San José del Cabo

San José del Cabo (, Saint Joseph of the Cape) is a coastal city located on the Gulf of California coast, near the southern tip of Baja California Sur (state), México. San José del Cabo is situated on the edge of a shallow bay, some 32 km northeast of Cabo San Lucas, a city with which it shares the title of Los Cabos.

San José del Cabo is the seat of the Los Cabos Municipality. The city had a population of 136,285 at the 2020 census.

The two cities are served by Los Cabos International Airport.

People and history
The 2020 census found that, at the time, 136,285 people lived in the city. Together with neighboring Cabo San Lucas, it forms a major tourist hub, with over 900,000 hotel guests in 2011.

The Misión Estero de las Palmas de San José del Cabo Añuití was founded in 1730 on the west bank of the nearby Río San José, which flows into the largest body of freshwater in Baja California Sur, an estuary, after flowing largely subterraneanly for 39.1 km from its origin in the Sierra de la Laguna (Laguna Mountains). For centuries, the river has provided a source of freshwater for the locals and animals of this coastal desert we know today as San José del Cabo; it was once used as a source of freshwater for Spanish galleons traveling back from the Philippines. The river once flowed above-ground until the beginning of the 20th century, due to anthropogenic causes. A one-kilometer long sandbar separates the estuary from what early Spanish explorers, including Sebastián Vizcaíno, called the Bahía de San Bernabé (Bay of Saint Burnaby), now known as Bahía de San José del Cabo.

San José del Cabo is one of two places where the critically endangered rice rat (Oryzomys peninsulae) has survived.

Climate
San José del Cabo, like almost all of the Baja California peninsula, has a tropical desert climate (Köppen BWh). The area, however, does receive slightly more rainfall than most areas further north, mainly due to tropical cyclones occasionally approaching from the south. These storms can bring very heavy precipitation events, such as the roughly 340 mm on 1 September 1998, or the 316 mm on 3 November 1993. Overall, rainfall events here are some of the most spontaneous anywhere in the world due to the cyclone influence, and many years can pass without significant rain, at all.

The sea experiences lows of 72 – in winter, and highs of 77 – during the summer months.

Demographics
Many people from around the world live here, mostly from the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, China, Korea, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and other Latin American countries, among others. Some 80% of the population, however, are originally from other parts of Latin America (Mexico, Central and South America) thus enabling one to hear and experience several dialects of Spanish being spoken.