There She Goes…

Doing Cabo a little different this year… since my Dad was diagnosed with cancer [officially] last December and started chemo treatment pretty quickly, we weren’t sure if we could keep our April reservation at my aunt’s condo. For those new to the blog, or those readers who have forgotten, typically my Mom & I rent a condo from my aunt for an entire month to practice living the Mexican-life. And when Tía asked if we still wanted to rent her condo, I struggled with keeping our reservation or giving it up for this year. When your parent is sick with cancer, all the time you can spend with them and together as a family, is precious. And that’s why I struggled. But I kept the rental and figured things would fall into place.

And things have worked out much better than I could ever have imagined! For starters, Dad finished his last chemo treatment on March 17 and by all indicators, he will be OK. A PET scan in June will tell us how he responded to the chemotherapy. We are all optimistic! My new company approved working remotely from Mexico for the month but I was still left with a rental by myself since Mom wasn’t going to leave Dad behind – Cabo is our collective ‘happy place.’ And David, my partner, couldn’t get his company to agree to let him work remotely in Mexico. Anywhere in the USA wasn’t an issue. Such a shame. ¡Or que lastima!

And since no one tells Amy “no”, we came up with an ideal plan. David is with me for the first half of April (taking vacation days from work) and my Mom is heading down for the second half. It is David’s first time living in Mexico and getting to see Mexico as I see it: a beautiful place filled with lots of beautiful people.

Getting into Mexico was a lot harder than it has previously been. For a less-experienced traveler, they probably would have turned around since the trip started off with David accidentally leaving his cellphone in the car and Dad circling back to give it back to him. And the first immigration lady was unsympathetic to not having printed out our visa paperwork – but what’s the point of registering all of our documents, filling out the paperwork and even paying the entrance fee ONLINE, if you still needed to print everything?! Fortunately, Maria, a very helpful attendant helped us print out the right form and the second immigration lady was much nicer. Even going an extra step to help translate a word by looking it up on her phone for us.

We boarded our flight and set off for Cabo! And when we landed, we waited for an eternity to get our rental car. I made a promise to myself that I would never be without a car in Mexico since it gives me so much more freedom and ways to pick up cerveza that don’t include walking to Oxxo. In fact, I haven’t set foot inside an Oxxo yet!!

The condo was still occupied on Friday, so we rented a room at a boutique hotel in downtown San Jose. Casa Natalia was gorgeous and the best part was their “adults only” policy. And since we were staying downtown, we walked around the plaza before hitting Baja Brewing, because we all know how much I love their beer and their live music. Saturday morning we went to Cafe de Lolita for breakfast and took our time getting over to the condo; the previous tenants had overstayed their reservation and we had to wait for the cleaning ladies to finish. So we spent time relaxing by the pool and getting super sunburned.

After 2 visits to the supermarket, and a stop for coconut shrimp tacos, we finally got to set our bags down and start “vacation.” Well, technically vacation for David and a regular weekend for me; I have to work on Monday.

We took some wine down to the beach for what I thought was a typical sunset view. David had other plans and surprised me by PROPOSING! And I said “yes!”

My Spanish has improved immensely and I can converse with ease. In fact, I am now the official translator for our little family until David learns Spanish. He’s already aware of my desire to live part time in Cabo and he’s totally on board. And me, I keep smiling into Mexico with all kinds of love and with my forever person.