a taste of baja

the westin, los cabos

a taste of baja
with Jeremy Woodhouse
November 26 – December 3, 2010, & April 2011 (dates to be announced)
Limited to 8 people
application form

Join me for an eclectic week of photography, food and fun at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula.

We will spend the first 4 nights at the Westin Los Cabos, a 5-star beach resort which offers great photographic opportunities – very colorful and graphic. This is about a 30 minute drive from Cabo San Lucas. During our stay here we will make excursions to Cabo san Lucas to photograph the Marina, hire boats/kayaks to photograph the arch, visit Lover’s beach (only accessible by boat), and to eat fresh seafood. If you want to try your hand at deep-sea fishing you could do this but at your own expense.

The next 3 days will be spent in Todos Santos, a thriving artist community and Magic Town on the Pacific coast, about an hour and a half from Cabo san Lucas. We will stay at the Hotel California, a wonderfully quirky boutique hotel in the heart of town, which again is another great photo location.

hotel california, todos santos

colors are everywhere at the hotel california

detailed itinerary
Day 1 – Travel from the US to the International Airport of San Jose del Cabo. Here you will be picked up and transfered to your hotel. Dusk photography session on the beach and around the resort.
Overnight Westin Los Cabos B

Day 2 – Photography and the beach around the resort. Relax until mid afternoon when we will drive to the town of San Jose del Cabo. It is here that we will have our first gourmet meal at Don Emiliano presented by Executive Chef Margarita Carrillo de Salinas.

About the Restaurant
Don Emiliano Restaurant features delicious Mexican haute cuisine and offers an unforgettable gastronomic experience. Chef Margarita Carillo de Salinas is an internationally-known chef who has created and promoted Mexican cuisine throughout the world. To complement their exceptional cuisine and service, they have a specially selected wine cellar with well-priced fine Mexican and imported labels. Their objective is to make all their customers feel like they are honored guests in their home. Their goal is to reach perfection and be the finest gastronomical Mexican experience in Los Cabos.
Overnight Westin Los Cabos B, D

Day 3 – Morning photography at the resort. Mid afternoon we will take an excursion to Cabo san Lucas to photograph the sights. We may rent a fishing boat or kayaks to visit the famous arch. We will shoot dusk in the harbour then have dinner at one of the numerous restaurants that line the marina.
Overnight Westin Los Cabos B

scenes around the marina in cabo san lucas

Day 4 – Early morning photography around the resort. After breakfast you are free to relax at the beach. We will decide among the group what we would like to do in the afternoon.
Overnight Westin Los Cabos B

the westin is a riot of color

Day 5 – Today we will make the approx 2 hr drive to the Magic Town of Todos Santos. After lunch we will explore the town and plan our dusk photography.
Overnight Hotel California, Todos Santos B

Day 6 – Early morning photography in the streets of Todos Santos. After breakfast we will visit some of the galleries which have helped put Todos Santos on the map as a Arist Community. Dusk photography at the hotel.

there is a treasure-trove of images in this boutique hotel

Later in the evening we will have our second gastronomic feast at Café Santa Fé, an Italian restaurant described to me by a friend who once lived in Cabo San Lucas, as the place he would go to if he had just one more meal to eat before he died. “The seafood is of course fresh and they grow their own organic vegetables. We’ve eaten there several times and always get the same thing: appetizer of tuna carpaccio, caprese salad of imported buffalo mozzarella, tomato and basil, AND lobster ravioli in a cream sauce with extra pieces of lobster meat. Can you tell I love it?” – Don Sibley.
Overnight Hotel California, Todos Santos B, D

Day 7 – Early morning photography in the streets. After breakfast we will head out in the van and look for some scenic opportunities around Todos Santos. We will have lunch at a beach a few miles south of town.
Overnight Hotel California, Todos Santos B

Day 8 – After an early breakfast we will head back to the Airport at San Jose del Cabo to catch our flights back to the US.

tour fee: $1,995
Includes
• 7 nights accommodation with buffet breakfasts included based on shared rooms
• all transport and transfers
• 2 gourmet meals up to a value of $75/meal pp (beer and wine separate)
• Photo tuition
To book your place on this tour, please contact jeremy@pixelchrome.com
Deposit: $750 due to secure spot
Limited to 8 people

Did the Eagles ever come to Todos Santos? Did Don Henley write the song while staying at the Hotel California in Todos Santos, during the hippie heyday of the late 1960′s and early 1970′s? Sometime in the mid to late 1980′s, the word got out that Todos Santos was home to “the” Hotel California made famous by the Eagles’ song in the 1970′s. In the 1990′s, the rumor had reached “hipper” journalists in the US and the first articles started appearing in major newspapers, like the Detroit Free Press article in 1996. As other journalists heard of the rumor, momentum increased and the story soon became a full fledged urban legend. New writers used the original articles to justify and support their conclusions. Journalists would come to Todos Santos and do “research”, but they already knew what they wanted to write and so they sought out people who would verify what they had already accepted as fact. No real investigative reporting ever occurred – source: www.todossantos-baja.com