My pleasant walk is interrupted by a caravan – a long line of large, expensive, late model Recreational Vehicles. The kind that have TV, air conditioning, sleep six and of course have a well equipped bar. This particular group has come all the way from central California.

The RV’s travel here in large packs fro security, maintenance, and to facilitate social interactions.
Walking fast from my hotel well out of the city limits I follow the RV route. Then on a wind swept sandy beach one hundred of these luxurious vehicles sit cramped in close quarters next to each other. This is their Cabo San Lucas vacation campground. It is not really my cup of tea to travel long distances along roads supported by tires. Now walking the same roads, with the same rubber, on my shoes is a different matter. And much, much, more fun – or at least that is how I see it!

I continue wobbling, now getting a good workout, into downtown Cabo San Lucas. But I have trouble recognizing that I am actually in Mexico. Desperate I walk to Playa El Madano. Finally, at the far end of the beach I meet some real Mexican people. Bravo!

On a map, and from the air, Cabo San Lucas is an intriguing destination. Its location at the very southern tip of Baja California conjures images of a remote and desolate place where nature and silence and vast open walking space reign, wrong!

Cabo San Lucas is like a mini Los Angelus [less the tall buildings] except everyone appears to speak English. Mobs of seasonal, mostly American tourists seem to make little effort to speak the native tongue. The, mostly American, rich have built stately vacation homes along every open stretch of beach front land. Fortunately, I reside in a little hotel far from downtown and favored by Asian and other international visitors. This gives me an opportunity to walk and reflect on how Cabo may have been before us well meaning spenders from the North launched our economic invasion of this once far off, pristine, tip of Mexico.

I am up early. I have a walking destination in mind in a far corner of Mexico City. I walk, and walk, but am unsure of the exact route I must take. i succumb to taking the underground subway. I am struck by the intense poverty. At every stairwell homeless beg for alms. Women, with children with hands out add to the dilemma.

Walking again at street level, I ask for directions. In a while I see the dome of the great Basilica Guadaloupe.

As I approach I see pilgrims crawling on their knees toward the sacred site as a sign of reverence and repentance. Then with little fanfare there is the atilt of the Virgin Mary. It is an impressive site.

I walk back to the hotels still trying to understand the depth of what I saw and felt at the Great Basilica.

Finally, I am here in the sprawling, heavily populated, capital of Mexico. Sadly, an earthquake had rumbled thorough here several months before.The devastation, the destruction, is still readily visible. Many sidewalks are closed to walkers as the demolished building clean up continues.

I walk around this impressively large city looking for a place to eat. I have been warned to avoid the green taxi cabs. “You may be robbed when you don’t arrive at your destination”,a local person tells me in Spanish. I go to bed early. But, after all this is my first night in exciting Ciudad Mexico!

After a good morning walk I finally find my way to the Basilica De Guadalupe. But alas, I was really looking for the main Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe which is actually located in distant Mexico City. Disappointed, but better educated, I walk crisply for a while longer. Then inevitably I board a bus headed back to the USA.

This is my very first trip to Mexico. I have come here to look for religion. Well, actually i am looking for a religious shrine. I have come by bus which after I disembark forces good walking habits. i am able to walk the back streets of Monterrey and the many wide avenues. I know this is a commercial town but I stay away from main business districts. As the day wares on I walk my way to an expensive hotel with a small room on the second floor. It is almost a good night sleep except for the noisy bar just below me.