My first trip to the southern tip of Baja California was brief but fun. I enjoyed a pleasant evening stroll through the historic colonial streets of San José del Cabo.
San José del Cabo – A Photo Essay
Mission San José del Cabo was established in 1730, about 200 years after Hernan Cortés first explored the area. A bustling city grew around it.
It felt like the entire city wear geared around tourism, with dozens of souvenir shops, bars, massage parlors, and restaurants in the downtown area. The town square included many street vendors as well as a giant flag of Mexico flying in the center.
One thing I like to do when I travel (as I just did in Sweden) is to check out local supermarkets or in the case of Cabo, hypermarkets. Within a short distance of my hotel was both a Chedraui and a La Comer. I enjoyed browsing both of them.
I quite liked walking though and browsing the selections and had my stay been longer I would have purchased groceries or ready-made-meals here. The 155 pesos for a whole chicken (about $9) was reasonable and would have been a great dinner.
But I noticed everything was quite expensive – at US levels or higher here. And in fact, this was true most just in these grocery stores but everywhere in town. I suppose that is not a surprise in a highly-touristic place…but nothing was “cheap” here. Even the coffee was Los Angeles prices.
One cultural observation: the grocery store was full of “white” Mexicans (and foreigners like me). I’ve read about this in the past and just found it interesting.
CONCLUSION
I had a nice visit in San Jose del Cabo and will return when the Park Hyatt hotel opens. It’s a fun city. Perhaps a bit too touristy, but the weather is nice and it was a better “mileage run” for me than going to Las Vegas.
More pictures than I ever taken! And I visit my condo there 4 times a year. The city square near the church always has music and performances every weekend. It’s very family oriented. Those dollar signs you see on the price sticker is actually Mexican pesos. They denote their pesos with the dollar sign ($). So the $216 you see on the price tag at the store is actually about $12 USD. Be careful, don’t get scammed!
Yes, it is expensive and very touristy. Not your typical Mexican economy. More like a hybrid American-Mexican economy.
Baja, California is in Mexico?
Correct. California belonged to Mexico before the U.S. stole it. 😉
@Matthew … I don’t think U.S. “stole” California . Why did Mexico attack the Alamo in Texas ? To “steal” it in return? To take compensation for California ? That sort of thing .happened in the past . If Mexico wants it back , give them Olvera Street .
I was being somewhat facetious, hence the wink emoticon.
@Matthew … Thank you . I have poor vision .
Funny to see you visit local supermarkets. That is one of the first things I do when I visit a different country. I simply love to learn about local products and check trends in food. You learn so much about different cultures just by checking what they eat.
I’m surprised to learn Chedraui had US level prices. That’s not the case in most of Mexico. I work for largest retailer in Mexico, and I find Chedraui is usually competitive, if not often cheaper, than our low prices. By nature of geography, Baja is disconnected from the rest of Mexico, so they must not benefit from the robust distribution network in the rest of the country.
Visited Cabo last month and have noticed it has gotten even more $$$$ than in the past! The tourist tax/the VAT tax the service charges added up to 35%..Crazy.. If you put an extra tip(service charge already 18 % on all bills) of $10 USD with all taxes it came out to be >??$22
Yup. Was there last month and one cocktail from the poolside bar at our hotel was $18. We were at the same hotel three years ago and it was $10 then.
That grocery store blew my mind! It was like a whole foods and Sax Fifth in one, lol