Catching Up With San Jose Del Cabo

I've been remiss, also spelled l-a-z-y. No posting has appeared here for nearly a year. But after more than a month back in Los Cabos, and with spring break just around the corner, the time seems right to share a few discoveries that have gotten me excited this visit. Here's hoping they interest visitors soon to arrive:



Lyle Brunson with a rubbing of a Sea of Cortez dorado

- You can find some mighty fine produce at the Saturday farmers market in San Jose del Cabo, but the influx of vendors selling prepared foods and assorted arts and crafts looks to be outpacing the proportion of real-live farmers dealing in raw provisions. You can rue it or you can enjoy it, and after my initial hesitation I've come to appreciate the greeting-card artist, the furniture makers and even some of the jewelers. The vendor with the most unusual and striking art to sell, however, just may be Lyle Brunson of Los Barriles, a fishing and second-home retreat just to the north of San Jose del Cabo. Brunson practices with precision and sensitivity the old Japanese art of gyotaku printing, whereby freshly caught fish are painted with ink (in his case, acrylic), covered with a cloth (in his case, unbleached muslin made in Mexico), and then hand-rubbed in the style of tombstone rubbings. A longtime yacht skipper in the Caribbean and then Hong Kong, Brunson was taught the technique by a Japanese friend's grandfather before he moved to Baja 12 years ago. In addition to these sorts of prints, he is apt to be found along the beaches of the East Cape between San Jose del Cabo and Los Barirriles, ready to do rubbings of trophy catches as they are hauled in.



Markus Saffert, and Maria

- I'll admit it, I'm not a big fan of Cabo San Lucas, the tourist-heavy port about 20 miles southwest of San Jose del Cabo. That's probably because it's where we have to go each spring to renew our immigrant status, a process so needlessly complicated and unpredictable that I suspect it was modeled on the system used in the U.S., thus explaining why so many Mexicans hoping for work north of the Rio Grande bypass the bureaucracy. Lately, however, I've come to recognize that Cabo San Lucas has several things to offer other than anxiety attacks. One is The Cabo Bakery, a relatively new enterprise whose profile was jacked-up unexpectedly last summer when the G-20 Summit, a gathering of finance ministers and presidents from throughout the world, convened at San Jose del Cabo's new convention center. Someone involved in the correct feeding of these dignataries apparently had stopped in at The Cabo Bakery, liked what they saw in its cinnamon rolls, apple empanadas and so forth, and commissioned it to provide the conference with its baked goods. Bakers in San Jose del Cabo reportedly weren't pleased with the choice, but ever since area residents and visitors alike have been thronging to The Cabo Bakery along Avenue Lazaro Cardenas just up from the beach. There, owner Markus Saffert and staff member Maria are just barely keeping up with demand for their baked goods.

David, at work at Monkey Business

- Pleasure in Cabo San Lucas also is to be found at the walk-up bar Monkey Business in the core of the tourist district, fittingly just up the street from the immigration office. There, bartender David painstakingly mixes margaritas both robust and refreshingly tangy, and palomas that respect the nature of the tequila he pulls from the shelf. He seems to taste every cocktail he makes to verify that it measures up to his high standards, but I've seen him at the end of his shift, walking away upright and straight.

Pizzas at Flora's Field Kitchen

- Not so much discovery as rediscovery, our two favorite dining destinations in San Jose del Cabo remain at the top of their game. Restaurant H in San Jose's art district has relocated, but not far, moving only next door into quarters once occupied by the pirate bar El Morro. This move gave chef/owner Luis Herrera about a half-dozen more tables where he continues to deliver his modern and personal interpretation of traditional Mexican cuisine. The restaurant that continues to generate the most buzz in Los Cabos - Flora's Field Kitchen - actually has improved since a year ago, mostly by more focused service and a more relaxed attitude, which had become haughty as personnel were carried away with all the acclaim its food and setting was receiving. The centerpiece is the farm's open-air restaurant, but it is much more than that, including a sprawling and varied produce garden that visitors once again can stroll about without being harassed by management, a cluster of culinary cottages, a farmers market, an art gallery, a bakery and a bar. Three fellow diners at brunch recently swore that the "Hair of the Dog" cocktail they ordered was the best-ever interpretation of a Bloody Mary, while I had no quibble about my earthy and spicy beet-and-ginger margarita. Reservations highly recommended, and given its location a few miles outside of San Jose del Cabo, consult the map on its website.

A statue in the San Jose cemetery 

- Other rediscoveries worth noting are two attractions so quiet and unassuming that most visitors hell-bent to get to downtown San Jose del Cabo's farmacias from their rooms along resort row stroll right by them. One is the settlement's old and historic cemetery, surrounded by a tall and rippling wall that explains why it is so easily overlooked. The gravesites are squeezed in tightly. Virtually each one is ablaze with artificial flowers in a dazzling range of style and color. Simple crosses mark some sites, while veritable chapels loom over others. The plot of an apparent avid fisherman is topped with a concrete replica of his boat. The plot of the local hero of the U.S./Mexico war, Antonio Mijares, is marked by a large but curiously plain monument. The cemetery is at once reverential and joyous, an oasis of eternal contemplation in the middle of a zone devoted to escape and pleasure.

Hopeful fisher casts his net in the estuary

Directly across Mijares Boulevard from the cemetery is the estuary, the reason why there is a San Jose del Cabo at all. Here is the one spot where early sailors on the Manila-to-Mazatlan run could depend on a supply of fresh water. It's also where the settlement's first mission was established, though mosquitoes compelled the early friars to move inland in hopes of escaping them. Today, the estuary is a wild, scenic and peaceful domain that endures despite the abuse locals have inflicted upon it. This is where they built the noxious sewage-treatment plant, and this is where vandals periodically set ablaze its groves of palm trees. No concentrated effort has been undertaken to develop a series of paths through the estuary, though over the past year some attempts have been made to clean up and bring some sort of respect and order to the place. It is home to countless varieties of migratory and resident birds, and a favorite destination of fishers. As I strolled about the estuary one recent day I came upon an apparent local who had ridden his bike into the enclave, secured a shady spot on a bank, turned on his portable radio, and to the music was belting out ballads so melodic and sincere I expect to see him on the Latin America equivalent of "American Idol" any day now.