Trips: Cabo San Lucas (Day 2)

March 6, 2011

Kendra warned me about the timeshare presentations.  

Leah and I signed up for one at the airport on our arrival; we figured the transport to and from the airport, the free breakfast, and the free sunset cruise on the day of our picking was worth a few hours of our time.  And it was.  

We were taken to the Grand Solmar near Land's End, where we were greeted.  We met our guy, our personal timeshare presenter guy.  Sadly, Leah and I cannot recall his name.  For two people who work in a profession that takes pride in the little details, we were embarrassed we couldn't  remember this guy's name.  We did remember his apparent nicknames based on his co-workers who called out to him: Sunshine or Scooter.  We walked through the beautiful property and stopped by their private beach, which had a jaw-dropping view.  We had a pleasant breakfast and exchanged a few pleasantries, including what led Sunshine to come down to Cabo after so many years in the Northwest.  Driven by his daughter who knew about Cabo and the sad yet inevitable nature that was her daughter's independence, he picked up his things and moved to Cabo five years ago.  And he said it was one of the best decision he's ever made. 

We were taken by a shuttle to a part of the resort still in construction.  If where we started was the iPad, then this was the iPad 2.  It's always interesting visiting a construction site, more so with a resort, seeing its transformation into a wondrous resort.  The resort really was coming together nicely.  The rooms were generous in size and furnishings.  Who wouldn't want to have a timeshare here?  I snapped pictures as we saw numerous infinity pools.  We tour several rooms.  Even the studio was very comfortably.  Timeshare owners appeared happy, including one young woman who seemed to be overwhelmed by her 4-bedroom rooftop property.  We caught a sneak peek of the massive lobby, under construction, really just a skeleton of what it is to be.  We got to push towards Playa del Divorcio, which was walking distance from the property.  These views were amazing too.

We were taken by a shuttle back to the main resort grounds.  We toured this facility a little more, including their rooftop rooms, pool, and jacuzzi, with views of the marina.  More free picture-worthy views.  

We were brought back to the opposite side of the resort, near where we had breakfast.  We sat at a table furnished only with an empty notepad.  Sunshine went inside to grab books and more paper.  A waitress took our drink orders.  Inside, the song "Pokerface" randomly blared with each person or couple or whomever that agreed on a purchase.  Leah and I were ready for the pitch.  

It was a grueling process.  An hour at least of sitting at the table, listening to Sunshine crunch numbers and pull strings in ways reminiscent of car dealers.  He meant well.  This is what he does.  Leah asked him straight up if it would be better to screen out potential buyers rather than taking a fishnet approach to marketing.  We were obviously not buying.  We loved seeing the property and getting all the free views and things.  But we hated wasting his time since he didn't have a shot.  Hell, he was talking to two doctors fresh from residency who barely own their own property in the United States, who still have debt to pay and their living expenses are still in the form of rent, and he honestly thought he could make a sale, for us to buy property in Mexico?  Like I said, who wouldn't want a timeshare at this resort in Cabo?  But I told him I had tons of reasons not to do it.  But timing was a big one.  Not a priority right now.  

As expected, Sunshine called for back up.  He called Vic.  As Leah put it, he was sleazy.  Sunshine seemed like a good guy.  Vic was nothing but.  He gave us a speech of how he understood doctors.  It came out more insulting than anything else, implying that none of us are happy with what we do and merely want to choose between "medications" or "a gun to the mouth."  Vic, can go fuck himself.  Oh, and that wonderful story he told us about his wife and such?  Interesting, as Leah noted, that he didn't have a ring on his finger.  

Then we met Angel.  He did a survey of our experience.  Leah and I could understand why we looked like honeymooners: we were two young people in Cabo.  When he asked where we lived, we answered "Connecticut, New York, Georgia."  Angel laughed at us.  Angel was our favorite.  He knew we wanted to get the hell out of there.  He had our "ticket to freedom," referring to a ticket to allow us to cash in on the sunset cruise.  We eventually grabbed it.  

We walked over to the marina.  It was a gorgeous day.  Who am I kidding?  Everyday was a gorgeous day in Cabo.  We saw a freshly caught huge marlin.  We saw a giant Michael Jackson mascot.  Even the views from the ATMs were gorgeous.  We stopped by a hole in the wall and grabbed a few cheap quesadillas.  Heavenly.  As Leah needed Band-Aids, we stopped by a pharmacy and that's when we noted all the different pharmacies, advertising OTC we're used to but also things like Levaquin, Flagyl, metoprolol, Lasix, all OTC.  We stopped by a local mall on the port.  We watched the boats moving in and out of the marina.  We saw a boat named Fearless Jr, which didn't sound so fearless.  We meandered back towards Villa la Estancia over the next hour.  We hugged the beach, walking the water.  Everyone was happy.  Kids running in and out of the water.  Random dogs catching balls and burying them urgently in the sand.  One dog dwarfed all the others and we were hoping the large dog would pick up and bury one of the smaller dogs.  Didn't happy.  We met Raul.  He initially offered us water taxi rides to Los Arcos.  Then he somehow started talking about his life journey that initially started in California and brought him to Cabo.  We sadly cut him short since Leah was getting sunburnt.  

How sad that Leah and I were exhausted by all of this?  

Thus, we hopped in one of our resort's lovely pools.  We hopped in and relaxed for probably an hour.  By the time we hopped out, it was past sunset.  We frantically ran towards a jacuzzi, as we were "freezing."  We were.  But we understand that's a relative term.  

We decided to hit up the grocery store across the street from our villa.  We hoped to stock up our fridge, take advantage of our full kitchen, and cut on food expenses.  The grocery was actually a grocery store.  In fact, Leah ran back to our room to assess if we had pots, pans, and wine openers.  Yes to all of the above!  We bought stuff for sandwiches, like we did on the Greek islands.  We bought stuff for breakfast.  We bought tons of water.  And soda and wine.  I also bought a bag of chicharron (fried pork skins).  I would eat an average of one bag of chicharron per day.  

We had sandwiches for dinner.  And wine.  We decided to eat at our dining room table since we hadn't sat there yet.  First full day in Cabo?  I'd say it went well.  Our most taxing activity involved a presentation with beautiful views of the island.  It's very rare to relax like this.