Cabo San Lucas was the main staging area for pirates during the late 1500s who feasted on Spanish galleons heavy with gold.
Orientation: Perched on the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula, a narrow 800 mile long appendage of land, Cabo San Lucas is geographically blessed with oceans, mountains and deserts. Located 10 degrees south of the Tropic of Cancer, the Pacific Ocean splashes ashore from the south and west and the Sea of Cortez from the east. San Diego, along the United States border, looms about 1,000 miles to the north.