Dukie-Dukie: Jason's surprise birthday trip to Cabo San Lucas Day 1: Riu Palace Cabo review, El Squid Roe

It's 6 am Thursday morning. Our friend Nicole has planned a surprise trip for her husband to Cabo San Lucas. He thinks he's going for a couples' vacation for his 30th birthday, but little does he know that his wife invited all of us to celebrate it with him. We all arrived at the airport extra early to surprise him

Abby and Alyn provided the festive outfits for Jason's surprise.

After a very long wait they finally arrived.

He had no clue that we were going. Operation surprise Jason accomplished.

Was finally able to grab a quick breakfast before we head out.

Didn't see a Sky Mall magazine on Alaska Airlines so the cover magazine for this trip is Russell Wilson.

This will be my first time going to Mexico.

We finally touched down and went through customs. By the time we got through all of our bags were already off the conveyor belt, but Jason's bag was missing. After speaking to the workers there, they couldn't find it either. Some quick thinking by Jason led him to do another walk around. He had noticed that some of the bags were falling off the conveyor belt due to the sharp turns. His bag actually fell behind the conveyor and couldn't be seen unless you climbed back there. What a relief. Would have been a really bad start to the trip if the birthday boys bag went missing.

After Jason found his bag it was time to walk through the final part of customs. You hand the security your ticket and you press a button. If it lights up green you're allowed to leave through the doors. If it lights up red they search your bags. Jason got a red light so they searched his belongings. They pulled out a bag of pills which were fish oil capsules. They asked him what it was and he told them vitamins. Then they pulled out a zip-lock full of powder which was BCAA powder. Try explaining that to security. LOL. He eventually made it through.

literally right outside the airport is a bar.

I had the impression that drinks would be cheaper in Mexico, but boy was I wrong. Shots at the airport were about $13 U.S dollars.

I suggest that you prearrange transportation prior to your arrival. Nicole had already booked our transportation to and from the airport. It was around $33 U.S dollars a person round trip. It's about a 30-40 minute drive to Cabo from the airport.

Some gorgeous golf course homes.

We finally arrived to Cabo.

We were all staying at the Riu Palace Cabo San Lucas. An all inclusive resort.

Look, a manual gate keeper.

The building in front of us is the Riu Palace and the yellowish building to the right is the Riu Santa Fe. Which is the little sister resort.

The Riu Santa Fe is situated behind the Riu Palace. It's a bit cheaper there. I'm not sure by how much, but you can find a much younger crowd there. At the Riu Palace it was a more older and family based crowd.

Upon our arrival they had drinks ready for us.

The lobby was gorgeous and really set the tone for our trip.

The wrist bands informs which guest belongs to which resort. The Riu Palace has access to also the Riu Santa Fe property and all it's amenities, but the Riu Santa Fe doesn't not have access to the Riu Palace. A nice option that we will definitely be taking advantage of later on.

The activities for the day. 11 am Rifle Shooting!!!! I really wanted to try it, but it was already too late.

After checking in, our rooms were unavailable. So we headed down to the snack buffet.

Desert bar.

Taco bar.

Salad and cold plate bar.

The weather was perfect. Not humid, clear skies and not too hot.

Me and my roommate Jose. Going to be one of the best times ever! My first time to an all inclusive resort. Everything was already included in the price. EVERYTHING! food, drinks, Alcoholic drinks, and gratuity.

It felt really weird walking up and taking whatever you wanted.

The beach is roped off to separate the resort from the public beach. So you won't get bothered by the vendors, but if you wanted to buy something you just had to walk over there. Everyone was offering drugs. Seriously.

I just wanted to sit under the palm trees, drink and fall asleep.

After the snack buffet we decided to explore the property a bit.

After touring the facility we checked to see if our rooms were ready.

Fortunately they were. Our towel animal, I think it's a bear.

A fully stocked fridge. Drink to your hearts content.

Jose Cuervo Tequila, Smirnoff Vodka, Bicardi Rum, and some type of Brandy.

It's around 4 pm at this point. Most of the group had not had a drink yet. We were all waiting for the announcement of the Crossfit open 14.3 workout. Peter had prearranged for the group to attempt 14.3 at a Crossfit gym in Cabo. The problem was that they weren't available for us to use their facility until 8 pm. Some of the group weren't sure if they wanted to wait until Monday or attempt the workout that day. I made my decision before we even left the airport, that I'm not wasting this all inclusive vacation for some dumb workout.

The workout was announced at 5 pm and after everyone realized that it wasn't to terrible they all said to hell with it. Let the alcohol flow! Cheers everyone, welcome to Cabo.

After everyone settled into their rooms we all met at the hotel bar.

I don't know what this is, but I told the bartender to make me whatever. If you do go to an all inclusive resort do keep in mind that they keep all the better alcohol hidden from plain view. If you don't ask for an alcohol by name then they'll give you the cheap stuff. For Vodka the best that I saw available was Absolut. For Tequila I saw Don Julio Reposado.

For once the girls actually outnumbered the guys on this trip.

We went from one bar to another.

Didn't know what this guy was making but I saw fire and I wanted one.

Towel animals

Check out that dinosaur towel.

Eventually we made our way to the dinner buffet.

The dinner buffet was excellent. It had a great selection of items.

This is the desert table.

They had lobster and lots of it too. Usually at buffets in Vegas the good stuff usually runs out quick, but at the Riu Palace they couldn't get rid of the lobster fast enough. They had this giant skillet just sauteing a large amount of lobster tail.

The hors d' oeuvres table.

The main dishes table.

There was a bar cart going around and making made to order drinks. I couldn't wait so I brought the whole cart to our table.

My favorite hors d' oeuvres. On the bottom of the spoon was a sweet type of mayo sauce, then this butter toasted crostini, topped with pate. I had like 10 spoons. I couldn't get enough of it.

Looks Jose's making friends already.

Rainbow Shots!

After several drinks at the bar we decided to head to downtown Cabo. To El Squid Roe to be exact.

This is a very interesting venue. It's three stories. The first floor serves food, and the second floor has bars, but the second and third floor can view the first floor I guess kind of like a loft style? So you can always people watch. The rooftop is open.

They have all these crazy lighting effects and tacky signs everywhere. It was slow when we first got there, but it picked up very quickly.

Eventually Dung, Jose and I ventured around to check out the place.

Grabbing drinks on our way. Prices for drinks were around $8 U.S dollars. Vodka Redbull or a Jameson and ginger.

Met this nice girls during the night. Mindy and Anna. Jose has lots of friends.

I don't know what's going on over there, but Abby looks suspicious.

Make a face like a Sea Otter.

By this point we're pretty wasted and then they played Journey. It was awesome.

Jose making more friends.

and another friend.

I totally forgot about this picture, but I started cracking up when I saw it. We were sitting at the bar and there were a stack of Dos Equis boxes next to us. So I grabbed one and told Andrea to wear it LOL. Best decision I ever made.

The clubs in Cabo don't close until 5 am. We left around 4 am. There are taxi vans all over the place and it's not hard finding one to take back to your resort. We were about a mile from downtown and they charge a flat rate of about $3 a person for a ride.