Day 7 - #Lafrida

A quiet day, not much on the agenda. We are a little sad today knowing that this is our last full day here at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach.  To make the most of our day in the sun we headed over to Pacifia again to relax on one of the beach beds.  There was a very strong wind over there today, almost unpleasant at times, but we managed to enjoy every minute of the quiet beach and peaceful pool areas.

With all of the great food we had been eating we thought a little extra exercise was needed so we participated in one of the aerobic classes at the pool.  It was so much fun...the gentle man directing was very entertaining.

Back to the suite by 5pm to get ready for our dinner at Lafrida.  Lafida is one of PB's fine dinning restaurants with a $25 upcharge.  After being seated we were greeted by the bartender who arrived with a bar cart to our table, ready to create anything we'd like. We had a lot of fun with this, all ordering a different concoction.

Dinner was fabulous!!  Course after course with some special treats to clear the pallet.  I had the lamb shank as an entree, which was amazing.  It came with a little pot with a vegetable soup, loaded with fresh veggies.  Others ordered lamb chops and a variety of seafood....all outstanding.

A leisurely walk back to the suite and of to bed....tomorrow we must pack and leave by 10am.

Day 6 - #TodosSantos

An interesting day .... one of our guests had rented a car so we decided, after a leisurely morning, to head to Todos Santos, a small town about an hour north of here. My husband and I had been there before and had a fun time, so we were looking forward to showing our friends.

The trick was getting out of Cabo.  The roads are being worked on everywhere you go, but we did manage to finally find our way to highway 19. The last time we wen to Todos Santos, back in 2011, it was mostly dirt road, no highway.  We were told that the highway was completed, but about a mile out of Todos Santos we encountered a dirt road into town, and by the way, not in very good shape!

We were excited to take our friends to Taquila Sunrise, a little restaurant across from where the Hotel California.  The owner there makes the BEST margaritas in Mexico.  He makes them with Damiana Liqueur - delish! Well, much to our disappointment, they were closed on Sundays!  In fact many of the stores were closed.  The town looked like it was a deserted western town...all dusty dirt roads and demolished buildings.  They were actually renovating the whole town. So, needless to say, we didn't stay long.  We wandered through the shops and bought some local art at Loco Local Art (custom made paper at, framed with local woods).



Then back to Cabo we headed! Our next stop was The Office, a must see.  Its a bar/restaurant right on the beach.  Fantastic margaritas, grilled shrimp and table side Caesar salad- yum!!  The place was rockin' - lots of people watching for sure.

After a couple hours at The Office, we thought we'd head back to PB and relax before grabbing a lite dinner at Bistro.  We arrived at The Bistro at 8:30 and they would not allow us to sit on the terrace, they said it was closing.  They then offered us a seat inside where it was hot, load, and smokey - so we left and went to The Taquaria by the Adult pool, which was fun.  A nice verity of variety of fresh tacos, margaritas and beer.

Day 5 - #Quivira

Happy 4th of July!

My husband and I slept in today while our guested rose early to go for a surfing lesson outside of down.

We made coffee and ordered our breakfast to be sent to our suite.  Breakfast on the terrace was relaxing and quiet - a great way to start the day. Just a heads up though, room service has been taking at least an hour, so plan ahead. We watched the fireworks being set up n the beach for later tonight, and witnessed several families having photo shoots taken in their matching outfits in the sand.

After several hours working at my computer (I still have work to do), we showered and dressed for our "Owners Lunch" up at the sales office at 2:00. The sales office wasn't busy like it usually is, there were only a half dozen couple their with their representatives.  We met up with Sal, our sales guy that we have met with the last two times we were there.  He's a nice guy, very low key.  We enjoyed hearing about is life stories in Cabo as we enjoyed our chicken salads, and chatted for a while about the hurricane devastation here last fall.

Sal then asward several questions we have a bout vouchers we were given originally that we haven't been able to use, then he went through the new points system with us.  Unlike our friends who bought into the 300+ 300 points plan the other day, we were not in a position to upgrade at this time. We've had good luck with trading to RCI and cashing in on a larger unit (for no extra cost other than the $119 RCI transaction fee) when we come to PB.  Sal was fine with that, he knows we will when we need to.

It was 3:30 by the time we returned to our suite. Time for a swim!  The pools had been very very busy today! As we road around the property there were people everywhere!  By the time I met up with or other friends at the adult pool it was 4:00 and the crowd had moved on. The pool water was a little warmer than yesterday (about 90 degrees), its been so hot here that the pools are heating p quickly - refreshing nonetheless.

Back at the suite we got ready for our long awaited evening at the Quivira Club.  There is a new steakhouse there that everyone has been talking about - it's part of the new golf course . The shuttle took us down there for our 7:00 reservation where they were waiting our arrival.  It is a rather small restaurant, beautifully designed, right along the beach.  We wee seated at a nice table in the front of the restaurant with unobstructed views of the ocean in front of us, and Pacifica and Sunset Beach far to our left.

Dining at Quivira requires a $35 upcharge to our all-inclusive, well worth it in every way.  The bottles of wine were not part of the all-inclusive, but if you ask for the 50% off rate, they honor that. We ordered 3 bottles for the 6 of us...all outstanding. They were decanted for us first. We all ordered fillets which came with soup or salad, and sides of our choice. All agreed that it was a fabulous dinner.

There was a sitting area off to the side of the restaurant, out on the grass, where we went retreated to that area for coffee and desert. There was a nice breeze and clear sky, so viewing the stars and planets made for a perfect way to end out evening.

Day 4 -lazy and relaxing #CaboArch

Today was a lazy day.  Our friends attended a "Guests Breakfast" (sales pitch) at 9am, so my husband and I went the Bistro for a quick breakfast before heading tot he pool.  Breakfast, unfortunately, was anything but quick...this place is bustling with people arriving for the holiday weekend!  Though the staff were plentiful, you could tell they were all stressed.  We waited for quite a long time for our breakfast burrito and coffee, and when I asked for a spoon I think they went to another resort to get one ...everyone was looking for spoons. They just didn't seem to have enough help in the kitchen.  But that's ok, we're in Cabo.

Off to the adult pool we went, where we met up with some of our other friends. Though the pool area was much busier than our previous visit, we did manage to snag one of the last lounges with umbrellas.  I think I stayed in the pool the entire 4 hours we were there....it was very hot.  I also decided to wear a shirt all day in the pool since I did get a little sunburn the first day out, even with #30 & 50 sunscreen!

Our friends who went to the breakfast arrived back around 2pm with a big announcement - they decided to buy!!!  The Monticristo Villas through them over the edge, and they invested!  Yeah, now we have more friends to travel to Cabo with. They told us about their salesman, Jeff, and how nice he was -- no pressure---they appreciated that.

Tonight was our sunset cruise on the Eco Cat. When we got down to the doc to meet the boat, we finished paying for the cruise and decided to take the $10 dinner option (shish-cabobs).  In hind sight, we would bother with that next time, it was really just a snack,and mine was under cooked.  We did luck-out though with our choice in boats!  The Eco Cat was a huge catamaran, with plenty of seating, inside and out.  Though they had music on board, it was not obnoxious like it was on some of the other boats while we were out.


We were at sea for about 2.5 hours.  We sailed around the coast, passing the Arch and Lovers Beach, along with a nice view of the resorts along the coast.  It was really a nice cruise.

Back at PB, about 9:15 we headed down to LaNoa for a lite dinner on the terrace again.  Oscar was our waiter, and was very pleasant an eager to satisfy. Again, it was crazy busy with guests for the holiday, but we only had to wait about 5 minutes for a table.

Another great day!

Day 3 - Even better! #beachbed

What another gorgeous day to relax on the beach!

Since Sunset Beach has very rough seas and heavy currents you are not able to swim in the ocean, but relaxing on the beach with a beautiful breeze is not out of the question. Our very favorite pastime is to reserve a Beach Bed Cabana at their neighboring, all adult, property, Pacifica (www.pueblobonitopacifica.com). The charge is $40 for the day and well worth it, so that's where we headed for the day. Though not included in Sunset's all inclusive, you are able to order drinks and food served to you at your cabana all day, so we did - figuring we'd off-set the cost with our owner's stipend we will be given at our "owners lunch on Saturday.

Getting over to Pacifica is easy, you just take the free shuttle from the Sunset Cafe, it runs a good part of the day.  When you're ready to return, you just hop on a shuttle back.

We had a relaxing day on the beach with an occasional dip in the adjacent pools.  I was tough to leave that Zen atmosphere, but by 4:00 we thought it was time to head back to Sunset Beach to get ready for dinner in town.

Our dinner location, Hacienda Concina y Cantina (http://haciendacocina.com/) at the Hacienda Resort.  When we were told that we'd have dinner on the beach they weren't fooling around, we actually sat at a table right down in the sand with spectacular views of the harbor and "Lands End". The menu had some nice selections, it was hard to choose, most had sea bass, but I tried the lobster and shrimp enchiladas - yum..Dinner was about $70 per person with drinks, wine and several courses (don't miss the octopus salad starter!).  The moon-scape was free though - just outstanding.

The bellman at the resort got us a taxi back to PB ($23 for 7 of us)....and off to sleep we went!!!

Day 2 at Sunset Beach #Cabo

Ahhhh, another beautiful day!

After a fantastic night's sleep in an incredibly comfortable bed, we enjoyed coffee on our terrace and got a little work done using the included wifi.  The wifi connection, though better than our last trip here,  is a little slower than I'd like, especially when downloading, but it did the trick.

Three of us headed to The Bistro for breakfast. Since PB is on the side of a mountain, getting around can be a physical challenge for those who are not used to mountain climbing!  Not to worry though, the golf carts are plentiful and always around to give you a ride anywhere on the grounds. The ride often reminds me of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride as they speed around steep hairpin curves going up and down the mountain.

Breakfast was on the terrace today overlooking the ocean - just stunning. The Bistro offers a breakfast buffet or ala carte. I helped myself to some fresh fruit and yogurt, and ordered a mushroom omelet...the others all did the same ....all very good. Then off to the "adult pool" for a swim.

We enjoyed the pool very much, as well as the cocktails and snacks.  There were no kids running around, and the service was great.  Don't forget to use your sunscreen  and ask for plenty of cold bottled water....hot, hot, hot!

After a quick shower and change of clothes we headed down to the marina for a walk around.  The cab was $14 for the 4 of us.  As we strolled the marina area we found a deal on a sunset cruise for Friday night, $39, better than most of the other offers, so we'll see how it is. There were a lot of Mexican timeshare sharks along the way so we tried to find the one who was the least obtrusive.  This one we chose is called the Eco Cat.

Then off to dinner!  We met up with our other friends and chose to go to Cilantro and PB's Blanco property along the beach.  It was very nice.  They set up a table along the beach for us....just beautiful.

First Day in Paradise #PuebloBonitoSunsetBeach

This is our second time staying at Sunset Beach (http://www.pueblobonitosunsetbeach.com) since we purchased in 2011.  Our last visit, 2 years ago, was at the neighboring Pacifica property.

I would like to thank Alejandro Arana (aarana@pueblobonito.com), with Pueblo Bonito, for all of his help arranging our suites and transportation for us.  He was so helpful and pleasant to work with. If you ever need ANY KIND of help with your Pueblo Bonito trip, he's your guy!

Arriving in Cabo is always an experience - expect the unexpected.  Surprisingly, the airport is in very good shape after last fall's hurricane. You would never have known that it had almost been demolished.

My husband and I, along with our 2 guests, made it through immigration and customs in about 20 minutes.  A very easy operation. -ahhh, but then on to the Cabo "shark tank".  Though the hard sell was quite mild compared to other years, the Time Share Cartel were still there, behind those glass doors, waiting with their baited lines. After chatting briefly with a gentleman, he quickly understood that we were current owners and not interested in visiting his, or anyone else's, timeshare during our stay in Cabo, and off we went to the outer waiting area to wait for our other group of guests who had just landed.

We took a seat in the outer bar and enjoyed a margarita after discovering that our other guests were now in a very long immigration and customs line.  It took them more than an hour to get through. The bar at the airport is pricey $13 for a simple margarita so be forewarned.

Finally all together in the bar, we found our van transport, Cabo Travel Solutions, ready and waiting to take us to Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach. 

The trip was less than an hour, even with the quick stop we had our driver make at Wal-Mart so we could pick up some water and a few things.

The approach to Sunset Beach is breath taking. The blue water and beautiful buildings coming through the entrance are lovely. Once at the entrance, we were greeted buy Fancisco, a very pleasant gentleman who was happy to take care of all of our bags while we checked-in.

I am very disappointed to report that the check-in process was painful. It took over an hour!  There was only one couple in front of us, but the routine of explaining EVERYTHING to you, finding you a suite, signing all the paperwork, and getting your All-inclusive wrist band is exhausting.  THEN, just when you are set free to "enjoy" your stay, 4 steps from the check in desk, another  disappointing moment, Marta stopped us to have us sign up for our "Owner's Lunch", and our guests to sign up for a "Breakfast Tour". Which was something we were planing to do, but not before we had even passed the front door!  We were so tired and angry at this point, it would have been in her best interest to leave us alone until later, but she persisted and we reluctantly  booked (changing it all later).  Be sure to negotiate for at least $400 in credits if you are a newcomer, and expect the occasional mention of a meeting from various managers during your stay. 

Finally, after having arrived almost 2 hours prior, we were in our beautiful suite overlooking the beach (building 11).  We have a 2 bedroom Presidential Suite - very nice. Two huge bedrooms, 2 huge bathrooms, a nice sized full kitchen, a large livingroom, and a patio all across the front overlooking the ocean. Our other guests have a Junior Suite on the beach in building 6, also very nice.

Before we settled in, we quickly ordered room service.  It was already 6pm and we hadn't had a thing since 6:30am EST! Placing the order was crazy...I was put on hold and sent to several people before someone was able to take our order.  Then an hour later, it arrived!!  Crazy!

Anyway, we relaxed a few hours and headed to LaNao, on the beach for a light dinner.  We were given a lovely table on the terrace with a view of the beach, where we enjoyed a little Argentinian food and called it a night.