The La Paz Vortex

La Paz was the perfect port to provision from and to stretch our sails. The city itself has old world and new with missions dating back centuries and the old town that the pearl industry built. Once the pearl capital of the world, La Paz was home to more than a few family dynasties whose businesses thrived during the height of the pearl trade.

One of our favorite activities in La Paz was walking the Malecon or boardwalk that stretches between the beaches and the line of businesses facing the sea. On a Saturday night, the Malecon was filled with families enjoying the cool air, listening to music, playing on the various playgrounds and eating gelato.  There was a place where the kids could rent “bananas”, which were canvas seat bikes that road low to the ground and you would pump the peddles with outstretched legs while reclining back and using your upper body to steer the bike.  For 40 pesos, the kids could terrorize the pedestrians on the Malecon for a full hour. After the banana rides, we would visit the Italian Gelato shop of Giulietta y Romeo for a chico ice cream in a cup. Two scoops of rich delicious cream for 25 pesos.  Strolling back to the marina along the Malecon with cops in hand, we would enjoy the opportunity to stretch our legs and take in the vibrant family atmosphere.

We got in 21 days of sailing in our first 32 days in La Paz. But, even so, we came to regard La Paz as the Vortex. It was easy to get sucked in and note a thousand reasons why we were not ready or prepared to leave yet on our journey south. We ran into numerous cruisers who had come to La Paz, 10, 15 even 23 years ago with every intent of moving on, but never did. And we understood why. The people are gracious and welcoming. 

 

The city is very clean with every business or service you could require and there are various art and music scenes to explore. Also, because it is not really an American tourist hotspot, there is virtually no hawking of wares. Walking the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta, we were constantly bombarded with vendors vying for our attention and our patronage. We must have said, “no, gracias” a hundred times during our walk, where we never had to say that in La Paz.  La Paz definitely felt like a place where we lived, not a place we were visiting.

Malecon at Christmas

So, now we are getting ready to head out of Puerto Vallarta and sail south.  We are provisioned for 3 weeks of good eating, 4 weeks if we eat well and 5 weeks if we eat a lot of beans and rice. We have the water maker jugging out 30 gallons of fresh water an hour, our sails repaired and the SSB radio operational once again. We will have to stop in Hualtulco to check out of Mexico and are goal is Ecuador where we have Mangas in a marina for  hurricane season while explore in-land Ecuador and Peru. We are not sure if we will stop in El Salvador or Panama on the way down, or just sail straight through. We should be able to get a connection in Hualtacala to update the blog in about 1 week.

Hope you enjoy the pictures of La Paz below – special thanks to Liz for the street art shots.  Also included pics of Carnaval, which was space themed this year – Love it! You will notice an event that is happening just behind the parade in some of the shots. From the first photo of the event to the last, only 5 minutes had passed. 

 

Carnaval!!

The old Rancho Viejo going up....

The show must go on!