It is a melancholy moment when the planes tires leave the ground as you depart San Jose del Cabo International Airport. After living in Los Cabos for four years, I never thought that going on vacation would bring such anxiety. Am I excited to depart on a trip that has been bought and paid for after months of planning? Absolutely. A day of skiing in Lake Tahoe.
Shopping the streets of Berkeley. Dinners at exclusive restaurants in San Francisco. A baseball game at AT&T Park. All of it sounds like an amazing five-day getaway in areas that are polar opposites of the Baja lifestyle. So why am I overwhelmed with anxiety when we reach 15,000 feet? When Cabo is your home, you have it all. We are so spoiled to live in a paradise of wonderful people and geographic abundance with miles of beach coastline and turquoise blue waters. Every day is a new adventure filled with exotic escapades that Northerners can only dream of.
I have grown so accustomed to morning walks on the beach while the sun rises and my coffee cools slowly after the first half mile. Afternoon fish tacos and cold drinks where you are bound to run into a neighbor that was out fishing in the morning and eager to share tales of the monster tuna that just got away. Warm early-evening swims in the Sea of Cortez that remind you exactly why you sought out the Baja lifestyle in the first place. Dinners at spectacular restaurants that vacationers plan their entire vacations around and yet we can enjoy on any given Tuesday.
The lifestyle that homeowners and residents enjoy in Cabo is unlike any other experience in the world. You feel it as soon as you step off the plane. As the gentle warm breeze greets your arrival, you realize that you have been transported to a place in which all of your day to day stress instantly melts away. For the first time in what feels like forever you can breathe. Instead of deadlines and reports, you can focus on what brings you happiness.
Living in Los Cabos is no different than visiting except you realize that you do not have to leave. Want to camp under the stars in the East Cape while enjoying consistent surf that never seems to end? Take three days. Interested in visiting the waterfalls of Santiago and hiking through the arroyo in areas that seem to have never been ventured? Find yourself by losing yourself. Four days in Cabo Pulmo diving and exploring the reef and all its inhabitants? Why not extend to six days? When you live in Los Cabos every day feels like a vacation.
The plane has now hit 30,000 feet, and we are coasting. Although I have only left the Baja for thirty minutes, I cannot wait for my return. Anything I am set to experience over the next five days of vacation is icing on the cake because my Cabo home is truly where my heart is.
