Cabo San Lucas, Mexico Cruise Port Guide

Once a sleepy seaside village, Cabo has grown into a bustling, expensive international resort and one of Mexico's foremost tourist destinations. The town fronts a small harbor facing the rocky peninsula that forms "Land's End." A prominent landmark is the arch rock formation known as El Arco. Just off these rocks, the ocean bottom drops to depths of about 1,200 feet. Along the edge of a deep canyon formed by the San Andreas fault is a unique undersea waterfall; there cascades of sand continuously pour over the edge of the canyon below. This extraordinary phenomenon has only been recorded in Cabo San Lucas. All of San Lucas Bay has been declared an underwater park and a marine sanctuary.

Because of the clean drinking water from underground springs, the sheltered bay was once an obligatory watering point for pirate vessels and treasure ships from the Orient. Hidden coves around the cape provided ideal hideouts for pirates who preyed on passing galleons. Many of the Pacific's most famous pirates raided and plundered in these waters. An occasional treasure hunter still may chase after rumored treasures and poke around the rocky shores with a dream and a shovel.

In recent years, Cabo San Lucas has become a popular port of call for cruise ships. The Baja Peninsula was briefly a territory of the United States after the Mexican War in 1847; envoys from Washington reported that apart from cacti and rattlesnakes, there was not much else of interest and Baja was returned to Mexico. This desolate area slumbered until the summer of 1939 when Cabo was devastated by a hurricane; eventually it was resettled on its present site. Today there are condominiums, hotels, restaurants, gift shops, discos and a marina catering to the many "gringos" who come for the world-famous sportfishing or to find a retirement paradise. Despite the great influx of tourists, there are still areas that remain as unspoiled as they were in the days of explorers and pirates.