PHOTO: Don Yoka happily displays his catch. (Photos by Barry Kaufman)
At the end of Av. del Pescador in Cabo San Lucas, as it jogs down toward the thatched-roof huts and cruise ship views of Medano Beach, is a statue.
The statue depicts local legend Oscar Montaño Herrera, better known as Don Yoka, a famed fisherman during Cabo's early days as a fishing village. Yoka is depicted with his boat split in half, the man himself happily standing on the bow clutching a pair of tasty-looking fish.
It's a symbol of this town's resilience, that even with his boat crushed against the shoals, this man of the sea is happy with his catch.
It's a symbol of how Los Cabos is, to borrow a term, unstoppable. And lately, it's not the only one.
You want a symbol of unstoppable? These days all you have to do is look in any direction in Los Cabos.
Hurricane Odile
Hurricane Odile made landfall as a category 3 hurricane in the early hours of Sept. 15. Sustained winds of nearly 115 miles an hour wreaked havoc on the tourist areas of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose Del Cabo. Nearly 30,000 tourists were enjoying their Los Cabos vacation when she struck.
The stories started pouring in shortly after, lighting up social media nearly the instant visitors were evacuated to somewhere with Wi-Fi or a working data connection. Natashia Stevenson shared her photos of the devastation to Los Cabos after she rode out the storm in a rental home. Nan Peacock, who had been staying at Secrets Puerto Los Cabos, sent in some photos showing how badly the resort had been hit.
The photos were as heartbreaking as they were humbling. They were a sober reminder that everything we build, these magnificent resorts and the towns they call home, are nothing next to nature's fury.
Or at least that's what I thought until I actually arrived in Los Cabos two months after the storm. There, on the ground, I witnessed a force more powerful than any storm. I saw the people of Los Cabos willing their resort towns back into existence.
Los Cabos International Airport
The airport was, to put it lightly, hit fairly badly in the storm. Despite the damage, many of the reports we were receiving centered around the happy ending of finding a flight home in one fashion or another. Just a few days after the storm, chartered flights and military transports were able to lift a few of the stranded to connecting flights all across Mexico and the American southwest. The lines were long, but airport personnel were able to wrestle order out of chaos and be of what assistance they could.
Two months later, chaos still reigns somewhat at the airport.
The airlines have returned, and daily service has been restored more or less to pre-storm levels, but here and there reminders persist of the storm. The escalator from ticketing to departure gates sits under a large black tarp. Workers climb scaffolding, patching holes and replacing awnings around the doors for arrivals. The electronic departure boards are silenced, with any gate changes announced solely via PA system. Car rental firms around the airport fly large vinyl signs assuring travelers they are open despite appearances.
PHOTO: Work continues at Los Cabos International Airport.
It's still a work in progress, even two months after the storm. But here's the thing about how Los Cabos is rebuilding; it's entirely within the realm of possibility to come here knowing nothing about the storm and fly home with the perception that they'd merely been remodeling the airport.
Hotels and Hospitality
Say, for example, you were to stay at the aforementioned Secrets Puerto Los Cabos. It's possible that you could arrive here knowing nothing about the storm and assume nothing had happened.
The damage to Secrets had largely been contained to the landscaping, which was heartbreaking enough to the staff who had worked so hard to create a lush series of gardens throughout the property.
But already, two months in, those gardens are being replaced. Now, tracks merely line the beds where river rocks are being replaced. Towering palm trees were shipped in from across South America and now shade the pool area as if they'd always been there.
And Secrets is in San Jose Del Cabo, seemingly the worst-hit area in Los Cabos.
Along the Paseo Malecon San Jose, you'll see Hyatt Place, torn down by the winds to bare steel and Styrofoam. The front of the Grand Mayan sits open to the wind, the damage to the façade prompting a general renovation on top of rebuilding.
PHOTO: Hyatt Place in San Jose del Cabo.
That's not to say that Cabo San Lucas didn't get it as bad in parts, or that the general spirit of turning a rebuild into a refresh isn't as alive and well.
At the Sheraton Hacienda Del Mar, they've turned the corner in a big way after the storm. Throughout the property, they proudly display photos taken shortly after the storm on large easels. Seeing these images of the devastation, it's nearly impossible to believe that it's only been two months.
Here they'll tell stories of how Sheraton management shipped in emergency armored trucks stocked with food for the hotel's staff, escorted by armed guards to discourage looters. They'll tell you this from the grandly remodeled center terrace, which was created from the remains of a beautiful garden reduced to splinters by Odile.
PHOTO: Before and after at Sheraton Hacienda del Mar.
Further south, about as south as you can go, you'll hit Grand Solmar Land's End, which got it worse than any other property I saw during my stay.
At two different points, the seawall at Grand Solmar was compromised by the battering ram force of Odile's sea surge. A grand wedding pavilion looks out over the sea from its perch atop a skinny-looking set of stilts. The staff assured it me it was still quite safe, despite losing the fill dirt and landscaping that had once surrounded it when the seawall simply gave out, sucking all of it out to sea.
At another point, the Pacific had snuck in under the seawall, enacting a slow chain reaction that saw fill dirt seep out to sea, gradually lowering an entire pool deck.
PHOTO: Work progresses along the damaged seawall at Grand Solmar Land's End.
But again, despite the damage, guests circulate in the lobby. Great machinery works along the beaches to restore the seawall, and vacationers watch it happen from the sun-kissed (and re-elevated) pool deck. A worker put the finishing touches on a river rock display that spelled out "Grand Solmar" around a small agave plant.
While the great machines outside work to rebuild all that was lost to the storm, he quietly restored one simple truth about Los Cabos: we are back.
#Unstoppable
The overriding message, then, is that Los Cabos is working feverishly to restore the destination's luster after a devastating setback. Just as New Jersey spent months after Sandy assuring visitors it is "stronger than the storm," so is Los Cabos taking its case to the court of public perception with a the #unstoppable campaign.
The hashtag is being used to document Los Cabos' return, each hotel that reopens and every restaurant that begins to welcome guests. It's inspiring, but that's what good marketing is for. To inspire. To welcome guests back and assure them that Los Cabos is still an amazing, exciting destination.
But if you look beyond the marketing, if you actually hit the streets of Los Cabos and talk to its people, you'll ask, "Is Los Cabos back?"
The answer depends on who you ask. The guy spelling out the name of his resort in river rocks will tell you one thing. His colleague pulling waterlogged equipment out of a different resort may tell you another.
But the real answer may lie in the satisfied smile of Don Yoka and the people he represents. His boat is wrecked, but his smile beams even from the bow of his battered ship.
If you were to ask him if Los Cabos is back, he'd tell you, "Back from what?"
It's the very definition of unstoppable.
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