Baja bound
Mom and daughter find common ground in Cabo
Cabo San Lucas has a vibe all its own: beautiful, rich and ready to party. It’s the place where the tranquil Sea of Cortez meets the raucous Pacific Ocean at Land’s End, a mystical point guarded by the rock formation El Arco.
On a recent long-weekend getaway, my millennial daughter and I got to experience that Cabo vibe. But we did it two ways — hers and mine.
Mine first. As we arrived at Esperanza, a margarita butler greeted us with the Auberge resort’s signature cucumber-cilantro cocktail. Then it was off to explore the lush grounds as they readied our room. Banyan trees, hibiscus and jasmine bloomed in abundance. Two bluffs bookend the beach in front of the cliffside resort, making it the most private luxury spot in Cabo. The spacious rooms — with greige furnishings, woven rugs, gray-washed wood floors and blue-and-white accents — open up to private balconies with an infinity-edge hot tub and ocean view. Inviting and calm. I felt right at home.
I quickly realized that in my daughter’s eyes, I had but one job: taking photos. And not the pictures I normally shoot of the aquamarine ocean and sandy cliffs. I would be taking selfies — only I wouldn’t be in them — of her in front of the stellar views.
Esperanza’s double-decker infinity pool was a perfect backdrop. Its iridescent blue tile gleamed like abalone in the sunlight. Eating a fresh fish taco, sipping a sandia margarita and looking out over the aqua-to-sapphire sea from our bedlike loungers felt very Cabo — and made a great selfie.
That evening at the resort’s clifftop restaurant, Cocina del Mar, we picked a seaside table so we could feel the spray of the water. We ordered the totoaba, a giant fish in the drum family that is exclusive to the Gulf of California. The fish, often compared to sea bass, is endangered and has to be farm-raised these days. It arrived cooked in a cast of salt, which our waiter cracked open to reveal the steaming delicacy. Cooked to perfection — it was fresh and briny, with a firm, satin texture. We savored the fish and the sound of the waves crashing below us.
Esperanza’s casual La Palapa restaurant offers stunning views as well. We soaked it all in with a cup of coffee and squash-blossom huevos rancheros. A morning walk along the resort’s 1.3-mile trail offered plenty of photo ops and a view of El Arco in the distance.
Shopping is something mother and daughter can always agree on. In the shops near the Cabo San Lucas marina, we found Oaxacan woven-plastic totes, adorned with pompoms, for $20; they often sell for $100 in the States. Plus Mexican wedding dresses, embroidered bags, Oaxacan tapestries, pottery, Panama hats, Catrinas, jewelry — all the usual suspects. We stopped in at Tacos Guss for cheap, delicious Baja tacos and aguas frescas before heading over to the bustling marina, where we watched fishermen come back with their catch. Here you can get a water taxi to take you out to see El Arco or give you a ride to Lovers Beach, which is accessible only by boat but still is consistently crowded. A selfie with El Arco was high on my daughter’s list. Check.
Flora Farms topped my own list. The farm-to-table Flora’s Field Kitchen restaurant is on the 25-acre farm. We arrived early to take a tour and watched as they roasted the pig they would be serving. Eggplant, tomatoes, squash, basil, arugula, plums — almost everything on the menu comes straight off the farm, which is even more amazing when you consider that only the mango trees made it through Hurricane Odile, which devastated Cabo in 2014.
But Cabo came back with a vengeance. Just in the past year, the Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Montage and Auberge’s Chileno Bay have all opened. More than 100 resorts line the coast, and most have remodeled since the storm.
Chileno Bay has a distinctly modern free spirit — perfect for my daughter. The sleek hotel with midcentury-modern rooms is situated around a sizable three-tiered infinity pool that blends into the sea. When we arrived, a group of California college girls was splashing in the pool. The bartenders have the best view in the house; the bar is built against a bluff that overlooks the beach and impossibly blue water. With Cardi B playing in the background, it instantly felt like a party.
The resort sits on a protected cove with pristine reefs and calm waters. It’s adjacent to Chileno Bay Beach, a public, swimmable spot. Guests can check out kayaks, paddleboards and snorkeling gear from a hut on the beach. My daughter was in heaven.
A trip to the spa gave us the Chileno Bay Reboot. First, there was a walk through the reflexology pool, where the stones apply pressure to your feet, then a stint in the salt inhalation room to open up breathing and finally a relaxing massage. We were good to go.
Dinner at the resort’s beachside Comal restaurant was a fitting end to our mini-vacation. Executive chef Yvan Mucharraz, the Thomas Keller-trained chef who made a name for himself at the Resort at Pedregal’s El Farallon, has curated an intensely local and creative menu. We couldn’t pass up one more chance to order totoaba — this time seared and sitting atop roasted cauliflower, sunchoke and marcona almonds.
As we lingered over cocktails in the open-air restaurant to watch the sun set across the water, we spotted our first celebrity of the trip, one of the “Bachelor” contestants (Raven) and her fiancé (Adam), who had met on “Bachelor in Paradise.” The fact that we both recognized them shows mother and daughter aren’t so different after all. Thank goodness I didn’t have to ask them for a selfie.