Two days earlier, my friend Bob and I had arrived in Cabo San Lucas to start a week-long vacation touring the Baja peninsula in Mexico. I am not a huge fan of the rain, having made an attempt to escape it by moving from England to California, but this particular winter had been wetter and colder than usual and I was feeling desperate for some sunshine. I had chosen to throw caution to the wind and rent a car and drive in Mexico for the first time. Bob was even more courageous for being my co-pilot and I had given him full permission to yell at me loudly if I failed to notice the odd goat, donkey or drunken caballero (Mexican cowboy) wandering into the road. The afternoon sun was shining brightly and gaily we navigated our way through the tourist towns of Los Cabos and headed north to the magical, artsy town of Todos Santos to track down our first night's accommodations.
When I travel, my preference is to seek out interesting, unique places to stay. I had found The Surf Shack on the internet and the website promised great views, tranquility and the sound of the waves to lull us to sleep; and for under $100 a night, the price was right too. We saw the sign for The Surf Shack from the main road and turned left down the dusty track feeling optimistic. “If we are lucky, we'll just make it for sunset!” I exclaimed. Then “pow”, we hit a pothole and the car bounced a foot into the air. “Hey, mind my butt,” said Bob good-naturedly! We came to a fork in the track. No signs, no-one to ask.
“What do you think, Bob? Left or right?”
“Let's try right, and see where we end up.”
Five minutes later, the track turned onto a cliff-frontage road. I'm being generous with the word road… it was still a rutted, sandy track, but at least we now saw some buildings up front, nice ones too that looked well-cared for and populated. Shortly after, we saw a big sign proclaiming our arrival the The Surf Shack. We had just made it at sunset and excitedly ran out towards the beach to catch a last glimpse of the setting sun over the Pacific ocean before finding our host, Matt, and checking in.
Ah the beach... a long, long strip of sand, absolutely pristine, deserted and marred only sporadically with the odd house on the cliff top. Pelicans still dived for a last evening meal before turning in to wherever pelicans spend the night. (Where DO pelicans spend the night?). It looked untouched and timeless and I couldn't wait to explore more.
Meanwhile we were starving hungry! Our friendly Canadian host gave us a restaurant recommendation in Todos Santos and we hopped back in the car to wind our way through the sandy maze once again, to the main road.
Todos Santos is an old town famous for its art galleries, boutique hotels and glorious restaurants. It's quickly becoming a favorite for ex-pats and snowbirds and has undergone a rapid transformation in recent years as more and more of the lovely, old buildings downtown have been renovated and re-invented. We headed to The Hotel California. Was it THE Hotel California from the Eagles' Song? Well – it is on a dark, desert highway, in Mexico... in my imagination this must have been the place. And the romance of it did not disappoint. If you happen to like cobbled-stone entrance ways, antique furnishings and crumbling red brick exteriors as I do, then this would be your cup of tea. And their new Mexican gourmet restaurant had just opened that week!
“We're in the flow, Bob” I said, “I can feel it! There's even a table for us, look!” We got seated and proceeded to the next item of business – a drink! I have to admit, life sometimes looks even rosier after a margarita! And after a long day traveling, a cocktail to welcome ourselves to our vacation was just the ticket. As we were ordering, the Belgian chef came out to chat to us. “I recommend the tuna.” he said. “Fresh caught just a few hours ago and seared lightly in my secret sauce. And as you are among our first guests, I will give you some Belgian chocolates to try as my gift to you after dinner.”
Oh I had died and gone to heaven....fabulous food, drink, ambience and chocolates too! What a great way to start our week! It was all delicious and with full, satisfied bellies, we headed back to the dusty track and our cliff-top shack.
Shack is perhaps a rather unfair description of our lodging. Matt the owner, a surfer, had built these apartments in a rather hodge-podge but nevertheless interesting style, each one being different and separated by a lovely cactus garden interspersed with hammocks and lounge chairs. They were simply yet comfortably furnished and ours had two bedrooms and a kitchen too. We got home, grabbed a sweater as the night was starting to get cool, and headed to the beach for some serious star-gazing.
Ahh – desert skies... so clear, so star-studded. “Look, Julia,” said Bob, “is that a bonfire down the beach?” A few yards away we could see what looked like a small fire outside one of the other houses. I guess it's a tribal thing, but I am always drawn to campfires. We wandered over. There was no-one there but it somehow felt OK just to sit down next to the fire and enjoy it.
Before too long a man came out. “I immediately jumped up and apologized. “Hello. I hope you don’t mind, we saw the fire and it looked so inviting. We very rudely just sat down!”
“No that's fine. You are more than welcome to join us. My name's Alan, by the way.”
“I'm Julia and this is my friend Bob.”
“Nice to meet you. And where are you guys from?”
“From Sacramento, California. We just arrived today. How about you?”
“We are all from Vancouver. Actually I live here and care-take some of the houses here on the cliff. My brother Mike is renting this one with his wife, Alice. Oh here they are…hey Mike – bring a couple of glasses out for our new friends.”
Mike appeared with a bottle of wine and glasses for us.
“Wow thanks!” I said, immediately cementing my opinion about the amazing hospitality of Canadians.
Alan stoked the fire as we huddled round, warming ourselves against the rapidly dropping desert temperatures. We shared the usual traveler formalities of how long have you been traveling, where have you been, where are you going, and discovered that Mike and Alice had just spent a few months touring South America. My attention perked up. I have spent many years traveling the globe, often alone when I was younger and for months at a time; but this was one continent I had not yet explored thoroughly.
“So what was the highlight for you?” I asked, with a very real curiosity.
“Galapagos”, said Alice, “without a doubt. It is one of the most magical places on the planet and still so pristine. And of course the wildlife experiences are phenomenal. We saw the giant tortoises, blue-footed bobbies and huge iguanas. They were so tame. If we weren't careful, we would trip over them!”
“Oh I SO want to go there,” I said, “But all the cruises I have seen are way out of my price range. They seem to run at least $5,000 for the week.”
“Not at all,” Mike chimed in. “You can get last minute deals for way less than that and if you go as an independent traveler and hang out on the beaches you will meet fishermen who will take you around at a fraction of the usual cost. We stayed a few weeks and just loved it.”
And that was it. I was inspired.
Do you know when the Divine is trying to tell you something? For me it's when I get a tingly feeling up my spine, a sense of “yes”, an excitement in my body that gets me feeling high... and I was having that feeling right then. “OK”, I thought. “I WILL go to Galapagos. And I will travel the way I used to in my twenties and early thirties, with a backpack, as an independent traveler, with no fixed agenda, no pre-booked lodging, just a map, a guidebook and a desire to see Ecuador in all its glory.”
And with that, the seed was planted.
