Saturday 1st
April

The ship anchored
in the bay off Cabo San Lucas, at the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula, which
protects the Sea of Cortez from the Pacific, at about 8.30 & we were taken
to shore by tender.

We arrived at
about 10.30 & walked along the harbour front past all the boats in the
marina. It is virtually built on tourism
although it was discovered in the 1500s by the Spanish. The day was beautiful at about 20°C
with a light breeze & a bright blue sky & the water in the marina was
very clear with the occasional fish, some quite brightly coloured. The buildings are all of recent construction
but are in a traditional Mexican design with adobe treatment of their walls so
the place is quite impressive. We
wandered through the tourist shops & had our mandatory coffee & wi-fi
stop where we caught up on the world before continuing to the end of the marina
groin.

Here we watched
the Frigate Birds & the Pelicans, which are grey backed & are smaller
than ours in Perth. Much to our
amusement we saw one of the tourist boats returning with a sea lion cadging a
lift on the stern.

The surrounding
country is very arid with houses built on the hill sides & swathes of giant
resorts just behind the bay.
It is very much for American tourists who stay there for their holidays
& apart from Aurora passengers, all the visitors were from the US.

As we returned
from our wanderings we were reminded of the state of Mexican affairs when we
saw a black ute with Mexican Federal Police on the side, with a mounted machine
gun on the back manned by 2 policemen in black uniforms, flak jackets, helmets
& masked with scarves. It was all
quite disconcerting in this smart little town.

On our way back to
the ship we visited a small market of local goods & Jane bought a fine
silver bracelet inset with opals. She
also found some nice tops & a few T shirts for gifts, so it was quite a
productive wander.

We returned to the
quay & were tendered to the ship at 4.15 having had a pleasant, if lazy,
day on shore.