A Pause in the Peace

Caught in the vortex of wait that is La Paz

Somehow La Paz has a way of pulling you in and not letting go. Maybe Donna practiced playing “Hotel California” on her ukulele once too often here, but it seems like every time we come, we end up waiting. Last year it was health concerns, this year it’s been boat work. Since we’re planning to continue south into more tropical locales, Donna really wanted to add a bit more shade to our outdoor living space on the boat. The sun can be brutal, and shade makes a huge difference.

Friends had recommended a stainless welder from La Paz whose claim to fame is that he led the team that polished “The Bean” in Chicago, a huge stainless bean-shaped sculpture polished to a mirror finish. Sergio came out to our boat when we arrived in La Paz to discuss our needs and our goals. After a fairly lengthy conversation of what we wanted, and the challenges we saw in achieving it, he suggested a plan forward that met all our requirements, and we agreed to move forward.

And thus started the wait. First, the wait for materials, then the days of work to get the stainless work done, followed by the process of getting the canvas work done, and finally installed. All in all, we spent nearly a month in La Paz, and tried to make the most of our time!

It’s not uncommon to see girls dressed like this for their quinceañera, out on the town as women for the first time.

With so many ways to pass the time in La Paz, walking down the Malecón, picking up gelato, trying the many excellent restaurants, and searching out shops to provision the boat with hard to find treats, our time passed relatively quickly. Since we arrived just before Thanksgiving, we found a local restaurant, with a chef from Mexico City, that had a special Thanksgiving prix fixe menu for the occasion.

The excellent main turkey course for the Thanksgiving prix fixe menu at Nemi.

From the American grill down the street from the marina, to the small owner-operated Italian restaurant a few blocks away, the options extended beyond the traditional Mexican fare widely available. We also ate BBQ ribs, sushi and ramen. All were very tasty.

Who wouldn’t want a grill under the hood of an old pickup truck?

Looking for Italian food, we found this little place on Google Maps, and with excellent ratings, decided to walk over. Nestled into what seemed to be the driveway alongside the house in an otherwise quiet little residential neighborhood, the place was empty when we strolled in around eight o’clock. The owner took great care of us though, as maitre d’hotel, waiter, chef, and bus boy. We chatted a bit after eating, and found out that he runs the restaurant because he enjoys meeting his clientele.

The little Italian restaurant in a driveway in a residential neighborhood. The kitchen is behind the bar, and there were maybe four tables.

Usually though, we’d opt for easy, at the Dock Cafe, right at the marina. We ate here during our brief stay on the dock while the welding was being completed, and we’d eat here on occasion after coming into the dock in the dinghy while we were anchored out. Often, we’d end up having hamburguesas, which they did fairly well, and the scent of the grill often threatened to draw us in for just one more.

Marina de La Paz where we docked our dinghy and hung out with other cruisers at club cruceros or a beer at the dock cafe

The Malecón would come alive at night, with whole families out enjoying the evening air. The kids tearing around on bikes or pedal-powered go carts, while the adults would sit eating ice cream cones and talking. The teenagers were all out too, skulking around the edges in their own little groups. The streets were full of cars cruising from one end of the strip to the other.

During the holidays, the Christmas markets opened, the streets were decorated in Christmas lights, with whole plazas turned into fairy-light wonderlands, and then the parades came through.

During the Christmas season these fire trucks were decorated with lights and people dressed up in Santa suits to drive down the malecon blaring their sirens in jubelant celebration.

An example of the street art found all over the city

We went to a popular brewing pub called Harker that served its own craft brewed beer. We watched the World Cup soccer matches there. We came for the final match of Argentina beating France early in the morning, so we we had beer for breakfast that day.

Meanwhile, the work proceeded apace. The stainless was finished, the canvas was measured and templated, and finally, our time in La Paz came to an end.

Hector making a template for the new canvas, once the new stainless was in place.

La Paz was our last stop on the way south on the Baja peninsula, before crossing the Sea of Cortez one last time for the Mexican mainland. There are several potential destinations for this crossing, and few jumping off points, but given our delayed departure, we decided to jump for Mazatlán, a bustling combination of tourist and local, with deep history, having been founded in 1531.

As we pulled out of the channel, just before turning into Marina Cortez for fuel, we saw the largest single-masted sailing vessel in the world pulling out after refueling. When we tied up at the dock, and asked the dock hands about it, they told us that the M5 had taken on something like 30,000 liters of fuel, costing over three-quarters of a million dollars.

But eventually, we were on our way.

Our crossing managed to be relatively uneventful for once, thankfully, and we shot across the Sea with the wind on our beam, and calm seas below the keel.