The Journey Home from Cabo. Big Brother.
May. 17th, 2026 08:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerMexico Quickie Travelog #14
Back home · Thu, 14 May 2026. 8:30pm.
Getting home from Cabo today was an 8 hour trek, door to door. It began when we left our room at 11:30, having showered and packed after a morning at the pool. Well, a morning at the pool for one of us. 😣
We walked downhill to the front desk, rolling our bags beside us on the walkway. One of the bellmen at the front saw us coming and, freaked out that we were moving our own bags, literally sprinted up the hill to help us. We let him take the bags so he doesn't get fired for guests doing work on his watch. 😅
After checking out we rode to SJD airport, about 45 minutes away, via private car service. I booked with the same service we used Tuesday. Hawk liked the fact we sat in reclining seats with seat heaters. "That's worth a premium over riding in an Uber for 45 minutes," she noted. And it wasn't even that much of a premium. I checked out Uber prices when I booked the private car, and Uber, with tip, would've been just $10 cheaper. For an extra $10 we'll gladly upgrade to first class for the car ride.
Passing a few hours at SJD was, frankly, annoying. That's because everything there is unreasonably expensive. I complained two years ago that two slices of pizza and a Coke from Sbarro cost $27. Well, now two slices and a Coke are $31. Not that hungry? One slice and a Coke is $22. And remember, this isn't London or Paris or New York. It's Cabo. At even a tourist-friendly restaurant we bought a whole meal for two, complete with bar drinks, for less than $35.
Think you'll save money drinking water instead? There are no water fountains in the entire terminal. Your only choice is to buy water. And a small bottle, less than 1/2 liter, starts at almost $7. A 1L bottle of water is $15. The only thrifty choice is to walk into a bathroom and fill your own bottle from the sink. I had my own bottle but... No. Just no.
This experience completes my conviction that Cabo has turned into nothing better than a cynical tourist trap. I love the hotel we stayed at, but everything else is a ripoff. (Actually the hotel is a ripoff, too— or would have been, if I were paying the cash rate. Instead I used free-night certs. More on that later.)
Sitting in first class was nice for the bigger seats, but that was about it. Drinks were free, but the flight attendant only came around once to offer them. I had to flag her down for refills. And the free meal I was served had a piece of chicken that tasted like it was cooked by being sucked in through one of the aircraft's jet engines. It was so hard I could barely cut it, even with the metal knife afforded to us first class patricians. God forbid they serve meat like this with plastic utensils in steerage. It was bad enough it made me wish I'd sprung for that $31 Sbarro combo. 🤬
Well, at least the flight was short. It was 3 hours, which was just enough time to watch a movie between the end of all the safety announcement interruptions as we took off and the start of constant safety announcement interruptions the last 20 minutes before we landed. I watched Sinners. I aim to write about it soon.
After that deeply concerning demonstration that all the technology for 1984 exists and can be deployed at scale, and we are just one executive order away from President Trump (or any equally fascist leader who succeeds him) turning this country into the full dystopian storyline of that book, we hopped in an Uber and rode home. The Uber had a camera in it, too....
Back home · Thu, 14 May 2026. 8:30pm.
Getting home from Cabo today was an 8 hour trek, door to door. It began when we left our room at 11:30, having showered and packed after a morning at the pool. Well, a morning at the pool for one of us. 😣
We walked downhill to the front desk, rolling our bags beside us on the walkway. One of the bellmen at the front saw us coming and, freaked out that we were moving our own bags, literally sprinted up the hill to help us. We let him take the bags so he doesn't get fired for guests doing work on his watch. 😅
After checking out we rode to SJD airport, about 45 minutes away, via private car service. I booked with the same service we used Tuesday. Hawk liked the fact we sat in reclining seats with seat heaters. "That's worth a premium over riding in an Uber for 45 minutes," she noted. And it wasn't even that much of a premium. I checked out Uber prices when I booked the private car, and Uber, with tip, would've been just $10 cheaper. For an extra $10 we'll gladly upgrade to first class for the car ride.
Clowns and Ripoffs at the Airport
We arrived at SJD with hours to spare before our flight. Bag check had no line, and security had only one person in the line in front of us. Unfortunately the guy at security was some clown who was trying to fight the security people about how big his bottle of shampoo was. I mean, it was clearly bigger than the 3.3oz/100ml size limit. But they practically had to pull out a magnifying glass and flashlight to show him the fine print that read "300ml" or whatever it was. Like I said, it wasn't even close.Passing a few hours at SJD was, frankly, annoying. That's because everything there is unreasonably expensive. I complained two years ago that two slices of pizza and a Coke from Sbarro cost $27. Well, now two slices and a Coke are $31. Not that hungry? One slice and a Coke is $22. And remember, this isn't London or Paris or New York. It's Cabo. At even a tourist-friendly restaurant we bought a whole meal for two, complete with bar drinks, for less than $35.
Think you'll save money drinking water instead? There are no water fountains in the entire terminal. Your only choice is to buy water. And a small bottle, less than 1/2 liter, starts at almost $7. A 1L bottle of water is $15. The only thrifty choice is to walk into a bathroom and fill your own bottle from the sink. I had my own bottle but... No. Just no.
This experience completes my conviction that Cabo has turned into nothing better than a cynical tourist trap. I love the hotel we stayed at, but everything else is a ripoff. (Actually the hotel is a ripoff, too— or would have been, if I were paying the cash rate. Instead I used free-night certs. More on that later.)
Flying First Class
For our flight home we booked a nonstop on United, SJD-SFO. We both got upgraded to First Class. Hawk got her upgrade on Tuesday afternoon, leaving me looking at sitting in coach (well, Economy Plus) by myself. My upgrade came a day later.Sitting in first class was nice for the bigger seats, but that was about it. Drinks were free, but the flight attendant only came around once to offer them. I had to flag her down for refills. And the free meal I was served had a piece of chicken that tasted like it was cooked by being sucked in through one of the aircraft's jet engines. It was so hard I could barely cut it, even with the metal knife afforded to us first class patricians. God forbid they serve meat like this with plastic utensils in steerage. It was bad enough it made me wish I'd sprung for that $31 Sbarro combo. 🤬
Well, at least the flight was short. It was 3 hours, which was just enough time to watch a movie between the end of all the safety announcement interruptions as we took off and the start of constant safety announcement interruptions the last 20 minutes before we landed. I watched Sinners. I aim to write about it soon.
Bad News: Privacy's Dead. Good News: You Save 3 Minutes!
Things flowed smoothly on the ground at SFO. After I knocked Global Entry for how fast Mexico processes foreigners' passports, I saw today that Global Entry has really upped its game. That's the good news— that's it's really fast now. The bad news is that it's really fast now because they've proven that the government really can track all your movements in public, anywhere, anytime, and associate them with your biography simply through facial recognition via almost impossible-to-spot cameras.After that deeply concerning demonstration that all the technology for 1984 exists and can be deployed at scale, and we are just one executive order away from President Trump (or any equally fascist leader who succeeds him) turning this country into the full dystopian storyline of that book, we hopped in an Uber and rode home. The Uber had a camera in it, too....
