La Paz

Settling down to Cruising We arrived in La Paz on November 19. We celebrated Thanksgiving here and have had other adventures 11/24, La Paz Hola from La Paz! On Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving. We made a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, and the trimmings. Jesse made two pumpkin pies. Duey and Nan from Great Escape joined us and brought a yam cobbler and a spice cake. Yummy! We had a great time and ate way too much. Later after dinner, Saperlipopette came over for pie and cake. We had quite a crowd in the main salon. Happy Turkey Day! On Friday morning we could not wash the dishes since our water tanks are empty and the dock water is not potable. We do not run our watermaker in the marina. In the afternoon we had some bottled water delivered to the boat (30 gallons @ 13 pesos for 5 gallons) and the kids washed the dishes. Some local high school kids stopped by the boat to practice their english. They were sponsored by the local cruising organization that asked if we wanted to participate. All four of us had a wonderful hour talking with them and sharing some pumpkin pie that Jesse had made. The local cruising club is trying to have a positive impact on the community. They have bake sales to support the local humane society, and auctions to provide money for breakfasts for children in the barrio as well as other activities. They are like mini goodwill ambassadors not just some Yankees hanging out on their yachts. Rich and I took a taxi over to the Cortez Club to sign up for a diving class. It is a PADI class for $300/person over 4 days. Since Rich had a heart attack they wanted a note from a doctor. So we came back and got Rich's medical records and went to visit Dr. Mario Castella. We waited in the waiting room with a Mexican soap opera playing on the TV. Rich had an EKG and then we saw Dr. Bienviento Lopez and Rich had another EKG. Between the two doctors they decided that Rich could take the class but to stay shallow and if he had any discomfort to stop. The fee was 300 pesos for Dr. Lopez and 200 pesos for Dr. Castella, the total was about $50 US. Both doctors were very professional and very friendly. In the evening, Damian, Lucie and Alice joined Jesse and Sarah on Windarra. Damian practiced his Spanish and ordered pizza. Gilles, Marie, Rich and I went out for dinner. We ate at the El Taste restaurant across the street from the bay, which opened out so that you could enjoy the comfortable night air and the view. The food was great as well as the Margaritas - one drink came in two glasses. After dinner we walked down the street to the ice cream shop and had dessert. The street is the main drag through town and lots of young people were cruising up and down. It was a great evening of good company, conversation and food. This morning we got up leisurely and listened to the local cruisers net on the VHF radio. Six days a week at 8:00am the cruising club hosts a radio net. They check to see who has arrived and who is departing, mail call, lost and found, announcements, help requests, weather report and news from the States. It is both helpful and amusing. Captain Ron from Still Crazy was on this morning announcing that he had been arrested last night and spent the night in jail. Apparently he was dancing and one of the locals thought he was in his spot, so he called over the bouncer, then some more bouncers and low and behold Captain Ron was escorted to jail. He needed pesos to bail himself out which he could not do until morning. Captain Ron leaves today for Banderas Bay to do some surfing. Rumor has it that two young blond women will be joining him. Ole' In a few minutes Rich and I will be joining the local cruising club on an outing to the barrio to play volleyball. This should be a hoot. 11/30, La Paz Still hola from La Paz! The last email was on Saturday, Nov 24. We were on our way to play volleyball with the women of the barrio. The cruising club here has adopted one of the poorest barrios outside of La Paz. Mainly women and children, the fathers are gone, often drunk. The club helps provide breakfast to the children, 3 days a week. Sometimes the only food they get on a regular basis. The club also does other things like teach English, etc to help these folks. Most of them are living in hovels built of cardboard and car parts. It looks more like a trash dump than a place where people live. A group of us went there to play volleyball to encourage them to get out and get some exercise. It has been a long time since many of us have played. We had a great time and got many of the women and children to join us. All of the children are neatly dressed, very polite and shy at first. After a while they warmed up and came over to play and to talk. On Monday we started our scuba diving class. Sue from Kiapa is joining us. Our teacher is Ricardo. He started scuba diving when he was 8 and has been diving for 16 years. He told us about the whale sharks that winter here - over 60 feet long, their dorsal fins are more than 6 ft tall. Glad they are a plankton eater! He also told a story about a woman who started to suffer from Nitrogen Narcosis and tried to offer her regulator to a turtle. The class is for four days, two days of instruction in the classroom with practice in a swimming pool, two days in open water. He is a good teacher and we learned a lot. After class we stumble back to the marina for a shower and something to eat, then to do our lessons. Monday night was our cabbage salad contest. When we were having our potluck at Ensenada de los Muertos we started talking about various cabbage salad recipes. The group decided to have a fun contest. There were four entries, including Team Windarra. Amazingly, all four were very different. With some Margaritas, chips and salsa, plus some other snacks, it was a fun gathering. Awards were given to each team. Tuesday was another day of diving. Tuesday night the winds came up. In the morning it was gusting over 30 knots. No diving today. The Capitan de Puerto closed the port. No boat traffic out. Winds outside the harbor and in the Sea of Cortez were up to 50 knots. Boats anchored in the harbor and on the transient dock were bucking like hobbyhorses. There were frantic calls on the radio as some boats dragged into others, including those on mooring buoys! We did some boat chores and worked on the final touches of our website. We hope to have it operational soon. Be looking for www.svwindarra.com!! Thursday and Friday we did the open water part of our scuba diving class. We went to the lighthouse outside La Paz, Balandra on Thursday and Lorenzo Reef on Friday. Today the visibility was a lot better since the winds were gone and things had settled. We saw Moray eels, porcupine fish, bull puffer, angelfish, damsel fish, hog fish and others. We all passed our certification as well. Now we are certified to go into water up to 60 feet. We are tired and dragging after the diving today. I will end this update so I can send it before I fall asleep. Adios 12/4, La Paz Still more hola from La Paz! Saturday we were very tired from our dive so we moved slowly. Some of our friends are heading to Isla Partida on Sunday for a curry cook-off. Yes we do a lot of things with food these days. We have decided to stay in La Paz to do some chores we have not gotten done since we had our classes. We got some flak of course. This is a tough group. On Sunday we joined everyone for breakfast before they head out. Most of us will meet up in PV. Later in the day we got out the vacumm sealer and vacumm packed some of our 'winter clothes'. Now we have clothing bricks in the bottom of our storage lockers. That evening we went out to dinner with Tony and Libby of Silkie C Libby is feeling much better these days, not so seasick. To celebrate we went out to dinner at the restaurant at the Hotel Los Arcos. They serve a chateaubriand for two, with vegetables and mashed potatoes for 120 pesos - or about $11 US. We had Caesar salad to go along with it. It was great! Sarah had a half a lobster. Yummm! On Monday we did errands. The chandlery, the internet place (trying to get the web site going) and the CCC Supermercado or super market. We put bottled water into the port tank so we are full now. After we leave the harbor we can run the watermaker again. This morning as we lay in bed listening to the morning VHF net, there was a knock on the hull. The boat that has our slip next has arrived early. We scramble and move Windarra to the transient dock while we get ready to leave the marina. We give the boat a good wash down and remove the telltale traces of fish dissection. While Rich takes a shower, I work our check-out paperwork. It is so much easier having the marina act as our agent. They have carbon forms so you do not have to complete four copies by hand. Jesse joins me at the internet cafe to check some of our finances via the web. Jesse checks out Anime websites. Sarah and Rich complete the provisioning and fill the 4 empty jerry jugs of diesel. We leave the marina and anchor in the harbor. With 15 knot winds from one direction and 4 knots of current in the other direction and boats lying akimbo to both, anchoring is quite an experience. The first set was not satisfactory so we pulled up the anchor and reset. We settle in for the night. Tomorrow we hope to head to Isla Partida if the weather is favorable. Adios!

Marina de La Paz Dockside Restaurant Rich, Elaine, Nan and Duey Gilles, Marie, Rich and Elaine at El Taste Sue from Kiapa Rich ready to go diving Riding to the dive sight Holiday decorations in La Paz