We boarded the plane in the morning, direct flight to Los Cabos. There were 15 or 16 people from inContact, along with their spouses/guests, and we were all buzzing with excitement. After a 2-1/2 hour flight and 30 minute van ride, we arrived at the Riu Palace in Cabo San Lucas, an all-inclusive resort where we would all be staying for 8 days. The resort was absolutely beautiful!After checking in and unloading our bags (we both managed to pack for 8 days using only carry-on luggage - we were so proud :)), we changed into swimsuits, hit the beach and hung out there until sunset reading and talking with Tom's boss Frank, who was primarily responsible for making this entire trip happen for all of us.
Day 2: Sunday
Sunday is a day of rest, and that's exactly what we did. We slept in late, and spent the entire day on the beach and by the pool, reading and napping.
We picked up a couple of Sony Readers (competitor to the Kindle) before we headed to Cabo so we wouldn't have to pack so many books. May I just say what great toys they are! We were able to load several books, including a triple combination, onto them. I ended up reading 3 books during our vacation. Great investment!
Sunday night we had a late group dinner for all inContact employees and their spouses/guests. The food wasn't that great, but the company was a lot of fun.
Day 3: Monday
Another lazy morning by the pool. But after spending the entire day doing nothing the day before, Tom was starting to get antsy so we rented a wave runner and bumped around on the waves - and I do mean bumped! My behind got so sore that I ended up supporting all of my weight by basically doing squats so I wouldn't take so much of the shock. My quads hurt for days afterward.
Late in the afternoon we headed into town to board the Fiesta Cabaret for a sunset dinner cruise. Admittedly, the boat was rather cheesy. The food was actually pretty good, and they had a show after dinner, which was a bunch of different styles of Latin dances. Tom and I were feeling a bit ho-hum about the show until the guys came out and did the dance with the I-can't-remember-what-they're-called things. But here's a clip I found on youtube that shows what they were doing. This is the same guy we saw in the show that night. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YQ1hwzRB9k It was INCREDIBLE! It made the entire night.Day 4: Tuesday
First thing in the morning we headed out to the middle of nowhere in the desert to do the Wide Open. It's a place where you get to drive the dune buggies (they don't call them dune buggies) that they use in the Baja 1000. It was absolutely Tom's favorite activity of the entire vacation. They put a governer on the vehicles so you can't drive past 70 mph, but I'm quite sure we pushed the limit several times as we raced around the track, took the jumps and the 90-degree turns. What a rush! 
That afternoon we paired up with 5 other couples to try out parasailing. Tom and I thought it would be kind of a thrill ride, but it turned out to be not at all what we expected. It's actually quite peaceful and quiet way up there in the sky. They had us harnessed in tandem and we sat up there and took in the scenery, chatting. Tom made pals with the guys driving the boat because of his Spanish, and he asked them to dip us low enough that we could drag our toes in the ocean at one point.Day 5: Wednesday
Another morning and early afternoon sitting around the pool reading and snoozing. Late in the afternoon we headed out to the middle of nowhere again to do sunset horseback riding. It was absolutely my favorite event of the week. Some people say they should have been born in a certain century or certain country. I'm convinced I was born to be on horses. I don't want to own one, but I sure do love riding them. It still cracks me up that we live about a quarter mile from an equestrian park, but the only time we manage to ride horses is when we're out of the country on vacation.
Tom was hoping we could gallop along the beach, but it seems these horses are so well trained that they can't seem to reach any speed higher than a trot for about 3 seconds and they appear to be most comfortable with their noses in the arse of another horse; i.e., they only walk single-file. It would have been nice to ride side-by-side with Tom, but try as we might, we could not get those horses to do anything but walk one after the other.Day 6: Thursday
After all the fun and excitement for the last three days, I needed another break. We had planned to go 4-wheeling, but someone from our group said that after doing the Wide Open, the 4x4's would seem pretty boring. So we saved the cash and laid around by the pool again. (Why always the pool and not the beach? Not many chairs in the shade on the beach; many shade umbrellas by the pool.)
There wasn't much swimming in the ocean at the resort because the waves were pretty strong. It was actually pretty humorous trying to get in and out of water taxis and on and off wave runners. By Wednesday night the waves had started to get pretty intense. There were some people who said that it actually kept them up that night.
We went to dinner with Frank and his wife Thursday night and they told us a story about one guy who went out into the waves Wednesday evening and lost his swim trunks. I say it serves him right for not having the common sense to stay out of the water under those conditions. Our dinner with Frank and Shanna was out on the terrace of the restaurant where we had a clear view of the beach. The waves were incredible! I really wish I'd had my camera with me to take a shot because it was really breathtaking, and rather frightening at the same time. It certainly gives you a deep appreciation and respect for how powerful those waves can be.
Day 7: Friday
On the docket for the day: ziplines and bungee jumping. The zipline course we chose was the "extreme" course. It had 8 ziplines throughout the canyon, some as high as 300 feet up. We discovered that the "extreme" part was not necessarily the ziplines themselves, but the extreme heat in which we had to hike from one zipline start to the next. It really sapped my energy.I enjoyed the feeling of zipping through the air and the rush of the wind, but we ended up missing out on a lot of the scenery. We were told time after time that we needed to keep the wire in the center of the pulley, otherwise we would create friction, slow down, and get stuck in the middle of the zipline. The only way out: hand over hand until you reach the end. No thanks. So we spent the majority of our time watching the pulley above our heads, rather than taking in the scenery. Admittedly, though, there wasn't much to see, just one big desert.
Following the zipline, Tom, his CEO Paul, and Paul's wife all headed to attraction #2 of the zipline area: the bungee jump. They put you in a little suspended cart-thing like a cherry-picker and haul you out to a glass-bottom tram fixed to cables 300 ft in the air smack dab in the middle of the canyon. You jump from the tram. There was no way I was going to do that, so I sat by on the secure ground in a shaded area to watch. We actually have Tom's jump on video, but it was done with Paul's phone so we don't have it yet. I'll post it when we get the file.
Day 8: Saturday
Last day in paradise. We slept in, packed up, and waited in the lounge area playing cards while we waited for transportation to arrive. Tom and I had talked about doing another horseback ride on the beach right outside the resort, but we didn't end up having time.
This was absolutely the best vacation I've ever had. I've never felt more relaxed and carefree. This trip was great incentive for Tom and me to make sure we end up going on next year's trip to Playa del Carmen.
My two goals between now and then are (1) get in better shape so something like zipline hikes doesn't kill me; and (2) become fluent in Spanish. I noticed while I was surrounded by people speaking Spanish all the time (yes, they knew English, but with Tom around there was quite a bit of Spanish speaking going on), that I got really comfortable with the language, understood quite a bit, and was even speaking un poco myself by the end of the week. With that in mind, Tom and I agreed that we're going to have "immersion" days at our house. Every Sun, Mon, Wed, and Thu we will speak only Spanish, including when we're speaking to the kids. We don't expect the kids to answer in Spanish...yet.
