water taxi over to the main beach from the tender pier. This sounds a bit like an extreme sport as Mark whacked his head getting on and fell backwards on to the bow of the boat. Then getting off he, again, hit his head and fell backwards over the seats and ended up with is his feet in the air. A regular person might have given up then, but these two found the only two kayaks for rent in Cabo--if they were able to get them out of the rafters of a shed that had been damaged in the hurricane.

One of the kayaks had also received damage and the rudder on Mark's boat was bent and all the cables were missing. This caused issues when the guys decided not to go beyond the Arch, but despite Mark's 4 strokes on the left to 1 on the right, he ended up going in circles and almost getting washed into open ocean.

Andrew, meanwhile, was 100 feet away trying to land on Lover's Beach with most of the beach having been relocated in the storm. As there were no other intrepid souls at this usually busy beach Andrew was able to convince the entrpreneurial soul with the cold beers that they should get a discount.

Back on the ship the guys have become the experts on the laundry facilities. They did, however, manage to wash 2 loads without any soap, despite pushing the "push only once" soap button 4 times. Might have helped if the button was for the machine they were using. To be fair, the directions did read as if they were written by a committee of the Indonesian, Ukranian and Pakistani crew members. They also managed to use the dryer that tumbles, but doesn't heat. Still, they made new friends including the Australian lady who supplied them with a lifetime supply of dryer sheets. Who travels from Australia to Vancouver B.C. to Valparaiso, Chile with a Costco-sized supply of dryer sheets?