Marina Cabo San Lucas

According to a fishing history site, the marina was dredged from a dry mudflat in 1974 and 1975, in a place that had previously held a landing strip and the houses of cannery workers. A tourism history page gives a different timeline, saying the marina was reworked in the 1980s and 1990s, so the details are not settled. A Fonatur document describes the agency as responsible for the Marina de Cabo San Lucas tourism development, including its master plan and urban infrastructure. Fonatur itself was created in 1968 to develop tourist destinations, and Los Cabos followed Cancun and Ixtapa in that program, according to Spanish Wikipedia. The completion of the Trans-Peninsular Highway in the 1970s is cited as a key driver in turning the town into a resort.

Spanish Wikipedia says the site was first called Yenecamu in the Pericu language. Francisco de Bolanos named the cape Cabo San Lucas on 18 October 1541, after the saint of that day, and Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo arrived on 3 July 1542 and called the place Puerto de San Lucas. During his 1602 to 1603 expedition Sebastian Vizcaino named the sheltered bay Bahia de San Bernabe.

Evidence of human habitation in the area goes back at least 10,000 years. In 1917 an American company built a floating platform for catching tuna, according to English Wikipedia. Spanish Wikipedia adds that in 1925 the Bernstein brothers set up a tuna-processing ship in the bay, which sank in 1928; land facilities opened in 1929, and the plant closed in 1979. Sources differ on the founder of the town, with Wikipedia crediting Cipriano Cesena in 1788 while noting alternative accounts.

Boat tours from the marina head toward Land's End and the rock arch of El Arco, past granite formations such as Pelican Rock, which a dive guide describes as sitting at the entrance to the port. The surrounding Cabo San Lucas Flora and Fauna Protection Area was decreed in 1973 (sources give differing August and November dates) and covers about 3,996 hectares, roughly 95 percent of it sea, according to Spanish Wikipedia, which also reports a sea lion colony of more than 30 animals and visits by humpback, gray and blue whales. Medano Beach, the town's main beach, lies on the bay beside the marina.

The area has a hot desert climate. Wikipedia gives summer sea temperatures of about 28 to 29 degrees Celsius and winter lows of about 21 to 22 degrees. The marina is a lively place for a walk and a meal. A private tour with a driver can handle the transfer to the marina, with the boat trips run by authorized operators.