bryanmckenzie - 9-23-2009 at 03:43 PM
Prime (Red) Week at Land’s End next to Los Arcos. I cannot go this year.
Hotel unit (sleeps 4) next to upper pool (walk out the sliding glass door overlooking the Pacific Ocean and you’re 10 paces from the pool). This is a
hot property and a very cool week --- right after the annual Bisbee Fishing Tournament and Sammy Hagar’s birthday. Some years he hangs around Los
Cabos for a week or two (this one) after he gives his birthday concert at Cabo Wabo.
Complete details at the 12-Volt Bar website. Cool name, huh. It’s actually more Jimmy Buffett / Margaritaville / Conch Republic / Key West than Mexico --- but hey --- I
own the domain name and I like it. That page also links to a thorough website about the property.
Can’t go yourself? I’m offering a 10% finder’s fee if you can hook me up with someone. I’m a VALID seller. References available for all my online
transactions: timeshare rental, CraigsList, Ebay, Paypal.
Bajahowodd - 9-23-2009 at 03:48 PM
Sorry to see that they decided to get rid of another iconic property. I also wonder, since your web site offers the time share for sale, if you have
any reservations about the property?
capt. mike - 9-23-2009 at 03:52 PM
$100 bucks a nite to stay at Solmar is a good deal. walk to everything.
1st saw it in 1980. man has it changed!! we stayed at the mar de cortez then for $35 a nite. it's only gone up to $60 fall 2007.
No. No reservations. It's a wondeful property.
bryanmckenzie - 9-25-2009 at 03:35 PM
And a great location. Good, quiet vibe. Not in town. Not all the hoopla. Perhaps because it's the "grand daddy" of all the resorts, it has that
original charm.
Bajahowodd - 9-25-2009 at 03:39 PM
My question is whether they are, have, or are planning to level the old two story hotel buildings. That was the iconic property.
Yes, they're gone.
bryanmckenzie - 9-25-2009 at 04:42 PM
Click on my website link. There's a live webcam there and in the distance you'll see no more white 2-story "Moroccan" buildings.
capt. mike - 9-25-2009 at 04:47 PM
i always thought the Finnisterra was the 1st resort hotel built in cabo?? and the Hacienda followed before the SolMar was built.?
i know this is covered in Baja Legends Nieman's book but i loaned my copy and never got it back.....
which of you Cabo fans knows?
Bajahowodd - 9-25-2009 at 04:56 PM
I don't know the order of build, but for many years, way back when, those three hotels were it for Cabo. Nostalgically, i'm sorry to see the original
Solmar buildings gone. For awhile, Finisterra maintained their original buildings even after building that 8 story time share thing down to the beach.
Hacienda is basically gone. It saddens me to see the huge structures standing on that property. Everything was once no higher than two stories. But
money talks. Kinda like those monstrosities along the toll road South of Rosarito.
btw Bryan, mixing Jimmy Buffet and Cabo is like trying to mix oil and water. Buffet is a Key West guy. A Caribbean guy. Not a Mexican guy.
CSL History ...
bryanmckenzie - 9-25-2009 at 06:55 PM
I know Bajahowodd, I know. I like Buffett. I like Baja. For me they work. About as well as all the Reggae that's also associated with the cape. But,
then again, I enjoy Marley. Do you like how I slipped the "Moroccan" description in just for fun. They always struck me as looking like buildings I've
seen Marrakech.
Assuming this citation is correct --- http://www.mexfish.com/cbsl/cbsl/cbslhist/cbslhist.htm --- here's a bit of the history:
In the late 1950s, a decision critical to the future of Baja California was made by the federal government in Mexico City: Cabo San Lucas would cease
to be a cannery town, and would be developed instead as a major tourist destination based on sport fishing. Cabo's marina was dredged out of a dry
mudflat in 1974 and 1975. Until that time, a landing strip and the houses of cannery workers occupied the area.
The very first of Cabo's great resorts opened its doors in 1963: the original Hotel Hacienda built by Rod Rodriguez, son of former Mexican president
Abelardo Rodriguez.
In 1972, the deluxe Hotel Finisterra, center, was built atop Baja's final promontory dividing the Pacific Ocean from the Sea of Cortez. One year
later, the 1,000-mile Transpeninsuar Highway was completed. Luis Coppola Bonillas with his wife, Evangelina Joffroy, established the Hotel Los Arcos
in La Paz and the Hotel Finisterra in Cabo San Lucas. (Reprinted with permission from The Unforgettable Sea of Cortez.)
Facing the open Pacific Ocean, is the magnificent Solmar Suites resort hotel, which opened in 1974. The builder of that hotel was Luis Bulnes Molleda,
who had originally come to Cabo San Lucas in 1955 to be the manager not of a luxury resort, but of the very tuna cannery that sits crumbling today
only a few hundred yards away from the Solmar.
Although the Hacienda was the first hotel in Cabo San Lucas itself, it had been preceded by other early fly-in resorts situated on the coast of the
southern half of the Sea of Cortez. These included such legendary pioneering establishments as the Flying Sportsmen Lodge built by Ed Tabor in Loreto
(1952), the Serenidad built by Don Johnson in Mulege (1961), the Hotel Los Arcos developed in La Paz by Luis Coppola Bonillas (1952), Rancho Buena
Vista built by Herb Tansey at East Cape (1952), and the nearby Hotel Cabo San Lucas built by William Matt "Bud" Parr (1961).
Desertsurfergal - 9-26-2009 at 11:33 AM
This is a beautiful property. We stayed the same week in 2007. I definatly recommend anyone staying at Solmar. A short walk to downtown and the
weather at that time is beautiful.
Bajahowodd - 9-26-2009 at 12:05 PM
Thanks for the info, Bryan. I actually learned something, inasmuch as I had thought the Parr family had built the Hacienda Hotel. Turns out that after
being involved with building the Palmilla and the hotel Cabo San Lucas, Parr bought the Hacienda from Rodriguez in 1974.
I still can remember the massive expanse of empty beach on the Pacific side, with the Solmar on the sand, and the rickety wooden stairs at the
Finesterra to descend down from its hilltop location.
The Moroccan thing is no accident. Spain, as well as much of Europe was once occupied by Muslims. There is a great contrast in Spanish architecture
between Catalonia versus the north of Spain.
One last comment about Solmar and the Pacific side hotels is that swimming is quite dangerous and is discouraged.