On Wednesday (November 23), Christi was awoken at 0400 to the noise of big rig trucks, ships and pangas. We realized that in addition to the ferries, container ships and cruise ships also utilized this terminal. Here is a photo of the terminal in the early light of dawn.
Sunrise over the campsite
Oceananigans had rented a car yesterday. They called us in the morning and invited us to go into La Paz with them. We each tied up our dinghies to the end of the dock in front of the big restaurant. In this photo, Eric was throwing out a stern anchor to keep the dinghy from crashing into the dock.
We were most surprised when we realized the dock was broken and didn’t connect with the shore. It was high tide and the water level at the broken spot was thigh-high for Eric and Christi. Keith had to be carried across.
Bahia de La Paz is located at the southern end of a peninsula that separates the bay from the Sea of Cortez. Playa Pichailingue is about ¾ of the way up the peninsula, and it was a 20-minute drive into downtown La Paz. Here is a shot of the terminal as we passed it.
In the relatively short drive between Playa Pichilingue and the outskirts of town, it was mostly vacant land dotted here and there with industrial-looking structures that looked like they supported the local infrastructure.
We also passed a couple of scenic bays, including our beloved Bahia Falsa, and several estuaries, some covered with mangrove trees.
On the outskirts of town was the newest marina complex in La Paz, called Costa Baja. In addition to the marina, the complex had hotels, condos, and a golf course. In the hills above Costa Baja were many houses that either looked new or were still under construction.
We passed several more marinas/newer looking homes and finally came into La Paz proper. On the east side was the malecon, the walkway along the water, which was lined with palm trees and dotted with statues every few thousand yards. The west side was lined with a variety of buildings that looked to be mostly businesses geared at tourists.
The malecon ended at Marina Cortez and turned into the street that we had walked down to get to Chudroui. We passed Chudroui and went quite a ways father to the southwest side of town. Two of the crew had matters to deal with at a business here. The plan was to drop them off and the rest of us would shop for supplies at the nearby Wal-Mart. They’d call when they were ready to be picked up.
The area where the Wal-mart was located looked like suburban America. The buildings were in the same style as the strip malls that are common in the suburbs, and they contained typical American chain stores such as Home Depot, Carl’s Jr, Starbucks and Dairy Queen. It was so different from all the other places that we’ve experienced in Baja that for a moment we wondered if we were still in Mexico.
We knew it would take our friends approximately three hours, so there was no rush to go shopping. Across the street from Wal-mart was a mall that had a restaurant called Liverpool that served breakfast, so we went over there for breakfast. Eric ordered huevos divorciados, which was two eggs served sunny side up, with one egg smothered in green salsa and the other in red salsa. They were served with two sopes, which were a flat bread that was thicker than a tortilla. The sopes were topped with salad.
It had been five months since we’ve been in a city big enough to have a mall. It felt strange. Here are some mall Christmas photos.
After Wal-mart, we drove over to Anastasia’s and got desserts while we waited for the call to pick them up. When they did call, it was to say they’d been delayed by an hour and a half. With more time to kill, we went shopping at a couple of boat stores.
We arrived back when the tide was low. Eric walked in the water to untie the dinghy from the end of the dock.
It was quite a drastic contrast from this morning, when the water was nearly level with the dock. Here is a photo of the broken part of the dock so that you can appreciate how much of a drop it was into the water for us this morning.
When we arrived at the boat, Eric was thrilled about how great we’d done on power consumption. That was, until we opened the dual drawer refrigerator in the galley (kitchen) and noticed that it wasn’t cold. Eric determined the compressor wasn’t running. The only way to diagnose and fix the problem was to take the refrigerator out. And removing that fridge was a giant project. Replacing the refrigerator in the galley and the refrigerator/freezer in the hallway (companionway) between the living room (salon) and pilot house is another blog post that Eric intends to write someday.
Looking on the bright side, this happened at a good time. We were almost out of perishables before we went shopping today. Because we knew there could be a delay in getting back to the boat, we hadn’t bought many perishable items today, either. The things that absolutely needed to be refrigerated all fit into the fridge in the companionway. Everything else were items that we kept in the fridge to extend its life, such as bread and condiments.
The sunset was stunning.
Eric took a cool video of it