Prospero Nuevo Ano de La Paz!
New Year's eve in La Paz is a very big deal! We walked to town earlier in the day, in search of a marine store and lunch. Many restaurants were prepping for the late night parties. Many cars scurrying about, shops and schools were closing early. We did find a nice lunch on the patio at El Patron and watched the water taxis ferry people to the Mogote, a peninsula across from La Paz. The bay area is also an achorage for many sailboats. Several boat folks came ashore via dinghy as we ate - bringing trash bags, laundry or taking provisions and water back out to their boats. An interesting life we lead! I think I like the slip and to be able to walk off the doc, but it costs for services - water, electric and trash. Those at anchor are usually sitting 'free" in most places.
As it was getting late and we needed to get back to prep for the evening festivities, we caught a very nice taxi/van and got back to the dock in five minutes for $5. I can now ask the driver to take us into the first entrance to our marina and save a few steps - "La primera entrada, por favor, cerca de los Condos y el Dinghy Dock Restaurante....".
For the party, hosted by Ana and Steve, we were to bring an appetizer, drinks and a White Elephant Gift to exchange. Who has white elephants on a boat? Most of the 20 guests were boaters with the same challenge. I created a Christmas Decor basket - and packet up some items I can replace next year!! And a few DVD's we had seen. I had also been marinating some fresh pineapple and cherries in some home-brew tequila - bacanero? - pretty strong concoction but taasty. A fun evening, some played games, some beer, good food and lots of boat talk. All evening and expanding at midnight was local fireworks, gun shots and shouting all over the city. Their home is fairly central and we could watch fireworks all around us. We stayed over due to the activity and difficulty getting a taxi at that late hour. Got to sleep in a bed on dry land - whee! We slept in a little this morning, had coffee on their patio and stopped for a great breakfast before coming back to the boat.
Our first cockpit "docktails" was also with Ana and Steve a few days ago. Bill decided to try our drill/blender. We had it all set-up and pre-tested to do a mango margarita. I filled it up and screwed the bottom on, handed it up the hatch to Bill who plugged in the drill and turned it on. The dang thing exploded! The bottom was not on tight. Bill was covered in Mango mess, as was the cockpit. Luckily, it missed Ana and Steve! After we finished our appetizers, we went up to the Dinghy Dock restaurant for some wonderful Xochitl soup, $4 for a large bowl of chicken, rice ands spices.
The weather is here - still! After last weekends cool "blow" and "sway" as we danced in the slip, it warmed up this week but still cooler in the evening. Very pleasant. Today was very overcast but never felt like it would rain. This afternoon, we sat and read for a bit on our deck chairs up on the forward deck, overlooking the dock. It's like sitting on the front porch. Bill also set the GPS way points in prep for our trip. With newly-treated wood, the dinghy motor running better (thanks, Bill) and the bottom cleaned, we are ready to head out again for a few days.
We hope to head up north tomorrow for the weekend...about 15 miles way is Bahia Balandra, with a few anchorages and nice beaches. So next Blog report should hopefull have a 'sail" report...
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