Lingering in La Paz

“KELLY, JUMP NOW!!!,” Andy exclaimed as he carefully navigated his speeding dinghy through the cloudy, shallow water. Without hesitation I obeyed his command and plunged into the murky seawater to be greeted face to face with the 6 foot smiling mouth of a giant whale shark. I screamed underwater and back peddled nearly walking on water, abandoning all logic of the docile nature of the creature before me. I managed to flutter just enough, most likely scaring the poor giant, until I found myself in a much more favorable position adjacent to the magnificent spotted beast rapidly gliding through the water away from me. Looks like I scared the 15 foot mammoth just as much as he scared me…go figure!

Despite my initial shock, swimming with the whale shark was certainly an incredible experience. Our friend Andy from Miatla had been staking out the whale sharks for days, making us green with envy at his tales of riding their dorsal fins. On this day, as he was imparting his great knowledge to us acting as our tour guide, I envisioned myself holding onto the fin, enjoying the ride on one of the greatest creatures of the sea. While my fear got the best of me, my brave husband was able to share the experience for the both of us. Without effort, he slipped off the dinghy into the sea and grabbed onto the dorsal fin like he was an old pro. Swimming alongside, I watched in amazement as my man held onto the shark as if they were life long buddies exploring the mysteries of the sea.

Swimming with whale sharks was certainly the highlight of our two month stint in La Paz, however, there were plenty more activities that kept us so busy that we didn’t even realize how time had slipped away from us. A charming little city, La Paz has everything that you could possibly want or imagine, and serves as a gateway to the Sea of Cortez. Many cruisers make it to La Paz, fall in love with the city, and never leave. In fact, some would say that parts of the fair city could be likened to South Florida in terms of the geriatric population that has settled in making La Paz home. With the option of many nice marinas along with a huge, relatively calm anchorage, there is ample room for many boats on any kind of budget.

Another perk to La Paz is the active cruiser community, which makes getting boat parts, selling boat parts (for coconuts of course), troubleshooting, and camaraderie quite convenient and easy. They host monthly swap meets which are not only a great social event, but are a good place to find an array of things from highly sought after parts to little bits and bobs. There are also frequent trips to the US or Canada made by fellow cruisers, which creates a nice system for mail delivery and obtaining parts that cannot be found at the swap meets or on the morning net. Finally, La Paz is located next to many great small islands and anchorages in the Sea of Cortez making day sails, week long passages, or even longer journeys very accessible. It is quite the cruisers mecca and many threaten that once you arrive, you may never leave.

Being the type of nomadic people that Mike and I are, we scoffed at the threats of getting stuck in La Paz, but slowly realized that sticking around was not such a bad thing. It was cold when we arrived, so we initially said that we would stick around until it started to warm up. We quickly found our groove, managing to help other cruisers by making sails and fixing canvas work, which kept us very busy for a little while. We found a sweet little abandoned palapa on the beach which we dubbed our office and spent many afternoons here working on projects and delighting in picnic lunches. We also decided (as the weather started to warm up) that this would be the perfect place to rip out all of our windows, port lights, and hatches to repair the leaks that we discovered on our trip here. It was a messy job involving lots of fiberglass dust, ripping out over 15 feet of our interior wood, and having to rebuild everything in a nice way to maintain the classy look of the boat. We learned a lot about the city of La Paz during that time having to source out places for wood and tempered glass. It was quite the adventure. In the end it was so nice to get it done. Now the water can stay where it belongs: on the outside of the boat!

Work was a primary focus for us in La Paz, but we managed to get lots of time to play as well. Upon arrival, we made our way over to the morning coffee hour at Club Cruceros, the hub for the local cruiser community, to try to network a bit with the other people who were in town. Here, we ended up running into Terry and Sabine, our friends from Napa aboard their 62’ catamaran Sea Raven. What a pleasant surprise! We saw Sea Raven when they first bought her about 3 years ago and she was completely gutted. They had left before we made it back to Napa this year to sell our little boat Isabella, so we never got to see the finished boat…until now! Not only was it great to have familiar faces here, but it was nice to see our friends down here living the dream on their boat that they worked so hard to get together. They did an amazing job! Now they have a little girl on the way, so we are very happy and excited for them as they start their family aboard their newly fitted home.

La Paz was quickly becoming a melting pot of all the cruisers we had met along the way at various stages in our journey thus solidifying the statement that it is indeed a small world. With old and new friends alike, we greatly enjoyed the social aspect that surrounded us. While some cruisers opted for the daily activities such as dominoes, darts, or dancing announced over the morning VHF net like a cruise ship agenda, we opted to create our own adventures. We delighted in the week long festivities of the Carnaval, where Mike pretty much ate his weight in greasy street food while indulging in the silly street games that were impossible to win. I on the other hand, loved going to the local Farmer’s Market on Saturdays to get fresh, organic produce and to practice my Spanish with the locals; a treat I certainly wasn’t expecting to have down here. Mike also liked going with me solely to delight in the giant homemade Cinnamon Buns one of the local vendors made. I swear I would weigh 500 pounds if I tried to eat like him! Fortunately, our friend Jamie on Tardis shared the same enthusiasm for food, so we frequently would plan our food adventures together so the men could eat and Elaine and I could watch in disbelief and laugh. It was fun to feel like part of a community and to become well acquainted with a new place.

La Paz was agreeing with us quite nicely, but eventually we started to get itchy feet. Aside from a quick little road trip up the coast (which was stunning), we had been stationary for two months. We had lingered long enough…it was time for a new adventure. La Paz will certainly be another stop in our future, but for now we are ready to get out of town and explore those beautiful nearby islands. We wrapped up our loose ends, bid farewell to our new friends, and sailed away in search of exploration and some much needed r&r.