Face Down In Cabo… Kissing The Ground

Cabo - The Cabo Wabo CantinaThe wife and I recently returned from a vacation to Cabo San Lucas to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.  We had an absolutely wonderful time and took a SLEW of pictures (Which will be posted for sure…)

One place that I simply HAD to visit while I was in Cabo was the Cabo Wabo Cantina.  I’m a huge fan of Van Halen and the Cantina is the brain child of former VH front man Sammy Hagar.  Sammy lives in Cabo and has turned the concept Cabo living into a brand as well as a lifestyle.  He created the Cantina, has a line of ultra premium tequila called Cabo Wabo Tequila (which is phenomenal by the way), named his band The Waboritas and wrote a song called Cabo Wabo.

Being as Cabo Wabo is one of my favorite Van Halen tunes, you can imagine my excitement when we walked off the plane and started seeing billboards for the Cantina.  I could barely contain myself as we walked the streets of Cabo and finally came upon the Cantina tucked within a small block in that sleepy Mexican town.  If you aren’t looking for it you could pretty easily miss it.

We walked through the Cantina mid-day and took a few pictures of the concert venue and then sat down to have a drink (or two).  As it was happy hour, it was buy-one-get-one on many of the specials.  I simply had to have a Waborita and DAMN was it good.

As we were having our drinks I started reading the menu and ran across this little nugget which explains the genesis of the name Cabo Wabo:

Driving to my favorite taco stand early one Sunday morning, I couldn’t get around a Cabo local walking home from an obvious all-nighter.  This guy was literally bouncing off the roadside fencing as he tried to make his way down the road.  His shirt was torn and bloody, but he had a smile on his face and was oblivious to any pain he may have had.  The first thing that came to my mind was what I yelled out… “Hey!  That guy’s doing the Cabo Wabo!”

Long before the wife and I decided to take this trip to Cabo, Cabo Wabo was one of my all time favorites from the Van Halen catalog.  It’s a little known gem that goes like this…

Cabo Wabo Lyrics

I’ve been to Rome, Dallas, Texas
Man, I thought I’d seen it all, oh
Around the world, searchin’ every corner
Man, I thought I’d hit the wall, ah!

There’s a sleepy town lies South of the border
You go there once, you’ll be there twice
Lots of pretty girls comin’ by the dozen, woo!
The white sand sure make a tan look nice

We crash on the beach
You know I wanna
Make love in the sea
We gotta try a little dance
So, Cabo Wabo
It’s all right by me

Come on, let me take you down
I will show you all around
(Down in Cabo)
Let me take you down
Face down in Cabo, kissin’ the ground

Land’s End, you’d have to see it
Ain’t no picture ever say it right, no-oow-oh
Walkin’ the streets doin’ that ol’, the Cabo Wabo, hah!
Place come to life every night, nooo!

I wanna crash on the beach
You know I wanna
Make love in the sea (oooh)
Yeah, it’s all right there
We don’t have to chase it
Fits paradise to a T. Woo!

Come on, let me take you down
I will show you all around
(Down in Cabo)
Let me take you down
Face down in Cabo, kissin’ the ground, woo!

We drink Mescal right from the bottle
Salt shaker, little lick a lime, ahh
Throwin’ down, down, tryin’ to reach the bottom
Where the guave worm, well he’s mine all mine

Come on, crash on the beach
You know I wanna
Make love in the sea (oooh)
Woo! Gonna try a little dance
So Cabo Wabo
It’s all right by me

Let me take you down
I will show you all around
(Down in Cabo)
Let me take you down
Face down in Cabo, kissin’ the ground. Woo!

And now I’ve got memories and pictures to put with the lyrics.  I’m not sure if we’ll ever return to the Cantina but I’m SUPER stoked that I got the opportunity at least once.  Here’s to doing the Cabo Wabo!

One thought on “Face Down In Cabo… Kissing The Ground

  1. Reading this post brings me back to when I visited there in 2002. Squid Row was another great bar we hit….had a great time. The once and only time I ever visited Mexico and I made it count! Cabo San Lucas was an awesome place that hopefully…I get to revisit someday. I agree…the food and drinks (especially the cabo-wabo tequila) we excellent!

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