Before I dive into another cheap, yet experience-rich vacation, I wanted to touch on a topic that really threw me and made me realize how awesome and toxic social media can be. As I returned home from my 4-day vacation from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, I started posting more pics of my days spent there on IG. Interactions with two of my ig friends made me think about the pros and cons of social media and the perception versus the reality of one's life through this lens.

One of my friends is someone I'd gone to high school with and the other is a friend whom I've only known within the past year or so. One of them let me know how inspiring it was to see me really enjoying life by traveling and being adventurous and not letting anything stop me from making it happen. That warmed my heart to know that I am inspiring others to be fearless and explore the world around them. Whether or not that was my intent, that's pretty cool to know that experiences you share on social media can motivate others to step outside of their comfort zone.

The other person commented, "your life is like a movie, it's so dope" and before I thanked him I quickly reminded him not to let the instagram feed fool him. These are simply moments in my life. This vacation was 4 days out of 365 in a year. It's merely a fraction of my life AND what I choose to share on social media. That's the reality of social media. It can be an awesome tool to connect and inspire others but it can become very unhealthy and toxic; creating this idea that you need to be traveling or doing something epic to be important or popping.

May I remind you all that instagram is not real life and it only shows a fraction of someone's life, the way they want you to view it. Now it is totally fine to curate your instagram the way that you like especially for content creators, artists, photographers, etc; just remember not to get lost in the sauce.

Okay moving right along. Can y'all believe in all my years of life I never been to Cabo? I feel like that was a rite of passage as a spring-breaker in college in California. Welp! Better late than never. I typically use google flights to search for inexpensive flights where I use the flight calendar and play around with random dates for the low-low. I also use an app called IFTTT (If Not This Then That) for flight deals. I signed up for their email alerts to whatever cheap flights to random cities and book my flights based on that. The next vacation really just depends on which flights are cheapest at the moment I'm searching. Cabo was about $200 bucks roundtrip so it was a no-brainer.

Views from the pool. You can see the Cabo Arch in the distance.

We stayed at the Welks Resort: Sirena Del Mar in a one bedroom villa with a pull-out sofa and full kitchen right on the coast overlooking the ocean. Views on views on views! Such a beautiful property and it was booked on Hotwire.com. The room was $129 per night for 3 nights and y'all know I found a promotion code which gave us $30 off the booking. Disclaimer: when looking for cheaper rates, make sure you are booking a 4+ star location AND that you get a notification that you will be staying at one of 4 locations. That way you can look at each of a 4 possible locations. The location is however, chosen at random. You don't have to book a hotel this way, just sharing the method to my madness because I love saving a few bucks.

We had a full kitchen so we decided to go to the grocery store and pick up food for 2 days and a big bottle of tequila (because Mexico). We only spent $60 bucks. Yes you read that right. $60 to feed 3 adults for 2 whole days *does milly rock* (that I actually don't really know how to do properly). If you haven't been to Cabo what are you waiting for? If it's been a while since you've been and you need an inexpensive way to wind down or cut up, this is the perfect location to do either.

Day 1 : Tequila shots, free beer on the way to our resort, infinity pools, amazing view, food and friends.

Day 2: This day included a $15 "glass" bottom boat tour (you get what you pay for in that regard), tequila tasting, tour to El Arco, Lover's Beach and the perfect location for bomb photoshoots.