Life in La Paz - on the Land and Sea

Wednesday, 27 February 2013
We have been in La Paz for 2 weeks and the time has flown by.  
The weather forecast says it will be Monday or Tuesday next week before the strong Northerly wind subsides and opens the window for our trip back north to San Carlos.

Marina de La Paz - home to cruisers from around the world

Both of us have kept quite busy.
I was invited to race on "Genesis" (Hunter 34) in the Valentine's Day Regatta -- and we won 1st place in our division! 

Tom has been very actively studying Spanish -- going to a free Spanish class at the marina and regularly spending an hour or two studying with Rosetta Stone.  I've noticed his vocabulary, pronunciation and confidence is quickly improving.  He's starting to correct me now.  You go, Tom!

"Hola, me gusto un 'perro caliente' (hot dog), por favor."

When we arrived, our friends Bette and Ron on "Wisp" were berthed on our dock and happily I was able to join her and other (mostly) women La Paz residents and cruisers in a Zumba exercise class.  The class members participated Flash Mob Zumba performance on the Malecon (boardwalk) to raise international awareness about violence to women and children with the 1 Billion Women program.  Here's a couple pics  of my Zumba class and the diverse troupe of performers:

There's so much to do here.  The Club Cruceros is a cruiser club that have coffee each morning here at our marina and orchestrate dinners for special events like Valentine's Day.  They (we) are also very active in the community helping local people in need - from collecting money toward a kidney transplant for an Agua Verde 15 year old to sponsoring students in advance education (high school).  

While here, we're enjoying our favorite tacos at Super Burro (17 pesos = $1.20ish), dinners out with friends (like last night @ Bandidos where our Ribs were grilled in the engine compartment of a 1970's Chevy), grocery shopping (one of my favorite past-times) and walking around town with new and old friends. 

Tom holding up the famous "La Paz Rock"

La Paz is a wonderful Old Mexico city with over 900,000 residents. And on land and sea it offers an opportunity to be a part of a very special place.

Life in La Paz -fun with Brooks & Judy

February 21-24 - We knew our friends Brooks & Judy Townes were on the Baja in their "MoHo" (named because it's too small to be a motorhome).  They are Sausalito friends who are now living in Port Townsend.  We had heard they were up near Santa Rosalia, but as we came across to the Baja side, we got word they were down close to La Paz and thinking of leasing a little piece of land on the central part of Baja Sur. 

It was such a treat to meet up with them in La Paz...and enjoy visiting with them for a few days.  Judy & I walked all over La Paz.  Brooks & Tom researched Solar Panels.  Then we took off on a couple days on the road in the MoHo and back to La Paz for a day sail toward Isla Espiritu Santos...

Brooks & Judy in El Truinfo (a former silver mining town on Rt. 1 between La Paz and Cabo San Lucas.  Fabulous pizza, salad and bakery restaurant.  Then a walk about town.  And a stop into the piano museum before heading on to Rancho Verde... 

Rancho Verde RV Park on Rt. 1 between La Paz and Cabo San Lucas.  Brooks & Judy stayed there for a couple weeks and made some good friends -- even thought about leasing some land there.  We'll see what they decide, but it was a great overnight there.  Big thanks to the good community of RV'ers and residents, the big bonfire , the little room we rented for the night in the community area and Judy's delicious dinner and breakfast from her very compact galley!

Can you read the sign?  "Rancho Costa Plenty"  Oh, we just thought that was funny!  This Rancho is next to the GranSuenos Resort.  The resort was built on Ensenada de Los Muertos (Bay of the Dead).  We understand that the big investors thought the dead thing would be a problem for visitors so now road signs and maps refer to it as Bahia de los Suenos (Bay of Dreams).  Oh, isn't marketing grand!

Sunday we cast off Begone's dock lines and sailed toward Isla Espiritu Santos (19 km) on a calm breeze.
It was a relaxing day as Begone quietly filled her sails on a flat sea. (look ma, no hands)

We're hoping to sync up with Brooks & Judy again on the Baja in Loreto, Bahia Conception or Santa Rosalia because a good time was shared by all!

The Fiddler and Authoharpist @ Ciao Molino's

 Wednesday nights is Open Mic night at Ciao Molino's -- the Palapa Restaurant right across Marina de La Paz.  

We decided to bring our little bit of Bluegrass to the evening.  

Tom is always a huge hit and I had some fun backing him up.  You may notice there's a second autoharp in the pictures.  It's odd enough to have one of these "boat size pianos" but Mike was there -- so we had a little dueling autoharp licks.

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We've enjoyed a bunch of opportunities to play music on this trip -- and hope we'll find more along the way.

La Paz welcomes us with the Mardi Gras Parade

Tuesday, 12 February 2013 - Marina de La Paz

We left San Everisto on Monday morning bound for the island just north of La Paz.  However, after listening to Garry's weather report on the Sonrisa HAM Net, we realized we should just head straight to La Paz unless we wanted to stay on the island for 3 or 4 days until a big, ugly weather system blew threw.  So onto La Paz we sailed.

Our favorite marina, Marina de La Paz would not have space until Tuesday morning so we anchored in the Magote for Monday night.  The Magote is a popular anchorage for cruisers and La Paz residents.  But the friends and creature comforts in the Marina were worth the $26 US per night to stay in the Marina.  
So on Tuesday morning, we motored into the Marina to the same place we had 2 years ago!   And as was also true 2 years ago, we arrived for the last day of Mardi Gras which featured a huge celebration on the Malecon (waterfront boardwalk) and the Mardi Gras parade.
Could you ask for a warmer welcome?!!!
Here's some pictures from the evening:

And after the parade there was fun and food and streets were filled with people until the early morning:

Spinning Dart throwing game for 5 pesos (~45 cents) a try - unfortunately Tom missed but looked great trying!

This was new to us - a boiling kettle of oil in the potato booth.  When someone requested one of these spiral cut potatoes on a stick, they dip the stick of potato in the hot oil, add some salt and there's your snack.

What a night!  Marina de La Paz is just a couple blocks from the Malecon and celebration so as we drifted to sleep, we could hear the party continue.  What a welcome to La Paz.  We love it here.

Agua Verde to La Paz

Sunday, 10 February - Anchor up and underway at 0700 hours.

10 knots of breeze from the North was perfect for a downwind 8 hour sail to a little fishing and salt mining village called San Everisto on the Baja.  We rolled out the jib and raised the mainsail.  

Our friends on Adagio were taking a shorter hop to quiet little Puerto Los Gatos, but decided the perfect conditions called for a longer day on the water.  

It was a great day to head south.

Sailing between the Baja and Isla San Jose - looking North

Arrived in San Everisto at 1600 hours (Adagio made the trip a bit faster thanks to a longer waterline -- Passport 40 -- and probably a little higher engine RPMs).  We were again invited for dinner and movies aboard Adagio. 

I baked some brownies and brought some beverages.  That night we watched old Carol Burnett TV shows.  I would have worried about disturbing the neighbors with our laughter but we were the only 2 boats in this hidey-hole that night.  Yea!

Jeff & Janie planned to stay for awhile in this very protected anchorage next to a very interesting fishing and salt mining village.  We had decided to leave the next morning for Isla Espiritu Santu -- then take a short hop into La Paz from there!   Hope to see them later on - somewhere!

Agua Verde - Hiking the Rancho, Beaches & Bahia

Friday, 8 February 2013 - Yesterday we took our dinghy and joined J&J (Adagio) on a water tour of the rocks, fishes, beaches and shelling around Agua Verde.  
Today, Tom decided he'd love a day on Begone while Jeff & Janie and I went ashore for a 4 mile hike that took us from the shore to the open range to the village cemetery through a jungle the Sea through the ranchland and up the hills overlooking the bahia.  It was a perfect day for a hike beginning with cloudy and sometimes hazy skies and a light breeze.  
Here are some pics and stories:

Looking SE from the hills above our harbor

The Sierra de la Giganta range just over the hill from the bay.  The ranch land is owned by Agua Verde ranchers.

The village cemetery is maintained now by Gregorio's brother. There are graves dating back to the 1800's.

We decided to head toward the Sea. I had heard from "The Yellow Boat" that the river had cleared the path.  It was a terrific part of the hike that included Jeff telling me about books he was reading -- "Lincoln" and "1776" and his thoughts about learning history from diverse points of view.

It was a treat to meet these 3 kids and their burro on the path to the Sea.  Of course, Jeff had little candies in his pocket just in case we met some children.  They we so happy to see Jeff & Janie again -- and not just because they were the candy-people!

We walked on to the Sea, collected some beautiful Seashells and continued on to through the ranches.

I included this picture to remind us that throwing things away because we think they're broken may be ignoring an opportunity!  At this intersection in the middle of nowhere, the chair only needed some stitching down the back and a big bolder to replace the two front legs,.  Now this chair is much more comfortable than just standing at the road for a ride that may take a long time to arrive.

Coming back over the hills to the harbor, we found this goat herder and his dog moving the goats back to town.

As we came around the bend in the hill, there was Begone, nestled in the bahia awaiting my return...

Agua Verde - Everyone is invited to Begone

Friday, 8 Feb. 2013 - A really fun day of exploring the beaches around Agua Verde were completed by inviting all the boats anchored in the harbor to join us on Begone for appetizers and beverages.  OK, we're the smallest boat -- but it organically became the "first shift" and the "second shift" for the event!

Here's the first shift:

Morning Star II - Ron & Linda from Loyalton, CA

Rianin (the Yellow Boat) - Merry & Eric from Gunnison, CO 

Adagio - Jeff & Janie from Portland, OR

As the night fell, Morning Star II and Rianin headed back in recognition of "cruiser midnight".  But we were then joined by

Bravo - Dieter & Ann from Petersburg, Alaska

Silent Sun - Corley from Seattle, WA.  We were happy to find out that Corley had bought Rob & LaDonna's (Latitude 38) Crealock 37.

It was such a wonderful day and evening in waters around Agua Verde.  And tomorrow promises to be a great day for a hike.

Agua Verde - A village straddling the past and present

Thursday, February 7 - Tom and I had wanted to spend time in Agua Verde since we first learned about sailing in the Sea of Cortez.  The village is home to about 50 people who stem from 2 main families (now 5 families).  The sea is the primary way visitors arrive in town, although there is a 25 mile dirt road off of Rt. 1 that is used to bring in supplies 1x per week and the occasional 4 wheel drive vehicle adventurers.  

Jan, Janie, Jeff, Tom and Ole (Suzanne is behind the camera)

Jeff & Janie (Adagio) have spent a good deal of time in this village over the past 5 years and offered to take us and Ole & Jan from "Emma Jo" (DeFever 49 Trawler) into "town" for a walk about.  We were delighted to learn that Jan was fluent in Spanish giving us an opportunity to learn much more about the community than Jeff and my "spanglish" would offer.

First Stop:  Goats.  

Goat dairy products are the key business in Agua Verde.  Janie & Jeff took us up to the place (up the road and turn left past the casa with lush gardens) and we each ordered a kilo (2.4 lbs) of goat cheese for $40 pesos or ~$3.00 US.  They said they would have it for us in about 3 hours.  We came back a bit early to watch how they made the absolutely most delicious goat cheese you could ever imagine.

Ramona begins the goat cheese process and knows just when the milk is ready for the next step.  The man in the photo is the medicine man.  He comes from a long line of family members who learned how to use local plants to heal.  This was important since there has never been easy access to Western medicine.

This is the cheese press for squeezing the liquid thus forming a firm goat cheese.

Enjoying our translated conversations and learning about the people and village.

Next stop - The elementary and secondary school - at one time someone got them set up with internet access (solar panels and satellite service) but there appears to be some controversy about why the service is no longer provided...the kids don't seem to mind so much, though.

There are about 20 students at the school.  If they want to/can afford to attend high school, they move to Loreto.  They often live with extended family members.  Many students return back to live in Agua Verde (that's what happened to the teacher in this classroom).

Religion:  We were surprised to learn that of the two churches in Agua Verde that the largest is not the Catholic church, but rather the Evangelical Church.  It appears that at some point, an influential family member decided to follow a different path.

Inside the Catholic Church - sorry the horizon is crooked.

Two tiendas (little stores) and the Tortilla Lady -- Janie remembered there was someone  in Agua Verde who would make fresh tortilla so she bought a bag of corn flour one of the little stores and as we walked through town found this sign:

We dropped off the flour and one hour later we picked up the most delicious, hot corn tortillas (about a 10" tall stack) and divided them between the 3 of our boats.   Those tortillas never saw the light of the next day -- too tasty to put away.

It was an amazing day.  Jeff & Janie said they learned more about Agua Verde on our walk they had after visiting for 5 seasons thanks to Jan and the visiting student named Sky.  Here are some more snap shots  and captions from the day...

Jeff, Janie and Sky (from Washington State) - Sky was spending a month in Agua  Verde on break from college.  She was helping at the school, living with Ramona and her bright, enthusiastic personality had clearly endeared her to everyone in the village.  We learned so much from her about the social structure of the village.  We'll never forget her.

More pics

Compare the playgrounds -- the top is in the middle of town with crusty chain and overgrown weeds.
The bottom picture is the school playground.   Both looked like tons of fun..
Gringos / Cruisers are known to adopt a school and students to promote education, opportunity and fun.

The Agua Verde water well.  OK, there's more water stored up the hill but this works.

There were pigs, too.  The next entry will be the day hiking the hills around the village.