Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (2)

The excursion that Matt and I chose to go on while we were in Cabo San Lucas was the Baja Jeep Safari....which allowed us to "explore Baja California's rugged desert aboard a Jeep Wrangler", which we actually drove ourselves and followed the tour guide. Here are pictures of some of what we saw as we drove along:

Lots of cacti!!

The day that we were there, the people were gathering and getting ready for a big celebration in the little town. (We never would have seen this town without our tour guide. It was in the heart of the island....away from the dock.) Here are some of the people we saw as they were gathering along the way and headed to the little town....and I do mean little town! :)

There was quite a bit of livestock along the way, too!!

More pictures along the drive....

This is a picture of the 3 Jeeps that were in our little caravan. (There were only a couple of people on our excursion.) The tour guide drove his own Jeep, then another older couple drove the middle Jeep, and we drove the Jeep at the back. There was another gentleman (I can't remember his name) from New Zealand who rode with us as well....a very nice, friendly fellow with a really great accent! :)

More cacti!!

Paul, our tour guide, took us to "La Candelaria", where we were served a drink and a very yummy snack of fresh, homemade quesadillas and salsa (so YUMMY!). After seeing the local boarding school (where we had our snack) and seeing the ladies in the kitchen making our snack, we left them a very generous tip in the cup sitting on the end of our table. We felt that they were a little more in need of that money than we were at that point. Here are some pictures of the local boarding school that houses approximately 75 students during the school week:

At one point, I found myself getting a little choked up realizing how little these people have.....and it made me feel a bit more grateful for everything I have been so abundantly blessed with in my life!

This was the little girl's dormitory. They sleep on bunkbeds, as you can see here. The boys and girls from the village come to stay at the school Monday -Thursday throughout the week....and return home on Friday to stay with their families during the weekend. It is mandatory that these children attend school, regardless of their circumstances, since it is thought to be very important that these children receive an education. Once they are older, they then go to other schools and colleges outside of the villages and off of the island to further their education. The money that we donated....and the money that we paid to go on the excursion....apparently goes towards the necessities to house and educate these children.

This was their Dining Room that we had our snack in. Some of the ladies were decorating and getting ready for the big celebration that was to take place later that afternoon/evening.

This was outside of the school.

This was their little church...and it was starting to rain at this point. We had a good rain shower and stood/hung out in the church for a short bit while we waited for the rain to let up. I didn't take any pictures inside because I didn't feel right about it....almost as though I would be desecrating the holiness of their beliefs and religion by taking pictures inside.

Still more to come.....

Do It Now

I will admit that this talk really hit home for me this morning! I have much to change in the way of procrastination...and because of it, much guilt because I know that I have much to change! May we all take the necessary steps to make whatever changes we need to for the better in our lives...NOW, rather than later...me included. :)

"Procrastination may seem the easy way, as it momentarily removes the effort required to accomplish something of value. Ironically, in time, procrastination produces a heavy burden laced with guilt and a hollow lack of satisfaction. Temporal and, even more importantly, spiritual goals will not be achieved by procrastination."

--Elder Donald L. Hallstrom, "Do It Now", Ensign, Nov 2007, 49–51

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (1)

Tuesday, February 2, 2010: It's always super exciting for Matt and I to wake up on the mornings that we know we're pulling into port and anticipate what the place is going to look like, what kind of fun 'adventure' we're going to have that day, etc. That morning, at about 9:30, our ship pulled into Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.....which is where we spent that whole day exploring.

Matt and I always enjoy getting up early, grabbing a quick bite to eat for breakfast, and then going up on deck to watch for a bit as we pull in and dock at each port. It's fun to check it all out and take pictures, since each place is so different. As we went up on deck and watched as the ship pulled into Cabo San Lucas, this is what we saw:

Another cruise ship (another cruise line, I'm not sure which one) that was also docked that morning.

There were some birds that were flying over us, actually quite low to the ship.

It was interesting to see the Mexican Government out in FULL FORCE while we were in Cabo. These guys had some serious machine guns and actually looked quite intimidating as they came out to circle our ship and check us out while we were pulling in. They absolutely looked like they meant business!! We also noticed as we came ashore that they were quite a few of these guys with machine guns stationed at points on shore, right as you came off the catamaran and throughout the area close to the water. Like I said, it was actually quite intimidating to see them everywhere and I wanted nothing to do with them!! :)

Some more pictures of Cabo. I LOVE these ports that seem to have the villages, etc, that go up the side of the mountains. It's so pretty! :)

As you can see from the pictures, the port was pretty busy and there wasn't enough room for our ship to actually pull right up to shore. As a result, they brought catamarans (smaller, open boats) out to our ship to 'tender' or bring us all in to shore for the day. We then went back to the ship later that evening in the same manner. Here's a picture of one of the catamarans:

Just a couple of the cataramarans going back and forth. There were some that were going back and forth to the other ship that was docked as well.

The port at Cabo San Lucas

This is our ship......taken, looking back, as we were heading to shore on the catamaran.

The port was FULL of little stands and shops with tons of fun stuff you can buy!! We walked through and checked it out while we were waiting until time to go meet up for our 'adventure' that day.

I had to laugh at one point: Matt was wearing a polo shirt with the University of Utah Football logo on it (yeah, shocker, I know! LOL) and some of the guys who were trying to sell stuff recognized it and started yelling at us, trying to get our attention: "Hey, Utah!! Over here!" A couple of them even brought up how good our football team is. (YEAH!!! That's right!)

More pictures of Cabo San Lucas to come........