Don’t know what day it is, but my watch tells me it’s the 16th.  What a fun city La Paz is!  I really enjoyed walking around.  Probably because I’m a gringo, the entire city looks fascinating.  I didn’t even come close to covering the whole thing.  That’s good, since it leaves me room to further explore next time.  I’ll probably anchor in the inner harbor too just for the full experience. We’re further up the channel at Costa Baja Marina to give ourselves a break from anchoring out all the time.  More on Costa Baja below.

The part of La Paz I explored today was along the channel into the harbor.   It’s very picturesque.  I found the Super Mercado, where lots of individual vendors set up mini-shops to sell their wares under one roof. On one side of the market there are the clothes and shoes.  Not very good quality merchandise unfortunately.

In the middle are the produce vendors.  I bought a couple dozen limes, some cilantro and half dozen avocados.  All got washed in white wine vinegar back at the boat before they came “down below”.  I’m being very careful about trying not to pick up “critters” that are hard to get rid of later.  No paper/cardboard is allowed on board either.  Things like cereal boxes can harbor cockroach eggs in a tropical environment, so everything gets removed from its packaging and gets poured into various containers before being stored on board.

At the far end of the market are the meat, fish and poultry vendors.  There’s a lot of “interesting” looking meat for sale, including an entire pig’s head in one of the meat cases.  I took a picture and hope to upload it here someday when I have internet with enough bandwith.

Found a Tortilleria and bought a kilo of freshly made tortillas for about US $2.50.  I’m eating one (well, actually three) rolled up with some salsa for a snack right now.  Delicious!

Two popular things down here are the street fruit vendors and the ice cream stores.  The fruit vendors have all sorts of fruits that they peel, and chop into a cup.  I had a papaya with lime this morning.  Yum. After lunch, the ice cream.  A true luxury!  Actually it’s sherbert-more ice than cream, but all the more delicious in this heat.  I had Lime and Watermelon.

Anyway, tons of walking today and then back to Costa Baja Marina which is where we are staying.  A little luxury before we head back out.  After today/tomorrow I don’t think we’ll be in another marina until San Diego about three weeks from now (if we’re lucky with the weather).  This place is great.  It’s not downtown, the marinas there were full, but there’s a free shuttle every hour.  It takes about 20 minutes into town. But more importantly, this place is LUXURIOUS! (Sue and Andy, check it out online-there’s golf in the hill above AND a Moorings office in the marina.  They have about five 38ish foot boats for charter.  Isla Espiritu Santos is 15 miles away and you could easily spend three/four days just exploring there.  I think it’s probably on the internet at costabaja.com).

As part of the Marina Berth fee of US $40/day, we get access to the resort’s Beach Club.  I’m trying to upload a picture from my iPhone of sunset in the bar overlooking an infinity pool which in turn overlooks all of La Paz Bay.  Absolutely stunning!  And clean showers.  The first I’ve seen on this trip.  Most marina showers are dirty and/or in disrepair.  These are full-on resort showers.  Tons of water, clean and luxurious. Again; after this it’s sun showers on the deck, salt water bucket showers and/or sponge baths for the next three plus weeks, so we’re taking advantage of the resort access.

So, tomorrow is boat project day.  We need to change the oil, and all the associated oil/diesel filters, see if we can find a way to combine Wilson the Monitor wind vane, with a tiller pilot I bought (theoretically Wilson can steer the boat while motoring with this set-up), fix a leak we found in the port deck light and do some final provisioning for the trip back.

So, until later, Adios Amigos – and thanks very much for all of you who have been sending comments.  They are fun to read!