There are only a few places outside the United
States where I’ve spent a significant amount of time. All of them mean a
lot to me. Unfortunately, it’s been years since I’ve ever visited
any of them.
One is Los Cabos at the tip of the California peninsula, where
the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez meet. We first visited on a kind
of hunch, loved it, and returned regularly for many years.
One pleasure of the trip was that it’s a long trek
from New York. By the time you arrived,
you really felt as though you had embarked on a great journey.
My favorite transit was a crazy New
York to Miami to Mexico City to Guadalajara to Los Cabos jaunt
on Mexicana Airlines. The interior of
our airplane was festooned with those marvelous multicolored Mexican
paper cut-out decorations, the food (even in coach) was extremely good
(my breakfast omelette even came with a green chili accompaniment
in a little plastic envelope), and complimentary sparkling
wine flowed throughout the long airborne day.
The plane flew so low through
the Sierra Madres, it seemed as though the pilots
were taking us on a special route open only to elite professionals or aficionados, so low you imagined you could spot the lions you knew
were down there.
Once we flew down from LA
on Air Alaska, which I was anxious to do so that I could see the length and
breadth of Baja California.
During our traveling days there, Los Cabos was hardly unknown,
but it still pre-dated the current era of every-monthly travel
magazine publicity. It was certainly
less spoiled than it probably is now by hyper-traffic and glitz (Martha Stewart, Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux) and we
made friends on land and in and on the water. Jane got to experience
Cabo when she was very young and we even renewed our wedding vows on the
beach at Twin Dolphin.
I mention all this because, amid the beheadings,
the Ebola outbreak, enterovirus incursion and everything else, Los
Cabos suffered greatly during Hurricane Odile. I’m sure it will recover, but reading about
the destruction makes me feel far from home and helpless.
