Guest Trip Report: Bird’s-Eye Views over Cabo

When good friends and business partners, Mark and Romeo of  Visual-Aerials.com decided to head down to Los Cabos for a much-needed getaway, they booked Villa Lorena and brought down their professional aerial photography equipment. The result: some of the most breathtaking bird’s-eye views of Los Cabos and Land’s End that our team has ever had the pleasure of seeing. We talked to Mark about their trip, their photography and what makes Cabo so special. 

Was this your first time in Los Cabos? Indeed, this was our first time visiting the area. Way back in 1975 my uncle took me on a marlin fishing expedition off the Baja coast. We flew into La Paz and stayed at a small resort not all that far from Los Cabos but never made it all the way down. I wish we had as I understand this was the very beginning of the development boom and I would love to have seen what it was like back then.

What do you love best about the destination? I moved to California in 1993 and my neighbor was a physician who had a place in Cabo San Lucas. He always raved about the beaches and showed me pictures of The Arch and Land’s End but I never could get the time to make the trip. Then a few years ago my old college roommate purchased a timeshare in San José del Cabo and he invited me to come down during the week he and his wife had scheduled. This year I talked my friend Romeo into making the trip.

I am a huge fan of tropical beaches and the general ambience that surrounds resort towns on the water. Those Corona ads tap into the deep hunger for sun, sand and relaxation that many of us have (especially those of us born and raised in the Midwest where the ocean achieves a mythical status). So the first thing I wanted to do was have a shamefully cliché frozen margarita on the beach. We went to The Office and I kicked off my flip flops and adored having my feet in the sand. It was glorious and the whole atmosphere of the place fit exactly what I had hoped we would find.

I have to also say that I was pleasantly surprised to find that we could drive to a Costco and a Walmart just minutes from the villa. We wanted to do some cooking and have at least one night hosting a party for friends, so it was really nice to be able to find so much quality stuff at reasonable prices. For most of us who have to make the most from the little time we get to take from our daily routine, what matters is the availability of choice and selection for a vacation experience. That’s what is so great about Los Cabos. We had to-die-for meals in town. We had our own fabulous barbecues at the villa. And we also ate fish tacos at an itty-bitty hole-in-the-wall joint that was a blast.

You were able to capture some breathtaking aerial views over Cabo, what kind of equipment do you use? My business involves reconstructing crime scenes and disaster scenes for law firms and insurance companies all over the country. I’ve been doing this for 21 years and I’ve always relied heavily on aerial images. A few years ago one of my friends who also works in the field got his own remote-controlled quadcopter and I immediately recognized that there would be huge advantages for me to acquire the same capability. I invested in several large hexcopters and recently purchased a heavy lift octocopter that can carry a Canon 5D.

Most of my professional gear is designed and produced by a Chinese company called DJI-Innovations. About two years ago they introduced a little portable quadcopter called The Phantom and that portability really caught my eye. I talked my best friend, Romeo Durscher, into buying a Phantom too and we added some electronics so we could carry a GoPro camera under the Phantom while viewing what the camera sees using LCD goggles. It became a passion for both of us (you can see more of our work at Visual-Aerials.com.

In addition to shooting aerials for my own work, Romeo and I also began shooting for some other companies and institutions. We’ve flown for the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, Adobe Software and Stanford University to name a few. We also make a point to personally fly for fun at least several times each week and when we travel we always bring our Phantoms along. Last fall we spent a month traveling through Switzerland and Southern France with our Phantoms. So it was only natural to bring our Phantoms to Cabo.

Did Cabo present any unique challenges/opportunities in doing aerial video and photography? The most unique challenge was flying from a small boat. My friend Romeo wrote a great piece explaining the difficulties here: https://www.visual-aerials.com/1/post/2014/03/flying-off-a-boat.html

What was your favorite location to shoot? Without question the beautiful confluence of sea and rock at Land’s End was our favorite location. What really stands out in our minds, though, was the pre-dawn hike we took out to Lovers Beach so we could shoot the sunrise out there. We made the trek impromptu with no idea whether we would be able to get out there on foot or not. It was high tide, too, so we had to do a fair amount of wading to get from one beach to the next. There was not a single soul anywhere on the way or out in the water when we got out there and it was simply glorious to have the beach to ourselves as the sun came up.

How was the experience of staying in Villa Lorena? The property is so beautifully appointed and complete. Just wonderful. We visited our friends at their timeshare resort and, although it was quite lovely, we were astonished at how much happier we were to be at Villa Lorena. I don’t lightly endorse people, companies or places but I’m delighted to recommend this property to anybody.

Every single day we had maids cleaning the place from top to bottom. They were charming, polite and very friendly and we looked forward to putting a pot of coffee on for them each morning. They even did our dishes and our laundry! Talk about being spoiled! And a pool guy kept the pool spotless, the internet worked great and the DISH network let us watch some critical NCAA basketball to boot!

How was working with our team? First of all, Cori was a doll. From the moment we booked the vacation she was in constant communication with us and she made sure we were taken care of in all respects–totally pro. The transportation company was great and we loved our driver. He pointed out a lot of things and was funny as all get out too.

When we got to Villa Lorena we were met by Victor and he had a pitcher of margaritas all made up for us! A bunch of coronas showed up in the fridge magically the next day and he checked on us during the week. The actual property manager was Jaime and he made sure we knew how to operate everything, giving us a complete tour of the property and running down all the appliances, the hot tub, pool etc. During our stay a small leak occurred under the master bathroom sink and Jaime had a plumber take care of it post haste. Then he followed up and made sure it had been done properly. I truly cannot think of a single thing I would have changed about the service we had.

What were some other highlights of your trip? The bartenders at the Cabo Cantina were awesome and we fell in love with the swings you sit in at the bar. Both nights we were there they had great live music too. If you are a Sammy Hagar fan you will, of course, make the pilgrimage to Cabo Wabo. Their house band really rocks during the week too.

One of the best things we did was to rent a glass bottom boat and a captain for two hours with the understanding he would take us anywhere we wanted to go. We loaded up a big cooler and had him motor us all over the cove and it was great. We probably could have negotiated a cheaper trip as there are all sorts of guys at the marina trying to talk you into renting their rig, but we gave our guy a hundred bucks and were happy to do so.

The only disappointment we had was an inability to buy lobster to cook at home. One night we had great lobster at a restaurant and figured we’d throw some on the grill. Surprisingly, we couldn’t find any lobster at any market anywhere – including Costco and Walmart. We did get some beautiful shrimp and steaks, though!

The whale watching was incredible. We saw one whale breach five times in a row and the number of whales close to shore really amazed me. Also, the seal colony out at Land’s End is a must. We had our captain pilot close in so we could watch them. Boy, those guys are loud.

We’re planning to return to Los Cabos the same week next year. I’ve asked Cori to see if she can find a villa with a piano, as that’s the one thing I missed from home.

Photos courtesy of Visual-Aerials.com