[9] 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.

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

[11] San José del Cabo, like almost all of the Baja California peninsula, has a tropical desert climate (Köppen BWh).

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.

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.