International travel is an infrequent occurrence for me, so the trip to San Jose del Cabo with my husband and his family was much anticipated, especially because the snow drifts in my front yard were starting to engulf my house. After a layover, a delay, and a plane switch, we arrived in 70-degree weather with clear blue skies. 

Everything seemed absolutely heavenly until the last piece of luggage was unloaded and one of our pieces was nowhere to be found. As a novice traveler, I had packed every article of clothing in one suitcase and all of the extra non-necessity items in the other. Guess what? The suitcase we were missing contained our clothing for the entire trip. Panic started to creep in and the ear-to-ear smile was very much gone. After a white-knuckled drive to our all-inclusive resort and then a walk to a local store to purchase a change of clothes, we were finally able to do what we came for – RELAX!

Thankfully, the airline found our missing suitcase and delivered it to the hotel late on the first night of our arrival. What a relief! Now we could completely enjoy the rest of our vacation. And, we definitely didn’t want to waste any time so we quickly booked a whale-watching expedition, which ended up being the definite highlight of the trip. Why? Well, picture this.

We slowly cruised through the harbor on a catamaran transporting the six of us, one other couple, and the crew members. It felt like we had the boat entirely to ourselves. We slowed to see sunning sea lions and rock outcroppings, including the Los Cabos Arch – the signature landmark of the area. 

 

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We then headed out to open waters, hoping to catch sight of either the grey or humpback whales that were running that time of year. It didn’t take long to see our first whale spout, followed by glimpses of whale tails and backs. The energy on the boat was electric. Someone would spot a whale, fingers would point, heads would turn, the guides would quickly move the sail so we could loop around and see the whales again. Everyone was buzzing with excitement. On the way back the sun crept further into the horizon until it set completely. We were sailing so fast that the chips served to us as an evening snack would blow right off our plates. It was an incredible experience, not easily topped.  

The rest of the days were much more laid-back. We spent time lounging around the pool, collecting seashells on the beach, reading books, playing cards, and eating. The interesting thing about vacation in Mexico is that if you sleep in, it will certainly mean, “you snooze, you lose.” Everyone seems to get up early to claim deck chairs and if you missed out on one, you were definitely stuck in the least desirable area on the resort. For most of our vacation, we were fortunate enough to find chairs facing the beach, which meant we had a direct view of the whales swimming close to shore.

San Jose del Cabo turned out to be a perfect vacation spot that included fantastic weather that was warm, but not muggy. For a native Wisconsite it was much appreciated (especially when weather reports from home indicated another snowfall). And, yes, we had to spend half-an-hour digging out the car once arriving back in Minneapolis.