La Paz happenings

3-28-13 – La Paz, Bahia California Sur, Mexico

One of the super mercados, affectionately knows as "the
cow store" by the cruisers

We have once again found ourselves becoming way too comfortable in Marina Palmira.  Not hard to do here on dock 3.  As someone put it, you need to leave for the bathroom a half hour before you need to go.  Everyone on the dock has been great to get to know and we have learned much from all the random conversations had on the dock.  Somewhere in all of the socializing, eating out; of course we made it back to The Shack and Harker's Boards for burgers and tasty beer; and relaxing we found some time to be productive.  Don’t worry we only try to do one thing per day, no need to needlessly stress yourself out.  Two drops of oil in the engine compartment turns into half a day trying to figure out where they came from and if it spells disaster for us in the future.  Somehow we went shopping twice and now have enough food to cross the Pacific.  The simple question “what route would you take for the bash?”  turns into a three hour dissertation on the art of the Baja bash.  Like anchors and religion, The Bash has no right answer, and everyone believes their answer is the correct one.  If you read the books and Google it, it sounds like an epic journey fraught with peril and difficulty.  If you talk to people who have done it many times, it’s just another trip; albeit up wind, into the waves and swell along a desolate desert coastline.  We finally completed our taxes.  Yes, even when you are unemployed, living in Mexico on a boat you still need to do taxes.  It was one of the harsher realities I have experienced in a while.  I suppose if you need to do you taxes, what better place to work on them than on a boat, in 85 degree weather, T-shirt and flip flops on in Mexico?  It’s hard to complain.

Dinner at Rancho Viejo with friends from Flibbertigibbet, Ojo Rojo
and Valhalla - you must try the arachera!

We re-reunited with Jim and Betty on s/v Flibbertigibbet once back at dock 3 and we must thank them for letting us borrow their car to provision for our trip into the Sea of Cortez.  It was the first time I had driven a car since July 3rd, 2012, and it was in Mexico.  Scary I know!  Jim’s advice was to make sure I rolled thru the stop signs because if I were to actually come to a stop, I’d get rear ended.  There are speed bumps that are not painted so you bounce over them at 30 MPH and there are random yellow stripes across the road you think will be speed bumps but are actually just big yellow stripes across the road.  The main street thru La Paz is one lane each way technically, but since two or three cars can fit, sometimes people pass you when there’s no one coming the other way.  Technically you probably shouldn’t have 6 people in the bed of your 4 door tiny Nissan pickup, but it seems be commonplace.  Theoretically, you shouldn’t have three, or four people on a quad speeding down the main street in traffic, but it doesn’t seem to get noticed.  And since you know all of this craziness will be coming at you; you pay more attention.  So thanks to the Flibbers for trusting us with their car here in Mexico.

The new Flibber Sur on dock 3

 I, actually me and Elizabeth with some dock neighbors help, completed a very nice new eye splice on our anchor rode.  Many thanks to Rob on s/v Shindig for the first lesson back in Punta Mita that gave us the confidence to do it ourselves this time.  It turned out great, not like a python that swallowed a pig.  My advice for people needing to re-splice their anchor rode is buy more chain.  While splicing old three strand was somewhat frustrating Elizabeth kept me encouraged and we were finally successful.

Headed back to the islands

The end of the adventure is in sight, but we are trying not to think about it.  We are off to explore the Sea of Cortez for the next three weeks.  Hard to believe but there are still places in this world without cell coverage, i.e. no internet for us for a while.  So I will not be able to accept any friend requests for at least a week, please forgive me.  “I didn’t have cell coverage” sounds like a lame excuse in the states, but is a very real thing down here.  So check the SPOT link on the right to figure out where we are.  Hasta luego La Paz.

What will we ever do without phones and internet?