Dec 15 2007
Los Cabos Impression: Day 1
1. Los Cabos: a county/region name because having two towns named Cabo (or cave, lands’s end, or army private?): Cabo San Lucas–where we are staying, and San Jose del Cabo.
2. We saw gray whales puffing and leaping out of water from our hotel room! I thought they are not supposed to be here till late Dec? Thanks to global warming I guess … heyhey, not bad.
3. Local economy: STRANGE!
a. The “invitacion” economy. Timeshare sales dominates and fuels tourism: we got a 60% discount on our hotel stay for listening to a presentation. Although I worked for a timeshare company before, I was still green in the handling pressure sale.
b. The dollar economy. When I pay peso, people frawn on me as if I am the only cash user in the Visa commercial.
c. The stratified/tiered pricing. Locals pay different prices, which is perhaps one tenth of what we pay for food and transportation. An average dinner in a so-so restaurant downtown–not even waterfront, just two dishes with a Margarita, cost us $60!
d. Colonialized economy: full of Gringos shopping in/with Walmart, Costco, McDonalds, Harley Davidson, Hummer, etc. More so than any place I have been to.
4. People we met: mostly old and retired. But met a woman who overheard our conversation and spoke Mandarin back. She can write Sanskrit too! And shared with us on how to get out a presentation: “just tell them, we are here for the cash back and the discount. Sorry for your time, but our time is up.” Ha! We will try that tomorrow.