JonnyLand: The Blog: Go There Once...Be There Twice!

Hey there, kids! I don't know if anyone is keepin' score, but as of today, the magic number is 18! 18 days until I'm finally back on the white sands of Playa Solmar and Playa del Amor down in beautiful Cabo San Lucas...it's only taken me 17 long years to be able to get back and soak up the beauty (and I mean that in EVERY possible way, of course...) of that "sleepy little town south of the border...". I am so excited...can't wait...been way too long. So much has happened to the town since 1994 when I was first there, and I can't wait to see how it's grown and flourished...now you all KNOW I'll basically be LIVING at the Cabo Wabo Cantina, where back in '94 my pal Sammy Hagar was still with the mighty Van Halen, and the boys were on Top Of The World. The cantina was amazing! The people were incredibly nice to me there, even letting me play Alex Van Halen's drums for a mini-set of 5 VH tunes of my choosing. I have a pic somewhere...I'll dig it up for ya' if you want :) It was an amazing place, and I met a bunch of amazing people, too! Anyone know the legal age of consent in Mexico? I just wanna make sure the statutes have all expired before I go back...heh-heh....

I stayed at a huge hotel right on the beautiful Cabo Marina, and couldn't have asked for a nicer setting. Breakfast every day, drinks as far as the eye could see...and I'm not much of a beer guy, but I developed a fondness for PACIFICO lager...hell, Land's End is right on the label! It's one of the "official" beers of Cabo. Mind you, this was well before Cabo Wabo Tequila was born in 1998, so the "Vitamin-T" wasn't available. OTHER tequilas, of course, were, but at that point in my drinking career, I still wasn't too much of a hard liquor drinker, so I passed on that. Now, of course....all bets are off! Sammy owns the Cabo Wabo cantina, and started the tequila company back in 1998, and his bass guitar player from the Waboritas, my friend Mona Gnader, personally gave me my first bottle of the stuff at a CD party at the Hard Rock in NYC when Sam was launching the "Red Voodoo" album. That's another story for another blog though, but Mona and I have been friends since 1997...awesome bassist, and lemme tell ya', this girl likes to PARTY UP!!

Anyway, now that Cabo Wabo Tequila is synonymous with the location, I will simply have to make sure there's enough blood in my tequila system by the time I go to sleep each night to ensure the most perfect Dreams possible! The town itself is amazing....there's a million things to do, or nothing at all. You can fish--which I plan to do bigtime--for amazing Blue and Striped Marlin among other exotic game fish, by chartering a boat right at the marina. Cabo is pretty much the Marlin capital of the world, and March is still primo season for landing some HUGE fish...it is mostly catch-and-release for the billfish nowadays, though, but that's ok with me...let 'em go.

Parasailing, waverunning, snorkeling (holy crap is THAT incredible...) off Lover's Beach...anything you want to do is available to you. The natural wonder and beauty of Land's End--literally the last piece of land at the tip of Baja California Sur before emptying out into the vast Pacific Ocean--is something you have to see in person to fully appreciate. The Arch....just stunning to look at as the waves crash against the rocky outcroppings, sea lions playing carefree in the surf. Oh yeah, and WHALES!! They're EVERYWHERE! Gray Whales are frequent guests right off the shore on the pacific side of Land's End, and from the balcony of my king-sized room at the beautiful Solmar Suites resort, all I have to do is open my eyes and look out onto the ocean....there the sumbitches are!

Solmar is one of several resort locations--and one of Cabo's oldest and most popular resorts--on the pacific side of Cabo and Land's End...the pounding surf of the ocean is far too intense for anyone to swim or snorkel there, so all we have to do is just go across to the other side to the tranquil Lover's Beach, which spills into the calm Sea of Cortez. Gentle surf here allows for exciting snorkeling and swimming...I gotta make sure I have my underwater camera all ready to go! It's called Lover's Beach because it's so secluded near the tip of Land's End, and you need to take either a water taxi or a "shuttle" boat, most of which have glass bottoms so you can admire the multi-colored residents of the crystal blue waters as you journey to the beach.

It's not uncommon to be swimming alone right off the beach and suddenly come face to face with a sea lion or sea turtle who wants to check you out and say hello. It's just so fucking cool....

The town is filled with shops, both old and new, restaurants, nightclubs and even a shopping mall of sorts from what I understand...gee, it really HAS been a LONG 17 years, huh? Almost half my friggin' LIFE ago!! There was a Domino's Pizza and a Burger King in town when I was there, now places like Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood have even laid claim to parcels of land there! It has truly become one of THE most popular resort towns, period! Just about everything is within walking distance of wherever you might be staying, and that's really convenient...especially after a night on the town when you sometimes actually PEFORM the "Cabo Wabo" on your way back to your hotel.

The lore is that back in the mid-80's, Sammy Hagar and a friend of his were in Cabo (before VH took any interest in the town or in building the cantina), and spied a dude who had obviously been enjoying his drinks, and he was stumbling and wobbling down the street.

Sammy reportedly told his buddy, "Hey! That guy is doing the Cabo Wabo!!"

...and the legend was born. The song "Cabo Wabo" appears on Van Halen's 1988 CD titled "OU812", and since I shamelessly plug anything and everything I like, here's the lyrics to the song:

I've been to Rome, Dallas, Texas
Man, I thought I'd seen it all
Around the world, search in every corner
Man, I thought I'd hit the wall...

There's a sleepy town, south of the Border
If you go there once, you'll be there twice
Lots of pretty girls, coming by the dozens
The white sand sure makes a tan look nice...

We can crash on the beach
You know I wanna make love in the sea
We gotta try a little dance, so Cabo Wabo
It's alright by me..
Come on, let me take you down
I will show you around
Let me take you down
Face down in Cabo
Kissing the ground...

Land's end, you'd have to see it
Ain't no picture ever say it right
Walkin' the streets doing that ole, the Cabo Wabo
Place comes to life every night...

I wanna crash on the beach
You know I wanna make love in the sea
It's all right there
We don't have to chase it
Fits paradise to a T!

Come on, let me take you down
I will show you around
Let me take you down
Face down in Cabo
Kissing the ground...

We drink Mescal right from the bottle
Salt shaker, little lick a lime, ohhh
Throwin' down, down tryin' to reach the bottom
Where the guave worm, well he's mine all mine...

Come on, crash on the beach
You know I wanna make love in the sea
Go try a little dance, so Cabo Wabo
It's alright by me
Let me take you down
I will show you around
Let me take you down
Face down in Cabo
Kissing the ground
Face down,
Down in Cabo
Take me down,
Down to Cabo
Face down,
Down in Cabo
Doin' the Cabo Wabo
Take me down,
Down to Cabo
Come on, get it, get it!!

Don't get me started about the nightlife in Cabo....it'll take too long. With places like Senor Frog's, The Giggling Marlin (where you can hang upside down like a fish on a scale and have your picture taken!), Senor Sushi, any number of dance clubs...and of COURSE the aforenumerouslymentioned Cabo Wabo Cantina, you are guaranteed to have an amazing night EVERY night. Oh, and then there are the booze cruises...THAT I've got some actually video footage of ;-) mine turned from a scheduled 90 minute cruise with music and tropical drinks, to a 2-plus hour long whale watching expedition when a few of the huge guys decided to take interest in us, so we tailed 'em for a bit...just amazing...

Street vendors are plentiful, and are always looking to sell their goods to you, day and night. When I was there, I was sitting on the beach, listening to my WALKMAN--lol--and saw young kids walking up and down the sand offering to sell bottles of water, sodas, snacks, pose for a picture with their pet lizard...whatever it could be, it was there. One little guy came up to me and asked me if I wanted him to make me some multi-colored string bracelets. You know what I'm talking about...those "friendship bracelet"-style thingys. I could choose any colors, and even have him put words into the design. I thought this was really cool, and would be a "custom made" item for me, made by hand by this kid...so I had him make me two bracelets, one of them said "CABO", the other.....wait for it.....said "WABO", of course...and they were both super cool looking with a lot of different colored strings making them up. It took him about an hour and a half or so, and then he found me on the beach again to give them to me. He charged me some MINISCULE amount of money for them, and I was so pleased to have them I think I gave him like $20...which was probably $15 more than what he was expecting...he was definitely my new buddy that day, trying to get me to buy more stuff, naturally, but I declined. I had those bracelets until a few years ago when they just kinda unraveled too much to be worn. Maybe now they'll be made with better materials to last longer...lol!!!

Anyway, I can't wait to get back to Cabo...it's been such a long time coming, and it just had never really been possible until Right Now, so I Jump-ed at the chance...has anyone caught the capitalization of certain words that also happen to be VH song titles throughout the blog, or is it a lost cause? :)

Long, sun-filled days and rockin' nights await me down "where the land ends and the party begins"...and I'll see you ON THE BEACH!!! In the words of Mr. Hagar himself: "MAS TEQUILA!!"

Man, I just...can't...wait....and this is gonna be the longest 18 days....and its too bad you're not coming along...you'd be a changed person before the first night was over...yeah, I'm talkin' to YOU...yeah...YOU!! lol...... ;-) Ohhh, don't worry though...I'll raise a few glasses for y'all!!!

Below is a slew of Cabo-related pics for your amusement...stay tuned for the next blog...which very well may be published directly from the Cabo Wabo!!