La Paz, Part 1
(November 26 – 29, 2017) I confess, I’m not entirely sure what to say about La Paz. It’s there. It’s a city, with important things like laundry, ATMs, and grocery stores. It’s not nearly so touristy as Cabo San Lucas, which is a plus. But otherwise… La Paz just isn’t much.
We pulled up our anchor in Bahía de los Muertos, heartbroken at the thought of leaving, but also excited for the next adventure. Without any particular coordination, Taliesin Rose was right behind us. The wind was light, but we put the sails up anyway, and motor-sailed out into the rising sun.
The day was warm, and uneventful. The winds remained light and steady all day; the fishing lines remained light as well. The only event of note occurred on Taliesin Rose, when they passed approximately a dozen or so puffer fish, all puffed up and dead, floating in the water. Curious, they scooped one up with a net, and immediately regretted having brought such an odor on board. After a few minutes of looking, and smelling, without finding any evidence of what had killed the fish, they threw it back.
The wind picked up a bit as we rounded the corner into Bahía California, the large bay that holds La Paz at the south end. Taliesin Rose did some legitimate sailing for a bit, but we wanted to be sure we arrived before dark, so we continued motor-sailing ahead.
As we approached the dredged channel leading into La Paz, we realized we had plenty of time left for sailing, even at a slow pace. So, we turned off the motor and trimmed the sails, and started down the channel.
In front of us, a tour boat coming from the other side of the bay rushed into the channel, and dropped a white fender into the water. Having plenty of time, and just for fun, we decided to retrieve the fender in a crew overboard drill. We came about, maneuvering through the wind, and slowly crept up alongside it. Rich positioned himself on the port forward deck, boat hook ready, to make the save. But as we approached, we saw it wasn’t a fender at all – it was a white pillow. Well, a pillow is even tougher to grab with a boat hook, so it would make an even better drill, right? As we came up on it, Rich deftly twisted the hook into it and brought it on board. There’s actually a lot of garbage floating in Bahía California outside La Paz. I’m glad there’s one less piece of garbage in there now.
We had to spin round two more times before we got up enough speed and helm control to navigate into the channel, but eventually we made it in. The next challenge was navigating the narrow channel under sail, where depending on the turn, the sailing and wind angles may or may not be favorable. It was a great challenge, and some of the most fun we’d had sailing so far. Soon, Taliesin Rose was not far behind us, also still sailing, and it was a race to the finish. With several more feet on their mast, and probably just better sailing, they quickly caught up. In the end, we called it a tie. (Which was really generous on Taliesin Rose’s part!)
We tucked into our slip at Marina Cortez, and almost automatically now, without thinking, headed up to whatever restaurant happened to be just outside the marina gates. This time it was Anzuelo, where we had happy hour with Taliesin Rose, and two old friends from our first year with the Coho Ho Ho, Ryan and Caroline on Waponi Woo. They came down via the Coho and the Baja in 2016, and they’ve been camped out on their catamaran in La Paz ever since. Ed on Tioga also joined us, and we had a fun and lively happy hour together.
The next morning, we had our first listen to the local cruisers’ net. Every morning at 8AM on Channel 22A, the cruisers take over for a net. The net controller does a great job managing all the net traffic, but it’s still typically a 45-minute affair. With far more drama than expected or necessary.
After the net, we headed over to coffee hour at Club Cruceros to check it out. Coffee and hot chocolate were five pesos, and we didn’t know that, nor did we have any reason to carry around such small denominations, so we skipped coffee and just chatted, and connected to their WiFi. It was fast and fabulous, we’re told the best internet in La Paz. (Probably all of Baja.) But, our surfing time was short-lived, because we hadn’t had breakfast, and it was nearly 11. So, we left, along with Taliesin Rose, to find a restaurant. After receiving competing recommendations from cruisers and locals, we relied on Yelp to choose for us. In the afternoon, we invited the Taliesin Rose girls over to play, until we all headed out together for dinner. We had some great views as we walked along the malecón to the restaurant.
Dinner was a bit of an adventure in itself, and epitomized so many of the things we love about Mexico. Where can you bring your kids with you to a fellow cruiser’s birthday dinner at a bar, AND the kids can use the bar’s “climbing equipment” to entertain themselves over dinner? Mexico, that’s where.
The next day, Morgan was still on her Christmas kick, so we had to wake up early to head to Wal-Mart for Christmas decorations. Morgan and I also needed swimsuits, and we needed some fresh fruits and veggies. So, the girls and I loaded our awesome dock cart into the cab, and headed to the store.
Once there, Morgan darted for the Christmas supplies, which were plentiful. I gave them the cart and wandered off to find a swimsuit. I was stymied by a lack of suits in my size, and when I found the girls 30 minutes later, the cart was almost full of all things Christmas. Christmas ribbon, Christmas wrapping paper, Christmas garland, Christmas bows, Christmas ornaments, Christmas window stickers, Christmas lights, Christmas bows, Christmas gift bags, Christmas tags, Christmas boxes… it was all in the cart. Yikes. We took the opportunity to do a little math lesson. I told the girls our budget for Christmas stuff was 900 pesos, and gave Morgan my phone for a calculator. The girls got busy checking prices and adding things up, and I went to grab a few groceries. I returned 10 minutes later, and the girls’ cart was over 1000 pesos. Math lesson part two: figure out what to put back to get the bill in under 900 pesos. Another five minutes, and the girls had agreed on an 876-peso cart. Nice work, ladies. But they had so much stuff, and the boat was so small. How would the decorating go?