Vipassana Meditation: 10 days of Noble Silence Experience

Background

It has been 10 years of being happily married to Manoj and there's never a dull moment with him. However, 2023 brought a whirlwind of events that deeply impacted our lives, leading us both to seek mental peace. Fast forward to July 2024, Manoj was looking for something different to occupy his time off from work. After discussing a few ideas together, I decided to sign him up for a 10-day silent meditation retreat called Vipassana, giving him some much-needed "me time." This retreat had been on his wishlist for the longest time, so I thought he would appreciate the opportunity.

He was very grateful and attended the 10-day retreat while I stayed behind, solo parenting our two boys and managing all the demands of life. When he returned, he shared only a few details about the experience but expressed how much he loved it, encouraging me to try it myself to truly understand its value. Without giving me much of a choice, he went ahead and signed me up for a retreat three months later in Kelseyville, about 100 miles from our home. (We learned that these courses are always fully booked, so securing a spot requires signing up well in advance.) With three months to go, I didn’t think much about it at the time and focused on the usual busyness of kids and work.

During this time, I had the opportunity to successfully launch some amazing initiatives at work, which brought immense satisfaction. I was overjoyed, at peace, and feeling on top of the world. Despite working late hours, I was brimming with energy and eager to take on even more! (Unusual! but I was truly elated!) Meanwhile, I received an email from the Vipassana center about three weeks before the course, asking me to confirm my attendance. Without giving much thought into it, I confirmed, thinking I had plenty of time to mentally prepare myself. A few days later, I informed my manager about my plans to ensure a solid coverage plan during my absence. 

As the days passed, reality began to sink in, and nervousness crept up. I started questioning my decision: Why am I going to this meditation course? I feel perfectly happy and at peace—why do I need to leave my family for 10 days and be away from my 3- and 6-year-old kids? To top it off, I had zero meditation experience and was about to embark on a retreat that required students to meditate for 14 hours a day 😮

I spoke to my husband, and he reassured me that he would take great care of the kids while I attended the Vipassana retreat. He encouraged me to see it as a much-needed vacation from to-do lists, planning kids’ meals and activities, juggling weekend schedules, and balancing work and home life. He raved about the delicious food they serve at the retreat, which added to the appeal. Gradually, I started shifting my mindset, convincing myself to view it as a vacation, and before long, I actually began looking forward to it. 

What is Vipassana?

Vipassana, is a Pali word that means to observe. Its also known as Insight Meditation and is a type of meditation that focuses in observing things as they are, without bias or distortion. Vipassana is one of the world's most popular meditation techniques. It was discovered by Buddha in India more than 2500 years ago. This technique is often taught in a 10 day course where participants learn the basics and practice under the guidance of experienced teachers. Currently the course is taught through audio and video recordings taken from Late S.N Goenka ji's one of his previous retreats. The course is completely free of cost. All expenses are met by donations from old students - people who went through a course before, experienced the benefits and wish to give others the opportunity to benefit from this technique. 

Little more about the Technique

The tool that is used in this technique is respiration / sensations of your own body. In simple words, it is about observing your breath and sensations of your body as they are. Not creating craving for any pleasant sensations nor aversion for the unpleasant ones. In other words, keeping our mind in a very balanced/equanimous state in spite of the sensations being pleasant/unpleasant. The idea behind this is these sensations are transient in nature (Anicca). Not just the sensations but everything in life is temporary. The real life application of this technique is beautifully explained in the discourses that happens every night and those were my favorite part of the day. For example, a normal person when they encounter unpleasant experience in their life they react with anger, hatred, ill-will, frustration or a negative emotion towards the situation/another person. But with this technique we are taught not to react with these negative emotions because everything is temporary in nature. If we react with any of these negative emotions then we create more misery for ourselves. And so we spin the wheel of misery for ourselves and the misery continues to follow us. Whereas if we accept and acknowledge the situation and think of it as temporary and not react and maintain an equanimous mind then we are relieving ourselves from the cycle of misery. I wont go too much into the technique here. I will say the same as my husband, you have to experience it yourself to know what it is. But trust me, its worth your time for the 10 day course.   

Additional insights

• The only way to participate in Vipassana is through taking a 10 day course. There is no shorter duration course available to learn this technique. It is believed that it takes at least 10 days to fully understand this technique for a new comer. You don't need any prior meditation experience to learn the technique. Once you have taken a 10 day course, you can take 3 day course at any center across the world.
• The attendees of Vipassana course must undertake five precepts for the duration of the course:
1. to abstain from killing
2. to abstain from stealing
3. to abstain from telling lies
4. to abstain from all sexual activity
5. to abstain from all intoxicants
• In addition to the precepts there are some other rules that a student should adhere to:
• Noble Silence: Students must observe noble silence from the beginning of the course until the morning of last full day. That means any form of communication whether by gestures, written notes, eye contact or sign language is prohibited. You can talk to course manager and/or teachers for any questions/concerns.
• Separation of men and women throughout the course.
• No physical exercise or yoga. No form of action that disturbs other students.
• No technology, phone, internet, or any form of communication with outside world.
• No music, writing or reading material is allowed.
• The rules may sound very strict but they are meant to help students observe themselves without having the outside world seed a thought or distract students during this 10 day period.

The Timetable

This is how our entire day looked like:

In summary, for the first 3 days one focuses on their respiration and rest 6 days one focuses on body sensations. There are 1 hour discourses in the night everyday to explain the technique. There are several other times we were shown  Goenkaji's recordings to teach the meditation technique during the day. Everyday there was something new introduced to us that we would practice for the rest of the day. There is a time slot to schedule appointment with Assistant teacher to ask any questions that may have. (Thats the only time we were allowed to talk) Day 10 is when we were introduced a new meditation technique called Metta Bhavana which involves cultivating feelings of love, kindness and compassion towards oneself and others.  After 10am on day 10, Noble silence is lifted and everyone is free to talk to each other. They called it as a shock absorber day in order to get ready to face the world after 9 days of silence. It felt so blissful on that day. I made good friends in the short time we had with each other on that day. 

Good to know's

• The Vipassana center has a ride share program and I had signed up for a ride share. It was definitely a great idea to carpool and connect with people taking this journey along with you. My carpool partner was an amazing young lady who has been meditating for the longest time but was taking a plunge into Vipassana technique for the first time. The fact that she was leaving her 3 year old home helped boost my confidence instantly. (Very grateful to you if you are reading this!)
• Men and Women are separated in the Vipassana course. When I went, I somehow assumed I would see lot of elderly folks but I was wrong. Vast majority of the people on women's side were of age between 22-40. It was enlightening to find young people are taking this journey more than elderly. There were total 30 females and 30 males in the course. Pretty much this technique is used by people in various phases of life to help them manage their stress in this fast moving life. Lot of college students find it helpful to navigate their lives with this technique. While I was there, I already planned that I will send my boys to Vipassana once they are 18-20 years of age to help them handle their lives better.
• Although Goenkaji mentioned in his first day discourse, that day 2 and day 7 are the days many people quit from the course but none from our batch quit. I also realized I am a person of very strong determination during this course. I was assuming I can only do things with strong determination if I do them willingly. But, I was sent to this course out of my will, in spite of that I was strong willed to complete it and not quit it. 
• The food that was served for breakfast and lunch was very delicious. They have a variety in their menu with options from Mexican, Thai, Indian and American food on different days.
• As they dont serve dinner, the first few days was hard for me and I would feel hungry during the morning meditation session. After few days I started saving some nuts from breakfast to have it in night before going to bed to prevent my stomach from growling. 
• There is stricter schedule and roles and responsibilities for old students. 
• There is a course manager to help you if you have any questions about the management of the stay. He/She would ring the bell 10 mins before inception of the next activity from the timetable above. That helped everyone to keep track of time. An old student would ring the bell outside every room to wake students up before the morning meditation. That was super helpful. 

PS: This draft was saved for 2 years when I finally published it. Literally found it when I am trying to relive that time again 2 years later. 

Open Ended Toys!

🧸 Open ended Toys!

🍴 I recently learned about these and love the whole science behind it. These toys have taught me lessons as a parent that I wouldn't have practiced otherwise.

🧸 Best part of open ended toys is no set up is required. These toys dont have any batteries, they dont light up or make any noise. These types of toys allow the child be the explorer and make the play happen. There is no right or wrong way to play with these toys. It is completely on your child's imagination.

🍴The hardest thing for me is to be patient and not interrupt Krish's play and provide him direction while he is playing with his regular toys where certain things need to be done in a certain way. The most important lesson these open ended toys taught me is to TRUST that he can direct his own play.

🧸 Sometimes all we need to really do is take a step back and observe our kids without interjection. Trusting them that they are perfectly capable of deciding and directing their own play and learning.

🍴It needs patience and is very hard, but it is definitely worth the end results.

🧸 I gave Krish these masking tapes and didnt tell him what to do. I took a back seat and observed him come up with 3-4 different ways he was involved with them and busy for quite sometime.

🍴This is the probably the reason why kitchen utensils are all kids favorite at some point during their toddlerhood. Because they are open ended and kids figure out numerous unique ways to play with them.

🧸 Share what open ended toys/things you have tried with your little ones and give me more ideas to try with Krish.

💜 Thanks to Sejal from @sageness who gave me this inspiration of not interrupting Krish while playing and letting him direct his own play.

Courage is Contagious!

🌟Courage is contagious.
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🌟Today, I took courage to post about my dad whom I have never talk about here. He is our true hero. What we are today is all because of him. I got courage to talk about him from my younger sister @dr_chandniwadhwani and I will post her words. No words can express our gratitude towards life which has given us a second chance
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🌟"June" - a cancer survivor month.
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🌟Dilip Wadhwani - a businessman, working since 45 years, a loving father to his three daughters, a husband to a very strong woman, a commenably courageous man who fought oral cancer in 2011.
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🌟Thanks to his dentist Tashveen Singh, surgeons @drrajivbhatt Rahul Thakkur @dryogeshbhatt who did the surgery and reconstruction for him! A surgery that lasted 10 hours. .
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🌟Not only this but adding years to his life and life to his years 😍
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🌟This is a very sensitive topic..Thanks to @hcg.vadodara , for bringing this out in a beautiful way!! Yes, the struggle after the surgery is real. It's an everyday fight to be able to talk, breathe, laugh, eat, drink, cough, sneeze, yawn, brush.. everything! More so after the oral surgeries..we need to be patient to them and provide a helping ear to them!
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🌟Writing this post is incomplete without mentioning an extraordinary person who is little in age than my dad, yet too big in her courage and strength Raina Joshi @raina.joshi - Fighter of cancer!! who set a never-ending example of hope and strength for us and our family in these hard times.
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🌟There is definitely the existence of a supernatural power that gave immense courage to my mom to handle this situation and many thanks to our entire family, extended family who have been with us through the thick and thin of this every single day. 

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🌟 Happy Father’s Day, each day, every day 🙏

2020 Quarantine come back!

Hello everyone, Hope you are doing well. It's been a very long time I have been away from blogging. Time to come back :)  

This is an art we did together with our little one while shelter in place 2020. 

Weekend in Chicago!

Chicago has been on our places to visit from last 3 years but unfortunately we have never been able to plan a trip to Chicago. This time in March, my hubby had to visit Groupon headquarters for work for 2 days and I decided to grab that opportunity to tag along and explore the beautiful city of sky scrappers :)

Chicago has lot of great things to-do but ours was a short trip, so we decided to explore some of the top ones :)

Before we get into the details, here are some fun facts about Chicago:

• Chicago is also called the Windy City.
• The ‘Historic Route 66’ begins in Chicago.
• The first Ferris Wheel made its debut in Chicago. Today, Navy Pier is home to a 15-story ferris wheel.
• The Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower) is the tallest building in the western hemisphere.
• The Willis tower elevators are amongst the fastest in the world operating as fast as 1600 feet per minute.
• Four states are visible from the top of the Willis Tower (Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin)
• Chicago’s downtown is called "The Loop"

After our quick research, we found buying Chicago Explorer Pass worth buying to see some of the attractions in Chicago. It gives you an option to choose 3, 4 or 5 attractions from a list of 25. For more details, visit their website here. We got it from Costco at 76$ per person. Turns out to be a great deal!

Hotel and Car rental: Unless you plan to do a road trip away from the city, you wont need a car. For hotels, I would definitely encourage you to stay close or in the loop (downtown). If you are in the downtown, you don’t really need any car rental. We mostly used Uber for our commute. It is pretty easy and convenient way to get around in the city. You could also use subway trains. 

At the subway station!

Day 1:  (Saturday)

• We started our day at the Fourth Presbyterian Church. A beautiful church across the famous John Hancock Center.

Same Church at night looks exceptionally beautiful!

• Hop-on Hop-off Big Bus Chicago tour: (Included in Chicago Explorer pass) This is the best way to explore the city as it is a guided tour and the guide walks you through the history and architecture along the route. We started from stop # 13 (The John Hancock Observatory and 360 Chicago)

Desi Boys ;)

Chicago darshan!

• Millennium Park. An absolute must visit while in Chicago. This park is an award-winning center for art, music, architecture, and landscape design. This is the place where you will see the world famous huge mercury drop called ‘The Bean’. It is also called the Cloud Gate. An Indian-born British artist named Anish Kapoor sculpts this bean. In its mirror-like surface, you will not only see your own reflection but also the downtown skyline. Give at least an hour to go around the park and see the sculptures in the park.  

The World famous Bean

urf Cloud Gate

• Navy Pier: You can’t visit Chicago without making a stop at Navy Pier for the incredible views of the skyline and hours of fun time. We also went in the Ferris wheel (Centennial Wheel - $15) from where you can see the stunning views of the entire city.

• 360 Chicago (Included in Chicago Explorer Pass): This is the observation deck of the famous John Hancock building. 360 Chicago provides unparalleled views of Chicago’s skylines and shorelines. We went to the 94th floor on a high-speed elevator to see the stunning panoramic night views of the entire city.  The observation deck is also a home of the thrilling and exhilarating TILT experience - an enclosed moving platform that literally tilts you out and over the edge at 30 degrees of the John Hancock building. (Not included in the explorer pass but it is just $8 per person) And believe me, it was an adrenaline rush experience!

         

Day 2: (Sunday)

• Sky Deck Chicago (Included in the explorer pass): Sky Deck Chicago is the observatory Deck of the world famous Willis tower (formerly known as Sears Tower). Be prepared to have a wait time of atleast 1 hour here. We arrived early in the morning but had to wait for an hour before we can get to the top of this building. The magnificent views of the city from the top (103rd floor) will make the wait all worth it. If you are brave enough, you can also step out on “The Ledge”, the all glass balcony that extends four feet from the building’s edge out into space.

From the Ledge!

• Chicago Architecture River Cruise: (Included in the explorer pass). Another one from the must-do’s in Chicago. Luckily, the weather was beautiful on the day of our visit. Cruise was led by professional guide who shared the dramatic story of Chicago's rise from the ashes of the Great Fire of 1871 to become the home of the skyscraper and the cradle of modern American architecture.

From the river cruise!

In love with the beautifully architected Sky scrappers of Chicago!

Must try restaurants in Chicago:

1  Giordano’s deep dish pizza

2   Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria

3   Grand Lux Café

4   Big Bowl

5   Eataly – Chicago

6   Goddess and the Baker

7   Xoco Mexican dinner

8   Garrett popcorn ;)

At Chicago's famous Giordano's :)

Some of the best food and desserts we tried in Chicago..

Running Journey 2016 with Team Asha!

In 2016, my hubs and I wanted to do something good and noble. After some thoughts, we started to bake cakes for friends, family and in return, would ask them to donate money towards any cause that they would want to support. To read more about that click - http://beingdhriti.blogspot.com/2016/04/baking-for-charity.html Both of us were in full form when we started this. With full-time job, it was pretty hectic but as Manoj’s mom was here, we got her in our baking regime and hence it became manageable :)

Later that month, I signed up all three of us to Asha Spring run (5k) which was happening on April 10, 2016. I was super excited because we had our mom running with us. How cool is that? She is a woman of courage and dedication and she happily agreed to join us for the run, which made me ecstatic.

The Asha Spring run was very well organized, had high energy vibes and consisted of lot of health-aware people. The best part of the run was it was our’s mom first 5k and she was feeling full of energy even after the run. It was due to the energy from the people around us. Also this is the first time Manoj’s mom was visiting us after our marriage. We had a great family bonding time as a result of this event J Second best thing was the amazing food – Yummy hot khichdi with bagel and cream-cheese is all you need after your run and Team Asha had got us covered!!!

At Spring run - with friends and family!

I was very inspired with the coaches speech about how important it is to be aware of your own health, take care of it, do it the right way and at the same time do good for the society specially by educating the under-privileged kids in India. Team Asha is a volunteer-driven charity organization that provides marathon, biking and triathlon training program and help people to realize their fitness goals. They work to bring socio-economic change in India through education of the under privileged children. I could immediately align it with my goal of doing ‘something’ for the society and playing a little part to make our country a better place to live in.

Team Asha - Train. Run. Educate

After the run, they announced Team Asha is holding a brief information session about various programs they provide trainings for. I immediately registered for it. After a few days, I attended this session and got adrenaline rushed and wanted to immediately go out for a run. (Yes this is true!)  Generally, I get this rush after hearing Narendra Modi’s speech and want to get out of the chair/sofa and just do something but I have no idea what? In this case I knew what I wanted to do J Listening to all the coaches and the volunteers share their personal experiences about themselves starting from ground zero I felt as if it was all do-able. Although somewhere in my heart I was questioning myself if I would be able to do it (a full marathon). I was debating if I should sign up for half or full marathon. By the end of this session, I had made up my mind that I want to get up and just do it. Without trying I wont even know if it was possible.  After consulting coach Naresh, the plan laid out for me was to do a half marathon in season 1 and target a full marathon by the end of season 2. This day is when my journey began!

The running program started with a lot of things like splitting all the Asha runners in separate smaller groups based on their preference of best-suited location and time for the runs, assigning them to different google groups and mentors, setting up fund-raising stories for ourselves, shoe-clinic, fund-raising clinic, setting up week’s running schedule, track and hill training schedule, shopping for the right shoes, fuel belts, foam-roller, tracker and endless number of other things. The execution of this was so smooth that I didn’t realize the transition from not doing any of these to doing all of these. I realize I did so much in the year 2016 when I retrospect 2016 today!

All gearing up!

Weekly tracking log

Day after day, week after week there was so much to learn from all the coaches and mentors in Asha Program. Quoting coach Rajeev -  “Fitness should be one’s habit and not a hobby” and I could see myself getting into that rhythm slowly and gradually. Recently I attended Shark Daymond John’s information session about Growing and Starting Successful Businesses, where he talked about how a human’s body and mind gets programmed to think and act in the direction what their companions are talking about. I could immediately co-relate it with my experience with Team Asha and how it programmed me to think and act differently.

Journey with Team Asha had been amazing that I still cannot forget the kind of care and support our coaches, mentors and co-ords showered upon us.  Be it guiding us with the running techniques like run-walk method to right running postures to answer any questions regarding women, periods and running. The reminder email coming out on weekdays at 4:30 PM from our mentors to have a light snack would actually bring tears to my eyes :’( So much care? I used to miss mom and dad during that time. Team Asha had covered all aspects of training.

With my Baylands PM group!

With Team Asha PC: Venkat

One of the roles each Asha runner plays is that of a fund-raiser. Every one who signs up for Asha program has to raise 900$ in around six months for education of the under-privileged kids in India. When the Asha program started we received guidance on ways how to raise funds. My ride for fund-raising (FR) had been pretty easy. I combined it with my “Bake for charity” idea and was able to raise $1681 in the three months. I would like to thank all the donors from the bottom of my heart to stand by me towards educating the under-privileged kids in India.

Thanks to all of you :-)

Unfortunately (yes, there is an unfortunate part in this journey as well) on 4^th of July, on my way back to California from a family trip to Canada, I twisted my ankle, lost control and fell on my leg. Upon getting an x-ray, doctors found out that it was a fracture with a minor ligament tear. Doctors suggested me to focus on a 12 week recovery program. From a running program, I was on a recovery program; L I started missing my runs and so I immediately emailed the coaches about what had happened.  My coaches responded with all the tips and tricks to help my ankle heal properly. All of them concentrated on the fact not to hurry and give the ankle its time to heal completely.

During this inactive time of my running journey, I was still an integrated part of Team Asha as the mentors and my running buddies would keep checking on me and progress of my sprained ankle. I helped tracking bibs of runners for the SF marathon. I felt a different kind of high that day. I wanted to quickly come out of that sofa and stop watching and fearing “Winter is coming” and get back to running as soon as I can. I started physical therapy routine and continued till I gained the full range of motion. By the time I fully recovered, our plan for India was right around the corner.

After injury Baylands PM meet up 

Ice and Stim after Physical therapy

Fast forwarding it to today, I feel now is the time when I want to get back into my shoes and start running and make my dream of running a full marathon happen this year. I would like to thank each and everyone from Team Asha and would like you to know that each one of you have made a considerable difference in my life. 

Cabo San Lucas, December 2016

Last month in december, California was starting to get chilly and both of us were so tired of our hectic work schedule during thanksgiving as we both work for the eCommerce giants! So we decided to slice out a custom long weekend and go to a nice warm beach destination. Beach vacations are our favorite :) We really wanted to go to Miami, Keywest but due to the Zika virus threat and super expensive ticket prices and lack of vacation days left we decided to go somewhere close. And Cabo San Lucas Mexico emerged to be our best choice.

San Jose Del Cabo Mexico is just a 3 hr flight from San Jose California.

Planning:

* Bought tickets on Alaska airlines, non stop flight. Got a steal deal with companion fare discount on our Alaska Credit Card.

* Booked Solmar Resort from Groupon Getaways. The resort is near lands end, walking distance to marina and very close to most of the attractions in Cabo San Lucas.

* No car rental since we wanted to avoid the hastle of driving and getting insurance internationally. Most of the attractions were close to our resort. 

* Taxi is cheap in mexico and always available to your hotel doorstep.

* Booked a shuttle to/from airport to resort from http://www.bestday.com.mx

Things to note:

* Visa - No visa is needed if you have a valid US visa already stamped on your passport (for Indians)

* Forex Cash - At least 200-300 Mex Pesos 

* Forex Card - Credit card with 0 fees on foreign transactions.

* Carry USD in cash about 200-300 USD. As most of the places happily accept USD.

* Ensure you carry some change in your wallet, you would need that for TIPS! where ever you go. We noticed mexico has a lot of tipping culture. 

* Lot of time-share guys will try to lure you to attend one of their presentations and offer you discount or free activities. Beware of them as its a waste of time and spoils your vacation time. Although they will offer you all kinds of lucrative offers!

Highlights of the trip:

Day 1:

* Fly from one San Jose to another ;) SJC ===> SJD

* Checked in to Solmar resort.

* Walked to the marina, took a glass bottom boat (pretty hyped!) to Medano beach.

* Had early sunset dinner at "The Office". Really a great location with amazing views and delicious food! 

* Strolled around the Medano beach, checked out a few vendors selling amazing handicrafts. Got a nice Tortuga (Turtle) souvenir for a dollar.

* The portion size in mexico is pretty large. We were so stuffed with the food, but our sweet tooth was still craving for desserts. So we found a really nice place called Senor Sweets and had some choc lava cake with strawberry icecream. Umm, It was delicioso!

* On the way back to our hotel, we had some amazing flavored tequila tasting in one of the local shops.

On the glass bottom boat

Dinner at "The Office"

Day 2:

* Breakfast at Villa Del Palmar on the Medano beach.

* Walked on the Medano beach, where I got my hair braided by one of the local vendors on the beach.

* Spotted a few open air beach massage cabanas and added that to our list for the next day :) 

* Had lunch at Tabasco Restaurant on the beach. Amazing chicken tacos and shrimp cocktail. Slurp!

* Post lunch, we had our ATV ride planned at the Wild Canyons theme park. 

* The ATV ride was one of the wild attractions for 2016 for both of us. It started with full of fun initially and then moved on to an adventure ride!

* By the time we returned, it was already evening. We went to the resort's jacuzzi and had drinks and dinner at the Tejban hotel in the resort which was also hosting a Mexican festival on that night.

The Wild Canyons adventure on the ATV!

Day 3:

* Breakfast at Solomon's landing at the marina. Had their veggie omelette and cafe mocha!

* Did some mandatory hat shopping at the marina. We found really nice hats for both of us for just 20 bucks!

* We did the Snorkeling cruise in the afternoon that included authentic mexican lunch, unlimited drinks and dance at the cruise with Cabo Escape. 

* After the cruise, we went back to the Medano beach to get the Massage on the beach experience at one of the cabanas. Will go back again for this !!!

* I wanted to have some non-mexican dinner that night and we stopped by at Wicked Pizza after looking at their yelp reviews. That was the biggest mistake we made :( When in mexico, eat only mexican! 

* Unsatisfied from the Pizza place, we strolled around the city and came across some amazing-looking mexican food joints on the way to our hotel. We stopped for desserts at Las Guacamayas, Authentic mexican restaurant and very reasonable prices. I wish we came here for dinner.

Day 4:

* Breakfast at Mamma's Cafe. Must say it was mouth watering breakfast! Mexican chilaquiles & French Toast. Must visit place while in Cabo! 

* After breakkie, we took the much hyped Glass bottom boat to the most awaited trip to the Lover's beach. While on Gbb, we saw the Arch (which is locally know as El Arco and is extremely scenic and is a gathering spot for sea lions), the window to the pacific ocean (this is where the sea of cortez meets the pacific ocean) and an amazing snorkeling spot while on the Gbb. I wish we had known that earlier. But, next time! We got down at the lover's beach, strolled around and the other side of the lover's beach was the divorce beach. We did spend some time on both sides of the beaches.

At the lover's beach

PS: Please feel free to read my yelp reviews of all the places we have been to in Cabo  - https://www.yelp.com/list/cabo-san-lucas-mexico-cabo-san-lucas-2