Mexico

Many thanks to our friends Kit and Kevin who gave our kids such loving and playful care while we were away. Erik has been jonesing for a little get away all during this long dark winter and Kit and Kevin’s miraculous arrival into town made it all possible. K&K are our glamour friends– doesn’t everyone need some of those? Kevin plays pro basketball in France and Kit has set aside her singing career to mother two darling little girls.

Being paid to play basketball is really fabulous until your team comes to you mid-season and says,”We love you. Thanks for scoring 32 pts every game but we can’t afford to pay you anymore. Will you please stay?” Um, thanks, but no.

Bad for them, but good for all of us who wanted them home. We worked out a trade. They are going on a cruise in July and need a place for their babies to stay. Frankly, I think we got the better end of the deal(2 sweet girls with no lessons or school schedule vs. our six wild things). But I do think Kit and Kevin will need Valium to part themselves from their girls for a week. They have trouble going to a movie without checking in. 🙂

Frankly I’m not fond of leaving my kids either. Only twice in 17 years of marriage have I left the kids for more than one night. I’m not proud of this; it’s just how I’m wired.

We picked Cabo San Lucas because the hotels were cheap and we could actually use our Skymiles to get there. Neither of us had been to Mexico and this was a strange introduction.

Cabo is a complete tourist town. It didn’t even exist 25 years ago and is built 100% on tourism. Thus it doesn’t have any real culture of it’s own and is designed around whatever developers think tourists want. Still, the town has it’s charms: beautiful beaches, a perfect climate and friendly, wonderful Mexican people.

From the minute we stepped off the plane we were being sold something: look at our timeshare, come to dinner here, ride my parasail, let me show you my jewelry, dresses, hats, toys etc.

The timeshares are the big one. They ask if you need a restaurant recommendation or a jet-ski rental and then talk you into looking at their property in exchange for $225, a dinner cruise and jet ski ride. You could truly come home with your pockets stuffed with cash if you did nothing but listen to time-share presentations all day. My favorite was one guy who offered us $200 and anything else we wanted for just “90 minutes of brainwashing.”

Drugs and alcohol are everywhere. I didn’t notice the drugs but displayed my naivete while talking to another couple at the airport. We talked about how you are constantly being sold something and they talked about being offered drugs on every corner. “Drugs?” I said. “No one offered us any.”

“Seriously?” the lady replied, “Drugs are everywhere.”

“Hmm, maybe we just don’t look like the type.”

Erik shot me a look that made me realize that I had just implied that they DID look like the drug-using type(which they totally did, sorry).

Oops, I spent a lot of time staring at the ceiling after that.

What I loved about Cabo was the sun(oh my, you forget the sun shines when you live in snow), the time with Erik and the people. Even when they are selling you something you have to appreciate the way Mexicans can hustle. They choose all the right words, layer on the charm and work, work, work for every last dollar. We had lots of fun chatting with the vendors, trading a new English word for a short Spanish lesson and learning about their lives. Many of the vendors went out of their way to make sure we were enjoying ourselves. We went parasailing one afternoon(so fun, so easy) and the boys driving the boat took us on a little tour to see the seals and pelicans even though they knew we were out of money.

Our favorite vendor was Jorje who convinced us to buy mother/daughter rings for me and Mary. What a charmer! And he taught me lots of Spanish.

Miss Mary definitely has the “I love jewelry” gene because she has been gushing over, proudly displaying and thanking us repeatedly for her ring since we came home. Erik is having a panic attack about the materialistic message she’s getting and repeatedly tells her, “I always love you Mary and the ring has nothing to do with my love for you.”

“Oh thank, you daddy! I know you love me because you bought me this ring.”

It’s good to be home.