BajaNomad - Keep Your Room Key In Your Pocket

Keep Your Room Key In Your Pocket

Bajahowodd - 11-29-2009 at 03:44 PM

As I recall, the year was 1989. I was reading the Sunday LA Times, and came upon a small ad in the travel section. For the first time, the Twin Dolphin Hotel was to remain open over the summer. Back in the day, many places would close during the summer as whoever thought tourists would be willing to pay money to endure the hot, muggy weather. As this was when Cabo was really just starting to grow, the Haliburton people who owned the hotel decided that rather than risk losing any of their valued staff to other properties that did remain open, they would keep their hotel open, as well. They advertised incredibly discounted rates. At the time, Twin Dolphin was among the most exclusive of hotels in the Cape Area. Matter of fact, they didn't even have a sign out on the highway. It attracted the rich and famous seeking to get away from it all. It didn't have a phone on site, either.

Seeing an opportunity to learn how the "other half" vacationed, I called a buddy of mine, and before you knew it, we were, two couples, flying on down to Cabo in early August.

When we arrived at the front desk of the hotel, we were greeted with some bad news. It seems that one of their guests had decided to not check out that day, leaving them with but one available guest casita. We were then given the option of sharing the same room, or in the alternative, one of we couples could stay for the night in the personal casita of David Haliburton. First decision was easy. We were not going to share a room.

Next, we were taken to Haliburton's casita to check it out. It was fully stocked with personal effects, books, Etc. One thing we did learn, was that the (now) late Mr. Haliburton required oxygen, as there was a tank prominent in the room. I felt it a bit creepy to be staying in the guy's personal room, and I convinced my friend to stay there.

Ms. Odd and I then checked into a beautiful casita that was situated above the sea, cantilevered over some rocks, with the sea splashing below. Later that evening, before retiring, we decided to sit outside on the deck, watch the moon and listen to the sea. We brought out some wine to share. Inasmuch as it was rather hot and muggy, the A/C was on. So, I closed the sliding door behind us.

After a wonderful romantic interlude, I went to open the door, only to find that the catch had slipped and the door was firmly closed and locked.

It was approaching midnight. What to do? Should we shout and hope the people in the next casita would hear us? Peering down, I decided that I could probably scale the railing and by lowering myself to full arm extension, could probably drop to the rocks below.

Success! Next, I clamored up the rocks and set out to find help, leaving Ms. Odd sitting on the deck(at least there was still some wine left). Once I made my way to the lobby area, I saw that there were no lights on. I then spied a night watchman standing out front by the driveway. I explained my predicament to him, hoping that he might have a pass key. No dice. We then walked across the property to a building that was apparently where the housekeeping staff stayed. After several knocks on the door, a woman answered. I thought my luck was about to change. Oh, yeah! Turns out the housekeeping staff did not retain keys. So, now what.

The guard and I walked back to the front of the casita, whereupon he noticed that the small 2' by 3' sliding window over the shower was ajar. My new found friend was a somewhat heavy man. I had already decided that I was not going to attempt to climb through that window. So, I clasped my hands allowing him to step into them for a boost up. I was just hoping I wouldn't get a hernia and he wouldn't get stuck in the small opening, or worse yet, fell and hurt himself inside.

I heard a thud as he disappeared through the window! Was he hurt? I moment later, he came around to the front and opened the door. I made a beeline for the patio door to rescue Ms. Odd and life was good again.

I pulled out my wallet, removed a hundred peso note and offered it to my rescuer. He politely turned it down, wished us a good night and left.

His name was Raul. a sweet man. Hope he is well.

Paulina - 11-29-2009 at 05:48 PM

Thank you. Fantastic story. I couldn't decide if I should stay on the deck with Ms. Odd and the wine or follow you in search for a key. Your story telling made me feel like I was right there.

Those were the Cabo days, thanks again.

P<*)))>{

Bajahowodd - 11-29-2009 at 05:57 PM

Thank you, Paulina. I was motivated to share this story by the fact that the Twin Dolphin is no longer. The current idea of luxury is so much different than from back in the day. Last I saw, earth-moving equipment had graded over the property. Sadly, one of the features of Haliburton's plaything was a jogging/ walking path that contained a plethora of native species. It was a botanical garden.

wessongroup - 11-29-2009 at 06:00 PM

Wodd, the only thing that would have made that story better.... you had just taken a shower and were...

Great story, and Rual gets around and seems to be a great guy most of the time... :lol:

Santiago - 11-29-2009 at 06:03 PM

OK, let's say you have a beautiful young wife, a bottle of wine and a night watchman and you can only watch 2 at one time. You have to fetch your key - how do you do this so you still have the wine and the wife?

BMG - 11-29-2009 at 06:29 PM

Looks like the potential for a 'funny hotel mishaps' thread.

A few years ago Linguine and I had a room at the El Moro Hotel in La Paz. Very nice room with a good view of the sunsets from our 3rd floor balcony.

One afternoon Linguine went out for a walk while I decided to take a shower. I noticed that she had left the room key on the dining table but no big deal since I wasn't going anywhere. About an hour later I was reading my book when someone started pounding on the door. When I answered, Linguine rushed in all red in the face. Apparently she came up 2 flights of stairs and then headed down to our room.

Let me back up a bit here. The door to get into your room at the El Moro is down a short hallway with 2 doors to different rooms down each hallway. As you walk down the hallway, you pass the sliding window for each units bathroom.

So now she turns down the hallway to our room and hears me getting out of the shower. Naturally she sticks her nose up to the screen and prepares to holler out a loud woohoo. Just before she lets loose with the scream, she realizes that the bare butt facing her isn't my bare butt. Choking back a good woohoo usually produces some other form of noise but she was backtracking out the hallway before the guy in the shower had time to turn around.

After that, she remembered to go up 3 flights of stairs to get to our room.

Bajahowodd - 11-29-2009 at 07:21 PM

Upon reflection, I realized how much our culture has changed in just a couple of decades. The late, lamented Twin Dolphin was a magnet for the rich and famous; mostly the Hollywood crowd. Authors, screen writers, actors. The attraction was seclusion. That included the fact that on-site there were no telephones and no TVs. This predated cell phone service in MX. Today, it seems that folks need to be connected 24/7. Wow.

Paulina - 11-29-2009 at 07:56 PM

Bajahowodd,

I remember standing on that beach in 81, looking at the Twin Dolphin wondering if I'd ever be so lucky to stay there. I guess I don't have to ponder that question any longer.

I lost my backpack with all my belongings on the driveway at the Finisterra. I climbed into the van, handing it to the person behind me to give back after I climbed in. He dropped the bag, jumped in and the van took off. By the time I got the drivers attention and he turned around the backpack was long gone. There weren't any phones back then to phone home. I was directed up a dirt street to a small, almost deserted office building where someone sent a Western Union telegraph for me.

No phones, no internet, no tv. Just Baja.

P<*)))>{

noproblemo2 - 11-29-2009 at 08:43 PM

Great story, thanks...

ElFaro - 11-29-2009 at 09:24 PM

I got one for ya...back in about 1989 a friend and I were headed down to Scorpion Bay for surf. We stopped at a hotel near Mulege along the highway for the night. The hotel was basic with minimal maintenance all around. The pool was full of green water with a bunch of ducks swimming around in it. Anyway we ask the front desk for a room, pay and proceed to our room where we unload our stuff for the night.

In the bathroom on the wall was a chrome lined mirror and metal cabinet to put your comb, toothbrush, paste, etc. on. I put my stuff on the cabinet...no problem. Next I took a hot shower after a day's driving. I got out of the shower walked up to the cabinet with a towel around me barefoot and dripping wet and grabbed the cabinet to steady myself from the slippery floor and proceeded to get electrocuted!! A full 120 volts going through me and I couldn't let go and I'm shaking like crazy. Finally my buddy got me away from the cabinet and i was OK. Turns out when the guy installed the mirror on the wall he bolted a mounting screw into a hot wire! As we checked out the next morning I mentioned it to the front desk and the guy just shrugged. :lol:

BajaGringo - 11-29-2009 at 09:32 PM

Great story Howard - thanks...

BajaNuts - 11-30-2009 at 12:19 AM

El Faro,
Our youngster found a "hot" switch at a house in Cabo Pulmo 2 years ago. I didn't believe him, but after trying the switch, I was sorry I didn't believe him!

Sorry, just a little sidetracking~

[Edited on 11-30-2009 by BajaNuts]

No Dog Motel in San Ignacio

Mulegena - 11-30-2009 at 01:03 AM

Hotel La Posada-- we call it No Dog Motel

We had an exasperating but funny adventure there a few years ago with our host, an old gentleman who appeared to be more than a bit confused.

In giving us change for our 500 pesos we received 1000. Gave it back to him, of course, but he didn't want to take it.

The second night he took one look at our dogs (who were with us the night before) and flipped out, "No Dogs! No Dogs! No Dogs!" in an in-your-face kinda way. We left, of course. Problem was the rest of our family were already in their rooms and it was dark and everybody was tired after a day with the whales.

I thought, "This poor old man doesn't remember us from the night before, I'm tired so I'm gonna try something kinda off the wall." I put on a coat and hat and walked back to the hotel and knocked on the owner's door thinking, "Oh, god, what am I doing?" and "well, he's only gonna yell at me again if this doesn't work, so here goes."

Yes, the ruse worked. The old gentleman did not recognize me from 5 minutes before. I rented a room for the night, told him I didn't have a car, and when he retreated into his house for the night I gave a whistle and my family quietly walked up and in. We slept well that night. The dogs slept on their beds on the floor.

In the morning we got up, emerged from our room and said hello to the old gentleman, thanked him for a great night and came home.

Almost Forgot The Ending

Bajahowodd - 11-30-2009 at 11:22 AM

After that exciting late evening escapade, we then came face to face with why the vacation package for this August date was so deeply discounted. A tropical storm moved in and we had torrential rain for two days! :no:

Heather - 11-30-2009 at 03:51 PM

I agree that it is sad about the Twin Dolphins. Last time I saw it was from the ocean side with bulldozers crawling all over the place! I never had the pleasure of staying there, but my husband used to frequent the area as that was where his grandfather's fishing fleet fished out of. His grandfather built the 'Juanita Fleet" from their "taller/shop" at Playa Medano. I think they were the exclusive fleet that the Twin Dolphins used.

Sad to say, that the Juanita Fleet has been pretty much disbanded, too. In the last few years the boats were divided up amongst the 15 sons and daughters in the family. I think most sold their boats when the rates to keep them in the marina at San Lucas got too high. The boats, most built in the 70's were getting pretty old, too...maybe a few are still down there fishing, but with different names.

Yes, things sure have changed in BCS. Saludos, Heather

vandenberg - 11-30-2009 at 04:05 PM

The Twin Dolphins always was way to expensive for our blood. Use to love to snorkel the adjacent beach though.

But...basically no different then Vegas, where all the old landmark hotels had to make room for the more modern variety. Sad, but progress, I guess. :no:

tripledigitken - 11-30-2009 at 04:09 PM

I had heard of the Twin Dolphins for years as well. Not willing to spend the cash to stay there though. One trip we did venture in to the place like we owned it to check it out and have a drink on the patio.

Must have catered to Europeans as there were more than a few Ladies topless around the pool. :cool:

Sorry to hear it is gone.

Bajahowodd - 11-30-2009 at 05:04 PM

Just up the road, the venerable Hotel Cabo San Lucas was leveled as well. The developers there must have had alot of political juice, as they were able to get the highway moved farther inland to give them more "beachfront" property. Obviously, this is not the Cabo of 30-40 years ago. Looks to me like it will eventually out-Cancun Cancun. I guess the good news is that there's many more jobs in the area. I don't begrudge investors and developers there right to make a profit where demand exists. Just that the place I knew 30 years ago no longer exists.

motoged - 11-30-2009 at 07:25 PM

Some friends from Vancouver, BC had rented a suite at Twin Dolphins in 1994 for a week...and invited us to visit them while we were in San Jose at the same time.

The husband insisted that he manage travel plans for that trip, thinking he could "out-do" his wife's years of successful trip planning :rolleyes:

They arrived at the airport in Vancouver with little time to spare before departure, only to realize he had left the plane tickets on the dresser at home, an hour's taxi drive away....so they had to pay full round trip airfare....a thou$and or more than the tickets left behind (non-refundable he found out later).... :rolleyes:

Well, we visited them at TD to hear this lament, sit around the lovely pool for the afternoon soaking up the desert sun, and enjoy numerous c-cktails. The month was January, the whales were off in the distance, the breeze was light, and the day was memorable....

The husband insisted that his sunburn from the day before really wasn't that bad and also insisted that he did not need sunscreen that day either. ... :rolleyes:

We left around five as the sun was low and our day was done....when we met up with them two days later, the husband was confined to bed indoors as his sunburn was epic, la tourista was well underway, and he could only see the cost of his mismanaged holiday when he closed his eyes.... aman living beyond his means and out of league with his dreams :lol:

woody with a view - 11-30-2009 at 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Paulina
Bajahowodd,

I remember standing on that beach in 81, looking at the Twin Dolphin wondering if I'd ever be so lucky to stay there. I guess I don't have to ponder that question any longer.

I lost my backpack with all my belongings on the driveway at the Finisterra. I climbed into the van, handing it to the person behind me to give back after I climbed in. He dropped the bag, jumped in and the van took off. By the time I got the drivers attention and he turned around the backpack was long gone. There weren't any phones back then to phone home. I was directed up a dirt street to a small, almost deserted office building where someone sent a Western Union telegraph for me.

No phones, no internet, no tv. Just Baja.

P<*)))>{

reminds me of the time, '92 in Oaxaca when i ran outta money. :rolleyes:

long/short it took 4-5 days of long walks to the western onion office. finally, near death from starvation and heat stroke i broke down and asked the local police officer to help me and interpret to the w.o. guy. they had my money all the while......