Seasonal Attractions: A Guide to Winter Activities (Other than Whale Watching) in Los Cabos
Whale watching is certainly a marquee seasonal attraction, as each winter up 10,000 cetaceans majestically cruise the local waters on their way to or from traditional breeding grounds throughout Baja California Sur. But breaching humpbacks and sandy beaches are hardly the only attractions that draw flocks (gaggles?) of snowbirds to Los Cabos each year during the months of December, January, and February. The region also boasts some other world-class winter activities.
With that in mind, here are three non-weather, non-whale watching reasons to make immediate vacation plans.
Tiger Woods’ recently opened El Cardonal course at Diamante is the latest in a long line of championship level layouts in Los Cabos.
Golf is a year round attraction in Los Cabos, but there is no question that the ideal time to play is during the winter months. In the sweltering heat of summer, being anywhere without air conditioning can seem oppressive, particularly when you’re spending the better part of four hours trying to extricate your ball from the devilish assortment of traps and hazards at some of the area’s championship level courses. This time of year, however, the cool sea breezes and attentive beverage service (a Sea Breeze, perhaps, at one of the mid-course food and drink stations) produce a certain sangfroid when attempting your second shot out of a greenside bunker.
Los Cabos has been the premier golfing destination in México since the early 1990s, when Jack Nicklaus kick-started the local golfing boom with superb layouts at Cabo del Sol and Palmilla. Nowadays, with first-class designs from a veritable who’s who of golfing legends – Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Weiskopf, Greg Norman, Davis Love III, and, most recently, Tiger Woods – the state of Baja California Sur may offer the greatest collection of geographically concentrated courses this side of the game’s ancestral home in Scotland. Three local courses have been ranked among the world’s 100 best, and given the high-profile of two new loops on the Pacific Coast of Cabo San Lucas, that number may grow in coming years.
The latest offering from Nicklaus, a stunning coastal design dubbed Quivira Golf Club, premiered Dec. 4, and has already drawn rave reviews for its availability (it’s open to the public), challenging risk and reward shot making choices (par for the course for Golden Bear layouts), and breathtaking Pacific Ocean views. And the man chasing Nicklaus for the most major championships in PGA history, Tiger Woods, is now hot on his heels for Los Cabos golf plaudits. Woods’ first completed design, El Cardonal, premiered today. The loop is a throwback to the Southern California courses of his youth, and at 7,300 yards from the tips, requires Tiger-like skill with the driver. El Cardonal is contiguous to the upscale Diamante development’s other layout, Davis Love’s incredible links-style Dunes, currently ranked as the 52nd best course in the world. Both of Diamante’s golf offerings are private, meaning there are now at least two more reasons to buy property in Cabo.
Windsports
Each January, the world’s best kiteboarders descend on the beautiful East Cape town of Los Barriles to determine who’ll hold the title, “Lord of the Wind.”
Our region is justifiably famous for its world-class conditions for water-based activities like surfing, diving, and of course big-game sportfishing. But Baja California Sur is also, at least seasonally, home to some of the best windsurfing and kiteboarding on the planet. Each year, from approximately mid-November to mid-March, powerful El Norte Winds blow down the length of the Sea of Cortes, creating incredible windsports conditions in areas along the state’s gorgeous East Cape. The communities of La Ventana and Los Barriles, in particular, are known as windsports meccas, and over the years have burnished their reputations with a growing number of dedicated resorts and windsurfing and rental companies.
The acme of the local windsports season is in January, when Los Barriles hosts its annual Lord of the Wind Showdown kiteboarding competition. The event is organized by the town’s Rotary Club, with prize money and the coolest title on earth going to the person who accumulates the most points in categories like slalom and big air. Affiliated fiestas are also scheduled, including beach parties and fund raising tamales cook-offs in both La Ventana and Los Barriles. The 2015 edition will take place Jan. 13-18, so make your seasonal accommodations plans now for lodgings like Captain Kirk’s Windsports Resort (La Ventana) or Hotel Palmas de Cortez (Los Barriles). If you’re not ready to grab big air or everlasting glory as the Lord of the Wind, both resorts have staff on hand to teach beginners the finer points of windsurfing and kiteboarding.
Arts Festivals
The Peter Buck founded Todos Santos Music Festival is one of many great arts related events held each winter in Baja’s southernmost pueblo magico.
The charming coastal pueblo magico of Todos Santos may be best known as the site of one of Baja California’s most prolific artists’ colonies – the town’s gallery district is shown off to great advantage during monthly “First Friday” Art Walks – but it is also, for at least a couple months per annum, the peninsula’s foremost proponent of fine arts style festivals. Each year, in relatively rapid succession, Todos Santos hosts highly-acclaimed music, art and film festivals. And lest literary types get huffy, there is also a writer’s workshop thrown in for good measure.
The Todos Santos Music Festival was the brainchild of former R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, who still plays and works to set the lineup each year for a series of concerts held over a two week period at Hotel California (not the inspiration for the Eagles’ song, but the premier local lodging nonetheless) and the town square. This year’s festival will take place, Jan. 15-17 and 21-24, with a roster of performers that includes The Jayhawks, Old 97’s, and Drive By Truckers, as well as a local musical showcase. As always, the festival also serves as a fundraiser for The Palapa Society of Todos Santos, with tax-deductible donations for the 2015 event going to help aid recovery following Hurricane Odile. To make a contribution, click here. For more information about the festival, visit http://todossantosmusicfestival.com/.
The Todos Santos Writer’s Workshop premier last year was notable mainly for its affiliation with the music festival (including onstage poetry readings). Now in its second iteration, the workshop has quickly grown into a standalone destination event that is expected to draw aspiring writers from around the globe. Five days of intensive sessions, Jan. 26-31, will be held at the historic Casa Dracula, with instructors such as Jean McCulloch (Fiction), Rex Weiner (Non-Fiction), and Gordon Chaplin (Memoir). Novelist Jonathan Penner will lead a program titled Vision and Revision: How First Drafts Get to Heaven, and New York City-based literary agent Meg Thompson will discuss the value of proper representation. Workshop admission is on a first come, first serve basis. To apply, click here. For more information, visit http://www.todossantoswritersworkshop.com/.
The Todos Santos Art Festival is a weeklong celebration of local art and culture that also includes live music, folk dancing and theater performances, and traditionally concludes with an open studio tour in which dozens of local artists welcome visitors to explore their galleries and work spaces. The events help raise money for local children’s art programs through the Palapa Society of Todos Santos. The studio tour, for the first time, has expanded to a two day affair, and will take place Feb. 7-8. For additional information, go to http://artistsoftodossantos.com/.
The Todos Santos Film Festival is an annual showcase for the best of Mexican and Latin American cinema, including short and full-length films, documentaries, and locally produced projects made possible by the Youth in Video program. Selected movies are primarily shown at the town’s historic Teatro-Cine Manuel Márquez de León – a landmark theater that dates to 1943 – but are also screened at other sites in Todos Santos, Pescadero and La Paz. The 12th edition of the film festival is set for Mar. 12-22, 2015. Participating films have not yet been chosen, however, and the schedule has yet to be announced. For information and updates, visit http://www.todossantoscine.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/TodosSantosCineFest/.