2014 - The year of Hurricane Odile....Hurricane Odile slammed into the Los Cabos area September 14-15 and hit with force never seen by Los Cobos before. Sure, they have been hit by hurricanes many times, but Odile landed as a Category 3....125+ mph winds! No hurricane ever landed there as a Category 3 in recorded weather history before.
The signs of devastation could be seen as we toured around, but what struck us was how much they had recovered in the six weeks or so from when Odile hit to when we arrived. It was remarkable! The Mexican Federal Government had a caravan of more than 200 utility trucks on the way to Los Cabos within only a few days. I believe water and electric was restored in most cases within six days or so.
The International Airport took a heavy hit to the main terminal and a secondary one (they now have three). There were predictions they expected to reopen around October 14-15, about a full month after the hurricane hit. I believe they managed to open a few days early on the twelfth.
We knew one of our resorts, Hacienda Encantada, would be back in operation by early October, but the other, Playa Grande, which we have owned the longest was not looking so good up to mid-October. They were guessing at reopening October 22 (we were arriving the 25th). American Air still had not indicated when flights would resume as of mid-October and we were starting to be concerned if we would be able to fly as scheduled, October 25. We heard stories of locals coming out into the streets to help clean up the Marina area. Workers staying at resorts to clean up instead of tending to their own homes because they have to have work and they wanted to make sure tourists had something to come to. Sure, there were periods of looting like you see during any natural disaster as we have seen here in the United States, but the overall picture painted by locals was positive and upbeat even though many lost everything. The Los Cabos area (including Cabo San Lucas and Cabo San Jose) will need a long period of time and a great deal of money to really recover completely. Some of the major resorts won't open until January, some March and others possibly by July. Sadly, some may never reopen.
For us, it all came together and 2014 turned out to be a very nice trip. We had a couple of things we wanted to do that didn't work out such as the sit-down dinner and show on the Cabo Rey. They had not completed extensive repairs and refurbishing to the ship during our first week and by the time they began running again we had run out of time to get everything done.
Joyce was handicapped with a frozen shoulder so physical activities like ATVs, Zip Lining and even hiking were out. We made it to the waterfall we tried last year with Brian and Loria, but that day was very overcast with thunderstorms predicted. Cabo, thunderstorms! Go figure! There were sprinkles during the two hour drive there, but as we stepped out of the car to begin the walk it really started to rain steadily. Not a good situation for walking on narrow dirt and stone pathways up and down steep grades. Maybe next year....
Now a few pictures of happier times during the 2014 trip...
Next, 2013 with Brian and Lori along with a few from 2012....
Next up....2011 and with Brian and Lori again....
Now 2010...
2004 - 2009....During our more adventurous times, the beginning years, we loved ATV riding as well as Ziplining. We also tended to do many more tours, booze cruises and the like. Can't forget those days....
First up will be 2004 - 2006...
And finally 2007 - 2009....
