Cabo San Lucas Travel Guide
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Cabo San Lucas (popularly known as just Cabo) is a small city at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula at 22.88° N 109.90° W, in the municipality of Los Cabos in the state of Baja California Sur, Mexico.
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Cabo San Lucas, with a population of 25,000, is a town that, although has seen an increase in tourism and growth, as kept much of its beachtown charm. In the past few years, swanky new hotels and sleek condos have been added to round out this vacation destination. Superb sport fishing put Cabo San Lucas on the map, but non-fishermen will enjoy the thriving beach community as well. Snorkeling gear, boats, wave runners, kayaks, pedal boats and windsurf boards are all available for the active vacationer.
The resort town of Cabo San Lucas, named for the slender cape extending eastward from Baja's southernmost tip, gradually developed into a tourist hot spot the last forty years. During the Spanish colonial era, its natural harbor was periodically used by passing mariners, but since it offered no source of fresh water and scant protection during the late summer storm season when "chubascos" rolled in from the southeast, it was largely ignored by the Spanish. Although English pirates used the harbor as a hiding place for attacks on Manila galleons, many of the historical incidents ascribed to Cabo San Lucas may have actually occurred near present day San Jose del Cabo, where ships often watered at the Rio San Jose estuary.
By the 1930s, a small fishing village and cannery occupied the north end of the Cabo San Lucas harbor, inhabited by approximately 400 hardy souls. The cape region experienced a sportfishing craze in the 1950s and 60s and due to the prolific billfishing, the waters off the peninsula's southern tip earned the nickname "Marlin Alley". Fly in anglers and wealthy pleasure boaters brought back with them glorious stories of this wild place which fueled population growth to around 1,500 by the time the Transpeninsular Highway was completed in 1973.
Following the establishment of the paved highway link between North America and Cabo San Lucas, the town transformed from a fly-in/sail-in resort into an automobile and RV destination. In spite of all the tourists, Cabo manages to retain something of a small town feel. Besides the full service marina, Cabo San Lucas's main attractions include an underwater nature preserve only a few minutes' boat ride from the harbor and the striking Land's End rock formations at one end of the bay, with a pristine beach right around the corner. Without the tenacity of a few of the town's original residents who demanded that this land be preserved, hotels and condos would probably fill the town's entire perimeter. Cabo San Lucas is the only coastal resort in Mexico with a nature preserve within its city limits.
Cabo San Lucas is the perfect destination for a relaxing and enjoyable vacation. Come spend an afternoon golfing at one of the Championship Golf Courses along the ocean, or kick your shoes off and sink your toes into the sand as you soak in the sun on a beach chair, or feel your stomach tickle your toes as you soar through the air parasailing.
It's all here in Cabo San Lucas - the only thing missing is you! |
