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May 28, 2017
San Jose Del Cabo - Dia Uno
On Saturday morning, I'm awake before the alarm goes off. Thousand things are rushing through my head. Leaving the country isn't easy. Have to pack for a different climate. Different lifestyle. Different customs.
Everything has to be charged. Files copied off onto the home servers. Print out all of our reservations. Get cash out of the bank. Check into the flight.
We leave on time.
On the way to the airport, I'm running down the checklist with Jennifer. Make sure we haven't missed anything.
She asks if I called the bank to tell them we're traveling. Bingo. Totally spaced that one. So, on the way to the airport, we call the credit union and tell them we'll be in Mexico for a week. Both debit cards are set up for 1 week in Mexico. That was a big save.
Also, her phone never worked in Mexico last time, so, on the way to the airport, we call Verizon and explain to them that we'll be out of the country for a week, and last time, her phone never worked for shit. So, the lady sends us an email explaining how to make her phone work in Mexico. This is a godsend. It has exact details about what to do if the phone isn't working in a foreign country. Also, explains how to contact Verizon from Mexico, if needed. Big save.
Get to the airport on time. Check in our luggage. Show our passports. Get out to the gate. All is good. All is going as planned.
Get the preboard pass for the flight. We're among the first to board. Window seat and aisle seat. 2F and 2E.
This is a gamble. The wind at the airport in San Jose Del Cabo changes radically all of the time. So, I just guess and pick the starboard side.
Take off on time. 3 hour flight.
The inflight tracker isn't working, but basically, we follow the Colorado River south for 2 hours.
We land at San Jose Del Cabo, deboard on stairs to a bus. Bus to airport. Then, a long line to clear immigration.
We found our rental car place using TripAdvisor.com. Cactus Car Rental. So now, we won't get screwed on the rental car like we did last time in Cancun. This time, we land at San Jose Del Cabo, and we have explicit directions on how to get out of the airport, past all of the Tank Sharks.
A whole fucking room full of Tank Sharks, and we just ran through them, and went outside. But, once outside, it's very intimidating. Just rows and rows of people with signs, and none of them say Cactus Car Rental. Jen and I divert right, to regroup. One man comes up and we tell him we're looking for Cactus, and he points us to like the 2nd wave of people, and there's our Cactus guy. We go with him.
Shuttle to rental car place. This time, we don't get scammed. Get the rental car. It's a stick VW, but here we go.
Drive to the hotel, using Jen's phone to navigate. It's working in Mexico. We both cycle our phones to make them work. Every thing is going good. We have a rental car. Phones are working. We drive to her place she reserved for us. A hotel on the beach in SJD.
It turns out it's all inclusvie. Like, free drinks all day. Free breakfast. On the beach. It's a nice place.
SJD is pretty much a desert, with cactus, but on the beach, also palm trees and iguanas.
We drive into SJD for dinner.
We go to La Comer and stock up on snacks. Spot an ATM in the corner. Decide to max out on Pesos so we have some local currency. But, I manage to leave my debit card in the ATM machine. Like a genius.
We figure this out when we're eating dinner in at La Pesca in San Jose Del Cabo. We go back to La Comer, but they don't have the card, so we call and cancel it.
So, now I'm down to one debit card, $3,000.00 USD in cash, and about $6,000.00 in Pesos.
Posted by Rob Kiser on May 28, 2017 at 11:48 AM
Comments
Ah, Im envious. Sounds lovely. Interesting how tightly coupled modern life is, one misstep with a piece of plastic can cause a lot of hassle, but also some measure of adventure. I wonder if you like ATMs or not, they seem to come up a fair amount in your writing.
Posted by: Nevada Joe on May 30, 2017 at 3:51 AM