Want your Tequila Straight Up Or...'Mas Suave'
- A No BS article by David Mandich - Baja California Real Estate and Consulting Advisor

Cabo San Lucas, being only two beers away by plane from Southern California, is fast replacing Hawaii as the preferred quick-trip exotic vacation and 2nd home buying destination for many Americans. Almost three million tourists travel to Baja California Sur each year visiting its towns, bays, beaches, islands and golf courses for an average stay of 3.5 days.

Some, like me, come for a visit and never go back. Some stay for a week and return to the States with a stuffed marlin, condo, dental make-over or breast implants. Makeovers are big here - from cosmetic dental and plastic surgery to lifestyles. It's all about feeling, and being young again. With the Nikki-Beach Club in Cabo to any of the surf, golf, fishing or gentlemen's clubs that abound,Los Cabos is sure to put some life back in your life style.

International Bi-lingual schools for children through high school are available in Cabo and San Jose. And the tuition is ridiculously inexpensive. Maybe $300 a year. More folks should consider bringing the little ones to live here. Its safer than the big cities back in the States, the school kids respect their teachers, and there's a lot of desert and water oriented fun things to do close at hand.

So how do you make it happen? How do you find the right building lot, condo or that dream house overlooking the sea? Where does one find the perfect casa for one's lifestyle, and - per many peoples criteria - a casa that makes for a sound investment? Do you look in Cabo? San Jose del Cabo? The mysterious East Cape? The artists' colony of Todos Santos? Or perhaps someplace in between?

Let's Start With Cabo San Lucas Proper
Cabo San Lucas is the main tourist destination for people visiting the Los Cabos area for the first time. It sits on Cabo San Lucas Bay which is flanked on the west by a series of monumental rock formations known as Land's End. This outcropping of land is the end of the nearly one thousand mile Baja California Peninsula where the Pacific Ocean meets the Sea of Cortez.

The water and air temperatures can be 20 degrees cooler a few hundred feet on either side of the tip. On the inside one can snorkel in crystal clear warm waters swarming with colorful tropical fish around underwater pinnacles off the cove known as Lover's Beach. The fish there will literally eat out of your hand as they've all heard the place is a game sanctuary. This is what all the tourist brochures say. But the reality is that all the friggin' fish in the Sea of Cortez will eat out of your hand any day of the week if you've got bread, tortillas or fish entrails in your hand!

You can find crystal clear water for snorkeling for the next 900 miles beginning in Cabo and going on up the inside of the Sea of Cortez. If your fantasy place in the sun involves water sports - start in Cabo, head East and then North until you find your slice of paradise. And you can surf and windsurf all the way around the East Cape.

The Pacific Ocean side of the peninsula is generally rougher, cooler in the summer (nice), and compared to the Sea of Cortez - underwater visibility for divers is much less. But compared to anywhere back home in the States - it's ALL GOOD. Some say its paradise. If you want cooler Southern California coastal temperatures in the summer as you plan on living here year around - start looking North of Cabo. The land rush in this area right now is Cerritos, Pescadero and Todos Santos.

Next: Luxury Homes & Condos As Investments in Cabo San Lucas