![\"Cabo](\"http:\/\/bajatraveler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Cabo-Wabo-Cantina.jpg\")
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By Sammy Hagar | Photo by TJ River<\/strong><\/p>\n When I first went to Cabo,<\/strong> it was just a little fishing village with dirt streets and you could walk on the beach and see only your own footprints for miles. It was the early 1980\u2019s and there was only one real hotel, and none of the restaurants had air conditioning, telephones, or TVs. I was instantly hooked.<\/p>\n I dug being a beach bum by day but wanted a place to hang out and play music at night, so I said, \u2018I’m going to build a cantina so my friends and I have a place to play and drink tequila when we\u2019re down here.\u2019<\/p>\n I had an instinct that people would come.<\/p>\n I met Jorge Viana,<\/strong> who now manages the Cantina, during my second visit and told him about my plans for the club. At first, Jorge would just nod and grin when I talked about the club but my passion eventually won him over. We found our location in what\u2019s now downtown Cabo and went to Guadalajara<\/strong> to shop for furniture. We were there for a week, buying doors and fixtures when we decided to go to the town of Tequila.<\/strong> We were like, \u2018let’s go see where the real sh*t’s made\u2019 and when I tasted a really great 100 percent agave super a\u00f1ejo, it blew my mind. We found the Rivera family<\/strong> and asked if they\u2019d make us some tequila for the Cabo Wabo and they said, “Sure, you bring us bottles, and we’ll put it in there for you.”<\/em> The original Cabo Wabo Tequila blew everyone’s mind because no one had tasted the handmade, authentic stuff. Now you can walk into a bar and everyone’s got like 25 handmade agaves.<\/p>\n During construction, I was on tour with Van Ha\u00adlen so I left Jorge and Marco Monroy; our architect and eventual partner, in charge of construction. I loved the blueprints but hadn\u2019t noticed that Marco\u2019s measurements were in square meters and not square feet! So by the time I first saw the Cantina it was almost completed. I liked it but it was huge. I told Marco. \u2018This is way too big for Cabo San Lucas.\u2019<\/p>\n Little did we know that Cabo tourism was about to explode and so was everything Cabo Wabo. Now, 27 years later, the Cantina is one of the Top 10 party spots in the world and after building our little \u201chouse\u201d tequila brand into a top-selling premium tequila I decided to sell it in 2009. Four years later, I launched Sammy\u2019s Beach Bar Rum<\/strong> and this year I got back into the agave business with a new spirits category: Santo Mezquila<\/strong> is a tequila blended with mezcal that I launched with Adam Levine.<\/strong><\/p>\n Music is still at the center of everything \u2013 whether it\u2019s my birthday bash or an impromptu jam, the Cabo Wabo stage is legendary for good reason.<\/p>\n Little has changed in my routine. \u2018We beach all day, eat tacos for dinner, drink mezquila and I get onstage and play.\u2019<\/p>\n I do these things because I love them and they make me happy.<\/p>\n Even so, it has grown into a monster that has a life of its own \u2013 one big party animal.<\/p>\n Wow! All that from a dream!<\/p>\n Go there and enjoy yourself. That\u2019s the reason the Cantina was built!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I first went to Cabo, it was just a little fishing village with dirt streets and you could walk on the beach and see only your own footprints for miles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1546,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[673,119],"tags":[357,454,241,456,242,457,458,455],"yoast_head":"\n