Monday, December 30, 2019; Cabo San Lucas

Monday, December 30, 2019; Cabo San Lucas

The Royal Princess was scheduled to drop anchor after 10AM outside Cabo San Lucas, and our excursion wasn’t scheduled to meet until 11:30AM, so we decided to attend the morning trivia.  However, we ended up going to the wrong venue. All of the trivia games to date have been in the Princess Live venue, but this morning, there was a crew training going on.  We ultimately found out the trivia had been moved to the Vista Lounge, so we headed back there.  When we arrived, there were just 3 other teams playing, and they were on question #3.  We joined in late, and fortunately, the host was willing to repeat the first two questions we had missed after he had completed the quiz, but before everyone swapped papers for grading.  We ended up 3 points behind the winners, who have been our main competition so far.  They appear to all be well traveled and probably also Elites.  They won medals, so we didn’t feel like we missed out on much.  They actually passed up on that prize, and if it were us that won, we probably would have kept the prizes just so the kids would have them, but if it were just Janet and Ben, we would have also passed up on the medals.  

The process of going ashore via the tenders to Cabo San Lucas went smoothly.  The Royal Princess had anchored with a nice view of El Arco, the landmark that Cabo San Lucas is most famous for.  When we had anchored in the Viking Star, we had a similar vantage point.  This time, however, our ship had the best anchorage, blocking the views from the Viking Sun and Holland America Oosterdam, which were also anchored nearby.  The Carnival Panorama was also anchored closer in towards the harbor entrance.  Tender traffic combined with fishing and tour boats made for a hectic harbor entrance.  Our tender was following a sports fisher that was coming in after fishing in the morning when an enormous sea lion shot out of the water and landed on that boat’s swim step, nearly tipping the bow out of the water.  The deck hand frantically waved the sea lion off.  That was some display of boldness on the part of that sea lion.  

The marina was a zoo, particularly at the tender dock because there were 4 cruise ships all getting passengers to their excursions.  We had signed up for a “Camel and Mexican Outback Adventure”.  We had been under the impression that we would get to ride ATV’s and camels, but we had misread the brochure and were just going for a camel ride, walk through some desert dunes, and lunch with a tequila tasting.  

The venue was nearly an hour’s drive north of Cabo San Lucas.  This took us well outside the bustle of the city and into the picturesque coastline.  There are large cacti all over the landscape and lots of mountains to the east, while the Pacific Ocean was to the west with stretches of white sand beaches interspersed between rocky prominences with heavy surf action.  In the distance, we could see whale spouts, and Ben even saw one whale breaching with a huge splash.  The road was a surprisingly well paved and maintained highway right up to the point where our turnoff was.  The driveway to the venue looked entirely improvised with compacted dirt forming a ramp up to the highway just barely wide enough for our bus to traverse without sliding off either side into the cacti and barbed wire fencing.  

It was nearly 1pm when we got off the bus.  The facility was actually a very well developed site with modern bathrooms, a nice gift shop and outdoor restaurant.  It was set up to handle large crowds.  There were even 3 ladies rooms to each men’s room so tour groups could get through quickly and efficiently.  

They didn’t waste any time getting us into helmets camouflaged with white head coverings that made us all look like Arab wannabes.  They had a camel mounting station like the elephant ride we did in Bali, so the camels did not have to get down on their knees to load up, or stand up with passengers hanging on for dear life as they tipped dramatically forward and then backward in their usual camel fashion.  These camels were fitted with “modern” saddles with aluminum frames suspending a sling saddle, so we weren’t riding directly on the camel’s spines.  These were a big step up from the camel saddles we had encountered outside Abu Dhabi and Dubai.  

The camel ride was quite scenic, crossing over some low beach dunes covered with cacti, bushes and flowers, to a long stretch of golden sand beach.  There were Sea Turtle signs posted periodically, indicating some nesting areas, so vehicles were not allowed on those stretches of the beach.  The beach and surf were beautiful and majestic, as were the mountains and foothills on the upland side.  The camels ride in single file, even stepping in the same footprints of the animals ahead of them.  This creates efficiencies because the footprint is already compacted, and therefore requires less energy to travel in.  Looking at the tracks behind a caravan of camels, you really can’t tell how many animals are in the caravan because of this trait of following in the exact footsteps of the lead camel.  

While the ride was pleasant, and lasted about 30 minutes, even a smooth camel ride is a very rocky and pitchy affair.  This left Ben’s back a bit tweaked.  After we dismounted, we went to take pictures with camels, but this venue is extremely strict about not allowing any photography with the camels except by their photographers, who then sell you the pictures in the gift shop.  A set of photos started at $150 per person, so we ended up without many pictures.  They had actually forbid riders from carrying cameras saying it was a safety issue- they said you had to have both hands gripping the saddle bar at all times.  But we still managed to sneak a few pictures with our iPhones.  

There was a buffet lunch with included beer and tequila.  Our guide did a demonstration of making tortillas from hominy with volcanic grinding stones, and then did a tequila and Mezcal tasting with us.  Everyone had as much tequila, Mezcal as they cared for or dared to.  We started with a Tequila Plata, which is basically 100% agave distillate, and is a clear liquid. The next was a Tequila Reposado, which is aged in oak barrels to add character and flavors. This gives it a slightly amber color, and hint of smokiness in addition to the expected oak tones.  We then finished our tasting experience with a Guaycura Liquor de Damiana, which is fermented from a mint-like plant.  This produces a very sweet 60 proof liquor that is the Mexican equivalent to an after dinner sherry.  

We all left the tasting pleasantly buzzed.  We were loaded up in a Unimog 4WD truck bed and driven back over the dunes to the parking lot.  It was a hour’s drive back to Cabo San Lucas, but most of us ended sleeping off our Tequila buzz as the bus driver dealt with Cabo’s rush hour traffic.  We got back to the pier at 6pm.  The last tender back was scheduled to leave at 7PM, so there wasn’t much time to do anything else around the marina other than a quick peek into a few shops.  

Back on the ship, we got cleaned up, but since we had such a late lunch on our excursion, nobody really felt like having dinner, so we went to the 8PM performance by Zach Winningham, who is a guitarist and vocalist, who put on a good show of 60’s and 70’s songs backed by the Royal Princess Band.  

After the show, we hit the buffet, which on the Royal Princess for this itinerary, stays open until 1am. This is quite a change from our prior experiences where the buffet closes at 9pm.  But the demographics of this crowd is quite different than on most of our prior cruises- lots of much younger peoples who like to party late and have boundless energy.

Ben soaked his tweaked back in a hot tub while the Movies under the Stars was showing the Peanut Butter Falcon movie, which we had watched in our stateroom on the Sapphire Princess just a couple of weeks ago.  It was actually very pleasant to watch the film outdoors on the pool deck.  There were lots of people doing the same from the pool chairs, which are covered with pillows and blankets for Movies under the Stars at night. 

Tomorrow we arrive early to Mazatlan, so we retired early. We have a tour of three traditional villages in the foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountains.