La Paz. Man, I sure want to go. And stay for a long time. Desert and ocean. Two great things that go great together.
And before anyone emails me about the grammar in that title, those are the actual words from the James Taylor song. And they describe my state of mind just perfectly! For many moons now Mike and I have been dreaming of the day we’d get to go down to the Baja peninsula in Mexico and soak in the local culture, food, water, and warmth. Those days are approaching!
Before people get too excited, we aren’t getting to go down on our boat. No, this is a ‘preliminary’ trip to celebrate or 30th wedding anniversary and look at some boats for sale down south. You can get a lot more for the money down there, we hear. We’re going to skip Cabo San Lucas completely and go directly to La Paz, otherwise known as ‘La Pause’, in cruising circles because so many cruisers get there and decide to stay awhile. We’re very excited and I’m sure Mike is already anticipating trouble getting me back on the plane to come home. I’m anticipating the same from him, so we’re even. I might have to have my temper tantrum here, before we go, so as to save him some embarrassment.
In that wonderful, synchronistic way that the Universe has, we’ve just discovered some pretty cool bloggers who are living the dream on their boat down Mexico way. Stephan and Lulu Yoder are just far enough ahead of us in this wild plan to be our new role models. I read their blog with stars in my eyes and envy in my heart. They really have the right attitude: sleep when you want to, get up when you want to, go somewhere and stay as long as you feel like it, eat really good food. Basically, leave the whole ‘work ethic thing’ behind, and good riddance to bad rubbish, I say. And they’ve spent much time in La Paz, so they know some great places to stay and to eat. Plus, Mike and Stephan have some career stuff in common, and Lulu is a craftswoman! They are so much like us, they could BE us, except that they are living on their boat in Mexico and we aren’t. Rats. 🙁
We wanted to go down in March, our anniversary month, but, alas, life has worked it out so that we can’t really go that month. We’re shooting for April and hoping the spring break crowd will stay in Cabo. I’m REALLY hoping the whale sharks will hang around until we get there and I can go snorkeling with them. But I’m not holding my breath. I think March is the latest they stay. So look for some awesome posts and photos from Mexico someday soon. And you can pretend we’re sending them from our boat. I know we’ll be pretending the same.
I would SOOOO do this. If they are there, I'm going to be over the moon with excitement.
No worries about spring-breakers. They don’t have much impact on La Paz. So you won’t be coming down until April, eh? In that case we just might be able to hook up for dinner. It’d be cool if it works out.
Hasta la vista,
-Steve
That would be awesome! We’ll let you know when we’ve finalized dates.
Exciting stuff! (-:
Buenows deeohs. And do not correct the teacher. I spelled that deliberately. You will have such commune with God’s amenities in La Paz. Get an app that plays the sea water sounds to go to sleep by and the whole trip will be as close to on your new boat as you can get at present. HAPPY 30th!
If you were actually sleeping at anchor in La Paz, you’d definitely need an app to hear the sea water sounds most nights as the normal sound, at least on weekends, is the throbbing bass beat of disco played as loud as the equipment will allow (and the equipment is pretty darn powerful). And the music frequently does not stop until 4 or 5 AM. Now, anchored in one of the many isolated bays just north of La Paz is a completely different deal.
-Steve
I’ve heard that there are a lot of good, cheap boats for sale on the Pacific coast of Mexico. I guess cruisers leave from California, get down to Mexico and decide they either don’t like sailing or they don’t like each other. It’s too bad. But, hey, the deals are great!
I hope you guys get to swim with the whale sharks. They look amazing!
I always include Mexico in my boat lusting on Yachtworld. I’ve seen a number of boats that look interesting, in our price range, which is pretty darn low, actually. I know we won’t be buying on this trip, but I hope we see some good ones anyhow. Yes, those whale sharks just look awesome, don’t they?
Ack! That sounds terrible! I definitely do not want to go all the way to Mexico to ‘enjoy’ the bass beat of loud disco music. I can do that here anytime. We’re going to be there April 4-11. I hope it’s not going to be loud in La Paz. If so, we might want to stay somewhere just outside the town rather than close to the Malecon.
It’s going to be soooo hard being that close to that beautiful water and no boat! 🙁 But I will ask the locals where we can go to snorkel from the beach.
Looking at my little Mexican calendar, it looks like you’ll be in La Paz right in the middle of Semana Santa (Holy Week) which culminates on Easter Sunday (4/8). Baja Bed and Breakfast might be far enough off the malecón that you won’t hear too much disco but it’s right near the square with one of the main cathedrals so there is going to be activity. Your better bet might be Casa Buena which is in a more residential neighborhood and will probably be nice and quiet. Let me know if you need any contact info for them.