Arrivals from land and sea

La Paz, BCS, Mexico

We are still here but our departure is imminent...

First things first, our new dinghy has passed its last test - it fits on deck (sort of).  Susanne had to do some scrubbing to get rid of the growth that had accumulated on the bottom in the 5 days it sat in the water - you cannot believe how fast stuff grows here.  On the mothership, we had a diver clean the bottom last week - I just hope it holds until we actually get moving.

I'm sure that that growth will slow down somewhat now that winter is finally arriving.  The daily highs are now around 27 or 28 degrees and we actually need a blanket at night.  With the shorter and shorter days and a bit of cloud cover just now, it does feel like autumn (sort of).  Of course, we are still wearing shorts and T-shirts, so everything is relative.



A whale shark make out of plastic bottles

With the cooler weather, we have been able to take some longer walks around La Paz, covering the place from one end to the other.  There is always something happening in this town.

Since this is November, we are seeing the arrival of lots of boats from the annual Baja-ha-ha rally (145 boats this year, coming down from California) as they gather for their scheduled party on the 20th.  The VHF radio is very busy in the mornings and the internet service is suffering somewhat with all the additional load.  This is just the incentive we need to get our act together and get out of here.  Having said that, we plan to leave the marina early next week - it is a major holiday weekend right now and nothing will be open until next Tuesday.

The other arrivals have been the overland fleet competing in the Baja 1000 rally.  The course this year was some 1100 miles from Ensenada to La Paz, right through the desert.  The fastest crews did it in under 20 hours.

We took a long walk (about an hour each way) yesterday down to the road by the Walmart which is closed off for the finish of the race - they come in staggered over a period of about 2 days.  We got to see a couple of the front runners arrive in the morning.

They do not trim their trees with tall people in mind.

Lots of people and a festive atmosphere.

Can you tell which beer company sponsors the event?






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