November 10th - San Jose Del Cabo

Our first rest day of the tour, and what a place to chill out!

The Marquis Hotel is simply awesome. It overlooks the Sea of Cortez, with every room having a fabulous view of the palms, sand and sea. I have never seen such immense swimming pools. The two halves of the hotel each have an Infinity pool that must be at least 70 metres long! You lie in the pool and look out to sea, as though you are swimming in the ocean, an incredible experience.

One of the two 'Infiniti' pools with the microlite landing on the beach

Lazing in the 'Infiniti' pool looking out on the Sea of Cortez

The amazing entrance lobby of the Marquis hotel overlooking the Sea of Cortes

Every aspect of this Mexican run hotel is 5 star plus. Apparently the hotel is privately owned by a Mexican family who run one other hotel in Mexico. Somehow the feeling that this is not a chain hotel comes through all the time with the impeccable service provided by the hundreds of staff.

Following an 8am swim we had a great breakfast overlooking the sea. Bob & Thelma Howells joined us and we all agreed it was going to be difficult to leave this hotel tomorrow morning.

We then decided to drive into the small town of San Jose del Cabo to have the car washed. We found a couple of men washing cars in the back streets and for $5 dollars the car was cleaned. We then went into the centre of the town. It has a pretty central square surrounded by tourist shops. We spent half an hour shopping at a craft fair for toys for the grandchildren and some small items of jewellery as presents for the family. We left San Jose del Cabo and stopped at a super market to stock up on food for tomorrow's seven hour ferry crossing to the mainland, as we had been told the food on the ferry leaves a lot to be desired.

A short drive back to the hotel and lunch by the pool. The afternoon was spent sorting out our bags for the next five days until the next rest day. We have found it much easier to have a small bag to take into the hotel each night and leave the majority of our clothes in the car. This way we limit the amount we have to carry, unpack and then repack each night/morning.

This evening we are going, by coach, with the group into Cabo San Lucas for a meal that has been laid on by HERO.

I learnt from the hotel manageress that Cabo avoided the recent hurricanes but the route we take tomorrow up the eastern side of Baja will be through the towns hardest hit by the storms. We will leave around 7.30am for the 200kms drive to the ferry just north of La Paz.