Hotel California... I am so sad... Soy no contente

Trip Start Dec 28, 2008
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Trip End Jan 04, 2009


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Flag of Mexico  , Baja California,
Saturday, January 3, 2009

I had such high hopes for this excursion... Here's what I thought it was going to be like: At 8:00am a big air-conditioned tour bus would pick us up and whisk us away up some Mexican highway to the sleepy little village of Todos Santos; a place where time had seemed to pass the people by. Here we'd find the mysterious and rustic Hotel California complete with its lore and creepiness (and spirits). Here we'd discover the trye story of the song; how Don Henley stayed here back in the sixties and eventually penned the famous Eagles' tune based on the restless soul of the Seniora who had been wandering the ancient courtyard haunting the hotel visitors while waiting for the return of her lover who'd been lost at sea over a century ago.. It was going to be sooooo cool. It was going to be sooooo AWESOME! Yeah sure right... I hate it when reallity bites! Here's how the day actually panned out: at 8:15, 15 minutes late, a worn our mercedes bus driven by a tour guide (who went by the name of John Boy) picked us up outside our hotel. The bus was already packed by the time it got to us and some of the riders were very very strange. One of the ladies had voted herself in charge of "the getting to know you committee" and was bound and determined that we all knew where each other was from, our first names and something interesting about our pasts. She was first in my "cross-hairs". After us, there were still two more stops to be made to pick up even more people (folks from Michigan, Ontario, and Florida) so we had a very full bus by the time we finally headed north onto that not-so-dark desert highway. JB (as he liked to be called) turned on the bus's "custom" audio system so we could all here his interesting tidbits about Baja. Picture this if you can: the bus is only the size of a mini-van and we were quite able to hear JB perfectly without any sound system. Now we could hear JB much louder than we really needed (or wanted) to as well as the very irritating daughter of "getting to know you" lady who seemed to be a wealth of information on stuff that no one in particular was really interested in knowing. Add to that the fact that the customized sound system had a short in it somewhere and so the speakers were constantly crackling in and out which I for one found doubly vexing.

Heading north of Cabo we entered the desert (I mean the REAL desert) with it 300 year old cacti and mesquite bushes and tarantulas and scorpions and buzzards and, oh, yeah, genuine mexican tourist blanket shops whose proprietor, lucky for us, was a good friend of JB and so was the only honest mexican blanket maker in Baja... Yes, we stopped to shop. And no, for all you cynics, JB did NOT get any kick-back from any business that was completed (yeah right!) OK, OK.. they were nice blankets and "Pedro" was in the back making them on a very old loom and yes Gina did buy one and OK, she felt it was a great deal, but still... a trip that could have taken about an hour took 90 minutes by the time we finally got there. And when we did finally get there, after driving through town to show us where the best shopping and dining places were, BJ promptly took us to another one of his friends' shops where the "best prices on silver and jewelry" were to be had". Lucky for me, there was also a bathroom (forget about the fact that the lock didn't work and that "getting to know you" lady's husband barged in on me half-way through my "business".. but that's another story! Anyway, it was becoming clear rather quickly that Todos Santos is not some dreamy little village, but rather a full blown tourist trap with all the tourist trap trappings. In fact, Hotel California looked like something that had been built 10 years ago instead of 100 complete with a rather modern facade with large "Hotel California" letters above the front door. Sadly the pueblo style, run-down hotel with the open courtyard and exposed timber ceilings were nothing more than a figment of my romantic imagination. While Gina was out searching the streets for a good deal on Vanilla, I went in and asked the matron of the Hotel if she could tell me about the history of the place. She asked me what history? I said, "you know, about the song, and the ghosts, etc." She said, "ohhh... that. Well, two of the eagles may have stayed here back in the sixties and there are definately souls wandering the courtyard..." Wonderful... tell me something I didn't already know... and by the way, her eyes had a sort of "woo woo" thing going on so I wasn't sure I could trust her very far with her facts. I decided to do some research later when we got home.. which I did. What I found out is disturbing. It seams that not only was said hotel was not in existance before 1950 (the building used to house a chinese food restaurant before then) but Don Henley of the Eagles has always denied that the said hotel had anything to do with the song he and his co-horts penned. In fact, none of them have even ever been to Todos Santos. Oh... the pain and disappointment of the deception. I hate it when a legend slams into the cold pavement of reality. Now what do I do with the T-shirt I bought?? Oh well.

On the up-side, we did eat at a restaurant across the street from the Hotel called Tequila Sunrise (like I said, they are really pounding this Eagle connection to death!) and had a wonderful lunch. The owner there is nicknamed Mr. Martguerita because he has won so many awards with his recipes for that particular alcoholic concoction. He is also known for his shrimp and cheese chilli rejanoes. He did offer us a martguerita but refused to make us one without booze because, as he put it, "I would be a lier... there is nothing in it BUT booze". We opted for the softdrinks. He was very fun and the meal was very good so I guess Todo Santos wasn't a complete bust. And hey, all the way home we got to listen to Eagles tunes on the "custom" sound system (and Gina picked up 5 more bottles of Vanilla...)
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