Cabo No Wabo

15 Mar Cabo No Wabo

Baja California  2017

Earlier this year, I surprised my husband with a quick “life/biz planning” trip to Cabo.  We have two littles (ages 2 & 4.5) and between the two of us, we run 4 companies.  Needless to say this season of our lives is messy, busy, and rarely peaceful, like in the “sit by the fire and read” variety of peaceful.  It’s hard to finish anything without being interrupted, let alone sit back and plan what we wanted to accomplish this coming year.  So I carved out 5 days in Mexico for us to regroup, enjoy some new scenery to inspire us and to allow us some mental bandwidth to contemplate what in the hell we are doing with our lives.

We left the kiddos with grandma (ohh my… thank goodness for grandmas!!!) and after a short flight, landed at the Hilton in Cabo just before sunset.  The hotel did not disappoint.  Greeted with fresh lemonade, we checked in and sat in the open lobby overlooking the Pacific and letting that gorgeous ocean air cleanse our system.  We snacked on chapulines (grasshoppers!! SOOO GOOD) and guac and fresh melt-in-your-mouth empanadas.

I expected white-washed stuffy luxury, which isn’t really our thing, but I was craving a blank sheet of an environment to give me creative room to expand my thinking.  But instead of vanilla blandness, we were greeted with a rich, colorful, culturally thoughtful, and honestly, quite provocative scales, details and art throughout the hotel.  And while I’m cognizant that most of the cultural authenticity was scrubbed clean, I was still eating GRASSHOPPERS, not fries and ketchup.  Every little experience was deliberately crafted, from the entry plaza opening up to the sky, water fountain melting away your stress as you check in, and a wide vista of the ocean pulling you through the lobby to the bar.  Giant floral murals painted on the walls of the grand stairs reminiscent of the traditional embroidered tapestries sold in the markets.  I was impressed Hilton, didn’t know you had that in you.

Each morning we woke at 6:30am and walked down to the water to watch the sunrise.  The rocks were dark, cold, still.  But just as the sun started to rise, these gorgeous blue crabs started scattering about.  About 7:25am the blue whales started cresting just 100 feet off shore.  It was magical.  We read, ran, took walks, did yoga on the beach, and swam in the salty waters.  Wanting to truly unplug, we left our phones in the hotel room and didn’t go online or check social media once.  It was LOVELY.  We absorbed the stillness, the quietness, and let the ocean do it’s work.

One afternoon we took a local bus and ventured off-site to San Jose Del Cabo’s art district for their Art Walk.  It took everything in me not to purchase every damn tapestry, neon pom pom, and beaded painting.  The artistry was amazing.  I did take home a Frida painting, someone I have always wanted her in my house, and Perla Sanchez’s portrait just won my heart.  As we walked thru Plaza Mijares admiring the Parroquia San Jose and just how well this town mastered honoring it’s past while thoughtfully updating these old building into the future.  Each street lured us further into the district.  I was stopped dead in my tracks by this stark white historical building with a black modern roof addition. I walked up to the gentlemen standing in the doorway with a heavy canvas butcher’s apron on and told him… I was in love with this building.  He smiled, and then took us on a long tour of the restaurant, La Revolucion, AMAZING, and then brought us up top to tour the roof top bar above still under construction.  We had to stay for dinner after such hospitality, and the food was mind blowing.  Octopus tacos, beet rice, ceviche, custom mezcal coctails to die for….

To make sure we were using this trip as intended, and not get lost sipping margaritas all day long, each day we would incubate ideas about one area of our lives, and then over dinner share those thoughts and get feedback and connect storylines.  We meditated on our four themes: FAMILY\WORK\PERSONAL\MARRIAGE.  It was so therapeutic, I encourage everyone to take time to do this each year, even if you take the day off while the kids are at school and have a pow-wow on your living room floor.  The salient themes that arose seemed to repeat in all of our foundation:  “Simplify”    “Ritual”   “Authenticity”.

Ironically, this is what also presented itself in the streets of San Jose Del Cabo.  Calm grounded authenticity, rooted with one stem admiring and honoring the past, the other reaching directly into an intentional future, with a center steadfast on savoring this moment.   I guess it’s likely needless to say, we skipped “Cabo Wabo”.

Since we didn’t have our phones stuck to us, these are the few photos I captured along the way.

Enjoy and Stay Wild!