Pueblo Bonito Los Cabos – Hotel review + videos

Overall, we enjoyed our experience and would go back again - 4 stars.  Here is what I thought overall including some videos of stuff

• Location: Awesome – 5 stars.  Right on the Medano beach with views of Lovers Beach.  We can do all the water activities right there and walk to Mango deck in 3 min.  10 min walk to downtown where all the night life is or $6 cab.  Very very convenient. The view is spectacular every day.  see video.  this is the smaller pool
• Room: 4 stars.  Henoc is very friendly and always there at the front desk and if you mention Tripadvisor and give him a good reason, he will try to give you a free upgrade to a better room.  We got an upgrade and had a nice ocean view.  The room arrangement felt a little weird at first.  The bedroom is separate with no views and the living and dining area has the view to the ocean, but it turned out better as hubby can watch TV in living room and I can sleep well in the bedroom.  I give 4 stars though as our safe broke twice.  We ended up just giving up using it.  Nothing was lost, more of a hassle to keep asking it to be fixed.  Our shower broke once but they fixed it in 20 min so no big deal.  Beds were comfortable enough.  Only have double beds – okay by us as we can snuggle in one if we want to or sleep separately if we want more space.  Here is a video I took at just after sunrise so you see a view from our room. 
• Food: 4 stars.  Lots of varieties.  Love the fact we can do a la carte or buffet.  At probably 5 times a day as we had the all inclusive deal (recommend this – great for my low carb diet) They asked us to make reservations but given Oct is not high season, we didn’t and got in everywhere with no issues.  We love the buffet breakfast in Mare Nostrom in the Rose with made to order eggs and they made me egg benedict twice even though it’s not on the menu.   We love doing lunch at Cilantro overlooking the ocean or at the pool at Rose hotel.  Delicious food.  Fish ceviche at Cilantro is awesome!!  Sushi bar is pretty good especially if you stick to Tuna.  We had Tuna Sashimi Serrantino, Fried Rice and Calamari.  Others say the other fishes are not as good so we didn’t try.  Dinner buffet are usually good with variety.  You can also order a grill for two with all kinds of meat on it.  They also deliver food to the room until 1am for a $5 charge.  That was useful as we get hungry at night and there is no food option except that after 10pm.  Only complaint is lots of flies and bugs in some areas of Mare Nostrom.  Makes me wonder if all the food is clean if they left it open.  We had a little stomach issue one day but it was mild and passed. Not sure it was from the food or the heat. 
• Service: 3.5 stars.  I think if you don’t tip extra, you will get a 3 star experience.  Service is slower and less prompt.  We decided to tip often about $50 total for a week and service was much better.  Waiter will remember your drink order from the day before and will also bring you a ice bucket for your water by the pool.  I dislike the fact that service is different based on tips but understand why it’s that way, I guess since this hotel is not all all inclusive.  The mix makes the service inconsistent.  
• Entertainment:  3 stars.  Best night was sat night Carnival night.  Show is spectacular and well worth it. Other nights are pretty dead.  Day time activities at the Rose are somewhat entertaining – water aerobic class is a bit better than at our hotel + volleyball + contests.  Wish they played more music.  here is a video of one of their game by the larger pool in the Rose hotel 
• Pool:  5 stars for the pool at the Rose.  The size is awesome and perfect 3 – 3.5 feet deep.  Love the cabanas which you can get if you go early.  No extra charge.  The pool at our hotel is smaller but also good. 
• Clientele: seems to have more older 45 – 60+ year old crowd and out of shape + some families.  30% younger crowd.   We didn’t mind it as it’s quiet and we can go into town for partying but would have like more eye candies at the pool.  J

We will stay here again.  Rooms have a better view and about the same price at the Rose. WE paid $2715 for round trip SFO to Cabo, hotel and all inclusive J for Sat to Sat stay.  If you know better deals, let me know J

Tips

• $32 massage 5 min walk to the right on the beach.  Just look for the big Massage sign.  Awesome deal and good
• Cabo escape sunset Fajita cruise is fun with lots of dancing.  Can get it for $35 a person down the beach, not at the hotel.  
• Everything is negotiable 
• Private taxi to and from airport $126 + tip from Cielito lindo.  Pretty good.
• No need for spike heels as most dress very casual.  Platform sandals are nice if you want to dress up one night. 

Go giants!!!

Even Alexis is excited for the giants.

Cabo remembered Oct 20-27, 2012

I can’t believe we haven’t been to Cabo San Lucas Mexico to vacation until now.  Being only a 3 hour direct flight from SFO, we had a blast this past week and are several shades darker  – came back just in time to see the Giants sweeps the Tigers to win the World Series.  Yeepy!!!

We definitely plan to go back.  This has been our first vacation in almost two years – a reward to ourselves for having Alexis – we did miss her a lot in the last few days.

Here are the highlights:

• Our hotel, Pueblo Bonito Los Cabos is in a great location – we had an ocean view suite – got an upgrade J.  It’s right on Medano Beach where all the water activities are and 5 min walk to Mango Deck – famous for their day time contest – We saw the push up contest on our first day there.  Stay tuned for our detailed hotel review in the next post with more videos :-)
• All inclusive deal was perfect  - no need to worry about where to eat.  We ate about 5 meals a day (definitely got our money’s worth). There are 5 restaurants as we had use of both hotels, ours and the one next door – Pueblo Bonito Rose. + pool grill & bar where they delivered food and drinks to our cabana or lounge chairs.  Imagine mango smoothies and shrimp cocktails by the pool and tuna serrantino sashimi by the sushi bar.  Yum!  We loved having lunch at Cilantro - it's got a great view of the beach.
• Beach massage - $32 an hour.   5 min walk from our hotel, we found a great little massage spot.  It’s upstairs but outdoors so we can hear the waves while we got our massage.  Only $40 with tip for an hour!  It was divine.  The massage in the hotel is priced at $130 a hour in comparison.
• Cabo Wabo – it’s happening every night in downtown with a live band that starts at 10:30pm.  We were there for 4 nights.  All with different people so it was fun.  The only thing was the crowd is on the older side.  But I enjoyed dancing on the raised platforms with some new found friends. 
• Winning contests:  I won the sexy dance contest the first night we were there.  Didn’t realize what I signed up for and ended up performing a little in front of 100 people and won first prize.  The prizes were lame but it was really fun and people started saying hi to us every day after that.  Jaime and I entered the ping pong contest a few days later and he won us a beach bag (which we forgot to pick up) oh well.  All in all, fun stuff
• Running with the Mexicans:  First night, we were tired so turned in early and I ended up getting up at 6:30 in the morning and decided to go for a run around 7:15am.  Well as it turns out, there is a local marathon going on that day as well.  So the main street was blocked off for the runners.  I ended up running with them for about  30 min.  It was so fun.  Will upload the video later to show you a clip.  I actually dropped my hotel keys without realizing it on the way there but luckily it was by the police station.  When I passed them again, they were all lined up on the street and waved at me to give me the key.  They were so nice!
• Sunset Cruise on Cabo Escape: I heard this was a party boat, but I had no idea how fun it would be.  It was an 2 hour cruise around the arch and lovers beach from 6-8pm with all you can drink and fajita dinner ($35 a person – I bargained this deal of course).  We took a water taxi to the marina which was beautiful and the boat crew welcomed all the guest first with a dance – so cute and fun and then it was non-stop music, booze, and fun. We had dances to learn (will upload a video), macho man contest, tequila shots which was not bad.  The upstairs was laid out like a club with large white couches all around narrow tables.  We got there early so got ourselves a great spot upstairs.  We also took fun pictures before the sun went down by lovers beach (see photos and video here - a little drunk dancing haha)
• Alyssa and the Gang:  One of the other guests at the hotel stopped us on our second day to comment on my dancing in the contest the night before.  She started calling me “salsa” since I did a little salsa during the contest. We found out she and her husband Jeff and a group of friends are also there until Sat.  They are actually from San Jose.  We spent quite a few nights with them for dinners, drinks and dancing.  Alyssa and Jeff Thomas, Derek and Josey, Matt and Pam Burke (Matt works in Wholesale at Wells – small world), then there are a few singles – John (who led the Kindle development at Amazon), Amy (works in sponsorship at Visa and knows Ajantha – small world) and Rob (the only really eclectic one we didn’t get along with).  We exchanged info so hopefully will see them again in the bay area.
• The pool at the Pueblo Bonito Rose – We spent most days at the larger pool next door.  It had more young people and fun activities.  Two days, we were early enough to get the cabana which had curtains to block out the sun if needed.  I was pleasantly surprised there was no extra charge for it.   I did pool aerobic at noon for 3 days.  It was a good arms work out surprisingly to fun music.  They also had modified pool volleyball and other contests through the afternoon. I took a video of one of them.  See uploads later.
• Seeing Carlos and Oscar & wifes in Cabo -  Carlos and Oscar are good friends of Jaime from Judo and he found out on facebook that they were also in Cabo when we were so we met up with them at Cabo Wabo our last night there.  Oscar and Sarah are celebrating their 10 year anniversary. 
• Late night local tacos joint - For two nights, we stopped by the late night tacos joint by the clubs and had our street tacos for $1.50 each.  It was greasy and good J
• Gorgeous weather – 88 degrees every day and  75-78 at night.  No rain at all.  We lucked out as it poured for 2 days the week before
• Water taxi tour - 30 min around the arch and lover beach and then dropped off at the Marina for some shopping
 

we also saw sealions on our way to the marina.
• No cover charge -  to any night life spots. 
• Got a nice tan and lost 0.5 lbs - bonus!

A few low-lights

• 24 hour stomach issue – I think I ate too much and then spent a little long in the sun as I had a stomach ache for 24 hours on my 3^rd day there.  Jaime had it for about 8 hours.  Good thing it passed but it was a little uncomfortable
• Tipping is necessary – even though our all-inclusive include tips and taxes, we noticed the service difference when we tip and when we don’t.  We decided to tip pretty regularly to get better service.  For $50 more for a week at $2-$5 at a time, it was no big deal.  It just means the hassle of bringing money with us.
• Mosquitoes – Cabo is more in the dessert and usually don’t have mosquitoes – but this year it rained about 45 days out of the year instead of the usual 9-10 days, so lots of bugs and their bites leave big red bumps.  I got about 10 of them and Jaime, poor honey, got lots the last night we were there.    Hydrocortisone helped a bit but we are hoping there will be less mosquitoes next time
• Limited hip hop clubs – Cabo is famous for its night life, but we couldn’t find any clubs that played hip hop for long.  Lots more plays the mind numbing techno music (music for white people who can’t dance).  That was a bummer as we would have like to dance more.  Friday and Sat nights seems better.  We expected more out of El Squid Roe but it was not that fun and music sucked. 

Other tips to remember:

• No real need for Peso at all.  US cash works fine.  Good to have lot of 1s for tips and taxies and bargain shopping.  Every where takes US cash and credit cards although most CC charges 3% for international charge.  C’est la vie.
• All prices in Cabo are high but you can negotiate it down and don’t use the service at the hotel.  Just walk down 5 min down the beach and prices will come down.  Some prices

o   Massage - $32 an hour

o   Sunset Fajita cruise - $35 a person

o   Water taxi tour to lovers beach and arch - $10 a person

o   Wave runner - $30 for 30 min (will try this next time)

o   Parasailing - $25 a person (may try this next time)

o   Water Skiing - $120? an hour (may try this next time)

o   Taxi to downtown from our hotel - $6 one way

o   Private Taxi to and from Airport - $126 + tip round trip for 2 people (may take up to 5 people)  by Cielito Lindo – cielitolindo2007@gmail.com   We paid by paypal in advance and tipped in cash.  One of the cheaper ones we found and they provide water and beer on the way.

o   7 days flight, hotel, all inclusive from SFO to PB Los Cabos hotel - $2715. J

•   Best nights to go out on the town are Friday and Sat with maybe Thursday and Sundays.   The other nights are less lively.  Day time entertainment are more water activities or drinking by the beach at the Office or Mango Deck where they have contests in the afternoon times
• Added $20 to my Verizon plan in order to call from and in Mexico.  Made things easier to talk to the kids, for Jaime to call work and for us to get in touch with each other. 
• Stay in Cabo San Lucas if you want to walk to everything.  San Jose Los Cabos is far from downtown Cabo and can have serious traffic.  For example, a friend was staying at Westin and got stuck in traffic for an hour and half to downtown. Ugh. 
•  Another place to stay at is Riu Palace – big all inclusive a little further from downtown but about $600 cheaper for the week.

 Lei

Isabel and Gabby having a Party

If you are wondering whether the kids are okay while Jaime and I went on vacation, well see for yourself. They had a real ball last week while we were away. Here is Isabel and Gabby dancing to party rock

avoid GMO foods

This is a scary article of the foods we eat (like corn and soy) in the US that can cause us long term harm but are not labelled

http://hippocratesinst.org/wp-content/magazines/flash/30-3_screen/  see page 38-39.

Vote yes on proposition #37 to require genetic manufactured food to be labeled. Currently we cannot tell.

Lei

Sliding together

Isabel loves playing with Alexis. here they are on the slide together although Alexis doesn't know what to make of it yet. Lei

Photos from Isabel's karate test

We all came out to support isabel including daddy and then we had dinner at Emmy spaghetti shack.

Isabel's yellow bell test

She was so awesome. check it out.

At Colin's baptism reception on Sunday

The girls all decided to do a swan dive. Kids are so flexible.

Alexis is 10 months old today

Happy 10th month old, LingLing. She is so responsive and getting bigger by the day

- she started mimicking my gestures and sounds. She loves to wave and clap her hands and kick. She waves everywhere she goes and draws adoring comments from stranger. She is more social than isabel at this age
- she now crawls fully on her knees. So cute to see her little butt sway as she crawls
- she loves peek a boo. And is curious about everything. Her favorite thing to do is to go through a bag and pick up everything in it.
- she tries to stand every chance she gets. Amazing to see how she balances , push up to stand and then move her feet to balance. She is starting to move around walking while holding on for support
- she is super flexible and will often hold on to one foot or both and being them to her face. She doesn't really suck on her toes just likes to play. She even points her toes. I still love eating those chunky feet
- her skin turned out less rashy which is a blessing. She got such baby soft skin.
- she is a great independent sleeper. Loves her crib. Sleeps before 7 and doesn't cry when she wakes up around 6 and will just wait for us to pick her up around 630
- she knows her name. Looks at me whenever I call her LingLing or Alexis or Lexi
- she is overall a very chill baby. Only complains when she has dirty diaper, hungry or sleepy. Otherwise, she is just happy roaming around the house as long as she knows one of us is nearby;-)

Morning with the Girls

Two weeks ago on a weekend day, Isabel and Alexis both got into bed with me to play. Isabel loves to play with her sister.

Alexis loves to eat Grapes

Fun day in sue Biermann park today

There was a great face painter and balloon maker there. It was a function to support david Chiu for supervisor. He was quite articulate and genuine - good supporter of initiative that will help retain families in sf.

Isabel had a blast with her friends and cousin gabby.

Finally learned to crawl with her butt

It's soooooo CUTE!

Afternoon at Pacific Beach

Last Sunday was a beautiful day so I finally got a chance to take Isabel and Alexis to the beach. Daddy had to work and watch football :-( It was a nice 78 degrees by 3pm and Isabel had a blast as her friend Alina was also able to join. Isabel got nice and dirty but she had so much fun! lots of running and screaming in this video

Russian Hills Academy - Most recent video Aug 2012

Russian Hills Academy - Aug 2012 photos

Isabel is getting so grown up. these are great photos of her in school

Russian Hills Academy Videos - March to June 2012

March 2012 - Isabel is not in it until about 2 min into it and the sound is a little off from the video for some reason but still cute. Isabel is not in all the videos because she only attends 2 days a week. april 2012 - Isabel is in it from the beginning and you can just hear Isabel's voice all throughout. May/June videos - frog dance May/ June videos - more songs

Russian Hills Academy - May June 2012 photos

Isabel continues to love her school and Her teacher "Jiali" also loves having her there. She said Isabel is a great helper and friend to other kids and is very creative and smart. Weston and Isabel are very good friends and always play together. Their birthdays are also in May and they celebrated it together at school. Lei