When the first settlers came to America, some natives did not understand the European concept of owning land. Perhaps they saw it in the same way we might perceive the idea of owning air or time. Oh, wait a minute. . .

Isolated from mainland Mexico, in a desert environment, the Cabo area's main industry is tourism. It's main resource is time. The plan for most resort/hotels in the area is to sell out as time shares.

From tourists arrival at the airport, they are tossed the time share pitch. And time is for sale on nearly every street corner.

First-time visitors are likely to be fooled by information booths and way-too-helpful people at the airport, in town and even at their hotel. Most of these helpful people are the front-line soldiers, whose job is to get tourists to their employers property, and sales pitch, first.

Many locals are in on the second line of assault. Drivers, waiters, sales clerks and people wandering the streets hand out coupons for free meals or drinks at various resorts. The freebie, of course, involves a time share, or vacation ownership as they call it, presentation by mostly non-local salespeople who look, dress and act a lot like car salesmen.

At the hotels, daily parades of tourists are shepherded through the property by salespeople. I imagine that at least some, and maybe most of the parade participants are there by surprise, and only came for a free breakfast (or whatever).

The paraders look aroung meekly, trying to think up intelligent questions and act as if they were actually interested in buying. Probably, in all the hotels throughout the Cabo area, a few tourists buy a few time shares each day, either out of shock, unwarranted courtesy or because they actually came planning to make such a major purchase. I did meet a few people who had bought time shares and seemed happy with them. One older couple I met had bought several time shares at one property and given them out as gifts to their family. They actually used their time share every year, either at Cabo or at one of the hotels other destinations (in most cases buyers can use their time share at more than one destination).

There is occassional confusion. One hotel employee told me about a person he met who bought a time share, and then went to the hotel offices asking to see accounting files because he thought he had bought a share of ownership in the resort itself. So it seems that in some cases the idea of owning time is still a bit of a stretch.