regent voyager

Tender Operations in Cabo

Located at the very tip of the California Baja peninsula, Cabo San Lucas is a fishing, golfing and sun worshipers premier destination in Mexico. Throw in a bit of spring-break with fun but rowdy nightlife and you've got the idea of what Cabo is all about. The Regent Voyager glides quietly into the bay of Cabo around 7am, drops anchor and sets-up tender operations. Without a cruise ship pier in Cabo, all ships anchor off shore and drop several of their lifeboat/tender boats to transports crew and guests ashore.

Our shore excursion, "Tequila Aficionado", is scheduled to meet for a group transfer at 10am. Ignoring our normal morning schedule of email & other work (it's the weekend) we enjoy a early, quiet breakfast in the main dining room. Leaving the ship, we're about 30 minutes ahead of the excursion group, so we have a little time to explore the marina area before joining up with them. The Cabo marina is very large, clean and of course complete with the typical tourist "hot spots", Senior Frogs, Hooters and plenty of beer, margarita and taco stalls. There are also many boats for hire - the hawkers are constantly offering "water-taxi, fishing and glass bottom boat rides". And, in broken Spanish/English, the one we like best is "whale washing" - no thank you, I don't want to go wash a whale! Persistent, but not intrusive, the hawkers even have a since of humor - "hey amigo, do you want the best fishing boat", then after no response "hey amigo, so you want the worst fishing boat?"

Returning to the tender pier, we meet the excursion group and join them for a short walk to a transfer area. The van ride (about 10 minutes) drops us Villa del Palmar, a beautiful resort property on the eastern bay area. Here we meet Jose, the head sommelier and a member of the prestigious national Tequila Tasting panel. After a short video detailing the growing and harvesting of the agave plant, Jose begins explaining the differences between white (un-aged) and reposado (aged up to 12 months) and anejo (over 12 months) Tequila. Along with his explanations, we enjoy a sample of each of these different tequilas. In addition, the resort has laid out a small buffet of chips, guacamole, fresh salsas plus mini chicken and cheese tacos. The approximately 2 hour session is fun and very informative. The most interesting fact (at least for me) was learning about the "NOM". This number, assigned by the Mexican government, identifies each of tequila distilleries in Mexico and is required to be shown on every bottle label. Even though there are over 1000 brands available, these are all produced by only about 110 distilleries. Well known brands such as Patron do not operate their own distilleries, instead purchasing what they consider the best available – and even sometimes changing the distiller they use causing the NOM identifier on the Patron label to change.

This afternoon, the ship is scheduled to sail at 4pm. Departing the calm bay, we once again turn northward into the Pacific, watching as the rocky outcroppings, beaches and resorts of Cabo slip out of sight. There are even a few whale sightings as sunlight disappears. In an unexpected invitation from fellow guests (and due to a last minute cancellation) we are privileged to dine in Prime 7 - the steak and seafood specialty restaurant onboard. Our food and the dinner company are great - we completely enjoy everything. Thanks Clark & Claudia!

Tomorrow is another day at sea, enroute to San Diego. More as we continue to make our way northward.