American Adventure

Baja South (Cabo San Lucas 1)

Thank you so much to my great friends Ed Ives of Cabo San Lucas
and to Mario Abela, wherever you may be
You guys are the greatest!

Starting on Monday, October 07, 2002, 3:11:12 PM

I rolled into Cabo and did some exploring. I drove all around town and got a pretty good feel of my way around. I was trying to find my way to the southern most tip of the place but couldn't seem to find a beach that was open and easily accessible. I did get these shots of part of the town from up on the hill.

I made may way down to the water where all the boats and cruise ships were docked. Then as I was about to give up and leave Cabo I found this little empty lot that, as it turns out, is the last public beach access in Cabo San Lucas. People were having a blast riding all around the beach on these Yamaha Wave runners. They were all out there to rent and enjoy the beach from the water. Many hotels lined the beach and I felt a little out of place since I wasn't registered in any of them.

I picked a small restaurant there on the beach where I had a good view of where my bike was parked and had me me some food. I hung around for a while trying to decide what I was going to do and where I was going to go. I figured that most of the hotels there were going to be quite expensive and I really didn't feel like paying anything. I was also checking out the area to see if I might be able to pitch up my tent after it got dark and stay on the beach. I figured that it might work until somebody ran me off.

The sun started going down and I met Ed. He came up and was looking at my bike. We started talking and I showed him my leaflet and explained my trip. He then told me about a fund raiser that he had done some years ago. He and a friend started on the Olympia Peninsula, in Washington state and skated, on in-line, roller blade skates, all the way down the coastal highway to Venice Beach, California. Quite an amazing task I must say, and definitely an impressive feat of physical endurance. Of course Ed is very much in physical shape. He has been in four Olympics and even won a silver in the 1984 Olympics in the rowing competition. He has been in quite a few magazines and, like his brothers has, himself, done quite a bit of modeling. He currently lives there in Cabo and works for one of the local resorts. An amazing person, since his wife left them, he is also raising his three kids almost all on his own. An extremely good father he spends almost all of his free time with his kids. I didn't get to spend much time with the two girls who are a little older, but the youngest kid, Eli, was quite a special guy and was so much fun to be around.

After talking for a while we moved over closer to his vehicle to keep a closer watch on Eli, who was taking a nap in he front seat. I pulled out one of my stuffed animals, and Ed set it next to him while he slept. We then met Mario, whom we thought was Mexican. Being a little dark toned, Ed rattled off some Spanish to him with which, to our surprise, came back a reply with a very British accent. Mario Abela had been traveling on a long trip himself. He had been living in Canada for a while and had a nice job with the Cartoon Network as a web animator. He decided to take a year or two off and travel the country. He had bought himself a nice Volkswagen van and headed south. He was traveling and learning to surf and had taken the drive down from Canada and through California and down the Baja when we met him there at the beach. After we all talked for a while Ed invited Mario and myself to his house for dinner and a place to stay. We both gladly accepted and followed him to his house. In route we stopped to pick up one of the girls while the other was staying at a friend's house somewhere.

There at Ed's house we all had a great time talking about our adventures. Ed had this really strange cactus flower on his front deck. It reminded me of the strange plant, Audrey II, from the movie, 'The Little Shop of Horrors". Quite a special moment it was all closed up but later opened to show itself for one night only and closed and dropped down the next day.

Later Ed's daughter let out a big yell and said that she had found a centipede on her deck. This one was about six inches in length and was quite the monster. They are poisonous and can give a very painful sting. Each one of their legs is extremely sharp and carries poison. Many years ago I found a similar one at my grandmother's house in Texas. It was much larger than this one at about ten inches total length. It also had some different colors. Although it looked just like this one, it had a bright red head with bright red antenna. Its segments on its body were black and had light colored legs with black tips on the very ends. I had kept it for several months in a glass terrarium and fed it raw ground beef.

Ed made some fish tacos for us and we all sat down for a great meal.